The Express.
London, England, 1864-03-17 00:00:00

THE DEPOTS AIITHENTIQIDIS for SALE
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WESTERTON'S LIBRARY,
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LONDON, TLICRSDAY, MARCH 17.

THOSE estimable but too timorous persons who
believe that the security of the Church of England
depends upon subjecting the lay members of that
Church to theological tests, will discern new cause
for anxiety in the success of the Tests Abolition
(Oxford) Bill, the second reading of which was
yesterday carried in the House of Commons by a
majority of 22, 400 members voting. The
Bill abolishes all the tests which are now re-
quired to be taken on the occasion of anyone re•
ceiving the degree of M.A. at the University of
Oxford, and in this respect it goes further than
the University of Cambridge. For whilst the Act
which governs Cambridge does not permit any
graduate to vote in the Senate unless he be a
member of the Church of England, the proposed
Bill confers the privilege of voting in Convocation
on all Oxford graduates, without reference to
their religious opinions. It is obvious,
therefore, that if Mr. DODSON'S Bill were
passed, the constituency of Oxford would be
increased by all those who are at present debarred
from taking the degree of M.A. because they
will not sign the Thirty-nine Articles. The Bill,
however, has to encounter further risks of
defeat and mutilation in the House of
Commons, not to mention the Lords. And even
if it were passed in its present form it could not
be considered an entirely satisfactory measure.
It does nothing to relieve Fellows from the
necessity of making the declaration of Uni-
formity ; and therefore does nothing to open
the prizes and emoluments of the University
to general competition. This, indeed, is the only
change which is worth contending for. It is the
only reform which will put all citizens of the
country upon an equality, and place them in a
position to claim those pecuniary benefits to which
every layman is justly entitled. In short, the
first clause of the Bill is good so far as it goes, but
it can be regarded as a small instalment only of
the debt which has so long been due to those who
have hitherto been excluded from the University.
But the importance of yesterday's debate did
not depend upon the comparatively narrow ques-
tion which was immediately in issue. Its im-
portance consisted in the expressions elicited from
successive speakers as to the immorality and injus-
tice of imposing theological tests upon lay gra-
duates of the University. It is true that the
CHANCELLOR of the Excueoren protested against
admitting those who would not subscribe the
Thirty-nine Articles to Convocation. But he did
not shrink from avowing his conviction that theme
tests ought not to be made compulsory upon all
graduates, and that some measures were absolutely
required for the purpose of extending the benefit
of University endowments to those who were not
members of the Church of England. It was hardly
to be expected that even so distinguished a states-
man as Mr. GLADSTONE should not be somewhat
fettered by his relation with the University. And
it required no small courage, not only to separate
himself from his colleague, Sir W. DEATLICOTE. by
voting for the second reading of Mr. DODSON'S WI,
but to ignore the petition of his own constituency.
Of course, Mr. IVALII.LE and Mr. SetwvN, the
Members for the sister University, were found
coupled together on the illiberal side,
and were naturally supported by that
wakeful watchdog of Protestantism, Mr.
NEWDEGATL But it is a significant fact that
every member of University experience and Uni-
versity distinction in the House of Commons de-
nounced the system of tests. They showed
without difficulty that the Universities were not
ecclesiastical but lay corporations—that they were
public institutions intended for the benefit of the
whole people of England, and that therefore they
ought not to be confined to those who who chose
to sign the Thirty-nine Articles, or any other
theological opinions. They showed that these cor-
porations had defeated the attempts of the Bishops
to keep then, within ecclesiastical control, and had
submitted themselves to the jurisdiction of the
QUEEN'S Courts. They thus proved that these
institutions were intended to supply not only the
Church but the State with useful instruments.
But they did more. They showed that the sys-
tem of testa had lamentably failed that
instead of producing unanimity of opinion
they had produced discord instead of
suppressing they had aggravated differences.
Fortunately they had not far to seek for an illus-
tration. The scandalous persecution of the Greek
Professor was still fresh in the minds of all. The
furious denunciations of the contending Doctors
at Oxford were still ringing in the public ear.
And even now men can scarcely bring themselves
to believe that learned and reverend theologians
brought up in the same University, drilled under
the same discipline, proved by the same tests,
ostensible members of the same Church, and living
within the same University, should be found to
declare that they do believe in "the same Goo."
There may, perhaps, be some system of producing
unanimity of opinion, but this is not the system
which now exists at Oxford.

Tried by results this system is condemned. Tried
by reason and common sense it is equally inde-
fensible. At present, young men of all denomi-
nations can enter the University. Their claim to
be educated there is admitted even by the Mem-

1 hers for the University of Cambridge. At present, i
it is twos the student must be under the control of
*member of the Church of England ; but Mr.
GLADKIVNI not only admits that this is an injus-
tice, but is evidently prepared to compel the Uni-
versal, to do its duty, by allowing dissenters to
open places of education at Oxford for themselves.
For two or three years, therefore, young men of
all denominations are brought up together ea

friendly rivals or as penis! tioiiipanions. They may
spend their days and nights together ; discuss
every problem under the run ; and form their own
conclusions from such various and discordant
authorities as they may choose to consult. What
then? If they are intended for Orders their
course is clear. But if they are intended for
the counting-house, the Bar, St. Stephen's, or the
county magistracy, what is their fate t They can
only obtain their University degree upon one
condition. They must sign the five or six
hundred declarations of opinion contained in the
Thirty-nine Articles. And for what purpose?
They have already concluded their career at the
University, and therefore can exert no further in-
fluence upon their college companions. They I
have already earned the right to put on, as it were,
the University badge. It is therefore an injustice
to prevent them from doing so. Is no one a mem-
ber of that Church who is not prepared to undergo
the existing test Let it be proclaimed to-mor-
row that no one shall be entitled to consider him-
self a member of the Church of England unless he
is prepared to sign the Thirty-nine Articles,
and the result must be that the Church
of England will become a vanishing quantity.
There was a time when boys and young men used
to breakfast with their tutor, and gabble over the ar-
ticles as *necessary preliminary to obtaining a degree.
These were the days when the misdirected zeal of
the Church of England bad so encumbered the
public with tests that they were swallowed whole
and never digested. But these times are changed.
And now the Church of England must either
relax the stringency of the testa imposed upon
those who aspire to degree*, or must practically
expel from the walls of the University men who,
had they been permitted to remain, would have
proved its most brilliant ornaments.

WE learn on good authority that the Duke of
SUE-Coal RG Gums has altogether failed to
attain the object of his journey to Paris. The
Exeznoa refuses to encourage the claim of the
Duke of ACOESTENBURG to the Duchies of Sleswig
and Holstein. The Duke of Contata leaves Paris
to-morrow, greatly disappointed. At their interview
the Eitrzson professed the most pacific intentions
towards Germany.