The Express.
London, England, 1865-06-15 00:00:00

4
__•
I MPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUEUI OF 001111011111.—Wilncetin; JUNI 14.
TWIN ABOLITION (OXFORDi BILL.
After ear men left miteeday.
Mr. DODSON, in supireenag the simenio, said it was a
bill, not mealy foe the heaths of diereatina hat for the
basset of churchmen themselves, aad it altered ;wither the
mveremeet nor the religions beishing of the Usivenity of
Orford. (Hear. bear.)
The CHANCELLOR ef the =CHEQUER—Tr my boo.
bleed who has just eat down bad area the most of the
hill, nod if, is movies it, he bad posomeed the speech he
delivered last year, or the speech be has just delivered, I
should, for my owe part, have very gladly followed him into
the lobby . A billet this Mad very much dispendsim=dt!se em,
There
Lepage, sad view. of them by whom it is in
is • very gnat &Samos of opialoo IA the beam on this
abject, and the praeticability of carrying my immure in
mud to, or even of enteleining the qmstioa at all, Meals
seamanly apes the lose which may be taken on on. ark
or the other. No bill of this Baum however emended,
said be carried. I seembeed, upon the derland yews of
the rower of this hill II iris impossible to Meek* the
mamas or spint of the speech of the bon. member for the
Oily of Ludas (Mr. Ciceshen, for he went the whole
liegth of declariag that lb. thank of England a 'added W
take within the pretiests of the Congruity whatever
'Armitage her hold upon the punk of the
eantry may give her. He said she may depend
moons her numerical minority, sod soiling eke—that
aloe had no title to the opals aranitalloa et the moon
sity. lam sorry Ido sot accompany him in the media
el that priociple. He said that the amount of theological
histreetton en giv to esdieradeates is very small. That
oneost semi to be wetly underrated by my bon. friend.
but whether it be great or small this la not • qamaion el
theological iietruotios nom. It is true that the object of
the uninnity is to give a geoeral education, but the qua.
the is whether that general education can be *operated
mesa the spirit of a dialect end definite raisin. It is not
• creation of saesberturea amen books, bet of that
general education, me it is andentood in an English unner- I
sity, and as I trust it will always he understood, which is
the formation of character, and the regulasioa of the
genroment of life. (Hear, hear.) Whether the precise
at specific theological last notion at the usiversey
be more limited or extruded, whether it bluriva
is the cue of an English gentleman to carry th sr
leen far, lam very glad that tbeologied instruction is del-
madly neural's& as eproper subject of university Wash- I
Isg. Bat that is by no mane the whole quests.. The
question Is whether the religion of the Merck of Eragisad,
or of some ehorth, and the resegaitioe of that »Seim in
the system of CM university, is neesmary, in order to
able the the neivereity to perform its Machias work, and to
omens, its proper inausnos over the character u • part cd
the discipline el life. This is not a mere question as he.
knee the elegy sad laity ; it I sob a quieten of .xefliel
Imams the north and Mae, but • question of the
me-
ekness commonly estertained by English parents emcees.
kg the kind of educatica to which Wry desire to salmi%
their children. I think that parents have the
feeling on that subject. There is so sepal=
makirous to that which divides this boom. Nay,
ware, I go farther and my there I se separates
enamour to that which divides religious deseminatioas,
became the professors of the several religions creeds is this
country are alike anxious for the instructicie of their
children in the specific tenets they profess. Am far a sty
authority mu be chum from the meat preessMage. . of per
dement applicable to this Nader, it is-sot I. fuser of
the 'newest in the speech of my hoe. friend, and it would
be idle and dolmens on my part for me to vote for the bill in
the teeth of the a,gameat of my hon. friend. In 1860 an
est oe the subject of endowed grammar schools was pared
with general meat, the 201 Via, cap. 2. net bill pro-
mos three priseiples—troll, that where is the deeds
of the founder there was a swede soedition that ell the
children should be educated in the belief of the (under, or
some particular religious belief, that sot should be inopera-
tive, and the will of the founder should be observed.
le the next plus, when the founder gave so such
specific instruction, the trader wen sot only
ambled but required to admit, without religiose &thee-
tion, all children to the benefits of the !mimetic:a of the
school. Parliament, in thus fixing the religions bade of
grammar echoed' in regard to the question of comprehension
or rion.comprehmisios, has advisedly admitted from inter-
fering with the ometimition of the governing body. And,
thirdly, parliament in 1860 left the governing body as it was,
sad where a school was appointed to be pawed by mem-
bers of the church of England, it so remained by the authority
of parliament. Now, it it were ressocable in the as.. of
primmer schools that the specific desondeatiorial elterseter
of the religious governing body should be represented, is it
Ime reasonable in the mee of the university? If you examine
the coostituents of the clam for whom the grammar schools
are intended, you will find that • very large proportion, no
doubt the majority, of them who avail themselves of them
schools Sr. dissenters, for they area much larger proportion of
the middle claim than that proportion who repair to the
university. If half of them who go to the university were
dimmers, the maintenance of an exclusive system. though
it =Wit be right and mood in principle, would be far more
ammo than it is. But this fact an hardly be disputed,
Nat as immense properties of those who resort to the not-
verity are the children of ahurchmen ; but a still smaller
proportion in the me of grammar schools us the children
of churchmen ; but yet, even with regard to grammar
schools, parliament did not interfere with the exatitatiou
of the governing bodies, but left them, with perfect Janice
I think, io every cam. imprinted with whatever specific
religions character the founder had given Omen. I confess
myself that, apart from all distinctness betwees church-
men and dissenters, I am ocavincied of the sound-
ems and the wisdom, in the cireamstaitem of
this country, of that
Hear hear.) which is celled the
that
do
neesinational system. ( I mean
we should not endeavour to tamper with the features and
priMiples, either of the established religion or of any other
tellgioe. I would rangsfee the same sacredness against
political invasion in the one case as in the other. To male.
Isle a detente religions teething is the principle upon which
we have proceeded in the whole of oar recent and most
important administrative and legislative "as in regard to
primary god popular educatiou ; and I believe that is the
prisciple to which we ought to adhere in the using,
Miss as well as in the grammar schools. My hon. friend
who has just sat down aye the great objects of the hill are
two—first, that a dimmer who has pawed through an uni-
versity education shall have the reward of his labours in •
degree ; and, secondly, that by that degree he she)] be
admitted to the body termed 000neation, on of the vital
Inactions of which my hoe. friend says is returning mem-
bers to this home. If them were the two vital objects of the
bill, in my opinion the ground of eoetroverey would be very
mush 'evened. I am strongly of opinion that it k de-
sirable to alter the basis of the law with regard to the Eioi-
unity of Oxford, and mainly under two heads. i think
the taste exacted from the lay members of the church of
Bee and in Oxford alma, sad nowhere else, ought to be
altered sad modified, quite apart from the question of
. anon subnoriptiom • sod that as regsrdrlay Mete the mine
pinplit should obtain which obtains elsewhere. Secondly,
I am strongly of opinion that the present regulations do not
give diseentes all that we might safely give them, dill re-
taining intact the principle that the government of the uni-
versities and the miler* should be so lodged in the church
at England se to give ample and adequate security for the
5 s instruction sod discipline of the university. After
trelitli; of last year eau read • second time by a large ma-
jority I communicated with my honourable friend
end colleague the member for the University of
Oxford (Sir William Heatboote), who, I regretted,,
moved it. rejection. I transmitted to him • copy of the
bill, endaded and altered in a manner in which, as I me-
°sired, it would hare reserved the general government of
the university sad the colleges in the chinch of England.
That bill se amended would, in the first place, have enabled
persons not members of the church of England, and without
reference to soy religions distinction whatsoever, to have
fonoded, governed, and conducted independent halls in the
tmivenity. Those aoqualuted with Oxford, and still more
time acquainted with Cambridge, are perfectly aware that
there is no distinction of any essential character between a
hail and • college. They are both independent institutions
of education, and halls so founded may grow into colleges,
and in fact be colleges to all intents and purposes. Next.
by the bill as amended, lay degrees would have been relieved
from religiouv testa, and that which parliament enacted in
1864 with respect toadmiadon to barbel oreckgrees would have
been enacted with respect to the higher degree of the nisi-
verity not being theologisaL Thirdly, upon 'Omission into
the governing body a est would have been applied, bot that
test would not have been the doctrines of the Thirty-nine
Articles, boo a gem& declaration of membership of the
church of England. Another provision of the bin would
have gives the university half is the cease of certain pro-
famorehips a power to dispense with that test, bat those
would have been individual instances. lastly, the bill as
ameded would hove gives the power of voting for members
of parliament which my bon. friend near me bee demand
as the great object of this bilL I ventured to complain of ,
the course pursued by my bon. fiend sodcolloagne (Sir I
Wm. Hsatbcote) upon the debate on the second reading of
the bill, but I have no resew to accoplais of the spirit in
which be received the amended bill. He did not tie him-
self to the letter of the provisions of the amended bill,
but be gsve a several ammtance to the amendment',
air being those which it was 1/11111 to adopt for the general
settlement of the medico. The next step was to ascertain
whether the promoters of the bill would aeospt the amend-
ments ; but the result was a total failure. Ceder these
circumstance, 22 • member of the university. I thought it
my duty to vote against the third reading of the bill ; bat
I hoped that more favourable prospects were opened to us
by the speech of my hon. friend today. Now, looking over
the changes which I have recited—importut td consider-
able changes —to hear described today, es I have often heard
deacribed before, the gravure, as it is understood to be. of
calling upon Myrna, to sign the 39 articles—l have not felt
it so myself—l should b..e thought that if • camped=
upon that point aloes bad been offend, It would bays
boss win to hue accepted it. But if them
oansidertha chaages, which if fairly and liberally applied
would give everything except the central direction of the
geverolog body in this great seat of eduatios, be net se-
espied, it would be idle end deludes on coy part to support
the snood readieg of Skis bill, which I most immediately
puma to qualify by eudarimarleg to thrust into it, if it
should go into committee, Wombat sad ematial media-
Whim which my hoe. hiked bee avowed his determina-
ble' weer to amen. (Hear, War.)
Bir W. HEAT/100TH said that though be took a part
with the seedemse wile peppered the MB of lees _ 'year
*the view le it Wag wiambil. atterinedi folise