The Express.
London, England, 1866-04-26 00:00:00

-47

. zY,

In her defensive armamen .t4llO Prsieb
aggression, Austria hest, lik_gaipathr
all Europe. That sympathy „AM- a certaildo
not be extended to fictitious fears of
Italian aggression., and to offensive preparations,
which can have no other motive or purpose than
to exhaust the Italian exchequer.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)

'FFIE'YELLOWEI OF COLLZGEB DSCLAILITION BILL.
....

The Daily !News remarks that most ofj [the
members who opposed the above bill yesterday afternoon
were gentlemen of high character and cultivated intelli-
gence, but suavity of manner does little to mitigate
the harshness of exclusion. From the professions of some
of the most eminent speakers, that which is really
a matter of policy was, to some extent, treated
as if it were a matter of law. The real object
of the bill is to give permission to elect dis-
senters to fellowships,' and surely, if, as its opponents
contend, dissenters suffer under no grievanoe, then there
can be no advantage in that which the members of the
church of England desire to keep for themselves. But it is an
injury, while suffering dissenters to learn and to teach,
to prohibit them from enjoying the moat valuable emoln-
-1 menu and from taking part in the business of the place which
is endeared to them by its associations. The colleges of Ox-
ford and Cambridge hold a trust for the nation and for the
future, the scope of which, owing to the better knowledge
of dissenters which the partial repeal of University tests
has engendered, is every day more wisely extended. The
abolition of exclusive tests in college and university is the
essential condition of their doing well the national work
assigned to them ; and for this reason we welcome the
emancipatinglimessuree„of klr. Bouverieland
ridge.
If, exclaims the Herald, every dozen years is to
witness some new concession to dissent, in the

name of justice where will be the union be-
tween church and state within 100 years or so ?
Mr. Bouverie's bill is intended to throw fellowships open
to persons of all religions and of no religion, but the uni-
versities wore never national institutions in this sense.
Above all things, the object of the founders was to sustain
and keep up the established church. Moreover, a college
is to all intents and purposes as private a society as a
family, and if this is to be invaded by a motley array of
baptists, methodists, Bomaniats, Mormons, Mohamme-
dan., or atheists, what would be the effect of so strange an
agglomeration? In such a tumult, amid the cabals and
conspiracies of irreconcileable sectaries, what would be-
come of education! Six gentlemen, it seems, have been
excluded from fellowships because they did not conform ;
but surely to have obtained those degrees is an argument
for gratitude and contentment, and not for complaints.
This, however, is the modesty of modern dissent. Because
certain privileges have been freely granted, it puts forth a
compulsory claim to others. That such a claim will be
conceded as yet the Herald cannot believe, notwithstancl-
ing the somewhat untoward division yesterday.
The Telegraph remarks that the measure discussed yes-
terday does not touch many important strongholds of the
church at Oxford and Cambridge. It makes no reference,
for example, to heads of hOuses, the hebdomadal council,
or certain university offices of power and emolument. Do
not Mr.iLowe and his followers think that reform is ur-
gently wantedj,in a parliament which so struggles to [ex-
clude from the universities all the talent, all the genius,
all those capacities for learning and intellectual effort that
• lie latent in the large class which is at present practically
• debarred from entering our great national academies?
The Star argues that the church may lop off all the ex-
crescences which lessen her usefulness and encourage the
dissent without in the least sacrificing her " distinctive
religious teaching." And as to the " distinctive religious
teaching" of the universities, what there is of it, which
is very little, would not be in the least diminished or
vitiated by the admission of dissenters, even if, as Mr.
Schreiber fears, the nonconformists should come up in
their mathematical might and seize every fellowship that
can be gained by mathematical prowess.