The Sun.
London, England, 1854-06-20 00:00:00

OXFORD UNIVERSITY- BILL.

The committee on this bill was then resumed.
Mr. PH INN moved the insertion of the following clause :
And whereas it is expedient to prevent credit being given
to persons studying at Universities and schools who have
not attained the age •of twenty-one years, be it en-
acted, that from and after the passing of this act, no
action or suit shall be commenced or maintained in any
court of law or equity, for the recovery of any debt or de-
mand contracted or incurred by any; person under the
age of twenty-one years, who at the time of contracting
or incurring such debt or demand, shall be a student in
any university or college, or a pupil in any school or insti-
tution for the purpose of education, or who shall be a pupil
residing with any tutor within the United Kingdom, nor
upon any deed, bond, or obligation given as a security for
any such debt or demand so incurred by such pupil while
under the age of 21 as aforesaid. That from and after the
passing of this alt, the Court of the Vice-Chancellor
of Oxford shall in all matters of law be governed by the
common and statute law of the realm, and not by the rules
of the eivil law : That it shall be lawful for any
three of the judges of the superior courts to make such
rules as they may deem fit for the regulation of
the procedure of the said Court ; and that tho said
court shall proceed in all matters subject to the said
rules in conformity with the mode of procedure established
in the County Courts : That all all persons duly admitted
to act as counsel or attorney in any court of law or eqUity
shall be admitted to practise in the said court ; and that
no person in Holy Orders shall be permitted to practise
therein as advocate or proctor."
Mr. HENLEY objected to the clause.
The CHANCELLOR, of the EXCHEQUER thought the
principle of the existing law was sound, though means had
been found for defeating its spirit. At the same time ex-
ceptional legislationiwas objectionable, and he could not re-
commend this clause for the adoption of the committee.
After some further discussion the clause was withdrawn.
Mr. EL A.CKETT moved a clause prohibiting the adminis-
tering any oath on admission toany office or emolument in
the university or the colleges.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER opposed
the clause, and argued that the authorities of the univer-
sity should have the decision of the question.
On a divisionthe motion was rejected by 109 to 71.
Mr. JOHN PHILLIMORE moved a clause to the
effect that, after the Ist December next, no person should,
on account of hie rank, be permitted to pass his examina-
tion or take a degree sooner than any other undergraduate.
On a division this motion was rejected by 67 to 66.
Mr. BOWYER moved a clause, the object of which
was to.restore the study of civil law and jurisprudence in
the university by making it imperative upon the candi-
date for the degree of doctor of civil law to undergo a
legal examination.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER urged that
the committee was not engaged in framing a system of
studies for the university.
The motion was withdrawn, and the bill at last passed
through committee, and the report was ordered to be
brought upon Thursday.

- -
NEWSPAPER STAIIP.
Mr. GIBSON said that he wished to put a question to
the hon. gentleman the Secretary for the Treasury, in the

~.A_

absence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The question I
had reference to the postage on printed matter up to a
certain limited weight. There was a Treasury order
which permitted printed matter of a certain weight, not
being of the character of newspaper printed matter, to go
through the post for one penny. Ho wished to know
whether there would be any objection to lay that Trea-
sury order on the table. It had been brought under
his notice within the last few days that the Board of
Inland Revenue, acting under that order, required per-
sons to make something like a false declaration, in order
to obtain the privileges which the Treasury accorded
in this respect—that the required persons to declare,
in order that they might be able to send printed pam-
phle!,s through the post, that these pamphlets were
newspapers, when everybody knew, the Board of In-
land Revenue themselves included, that they were not
newspapers. (Hear, hear) Ho would give an instance
of one of these false declarations. There was the case
of a publication called the " Quarterly Statement of
the Society for Promoting the Employment of Ad-
ditional Curates in Populous Places." That could not be
a newspaper because it was published quarterly, and could
not in any respect come under the description of a news-
paper. Mr. R. Clay, of Hornsey, was called on to make
this declaration :—" I solemnly declare and say that I am
the printer, publisher, and proprietor of a newspaper
called the `Quarterly Statement of the Society, &c.,' and
I make this solemn declaration, conscientiously believing
the same to be true, and in pursuance of an act passed in
the reign of William IV., for reducing the duty on news-
papers. Mr. R. Clay was thus required to say that he
conscientiously believed this to be a newspaper when he
knew that it was not, when the Board of Inland Revenue
knew that it was not, and when every one else knew that
it was not a newspaper or anything like a newspaper.
(Hear, hear.) If it was the intention of the Treasury to
allow such printed matter to go through the Post-office for
one penny what sense was there in requiring persons to go
through this preliminary form, which approached to some-
thing very like a falsehood. He was sorry the Chancellor of
the Exchequer was not in the house, because he perceived that
the right hon. gentleman was a member of this very society,
and therefore, to a certain extent, a participator in the sys-
tem of makine, loose declarations ; and what for ? He
would not say it was for the purpose of absolutely defraud-
ing the revenue; but it certainly tended to lessen the
charge which these publications would otherwise have to
pay. If the act was strictly complied with these publica-
tions, not being newspapers, would have to pay according
to weight, and would, therefore, he an addition to the
public revenue. It was not for him to &fen' the public
revenue, but both on moral and financial grounds the sub-
ject was worthy of attention. He therefore asked the hon.
gentleman to let them see the order ; and he wished also
to know if it allowed these publications to go through the
post for a penny, and at the same time fettered it with the
condition of requiring a false declaration? He was desi-
rous to receive an answer to these questions because he was
acquainted with a gentleman who was anxious to avail
himself of the privilege, but did not wish to make the
false declaration that the publication was a newspaper
when he knew that it was not. (Hear.) lie wished to
ask whether, if the Government were not prepared to deal
with the larger question, they would not settle this ?
Mr. J. WILSON said that his right hon. friend accused
the Board of Inland Revenue of calling on people to make
false declarations, but his right hon. friend did so under a
misapprehension of the real state of the case. It was true
that the Treasury, on the representation of the Post-office,
had so far relaxed the regulations as to permit pamphlets
to be stamped as newspapers, and, being open at both ends
to pass through the Post-office. But the Board of Inland
Revenue had nothing to do with the matter. They said
to applicants, "If you call your pamphlet a newspaper,
here are the conditions attached to its publication ?" It
was for the applicant to define it and for the board to affix
the stamp. It was quite true that various publications
passed through the Post-office under the character of
newspapers. NOthing was more common than for private
commercial firms to call their trade circulars newspapers ;
have them so entered at Somerset-house, and so obtain
their passage through the Post-office. When a person
went to Somerset-house, all the Commissioners of Inland
Revenue had to do was to see whether it was proper
that permission should be given to affix a stamp,
and that the party applying made the declaration as
required by law. The person applying, declared not
only that the publication was a newspaper, but that
it was his property, and that he conscientiously be-
lieved that all he stated was true. It was not for the
board to doubt the man's word, but the best course would
be to lay the correspondence between the Treasury and
the Post-office on the table, as the right hon, member
required.

Jilr. BRIGHT thought the hon. member for Westbury
had not been at all suecessful in answering the question of
his right hon. friend, bat ause it was quite clear that the
officer at Somerset-house must have known that the pub-
lication in question was not a newspaper. It purported to
be the quarterly account of the society for providing ad-
ditional curates in the church of England, a society of
which the Chancellor of the Exchequer and both arch-
bishops were members. A pamphlet published quarterly
could not come under the class which our ill-defined news-
paper law defined as newspapers, nor under the definition
given last year. The fact was that the Board of Inland
Revenue treated different people in a different manner.
In this case the society could stamp, suppose 500
pamphlets for country circulation under the pretence
that they were newspapers, while at the same time they
were permitted to circulate their unstamped publications in
town. How came it then in other cases, the Board of In-
land Revenue did not allow parties to act in that manner,
but required a person living in the next street to stamp all
his issue of what they defined to be a newspaper. It ap-
peared that there was one law and two applications of the
law. He (Mr. Bright) thought it but fair that in all these
fiscal matters where taxes were levied, they should be
levied without distinction, and that the board should not
exercise a kind of censorship under which publications of
one class were allowed to go part stamped and part un-
stamped, while others were obliged to bear a stamp on
every copy. The hen. member for Westbury said that the
board had nothing to do with the matter, that the party
applying made a declaration, and the board was obliged to
receive it as valid. But did he mean to say that if a pei--
son brought a pair of boots to Somerset-house and sought
to pass them through the post with a penny stamp, the
officer would take his declaration for granted ? (A
laugh.) In such a case he believed that the officer
would open his eyes a little and come to the conclusion
that the boots were not a newspaper. There was another
point to which he (Mr. Bright) wished to call the atten-
tion of the Government—he meant the case of the Penny
Commercial Journal, published in Dublin by Mr. Shaw.
When he had last put the question to the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, that right hon. gentleman said that the
verdict in Mr. Shaw's favour was a bad verdict, and should
undergo further consideration. But on the faith of that
verdict persons were publishing who would be liable to
prosecution if it should be overturned. He hoped, there-
fore, that if Government intended to take any further steps
in the matter their course would be explained by the At-
torney-General.
-The ATTORNEY-GENERAL said that the matter was
not in his department. It was an Irish prosecution, and
of course in the hands of the Attorney-General for Ireland.
It had not been brought before him, and, in the absence
of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he could not say a
word on the subject.
Mr. M. GIBSON reminded the hon. and learned gen-
tleman that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had said,
that as the verdict in question effected a number of Eng-
lish periodicals it had been referred to the English Attor-
ney-General.
The house then went into committee of