The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-24 00:00:00

no course could have been taken which would have been
more effective for rendering it impossible for the uni-
versity to agree upon a petition for any scheme of re-
form, and thus for enabling the Government to say that,
as the university could not agree, it had been necessary
for the Government themselves to prepare a measure.
Had it not been for the announcement which had been
made by the Government, he should have been quite con-
tent to have left the question in the state iu which it stood.
The hebdomadal board had made known what they were
about to propose ; the convocation would have been
asked whether they assented to it; the petition would have
been decided upon by the independent voice of convoca-
tion, and it then would have rested with the Crown to
have decided whether it would assent to the petition or
not. At all events, we should have had the independent
opinion of the university, and Parliament and the Go-
vernment would have been free to act upon that opinion.
But the course which had now been taken rendered it

necessary that he should put a question to thenoble

earl at the head of the Government. The university, he
believed, had not been &ow in their desire to meet the
Wishes of the Government, and they had afforded to the

Government every information which it was possible for
them to give, both with regard to the university and the
colleges. That information with regard to the colleges
the Government had been in possession -of for nearly a
month ; and they had also been informed that the main
object of the university was4to obtain a permissive
power to alter the three Carolian statutes. As the

Government had thought fit to dissent from the pro-
posal which was about to be made to convocation,
and by anticipation to condemn the scheme, he was
entitled to ask if the Government would undertake, bc-

fore giving publicity to their own scheme for any altera-
tion of the statutes of the university, to make an official
communication to the university, so that the univer-
sity might, in an official and recognised manner, take
such proposal into consideration, in order to see how far
it would, in their opinion, conduce to the benefit of the
university or would they leave it to the university to
learn, for the first time, from the reports of what took
place in Parliament, what the scheme of the Govern-
ment was for the regult.tion of the future government of
the university, and for effecting a change in, all the in-
stitutions, habits, and mode of government of that body ti
Was the noble earl prepared to state that, having disap-
proved of the measure which had been submitted to them
in the first instance, the Government would communi-
cate to the university, previously to bringing it before
Parliament, the measure which, in their opinion, should
be introduced to effect these great changes ?
The Earl of ABERDEEN was understood 'to reply
that the Government would not pledge themselves offi-
cially to submit to the hebdomadal board the plan which
they might think it desirable to propose for effecting an
alteration in the constitution of the university, before
submitting it to Parliament. At all events, he believed
that it was not the present intention of the Government
to do so.