The Sun.
London, England, 1835-01-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Subjoined is a resolution adopted by the benchers
of the Inner Temple, and by them recommended to
those of the other inns of court, for the sake of equa-

lizing the couditions to be fulfilled by all sects of his
Majesty's subjects before they can be called to the bar.
Under the existing regulations graduates of the Eng-

lish Universities, and of Dublin, may be called to the
bar after keeping 12 terms, whereas persons who have
not enjoyed that advantage must attended two years, or
eight terms, in addition. A similar rule has been laid
down by the College of Physicians, and has operated
in the same manner against the attainment of the
degree of M.D. by persons who have not been at
an English or Irish University. This exception in
favour of graduates, to the exclusion of all other
parties from an equal facility of admission to such
of the learned professions as are open to laymen,
was a great subject of complaint which the Eng-
lish Dissenters last year made to Parliament. But
by the form of the Dissenters' petition, the blame
was thrown upon the Universities, which imposed a
religious test, without the slightest reference to the
after-destination of the student, instead of on the heads
of the law and medical professions, which had esta-
blished partial rules in favour of the aristocracy of the
church of England. Now, it would at all times have
given us satisfaction to see the power of graduating
opened to Dissenters from the church of England, and
we never hesitated to declare as much, adding, that so
far as a mere degree was concerned, the grave alarms
expressed upon the subject appeared to our minds an
-unnecessary bugbear. But the Dissenters would not
have been satisfied with the right of graduating. They
avowed in their petitions that not University honours
alone, but all the rights, privileges, progressive ranks,
offices, and powers accessible to laymen of the Church
of England, and to them confined by the original sta-
tutes of the University and its several colleges, should be
likewise open to Dissenters from her doctrines; in other
words, that effective authority over those great eclesi-
astical institutions should be exercised by strangers to
their religious principles, and men jealous of the pros-
perity of the church for the promulgation of whose
doctrines they had been founded. We repeat, that
had our dissenting brethren aimed at nothing more than
the right of graduating, and been contented with a
certificate of that single fact, we never saw any reason-
able ground for rejecting such a pretension. tut they
insisted, some expressly, and all by necessary implica-
tion, on fellowships, on tutorships,on collegiate offices,
which would have placed both funds and church pa-
tronage at their disposal, thus diverting property from
its lawful and recognized ends. They sought, in fact,
what would have amounted to a share in the general
government of the education and property of the Uni-
versities, parcel as they are of the church of England
—a concession which we suppose was never made
to its avowed enemies by any church or any sect
in Christendom. All must remember that the obstruc-
tion experienced by Dissenters seeking to practise as
physicians or at the bar, because of their not being
able to produce testimonials of having graduated at
either University, was a grievance of which they most
loudly complained. Yet the Dissenters must have
known that this grievance was rather nominal than
real—nay, that it was in some respects au advantage,
because the Cambridge graduate could not avail him-
self of the privilege resulting from a degree either in
arts or physic, till the whole amount of time consumed
an his passage either to the English bar or to the ho-
nours of the medical college exceeded by at least two
years the time required by the candidate who had
never spent a day within the academical precincts of
Cambridge or Oxford. Such being the real state of
the case, we can hardly hope that by the removal of
the grievance as now meditated in the resolution ad-
verted to above, the murmurs of the complainants will
be silenced. One point will, however, be gained.
The complainants must speak out ; they must avow that
they not only seek to be relieved from the alleged clog
upon their success in life, but that they must be re-
lieved in the way and by the identical process which
they themselves chalked out, or some among them will
give the Universities and Parliament no respite. This
is nothing new. It is not the first time by many that
when men ask for relief the real object of their appli-
cation is power—power over other men's interests,
actions, and possessions. There is a difference suffi-
ciently glaring between the principle on which the
Dissenters have pressed for a release from the inter-
meddling of the Church of England with their mar-
riages, births, or other domestic occurrences, and that
of their claim to meddle with the Church in its most
unquestionable and unobtrusive attributes. Why can-
not they endow a University for themselves, and then
ask the Crown for a charter, and Parliament for a law
of incorporation ? We do not know that any efficacious
resistance to such a purpose need be dreaded by the
Dissenting body, at least on the part of the Legis-
lature, and with any other they need not concern
themselves much. But, at all events, the alleged
evil, viz., the loss of time incurred by Dissenters in
preparing for legal and medical practice, is now about
tr be got rid of. So far as regards their professions,
they will be en an equal footing with members of the
Established Church, and that without the trouble or
-uncertainty of an intervention by Parliament. How
far the two learned professions affected by this change
may be raised by it in public estimation, we vouch
not ; but looking about us, we certainly see no reason
for supposing that any loss of reputation will be the
consequence of the change. Some of the highest
names in legal and medical science, both in past and
present times, are totally unconnected with Cambridge
or Oxford, though either of those Universities would
have been proud of their fame. We will not mention
living persons, but what academic names are more ce-
lebrated than those of Hardwick and Romilly, of
Mead and Babington ? We should have no fear, there-
fore, that the professions of law and medicine would
cease to exhibit great and shining lights; but one result
is evident (the importance of which we do not presume
to exactly estimate) viz., that there will henceforth
be no pressing or definite motive to send any candidate
for the bar or for medical practice to the University—
none but a conviction of the general advantages de-
rivable by every English gentleman who can appreciate
them, from that mixture of science, scholarship, early
intellectual conflict, and social tastes, habits, and ac-
complishments, of which; taken as a whole, and with
numerous drawbacks, the civilized world presents no
similar opportunity or example.
" INNS OF COURT AND UNIVERSITIES.
The Benchers of the Inner Temple (on the motion of the
present Attorney-General) lately passed the following reso-
lutions :
" That it is expedient that it be proposed to the other
societies, that so much of the Bench regulation of the 22d of
June, 1798, as exempts members of Oxford, Cambridge, and
Dublin from the deposit of 1001., prior to keeping terms, be
rescinded.
" And also, that it be proposed to the other societies, that
all persons of the full age of twenty-four years and upwards
be admitted to the bar, after keeping twelve terms, provided
.during five years immediately prior to the call they bad not
been in any trade or business, and in all other respects be
entitled to be called to the bar, according to the existing
usages, orders, and regulations of the several Inns of Court.
" rdered, that the above proposals be submitted to each of
the other Inns of Court ; and that they be requested to depute
three or more of their bench to meet in the Parliament Cham-
ber of this Society on Thursday, the. 29th of January, at
three o'clock precisely, to take the same into consideration,
with a view to their being adopted by the four Inns of Court."
—(Times.)
In our paper of yesterday, on the subject of Church
Reform, one of the most important subjects that en-
gages public attention at present, we contended for the
abolition of sinecures, as an essential part of a full and
efficient measure for the purification of the Church
Establishment, and the promotion of the interests of
true religion. We referred then to the efforts made by
Bishop Burnet, in the reign of William 111., to bring
about a reform of the Church, which exposed him to
much obloquy, and caused him to fall under the suspi-
cion of being engaged in a treacherous design to work
the downfall of that Establishment, whose foundations
he was endeavouring to strengthen, by clearing away
the abuses which served as a cover to the real enemies
who undennined its security. It would have been well
for the Church if Bishop Burnet's timely warning had
then been attended to, and the interests of " religion,
pure and undefiled," been secured against the injurious
influence of corrupt patronage, and the temptations of
worldly cupidity and ambition. In a memorial which
the Learned Prelate addressed to the King in the year