The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, MARCH 20, 1868.

a memorial, signed by above 700 members of the Ox-
ford University, was presented by the Archbishop
of Canterbury, expressing an apprehension lest the
University should be secularized, and it should be
reduced to the condition of some foreign universi-
ties, in which the religion of the country is alto-
gether ignored. The Bishop of LONDON, for his
part, disclaims any such fear. " With regard to
proposals for extending the honours and emolu-
ments of the Universities to persons not members of
the Established Church, his opinion was they were
more or less national institutions, and that whatever
was the religious character of the nation would
more or less be the character of the Universities."
The Senate at Cambridge, and Convocation at Ox-
ford, are, as the right rev. prelate reminds his
hearers, much larger bodies than the House of
Peers, and he did not think the presence of persons
not members of the Established Church would make
any more sensible difference in their composition
and character than the presence of noble lords, not
members of the English Church, made in that
House. Nor did he think that any danger could
arise from admitting to Professorships of the sciences
men eminent in those sciences, but not members
of the English Church. The memorialists, whose
petition he presented, thought that when such
changes were discussed the question was not be-
tween members of the English Church and Non-
conformists, but between professors of Christianity
and those not professing it. With regard to the
Senate and to the Professorships, however, they
were willing to make the utmost concession ; but
they thought that, on the other hand, great care
should be taken to preserve to the Established
Church the government of the colleges. The go-
verning body of each college is so very liinited
that there might be great risk in admitting persons
not professing Christianity to form part of it. In
one college with twelve fellows only four were
usually resident, and thus the influence of one man
in such a small number must be important. The
Bishop advanced other arguments of a similar cha-
racter, and his speech was listened to with atten-
tion, and will, we hope, have weight.

There are undoubtedly some inconveniences at-
tending a popular Legislative Assembly, in which
every man has a right to express his opinions.
Some gentlemen have more regard fcr their own
oratory than for the patience or convenience of the
House, and are apt to introduce bills which must be
withdrawn, to make motions which are absolutely
certain to produce no result, and to deliver speeches
which nobody listens to. Mr. WHITE, of Brighton,
gave us last night a brilliant specimen of his powers
in this direction. Notwithstanding the unsatisfactory
state of public business, which Mr. DISRAELI had just
been lamenting, and notwithstanding the hints of the
leader of the Mouse that if matters did not pro-
gress more rapidly they must sit in Passion Week,
Mr. WHITE occupied a considerable portion of the
evening by a perfectly useless resolution respecting
the compound householder, which everybody joined
in advising him to withdraw. A select committee
had already undertaken to deal with the matter,
and therefore it was most unlikely that the House
would consent to pass any fresh resolution on the
subject. It was evidently only introduced to give
Mr. WHITE an opportunity of airing his eloquence ;
and we think with so much pressing business in
arrears the House has some right to complain of
such a monopoly of its time and its patience.