The Sun.
London, England, 1821-03-26 00:00:00

first scruemy, Doetot Godfrey and he had zquai numbers, but
that that equality of numbers was accomplished by the -circvm-
I stance of Doctor Godfrey vesting for-himself, and he insists that
Doctor Godfrey did ;—tlutt is so; is it not 'e • '
• 31r. A 11011.14 EY-tirNEUAL:—Yeis, my Lord.
Doc Ton GODFILEY.—Not as to numbers. • .
• - Mr. MoNTAd tr.—Dr. Godfrey had. eight.
Loki) CH A3iCEL t of them had a majority.
MoNTAOIS.—Ner, my Lord. . • ' •
LORD (AU-mem Loit:—lt is enough to illustrate the position
t. which 1 hlude, thet Mr. Mandell insists that Doctor God-
trey ought not to have been reckoned as a voter, being, as he
contends, ncPrelloW, for the reason I shall state by and by, and
he contends that in consequence of that, he (linAlandell) ought
to be considered as elected.
When an election is made (which they are boundunder very
severe penalties to snake before they part), the Senior, under the
pain o: incnring manifest perjury, and under the pain of per-
petual expulsion from the College, is bound to pronounce the
election, and the person ,so elected to admit "et porsonam sic
electam admittere. ' Then. the question is, woether these
words do not include this proposition, that thug may be a per-
son elected who is not yet admitted, and that adniission is some-
thing distinct from election, a question may arise in that. case of
very considerable impoitance, what that word admittere means
in statutes ef this sort. I think there is a passage in Lord
Coke, speaking of institution and induction, where he's.ays, that
if you speak of institution and induction,. you sometimes include
in, that expression the notion of .admission ; but that admission
is h distinct thing from NA., institution and induction, and if
you will take' the trOuble to look at what is to be found in the

Appendix to Gibsoti's Codex, with respect to the instruments
which peaswhen Bishops, Deans, and Prebends are created,
you will, I think; have. an inclination to aeriree with me in. the
opinion I am inclined to form, that the word. admittunt has
in the Law of England, with respect to. bodies of this kind,
a particular appropriate signification belonging to itself,
as' denoting an act .distinct froM other acts which go to the
cOmplae 'investiture of a person in an ' office cf thin kind.—
Here I stop for a single moment to say that an admission may,
be contended-to have more or lass of ceremonial about it; it may
be a mere expression that the party who is called to the duty of
admitting, in obedience to the law, which I shall call a statute
law fur this purpose, has nothing more to do than to say he ad-
'nuts, as the Ifiallop says to the Clergyman "Admit to," &c.; or
there may be more of ceremonial, because wishing to express
my obligations the communications made from Cambridge in
affidavits; here 1 find that in one College a person elected head
of a College till not like the notion of being ailinittcd by a person
who was of lower degree than himself; with Certain ceremonies.
But whether the word admittere here, if it haw apeculiar sig-
nification, denoting something different from election and if
it has a peculiar signification, denoting something different
from takmg the oaths- and the• keys of the chest,. which I
shall mention by and by; whether it does,
.or• does not can-
sist of more of ceremoniel, ,does not signiep, because it is clear
that the President, who. is to be elected, whatever is the form of
admission, is to have the form administered by an inferior,
namely, by the Seeder Fellow ; and another view of the case is,
that if a person is pot complete President of the college till he is
elected, it is running a little too fast forward to. say, that the
Senior Fellow is his inferior, for till he becomes completely his
superior, the comparison cannot be made. '
After this the statute goes oil to say, " faciatqae electum
preesidentein inquiri." • It spews that a President might be
elected. who 'is not present; then he is to be brought." coram
.communitate collegii in capella ejusdem," and a question ltas.
arisen, what communitate collegii, here means ? If this Statute
Book had been put into my hands, or rather if I had existed at
that period when this Statute Book was formed, I confess, that
on reading the whole of these Statutes, I should have Said, that
the Cornmunitate Collegii did not mean merely the assembly of
Fellows, but that it meant the assembly of the whole body at
the usual time of assembling in the Chapel; but it would be
greatly too much. to quarrel with any election on that ground,
after a practice and.a consuetudo has prevailed so long as it has
in this College. .Then the President is to take an oath, the
Senior Fellow administering the oath. Ido not think it neces-
sary, at present, to state any thing further than that, under the
attribute. effect of the last-passage in this Statute, it has been
contended (and that .is one of the questions to be decided) that
what is done by virtue of the exigency, of this last passage in the
Statute, is that which these Statutes mean by the words, " ad-
mittere qui facto- senior socius librum statutorum. claveaque
cistarum qua: ad officium prsidentia pertinere noscuntur ii hco
tradere non "estponat." the fact is; as I collect from these
affidavits, that a Book of Statutes, for the Book of Statutes
which was meant by this oath, is matter of question, and must
be matter of decision. I observe upon the book' that has been
given me, that I think that in all probability this book Was the
bookmade a present of by one Doctor Fulk, a•Doctor of Physic,
to a Gentleman of theiname of Chttigan, and that this I do not
think originally was an authenticated Book of the Statutes.
Mr. HopNE—That was not the book delivered. ..
. Loan CHANCELLOR—I know it was not the book delivered.
Then there is a subsequent Statute which speaks of the diffe-
rent Statute Books of the President, of the one that ie to be
chained in the Chapel, and another to be kept under a different
sort of deposit oncustotly, but which expressly speaks of one
Statute Book belonging to the President, and it is material to'
attend to that. Then the next Statutes are only about the re-
sidence of the President, the office anti authority of the Pre-
sident, :the supervision of lands and the expencea of the Pre-
sident.; upon which no other observation seems to me to arise
than this, and that I think is a very fair observation, that as the
President is now and' then to travel with more of splendour
and retinue than, the. Fellows, as he is likewise to live with more
of splendour in his College, though the allowances made to him
in this chapter-would make it very difficult to him to give his
horses any thing, if he meant to eat himself', yet I think that
the general tenor of these Statutes proves, that the authoress of
the foundation meant, that the Master of the College should be
in circumstances considerably above the Fellows of the College.
Such being the manner of electing a President, and the sup-
posed qualifiteation of the. President, of which we have heard so
much, it becomes necessary not only to consider who can be
elected,- but likewise to consider, and particularly in respect of
Mr. Mandell's Petition,_ who are the persona to make the
election, and that is'to be collected from the Statutes relative
to the Fellows... The first Statute relative to the Fellows in
this hook, is chap. 9.—The form of proceeding is this—" In-
jungat prtesidens singulis soeiis prasentibus in virtute jure-
mend Collegio exhibiti quail nomment talent vel tales quern
vel otIOS magis sciunt idoneurn vel idoneos 'secundum istas
conditiones berm in scholia, proficientenr non habentem untie
suffinienter vie‘ere valeat, • et se, aut parentibus luis, sine
status eorum, laosiooe nec aliqua communitate.expulsue, propter
sua demerite, nec aliqua incurabili inftrmitate apparerente et
manifesta detentus, et quod ad minus sit questiorasta in arti-
bus out supra Electio, autern sociortim erit .ad hone too-
durn. -The Election is to be in this mannar—" Prexsitlens et
duo seniores Socii prorsentiutn habuat rut mensam Doenini,
in capella c lllegii, et primo Prasidens et dicti seniores acri-
bant suffragia sua manibus propriis, sub line forma vel con-
-siruili. Bno A eligo B in soci'em hujus Collegii, et decide
singuli Socii present's vote *ma similiter seriteant singulatim,
et in num praesidena major pars aociorum, omnium tam
prasentwen quam absentium, consenserit pro electo lialicatur
quern sic electuni teneatur pronuntiare et admittere." Now,
pronutudare electum is one thing, and -et admittere is another ;
or, at least, it may be sin and the question is, kit so ? Then,
in case there is not a full election made upon the'first scrutiny,
the Statute goes on to say, what is to be lone in order to have ae
FelloW well constituted, and then follows the oath of the Fel-
low, in these - wordy—" Juramentum Socioruni quo pnrstito '
admittantur eel tot= jus et ernolumentuni Societatia." This
appears to me to deserve great consideration, for if thejura-
mentuna praesicleatit . was .the admission...of. _the Presidnet, out.
should allpose that the Jurarnentum Socioruni was the ad-
mission of toe Fellows, and then the word would have been
" Adruittuntur ;" but it is " Juramentum Socioeum, quo
praestito admittantur. ad totum jus et emulumenturn Societa-
tis." Now, when I read this passage first, I really thought it
was ahnOst splitting hairs, to snake a distinction between admik
tantur and admittuntur ; but having called for the consue-
tudines.of the College,. with respect to the elections'of Fellows,'
I find there is a solemn admission of the Fellows after they have
taken this oath, and that ealemne admission of the Fellows,
after they, have taken this oath is exactly'according to what 1
conceive ';.o be the meaning o? the word admission, when you
ascribe to it en apnropidate and specific sense, for it now ap-
p'ears, frcrat the affidavit I have from -all-the Fellows, that they
have, every one of them, in a form, I shall have to mention on-
Sattjday, been formally admitted, in the sense I shall have oc-
casion to put upon that word by the President of the College,
and that until they are so admitted, it would be vain to say that
they are entitled to totum jus et ernolumentuin Societatise":
and it appeara, therefore, to be by an inaccuracy of expression
that I reed 'S.() often in these affidavits of-what is called the oath`
of admission, after the oath it taken with respect to the Fella;
laws, keeping out of sight for a moment _that relating lel the
President, the oath has been taken by the Fellows, they are
immediately admitted : therefore it is natural that the 'oath
shoal,' be spoken of as the oath of admission., for: whatever may
be the construation of the statute of Charles, it is quite clear
that at the adiniteion this oath is taken in this sort, that if it is
said to be before the admission, the admisaiorf follows instantly .
upon the taking of the oath.
Then the nextquestion which has been made
.before me is,
who are thoai persons that are entitled to be considered as Fele
lows ? and that brings us directly home to the question which
Mr. Mandell makes, namely,." whether Mr. Goilfroria to be
considered.as a Fellow or not ?" and that depends upon that
part of the. Statutes which relates to the several-Counties from
which Fellows are-to 'be chosen, together with whatever effect
may belong to those interpretations of the Statutes to that point
which Piave been made from time to time in ancient times And
in modern tunes ; but more panipularly in ancient times.