The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-12-20 00:00:00

THE LONDON UNIVERSITY CHARTERED.

(From the Standard.)
The charter for a Metropolitan University has been at length
made public. It is directed to the Earl of Burlington, as Chan-
cellor, Mr. Lubbock, us Vice Chancellor, and 36 or 37 other
persons of various tanks and occupations, practising barristers,
and practising physicians, a Master iu Chancery, and a Captain
in the Royal Navy, Members of Parliament, and Fellows of the
Royal Society, the Surgeon-General in Ireland, Lord Brougham,
two Whig Bishops, and half a dozen unknown private gentle-
men. These are to constitute the corpus of the University, and
any six of them are to confer degrees upon their own exami-
nation by persons whom they shall appoint. The single quali-
fication discoverable in the Fellows of the new establishment is,
that they are all Whigs,--and this is natural enough; for it ap-
pears by the terms of the charter, that the University is to be
a mere appendage to the Treasury, by which its members are to
be appointed, and to which its accounts are to be annually sub-
mitted, and just now the Whigs are in possession of the Tree-
.
suri. . .

If any one ever entertained a jealousy of this new-fangled
establishment, a glance at the charter must be quite sufficient
to remove that unpleasant feeling. This charter distinguishes
the incorporated body from every thing bearing the name of
a university that ever existed. Its degrees afford no test of
learning—no proof of religious education—no evidence of moral
life and conversation. Its degrees afford no test of learning,
because the fellows and governors of the university are men
submitted at no time to any literary examination. Instead of
working their way upwards as in universities heretofore consti-
tuted, they ascend the academic throne by the "royal road" of
a home secretary's appointment; and, as all know there is no
royal road" to science or learning. Its degrees afford no proof
of religious education, religion being advisedly excluded from
the cognisance of chancellor, vice-chanee;lor, and fellows. Its
degrees afford no evidence of moral life or conversation, the
degrees being demandable upon mere literary examination and
residence, and that superinteudence to insure which residence
is designed in all other universities being from the nature of
the case impossible.
Such an university may confer degrees in sciences and in
arts—happily it is not yet presumed to give the poWer of con-
ferring degrees in divinity to Lord John Russell's nowinees-4
such a university, we say, may confer its mock degrees in law,
medicine, and arts;- but, after that the graduates of the legiti-
mate universities shall have-adopted the practice of distinguish-
ing, their literary titles by the addition of the universities from
which they have received them, nobody we suspect, will sub-
mit to the London brand, save in. obedience to the penal
sentence of a court of justice. There is a
,provision made
for admitting the King's College scholars to theSe degrees
—a provision, we are sure, of which that institution will scorn
ns avail itself. No; we have pointed out the only use of the
new university—a substitute for the exploded pillory.
The university is permitted by charter to take as much money
and chattel property as it can lay hold of and to purchase
f. 10,000 a-year real property in mortmain—a sornewl.at mu-
necessary license, when, to the. ninth and tenth year of the
concern's existence, its shares are at about 76 per cent. discount.
We rejoice, however, that the thing.has been done. The whigs
owe to their country same permanent memorial of their
wickedness and folly, and this is a most significant monument,
seasonably erected just before their tall.

ECCENTRIC CH•RACTER.—Few have perhaps heard of the
passion of ~eccentric John Stone, for the late princess royal
Va
of England, i;re therefore present them with the following lu-
dicrous declition of it in a genuine letter, which was written
by him to a great personage :—"'l'o our gracious Queen Char-
lotte, mistress of Great Britain and its appendages.—Madam,
when I tell you that I am in a state of mental distraction, occa-
sioned by the peculiar excellencies of your eldest daughter, I
hope you will pardon this presumption. Happy should Ibe if
my birth and circumstances could entitle me, legally, and ac-
cording to the satisfactions of prudence, to demand the illustri-
ous object of my passion ;
hut as we are not responsible for our
coming into the world, whatever we may be for own actions
after that entrance, you must not blame me for being a branch
of the first house in christendom. To come tome point. I have
seen the princess royal; and must assure you, that the brilliancy
of her beauties in the assemblage surpasses even the honours of
her situations. Though matrimony, in the present day, accord-
ing to the ideas of Hudibias, is made a mere matter of money,
I reject so mean an idea ; my affections are rivetted to the ob-
ject of my desires, independent of the advantages that may be
presumed to be attached to her exaltation. It is true that my
estates,' at present, are somewhat encumbered. ..But what of
that ? The purity of my desires will operate as an antidote agait,st
the evils of piiverty. I leave it your own discretion to mention
the affair to his majesty ; if you approve of the measure, I
can have no objection. There is an old saying, that marriages
are made in heaven ; so, if this takes place, your majesty knows
that.the whole affair must be placed to the account of the Omni-
potent and not to the frail desires of a weak individual. Should
Hymen illumine my being with his torch of connubial splen-
dour, I flatter myself that we may live a very happy couple. In
expectation of your majesty's speedy answer, ',remain, with
the most perfect veneration, your much. obliged, most dutiful,
and devoted subject and servant, JOHN STONE.—AUgUsuc7il,
1,
.1787.—P.5. My dutiful and and respectful compliments. bave the to his
majesty and all the royal family. I hope soon to ..
d
hon-
our of approaching you in a less equivocal charactec