The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-07-17 00:00:00

THIRTY NINE ARTICLES RILL

The Earl of RADNOR moved the order of the day for the se-
er/11d reading of a bill entitled " An act prohibithig subscrip-
tion to the 3J articles in certain cases." His lordship observed,
that on the present occasion they were cslted nn to consider the
principle of the bill which he had felt it to be his duty to intro-
duce. That principle involved the question whether Young
persons ought not to be admitted into the universities, without
subscribing the :39 articles. The first part of the bill pointed
out the cases in which subscription to the 39 articles should not
be hereafter required, and the second clause provided fur those
cases to which the bill was not invent to extend. A consider-
able difference with reference to what took place at matricula-
tion existed in the practice of the two universities of ()semi
and Cambridge. At Oxford, the applicant for admission was
called upon to subscribe to the 39 articles on matriculatien,
which was not the case in the university of Cambridge. At
Oxford also the person about to be matriculated was obliged to
subscribe the three articles contained in the 36th canon, which
was not required at Cambridge. The object of the bill was to
render such subscription unnecessary at the time of entrance
into either of the universities, or until the party shall have at-
tained a certain age, or should have proceeded to take the de-
gree of master of arts. Ile could not help thinking, after all
he had heard on this subject—after all the consideration which
had been bestowed on it—after all the discussion to which it had
given, rise in this and in the other house of "parliament—that
none of the articles which had been adduced against the prin-
ciple on which the bill was founded were satisfactory. He
could not understand the absurdity, lie would not use a worse
epithet, of calling on boys of 16, di', or 18 years of age, to silos
scribe the 39 articles on their matriculation,—articles of the
nature of which they knew nothing. The idea of young men
being thus called on to subscribe that which they did not un-
derstand was as offensive to common sense as it was to the prin-
ciples of morality. To say that individuals might with pro-
priety be called on to sign such and such things, without know-
ing or understanding them, appeared to him to be perfectly ri-
diculous; yet such was the assertion, such was the language,
which he heard used from time to time by different individuals.
For his own part,lie felt the utter impropriety of adopting such
a system. He could Dot undeistand how anybody could justify
themselves for calling on any person, under any circumstances,
to subscribe his name to that of the nature and tendency of
which he was ignorant. That, however, was what was done
every day. at the university of 'Oxford. Very lately a propo-
sition we; iytade to the university of Oxford to substitute a de-
claration in place of subscription to the 39 articles. Ainengst
those who were particularly zealous in canvassing against that
proposition was a gentleman nearly related to himself, an iuti-
mate friend of his, add one who was extremely ardent in the '
support of any "cause which he supported. He circulated
printed letters, which were addressed to alt the non-resident
members of the convocation, and in which he strongly opposed
any alteration in the existing system. The last paragraph in
the letter was to the effect that it was a mere matter of subscrip-
tion, involving uo oath at all. It was well known with regard
to Oxford (and to it he more particularly directed his observa-
tions, being most intimately acquainted with it),--it was well
known with regard to Oxford that tests were insisted on for the
purpose of exctuding dissenters front the university. Now, he
did not very well see what value could be attached to a test
which it was notorious those who took it did not and were not
called on to understand. Such a test could furnish no criterion
by whichao judge whether a person was a dissenter or a Ma-
housedan. In point of fact, however, dissenters were not ex-
cluded : a particular class of dissenter's, baptists and socinians,
Were excluded, but the universities were 'not thereby confined
to members- of the church of England. Besides, there were
other , tests to which nobody objected, and which would serve
the purpose ,of excluding dissenters much inure effectually
than the 39 articles. Attending chapel was one of those means;
fur if an individual joined in the daily worship prescribed by
the university, there would undoubtedly be a much better se-
curity that he approved of the doctrines of the church and was
sincerely attached to its dicipline than if he had, perhaps in
ignorance, signed the 39 articles. If that were so, and if
nobody objected to the service ofthe colleges as a better test and
sign of a closer adherence to the doctrines of the national
church, then why unnecessarily persevere in that which could
not but in souse degree be objectionable, if not mischievous,
and which did not, in fact, secure its avowed object ?
In Bavaria and in France no tests were required on admission
to their universities; persons were admitted with equal freeness,
whatever might be their religious opinions, even into the pro-
fessors' chairs, and he .was informed that M. Guizot, one of the
French ministers, himself a protestant, had formerly filled a
profeSsor's chair in one of the French universities. Bologna
and Rome required no tests; and at l'i'a, where both Greeks,
Jews, and Mahommedans attended, no test existed ; the only
difference was when a Mahominedan took a degree, that the
chancellor left the chair and ceased to preside, and the vice-
chancellor conferred the degree. The professors' chairs also,
for which no test was required, had frequently been filled by
Englishmen. At Padua no test was imposed, and it frequently
happened that the professorships in that university were held
by English presbyterians and Calvinists. In the Roman catholic
countries, in the Venetian and Austrian states, no jealousy was
entertained with respect to religions persuasions, and no test
whatever was required. He (Lord Radnor) was a protestant
himself, but he had always been taught In believe that pro-
testantism had nothing to conceal respecting the rights of
private judgment and free discussion; it was, therefore, some-
what mortifying to be told that the English were the only
universities which were to be shut up,evhile the Roman catholic
establishments were to lie open to persons of every persuasion.
In the Prussian states, in Baden, and Breslau, no tests were
required; and at the. present moment a jew was professor of
medicine at the university of Copenhagen. To come nearer
home—in the university of Durham, lately established, no test
was established for persons going there for instruction. Why,
then, should Oxford and Cambridge alone be bound by tests
which were not understood, and which did not actually accom-
plish the objects for which they were designed ? It had not been
arrays so at Oxford : it was known that at one period that
university was 'open to.persons dot only of different countries;
but of different rotigim,a. tll5, lifr" wa• at Oxford a proresSor
of divinity and ahead of a house long after he had been sum-
moned to appear before the court of Rome to answer for his
heretical opinions. (The noble lord then gave the namei.of
several distinguished foreigners who in early times filled differ-
ent chairi in the university, but the low tone of voice in which
he spoke, and the rapidity with which he read the statement,
prevented us from being able to fellow him's) He then adverted
to the argument brought forward by the noble duke (Welling-
ton) on a former occasion, that subscription to the 39 articles
should be maintained for the purpose of keeping up the necessary
alliance between the church and state. l'hat was a very odd
way, in his (Lord Radnor's) view, to secure the alliance between
church and state. He had shown that the church itself never
required that subscription of laymen, and the state never called
for it, except in one individual instance, where persons residing
as judges in ecclesiastical courts, and who had to decide cases
referring te'the 39 articles, were required by an act of parliament
to subscribe the articles. The King, as head of the church,
was never called on to subscribe them, and he very much
doubted whether the noble duke opposite had suscribed them as
Chancellor of the Liciversity of Oxford.
`rite Duke of WELLINGTON said he had certainly signed
them, and (as we understood) had seen them subscribed by a
noble friend of his (the Marquis Camden) the other day at
Cambridge.
Lord RADNOR thought there was some mistake at least with
regard to Cambridge, for the late chancellor was an avowed
unitarian, and of course he could not conscientiously sign the 39
articles. The noble lord then referred to the admission of
Messrs. Farraday, Dalton, Brown, and another, to degrees as
honorary doctors at the Oxford installation, being dissenters,
and without subscribing the 39 articles. He maintained that
there was no necessary connexion between the university and
the church—nu more than between the church and the faculties
of law, medicine, or philosophy. The whole system had grown
out of the manner in which the university and' its powers were
absorbed by the heads of colleges—which was really an usurpa-
tion. Soule people fancied that the universities and the colleges
were'one and the same thing; but that was not by any means
the case. The colleges were excrescences which had grown
out of the universities. The noble earl concluded by moving
that the bill be read a second time.
The Archbishop of CANTERBURY said it was not his intention
to follow the noble lord through the arguments he bad drawn
from the state of the continental universities, because he had an
objection to arguments drawn from subjects with which we
could be but very imperfectly acquainted. Oxford or Cambridge,
he apprehended, had no occasion to take a lesson from the
universities on the continent. (Hear, hear.) In some of them
it was well known the utmost laxity of religious opinions pre-
vailed, and time greatest indifference to all religion. In the
Roman catholic universities it was not surprising there should
be the 'absence of any test whatever. What was more striking
was, that in catholic universities on the continent, with respect
to which the noble earl had wandered into the century before
last, peesous of different religious persuasions Might he admitted
not only to prosecute their studies, but to hold professorships.
He could not account for this, but he knew that in somenf those
universities such toleretiou might be extended to particular per-
sons without any apprehension on the part of the- governing
powers, because they kcew they had always the power of bring-
ing into force the laws against heretics on any occasion when-
ever it might be necessary to set those laws in motioa. With
respect to the universities here before the reformation, thenoble
lord had staid- they were open to the whole world except as to
certain heietiCs, who, whenever they showed their heads at the'
universities, were cruelty persecuted. The not,le lard had cited
the case of Mr. Wyeliffe. Every person knew that he was per.'
seent.ekleot ho was .stup.orted 14 some of the, niorstepowerfuf.
persons in time realm, otherwise he never would have been able
to stand against those persecutions. It was well known hoW hii
ashes were treated, and there was hardly anything he could have
suffered at the stake which be would not have been tortured With
but for the powerful influence by which he was protected.
Having thus adverted to some few of the observations made by
the noble earl, he would revert to the bill now before the house,
the title of whirls' prohibited subscription to the thirty-nine
articles of 'faith in' certain cases. The reason was given in the
preamble, and was—" Whereas the subscription of particular
articles of faith in the cases of persons of trader years, and be-
fore they can have so accurately and minutely examined the
same. and the grounds on which they rest, us to give an entire
and implicit usseut to the doctrines therein laid down, is un-
reasonable, and may tend to evil consequences." This was the
gist of the noble lord's argument—that requiring the subserjp-
lion was unreasonable, and tended to evil consequences. He
would observe, that this bill proceeded upon an assumption that
-subscription to the articles on all occasious, and all persons, had
exactly the same significance and import, and that that import
was an entire and implicit assent to the doctrines therein laid
down. •if this were the case, the proposition would be nntenable.
There was a distinction which he felt bound to make between
the tnatriculative subscription at Oxford and that which took
place afterwards. fie would take the lowest age to show what
time intention was: a student twelve years old matriculating at
Oxford was required to subscribe to the thirty-nine articles.
Was it not absurd to suppose that a boy of that age was to be
taken as having fully and maturely considered every one of those
articles in such a way as to lie able to give an' entire and im-
plicit assent to them all? The university never looked for or
required any such thing. He was admitted simply Upton the
subscription, without having undergone any previous examina-
tion, without any questions having been put to him, and without
his even having heard the articles read over. If such under-
standing on the part of a boy of that age could have been ex-
pected by the divines and statesmen, and the statesmen in
Queen Elizabeth's time were divines, who were parties to the
enactment requiring the subscription, they must have entirely
lost their own understandings. (Hear, hear.) A boy haying
thus been required to sign the articles, lie was placed on the
university books and transferred to a tutor, who was directed to
instruct him in the rudiments of religion, and particularly in
the thirty-nine articles. (Hear, hear.) That being so he pur-
sued his studies for three or four years, under the immediate
direction of his tutor; he was then called upon for a second sub-
scription to the articles; but was he allowed to subscribe to them
in the same way as before ? Certeinly not. Although he had
been studying for three or four years the articles under the
'direction of his tutor, and had
.proved his preficient knowledge
of theirt.by ,a, public examination, yet the university did not
altow•him then to "subscribe to them until they were read over
in his. presence by a proctor; and at thet time' be was required

to declare that he agreed in the articles. His early subscription.
therefore, was only a mark of his adherence to the church of Eng-
land, and that he was desirous of being instructed in the articles.
Another objection had been raised, and that more particularly
in reference to himself, as if he had aC:ed simply upon the fact
that no subscription was required before a boy was 12 years of
age. There was an age before which a child was not capable
of forming a choice with respect to religion, and that was fully
acknowleAged by the rite of confirmation in our church. In
, old titues•l2 Years was the age at which children were called
upon to take upon themselves the vows of their sponsors.
Under certain circumstances children were received at con-
firmation at that age now, although it was preferred that they
should he a little older. By this bill it was proposed that the
student was 23 years old, or had taken a degree, before he
could he supposed capable of being edited upon to subscribe
satisfactorily the 39 articles. That had been stated so clearly
by the noble lord that it required not to be gone over again.
The fact was that young men generally went to the University
between the ages of 17 and 19, ;nil took their first degree front
the ages of 20 to 22; and he was of opinion that tire 39 articles,
containing the rudiments o: Wigion as taught in the church of
England, were its such lauguage as might be fully understood
by any young man of 22 or 2.3 Tears of aore, %rho bad obtained
a liberal education, and studied iu the University for three or
four years, so that he might be able fairly to give his assent to
them. Some of those article were founded on the natural
principles of religion ; others, though at first they might appear
startling, were capable of being proved by a reference to scrip-
ture; and who could wish for more than that they should be
borne out by scripture ? Many of the doctrines of religion
were far beyond any of our comprehensions, but we thought
they were sritficiently proved by being once brought to the test
of scripture. A youlta, Man taught, therefore, as he had pointed
out, was to be expected' at the age of 22 or '23 to he able to un-
derstand the articles; anti he would deny that calling on such
an individual to subscribe them, was unreasonable. On the
other hand, he would contend that it was most reasonable that
the University should require a proof from those whom she ad-
mitted into her bosom that they had fulfilled her intentions,
made themselves acquainted with those doctrines she taught,
and imbibed those principles she endeavoured to instil. (Hear.)
Thus much as to the unreasonableness of the subject; and he
now came to the assertion that the subscription might tend to
evil consequences. It might be supposed that in the course of
three centuries (for he believed .it was inure than 250 years ago
that subscription was introduced at Oxford,) the tendency,
whether good or evil, must have been fully developed, and he
thought it had. To him the tendency appeared to be not to
evil but to good consequences. (Hear.) The consequences
which had been produced were, that during a space of nearly
3iX). }ears the Universities had preserved religion' in all its
purity; that polemical controversies had been banished from
the' seats of those sacred institutions, and that a succession of
learned and well-principled men had been produced to fill all
stations in the different professions of life, and in the several
departments of the state. He deprecated therefore alteration
in a system so fruitful of good. (Cheers.) It was most desir-
able that the youth should be attached, nut merely flow habit,
from prejudice derived from their parents, or perhaps from
their party, but from personal conviction, to the doctrines of
the church of England. (Hear.) He would venture to say
that as the doctrines of the church were more fully understood,
so would they be more highly and justly appreciated; and it
required hut little knowledge of human nature to know that
they would be stu lied with greater assiduity, with greater
attention and interest, in proportion as the student was aware
that he would be called upon to declare his assent to them at
it certain period; that, just as he was aware of that, he would
consider them more attentively, examine their language more
nicely, be more ready to trace their connexion with scripture,
and he more anxious to fix them in his mind. It was must de-
sirable that every man in the country should be acquainted
with the principles of the religion he professed. There would
then be much less heard of the prejudices that had been raised,
some originating in malice, others in error and ignorance,
against the articles of our church, and such knowledge among
the higher classes he sincerely believed would be promoted by
a continuance of a subscription in the Universities. (Hear.)
In this he could see nothing whatever that could tend to evil
consequences, but fatal indeed, in his apprehension, would he
the consequences of this bill, it' it ever should be passed into it
law. The sanction of that house, the sanction of parliament,
would then he given to a calumny againit the church, and
against its fundamental principles. (Hear.) It would go
forth to the world as the opinion of parliament, that a peculiar
creed of the church was unfit for the assent of studetits, as being
above their comprehension, or altogether unworthy Of. their
belief; and that it regarded her peculiar doctrines not only
with indifference but with disapprobation. (Hear.) The pass-
ing of this hill would be the heaviest blow which had yet been
inflicted against the church. (Hear.) It would be indirectly
condemning her tenets, and pronouncing an assent to the pro-
position that those tenets were unreasonable and tending to
evil consequences. When he entered the house he did not
know the intention of this bill—he did not know whether it was
merely to relieve the members of the University from the neces-
sity of subscription, who, by the way, were not desirous of such
relief, or whether it was intended to throw open the gates of the
University to dissenters. There was much to be said as to both.
He did nut accuse the noble lord from what he had said of Iris
approbation of certain Universities being open to the admission
of protestants, catholics, jews, christians of every denomination,
pagans, and mahometaus, of a wish to admit jews, pagans, and
mahometans into the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge;
but undoubtedly his statements might convey such a feeling to
the minds of people. The present pleasure was one of the
greatest importance, both with respect to our chtfrch and Uni-
versities; and he called upon their lordships to pause before
they assented to an invasion of privileges which had been ap-
proved of for centuries, and to a disturbance of things which
had and which still worked moat beneficially. It was an inter-
ference with the discipline of the Univeisities without any
charge of mismanagement, and that in a manner which threw
a slur upon our church, and a censure upon our Universities,
for teaching a system of doctrine unfit to receive the assent-of
those who were educated in our institutions. (Cheers.) He
would conclude by moving that this bill be read a second time
this-dav• six months.

The Bishop of LLANDAFF admitted the right of government
to interfere with the universities so as to control and regulate
them, and snake them subservient to the public good, but
thmieht the bill now proposed by_the noble earl was totally un-
called for, and recommended on grounds altogether untenable.
. The J3ishop of Gc.oucesrea supported the amendment. The
rev. prelat 3 said, in conclusion, it had been said that no bad con-
sequences had resulted from the matriculation of some young
dissenters at Cambridge without requiring them to subscribe to
the 39 articles. He bad observed this circumstance with plea-
sure, and, as far as he had the opportunity of judging, he was
bound to admit that no bad consequences had ensued from their
admission. But these instances were very few, and when they
were admitted, it was not as dissenters, and Indeed many of
them afterwards took degrees, and professed themselves mem-
bers of the church of England. Others, it was true, left the
university without taking a degree, but while they remained in
it they participated in its privileges, not on a tacit, but an ex-
press condition of attendance at lectures, religious as well as
others, and at college chapel; .and, till they left the university,
it was not known, except perhaps to a few private friends, what
theirown religious opinions or those of their family were. He
repeated, then, that he was glad that the dissenters did in some
instances join in, communion with members of the established
church at the oniversity of Cambridge; but once admit this to
be a right, and the case was entirely reversed. (Hear, hear.)
The university would then, instead of being looked up to as a
standard of the correctness of religious belief to members of the
established church, be filled with popular and ardent preachers
of the different hostile persuasions: and their lordships might
depend upon it, that the attention of the young men would be
more occupied with these controversies than with the subjects
which now engaged their minds. The noble earl must be aware
that the measure he proposed was too small and too short to stop
here. The noble earl might destroy subscription, but that would
not prevent the adoption of other tests by most of the colleges,
if not all; and that the only consequence of the success of the
noble earl's hill would be, that perhaps one or two colleges in
both universities might admit dissenters, which would shortly
be deserted by all who belonged to the established church.
Now what would he gained by this? Would it not be better
that the dissenters should endow a university of,their own on
the same footing as Oxford and Cambridge, and run a fair and
liberal course of competition with them ? He did not and could
not admit that our universities were not nurseries for the church
of England. (Hear, hear.) They always had been, and he
hoped they always would be, so. But, if once the dissenters
were admitted there, they would no longer be places for the
education of members of the church of England. (Hear.)
Viscount Melbourne spoke in favour of the motion. The
Duke of Wellington opposed the bill. Ou a division the num-
bers were—

CONTENT.
Present
Total ...
Proxies 29
tsor CONTENT.
Present........
Eta,)
163
Proxies.
Majority against the second Totalsecoudreading....lo6
The bills on the table were then forrrar*- a stage, and the
house adjourned at ten u'eloell.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—TcEsosr. •
The Speaker took the chair at twelve o'clock.
ca (Ism' TO ANIMALS.
Mr. PRASE moved that the house go into committee, and, the
speaker having left the chair, the house was occupied duriug
the a hole of this sitting on that bill.
The speaker resumed the chair at five o'clock.

PnszoFFICE.
Lord LowTuza, al/tiding to the debate which his lordship
termed," the field-da4 of Postmaster-General in the Notice of
'or-tlist-rniveit:',Alir the purpose of explaining statements which
regarded him personally, for " a return of papers from the office
of the Postmaster-General, statin which of the recommenda-
tions of the commissioners had been carried into effect anti
which not, together with the reasons fur Out carrying the latter
into effect."
The motion was agreed to.

NEW HOUSES OF PARLIAIIENT.
Mr. H.twus gave notice that he would call the attention of
the house to this subject on Tuesday next.

ALLEGED BREACH OF PRIVILEGE.
Mr. CHARLTON, after stating at some length the particulars of
his correspondence with the Morning Chronicle, abandoned any
further proceedings against the printer of that paper.

cofinpil.ATloNS BILL.
On the motion of Lord JOI-N RUSSELL this bill was com-
mitted pro forma. Some resolutions were agreed to. The re-
port was brought up forthwith.
On the question that it be taken into consideration on Thurs-
day next,
Air. IlustE wished to know if any clause was to be added re-
lating to the disposal of property by corporations since the in-
troduction of this bill. He had. heard that some corporations
had raised money by mortgage, and that others had sold their
property. He thought that such sales ought nut to be held
good.
Lord J. Russat.r. said that a clause had been 'prepared to
that effect, cud he would state it to the house on Thursday.