The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-05-07 00:00:00

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-TUESDAY.

A question was put to Mr. Hogg by Lord JOCELYN,
as to the papers which the Court of Directors of the East
India Company might feel disposed to produce iespecting
the recall of the Governor-General of India.
Mr. HOGG said, he was not the official organ of the
Company, and had no authority to make any statement
on the subject; but he presumed the Directors would be
governed by the course which might be pursued by her
Majesty's Ministers.
Mr. F. M RULE moved for leave to bring in a Bill to
regulate the administration of oaths in the Universities of
Scotland. These oaths were originally intended to apply
to Episcopalians, but they had long been allowed to fall
into desuetude, and weie only now revived in order to be
enforced, not against Episcopalians but Presbyterians,
owing to the recent schism in the Church of Scotland.
As an illustration of the way in which these test oaths
were made to apply, he stared, that when he was elected
Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, an objection
was taken to him that he had joined the Free Church, al-
though when Sir R. Peel was elected to the same honora-
ble position, although known to be an Episcopalian, no
test whatever was applied to him. His object was that
professorships might be held by qualified men without the
application of any illiberal test, with the exception of the-
ological professorships, with which he did not propose to
interfere.

Sir A. L. HAY seconded the motion.
Sir J. GRAHAM said, that the Commission of 1830, ap-
pointed to inquire into the state of the Universities in
Scotland, had reported the necessity of a more stringent
application of the test. Epi•copalians, it was true, had
Occasionally filled offices in the UniverAties, but no Pres-
byterian Dissenter had ever been allowed to fill any of
the professorships, a fact which he much regretted, though
he could not ennsent to rerno‘e any of the safeguards of
the Church of Srot'and when he saw the open hostility to
it avowed by the adherents of the Free Church, and %hen
he remembered the importance of maintaining the corn-
_

pact by which the Universities and the Church of Scotland
were declared to be for ever united. The right hon. baro-
net concluded by declaring himself opposed to the intro-
duction of the bill.

Mr. UUTFIRRFURD said. it was a scandalous 9-
veCtscle
to see these teats applied to a man like Si.:
David Brew-
ster. By maintaining the test, the:;, were rendering the
Church of Scotland sectarian 'hi the worst Blnse of the
term.

The UAW AnVonATE contended c‘or the necessity of
retaining the tests, which was tilt more necessary bcctiuge
cif the extent of the late 1-ecession in the Scotch Unwell,
although he did not tidtnit that that secession comprised
anything like two-thirds of the population.
Sir b. CLERK warned the English gentlemen in the
house that if this motion were carried they would soon
have a similar attempt—indeed the hon. member who had
last spoken had already such a motion on the paper—to
abolish the oaths in the Universities of England.
Some discussion ensued, in which Mr. M'Kenzie, Mr.
Bannerman, Mr. P. W. Stewart, Mr. Colquboun, Mr.
Hume, and Mr. Forbes took part; after which Mr. Fox
Maule replied, and on a division his motion was nega-
tived by a majority of 128 to 101.
The house adjourned at a quarter to one o'clock.

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.