Letter to the Right Honourable Lord John Russell, M.P., first Lord of Her Majesty's Treasury, on the constitutional defects of the universities and colleges of Oxford
Subtitle: with suggestions for a royal commission of inquiry into the universities
By: by a Member of the Oxford Convocation
Contributors: Russell, John Russell, Earl, 1792-1878
Series: Nineteenth Century Collections Online: British Politics and Society; Nineteenth Century Collections Online: British Politics and Society
Publisher: J. Ridgway
Published: 1850
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Format: [electronic resource] :
Number of pages: 59
Subjects: History; Religion; University of Oxford
Other titles: Constitutional defects of the universities and colleges of Oxford
Notes: "Church no. 5115."

Attributed to C.A. Row.

Reproduction of the original from the Pusey House Library St Giles.
Table of contents: title: I. The right of Parliament to interfere with the property held by the universities and colleges; title: II. The unalterable nature of founders' statutes, the oath to obey them, and the degree of its performance; title: III. Subscription to the Thirty-nine articles as at present practised at Oxford; title: The question of the admission of dissenters; title: V. The defective state of the professorships and of the public instruction of the university; title: VI. The narrowness of the existing system of instruction; title: VII. The abuses connected with the present mode of conferring degrees; title: VIII. The imperfection of the constitution of the existing legislative and administrative authorities; title: IX. The restrictions imposed on the elections of fellows destructive to the possibility of obtaining efficient college tuition; title: X. College elections at Oxford frequently decided on other principles than the literary qualifications of the candidates; title: XI. The total inadequacy of visitorial power, according to the existing constitution of the colleges, to redress the abuses of those societies; title: XII. The present system of election, coupled with the enforced celibacy of the fellows, destructive of the hope of obtaining efficient tutors in the colleges; title: XIII. The necessity of restoring the professors to a state of efficiency as the public teachers of the university; title: XIV. The incodierable duties discharged by the heads of houses; title: XV. The small practical result produced by the enormous existing endowments; title: XVI. The poor man's college: breach of trust on the part of existing institutions. The best-endowed colleges the most useless in the university; title: XVII. The necessity of reducing the expenses of studying at the universities; title: XVIII. The new statute must remain a dead letter unless it is accompanied with a searching collegiate reform.