Edward Denison

“ Let us suppose a system devised, by which Dissenters would be admitted to the university without interfering with the system of education at present carried on in the colleges, without introducing a latitudinarian system, in which religious differences would be merged by merging religion itself, and without giving occasion for that controversial spirit which the foundation of dissenting colleges would almost necessarily call forth. ”

“ But the right of voting in convocation, though incidentally attached to a degree, cannot be said to be the object of it. It is a right, in fact, even now possessed only by those who, by the payment of certain fees, retain their names on the books of the university. It is a right which nine tenths of the members of convocation exercise but very rarely, and which probably one half of those who take the degree of M. A. never exercise at all. It could hardly, therefore, be made any great grievance, if in the admission of Dissenters to degrees this power were reserved. ”

“ I do not mean to say that some persons are not excluded by the present system, who might be admitted to education in our colleges, not only without danger, but with great advantage. I neither think the society of all Dissenters dangerous in itself, nor the differences of opinion by which some of them are separated from us, such as need be any bar to their being educated here. In fact, even under the present system, some classes of Dissenters, as for instance, members of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, are very commonly admitted. ”

“ We neither could force upon Roman Catholics, Socinians, or Quakers, (to say nothing of Jews, or avowed infidels, to whom the argument equally applies,) instruction in the doctrines of religion as we hold them: nor could we teach religion as a bare abstraction, to be accommodated by each to the varying shades of his own belief: nor yet would it be fitting, or decent, or profitable to any, to have those of a different faith from ourselves living among us without religious instruction of any kind. Indeed it is impossible that conscientious Dissenters should desire this. ”

“ I would begin by readily conceding the principle that it is desirable that the benefit of all institutions should be extended to as large a number of persons as are capable of enjoying them; and, as a consequence from this, that the admission of Dissenters to the universities is a thing to be desired, if it be compatible with the purposes of those institutions, and conducive to their own well-being, and therefore through them to the well-being of the state. ”

“ What may be the exact extent of the advantage given in the medical profession, I do not rightly know. No person who has not graduated in medicine at Oxford or Cambridge is, I believe, eligible as a fellow of the College of Physicians. And without a degree from some university he cannot practise at all; though, from the facility with which decrees may be obtained at the Scotch universities, there is in this little especial grievance to the Dissenter. ”

“ It is obvious that I allude to the grievance of the privileges enjoyed in the professions of law and medicine by the possessors of degrees in our universities. From the manner in which these privileges have been dwelt upon, and the hardships complained of, under which Dissenters labour for the want of them, a person unacquainted with the facts of the case would almost be led to imagine, that Dissenters were altogether excluded from the above professions, or obliged to enter upon them at such disadvantage as to throw great impediments in the way of their success. ”

“ No proposed innovation has, on the one hand, been viewed with more alarm by a large portion of the friends of our constitution in Church and State, nor, on the other, has any been more eagerly urged forward, both by those, whom we may fairly believe to be honest advocates of improvements in our existing institutions with a view to their preservation, and those, who now no longer conceal that their ultimate object, and not distant hope, is to destroy those institutions altogether. ”

“ But can we suppose that religious Dissenters, having it in their power, instead of committing their sons to this careless discipline and irreligious system, to establish colleges of their own, where they might train up their youthful students in severe and exact discipline—conduct their own domestic worship, and carry on their own course of religious instruction in concurrence with the general studies of the university, would not prefer doing so? ”

“ In conversing with the most sincere and intelligent friends of our establishments out of the university, it is impossible not to see that they are in general far more disposed to some relaxation of our system, than, for the most part, we are ourselves. ”

“ It has long been the peculiar boast of our country to have united freedom with monarchy—liberty and equal rights, with loyalty to our King. It is peculiar to this country to have purified our church from the superstitions, and freed it from the dominion of Rome; while we retain the blessing of a national, established, and episcopal church. ”

“ All who came professing a sincere readiness to conform to our institutions—who passed through our course of education as well in divinity as in other subjects, and gave satisfaction in their public examination, might surely be permitted without danger to proceed to their degree, and need be subjected to no invidious distinctions among ourselves. ”

“ The freedom of such a system is undoubtedly favourable to the full development of the highest order of intellect, while one, where less is left to the free choice of the student, may probably be better suited to the capacity and disposition of by far the largest part of those who form the mass of students at any place of education. As regards ordinary studies I have no wish to decide to which system the preference is to be given. But in the case of religious instruction there seems to be no room for doubt. ”

“ It is much to be feared that they would constitute a band of malcontents in convocation, ever striving for innovation, and stirring up continual differences and disputes; the tendency of which would be to keep the university in a constant state of irritation and dissension, which is the last thing to be desired by any one who wishes to see it efficiently promoting its proper objects. ”

“ If it had been proposed to empower that, or any other establishment, to grant degrees different from those of the ancient universities, Fellows for instance, or Doctors of arts instead of Masters—Masters of civil law instead of Doctors, and which would not therefore have involved the acquisition of these privileges; though in common with the rest of the world we might have doubted the fitness of selecting that institution for peculiar privileges, we should, I imagine, have had no special objection as regarded ourselves. ”

“ They surely cannot either wish their sons to be without religious instruction, or to send them to be educated under the care of clergymen of our church: and such the general body of college tutors must necessarily be. Protestants do not wish to consign their children to the care of the Romish priests at Maynooth. Can sincere Roman Catholics, with their exclusive creed, desire to commit their sons to the proselytizing influence of ministers of the established church? ”

“ The breach between the Dissenters and the Church would be widened, and the dissension embittered. The religiously disposed of both parties would be in danger of being excited into fanaticism, while the thoughtless would be far more likely than at present to fall into scepticism, or a carelessness and contempt for all religion. This is the first evil, to which the system proposed by the reviewer seems almost necessarily to lead; and it is one against which, as he seems to admit, we can hardly be too much on our guard. ”

“ We are not surely to be told that all peculiarities are vicious—that every thing which distinguishes our institutions from those of other nations is therefore to be laid aside. We have been in the habit, as yet, rather of seeing other countries aim at conforming to our model, than of accommodating our practice to theirs. We have other peculiarities in this country, which we have not been in the habit of considering less valuable, because not enjoyed by other nations. ”

“ For all corporate bodies being, so to say, the creatures of civil society, and deriving their very existence from the will of the state, it seems to follow as a necessary consequence, that their privileges must be granted with a view to the good of the community ”

“ And it seems on this ground not reasonable to impose on laymen, as a test of fitness for our degrees, a more scrupulous and definite conformity of opinion, than our church requires in order to admission to its most sacred rites. ”

“ Admitting, therefore, that this peculiarity is to be retained, we have now only to consider it so far as it offers difficulties to our dissenting brethren at that stage of the academical career which we are now considering. And this it does, because as religion is made an essential part of the general education in the faculty of Arts, so an examination in religion is an essential part of the inquiry that is made into the proficiency of the student before he is admitted to his degree in that faculty. ”

“ They are shared, I believe, by the most active and enlightened of our clerical friends—by those especially who are placed in situations to be cognizant of the feelings and opinions of society around them—to be acted upon by the advancing tide of events more early than we are within our walls: and to see the necessity for those changes, which the silent innovations of time are ever rendering necessary in all human institutions, or which the more sudden growth of new circumstances may demand. ”

“ But, it seems, that between the latter part of the thirteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century, the colleges so increased in number and size, as gradually to absorb within their walls the whole floating body of students. The advantages which they offered of cheaper education, and more strict discipline, together with the prospect of admission to the benefits of their respective foundations, would naturally make the students resort to them in preference to the unendowed halls. ”

“ Again, on the other hand, let it be allowed that the universities are not national institutions in the sense in which the advocates of the Dissenters assert that they are; but that they stand on the same footing as all other corporate bodies, holding the privileges granted to them subject to the conditions of their charter, and regulating their internal affairs by the powers intrusted to them for this purpose. Does it follow from this, that in no case and under no circumstances the legislature has a right to interfere in their concerns? ”

“ The defects in the existing system of education pointed out by the reviewer, though highly coloured, are not without some foundation in truth. And the plan he proposes seems to hold out a prospect of improvement to the university at large, while it offers to Dissenters that access to an university education, which we would willingly open to them, could it be done without injury to ourselves. ”

“ But there are many persons who, though they might not be able to declare themselves members of our church, or to subscribe to all its Articles, might still be able very conscientiously to join in our worship, and to share in the education we offer, with no injury to us, and great advantage to themselves. ”

“ It is true that a mode might be suggested by which Dissenters might have the degree of M. A., which is all they have hitherto professed to desire, without acquiring by it the right of voting in convocation. ”

“ The Dissenter complains that, having been at a good school of medicine, he cannot obtain privileges which are enjoyed by the pupils of a bad school. Would any one believe that the remedy gravely proposed for this is not to extend the privileges to the good school, but to admit the complaining party to the bad one? ”

“ I am aware that the difficulties above noticed will appear of very different magnitude to different persons, even among those who bestow upon them an equally fair and deliberate consideration. But I can hardly imagine that any person, whose mind is not strongly warped by prejudice, or inflamed by passion, can make so light of them, as to think the subject a fit one for popular declamation, party politics, and hasty and ignorant legislation. ”

“ Other points in connexion with this subject—other changes, perhaps, which may be necessary or desirable, may occur to those who are more versed than myself in the details of our academic system. It is much to be desired that such persons would give a serious and impartial consideration to these matters. The whole subject, in all its bearings, well deserves the anxious attention of all whose sentiments have weight in the university. ”

“ Now, though doubtless there may be some persons on both sides fairly amenable to such charges, I would willingly hope that the majority of the educated part of the community, with whom the decision of the points at issue must ultimately rest, are neither bigots on the one hand, nor enemies of all religion, or of our own established form of it, on the other. ”

“ The best plan (provided always that the previous system of education gave security for fitting religious instruction) would probably be to exempt Dissenters from the examination in divinity altogether, on their producing certificates from their private instructors of a due proficiency therein. ”

“ And no candid person will deny that the practical effect of the admission of a few persons on sufferance may be very different from that of large numbers as a matter of right. But as far as any Dissenters of the class we are now speaking of, do obtain admission at Cambridge, if it be true that their presence does not cause any disturbance in the system of religious education, either by making special exemption necessary, or by shocking their pre-conceived opinions ”