Page:A review of the state of the question respecting the admission of dissenters to the universities.djvu/17

15 I mean is this. "How, then, do they manage at Cambridge? At Cambridge they do that which you represent as impossible. They get over that difficulty, which you say is insuperable. With them Dissenters of all classes, though not admissible to degrees, are received for education. How is it that their course of education is not interfered with by this? Surely what they do without any evil consequences, you might do if you pleased." The manner in which this argument is urged obliges me to do what I would much rather not do—to make some remarks upon the Cambridge system, as compared with our own, and show why it is, that that is possible there, which I hold to be quite out of the question with ourselves.

First, however, let me say, that I believe the fact, upon which this argument is founded to be much exaggerated; and that the number of Dissenters to be found at Cambridge, who differ widely from our church, is far from large, and that even these are not admitted in any distinct character as Dissenters, but are merely allowed to be present without distinction among the general body of the students. 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