Page:A review of the state of the question respecting the admission of dissenters to the universities.djvu/31

29 for a moment that means are found of security against this. And though I cannot clearly see any such, nor has the reviewer suggested them, some such means perhaps may be found. 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. If this can be done, and though difficult to imagine, I will not assert that it is impossible, the difficulties hitherto spoken of would be removed, and the objections cease. And as these are in my mind the main objections, if these could be overcome, I should anticipate less difficulty with those that remain: though these too are not slight, and would require some very deliberate and impartial consideration.

In the supposed case, the presence of Dissenters is assumed to be harmless during the course of their education, and we pass on therefore to the next point of difficulty which arises, which is that of the examination for the degree of B. A.

Now, according to the reviewer, it is a peculiarity of our English universities that religious instruction is in them made a part of the course of education in the faculty of arts, "that funda-