Page:A review of the state of the question respecting the admission of dissenters to the universities.djvu/39

37 not as yet in any way satisfactorily disposed of the preliminary one.

But, again, though the obstacles connected with the course of education and the examination for the degree of B. A. are those which I regard as most formidable; another class of difficulties has, as I stated in the outset, been generally more dwelt upon in the public discussions: I mean that relating to "the consequences of the privileges bestowed by our degrees upon persons neither ever intended to exercise them, nor capable of doing so advantageously." And the consideration of these seems rightly to follow in this place, because, were all the previous difficulties removed, these, being connected with the degree of M. A., would still remain.

The privileges which belong to the degree of M.A. are of two kinds; the one, that of admission to the governing body of the universities; the other, that of capacity for various offices in the country at large, to which this condition has been attached by their founders. Let us speak of the latter of these first.

There are many situations, such, for instance, as the masterships of a very large part of the chartered and endowed schools throughout the country, for which some degree in one of the English universities, generally that of M.A., is required by the statutes as a necessary qualification. The greater part of these schools were founded after