Page:A review of the state of the question respecting the admission of dissenters to the universities.djvu/42

40 It may be said, that it would be very easy to do this by providing, by an act of parliament, that none but members of the church of England should be eligible to those situations for which any degree in our universities is at present required as a qualification by their statutes. It is quite true that this remedy would meet this difficulty, and seems to be what justice plainly requires; but I do not remember that such a provision formed any part of the bill which passed the House of Commons last session.

But the degree of M. A. is not only a qualification for certain situations out of the university, but is also the title of admission to the governing body of the university itself; and the difficulties in the way of the admission of Dissenters arising out of this, have been perhaps as much dwelt upon as any others whatever. On the one hand, as regarded themselves, they would be in an anomalous state, and subject to constant irritation as forming part of the governing body of the university, while they were excluded from the benefits and emoluments of all those numerous foundations, of which the university almost, as it were, consists. 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 pro-