Page:A review of the state of the question respecting the admission of dissenters to the universities.djvu/8

6 I conceive this to be the real thing required; for though the demand is not always put in so specific a form, and the bill which passed the House of Commons did not contain any very definite provisions for effecting this object; still the real advocates of that bill always admitted that this was the ultimate point aimed at; and the principle on which the demand is founded, plainly carries us to this extent.

Now the whole force of the argument involved in the above demand, plainly rests on the use of the word "national." Two points are assumed. 1st, That the universities are "national institutions." 2ndly, That into all national institutions all members of the nation have a right to claim admittance.

Perhaps in the sense in which these propositions are urged, both of them may fairly be disputed; while others, apparently contradictory, may be advanced with an equal appearance of reason; as for instance, that the universities being chartered bodies have a right to expect that their charters shall not be interfered with, unless they can be shown to have been transgressed;—that the colleges, through which alone there is admission to the university, are not national bodies, and that there can be no right to interfere with their internal arrangements.

While the question is debated on these points of right, there seems little hope of arriving at any agreement. Abstract questions of right, are, of all