Page:A review of the state of the question respecting the admission of dissenters to the universities.djvu/9

7 subjects of dispute, the most hopeless to adjust; and when they are adjusted, you are frequently as far removed from any practical result as you were before.

Let it, for the sake of argument, be conceded on the one hand, that the universities are national institutions. Is it therefore a necessary consequence that all members of the nation have a right to be admitted into them? Surely not. All that seems fairly to follow from an institution being "national," is that it should be so conducted as best to promote the national welfare; and it is quite possible that this may be more effectually done with restrictions than without them. If indeed we admit that it would be for the good of the nation that the restrictions should be removed, I allow that from these premises the desired conclusion would result. But this point of national good is the very question to be settled in detail before any consequence can be drawn from the sweeping generality of the assertion about "national institutions," even if that assertion be admitted to be just.

Again, on the other hand, let it be allowed that the universities are not national institutions in the sense in which the advocates of the Dissenters assert that they are; but that they stand on the same footing as all other corporate bodies, holding the privileges granted to them subject to the conditions of their charter, and regulating their internal affairs by