Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/327

 2"< S. NO 16., A?RIL 19. '56.]

NOTES AND QUEKIES.

319

or sciences," and it was argued that there was a freehold, and civil temporal right in these de- grees; but attorney-general Yorke replied they were originally only in nature of licences to pro- fessors, and are now titles of distinction and pre- cedence. A case in 1807 settled this view, where a D. C. L. of Cambridge moverf against the arch- bishop for refusing admission to the bar of the Court of Arches, but failed in his motion. Dr. Lovett, as graduate of Oxford, failed also in his defence against an action brought by the College of Physicians. " The power of granting degrees," he maintained, " flows from the crown. If the crown erects an university, the power of con- ferring degrees is incident to the grant." Upon this dictum Sir Charles Wetherell, when opposing the grant of a charter to the London university before the Privy Council, said should the crown make a university, that university might grant all degrees. But this was denied, for the powers of universities vary. Dublin grants all degrees ; so also Durham : but many other universities are limited, for the law does not permit a travelling from the charters.

The universities have at times questioned the right both of sovereign and of archbishop to in- terfere with the conferring of degrees. In 1687 James II. sent a letter under sign manual, re- questing Oxford to make a Mr. Francis, a Roman Catholic, an M.A. without administration of oath. This the Vice-Chancellor and congregation refused to do, for which Dr. Peachell, the Vice and Presi- dent of Magdalen, was deprived of his Vice-Chan- cellorship, and suspended from the Headship of Magdalen. The eight representatives for the university were told by the Lord Chancellor to " go and sin no more."

In 1721 Dr. Gastrell, Bishop of Chester, refused to institute Dr. Peploe, afterwards Bishop of Chester, into the Wardenship of Manchester Col- lege, upon the grounds that the Cantuar. degree was no testimonial that the graduate had accom- plished a regular course of study in the public schools, and had neither been exercised nor ex- amined, and was not therefore incorporated with the university ; he denied also the interpretation of the act of Henry VIII., and seemed to aver that the power was not inherent with the privileges of the crown. It was answered the sovereignls the fount of such distinctions : the power has been given to the archbishop without limitation, and often to universities with limitation. That the higher degrees were not now faculties to teach, and had ceased to be more than titles of honour and pre- cedence. That some degrees (Music, for example) did not permit their recipients to be members of the corporation, and were affections lavished by a mother on a son whom she disowns the instant she christens. The case went through the courts on a declaration of Quare impedit, and was tried at

Lancaster assizes on Monday, August 13, 1722. The trial lasted from eight o'clock in the morning till nine at night. The jury, after two hours' con- sideration, brought in a verdict for his Majesty, whereby the right of his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury to confer degrees, &c., by his faculties, was admitted. In the British Gazetteer for May 22, 1725, it is reported :

" The case that has been depending between the Lord Bishop of Chester and the Rev. Mr. Peploe, about his Lordship's refusing to admit him into the Wardenship of Manchester College, was decided some days ago in the court of King's Bench in favour of Mr. Peploe." In 1721 a convocation was held at Oxford, when thanks were returned to the Earl of Nottingham for his Lordship's answer to Mr. Whiston's heresy touching the Son and procession of the Holy Spirit ; and thanks also to Dr. Gastrell for his conduct in refusing institution to Mr. Peploe. Dr. Rauth told me of some case in his own time, which must be after 1791, where a graduate of Oxford, but hold- ing the high degree from Canterbury, was by the university denied his privilege arising from the higher degree. The matter, he said, cost a good deal of money, and " we lost our cause." I do not, however, see this case in the reports.

H. J. GAUNTLETT.

8. Powys Place, Queen's Square.

Looking through the current number of the Medical Directory, a few days since, I think I caught sight of " M.D., Lambeth," affixed to some person's name. I presume, therefore, there are instances at the present time of "primitive physic."

It would appear from the following extract* from The Diary of the Rev. John Ward, A.M., Vicar of Straff ord-upon- Avon, that the privilege of the bishops was limited to the giving a licence to practise, and query whether they had the power to confer the degree of Doctor of Medicine ?

"May, 1661. Remember that I doe two things: in- quire whether a man may get of the archbishop a licence to practise per totam Angliam; 2. Inquire for the apothe- carie att the Old Stairs, Wapping, or Blackwall. I read VVingate's Abridgements of the Statutes, and find a bishop may licens in his dioces, but not the archbishop through- out England. Mr. Burnett said of Mr. Francis his licens, that it must bee renewed every year; the apparitor would dunne him else, that his father never was, nor never would be doctor; and the apparitor used constantly to ply him, but he laughed him out of itt. A licens granted to" practise by Dr. Chaworth to Mr. Francis throughou t the archbishop's prouince, itt did not cost him full out 30s. ; there were some clauses in itt, as 'quamdiu si bei;c gesserit,' and ' according to the laws of England,' but I suppose itt was the proper form which is used in such a case." P. 13.

II. B., F.R.C.S.E, Warwick.

1839.

Arranged by Charles Severn, M.D. 8vo. London.