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which consist of persons who need not be members of the University, but may be members of trade unions. Nobody can pretend to foresee the farreaching consequences of such an institution; but your Correspondent mentions one consequence, highly characteristic of this begging age. 'An appeal', says he, is being issued to the Colleges for a part of the funds required for carrying on the work.' The effect of this appeal would be to take funds from members of the University to spend on non-members, and that at the expense of undergraduates and their tutors, who, on the faith that they will be fairly and properly treated, have joined the colleges.

Whatever may be said for or against the multitudinous projects in the air at and around Oxford, I think, Sir, all England will agree that Oxford University is great and good enough not to be played with, or to be made the subject of experiments, or to be left in the dark. Here is the University about to meet on the 26th of January as if there was nothing to think about except who should be a member of Congregation, when the real question is-What next? Who should also be a member of Council, and who of Convocation? When the constitution has been changed what further changes will it introduce simply because it has been changed, and how far will it be wiser than the present government of the University? But these questions cannot be answered by the University, because it does not know, and is deprived of the means of knowing, partly because it is only consulted about one thing at a time and about one partial change after another, and partly because it knows that there is a scheme, of which one change after another is to be a part or a preparation, but without knowing what the scheme is as a whole. There is nothing so misleading as piecemeal legislation, in which each majority is

obtainable for each part, when all would be disgusted if they could only comprehend the whole.

Everybody in Oxford is sorry for the ill health of the Chancellor, at a moment when he aims at great things. But it is a pity that he has not put the whole of his 'promised scheme' before the University. We hear of reforms in the position of women-students, in the opportunities of the working classes, in the duration of the terms, in the curriculum of education, in the aggrandizement of the University, in the control of college revenues, in the composition of Council, of Congregation, and of Convocation-reforms, in short, of the whole constitution and conduct of Oxford. The University knows almost as little as the public about the details, connexion, and consequences involved in this mere skeleton of a possible scheme. Let us have the whole scheme complete, and not accept one part after another-and then repent too late. Oxford.

On a division the voting was as under:

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PROFESSOR CASE'S POSITION ON THEOLOGICAL DEGREES AT OXFORD

The proposal to open Degrees of B.D. and D.D. without religious test was negatived in Convocation-placets 334, non-placets 763. After the War, however, Theological Degrees were thrown open without restriction to any particular denomination.

FROM The Times, APRIL 26, 1913. There are two main objects to be considered on this question:

1. The first object is to preserve the ancient value of the Doctor of Divinity, who in taking the degree

declares himself a believer not only in the Christianity of the New Testament, but also in the doctrines of the Established Church, and by the degree is made an authorized teacher of Theologia Sacra or in English Divinity'. It would be a sad pity to destroy this distinguishing credential of the Anglican priesthood, because it inherits the tradition of the Church from men of old, who had had far more in common than we have with the principles of the founders of Christianity, and because, by its long history and even since the Test Acts, Oxford knows most about the clergy of the Established Church, and very little indeed about the qualifications of other ministers of Christianity.

2. The second object-equally good in its own way-is to recognize theology in general as one of the studies of the University, pursued not only by members of the Established Church, but also by Nonconformists, and not only by Christians, but also by other students. From the time of Plato and Aristotle there has been a natural theology apart from revealed theology, and in our day there is still a universal theology, including the Christian and all other theology. It is desirable to establish a degree which would be the distinguishing credential of theological students in general, without making invidious distinction, or even that between Christian and not Christian.

The proposed statute, which comes before Convocation at Oxford on Tuesday 29th, ensures neither of these objects. It destroys the first, because it throws open the degrees of D.D. beyond the Established Church to everybody, Christian or non-Christian. This would be an irreparable loss to the Anglican priesthood, and would soon be followed

Disestablishment. On the other hand, the proposed statute does not secure the second object, because it hampers the free study of universal theo

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logy by adding Christian restrictions. Such limitations could not long stand, but would be a bone of contention and agitation till they were removed. The proposed statute should therefore be rejected as doubly bad.

I venture to propose a simple way of securing both objects, by preserving the title of an authorized teacher of the Established Church, and by providing a title of an accredited investigator of theology. Let the degree of divinity (Theologia Sacra) remain as it is. But let there be a new degree, Doctor of Theology, open to all Masters of Arts, clerical or lay, Churchmen or Nonconformists, Christian or not Christian. So we shall ensure the real objects of the opponents as well as of the friends of the present confused proposal, and two of the things most valuable to mankind-tradition and freedom.

Oxford, April 24, 1913.

UNIVERSITY POWERS OVER COLLEGES This letter describes the last dynamic intervention of Case in University politics. The preamble of the innocent-looking statute would have passed unchallenged through Congregation had Case not discovered that it was ultra vires. He had no particular objection to the intention of the statute, but he was the unfailing champion of law, and of doing things in the proper legal way.

On days when the business of Congregation is supposed to be purely formal, the number of Masters of Arts attending is small. The insignificant total of voters on May 30 proves how few people had taken any notice of the proposed statute. The successful leading of an opposition by Case caused great surprise and (when people discovered the ground of his opposition) approval.

FROM The Times, JUNE 3, 1922.

On the 30th ult. the University of Oxford in Congregation rejected by 12 votes to 11 the preamble of a statute which aimed at publishing the number of students attending courses of instruction for various Honour Schools, &c.; but in order to

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attain this innocent end this University statute also proposed that the head of a college shall every term send to the Assistant Registrar a schedule of the number of undergraduates of his college who are attending such courses. As Aristotle said, not about little things, though from little things arise dissensions. The statute was rejected, because the University was assuming an illegal power over a college.

The University in Congregation and Convocation has long possessed the determination of matters affecting the whole body corporate of the University; but this power does not involve the determination of matters affecting the whole body corporate of any college. On the other hand, this difference does not leave the University with no legislative power over a college. The Universities Act of 1877, under which Oxford still lives, allowed to the University a limited right of altering statutes made by the Commissioners for the University under the Act and not otherwise, but subject to the proviso that, so far as such a University statute affects a college, the same shall not be alterable except with the consent of the college, and subject to the further proviso that the statute shall be submitted to the King in Council. (See Act of 1877, ss. 53, 55.)

By this process alone could the University have legally passed the rejected statute, which was indirectly an alteration by way of addition to a statute made by the Commissioners for the University under the Act of 1877 concerning Faculties, and approved by Queen Victoria in 1882. In 1912, under the Act of 1877, the University made a new statute concerning Faculties, which was approved by the King in Council in 1913, and in its section I-XII contains an alteration of the original statute of the Commissioners. Section XII is that part of the altered statute which treats of the General

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