§ MR. G. A. HAMILTONsaid, he wished to ask the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether it was the intention of the Government to propose during the present Session any measure for abolishing the stamp duties on matriculations and degrees in the Universities of Cambridge and Dublin, and thereby to place students in those Universities in the same position, as regards stamp duties, with students in the Universities of Oxford, Durham, London, the Queen's University in Ireland, and the several Scotch Universities.
THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUERsaid, it was quite true, as the hon. Gentleman had stated, that in the Oxford University Act the stamp was abandoned by the Government, there being an equivalent given by the University by the payment of the salaried professors whose incomes had been previously provided for out of an annual vote. Trinity College, Dublin, was not in a condition to give a similar equivalent, inasmuch as there was no grant to Trinity College. The equivalent, however, offered was one that would give a public benefit, although it was not one from which the public would derive revenue. The subject was under consideration, and if Government thought them- 1296 selves justified in making the arrangement which had been adverted to, they would recur to the subject in the course of the present Session.