MR. E. ELLICE (St. Andrew's)said, he wished to put a question to his right hon. Friend the Vice President of the Committee of Privy Council for Education with reference to a statement represented to have been made by him of the manner in which medical degrees are conferred by the University of St. Andrew's. His right hon. Friend had been represented to have said that those degrees were made a matter of commerce, and given without regard to the qualifications of the candidate. Now, this, he would assure the House, was wholly at variance with facts, and he wished to give his right hon. Friend the opportunity of correcting the impression that had gone abroad, by asking him whether he had intended to make the statement attributed to him.
MR. COWPERsaid, he had no hesitation in informing his hon. Friend that if the impression to which he referred had 636 been conveyed by what he (Mr. Cowper) had said, he must have been greatly misunderstood. He particularly stated that the practice of giving diplomas without examination was one which formerly prevailed at the University of St. Andrew's, but which had now ceased. He mentioned the old practice as an illustration of the necessity for the adoption of more definite rules than at present existed, but he never meant to imply that that practice prevailed at the present time.