§ Bill considered in Committee.
§ (In the Committee.)
§
MR. COLERIDGE moved—
That the Chairman be directed to move the House, that leave be given to bring in a Bill to repeal certain Tests and alter certain Statutes affecting the constitution of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
The title of the Bill had been somewhat altered since he gave notice, owing to a fact which he would explain. A good deal of objection had been raised—and certainly, as far as he might be permitted to express an opinion, not altogether without reason—to the fact that the Bill brought in by
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the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Kilmarnock and that which had been introduced on several occasions by himself (Mr. Coleridge) had been treated as separate measures, both being, in truth, parts of one and the same subject. In deference, therefore, to the opinion of those who thought it would be better to amalgamate them, the Bill of the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Kilmarnock and his own had been combined. He did not propose now to trouble the House with any observations on the matter, which had been so frequently and so fully discussed; he would content himself with moving that the Chairman be directed to move for leave to bring in the Bill which incorporated in substance the two measures he had described.
§ MR. GATHORNE HARDYI do not, of course, intend to offer any opposition to the introduction of this measure. I am glad, indeed, that we are to encounter legislation on this subject in a more convenient form than we have hitherto done. The hon. Member for Exeter (Mr. Coleridge) talked, I remember, on a previous occasion of the little Bill he then brought forward in reference to the question. It has now grown to be a great Bill; and I promise him the utmost opposition that I can offer to the measure; and I have no doubt but that many other hon. Members will be equally prepared to oppose it in every way.
Resolved, That the Chairman be directed to move the House, that leave be given to bring in a Bill to repeal certain Tests and alter certain Statutes affecting the constitution of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.Resolution reported;—Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. COLERIDGE, Mr. BOUVERIE, and Mr. GRANT DUFF.Bill presented, and read the first time. [Bill 30.]