§ MR. GOSCHENasked the Secretary of State for War, Whether a Petition has been presented to Lord Salisbury from resident Graduates in Oxford, with reference to the removal of all clerical restrictions upon College emoluments; and, if so, whether that Petition can be laid upon the Table of the House; whether there will be any objection to take the necessary steps to obtain, for the information of this House, Copies of the Petitions of various Colleges in Oxford, presented to the House of Lords or to the Chancellor of the University of Oxford, with reference to the Oxford University Bill last year?
MR. GATHORNE HARDY,in reply, said, he had communicated with his noble Friend.(Lord Salisbury), and had ascertained from him that a memorial had been presented to him, which the right hon. Gentleman no doubt had seen, signed by 109 resident graduates on the subject. That, he presumed, was the document to which the right hon. Gentleman referred, and, there 1760 being no objection, he would be ready to facilitate in every way its production, if the right hon. Gentleman would move for it. His noble Friend had no other memorial except that printed document which had been generally circulated. As to the Petitions to the House of Lords, it would be thought very irregular to ask for them, and most of them had, he believed, been laid in the same form before the House of Commons. Certain Memorials, presented to his noble Friend by different Colleges, were moved for in the other House last year; and if the right hon. Gentleman would move that they be communicated to the House of Commons, there would be no objection to that course. While he was speaking on the subject of the University Bill, he might state, for the convenience of hon. Members, that he proposed, with the consent of the House, to go into Committee on the Bill pro formâ, with a view of inserting Amendments in it, and so shortening the proceedings when the time came for taking the Committee in the regular way.