The Marquess of Camdenpresented a Petition from 300 members of the University of Cambridge, praying that the Vice-Chancellor of the University for the time being may be a magistrate for the town of Cambridge. He would give notice that when the Bill for amending the English Municipal Corporations Act went into Committee he should move to insert a clause with a view to carry into effect the prayer of the petitioners.
§ The Lord Chancellorsaid, that a question had arisen between the inhabitants of the town of Cambridge and the University of Cambridge as to who should be put into the commission of the peace for that town. It appeared that hitherto the Vice-Chancellor had held a commission of the peace for the borough, and was also a magistrate for the county; and it further appeared, from the representations on the part of the town that the Vice-Chancellor, from some authority which was not very easily traced, but supposed to be by virtue of the authority vested in him by charter with his power of magistrate, was enabled to grant licences to all the public-houses in the town of Cambridge, a power not very agreeable to the inhabitants, and which the town therefore very strenuously resisted. When he came to consider who ought to be put into the commission, the nicety of deciding that question, as between the Vice-Chancellor and the town of Cambridge, was entirely removed by what passed last year on the Municipal Corporations Act, and by the language of that Act itself, which made it the duty of the Government to provide the magistracy. Now if the insertion of the Vice Chancellor into the Commission was to be made on the ground of his being an elective officer, that would in effect be to take away from the Crown the power of nominating the magistrates. He thought that the proper construction of the Act would preclude any individual from being a magistrate by virtue merely of his being elected to office. The present petition assumed that construction of the Act to be correct, and proposed to make an alteration in it as far as respected the Vice Chancellor of the University. If that should be the pleasure of their Lordships it would then become their duty to inquire what arrangement could be made between the University and the town for the purpose of coming to some understanding upon the subject. He begged to state to their Lordships the course he had taken with regard to the 498 University. Believing that it was right and proper, with a view to the protection of the young men at the University, that some persons connected with it should be in the commission of the peace, he had introduced into the Commission six heads of houses, four professors, and four other persons residing in the town, who were members of the University; therefore a majority of the magistrates were members of the University. He had hoped that the University would have considered that he had given its members as much magisterial power as it was desirable they should possess. By not opposing the introduction of the clause which the noble Marquess had stated it to be his intention to bring forward, he begged to be considered as not pledging himself to any particular course which he might hereafter feel it his duty to follow.
§ Petition laid on the Table.