LORD BROUGHAMpresented a petition from the London University College, praying for better accommodation to assistant surgeons in the Navy. These gentlemen were a most meritorious class of officers, and he hoped their claims would receive the attention of the Government. He was glad to have that opportunity of reverting to a conversation which took place a few nights since with the noble Marquess opposite, and a noble Lord (Lord Monteagle) on the subject of the proposed Commission to inquire into the state of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. He had since then received many communications, by which it appeared that the observations of the noble Lord on that occasion were most correct, namely, that very great improvements had recently taken place in the course of study and discipline, both at Cambridge and Oxford. He believed he might say that his noble Friend (the Duke of Wellington), the Chancellor of Oxford, and his noble and learned Friend (Lord Lyndhurst), the High Steward of Cambridge, both concurred with him in deprecating any rash and inconsiderate interference with the Universities. He hoped that no Germanic proceedings and no Germanic discipline would be introduced into our ancient and hitherto flourishing Universities from foreign institutions of a similar character. He had no hesitation in saying that he was strongly in favour of the existing 1373 system, which in his own judgment was improving every day, and capable, as it undoubtedly was, of further improvement. He hoped that system would not be rashly exchanged for any foreign system.
§ The DUKE of WELLINGTON, in reference to the remarks of the noble and learned Lord, rose to declare that the University of Oxford was most anxious to introduce every improvement which was desirable into the system of education adopted in that ancient seat of learning. As far as he could understand the subject, there was no desire in any quarter to introduce German projects, or any system of that kind, into the system of education now in force in the University of Oxford. That university, he repeated, was anxious to meet the wishes of Her Majesty's Government and of the country at large, and to introduce every improvement that was at once useful and practicable. But that which the University of Oxford could not do, and which it would not be induced by any consideration to do, was this: it would not repeal the statutes by which the different colleges of that University were governed. Various portions of the inhabitants of this country—some living in its towns, and others in its rural districts—various young persons, now receiving their education in different schools, enjoyed important rights under the separate statutes of the separate colleges. The body to which he (the Duke of Wellington) had the honour to belong—namely, the Chancellor, Masters, and scholars of the University of Oxford, and the governing bodies of the several colleges—was bound to respect and maintain and carry into execution the statutes of the several colleges. He hoped that these bodies would not be required to submit to an inquiry directly tending to the repeal of those statutes, which the law of the land desired them to carry into execution for the benefit of the individuals who claimed rights and privileges under them. He made this statement now, which he should have made on a former occasion, had he been in the House at the time, because there appeared to him to be a tendency to institute an inquiry of the nature which he had described—an inquiry which, if instituted, would seriously affect some of the most loyal subjects of Her Majesty, who might be placed in a situation of the greatest difficulty as they would have to decide between their duty of obedience to Her Majesty's commands, 1374 and the duty and respect which they owe to the execution of the law.
§ Petition to lie on the table.