§ Order of the Day for the Third Reading, read.
§ THE EARL OF HARROWBYsaid, he trusted that the Commissioners, in carrying out the provisions of this Bill, would keep in mind the importance of offering every facility and encouragement to young men who wished to enter the ministry of the Church of England to obtain an education at the two Universities. He could conceive no greater mischief to the country than that her future Clergy should be driven from the Universities by any loss of the encouragements which already existed, and be educated at Theological seminaries. Such a course would destroy the intercourse that had hitherto freely prevailed between the Clergy and family life. The Clergy ought to be, as they had been, as much as possible educated with the Laity, and have free communication with them, and should not be required to pursue at all times studies which were purely theological. They should be encouraged to pursue a wider range of study, and not have their minds narrowed to the habits of a caste. It was one of the greatest evils of the Roman Catholic Church, but it was essential to its constitution, that the Clergy should be educated apart. Therefore, he would urge upon the Royal Commissioners who were to carry into operation this Act of Parliament to consider the very great importance of encouraging, by every means within their powers, the education of those who purposed to enter into Holy Orders, so that they might be kept as much as possible at the Universities, and their views and feelings kept in harmony and sympathy with other classes of the community.
§ Bill read 3ª, with the Amendments; further Amendments made; Bill passed, and sent to the Commons.