f its several colleges; but I do
object to the admission of dissenters into the universities by right;
and my reason for making this exception is, that I am exceedingly
desirous that the religion taught there should be the religion of the
church of England; and I confess I should be very apprehensive that, if
dissenters of all denominations were admitted by right, and they were
not under the necessity of submitting to the rules and regulations of
the several colleges, not only would the religion of the church of
England not to be taught there, but no kind of religion whatever. I
state this on the authority of a report which I have recently received
of the proceedings of an institution in this country for the instruction
of children of dissenting clergymen; from which it appears absolutely
impossible, for any length of time, to adhere to any creed, or any tenet
or doctrine in these seminaries, in which every doctrine is matter of
dispute and controversy. I was rather surprised to hear the noble
viscount opposite--a minister of the crown--express his preference for
polemical disputations in the universities. I should have thought that
he would have felt it to be his inclination, as well as duty, by all
means to protect the universities from such disputes, and from a system
fruitful in such controversies; and probably to end in a cessation of
any system of religion or religious instruction whatever, on account of
the different opinions of the members.

_July_ 14,1835.

* * * * *

_University Tests rendered necessary by Toleration._

The tests in our universities are the children of the Reformation, which
the system of toleration wisely established in this country has
rendered still more necessary, if we intend to preserve the standard of
the religion of the church of England. If we open the door wide and say
"We will have no established religion at all--every man shall follow the
religion he chooses"--if, in a word, we have recourse to the voluntary
system,--then we must make up our minds to take the consequences which
must follow from the enactments of the bill and the polemical and other
controversial agitations to which it must lead. But, supposing the
object of the noble lord, to put an end to these tests, to be desirable,
I can conceive no mode of effecting this object so objectionable as the
interference by parliament with the privileges of the universities,
secured to them by chart