rch of England." Efforts
were now renewed by the Royal Institutions to have the Statutes, in part
at least, approved, but the Board was informed by the Colonial Office
that "it does not appear to Her Majesty that the College has the means
of sustaining itself on a reasonable scale of efficiency." The closing
of the College was looked upon by the Home authorities as a mere matter
of time!

After much discussion and delay, when it seemed probable that the
College would weather the storm, the Statutes were finally in part
approved in the autumn of 1848. The time for action had come and the
Home authorities realised that "further delay might issue in the ruin of
the College." As we have already seen, the clauses relating to the
sectarian character of theological instruction and of the College
prayers were not confirmed. In giving reasons for the vetoing of these
clauses, Lord Grey wrote that in his opinion, based on the advice of
Lord Metcalfe, "aid would not be granted [to the College] if the Royal
confirmation of the Statutes should first have impressed indelibly on
that Institution a character of exclusiveness in whatever relates to
Theological degrees and studies and to the public worship of the
place.... The Will and Charter are both silent on the subject of the
peculiar religious tenets or ecclesiastical principles to be inculcated
at the College, a silence very significant in the case of a Testator who
was himself the member of a Christian Church, a silence not less
significant in the case of the Sovereign ... a silence not to be
explained by any supposed forgetfulness or intentional omission of the
subject, since the inculcation of 'the principles of true religion' is
expressly provided for by the Charter; a silence, therefore, apparently
indicating a design that Christianity should be taught, not in any
single or exclusive form, but in any and in every form in which its
great fundamental truths and precepts could be imparted to the
students.... The questions respecting the religious and ecclesiastical
principles to be inculcated in the College will, therefore, for the
present rest in the same state of indecision as that in which the Will
of the founder and the Royal Charter have left them."

With the approval of the Statutes, the Governors made an effort to
reorganise the College on a better working basis. In December, 1849, the
Principal forwarded to the Board of the Royal Institution suggestions
for amendments