of things in Oxford. At Cambridge | that he should declare on taking the fellowthe old state of things was more liberal ship that he would conform to the Liturgy of and comprehensive, and the changes had the Church of England. Now, there had been greater and more advanced. Even been, in consequence of the relaxation of under the old system no signature or test the rules at Cambridge, so far as they had was required for residence at Cambridge, gone, a considerable number of Nonconbut any young man of any faith or re- formists who had gone to that University, ligion might go there, enter any college, and some of them had gained very great and so long as he complied with the distinction there. The gentleman whose college discipline he was not obnoxious pétition he had presented obtained a very to any test. But when he became a Ba-high degree indeed. Nobody who knew chelor of Arts he had to declare that he was a bond fide member of the Church of England, and when he took any other degree, he had to sign the Thirty-nine Articles. The Cambridge University Act of 1856 made a great difference in this respect. It prohibited any religious test being required for any degree except it was a theological degree, so that a student might take a degree in arts, a medical degree, or a degree in music, or a degree in law, or a degree of any kind except a theological degree, without any religious test. But there was a provision that on taking | the degree of Master of Arts, unless he was able to take the test and declare himself a member of the Church of England, he could not become a member of the Senate, the governing body of the University. The House would see, therefore, that the changes at Cambridge were more liberal than those at Oxford. But there was another provision of great importance in the Cambridge Act which was not contained in the Oxford Act, and that was a provision declaring that in respect of any scholarship or exhibition of any college at the University, no test or declaration of religious belief should be required at all. Now, the result of that change practically was this, that at Cambridge Nonconformists, those who were not by profession members of the Church of England, could come into residence, could take their degrees, could take the degree of Bachelor of Arts and also Master of Arts, and could hold scholarships in the different colleges, which were at Cambridge the first steps to fellowships. There was nothing in respect of degrees which prevented a Nonconformist from obtaining a fellowship. But when this came to be practically worked out, and when a Nonconformist had had a University education and thought that he was achieving the great object of his residence there, which was to obtain a fellowship, he found that there was another bar in his way, and that there was in an obscure and forgotten corner of the Act of Uniformity a provision Mr. E. P. Bouverie

what it was to be a fifth Wrangler at Cambridge would fail to have respect for his ability and attainments. That was in 1858. In 1860 a gentleman belonging to one of the branches of the Scotch Church was not only Senior Wrangler, but proved himself to be one of the best mathematical scholars that had entered at Cambridge during the present century, yet he was debarred in the same manner from obtaining his fellowship, which otherwise he would have obtained. The following year a Nonconformist, Mr. Aldis, was Senior Wrangler, and he in the same way had been debarred from the opportunity, the certain opportunity, of getting a fellowship. Since then there had been three or four gentlemen, who had been more or less distinguished, who had been debarred in a similar way. One, a brother of the Mr. Aldis he had already mentioned, was seventh Wrangler, and another brother of the same gentleman was second Wrangler. What was a remarkable thing in the present year, out of the seven Wranglers two were English Nonconformists, and four were Scotchmen. He did not know to what church the Scotchmen belonged, but the fair inference was that they did not belong to the Church of England, and of course they would be unable to declare that they would conform to the Liturgy of the Church of England. The House would see that this was a special practical grievance, and not a mere theoretical one, as was alleged against the Bill of his hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield (Mr. Hadfield). All these gentlemen were excluded by the provision in the Act of Uniformity to which he had adverted from the rewards to which they might otherwise have legitimately aspired. The measure that was passed in 1854 had had the effect that was anticipated, of inducing young men of a class that had been heretofore shut out to go to Cambridge to compete for the highest honours of the University. It had shown that men were to be found in the middle class, who comprised the great bulk of the

Dissenters in this country, who were able | Thirty-nine Articles, and once a quarter read the service of the Church of England in the chapel of the college. They must bear in mind that those fellowships were the great prizes at Oxford and Cambridge, and that they were not sought in order to obtain a voice in the government of Colleges. No one sought a fellowship in order that ten or twelve years afterwards he might become one of the governing body, but he sought it because at a critical time of his life it would give him the means of support. The Church of England derived no strength or support from maintaining a monopoly of this kind. This was no dangerous movement against that Church. It was rather for the purpose of strengthening the Church of England in the right direction, by holding out the hand to those who were offshoots from her, both historically and actually, that the present measure was sought from the House of Commons.

Motion made, and Question proposed, time."-(Mr. E. P. Bouverie.) "That the Bill be now read a second

to hold their own with distinction; but at the very moment when these gentlemen might fairly step in and receive the reward of their exertions this test stepped in and said they were not to receive it. His measure simply proposed to repeal that portion of the Act of Uniformity. The notion that there should be a Bill of this kind was started in 1862 in one of the most remarkable petitions that was ever presented to this House. It was signed by seventyfour resident fellows and tutors of Cambridge, comprised the names of gentlemen of all politics, the majority of the tutors of Trinity College, and also a majority of the fellows of Christ College. All these gentlemen stated that they believed that the repeal of this particular clause of the Act of Uniformity would be advantageous to the University. The following year he introduced a Bill, and it passed a second reading, but it was late in the Session, and there being no chance of carrying it that Session he withdrew it. In 1864 he brought in another Bill with the same object. On the second reading it was rejected by a majority of about thirty. Last year he did not think it desirable, having regard to the last decision, to raise the question again in that Parliament. But they had now a new Parliament, and he considered it his duty, and due to the gentlemen who took an interest in the question, to take the sense of the House of Commons upon it. Under the circumstances, as they were not going to a division, he did not wish to enter into any argument, but after the allegations which had been made against the Bill, he would state that if he thought the measure would interfere with the re-right hon. Friend and that of the hon. and ligious character of these institutions, he would have nothing to do with it. But the religious character of the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge did not in any way depend on the tests which he sought to abolish, but on other things. In the first place, the majority of the fellows were required to become members of the Church of England within a certain time after they had obtained their fellowships. The real security for the religious character of the colleges was in another clause of the Act of Uniformity altogether, which he did not propose to touch, and should not dream of touching-namely, the clause that required that the service in the chapel of the college should be in accordance with the Prayer Book, and also that the heads of colleges should sign the

MR. NEATE said, it was not his intention to controvert the principle on which the Bill of his right hon. Friend was founded; indeed, he was prepared to go much farther in that direction, and to concur in any general and well-considered measure of this kind. In fact, with respect to all offices, whether in Parliament, Corporations, or Universities, he was in favour of relieving laymen altogether, directly and indirectly, from the necessity of making any profession of their religious faith. But it was because he thought that some difficulties would arise between the Bill of his

learned Member for Exeter (Mr. Coleridge) that it was necessary to keep in view the bearing and effect of the two measures. It would be better, he thought, if the two hon. Members conferred together to see whether they could not agree upon some united plan of action. The difficulty which now arose out of the conflict between the two measures was one on which he believed hon. Gentlemen on the other side were prepared to act. There were two ways in which the connection between fellowships and the Church was now secured-the one consisted in the obligation of making a declaration of conformity, and the other was the almost universal necessity of subscribing the Thirty-nine Articles when a man took his M.A. degree. The Bill of the right hon. Gentleman negatived the

MR. E. P. BOUVERIE said, that it had not been his intention at that stage to enter into arguments in favour of the Bill, and he had only done so as he understood that the hon. and learned Member for Oxford (Mr. Neate) intended to object to it. Motion agreed to.

necessity of making the declaration of con- MR. SELWYN said, he had understood formity, and the connection between the from the right hon. Gentleman that in profellowship and the Church was to be secured posing the second reading of this Bill he by the necessity of taking the oath when would not speak more than two or three assuming the M.A. degree. Now he put minutes, and would refrain from entering it, that they must either depart from the into any arguments in support of the meaprinciple of the Bill, which was to throw sure. He had also understood that this open the University without distinction of step would be taken in consequence of the creed, but still to secure the connection absence of his (Mr. Selwyn's) right hon. between the colleges and the Church of Colleague in the representation of the UniEngland, or they must insert in the Bill a versity of Cambridge (Mr. Walpole), and special clause with regard to the declara- the absence of many other Members ention to be made by fellows. The Bill of gaged upon their public duties. He was his right hon. Friend would relieve fellows not going to follow the right hon. Gentlefrom taking the declaration directed by the man in this discussion, but would merely Act of Uniformity, but by the Bill of the remark that he no less differed from the hon. and learned Member for Exeter (Mr. right hon. Gentleman in his estimation of Coleridge), they would still be required to time than he did in his estimation of what take the declaration from which the Bill of was an argument. On behalf of his right his right hon. Friend would relieve them. hon. Colleague, however, he gave notice If there was inserted in the Bill of his right that when the Motion was made for comhon. Friend a special clause requiring fel-mitting the Bill he would move, as an lows of colleges to make the declaration re- Amendment, that it be committed that day quired by the Act of Uniformity, from which six months. his right hon. Friend wanted to relieve them, the Bill of his right hon. Friend would be totally useless, and worse than useless. No doubt one of the arguments in favour of the Bill was, that it would secure the connection between the fellows and the Church, by still rendering necessary the subscribing to the Thirty-nine Articles on taking a Master's degree. But then came the Bill of the hon. and learned Member for Exeter, which relieved all without exception, whether fellows or not, from subscribing to the Thirty-nine Articles when taking the Master's degree. In one sense he thought the Bill of his right hon. Friend the best, inasmuch as it extended to Oxford as well as Cambridge, and he thought it a fatal objection to the Bill of the hon. and learned Member for Exeter that it was confined to Oxford. What would be the effect? There would be a special connection between the University of Cambridge and the Church of England, which would not be the case with Oxford; and as a Member of Oxford University he could not concur in any measure which would place that University in a position of inferiority. No good result could arise from any single-barrelled mea-vious occasions, when there was the danger sure desultorily proposed. In any wellconsidered measure applying to both Universities he would concur; but between the present stage of the Bill and the Committee he would suggest to the right hon. Gentleman whether his plan of operations could not be brought into harmony with that of the hon. and learned Member for Exeter. Mr. Neate

Bill read a second time and committed for Wednesday 25th April.

JAMAICA GOVERNMENT BILL.

BILL 17.] THIRD READING.
(Mr. Secretary Cardwell, Mr. William
Edward Forster.)

Order for Third Reading read.
Motion made, and Question proposed,
"That the Bill be now read the third
time."-(Mr. Cardwell.)

MR. STEPHEN CAVE said, that as they had arrived at the last stage of this Bill for making a permanent change in the Constitution of Jamaica, it might be respectful in him, who had long been connected with that colony, to explain why he supported it, a little more fully then on pre

of exciting a premature debate on the recent unhappy outbreak. His conviction was, that the decline of Jamaica had been caused by the want of continuous labour, and that this want had been mainly owing to the late form of Government; other reasons had been assigned, but they ap plied also to those colonies which enjoyed a

higher degree of prosperity. Absenteeism, I mended the people in a public speech not merchants' charges, want of capital, want to permit their children to work on estates of skill, were not peculiar to Jamaica. -on the other hand, there were many atTraditions of slavery had died away, es- tempts by employers to take advantage of tates had changed hands, and new blood the labourers by violence, and looking back, had been introduced there as elsewhere; as we could do now more calmly, upon these and those who talked of exhaustion of soil events, it would almost appear as if both forget that the little Island of Barbadoes sides were determined that emancipation supported a population of 920 to the square should be a failure, and a warning rather mile, against sixty-nine only in Jamaica, than an example to other nations. The though its fertility could never be compared result brought about was that which Goldwith that of the larger colony. Emancipa- smith celebrates as the ideal of national tion in the West Indies was carried by a felicityrush; the West Indians, especially the House of Assembly of Jamaica, brought it upon themselves by the obstinacy with which they rejected the amendment of their code. Hence the planters were regarded as vanquished enemies and the negroes as cherished allies. While the prevalent fear in this country was that the negro would not be relieved from compulsory labour as completely as was intended, the apprehensions of other nations had been that he would not substitute for it voluntary industry

"The difficulty respecting labour" [this was from a North American paper] "lies with the negro, not with the employer. The freedman is bent upon renting a little land of his own, and growing enough upon it for his immediate wants, and waiting to see what God will give him."

"When every rood of ground maintains its man, For him light labour spread her wholesome store, Just gave what life required, and gave no more: but of which Sir Robert Peel expressed a different opinion when he said, in that House, in 1841

"If ever the black population of the West Indies shall become squatters on the waste lands or mere cultivators of provision grounds instead of labourers for hire, then slavery and the slave trade will have received the last and greatest encouragement which it is in the power of man to bestow.' Whichever might be right, the result clearly was, that the larger colonies were left gradually without a labouring population. They had the proprietors of estates, and they had the small freeholders, but the class which lived by labour for wages became gradually smaller, and estate after estate was consequently abandoned; usual

It was as natural that he should shrink from the employment with which the as-ly when the proprietor had been ruined by sociations of slavery were connected as that a schoolboy should throw aside his books on a holiday. This feeling and this result were not peculiar to the African; the following was a description of another lately freed race from a Russian paper:

"The emancipated peasant interprets personal independence as the right to do nothing beyond what is required to buy him a little food and a great deal of spirits; the proprietor finds it impossible or unprofitable to cultivate the soil except in the more densely-populated parts. The tradesman suffers under the depression of commerce, the capitalist has been so discouraged that the banks founded for lending money on real property can hardly dispose of a single share.”

The negroes in Jamaica were induced to quit the estates of their former masters and become small freeholders. This they had no difficulty in doing, as land was extremely cheap, and though there had been complaints that the rent was high, yet the fee simple could be bought for about two years' purchase, and the amount was easily earned in those days by labour on an estate for a very few weeks. Sir Lionel Smith, the Governor at the time of emancipation, recom

years of unproductive expenditure. Up to
this time the small freeholder obtained a
material addition to the produce of his
ground by the dollars he earned in casual
work upon the estates, and those who only
required negro labour at odd times said, and
said truly, that they could always get it,
and it was well done. But what he was
endeavouring to show was that the people
could not be depended upon, any more than
small freeholders in this country, to work
all day six days a week, and he need not ask
employers the value of desultory labour. It
was not a question of rate of wages, but of
command of labour. It might pay a man
to give 58. a day for six days a week,
when it would ruin him to give 2s. 6d. for
three. There were even now planters with
a peculiar talent for managing the people,
but it was not every one who could coax
the negro, as if he were a candidate, for
votes instead of a payer of wages.
enough to say that such relations between
employers and employed were wholly ex-
ceptional, and could not be taken into con-
sideration in discussing the labour question

It was