Page:A Catalogue of Graduates who have Proceeded to Degrees in the University of Dublin, vol. 1.djvu/24

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INTRODUCTION.


deem fit and proper for their own University in Dublin.[1] The two cases are clearly distinguished. In the compilation of the College Statutes the Provost and Fellows were left wholly free to follow their own judgment; but in the case of the University Statutes, they were to be guided by the constitutions and rules already in

force at Cambridge or Oxford.[2]

  1. The clause relating to the Univer- sity Statutes is this; — "Et ut quas- cunque leges bene constitutas sense- rintinalterutra nostra AcademiaCan- tabrigiensi, aut Oxoniensi, modo sibi aptas et accommodas judicaverint, intra se stabiliant." Theywere also at liberty, from time to time for ever, to alter the statutes, made by them for the College — " ut leges, statuta, et or- dinationes, pro suo Collegio pie et fideiiter gubernando, de tempore in tempus, in perpetuura faciant, con- stituant et confirraent." No power of change was given them in regard to the University Statutes, and it was held that there was in that case no possibility of altering what was once enacted. This was, no doubt, one reason why Sir William Temple was empowered on going to England to apply for a new Charter, authorizing the Academical Senate to enact laws for the University, and to change from time to time what had turned out to be inconvenient. See Miller's Postscript, pp. 2, 3.
  2. See what Dr. Miller has urged against this view {Postscript, p. 13). He reduces his argument to four heads : — " i . Admitting that the College has the power to make statutes for the University, they were not justified in subjecting the exercise of their own chartered privileges [of conferring degrees] to the controuling negative of another body." But the Charter of Elizabeth does not give to the College the power of conferring De- grees, but only the power of pre- scribing the Acts and scholastic exer- cises for obtaining Degrees. The College never did confer the Degree, but only presented the candidate to the Chancellor, or Vice- Chancellor, who conferred the Degree by Royal authority. They were perfectly j usti- fied in imposing any lawful condition, as a criterion of his fitness for a De- gree, before presenting the candidate, and the condition of being approved by the University seems a very rea- sonable one. " 2. The clause in the Charter of Elizabeth [quoted -in last note] cannot be maintained to relate to the University ; it is merely a direc- tion auxiliary to the formation of the Statutes of the new College or Uni- versity." But this is surely begging the whole question. "3. The Fellows did not consider the University Sta- tutes as authorized by the Charter, since they solicited for this purpose, first a Charter and afterwards a Patent." In the original the word is Patents Bedell's Diary., March 16,