the University, and given to the Provost and Senior Fellows of
the College,[1] who are now to have the sole power of the govern-
ment of the College, to elect all Fellows, Officers, Scholars, and
servants of the College, and to define and conclude the confer-
ring of Degrees. But Baron Fitzgerald gives it as his opinion
that there is nothing in the Charter or Statutes of Charles I., nor
in any other Charter, to deprive the Students and Graduates of
the privilege granted them by Elizabeth, and that they are now
- ↑ See the Stat. Car. I., cap. iv "Volumus, igitur, ut Praspositus et horum Seniorum pars major (nempe quatuor) Collegii regimen, electiones omnes Sociorum, Officiariorum, Dis- cipulorum, et Ministrorum Collegii, graduumque collationes, definiant et concludant."
children, and her children only, con- stituted the University.
"But though so far the analogy of the English Universities was carried out, the enjoyment of those privi- leges was not secured to the students by making them, in conjunction with the Chancellor and Professors, a cor- poration (most probably, I should say, because the constitution of other Colleges in the University was con- templated), but it was secured to them by appointing a Chancellor to exercise the Royal function of con- ferring Degrees, and providing for future appointments to that office by the Provost and Fellows of the Col- lege, and by giving to the Studiosi themselves the power of electing Proctors and all other necessary offi-
cers for the purpose."This is altered by the Charter of Charles I., which gives, with the con- sent of the College Corporation, to the Provost and Senior Fellows the right of appointing the Chancellor, Proctors, and other necessary officers; but there is nothing that I can find, either in the Charter or Statutes of Charles, or any other Statutes or Charter, to take away further the University privileges given by the Charter of Elizabeth to the whole body of students; and in my judg- ment, each and every Graduate, and each and every student admitted to Trinity College, and matriculated, was, antecedently to the Letter Patent of the Queen [meaning the Letter Patent of 21st Vict.],and is a member of the University in the only sense in which the University had or has
an existence."It is, I apprehend, in this sense that the Letter Patent of James I. recites that Trinity College is and is ac- counted an University, and has the privileges of an University, and that the Charter of Charles describes it as a College with the privileges of an University; not that the privileges belong to it qua corporation, but be- cause the privileges do belong to its alumni, and to its alumni only."
