42
admitted to the degree of M. A., would have the name, the title, the honour, the testimonial of proficiency, which is all that they have as yet professed to desire; but would not have that right of voting in convocation, to which much inconvenience at least seems to attach. He would be in the condition of a member elected to serve in parliament, but who scruples to take the oaths required before he can exercise his power as one of the legislature. Of course, if the object of a degree was the exercise of power in convocation, as that of the election of a member of parliament is that he should promote the interests of his country in the legislature, it would be absurd to propound such a plan. But the right of voting in convocation, though incidentally attached to a degree, cannot be said to be the object of it. It is a right, in fact, even now possessed only by those who, by the payment of certain fees, retain their names on the books of the university. It is a right which nine tenths of the members of convocation exercise but very rarely, and which probably one half of those who take the degree of M. A. never exercise at all. It could hardly, therefore, be made any great grievance, if in the admission of Dissenters to degrees this power were reserved. But though I thus suggest this, I do not intend to propose it as a plan I should myself advocate. I merely mention it as a means by which the specific difficulty in question might perhaps be obviated, could all other difficulties be
