ation; and we may venture to pledge ourselves to yield all due honour to the first possessor of true apostolic credentials, who may present himself to the reverence and love of men. But in the absence of such credentials we unhesitatingly declare the New Testament truth, that a bishop, elder, and presbyter are one and the same officer; that a deacon is the only other officer of the church; that the whole church being assembled together in one place is the properly-constituted authority to elect all its officers, i. e., bishops and deacons; and that it is the duty of such officers to ordain, or set apart, any other similar officers elected by the church. Time and space forbid us now entering upon the passages we had marked for objections in the papers of our Episcopalian and Presbyterian friends. In the heart of the wise and good, alike with the wicked and foolish : For there is no error so crooked, but it hath in it some lines of truth, Nor is any poison so deadly, that it serveth not some wholesome use: And the just man, enamoured of the right, is blinded by the speciousness of wrong. And the prudent, perceiving an advantage, is content to overlook the harm. On all things created remaineth the half-effaced signature of God, Somewhat of fair and good, though blotted by the finger of corruption. And if error cometh in like a flood, it mixeth with streams of truth; And the adversary loveth to have it so, for thereby many are decoyed." L'OUVRIER. Politics. OUGHT THE UNIVERSITIES OF OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE TO BE THROWN OPEN AS NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS FOR BRITISH SUBJECTS OF ALL RELIGIOUS OPINIONS? AFFIRMATIVE ARTICLE.-I. THIS question, though prima facie it may appear simple, is actually complex, and involves religious and political principles throughout which cannot be disregarded without doing violence to truth itself. With this conviction deeply impressed upon our mind we shall attempt to show that existing and time-honoured institutions are not necessarily the embodiments of divine truth, but in this case absolutely the reverse; still further, that "that system or establishment which cannot be defended by argument; which falls back upon tradition because it has no room to set its foot in the scriptures; and which seeks its dernier resort in ecclesiastical courts, or cowers among obsolete statutes and the ruins of spiritual feudalism, is destined to pass away." The writer of this article is well known to the readers of the Controversialist to be an inveterate foe to all State-churchism, as well as to priestcraft or injustice of every form. This knowledge has created a correspondent hostility on the part of those who love and uphold the State-church of England, i. e., in the circle of our readers. This is not a matter of self-congratulation with us, but as it is a matter of fact that meets us in the glorious path of duty and devotion, we fearlessly brave it. We value the good opinion of our reader, whoever he may be; but infinitely more the cause we have espoused-political and religious truth! With these convictions we shall attempt to show, that if the Universities of our nation are national institutions, that is, sustained from the national treasury, and allied virtually to the State, no one member of this our nation ought to be cut off from their benefits on grounds of religious opinion, whatever they may be; still more, that all such institutions, calling themselves national and religious, having this limitation, are embodiments of flagrant injustice-are founded and perpetuated in the most pernicious error. That the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge are and ever have been virtually national institutions, that is, allied to and supported by the State but ignorance, boldness, and ambition, if with no worse vices, a chaplainship in some gentleman's house, to the frequent embaring of his sons with illiterate and narrow principles."* In his day it appears, then, that these universities were open to the vile and evil-principled of the land, while the conscientious Puritan was driven from them by Prelatic tyranny and Episcopal abomination. Hear the testimony of one who spoke from experience: "The schools of Oxford and Cambridge were founded in a dark age of false and barbarous science; and they are still tainted with the vices of their origin. Their primitive discipline was adapted to the education of priests and monks; and their government is still in the hands of the clergy, an order of men whose manners are remote from the present world, and whose eyes are dazzled by the light of philosophy."+ But it may be urged that we go on to the past for insight into these institutions; and that things are now different from what they once were. True, they are changed; but it is for the worse: in proof of which hear the evidence of one of our leading journals, the -that not only many individuals in this our nation are debarred of all their possible benefits, but vast masses of the true commonwealth of our land-a number daily increasing-a number that can boast of the greatest poets, authors, statesmen, and geniuses of every order a number, the moral, mental, and religious prowess of which has made our nation what it now is in true greatness and glory, and which is destined hereafter to deliver it yet again from the ignoble trammels of priestcraft and an unholy State Church which now impede its onward progress-the number thus cut off from all these University benefits, we need scarcely name, comprises every true Dissenter or Nonconformist. This is a startling fact, and casts a prophetic shadow into the future, when such an anomaly shall cease, hiding itself in the oblivion of history. No one can gainsay these statements without misrepresentation; and we will here make another, equally undeniable, that while every true Dissenter is cut off from these so-called national and religious institutions, they are actually thrown open to the minions of the aristocracy, from among whom may be found" Westminster:" "The favour that Locke at this moment, within the precincts of these universities, men of all religious and infidel principles; the sceptic, the atheist to all intents and purposes, the Puseyite, the Calvinist, the Armenian, &c., &c; and, horribile dictu, men of the vilest and most flagrant morals, the gambler, the foxhunter, the legion of debauchery, the profane and dishonest! This is not merely our assertion; but the bold and candid statement of men well known to fame. Hear Besse; speaking of the Oxford University, he says, "But I am weary of transcribing their abominations, and shall cease with this remark, which, however severe, is just and natural, viz.: Had these scholars been expressly educated for ministers of the Devil, they could not have given more certain proofs of their proficiency." Hear Milton; referring to the University students, he says, "Or if they have missed of these helps at the latter place (the university) they have, after two or three years, left the course of their studies there, if they ever well began them; and undertaken, though furnished with little else found at Oxford is matter of history: Gibbon has recorded his contemptuous scorn for the monks of Magdalene.' It would be easy to name other children of genius who have proved that the self-styled alma mater was a most unjust and cruel stepmother." Now mark what follows from the same journal: "Amongst the evils of ecclesiastical sway, there is a mischief which annuls our universities, and destroys their very existence for every purpose of utility; it arises out of their spiritual constitution, and converts establishments that ought to be schools of learning into race courses and amphitheatres, wherein competitors and gladiators, as worthless as our jockeys or the Thracians of old, struggle or collude to get possession of livings." Again: "Simony, in its most pernicious form, has destroyed at once the unity and utility of institutions which we would gladly venerate." How revolting is all this! How its thunder peals through the dome of Episcopacy, and rends her very centreMammon-virtually to destruction, and indicates the approach of that period when * Vide the whole of Milton's learned and logical #Vide No. 29. * Vide "Sufferings of the People called Qua article on Episcopal Hirelings. kers," by Besse. + Gibbon. Mammon and Religion shall be for ever severed, as at the fiat of the Almighty! Spirits of Alfred and Sebert: ye who first gave us these seats of learning, know that, after the lapse of ages, your best gifts to your country have ceased to be the shrines of "divine philosophy," and become the very haunts of Mammon, Nescience, and Vicethat your true sons and descendants are cut off from them, because they will not incur the anger of heaven by violating their conscience, or pollute their souls by breathing the atmosphere of such haunts! We have, by thus bringing together past and present evidence, made manifest two points which are involved in this debate. 1st. That the exclusion of any member of the English community from these universities, on the ground of religious opinions, is productive of enormous evil. 2nd. That if these institutions were to be thrown open to all classes of the community, irrespective of religious opinions, much good would inevitably result from the movement. After the evidence which we have already brought before the reader, we need not add the evidence of such men as Milton, Besse, &c., &c., on the first of these points. Suffice it to say, that the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge have been wrested from their original design-learning; and have been for ages, and still are to all practical purposes, the tools and schools of priestcraft: hence all the evil that has arisen from them. Howitt, in his "Popular History of Priestcraft," page 283, has these truthful and luminous passages, which we recommend to the sincere consideration of our opponents: "The universities, founded and endowed by kings and patriotic men, for the general benefit and encouragement of learning in the nation, are monopolized by the priests of the Establishment. All offices in them are in their hands; no layman, much less a Dissenter, can hold a post in them. The Thirty-nine Articles are set up like so many Giants of Despair, to drive away with their clubs of intolerance all who will not kiss their feet. These chartered priests grasp the emoluments of these ancient seats of learning, and triumphantly tell us of the great men which the Establishment has produced. This is a little too much for the patience of any but an Englishman. Had the gates of these great schools been thrown open to the whole nation, for whose benefit they were established, and to the popular spirit of improvement which has been busy in the world, they might have told us of thousands more as great, as good, and far wiser, inasmuch as they would have been educated in an atmosphere of a more liberal and genial character. As it is, they have lagged, like the Establishment to which they are linked, behind the spirit of the age to a degree which has disgusted the most illustrious even of their own sons. It never was my lot to make a practical acquaintance with the advantages or abuses of either of them; but if the best authorities are to be trusted, the devil never found himself more in his element, since he descended from his position in the tree of knowledge, in the garden of Eden, to mount those of Oxford and Cambridge." We have thus quoted from this cogent author, since we think no modern writer has done more to open the nation's eyes to the priest craft carried on in its midst. We turn to our second point, and ask the reader to accompany us candidly throughout-That if these institutions were to be thrown open to all classes of the community, irrespective of religious opinions, much good would inevitably result from the movement. The good would be incalculable and wide-spread, and would ultimately cast its benign influence over the entire community, and enter more or less into every ramification of the social fabric of the British nation. We shall take up but three respects in which these universities would be greatly improved, and the nation greatly benefited, by such a radical and much-to-be-desired movement in their governance and constitution. I. The Universities would be greatly reformed. It would be impossible that these schools of Episcopalian prophets could remain so morally corrupt and abominable, were they exposed to the eye of the nation, and thrown open to the influence of the good and wise of every class in the community. History furnishes many precedents of this kind, from which this statement may be greatly strengthened. We learn from history and experience, that just as national institutions pass into the hands of sects, either in religion or politics, and are limited to them, they become exposed to moral degradation and political abuse, and vehicles of injustice; and, as in the case of these universities, the engines of enormous national evil. This is a terrible position; and ought to stimulate every honest man to seek even to blot them out of existence rather than have them as they now are, much as he might regret to lose the glorious bequeathments of our ancient kings and patriots! Yes; it were better to lose these universities than for them to be made the tools of a corrupt priesthood, and the schools of their children. This is not mere denunciation. Reader, have you been to Oxford? If not, go, before you deny our position. We have been, and therefore speak. Let any merely honest and moral man go there, and if he has not been previously acquainted with the character and conduct of numbers of the Episcopalian prophets, sent there to be made divines and religious teachers for the rich and poor of the land, he will, like Besse, whom we have quoted, be appalled, and conclude that these universities now, even now, are as iniquitous and flagrant as ever. He will learn that, notwithstanding the vigilance of all legal authorities, the most open vices and flagrant deeds are done by these men who are to be the nation's teachers in matters of religion. This is so palpable, that it is a legal crime for any female unattended to be seen in the streets of Oxford after ten o'clock at night! Why? Pass through Oxford streets on the 5th of November, and ask any of the honest tradesmen why they begin to shut up their shops as soon as it gets dusk? and they will tell you that these hereafter-to-be divines are about to meet the town rabble, and what to do? To preach Christ, and truth and holiness? To teach these townsmen morality and virtue? To do in anywise as Christ did among the multitudes? Verily, no; but to act the part of rude blackguards, with mouth and fist! Oh England! my country, is this thy religion, the pious incense wafted to heaven by your prayers? Is this how you provide for the spiritual wants of your destitute and dying sons? the land: it is as impossible as that darkness should exist in the midst of noon-day effulgence. This is the first and chief benefit which would inevitably result from such a change in the government of these universities. It would be an extreme one, a radical change, but only a just one; a transition from moral corruption to growing purity, to say nothing of religion and its sublime holiness. II. These universities would become real national benefits of the highest order, inasmuch as they would then be restored to their primitive design; having ceased to be the schools of a corrupt priesthood, they would become the glorious seats of national learning, and the sublime expression of British wisdom. Where these universities have to boast of one wise and good man, they would soon, after such a change, have to boast of hundreds; and instead of driving the sons of genius, as in the case of thousands, far from them, would be found the vera alma mater to all true geniuses. We say they would be changed into the shrines of learning, and the thrones of" divine philosophy," which they now are not, and under the wing of Papacy or Episcopacy, never will be. Is it not a fact, that there is no class of men in our nation, considering their vast numbers, their varied opportunities, and astounding emoluments, so despicable as regards literary attainments, as those who have been educated in these ancient seats of learningthe Episcopal clergy. The "Westminster" truly says: "Astonishing is the wealth of our universities, greatly exceeding the sum of all the possessions of all the other learned bodies in the world; (!) yet would it be an unfair and injurious statement to affirm that not a single shilling of their enormous income is truly applied to the purposes for which it was designed? The accusation is still more grave. Not only do these corporations neglect to furnish any direct encouragement to the Has God, in retribution, smitten thee with studious, but they offer much positive disfrenzy from above, and with a dazzling gid-couragement." We need only turn to the diness at noonday, seeing thou gazest on candid confessions of the clergy on this such things with endurance? point, to find how true this is. Without, we see what the clergy are as a body of teachers. The state of things thus briefly referred to, we say, could not exist if these universities were thrown open to all classes of the British commonwealth, and brought under the influence of the truly wise and good of From the same authority we learn that the tutors in many instances are not much wiser than their pupils; that". numerous professors are decorated with honourable | be advanced and established by such a move titles, and receive salaries for giving various lectures, which are never delivered." It may be a startling fact in the ears of some of our readers that it is not many years since two of the greatest scientific writers of the day delivered their profound productions, since given to the public in another form, within our universities to audiences of less than half-a-dozen.* Does not this prove, in connection with the last quotation, that the teachers and the taught shamefully neglect their avocations, the one in many cases through luxury or incompetence, and the other through hatred to the thing itself? "We hear those who have studied there continually declaring that the system of education pursued is infinitely behind that given by dissenters to their ministers, so far as it regards their real preparation for the office of christian teachers. I have frequently heard young men declare that they had no need to study there. With a certain quantity of mathematics, or of Greek and Latin, they could take a degree, and that was enough." With such startling facts before us, we can but conclude that these ancient seats of learning have become modern thrones of Nescience, and that they need great reformation in matters of learning as well as in the concerns of morality and religion. To throw them open to the wide nation would be to commence this reformation at once. The great offices in them would be no longer sinecures, but posts of actual literary merit, and none but competent men could attain or hold them. The professor's chair would be occupied by more than a professor. We may go still farther, and say that such men as Lyell and Buckland, &c., after giving themselves to scientific research and thought for half a long life, having scaled the heavens or explored the bowels of our earth, shall not be insulted again by being engaged to deliver their invaluable and profound discourses to the naked walls and gaping seats of our university lecture rooms, while those who ought to be their attentive and breathless hearers are either horse racing, fox hunting, gambling, or something worse, it may be! III. The cause of true religion, Christianity, and the best interests of society would * "First Impressions of England and its People;" Hugh Miller, pp. 247-8. ment, since it would have a direct tendency to sever the Church from the State, an event towards which the great popular agitations and movements of the day, religious and political, all point; an event which must assuredly happen before long, and from which our nation will have to date its true and entire religious liberty. The State Church has been declining for ages in essential power and worth; we mean, in spiritual power and moral worth: hence she grasps the more eagerly at every iota of worldly power, and clings the more tenaciously to the State, until she has become its servile minion; and seeks more anxiously for worldly wealth and honour, until her shrine is at length overshadowed by the God Mammon. Another of our leading journals thus shows the position of our State Church: "The Church of England is unpopular. It is connected with the Crown and the aristocracy, but it is not regarded with affection by the mass of the people; and this circumstance greatly lessens its utility, and has powerfully contributed to multiply the number of dissenters."* Let it be remembered that every true dissenter is a stone taken from the very foundation on which our State Church stands; and that as Dissent progresses, Episcopacy must inevitably decline, till she be no more. This is all to the point, since we recognise the fact that our present question is being agitated through society, and having appeared on the arena of debate thrown open to all in the British Controversialist, not, be it remembered, to gratify the literary curiosity of the reader or debater, but to advance the cause of truth and of genuine religious and political principles among all classes, and to give public expression to the national opinion on the question: our magazine we are wont to consider a republic, in which all classes and gradations of society are justly represented, and where no one can speak to the public, either pro or con., without advancing, directly or indirectly, the national good. To have proposed such a question as this some few centuries ago would have been deemed a great crime, and punished severely by law, according to the dictate of Episcopacy; but "Edinburgh Review," No. 88. |