LORD KENYON. 291 



the order of candidates to the graduates of Ox- 

 ford and Cambridge, had been decided by Lord 

 Mansfield to be bad ; and according to the con- 

 fession of the counsef of the college, the two 

 by-laws, which allowed licentiates to enter the 

 fellowship, had been framed in consequence of 

 the censure passed by that judge upon the 

 former system of admission, and of his recom- 

 mendation that a more liberal one should be 

 adopted. Their real defence, therefore, as 

 having regard to the possible applications of 

 persons in whom they could not pretend to find 

 the smallest appearance of blame, rested en- 

 tirely upon the two last-mentioned by-laws. 



These by-laws were recited at length in the 

 affidavit of Mr. Roberts. By one of them, the 

 president was allowed once in two years, but 

 not oftener, to propose a licentiate often years 

 standing, to be admitted into the college without 

 examination of his fitness. If he chose, how- 

 ever, to omit the exercise of this privilege*, as 

 the present president has repeatedly done, it was 

 not to devolve upon any other person. But 

 when Lord Mansfield condemned the whole of 

 the former system of admission, there existed a 

 much more liberal statute for the reception of 

 licentiates, through favour ; for according to it 

 every licentiate of three years standing, who 

 had taken the degree of doctor in medicine, 



