292 LETTER TO 



after studying four years in any university, 

 might in this way be admitted a member of the 

 college : one at least, therefore, of the new 

 by-laws, certainly afforded no corrective to the 

 evil, of which that great man complained. 



The remaining by-law was consequently the 

 only source, from which such a corrective could 

 be expected. It declared, that licentiates of 

 seven years standing, and who had completed 

 the thirty-sixth year of their age, might be ad- 

 mitted into the fellowship of the college, should 

 they be found fit upon examination. I shall not 

 trouble your Lordship, at this time, with any 

 observations upon the numerous fetters, by 

 which the action of the pretended principle of 

 this by-law was impeded. I have at present 

 nothing in view but to show, that this was the 

 only measure of any importance the college had 

 adopted for the purpose of removing the re- 

 proach, which had been thrown upon them by 

 Lo*d Mansfield ; and that it therefore afforded 

 the only good ground for their resisting the 

 issue of the mandamus which Dr. Stanger so- 

 licited. 



Accordingly, when the question of the man- 

 damus came to be argued before the Court of 

 King's Bench, on the 23d of April, 1796, Mr. 

 Erskine, the leading counsel of the college, was 

 found to derive from this by-law his chief 



