400 LETTER TO 



at the public meetings of the corporation ; and 

 should he, from natural timidity, or from that 

 embarrassment which every man must feel, 

 upon personally submitting his talents to the 

 scrutiny of those, whom he believes to be un- 

 friendly to his views, appear ignorant of any of 

 the subjects proposed, no opportunity is allowed 

 to him, as to an English graduate, of compen- 

 sating such a seeming deficiency by any after- 

 exhibition of knowledge. For the majority of 

 a general meeting must declare their approba- 

 tion of the first part of his examination, before 

 he can be admitted to the second ; and of the 

 second, before he can be admitted to the third. 

 If every part of his examination has been ap- 

 proved, and he has thus obtained four majorities 

 of general meetings of the corporation in his 

 favour, all of them declared by ballot, three 

 months afterwards, that is, twelve months after 

 being proposed for examination, he may be 

 proposed at another general meeting for admis- 

 sion, and if the majority is found by a fifth, 

 ballot to consent, he is then to be received into 

 the college as a fellow. 



These conditions of a licentiate's entry into 

 the college are contained, I confess, in a by- 

 law, which your Lordship pronounced to be, 

 not only free from blemish, but possessed of 

 such virtue, as to render sound an older by- 

 law, emphatically declared by you to have had 



