186 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MOEGAN. 



1853. Dr. William Gurdon Peene, of Maidstone, left seven- 



legacy 611 * ^ een hundred pounds for the purchase of books for the 

 library of University College. These books were to be 

 works on foreign literature and science, and the choice of 

 them was to be entrusted to the Professors of Greek, 

 Latin, and Mathematics, provided these three were 

 members of the Church of England ; ' Otherwise ' (as 

 expressed in the will), 6 one or more shall complete their 

 number by choosing qualified persons from the other Professors, 

 private teachers, or quondam alumni resident in London. If 

 none of the three named be members of the Church of Eng- 

 land, I beg the Council to appoint. 9 



On hearing of this bequest, and learning that some 

 members of Council were inclined to accept it with the 

 prescribed conditions, Mr. De Morgan wrote to the chair- 

 man of the Council as follows : 



University College, Nov. 5, 1853. 



SIR, A proposal now before the Council, and to be discussed 

 this day, involves the application of a religious test to certain 

 Professors, with a view to their exclusion from a certain office to 

 be founded, in the event of their opinions not being of a certain 

 class. 



I beg you will draw the attention of the Council to the 

 following personal statement. The matter in question may 

 never come before the Senate ; and if it did, I could not expect 

 the Senate to convey to the Council remarks which refer entirely 

 to my own personal position. If, when I first sought the honour of 

 a chair in this College, I ha4 asked what security existed for my 

 never being excluded from anything on account of my opinions, I 

 should have been told, and with reason, that if so many public 

 declarations as had been made, both printed and oral, uttered 

 with every mark of sincerity and received with every appearance 

 of enthusiasm, were not sufficient guarantees, I should do well 

 to reconsider my intention of acting under those whom it was 

 clear, by my question, that I mistrusted. 



Again, admitting that the College, corporately, would never 

 institute a test or create a disqualification, if I had asked 

 whether it would allow any one else to do so within its walls, or' 

 if, giving credit for the full determination to maintain a perfect 



