PEENE LEGACY. 187 



religious equality among the students, I had asked whether it was 1853. 

 possible a Professor might be placed under disqualification, I Lettertothe 

 should have been told, and with reason again, that if the length Council 

 and breadth of the declarations I have alluded to were not 

 sufficient to contain these and any other possible cases, all the 

 lawyers who ever varied the counts of an indictment, or reckoned 

 up the rights which pass with a freehold, would not be able to 

 frame anything which would satisfy so suspicious a person. 



I joined the College in the full conviction that the plain 

 English of scores of declarations would have warranted the pre- 

 ceding replies. To my utter surprise, on the very first occasion 

 on which money is offered on the condition of establishing a 

 religious test, all I hear seems to indicate that it is far from 

 certain that the offer will be rejected. What the Council has 

 ever done to warrant such a want of certainty I cannot imagine; 

 for if ever any Institution in this world honoured its faith and 

 practised its professions, University College has done so, up to 

 this moment, in the matter of religious equality. I myself should 

 never have imagined the necessity of stating that my connection 

 with this College was the consequence of the good and sound 

 and religious principle shown in its leading maxim, but for the 

 doubt to which I have referred. No one is so humble that faith 

 need not be kept with him. In the name of all the declarations 

 which the College has put forth from its first institution, I claim 

 the performance of the obligation therein undertaken to maintain 

 every student, every Professor, every officer in perfect religious 

 equality with the rest, from the President of the Council down 

 to the sweeper of the floor. 



This I claim with the most perfect respect for the Council, 

 which, among many other reasons, I feel because the principle 

 of the College has always been maintained, and, I fully believe, 

 will still be maintained. Bnt I think it possible that the strength 

 of the individual claim of those who have trusted the College, 

 and have spent the best years of their lives in its service, may be 

 overlooked, and for this reason only I trouble you with these 

 remarks. I am, sir, your most obedient servant, 



A. DE MORGAN. 



P.S. The only precedent which bears on the matter, within 

 my recollection is as follows : At the opening of the College, 

 each student was desired to state whether he was Churchman or 

 Dissenter, and the answer was affixed to his name in the list. 

 The motive was the most innocent in the world ; it was the 



