person within the Vagrant Act, 5 Geo. IV, c. 83. Further provisions were made as to Oxford by the Oxford Police Act 1881 (44 & 45 Vict., c. xxxix), as to Cambridge by the Cambridge University and Corporation Act, 1894, (57 & 58 Vict., c. lx), which extended to Cambridge the powers over idle and disorderly persons given by 6 Geo. IV, c. 97. The latter Act was passed in consequence of a case which occurred in 1891. It put an end to imprisonment of women by committal by the Vice-Chancellor on unsworn evidence not given in open court. As to amusements, especially theatrical performances, there is a good deal of legislation. It is remarkable that the universities, once possessing unusual dramatic privileges, should not only have lost those privileges but have become subject to special disabilities." In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the universities and Inns of Court were considered as privileged places, not subject to dramatic censorship. Many well-known dramas were acted at Oxford and Cambridge, sometimes for the first time. The acting of plays at the universities seems to have been for the first time forbidden in 1737 by the statute 10 Geo. II, c. 19, passed immediately before Walpole's Theatre Act, 10 Geo. II, c. 28. Both these Acts are repealed. The

1 R. v. Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, Appendix. The power of the university to visit and enter houses of the citizens in search of suspected persons appears still to exist, but the limits of its exercise are uncertain.

2 Early statutes were inconsistent. For instance, some college statutes prohibited inhonesta spectacula, 2 Rashdall, 617. On the other hand, a statute of Queens' went as far as to punish with expulsion any student refusing to act or absenting himself from a performance. Instances of the drama at the universities were Still's Gammer Gurton's Needle at Christ's (1575), Club Law at Clare (1599-1600), Narcissus at St. John's, Oxford (1602), Daniel's Queen's Arcadia at Christ Church (1605), and in the heat of political disturbance Cowley's Guardian, at Trinity, Cambridge (1641). These are only examples, there are numerous others, and there are frequent allusions in contemporary literature to the drama in colleges, e. g., in Ben Jonson's Volpone. Even chapels were not spared; it is said that in 1564 Queen Elizabeth was present at the performance of Plautus in the chapel of King's. In Charles II's reign the performance of stage plays was limited to Epiphany (when undergraduates acted in college), and to the Encænia (when a London company acted in the yard of an inn).

Theatres Act, 1843, (6 & 7 Vict., c. 68, s. 10), now provides that the licence of magistrates for a theatre within the precincts of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, or within fourteen miles of the city of Oxford or town of Cambridge, should not be in force without the consent of the Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor. As to Cambridge, the Act of 1843 is repealed, and the powers of the University now depend on the Cambridge Award Act, 1856, and the Cambridge University and Corporation Act, 1894. By these Acts the proctors may enter any premises kept or used for public entertainment. The County Council may revoke any licence for the public performance of stage plays on the complaint in writing of the Vice-Chancellor or the Mayor. No occasional public exhibition or performance, whether strictly theatrical or not, other than performances in theatres which are regulated by the Act of 1843, shall take place unless with the consent in writing of the Mayor. The Oxford Police Act, 1881, (44 & 45 Vict., c. xxxix) is in similar terms, the main difference being that the ViceChancellor has an initial veto, not merely complaint after a play has appeared. During the "long" and Christmas vacations the consent in writing of the Mayor is sufficient. The last kind of jurisdiction over non-members is discommoning, i. e., forbidding someone, generally a tradesman, from dealing with members of a university or college. It has become almost obsolete at Oxford, but is still in use at Cambridge. It is recognised by the Cambridge Award Act, 1856. It seems to be at the discretion of the authorities, and in most reported cases the tradesman took nothing

1 A radius of one and a-half miles from Carfax at Oxford; two and a-half miles from St. Mary's Church at Cambridge.

2 See an article by Mr. F. H. Cripps-Day on Cambridge university jurisdiction, Law Magazine and Review, Aug., 1894.

3 A university has power to issue a decree, and enforce it by discommoning, that a debt of £5 contracted by an undergraduate must be reported by the creditor to the college, Ex parte Death [1840], 12 A. & E. 647. Discommoning was admitted as a remedy in In re University of Oxford and Taylor [1841], 1 Q. B. 952,

by his appeal to the courts. Disciplinary provisions are contained in the present university statutes and in most college statutes. Offences against university or college statutes, not being against the King's peace, cannot be pardoned by the King.

VI. EDUCATION.

By the Board of Education Act, 1899, the universities are entitled to be represented on the consultative committee of the Board of Education. Apart from this provision, the numerous Education Acts do not affect the universities. Special provisions are made as to the authorities charged with the admission to the medical and legal professions. The privilege of university graduates of exemption from the bishop's licence, and afterwards from admission by the Royal College of Physicians, was confirmed by 3 Hen. VIII, c. II, and 14 & 15 Hen. VIII, c. 5. A letter of Charles II, directing the College of Physicians not to admit any one to practise other than graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, was disregarded as unconstitutional in the argument of a case in the eighteenth century. The provisions of the statutes of Henry VIII must now be read subject to the Medical Acts, the latest of which is the Medical Act 1886, under which the universities are represented by one member each on the General Medical Council, which is entitled to secure by inspection the maintenance of a standard of efficiency in the medical examinations of the universities. As to solicitors, by 23 & 24 Vict., c. 127, and 40 & 41 Vict.,

but a prohibition issued to the Duke of Wellington, where as Chancellor he had ordered payment of costs or arrest in default. It is implied in the words of the Oxford statute, xxi, 1, 1, commercio cum scholaribus et personis privilegiatis interdicto.

1 R. v. College of Physicians [1797], 7 T. R. 282.

2 Licences to practise medicine and surgery are still nominally competent to the universities but are not granted. Forms will be found in the Oxford Statutes, ix, 7, I.

c. 25, a person who has taken the degree of Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Laws may be admitted a solicitor after three years' service as an articled clerk, and after four years' service if he have passed certain university examinations. By 57 Vict., c. 9, a law degree, or a certificate of having passed the examinations necessary for it, exempts from the intermediate examination. Call to the Bar does not depend on statute like the admission of solicitors. Students of the Inns of Court are by the Consolidated Regulations entitled to keep only three days a term if they are members of a university, and those who have passed the examination for the B.C.L. degree are relieved from part of the examination, as are also those who have passed any university degree examination in which Roman law is a qualifying subject. With regard to lectures, 39 Geo. III, c. 69, prohibiting the delivery of lectures in unlicensed premises, did not apply to lectures in the universities. This Act is now repealed, and the matter is regulated by 5 & 6 Will. IV, c. 65. The Act forbids the publication of lectures except by the lecturers or their assigns, but its provisions do not apply to lectures delivered in a university or college. The position of a college lecturer is a little doubtful. The general rule is to give a term's notice on either side of termination of the engagement. But if one may argue from a recent endowed school case, it might possibly not be necessary on the part of the college. At the same time it should be noticed that this case proceeds on statutory authority, the Endowed Schools Act 1869.3

2

1 It appears from Ex parte Stewart, [1872], L. R., 7 Exch. 202, that the degree must have been actually taken. It is not enough that the clerk is in the same position with regard to university privileges as if he had taken the degree.

2 The plaintiff delivered from memory a lecture at the Working Men's College. The defendant attended the lecture and took shorthand notes, which he published in shorthand in The Phonographic Lecturer. Kay, J., held that the Common law applied and an injunction was granted (Nicols v. Pitman, [1884], 26 Ch. D. 374). The later case of Caird v. Sime is set out in the Appendix.

8 Wright v. Marquess of Zetland, L. R. [1908], 1 K. B. 63. The point of the decision was, that no custom could prevail against a scheme framed by the Charity

Several Acts of Parliament affect professorships and scholarships. The statute 18 & 19 Vict., c. 36, provided for the salaries of certain scientific professors at Oxford. By the Act of 1862, which empowered the Vice-Chancellor to make rules of procedure for his Court, (25 & 26 Vict., c. 26), provision was made as to new professorships of scientific subjects, and as to certain university scholarships. The original preference of founder's kin in the election to the Craven scholarships at Oxford was removed by 23 & 24 Vict., c. 91. Oxford was empowered by 28 & 29 Vict., c. 55, to make statutes as to the Vinerian foundation for the teaching and study of law. In both universities up to 1868 undergraduates were required to be members of a college or hall. The admission of undergraduates not members of a college or hall was recommended as a fit subject for legislation by a committee of the House of Commons in 1868, but the proposed bill was never passed, and the admission of unattached students depends on university and not imperial statute. Both universities provide for the licensing of private halls or hostels owned by members of Convocation. The right of appointment of the head and other masterships in schools has now been superseded by schemes framed under the Public Schools Act, 1868, and the Endowed Schools Act, 1869. Among such rights formerly existing were those of Christ Church and Trinity, Cambridge, alternately to Westminster; Corpus, Oxford, to Manchester; St. John's, Cambridge, to Shrewsbury, and New College to Bedford.2

Commissioners. As far as regards masters in endowed schools, the law has now been amended by the Endowed Schools (Masters) Act, 1908. But the principle of the case might possibly still apply in the case of a college lecturer.

1 The right was originally in the Corporation of Shrewsbury, but delegated to St. John's. After 250 years the delegation was held valid as long as the college should nominate a fit person (Mayor of Shrewsbury v. A.-G. [1726], 2 Bro. P. C. 402).

2 See A.-G. v. Corporation of Bedford [1754], 2 Ves. Sen. 505.