380 We cannot doubt of the propriety of following the course here described, in any changes which may hereafter be made in the Plan of University Examinations as at present established; whether such changes refer to the matter of the Examination in the Classical, Moral, or Natural Sciences Tripos, or in the conditions of admission to the Honours of these Triposes. With regard to changes in the Examination for the Mathematical Tripos, the Board of Mathematical Studies may, it would seem, stand in the place of a Syndicate, and changes may properly be proposed to the Senate on the recommendation of that Board, as has already been done. But in the other departments, no change ought to be made without being discussed in a Syndicate composed, as those Syndicates were which recommended the Plans recently adopted, of several of the most eminent persons in the University, of acknowledged learning and experience in University matters, and of various standing, position, and views.

381 There exists, however, no express rule, limiting the University to this mode of making and changing its laws. Any Member of the Senate may give notice of a Grace to be proposed at any Congregation: and it is understood that the Grace must be voted upon in the Non-Regent and in the Regent House, except it be stopped in the Caput. The Caput, therefore, is the only security which we have against the most rash and inconsistent legislation. Without the power of Veto in the Members of the Caput, the Constitution of the Senate of the University of Cambridge would be among the most democratic and unbalanced that have ever

tent with the publication of the views of other members of the Senate at the same time. A Syndicate must always be desirous of knowing what opinions are entertained in the University on the subject about which it has to deliberate.

existed in the history of legislative assemblies. A Grace proposed by any Member, with only two days' notice, voted without any discussion whatever, only one voting taking place in each house, would become law. With such a constitution, it is difficult to assign a limit to the extravagance and inconsistency to which our legislation might proceed. For few Members of the Senate attend the Senate-House habitually in order to vote: so that a comparative few who attended expressly for the purpose, might carry their measure. And few Members would see all the bearings of a measure, all the arguments for and against it, without discussion with persons of very different views. The conversation of a limited circle of friends on such subjects would be more likely to confirm them in some special and partial view, than to lead them to a wise and comprehensive judgment. Hence, to have important measures proposed without previous discussion in a Syndicate, is a practice highly dangerous, and much to be discouraged and we may hope that if any change modifying the measures which have recently been adopted with regard to our System of Education were to be proposed by any single Member of the Senate, without being considered in a Syndicate, the Members of the Caput would feel that it was their duty to place their veto upon it and we may be satisfied that the power of the Caput used in this manner would be regarded with approval and gratitude by the University.

382 The Caput, (Caput Senatus) and the Heads of Colleges, have, by persons out of the University, been confounded, in a manner showing a degree of heedlessness or obtuseness, which is truly marvellous. The Heads of Colleges have no special share in the legislation of the University, except as the advisers of the Vice-chancellor. They may have some influence in their respective Colleges; but this is not great, for nothing is more common than to see the majority of [PT. II.]

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the Fellows of a College vote against the Master. But the Heads of Colleges are persons who hold a more permanent position in the University than most of the other Members; and hence, in the long run, they may be able to produce or to prevent change; as may, in like manner, any other Member of the Senate, residing long, and striving steadily and industriously for the like objects. In reference to their respective Colleges, the Heads have, of course, peculiar relations, powers, and duties; and from their community of position they may be looked upon as an Order in the University. But the Caput, instead of being, like the Heads, a permanent Order, possessing no definite powers with regard to the University, is a temporary body composed of the representatives of five different Orders, along with the Vice-chancellor, and possessing the most definite powers, namely, an absolute Veto in each Member. The Members of the Caput are, besides the Vice-chancellor, the representatives of Theology, Civil Law, and Physic, and of the Regent and Non-Regent Houses. None of these Members are necessarily Heads of Colleges: though the Vice-chancellor and the Doctor of Divinity always are so in practice. The other four are not so; and these Members of the Caput have no grounds of sympathy or agreement with the Heads, beyond what any other Members of the Senate have. If there be, on any occasion, any opposition of feeling between the Heads in general and the Senate in general, there are four Members of the Caput out of six who are likely to feel with the Senate.

383 The Members of the Caput hold their places for the year only. Measures once rejected by the Caput, may be again proposed, and may pass at a future time. The Caput originates nothing, having only this power of Veto. Thus the power of the Caput amounts to this:-that being the only real check against hasty and inconsistent legislation by the Se

nate, it consists of six Members representatives of six different Orders in the University, each of whom has a Suspensive Veto, operating till the end of the Academical year. I conceive that a slighter power of checking rash voting does not occur in any real constitution of a Senate, and is hardly consistent with any degree of stability in our system. But I am not at present concerned with the Constitution of the University, except as it bears upon the business of regulating our System of Education. I will again say that I trust that the Cambridge System as now established, will be allowed to work for some years without further innovation, in order that we may be allowed to see what is the real value of the changes which we have recently made. If any attempt is made to introduce any further change, without the subject being fully discussed and reported on by a Syndicate fairly and judiciously chosen and appointed, it is impossible to conceive a more fit occasion for the exercise of that power of preventing rash change which resides in the Caput, and which, if not exercised on each occasion, will leave the University a prey to childish rashness, and impatience, and will probably end in making it useless as a place of Education.