THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON AND WOMEN'S DEGREES.
(TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTAT0R:1
SIR,-It appears to me that if any members of our Convocation who are favourable to the admission of women to London degrees vote against the proposed Charter merely because the Senate has tried to accomplish a part of its objects in an unconstitutional way, and because it is feared that they may do so again, if that and more is not done in a constitutional way, such members will not only go off upon "a side-issue," but will commit, from their own point of view, a glaring absurdity. It is indeed difficult to argue about U, except by referring to the hackneyed metaphor of cutting off your own nose to spite your face.
Observe that Convocation -will not by accepting the Charter condone or sanction anything that the Senate has heretofore -done. They might with perfectly logical consistency first
accept the Charter and then censure the Senate. The order of events has been different. The Senate were cen- sured by the first resolution of last July, and for all reply they have meekly sent down the draft Charter afterwards ! Surely those who wish the result as it affects women, or those who are indifferent to it, or even those who, while disliking the admission of women, nevertheless feel that Convocation cannot with decency, as matters now stand, fall back upon this dislike and abandon the ground of constitutional scruple, will never be in- duced to believe that Convocation has not done enough to pro- tect its constitutional privileges, and that they are bound to make a holocaust of the women and their claims, in order that the Senate may read a lesson against usurpation in the light of the flames.
I hope, however, that my fellow-graduates will not indulge in a false security, but will make every effort to come and vote on Tuesday evening. They may find they have enough to do to outvote the strong body concentrated in London who are against the admission of women in tote, and who may, after all, be pre- pared to stultify all the previous action of the body (Convocation) for whose honour they just now profess so much solicitude.—I
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