Mr. Coleridge carried his University Tests' Bill through its second
reading, on Wednesday, by a majority of 58,--198 voting for it, and 140 against it. The adjourned debate was not very interesting ; but Mr. Bentinck made a speech curiously snobbish, -and meant to be very contemptuous towards Dissenters, in which he said that "Dissenters generally belonged to the lowest class of .society," and that "the great bulk of the intelligence and educa- tion of the country, as well as a large majority of those who wanted to send their sons to the University, belonged to the -Church of England," though even Dissenters would be very glad to send their sons to the University "if they could afford to pay for dt." For the sake of such persons as these, who, from their poverty, would not be able to avail themselves of the Universities .even if they were opened to them, it certainly was not desirable to pass a measure which was part of a "great projected system of disestablishment, disendowment, and confiscation." In short, Mr. Bentinck treated the Dissenters with the scorn of purse-proud -caste, and showed by doing so how exceedingly little Trinity College Cambridge had been able to do in the way of true -culture for him.
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