Yesterday week, in the High Court of Justice, judgment was
delivered by Mr. Justice Mellor and Mr. Justice Lush, on the question raised against Hertford College, Oxford, by a Dis- senter, Mr. Tillyard, who had claimed the right to be examined for a Fellowship founded since the Tests Abolition Act was passed, by a member of the Church of England, and under a trust declared to be in favour only of members of the Church of England, and who had been informed by the authorities of Hertford College that though he might be examined if he pleased, he would not be elected, because he did not fulfil the creed-conditions of the trust. The question for the Court was whether that con- dition was a legal condition, and whether a mandamus should not issue to the authorities of Hertford College declaring the con- dition imposed illegal, and requiring them to examine applicants for the Fellowship again, without imposing any such condition. And this was the decision actually arrived at by the Court, Mr. Justice Mellor apparently holding that since the Tests Abolition Act, no College in our national Universities could accept a Fellowship-endowment fettered by creed-conditions ; while Mr.. Justice Lush, who did not go quite so far, held that at all events Hertford College could not do so, since Hertford College is pledged under the very Act of Parliament which created it, to the principles of the Tests Abolition Act. This decision will be almost a final blow to the founding of new denominational endowments at the Universities, and will blight with beneficial promptitude a good many unwise and pernicious dreams.
Previous page
