he church inviolate. Ministers declared
that they would listen to no proposition for its destruction; but,
notwithstanding this, a motion was made by Mr. Rippon, the new member
for Gateshead, to expel the bishops from the house of lords. This motion
was seconded by Mr. Gillon, a Scotch member; but on a division it was
lost by a majority of one hundred and twenty-five against fifty-eight.
The minority seems to have been much larger than had been anticipated,
for the announcement was hailed with loud cheers.

Among the grievances of which the dissenters complained in their
numerous petitions, none were more forcibly insisted on than their
practical exclusion from degrees at Oxford and Cambridge, in consequence
of its being required, as a preliminary, that they should conform to the
church of England, or to subscribe to her articles. As a matter of civil
right, they demanded that all religious tests should be abolished, and
the universities thrown open for the education and graduation of men
of all creeds. Exertions were made by them to get up petitions from the
universities, and in one of them they succeeded. On the 21st of March
Earl Grey presented, in the house of lords, a petition from certain
members of the senate of the University of Cambridge, praying for the
abolition by legislative authority of every religious test exacted from
members of the university before they proceed to degrees, whether of
bachelor, master, or doctor, in arts, law, and physic. On this occasion,
as on others when similar petitions were presented, there was much
incidental discussion of the merits of the demand. Ministers declared
it to be just and proper, and showed an inclination to grant it; but no
distinct motion was made on the subject till after the Easter recess.
On the 17th of April, however, Colonel Williams moved an address to
the king, "requesting his majesty to signify his pleasure to the
universities of Oxford and Cambridge respectively, that these bodies no
longer act under the edicts or letters of James I., 1616; by which he
would have all who take any degree in schools to subscribe to the
three articles' of the thirty-sixth canon, with the exception of those
proceeding to degrees in divinity; nor to require the declaration,
namely, 'that I am _bona fide_ a member of the church of England,' nor
any subscription or declaration of like effect and import." It was,
however, thought for many reasons more advisable to proceed by bill;