The other court is the consistory court of the commissary. The commissary, a doctor of the civil law, acts under the authority and seal of the chancellor, and sits as well in the university, as at Mid summer and Stirbitch fairs, there to take knowledge, and to proceed in all causes "ad instantiam et promotionem partis ut supra," the parties, or one of them, being privileged : saving that within the versity all causes or suits whereunto the proctors, or taxors, or any of them, or a master of arts, or any other of superior degree, is a party, are reserved solely and wholly to the jurisdiction of the chan cellor or vice-chancellor. The manner of proceeding in this court is similar to, that of the preceding, which has a regist rar, procurators, and advocates, and a yeoman bedell, as is required in the con sistory court. Appeals are also allowed, but in this case it must be made in the first instance to the higher court, and may from thence be removed to the Senate, and the three or five delegates appointed by that body.
The University possesses the right of sending two members to the imperial parliament of the united kingdom, who are chosen by the collective body of the senate. A council, termed the Universi ty council, appointed for various pur poses, is composed by a grace of the se nate, and a solicitor is nominated by the vice-chancellor.
The syndics, chosen from the members of the senate, conduct all special affairs, such as framing laws, regulating fees, and inspecting the library, the printing, buildings, &c. &c. Those of the Univer sity press cannot proceed to business un less the vice-chancellor and four others are present in the parlour of the office. All the professors of the sciences are al lowed stipends, which are derived from various sources, composed of the Univer sity chest, sums from government, or from estates appropriated for that pur pose : the whole income of the Universi ty being about eleven thousand pounds per annum, including fees for degrees, profits of the printing-office, &c. Of this sum eight thousand pounds is ex pended annually to officers, professors in the library and schools, the press, in taxes, and charitable donations, the whole under the management of the vice-chan cellor for the time being, whose accounts are audited by three persons appointed yearly by the senate.
The Book of Statutes was printed in the year 1785, copies of which are pos sessed by the vice-chancellor and the proctors, and one is deposited in the pub lic and in the libraries of each college ; it consists of the ancient statutes, those of Henry VIII. Edward VI. and those of the first and twelfth years of the reign of queen Elizabeth; " Literm Regis: ad Aca demism data ; Interpretationes Statuto rum ; Senatus consults sive gratin decre ta prxfectorum ; Juramenta et Formu Im. ' Mr. Haworth says, "the statutes of the twelfth of Elizabeth, and the Senatus Consults, are those which are chiefly re spected at this time. Many of the old statutes,"decrees, interpretations, &c. are looked upon as obsolete, some as ridicu lous, and others unnecessary in the pre sent establishment ; yet what Dr. Bentley observed of Trinity College statutes, dur ing his disagreement with the fellows of that society, might be urged concerning these : " Some are my club, and others any rusty sword, which I can draw upon occasion."
The terms are three in number, Mi chaelmas term commences on the tenth of October, and terminates the sixteenth day of December ; Lent term begins January thirteen, and is concluded on the Friday immediately preceding Palm Sunday ; Midsummer term begins one week after Easter day, and ends on the Friday following commencement day, which is invariably the first Tuesday in July. Upon the decease of a member of the senate during the term, and within. the University, application is made to the vice-chancellor, and the bell of the Uni versity is tolled for one hour, term in stantly commences for three days, and for that period lectures and disputations cease.
Most of the statutes made for the go vernment of the sixteen different col leges dictate that the members or fellows of them shall be exclusively Englishmen, and some even prescribe that they must be natives of particular counties and dis tricts; hence an invidious distinction is created between the residents of the northern and southern parts of this island, which, though united for a long time past in political' matters, are most completely separated in the pursuit of knowledge ; and it is too much to be feared that this circumstance is the real cause of the affected contempt of the degrees and academic honours granted by seminaries of learning in Scotland and Ireland. It is singular that the indivi duals who founded the colleges at Cam bridge and Oxford, should have concur red in this narrow and illiberal conduct almost universally, as they each had a strong sense of religion, which however does not appear to have taught them the best principle of it, brotherly love. As a few of the colleges admit of general com petition for fellowships, and the members of the two Universities seem sensible of the injustice and impolicy of such dis tinctions, we may venture to hope some method will be devised ere long to obvi ate or remove them. The following re gulation applies to all the colleges at Cambridge. " Whosoever bath one Eng, lish parent, although lie be born in ano ther country, shall be esteemed as if barn in that county to which his English parent belonged. But iF both parents are English, he shall be reckoned of that county to which his father belonged." The colleges are thus constitutedThe head, by which odd term the master is designated, who is generally a doctor of divinity ; but Caius college may he go verned by a doctor of physic, and Trini ty must have a doctor of laws ; the prin cipal of King's is styled provost, and of Queen's president. The fellows are ge nerally bachelors of divinity, bachelors or masters of arts, and others are bachelors and doctors of law and physic, particular ly at the two colleges of Trinity-hall and Caius. There is a distinction between the fellows, who are divided into classes, called regular and bye ; the latter are considered as merely honorary, never succeeding to college preferment, nor having any concern whatever in the af fairs of it, hut are allowed an inconsider able sum annually by their respective colleges, which act as trustees for them; they are denominated Perse Wortley; Yorkshire, Coventry, Platt, Dixie, and Tiverton. Clergymen, who are termed conduits, arc employed in the several in stitutions as chaplains, and perform some of the duties belonging to that office.