Mr. A. C. Plowden, the Revising Barrister at Oxford, in
a judgment the lucidity and force of which will greatly raise his standing in his profession, has decided that the new Registra- tion. Act does not of itself enable undergraduates of the University to vote as citizens. It only removes a disqualifica- tion. They are not, however, entitled to vote by the Reform Bills, for they are not tenants or even lodgers. They pay rent, it is true, and rates ; but they have not full control of their rooms ; they cannot enter or leave them at their own will ; they may not do certain things in them ; they are liable to be com- pelled to enter them, and they may be dismissed from them at discretion. They are, in fact, less " tenants," in the sense contemplated by the Act, than visitors to a hotel. More- over, even if they were tenants, they are not tenants for the necessary term, inasmuch as during their absence for half the year the College authorities, and not they, are in possession of the rooms, and can refuse them permission to enter. There will, of course, be an appeal against a judgment which virtually covers all the residential Universities ; but it is hardly possible that this should be upset. The College authorities could, we imagine, turn their adult undergraduates into voters ; but to do it they must abolish all disciplinary rules.
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