Lord Salisbury received an influential deputation on Thurs- day from
the Victoria University, Owens College, the York- shire College, the Mason College at Birmingham, the Ladies' Bedford College, and various other institutions, with whom Lord Derby, the Chancellor of the London University, associated himself as representing at least a very large section of Convocation, to protest against the Draft Charter of the Gresham University that has been laid on the table of both Houses of Parliament, and to request its revocation. The main ground of complaint insisted on was the excessive over-representation of medical schools in the new University, and the almost inevitable tendency which would result to lower the qualification for the medical degree of doctor of medicine, till it became of as little real value as an ordinary licence to practise. Lord Salisbury fully admitted the great weight of these representations, but took up the attitude of non possumus. The Houses of Parliament were, he said, seized of the Draft Charter, and the Govern- ment had no more power than any other Members of Parliament to withdraw what had been laid on the table. Mr. Napier, however, who is an LL.D. of the University of London, and a practising barrister of high standing, entirely traverses this view in his letter to Friday's Times. He says that under Section 2 of 34 and 35 Victoria, cap. 63, the Government may withdraw the Charter from the Houses at any moment, if they please. If this be the right view of the law, we trust that the Government will at once act upon it. The Draft Charter for the Gresham University is open to many objections besides those stated by the deputation.
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