Volume 1

Enactments in Parliament : specially concerning the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the colleges and halls therein and the colleges of Winchester, Eton & Westminster / edited by Lionel Lancelot Shadwell.

Date:: 1912

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Enactments in Parliament : specially concerning the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the colleges and halls therein and the colleges of Winchester, Eton & Westminster / edited by Lionel Lancelot Shadwell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$virtue of the prerogative royal, the received opinion being that in such case freehold lands revert to the donor and leases held by the corporation determine. The circum- stances were such as to render it improbable that the Crown’s claim would be disputed, and the general saving- clause in the Act which confirmed the finding prevented the confirmation from affecting the rights of any persons except the parties named as affected thereby. The Act does, however, indicate that the Crown did not at that time acquiesce in the received opinion. The question as to priority of foundation and the prece- dence resulting therefrom, which at one time was much disputed between the Universities, has left its mark on the legislation affecting them. While in the earlier Acts where the Universities are named together Oxford is always placed first, there was a period comprising Edward the Sixth’s and the two following reigns, when the order was generally, though not uniformly reversed, and the two Acts of I Jac. I here printed differ from one another in this respect. An animated debate on the point arose in the House of Commons on the 26th of February, i6of, very briefly re- corded in the Journals.^ The decision then come to seems to have settled the question in favour of Oxford as far as Parliament was concerned, though a few belated instances to the contrary may be found in subsequent legislation.^ As regards the Colleges of Winchester, Eton, and West- minster, though their true order has at no time been open to doubt, no one seems ever to have insisted on its observ- ance, and every permutation, of which the names admit is to be found in one or more Acts in this collection. Of the enactments here printed all those that are con- ‘ ‘ The Bill against Heads of Colleges read ; and (by a mistaking of my Man, of putting Cambridge before Oxford) ‘ Q. Whether Cambridge should be set upon the Title ? A great Dispute, and much Time spent in the House : And at last it came to Question, Whether Cam- bridgt, or Oxford, first: And Resolved, with much Odds, that Oxford.’ See {infra) 12 Ann. c. 14 [12 Ann. St. l. c. 13., Ruff.] s. 9 and 22 Geo. 2. c. 44. s. 2 (where the wording of a similar clause in i & 2 Ph. & M. c. 7. s. 5 {infra) was perhaps followed), and 5 Geo. 4. c; 54. s. 6.$