These publications were widely disseminated and led to the production of a number of epigrams and lampoons which were scattered broadcast in the University. The Society appended to this sheet a note that its members had “no connexion whatever with any of those abusive and profane publications which have been so industriously circulated during the last two weeks.”
The sheet for the week ending 17 March, announced the success of the movement, though in this return only Carus and Perry came up to the standard. Appended to the sheet were the following notes:
The Society in laying the first list of this month before the public, have much reason to be pleased with the success of the work which they have undertaken, for they have been informed, on very good authority, that the Cruelty System will not be continued more than a week longer, but that the Master and Seniors have determined to come to a new Agreement about Chapels.... If this should be the case, the end which the Society had in view will be accomplished, and the weekly publications will be discontinued, until called again into life by some new act of Cruelty upon the much enduring Undergraduates, but not otherwise. The Fellows have been very irregular during the last week, in their attendance at Chapel; so much so that only two of the whole number in residence have kept the number, which the [80] ]Undergraduates are compelled to keep, on pain of being ipso facto rusticated, either entirely, or for one or more terms. And yet one Member of Trinity College was really sent away during the past week (who had always been seven times each week before) because he had the courage to object to compulsory attendance at Chapel, especially from those men who had set him such an example!
In the course of the next week a printed notice appeared on the screens reducing the number of compulsory attendances in chapel to two on Sundays and four during the week. The paper, type, and setting look as if this were issued by the authorities. I have, however, seen a contemporary letter in which it is said that this notice was in fact a forgery: the suggestion being that the men were tired of the joke, and invented this way of terminating the episode. I cannot say whether the deans modified their rule, and the question of the genuineness of this notice must be left undecided. It is true that no extant minute of the seniority exists about any new regulation, but the records of the proceedings of that body are so imperfect that no conclusion can be drawn from this.
The Society in publishing its last sheet, namely, that for the week ending 24 March, concluded with the following class list and notes:
The examination of the Fellows is now finished: and in arranging the different classes the Secretary has attached to each person’s name his number of marks, in order to do [81] ]away with any appearance of favour shewn more to one than another, as is too often the case in other Examinations.
First Class. *Carus 72 Perry 66 *Barnes 50 Second Class. Heath 42 Wordsworth Senior 38 Thorp 35 Whewell 34 Blakesley 30 Third Class. Peacock 28 Thompson 19 Brown 17 Dobson 13 Martin 12 Last Class. Wordsworth Junior 9 Sedgwick 5 Field 4 Donaldson 3 Burcham 0 Walsh 0 * The two gentlemen marked with an asterisk are respectively Senior and Junior Dean, whose duty it is to go twice every day to Chapel.
The Prize Medal for regular attendance at chapel and good conduct when there, has been awarded to Mr Perry, who has passed an examination highly creditable to himself and family. He was only 18 marks below the highest number which he could possibly have gained. It is, therefore, to be hoped Mr P. will be more regular and do still better next term. With respect to the two Gentlemen who are not classed, the Secretary need hardly say that he does not envy them their feelings on the present occasion. In consequence of the New Agreement, the Chapel Lists will ipso facto be discontinued for the future.
| First Class. | |
|---|---|
| *Carus | 72 |
| Perry | 66 |
| *Barnes | 50 |
| Second Class. | |
| Heath | 42 |
| Wordsworth Senior | 38 |
| Thorp | 35 |
| Whewell | 34 |
| Blakesley | 30 |
| Third Class. | |
| Peacock | 28 |
| Thompson | 19 |
| Brown | 17 |
| Dobson | 13 |
| Martin | 12 |
| Last Class. | |
| Wordsworth Junior | 9 |
| Sedgwick | 5 |
| Field | 4 |
| Donaldson | 3 |
| Burcham | 0 |
| Walsh | 0 |
In the above list the master is designated as Wordsworth Senior. The prize was awarded to Perry the future bishop, but instead of the promised medal he was given a bible. This was secured for the College in 1906, and now rests in our library. It is bound in calf, stamped with the arms and [82] ]supporters assumed by the Society, and bears the inscription “From the Undergraduates of Trinity College to the Rev. Charles Perry, M.A., as a mark of affection and esteem for the good example which he set them and the rest of the College by his constant attendance at Chapel.” I have been informed that to each of the two fellows who did not attend at all there was sent a small bible with an inscription therein of the Society’s hope that its presence among his books might in the future encourage him to perform tasks which he believed to be important even though he found them unpleasant.
The doggerel verses to which I have alluded as appearing in connection with the struggle were, as far as I have seen them, poor stuff as literary productions, and some were highly improper. The author of one of the worst of them was discovered and expelled from the College, 12 March 1838. I possess copies of four or five of these productions, their value consists entirely in giving us stories then current about dons and things academic—stories, I may add, which appear generally to have had no foundation in fact. The best set of verses, supposed to be addressed on Saturday evening by a man to his bedmaker, is a parody of Tennyson’s May Queen. It begins: “You must mind and call me early—call me early, d’ye hear? For I in morning chapel to-morrow [83] ]must appear,” and on the whole runs easily. There is nothing in these squibs which deserves remembrance or needs any further notice here.
There ends the story, and no comments on it or the actors in it are needed. It may be added as a postscript, that for a long time subsequent to this incident some attendance at chapel was required from all who had no good reason to ask for exemption, and that as time went on the requirements gradually grew less. The question of making attendance at chapel compulsory on those who have not yet fully attained years of discretion is admittedly difficult, and made more so by the fact that while such attendance is approved and rigorously imposed every day of the week at most public boarding schools on lads up to the age of eighteen or nineteen, it is regarded as unthinkable in the case of young graduates of twenty-one or so. Trinity College finally adopted the view advocated by Thirlwall, and to-day attendance at chapel services is voluntary.