Item 47 - Letter from Edward Hawkins

4 pp

Oriel College - Details concerning matriculation, in particularly, the number of terms an undergraduate should be in residence. 'There has been no attempt to make us pay Borough Rates, but only Poor-rates. In fact we contribute largely towards the Town expenses'. They also maintain an efficient night police at quite an expense, and contribute a fair amount to the paving, lighting and employ paupers to clean the streets. EH gives his view on the College's relation to the poor rates: 'were it only expected that Heads of Houses and fellows should pay Poor rates, I should say that they ought to do so: and, practically, as we are owners of very many houses in the town, so far we do pay through our tenants. But I think it unfair that the burthen of the poor should be thrown upon the undergraduates, all rated as so many tenants of rooms'. Further an Act procured by the citizens of Oxford some eighty years ago, regulating the poor rates for seven of the parishes, omitted to mention the University: 'Hitherto any attempt to bring us under payment of poor Rates has failed; but nothing has really been decided on the merits'.