Until the era of the Reform Bill some regulation like this was accepted as a matter of course, but when, in that period of enquiry, all things were put to the proof, doubts as to its wisdom began to be voiced. In 1834 Thirlwall, then assistant-tutor to Whewell, in an open letter dated 21 May, while advocating the admission of dissenters to the University, lamented the constant repetition in college chapels of a mechanical service, believing the practice to be detrimental to the interests of religion: he further expressed the opinion that attendance at chapel services should be voluntary. He referred to a then recent statement by Wordsworth in which the latter had said "the alternative is not here between compulsory religion (as it is called) and any other religion, but between compulsory religion and no religion at all," and on this remarked: I cannot indeed draw such delicate distinctions as my friend seems to make in this passage; for as the epithet compulsory applied to religion appears to me contradictory, the difference between a compulsory religion and no religion at all is too subtle for my grasp. But if for _religion_ we substitute the word _service_, which would probably better express his meaning, then I should quite agree with him, that, in this case, a voluntary service would soon be changed into no service at all: that is, the persons who are now compelled to attend, if they were left at liberty, would stay away. And this is the very reason why I think it would be better that they should be allowed to do so. The argument was amplified in a second letter dated 13 June. This was skilful enough as a piece of dialectics though hardly likely to convince opponents. That an officer of the college should express such views and in this way was regarded by Wordsworth as scandalous, and five days after the publication of the first letter, without asking for any explanation, he, with the consent or approval of Whewell and the two deans (Thorp and Carus), removed Thirlwall from his office of assistant-tutor. This arbitrary act was generally resented in the Society even by those who disagreed with Thirlwall or thought that he had been indiscreet in his advocacy; some too considered the act unstatutable, but Thirlwall refused to appeal to the Visitor, and shortly afterwards left Cambridge on his appointment, in November 1834, by the lord chancellor, to the important living of Kirby-under-dale in Yorkshire.