It was called a college, but it had really much more of the character of a university; and it was as a new university in Manchester that he was ready and delighted to welcome it. It was a great and noble work which had been begun in their city.… He looked then upon Owens College as a university rising in a great city; neither did he look on a great city as an unfitting place for a great university. As a rule, the ancient universities of Europe had arisen in great cities. Owens College, unlike most modern institutions, did not begin with a building. Here was a college which had been at work for a good many years, and the common academical buildings were only now being planned. This was just as it should be; at any rate it was just in the spirit of the old founders. They got their men first, and let the buildings come afterwards. If Owens College had hitherto to do with makeshift buildings, it was just what the old colleges of Oxford did for a while, and in both cases for the same reason, because the college itself, the living members of the college, came first in the ideas of the founders, and the material house existed for their sake only. The draft of the new Constitution was prepared, under the direction of a sub-committee, by Mr. James Bryce, now Lord Bryce, then Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford, and formerly Professor of Jurisprudence and Law at Owens College. A Bill was next drafted to enable the College to procure modifications of certain features of John Owens’s foundation, and Roscoe was requested to sign as one of the promoters of the petition for the Owens College, Manchester, Bill, 1870. This Bill met with a certain amount of parliamentary opposition, mainly in the House of Lords, where it was first introduced. It was alleged that it was a Bill for incorporating a non-existent charity, enabling it to annex the property of another charity and to set aside to a great extent the expressed intention of the founder. Objections also were raised in Manchester itself by the executor of the late chairman of trustees, on the ground that it was proposed to include females as students of the College. The promoters met both the parliamentary and local opposition with skill and judgment. The Lords passed the second reading by a majority of nearly six to one, and as no petitions were lodged against it after lying on the table for forty days, it was read a third time and passed. In the Commons the Bill was read a first and second time without opposition. A difficulty was threatened in Committee in regard to the inclusion of the words, “A college wherein young persons, including if and when the proper authorities of the College so direct, persons of the female sex, may receive instruction.” This was stayed by the promoters agreeing to accept in lieu the words “such young persons as the proper authorities