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EDUCATION IN OIFOED. 
 
EDUCATION IN OXFOKD: 
 
 ITS METHOD, 
 ITS AIDS, AND ITS BEWARDS. 
 
 JAMES E. TIOEOLD EOffEES, I.A., 
 
 TOOKE PBOPESaOE OP BCOKOMIO SOIEKOH AKD STATISTICS, KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON; 
 
 SOilBTIUB FITBLXC EXAMINEB IN OXFOBD ; AND ONE OF THE BBLEQATES 
 
 OP THE OXFOBD LOCAL EXAUINATIONg, 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, COENHILL. 
 
 M.DCCC.LXI. 
 
 [77(6 right of Translation is reserved.'] 
 
''% 
 
 ■^^7/ C'llr 
 
 UNiVERSflY 
 UBR'A^J 
 
PKEFACE. 
 
 The author of the following pages has more than one 
 purpose in what he has written, and hopes to attract 
 the attention of more than one class of readers. 
 
 First of all, he wishes to give information to that 
 very large body of persons who may think of placing 
 their sons in the University of Oxford, but who know- 
 nothing but what is very vague about the studies of the 
 university and the expenses of residence in it ; and still 
 less about what are the material advantages procured 
 by successful study, both during the time of an under- 
 graduate, or student's career, and after he has proceeded 
 to his degree. The author has reason to believe that 
 any real knowledge about what Oxford is, does, and 
 may do, is exceedingly rare ; and that, as with every 
 other thing which may be in estimation, the tendency 
 to unduly depreciate what we do not know anything 
 about, is far more common than that to unduly exalt. 
 Hence he concludes, if people knew more about what 
 Oxford is, that it would be to the advantage of the 
 university, and with it of the highest education, even 
 
 6 
 
VI PEEFACE. . 
 
 though one speaks plainly of what seem to be faults 
 and shortcomings, and tries to distinguish the causes 
 why this ancient seat of learning has such narrow 
 influence, such slatternly energies. 
 
 Next, he intended to give his impressions of the way 
 in which the Act of 1854 was working, and what was 
 likely to be the result of the changes introduced six 
 years ago. Partial as these changes are, they are vital 
 and large. Coupled with them was the domestic 
 legislation of 1850, in pursuance of which the new 
 system of examinations was instituted, and which, with- 
 out, it appears, intending to do so, seriously altered the 
 previous method of the university, while professing to 
 reform its ancient studies, and incorporate new ones 
 with them. The persons who instituted .these parlia- 
 mentary and municipal changes in .the government, 
 material, and funds of the university, are very likely to 
 be in the dark about their consequences, umless they 
 liave by accident beeu' en rapport with racademical life 
 since those .periods. 
 
 Next, the author took advantage of such occasioiis 
 as were before him, according to the plan, of his work, 
 to suggest what appear to hiaaaself desirable modifica- 
 tions in the existing management of the university, its 
 extension, its utilization, audits social influences. He 
 has not, he hopes, gone out of his way to introduce any 
 theories df his own, for he ias said Ti;exj .little wJiich 
 others have not said, or are jiot ready to endorse. If 
 he has spoken .too fully on auch subjects, his apology 
 lies in his attachment to Oxford, aad his wish that 
 
PREFACE. vil 
 
 those who should enjoy the benefits of a national univer- 
 sity, were multiplied tenfold or twentyfold. 
 
 For carrying out these purposes, he has, in the first 
 place, said a little about what seems to be the meaning 
 of education, and how preparation may be made in 
 schools, in supplementary establishments, and in private 
 teaching, for the requirement and the prospects of 
 academical life and academical success. Such an 
 account must be general ; he only hopes that it may not 
 be merely superficial. Next, he has pointed out what 
 are the relations in which the student stands to the 
 university, and he has wished to separate as markedly 
 as possible those relations to what may be called a 
 municipal body, from those in which the undergraduate 
 stands to this or that, college, and which aroi in a. 
 manner, domestic. Hence he has dealt in this part 
 of his work with examinattons>, with public or pro- 
 fessional teaching, with university prizes, and the 
 significance of those mysterious appendages to people's 
 names, whicli denote the degrees they have taken under 
 the authority of the university or municipal body. Nor 
 did he think this portion would be complete, if he did 
 not annex to it his experience and. his hopes of the- 
 Oxford local or middle class examinations. 
 
 As, however, an individual cannot be a member of this 
 university, without being also- a member of some college 
 or hall, in which undergraduates are lodged, in part 
 boarded, in some shape or the other taught, and form 
 associations, in which they catch the tone and nlanner 
 of the society to which they are attached ; it is neces- 
 
Vlil PREFACE. 
 
 sary to speak at length on these institutions. Here, of 
 course, the information given is, as far as possible, 
 precise and definite, though, for reasons which the 
 reader will recognize and even anticipate, far less pre- 
 cise and definite than could be wished. For within 
 ,this subject lie the greater part of the questions natu- 
 rally asked by parents and others in contemplating the 
 university as a matter of interest to themselves or their 
 children. What will the education cost? what is it 
 worth ? what is the best college into which the intend- 
 ing undergraduate can be introduced ? The reader will 
 find a pretty uniform answer to the first of these ques- 
 tions, a general one to the second, and a necessarily 
 variable one to the third. , . The author has said as much 
 as he thinks himself warranted in saying, and has ven- 
 tured on a plainness of speech, which he hopes will 
 argue his willingness to give as much information as he 
 can ; and if the reader will be at the pains to consult 
 them, he has annexed, partly in confirmation of his 
 statements, and partly as a guide to an independent 
 judgment, a series of tables, the interest in which will, 
 he hopes, obviate the proverbial dryness of statistical 
 accounts and arithmetical proportions. More minute and 
 immediate information maybe gathered from inquiry; 
 and it is well to inquire, and inquire fully and cau- 
 tiously, before taking any definite step. The author 
 would be sorry to fall into the mistake of affecting to 
 give full information where it cannot be given. 
 
 Next, and lastly, the author has stated to the best of 
 his power, and to the fullest extent of his information. 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 what are the resources of these great and rich corpora- 
 tions, and what is the destination of those trusts which 
 the university and colleges hold for the benefit of pro- 
 ficients, whether they be undergraduates or have taken 
 their degree. The information is imperfect, and always 
 must be. Colleges have a large power of self-govern- 
 ment, and a great inclination to secrecy. This is 
 especially true of the richer colleges, for some of the 
 poorer ones rather made a display of their poverty 
 on the occasion of the Commission. But most of the 
 colleges resisted, and resisted successfully, any inquiry 
 into the extent and nature of their estates. In all 
 likelihood, the estimate given by the author will be 
 censured as exaggerated. He will be glad to be cor- 
 rected by evidence. 
 
 The question, in short, which he has especially tried 
 to solve may be put in the following shape. Are the 
 social and material advantages attendant on success in 
 academical life sufficient to warrant the certain expen- 
 diture incurred for a degree, and the risk of failure 
 even under the conditions of diligence and perseve- 
 rance? The reader must judge how far this question 
 is answered, though the author can assure him that 
 he has done his best to answer it, both in its general 
 aspect and in its particular bearings. 
 
 Perhaps he may be excused for fortifying the in- 
 formation he does give, and the views he holds about 
 the duties and destinies of the university, by mention- 
 ing that he has lived in Oxford, almost continuously, 
 for eighteen years. During that time he has been pupil. 
 
X PREFACE, 
 
 teacher and examiner. Academical life has been his 
 living. He has instructed several hundreds of under- 
 graduateSj. and has been familiar with most forms of 
 undergraduate capacity and conduct. He has had the 
 pleasure of teaching many very able persons, and has 
 done his best with the material of many very stupid 
 ones. 
 
 But he has no interest, near or remote, with any 
 college or hall, and, therefore, no prejudice. He has 
 no motive to praise or dispraise. He is not open to the 
 unconscious influence of habit or association, of esprit 
 de corps, or local sympathy.. His affections are to the 
 university only — to the municipal, not to the domestic 
 institution. The society to which he belongs is no 
 more to him than a vehicle for keeping his name on 
 the books of the university — that is, for retaining his 
 academical suffrages ; and whatever preferences he has 
 are due to an external and independent judgment. It 
 is to the purpose to state this, because people who 
 directly recommend any particular college are very 
 often unable to give rational grounds for their recom- 
 mendation, and the author would not have his indirect 
 commendations misunderstood. 
 
 Oxford, Nov. 1860. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 paiit paqb 
 
 I.^Intkoduciion ... ... 1 
 
 n. — The Student and the TJniveesitt . . . . 22 
 
 III. — The College . . . . . .96 
 
 IV. — SCHOLAKSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, AND OTHER ENDOWMENTS 207 
 
EDUCATIOIf I]\T OXFOED. 
 
 PART I. 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 There are few things about which people are so much 
 agreed as on the value of education. Though they are 
 not prepared very often to explain what they mean by 
 education, and not very apt in determining what its 
 value is, they assent to the general statement that it 
 is of the highest value, without hesitation, and on all 
 occasions. It is not difficult to explain why the precise 
 appreciation of its value is rare, and why the precise 
 signification of the word "education" is seldom arrived 
 at. To make out, however, what each of these terms 
 imports, is of prime necessity. 
 
 Education differs from information or knowledge. 
 The latter is of a special character, the purport of 
 which is to fit a man for bringing about certain definite 
 results by the immediate operation of that knowledge 
 which he possesses. We talk, indeed, of the education 
 of a lawyer, a doctor, and a clergyman — of an engineer, 
 a soldier, or a sailor; generally raeaning by it the 
 information or knowledge which he has acquired for 
 the immediate exercise of his vocation. But law, 
 
 1 
 
 \ 
 
2 EDUCATION IN OXFOED. 
 
 medicine, divinity, mechanics, strategics, and naviga- 
 tion, are not education. A man may possess any one 
 of them and be well nigh illiterate, though of course 
 some can more possibly coexist with want of education 
 than others. One can conceive that a man may have 
 a profound practical acquaintance with law, and be an 
 uneducated person. Again, to quote an instance, the 
 first Duke of Marlborough was one of the most skilful 
 generals ever known, but he could not spell, and hardly 
 write. Some men who have had the most marvellous 
 aptitude and quickness in mechanical science, have been 
 imable, from sheer ignorance, to sustain a common con- 
 versation. 
 
 Education, on the other hand, deals with formalities. 
 It does not so much aim at setting the mind right on 
 particular points, as on getting the mind into the way 
 of being right. It does not deal with matter, but with 
 method. It purposes to train the thinking powers of 
 man, not to fill the mind with facts. Hence, were 
 it perfect, it would cultivate the intelligence so largely 
 as to render easy the acquisition of any knowledge. 
 It deals, in short, either directly or indirectly, with 
 logical order and the reasoning powers. That it faUs 
 short of effecting what it purposes, is due to defects 
 in its system, to defects in man's mind, to defects in 
 this or that man's mind. As, however, its operation 
 is not immediate, but only indirect, its best methods 
 are frequently cavilled at as useless. 
 
 It may teach the logical method of thinking and 
 reasoning. This, however, is generally too abstract 
 for most minds, except they be more or less matured, 
 and more or less informed on some one or two subjects. 
 [ In place of this, then, it teaches ordinarily something, 
 which is as exact an illustration of logical method as 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 can be, and which, being unfailing in its inferences, 
 trains the mind in method, and often stores it with 
 facts. In a gi-eater or less degree, but in some degree 
 at least, this inculcation of an abstract method is neces- 
 sary for any kind of education, and even, except it be 
 a mere knack, for information. 
 
 Reading and writing even are educational methods. 
 The letters of the alphabet are abstract and arbitrary 
 signs, the comprehension of which requires a certain 
 amount of attention, and a separation, for a time at 
 least, between the thing signified and the sign. After 
 a time the use and formation of letters become almost 
 mechanical arts, though this is, to be sure, the case 
 with all perfect methods ; for what we call a mechanical 
 process in the mind, means a habit the exercise of which 
 is so rapid, that we are unable to follow it, and so sure 
 about it as not to need to follow it. Arithmetic, the 
 science of abstract numbers, is an educational method 
 of great and well nigh universal necessity, though it is 
 also of great practical utility in its application to details 
 and facts. By far the majority of people who learn 
 arithmetic fully, never need use more than its simplest 
 rules. So, in a still more marked way, is it with 
 geometry, and certain other familiar educational pro- 
 cesses. To illustrate these methods, however, we need 
 the presence of a certain number of facts, and to arrange 
 and classify these facts we need more or less of these 
 methods. 
 
 Now, it is plain that some of these methods have so 
 obvious and universal a practical application that they 
 must be possessed by everybody who wishes to carry 
 on, except in the lowest station, the commonest business 
 of life. Hence they are looked on as pieces of know- 
 ledge or information, as they have a direct result. Thus 
 
 1—2 
 
4 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 it is that the confusion commences between education 
 £\nd information. It is not difficult to put knowledge 
 and method in strong contrast, but it is not easy to say- 
 where method ends and knowledge begins. 
 j The value of education is measured by three rules. 
 What is it worth to the individual possessing it ? What 
 is the worth which society assigns to it ? What is its 
 material worth, or, in other words, what advantages are 
 connected with it, which may be reduced with greater 
 or less exactness to pounds, shillings, and pence ? The 
 first of these aspects of the value of education is apt to 
 be measured by the other two ; but unless a man is to 
 merely livp by other people's good opinion, or to merely 
 follow that which will increase his balance at his banker's, 
 the first has a fair claim to independent consideration. 
 
 All judgments which have been worked out by a 
 man's own mind, all general principles which have .in- 
 fluenced society, all directions of original thought, have 
 come from the first of these values of education. In 
 the worth of education to the individual who has it lie 
 all the facts of human progress, and all hope of human 
 progress. And in it, too, are all the consolations of 
 the man himself, whether they be escape from prevalent 
 error, or relief from the toil of labour, or the shield of 
 a rational self-respect. 
 
 The social worth of education is not so great, indeed, 
 as it might be, but it is very large. It is true that the 
 immediate product of certain branches of information is 
 so visible and so tangible that the disposition of man- 
 kind would be to sacrifice method to knowledcre, were 
 it not for the urgency of a competition among those who 
 possess knowledge, and among whom the man who has 
 at once method and knowledge is pretty sure to win the 
 day. The influence of educated men on society, and 
 
INTEODUCTIOlf. 5 
 
 the respect of society to educated men, would be more 
 genetal and more reciprocally beneficial, if more edu- 
 cated men applied their method to the ordinary business 
 of life. That they do not do so, is, perhaps, in great 
 degree the fault of those institutions where the best 
 education is given. I have not the slightest doubt that 
 a person who had studied successfully, as he would do 
 if he studied honestly, at the universities, would in 
 trade, or any other business, speedily outrun compe- 
 titors who had not the same advantages as himself. 
 They do so ordinarily in those occupations which they 
 undertake. They would do so in more, were not the 
 expenses of the university a serious impediment to their 
 popularity. 
 
 The material advantages of education are exceedingly 
 large. Not only is it daily more and more the case .that 
 a certain status of educational method is being required 
 for public employment, but beyond doubt it will be so 
 in private employment, where offices are those of trust. 
 But this is a small matter compared with the singular pe- 
 cuniary aids and rewards which are attached to grammar- 
 schools and colleges. I believe I have fair grounds for 
 concluding that in Oxford alone these aids and rewards 
 amount to half a million of annual income. Twenty 
 years ago, Professor Huber set the income of the uni- 
 versity and colleges in Oxford at more than 300,000Z. 
 per annum. I am convinced that he understated the 
 amount very largely ; and there must be added to this, 
 benefactions since ; the vast enhancement in the value 
 of estates, most academical endowments being improve- 
 able freeholds ; the proceeds of a successful and lucrative 
 trade, that of the press ; and the income of accumulations 
 which were not dreamt of by the dihgent German. 
 The income-tax assessment of college and university 
 
6 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 property in Oxford alone, is 58,000?. annually. Besides 
 these there are the exliibitions from grammar-schools, 
 miserably and scandalously perverted as these are, but 
 still part and parcel of those aids to what professes to be 
 the highest education in England. 
 
 Education, and education of the highest and most 
 universal method, is what is professedly given at the 
 English universities. I do not pretend in this work, 
 however, to make any reference to other systems than 
 that prevailing in Oxford, still less to make comparisons 
 between Oxford and its amicable rivals. There is 
 hardly a single special branch of human learning for 
 which a teacher is not provided in Oxford, hardly one 
 which is taught as a science of facts. 
 
 Most people think that Oxford is a training school 
 for clergymen. It is undoubtedly the case that by far 
 the majority of Oxford graduates take holy orders, there 
 being only twenty-seven per cent, of its masters of arts 
 who are not clergymen. But Oxford does not teach 
 clergymen. Its instruction in theology is of the scantiest 
 and most meagre order, comprising ordinarily such in- 
 formation as would be given by any Christian parent 
 to the members of his household, and in the case of 
 those who purpose entering the Church, the attendance 
 on one or two courses of professorial lectures. These 
 are of very little profit, not because the professors may 
 not be willing to extend the utilities of their office, but 
 because attendance on these lectures is merely the com- 
 pliance with a requisition on the part of bishops. Were 
 it not for this episcopal rule, there would not be, I 
 believe, half a dozen hearers to each of the four divinity 
 professors. It is true, indeed, that one of the conditions 
 of a degree is that professed members of the English 
 Church should be able to translate the gospels and the 
 
INTEODTJCTIOlf. 7 
 
 Acts of the Apostles; but this is quite as much, or more, 
 an examination in Greek, than in the contents of the 
 narrative. The bishops require a degree in most cases, 
 and so clergymen must be trained at one of the uni- 
 versities ; they do tiot require, indeed cannot get, any 
 profound acquaintance with theology out of their can- 
 didates, and so the clerical education, unlike any other, 
 is supposed to be finished ■when a course of secular 
 teaching, which is mainly, as I have said, a teaching of 
 method, is gone through. 
 
 There is a popular, but I believe very shallow notion, 
 that the course of academical instruction is not useful. 
 It is not worth while to revive a discussion settled long 
 -since, about the relative advantages of what are called 
 practical sciences, and what is called mere mental 
 culture. It is sufficient to say, that the world would go 
 on very poorly without both. Exclusive cultivation of 
 mere physical knowledge would leave a very intelligible 
 gap in those moral and intellectual forces which for 
 good or evil, but especially for good, have such weight 
 for the collective destinies of mankind. That mere 
 mental culture should supersede the developments of 
 the knowledge of the material universe is unlikely ; the 
 danger is, and has been, on the other side, and this with 
 but one exceptional period, from the beginning of 
 history. The advantage of an acquaintance with some 
 branch of practical philosophy is so obvious and imme- 
 diate that one is perpetually reminded of the risks which 
 educational method runs in either being confounded 
 with the knowledge of facts, or of being ignored alto- 
 gether, or of the experts in the one branch of human 
 science disdaining and disliking contact with the other, 
 and men being divided as to the most fundamental 
 securities of progress and civilization. It was with 
 
8 EDUCATION IN OXFOKD. 
 
 reason that Bacon asserted that his logic of facts would 
 equalize all intellects. But great as the vantage ground 
 is which is promised for such learning by those simple 
 rules of inference which he first called attention to, the 
 result has been that the mere acquaintance with such a 
 method has caused it to cease from being an engine of 
 education properly so called. 
 
 The part played by the universities in the general 
 education of the country, and in the moral forces which 
 govern it, is of the last and greatest importance. 
 
 Unlike analogous establishments in continental cities, 
 the universities are municipal bodies, possessing very 
 large powers of self-government — powers only invaded 
 in modern times in order to give them more flexibility, 
 and in effect more power. Fortunately, they are not 
 situated in large towns, where other interests ^would 
 clash wyith theirs. As they receive no assistance from 
 the public purse, and were not at any time, except in a 
 very insignificant degree, beholden to the Crown for any 
 of their endowments, but were wholly the creations of 
 i private munificence, the interference of the State with 
 / their organization and emoluments could not take place 
 except in pursuance of the privileges which they might 
 possibly enjoy, which, by the way, are very scanty, 
 or of their coming under the head of trust-estates, to be 
 administered for limited, but for public purposes. The 
 , faculty of self-government is the essence of the English 
 universities, as indeed 'it is of all institutions worth any- 
 thing in the country. ' 
 
 Again, they educate, though they do not specially 
 inform, the greater part of the English clergy, and a 
 very large number of lay persons. Whatever else they 
 may do, or may not do, the English clergy do more to 
 break the fall between the rich and those who are 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 indifferently off than any other class in the State. By 
 prescription and by the anomalous condition of eccle- 
 siastical endowments, they are very poor. By education 
 and associations they are gentlemen, and generally so 
 by birth. Thus they act as intermediaries. And, in 
 respect of lay persons, it is easy to point to the lawyers 
 and statesmen who have received their educational 
 training at the universities, to the numbers of men who 
 have been sustained by college endowments during the 
 arduous expectancy pf professional success, however 
 difficult it may be to denote distinctly the part which 
 academical education has had in the eminence and 
 success of such personages. 
 
 Again, they present the maximum standard of an 
 English education. With more or less success, similar 
 institutions aim at a method of training very much akin 
 to that which prevails at the universities. There are, it 
 is true, gymnasia, and schools which deal with special 
 branches of information, such as medicine, chemistry, 
 mechanics, and the like, which subjects the university 
 could not teach if it would, for the materials are not, 
 and cannot be, at its disposal, and should not if it could, 
 as by doing so, it would transgress the limits which are 
 so justly assigned to it, as a typical place of education. 
 
 Lastly, except in very trivial and vanishing points, 
 they inculcate an equality between all classes of students, 
 whatever be their means, and whatever their antecedents. 
 Social rank as part of public life, and as a stimulant to 
 proper self-respect, has and will have its value, but 
 degrees in it are out of place among young men who are 
 under a common discipline. Large means at command 
 will act powerfully upon the world at large, and secure 
 a numerous following; but young men ought not to 
 worship the golden image in the persons of their fellow 
 
10 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 youtlis, and what is more, in Oxford at least, it does not 
 appear that they do. 
 
 School Education. — The education given in gram- 
 mar-schools, and they are reckoned, endowed and 
 proprietary, in England, by hundreds, culminates in that 
 which forms the staple of academical success. Like the 
 colleges, thfey are generally the result of private bene- 
 volence, though Eton was founded by Henry VI., 
 Westminster, in some degree, by Henry YHL, and a 
 few establishments were created from the wreck of 
 monastic property by Edward VI., or rather his 
 counsellors. But for the rest, they are mainly due to 
 the munificence of private persons, the Crown in this 
 country never having been noted for bestowing any 
 portion of its wealth on learning, and generally, indeed, 
 from the time of the Tudors, having very little wealth 
 to bestow. 
 
 In most endowed grammar-schools, the greater part 
 of the revenues are consumed in the payments made to 
 the masters, and in repairs of school buildings. But 
 there are very few which do not possess, either in addi- 
 tion to the original endowment, or from the dispositions 
 of the founder, or by the increased value of the school 
 estate, certain funds for the maintenance of one or more 
 of their scholars at one or the other of the universities. 
 Occasionally these endowments are limited to a par- 
 ticular university, or a particular college, but generally 
 the recipient of the benefaction has the right of choosing 
 his own university. In some few of the great grammar- 
 schools alone, the amount of these exhibitions, as they 
 are called, is more than 10,000Z. a year. But I shall 
 have more to say of these aids in the Fourth Part of this 
 work. It is sufficient to say, that there is very little 
 
INTRODUCTION. 1 1 
 
 accessible information as to the amount and destination 
 of these revenues. 
 
 The endowed grammar-schools which are the great 
 feeders of the universities are Eton, Westminster, 
 Winchester, Harrow, Rugby. To these may be added 
 Merchant Taylors', which owes its connection with the 
 university to the fact that White, the founder of 
 St. John's College, annexed his benefaction for the most 
 part to this school ; and the Charter House, the exhibi- 
 tions from which, assigned to residence in the university, 
 are understood to be numerous and valuable. The 
 Charter-house School, however, is well nigh the worst 
 job in all England. 
 
 Other endowed grammar-schools supply, in greater or 
 less degree, members to the university, by the exhibi- 
 tions connected with them. It is almost impossible to 
 arrive at what these exhibitions are, and it is not gene- 
 rally worth while, as almost all endowed grammar- 
 schools are in an unsatisfactory state, if we estimate 
 them by their products in the Oxford examinations. In 
 some of the greater ones, there are advantages of a 
 social kind of no small value : school friendships and 
 associations are more firmly retained than any other 
 which arise subsequently ; but unless we extend the 
 word education to that which boys get from boys, 
 exceedingly valuable as this is, these schools, considering 
 their opulence and their numbers, bring forth marvel- 
 lously small academical fruit. 
 
 Of late years, schools called public, but diifering 
 nothing from private schools in their origin, have been 
 founded on two distinct principles, and bid fair to com- 
 pete successfully with the old public schools. There is 
 a very considerable number of one kind, and there are 
 two of another. The first of these is the class of 
 
12 EDUCATION IS OXFOKD. 
 
 proprietary schools ; the last is that in which the sons of 
 the clergy have differential advantages. 
 
 Proprietary schools are, in reality, schools founded on 
 the principle of co-operation. The shareholders in these 
 schools have a body of directors, or a committee of 
 management, and these parties elect and dismiss their 
 head and other masters. The advantages of the scheme 
 are manifest, the danger in these schools being that the 
 managing body is apt to interfere too much in those 
 details which are best left to the head-master. There is 
 occasionally, too, in the method of these institutions, a 
 tendency to a slavish sectarianism, and a want of healthy 
 feeling. 
 
 The proprietors either procure differential advantages 
 to their own children, or receive dividends on their ad- 
 vances. Hence they are naturally induced to send their 
 own sons to these schools, and to induce others to do the 
 like. Each proprietor is in effect a sort of private ad- 
 vertisement to the school. The institution has no need, 
 in the ordinary course of its existence, to pass through 
 that period of establishing a reputation, which is the 
 most serious ^obstacle to success in the efforts of private 
 individuals. It starts, as all co-operative societies of 
 supply start, with a goodwill of customers ready made. 
 
 In cases where the head-master is at once competent 
 and left in great degree to his own discretion, these 
 proprietary schools have been exceedingly successful. 
 Though the institution is favourably placed from its 
 very commencement, it needs diligence and continued 
 success to hold its own. It is affected by the wholesome 
 stimulus of competition, a spur to which the mass of 
 public schools is insensible. If a parent wishes his son 
 to be well taught, by far the safest place of education is 
 a well and carefully managed proprietary school. The 
 
INTEODUCTIOIC. 13 
 
 reputation of some of these institutions is great and 
 deserved, though in the face of so many doing well, it 
 would be invidious to cite some, and wearisome to give 
 all cases. 
 
 Similar to these proprietary schools, hut differing 
 from them in their constitution, are the two great 
 schools of Marlborough and Rossall Hall. These in- 
 stitutions were, I believe, set on foot mainly by the 
 instrumentality of the present dean of Manchester. The 
 chief characteristic in them is that the sons of clergymen 
 are admitted at less charges than the sons of other parties. 
 This economical error, if error it be, is committed on 
 the avowed ground of the narrowness of clerical incomes, 
 and the equity of providing, if possible, means for the 
 sons of the clergy to receive that education which their 
 parents have had before them. Many other professional 
 bodies have followed this example. There are schools, 
 for instance, for the sons of medical men, and for the 
 sons of commercial travellers, in which the same dif- 
 ferential rates are held. The idea is not an original one, 
 having been borrowed from the graduated system pre- 
 vailing in military schools, where there are many rates 
 of charge. But these military schools are, unlike those 
 which I have referred to, supported by a public grant. 
 
 Of these two schools, one is intended for the south, 
 Marlborough ; the other for the north of England. 
 The former is an exceedingly useful educational insti- 
 tution, instructing as many boys as any of the public 
 schools, and turning out a very large number of suc- 
 cessful candidates for college scholarships. The latter, 
 for several reasons, has not yet developed its resources 
 to the full. But under the working of the same princi- 
 ples one may predict similar results. 
 
 There are very many private schools in England. 
 
14 EDUCATION IN OXFOKD. 
 
 These establishments are, of course, superintended by 
 persons of very various capacity, and with very various 
 success. But when one reflects that there is no possible 
 rule by which the efficiency of the teacher in these 
 schools can be guaranteed, or the worth of his method 
 tested, except by means of those local examinations 
 which the university of Oxford instituted three years 
 ago, it is not very safe, unless from, very good private 
 information, to entrust the education of a boy intended 
 for the universities to any of these parties. Parents 
 are unhappily very ill-informed on these subjects, and, to 
 all appearance, very indifferent about information on 
 them. Dr. This and Dr. That advertise and puff their 
 schools, and people are taken in by the shallowest pre- 
 tences in the most serious and important matters. Often 
 and often have I known schoolmasters, of considerable 
 connection and some repute, who have entered them- 
 selves at the university, and who have attempted to 
 pass its examinations, but who have displayed an 
 ignorance so gross, that they have been obliged to 
 abandon the hope of a degree in an English university, 
 and to accept, in its place, one of the German diplomas, 
 which, if all be true that is told, are hawked about by 
 London agents, and bestowed on parties who procure 
 satisfactory testimonials, and send an essay, which 
 somebody else may have written, and which, in all 
 likelihood, no one of the German degree-mongers takes 
 the trouble to read. 
 
 Education in all grammar-schools is pretty uniform. 
 The Greek and Latin languages, and composition in 
 these tongues, the composition being generally verse, 
 are the staple of the education given in them. Latterly 
 these schools have instructed their boys in arithmetic 
 and occasionally in the higher branches of mathematics. 
 
rSTEODUCTION. 15 
 
 Modern languages, even English, are taught but rarely, 
 and seldom well. Physical science hardly at all ; history 
 and its cognate branches of knowledge in a miserably 
 barren fashion. Ordinarily, too, it is held that, consider- 
 ing the length of time devoted to the subjects, no great 
 progress is made in the classical languages. But per- 
 haps when one considers the mode of teaching, that 
 namely in a class, and the fact, that it is next to im- 
 possible for the schoolmaster to prevent the better 
 scholars from prompting and helping the more ignorant, 
 or from a give-and-take system of mutual help, one 
 does not wonder that, with few exceptions, the progress 
 of lads in these institutions is not satisfactory. Nor 
 does the annual examination practised in most such 
 schools by some persons who are expected to test the 
 proficiency of the boys, seem at all conclusive as to 
 their progress. The best test that could be applied is 
 the university local examinations. These, however, are 
 described in a subsequent chapter. 
 
 It need hardly be said, that the personnel of the head- 
 master in a grammar-school has the largest and most 
 important influence upon the chai-acter and success of 
 the boys. It is notorious that Rugby owes its reputation 
 to Dr. Arnold, who was not, except in the eyes of those 
 who worship him and his memory blindly, anything of a 
 profound scholar. In the same way schools which have 
 been drooping and declining for a long time under men 
 of, it may be, great scholastic acquirements, revive under 
 the direction of persons with less pretensions for learn- 
 ing, but more administrative abilities, and more practical 
 views. The fact is, the regime of a grammar-school is 
 something more than books and classes, and the most 
 successful teachers have been those who have formed 
 habits, rather than filled heads. 
 
16 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 Most grammar-schools are presided over by masters 
 of arts, and other graduates who have attained dis- 
 tinction at the university to which they belong. Indeed, 
 many of the! best men at the universities migrate to 
 schools, the office of a schoolmaster being looked for- 
 ward to by such persons as a means of starting in life, 
 since the material prospects of these functionaries are 
 considerably better than what is commonly available in 
 the university itself. 
 
 It is not possible to give any rule about the choice of 
 a school for those boys who are by way of finally 
 becoming members of the universities. The reputation 
 of schools varies, and varies annually. On general 
 principles, however, derived from the constitution of these 
 establishments, those are most likely to be satisfactory 
 in which the proprietary system is worked by a prudent 
 body of directors and a competent and active head- 
 master, and next to these the great grammar-schools, 
 whose endowments are of sufficient value for the creation 
 of a staff of persons fit for the offices they hold, and 
 whose credit is strong enough to make them anxious to 
 retain a past reputation. Last of all are private schools, 
 the merit and hope of which are very low, and which in- 
 deed rarely succeed in bringing about any result in supply 
 to the university. Occasionally lads are educated at 
 home and take a high position. I remember to have 
 heard, that the members of one family, all of whom 
 were of great distinction at Oxford, were all educated 
 by their father in his country parsonage. 
 
 Boys are, as a rule, retained at grammar-schools till 
 they are able to enter the university. The practice, 
 which is comparatively speaking a modern one, has 
 something to be said in its favour, but far more, I 
 imagine, to its disadvantage. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 It liaSj perhaps, the advantage of keeping a youth up 
 to the work which has ordinarily a practical value in 
 the election to college scholarships. The examinations 
 for these advantages generally copy what prevails in 
 the teaching of an upper form in a grammar-school, 
 and the lads at these schools are, it is understood, 
 habitually drilled in the sort of papers which are set 
 in college examinations. It by no means, however, 
 follows that the successful competitors for college scholar- 
 ships will make an equally successful figure in the final 
 trials. Of course, if a college examination is perfect, 
 it will not only estimate the present, but predict the 
 future ; and it is understood that in one or two colleges 
 of great credit this compound of estimate and prediction 
 is actually effected. But, beyond doubt, the efforts of 
 these tests should be to discourage mere cram, the bane, 
 and the increasing bane, of competitive education. Yet 
 the power of the examiners, like that of the teachers, 
 is by no means so common as examiners themselves 
 suppose. 
 
 Again, it is not easy to find any satisfactory method 
 for employing the last year or two, between the time 
 when boys used to leave school — i. e. between sixteen 
 and seventeen — and that at which they. should enter the 
 university — eighteen or nineteen. At the same time, 
 this year is, perhaps, the most important of all in the 
 preparation for academical life. 
 
 On the other hand, it is dangerous to immediately 
 transfer a youth from the discipline of a school to the 
 freedom of a college. The beginning of academical 
 residence is very critical; most of those who go to 
 the bad, and many do this who graduate in the end, 
 have their bias given them in the first term or first 
 year of their residence. 
 ^ 2 
 
18 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 Again : though those boys at a school who are of 
 marked capacity or notable perseverance get on in the 
 course of upper-form school education, it is not clear 
 that those of inferior capacity or less perseverance do 
 so in a similar ratio. Discipline over the intellectual 
 progress of great boys is not so easy. There are 
 abundant opportunities for escaping work. In the 
 course of things, there is no opportunity for dealing 
 individually with minds. There are certain periods in 
 the education of young persons when personal and indi- 
 vidual supervision and training are of the last account. 
 And I feel persuaded that these periods are at the begin- 
 ning and end of the university course. To be in the 
 upper form of a public school is a dignity suggestive 
 to many lads of ease, and rest, and quiet days, and no 
 more work. To be transferred to the process of an inter- 
 mediate training for the university is a new beginning, 
 and a fresh stimulus. 
 
 Rather a lax morality prevails in public schools as 
 to the relations of master and pupil. There is reason 
 to believe that this has been imported into the univer- 
 sity in the shape of taking unfair advantage in public 
 examinations. Boys, it is said, look on their chief as 
 their natural enemy; but it is just as well that this 
 notion as regards the university should be interrupted, 
 by bringing lads to the knowledge that the university is 
 not a gathering of mere upper-form boys. 
 
 Education Intermediate to School and College. — 
 One of the most useful institutions in the country is 
 that of King's College, London. Founded in the first 
 instance as a place of education for members of the 
 English Church, in connection with the London Uni- 
 versity, and in some degrefe, at least, in rivalry to 
 
INTEODCCTION. 19 
 
 University College, in Gower Street, it has supplied 
 a certain number of graduates to the metropolitan 
 university, but has also established a net-work of 
 grammar-schools in connection with itself, and annually 
 provides a very considerable body of students to the 
 other universities. It affords a convenient opportunity 
 for employing a year or two of time between leaving 
 school and entry at the university, and it gives much 
 the same instruction as that at the best Oxford and 
 Cambridge colleges. I can only say, for my ovra part, 
 that the advantages I derived from a year and a halPs 
 study at King's College were larger and more sugges- 
 tive than any which I ever procured from academical 
 instruction. The professors and lecturers at King's 
 College have to keep up their reputation by the success 
 of their pupils. 
 
 For those whose parents live in London, the com- 
 bination of domestic discipline with careful and sound 
 instruction is easy and ready. And when those who do 
 not reside in the metropolis wish to avail themselves of 
 the benefits which such an institution gives, there are, 
 I am informed, facilities for boarding young persons in 
 the houses of certain parties whose names and charges 
 are to be learned by application at the college office. 
 
 General students, as such persons are called who 
 contemplate a degree in arts either at the London 
 University or in Oxford or Cambridge, are instructed 
 in Greek and Latin, mathematics, modern history, and 
 one or more modern languages. 
 
 There are other institutions where such an interme- 
 diate education is possible, but I am not aware of any 
 which is specially designed for the purpose, and where 
 the prevailing purpose of the establishment is the pre- 
 paration for academical life. 
 
 2—2 
 
20 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 Better, however, than this system, is that of private 
 tuition for some definite period before entry at the 
 university, provided the instruction is obtained from 
 those who are competent to teach, and are well up to 
 the present tone of academical work. Best of all, when 
 such a teacher lives in or near the precincts of the 
 university. 
 
 No doubt private tuition has fallen somewhat into 
 disrepute. This is due in some degree to its expen- 
 siveness, but in a very large degree to the inefficiency 
 of persons who take on themselves the duties of pre- 
 paring young men for the university. There is not a 
 country parson, however hardly he may have procured 
 his degree himself, or however remote he may be from 
 the present status of academical education, who does 
 not confidently take in hand the difficult task of bring- 
 ing up young men for entrance into the university. 
 I have known men who have been plucked ad libitiim, 
 but do not hesitate to take these functions on themselves 
 with the greatest equanimity. 
 
 But private instruction in the hands of competent 
 persons is of great value for the pupil, and the more 
 so when it takes place in the university itself. Young 
 persons are brought in contact, under judicious super- 
 intendence, with the dangers which beset them on 
 entering upon college life, and they see much which 
 they learn to avoid, as most of the fascination of those 
 mischievous practices which ruin so many young men re- 
 sides in the novelty of the scene which they are entering 
 on. To keep young men in the dark, and under strong 
 checks while they are at school and at home, and then 
 to give them their head and their sight when discipline 
 is impossible, and habits of self-restraint are not formed, 
 is about the surest way of giving common temptations 
 
INTEODUCTION. 21 
 
 an irresistible force. One of the reasons brought forward 
 in the debates on the University Reform Act of 1859, 
 for the establishment of private halls, was the facility 
 .they would afford for a discipline or a supervision 
 which college authorities could neither exact nor restore. ■ 
 All this is secured by some time of residence in the 
 private house of a person whose character is assured, 
 and whose fitness may be easily ascertained. 
 
 Apart, however, from the moral reasons for such a 
 preliminary course of instruction — and they could be 
 multiplied, and, indeed, will suggest themselves to the 
 mind of the reader — there are material considerations 
 of no small weight which belong to such a plan of 
 procedure. An undergraduate can procure his degree 
 at the end of three years from his rriatriculation. Ordi- 
 narily he does not procure it for five. And the reason 
 is plain. There are no means by which any college 
 instruction will make up for inefficient preparation. 
 Send a youth to the university without his being fit to 
 pass the first examination at his entrance — and there 
 are many who are unprepared — and it takes a long 
 >time for him to fit himself. He may, it is true, and 
 'often does, procure private instruction while he is an 
 undergraduate, but this is by irregular snatches, by a 
 superficial cram, and without lasting good, .1 am per- 
 suaded that on the score of economy, both of time and 
 money, such preparation would be amply recompensed. 
 
PART 11. 
 
 THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 Peeiods in the Histoet of Oxfoed. — The period at 
 wliicli the valley of the Isis became a seat of national 
 education is out of all memory or record. We have 
 no information of the causes which led to the selec- 
 tion of this spot, and how it came to pass that the 
 earliest notices of it speak of the academical features 
 of this city as habitual and familiar. No document 
 affecting its constitution, as yet brought to light, is 
 of an earlier date than the latter part of the reign 
 of Henry IH., and yet we read of Henry II.'s judges 
 dining with the masters of the schools of Oxford, in 
 one of their progresses, as though they were parties 
 to be mentioned without explanation or comment, aa 
 they must have been personages of distinction. The 
 first hints given us of the existence of a university in 
 Oxford, present us with the fact of its being fully and 
 imraemorially recognized as a place of education. And, 
 similarly, the first endowments by which learning was 
 encouraged (and academical antiquaries inform us that 
 they are fragments of larger donations), were bestowed 
 on the corporation, or assigned to the natives of parti- 
 cular regions — and especially to the north of England — 
 on the ground that the resources of these distant and im- 
 poverished provinces could hardly find the means of aca- 
 demical instruction. The terms " university," " master," 
 " bachelor," are not suggestive of any period in history 
 
th£ student and the university. 23 
 
 from -which their first mention could designate the 
 hegiimings o£ these familiar and definite phrases. 
 The first merely means "corporation," and was im- 
 ported into Eaglish by the civil jurists. The las.t two 
 are merely titles of respect common to other and very 
 difierent classes of society. The origin of this ancient 
 corporation, like the origin of the common law, is 
 unknown, but its privileges and prestige in ancient 
 times were as national and as accepted as they have 
 become limited and obscm-e. Persons crowded into 
 Oxford from all parts of England, in order to acquire 
 such kariiing as was at that time known and taught, 
 and the existing customs of the place gave every 
 facility to the numbers who made use of its advan- 
 tages. 
 
 The founder of the first college was Merton, Bishop 
 of Rochester, who removed some students, whom he 
 had settled in Surrey, to this university. In course 
 of time, that is, between this period and that of the 
 Reformation, eight other colleges were founded, and 
 three more, wMch were hardty other than precarious 
 establishmraits, were incorporated. But those foun- 
 dations do not appear to have been intended to receive 
 more than those whom the original founder or subse- 
 quent benefactors wished to assist. The great mass of 
 students lived in houses under th^ direction of a Prin- 
 cipal, whom they elected, and who was security for the 
 rent and other properties of the tenement which they 
 occupied. These tenements were called Halls, and 
 they were, in the period preceding the Reformation, 
 exceedingly numerous. 
 
 As might have been expected firom any sudden and 
 general change, the university was seriously affected 
 by the Reformation. The vast numbers who had been 
 
24 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 sent during some period of their career to study in the 
 university from the monasteries, at once ceased to ap- 
 pear, though great endeavours v^ere made to supply some 
 specially authorized , teaching vyhich should be based on 
 more rational grounds than the scholastic jargon and 
 profitless subtleties of the earlier method. This was 
 the time in which the great professorships of Divinity, 
 Hebrew, and Greek were founded ; the purpose of the 
 last two being the interpretation of the sacred text, 
 with a view to the encouragement of a critical theology. 
 At the same time the work of creating colleges was 
 carried on. The existing ones purchased the sites of 
 the ancient halls at easy rates — almost at nominal rates, 
 since when those houses were once devoted to academical 
 purposes they were incapable of being secularized, and 
 three more colleges were founded within little more 
 than thirty years. The reign of Ehzabeth saw another, 
 that of James the First two more, and finally one other 
 arose in the last year of Anne's reign. 
 
 Meanwhile, those independent students who had 
 filled the numerous halls of the earlier history of the 
 university had departed. In the time of Elizabeth only 
 eight halls remained, three of which formed so many 
 colleges. Of these , three one was at the time of its 
 conversion into a college, little better than a ruin, and 
 another was lost with the college into which it was 
 converted. This unfortunate society was Hertford 
 College, which maintained a languishing existence for 
 nearly sixty years. The university was being gra- 
 dually absorbed into these collegiate foundations, and 
 nothing but a legislative Act was needed by which the 
 existence of any independent body of students would 
 be absolutely annulled, and the colleges with the five 
 remaining halls become the university. 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVERSITY. 25 
 
 This Act was procured by the instrumentality of 
 Laud, Chancellor of the University from the year 1630. 
 Till his imprisonment by the Long Parliament he gave 
 the most minute attention to its discipline, and while 
 he framed statutes for its guidance, watched their main- 
 tenance with a sort of affectionate rigour. Among 
 others, he procured that by which it became necessary 
 for every student and every graduate to be a member 
 of some existing college or hall, the former being bound 
 to reside within the walls of a college or hall, and the 
 latter to keep his name on the books of the society. 
 The statute created a monopoly, in which there was no 
 competition, and from which, except by the sacrifice of 
 academical privileges, there was no escape. This 
 statute, interpreted subsequently with some laxity, 
 was re-enacted at the close of the last century, and 
 except on rare occasions, or under definite circum- 
 stances, has been interpreted rigorously. The colleges < 
 have completely absorbed the University, though the 
 functions of the aggregate corporation are distinct from 
 those of the private corporations, however blended they 
 are to general observation. 
 
 The administration of this united body was carried on 
 by self-originated statutes, under a constitution created 
 by Laud, in which the initiative of all measures was 
 reserved to the heads of the colleges and halls. The con- 
 firmation of these measures after a formal publication in a 
 formal meeting, was left to the suffrages of the convoca- 
 tion, that is, the aggregate of those doctors and masters 
 who complied with the requisition of retaining their names 
 on the books of some college or hall, and who could, on 
 their briing summoned, accept or reject, but not alter the 
 measures proposed to them. Debate was permitted in 
 Latin only, and the legislative power was virtually 
 
26 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 lodged in tlie autliorities who formed the board from 
 which the measures emanated. 
 
 Six years ago (1854) this constitation was remodelled 
 by Parliament. The Laudian Statutes were continued, 
 with certain alterations, in their integrity, the chief 
 object of the Act being to change the constitution of the 
 colleges. The university was still left in the same 
 negative position as before, overwhelmed by a series of 
 powerful interests, generally harmonious, and only slightly 
 antagonistic. In^the endeavour to liberalize the college 
 endowments, the characteristics of the collegiate system 
 were left unchanged, and the attempt to open the 
 university to the nation at large was confined to a 
 clause empowering the creation of private halls, according 
 to the ancient system, the conditions of whose existence 
 were left to parties interested, according to the ordinary 
 reasoning of the occupants of a monopoly, in preventing 
 their existence at all. Unfortunately, they who might 
 have asserted the nationality, and secured the indepen- 
 dence of the university, were ill-informed, and the evi- 
 dence collected by the Commissioners, from which they 
 should have derived information, was cumbrous, dull, con- 
 tradictory, and delusive. I have referred to these facts, in 
 order to point out how intrinsically the university is dis- 
 tinct from the Colleges ; how that antiquity and design, to 
 which appeals are with great justice made, when inno- 
 vations are deprecated, seeing that much of the reputation 
 of Oxford rests on its appeal to sympathy with past 
 history, are in favour of the restoration of a body of 
 independent students, who are unconnected with the 
 private corporations, and how the university is, in its 
 fullest sense, national, and should be to the fullest 
 extent coincident with the learning of the country, and 
 with what ought, in the aggregate of industry and intel- 
 
 N -v ■*. V 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVERSITY. 27 
 
 ligence, to haye the largest facilities for that extension 
 of the period of study, out of which the best service can 
 be rendered subsequently to the community at large. 
 And though I do not propose to make this little work 
 generally critical, yet it becomes a necessity in the 
 outset, when one has to distinguish matters which are 
 confounded, to point to the cause of the confusion, that 
 one may show how important an issue is involved in 
 the distinction. 
 
 Thjs Uniyeksiit.— This corporation is Icnown by the 
 name of the Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the 
 University of Oxford. The first-named personage is 
 generally a noblenlan of considerable eminence, who is 
 supposed to watch over the interests of those who have 
 elected him from his seat in the House of Lords. Prac- 
 tically, however, he does not interfere with the business 
 of the university, those offices which reside in him 
 being fulfilled by a deputy, the Vice-chancellor. This 
 personage is, in effect, the highest official in Oxford. 
 He is not elected, but the various heads of colleges occupy 
 the office in a rotation according to seniority, the tenure 
 of their office being four years. . The Vice-chancellor 
 admits all persons to matriculation and degrees — to. the 
 former by virtue of his office, to the latter as the mouth- 
 piece of Convocation. 
 
 Joined to the Vice-chancellor are two other persons, 
 known as the Proctors. These officers, nominated 
 annually out of the colleges and halls, are entrusted 
 with the discipline of the students whenever they are 
 outside the wajls of the college to which they belong. 
 Within, those walls, students are supposed to be under 
 the care of the domestic authorities. In order to carry 
 out this discipline upon breaches of academical order 
 
28 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 and morality, the Proctors are invested with certain ex- 
 traordinary magisterial powers ; and that they may be 
 able more effectually to provide against any incon- 
 venience from misconduct or other causes, they have 
 each two deputies, who exercise a delegated power nearly 
 identical with that of the Proctors. Certain other officers 
 of the university are also invested with partial and local 
 powers of the same nature, and of course the functions 
 pQssessed by proctors are also possessed by the Vice- 
 chancellor, to whom there is an appeal from their 
 sentence. 
 
 The general age of matriculation is about eighteen 
 years. As a rule, it is unwise to enter the university 
 at an earlier age, as younger persons are not, of course, 
 so competent to contest for academical distinctions and 
 prizes with their seniors. The process of matriculation 
 is very simple. The person to be matriculated is 
 presented to the Vice-chancellor by the authorized 
 officer of the college or hall, at which he has to enter, 
 is admonished to observe the , statutes, and presented 
 with a copy of them. He pays also certain fees. These 
 are graduated according to certain ranks, a nobleman 
 or a: peer's eldest son paying 81.; a. privileged person 
 (the phrase will be explained hereafter), 5 Z. ; ordinary 
 students, 21. 8s. ; and Bible clerks and servitors, 10s. 
 The gowns and caps worn by the matriculated person 
 are allotted to the several ranks, the shape and material 
 of which differ. There is the nobleman's gown, a 
 gentleman commoner's, a commoner's, a scholar's, and a 
 servitor's. In the first two cases the gown is made of 
 silk and the cap of velvet. In the last cases the gown 
 is made of stuff", and the cap of cloth. The good taste 
 of most colleges has led them to decline receiving 
 students distinguished by the dress of the nobleman and 
 
 b 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVERSITY. 29 
 
 gentleman commoner, and to insist on persons who 
 might claim these dresses appearing as commoners. 
 Practically the class of nobleman and gentleman com- 
 moners — the term is us?d of the dress — is confined to 
 Christ Church. In one or two of the halls, and at one 
 of the colleges, advantage is taken of the greater age of 
 students to oblige them, to appear as gentleman com- 
 moners. The largest number of these is at Magdalene 
 Hall. By far the majority of ihe members of the 
 university are what are called Commoners. All persons 
 on the foundation of a college, who are as yet undis- 
 tinguished by a degree, are familiarly known as Scholars, 
 and form the second division in extent. 
 
 The subsequent relations of the student to the 
 university consist in his annual payment of ll. 8s. to 
 the academical exchequer, in his undergoing examina- 
 tions demanded by the university, previous to gradation, 
 and in his taking degrees. 
 
 Ordinarily the student proceeds to degrees in arts. 
 This term is technical, and suggests nothing except on 
 explanation. Should the student wish to graduate in 
 any other faculty, he has to submit to the examinations 
 requisite for degrees in arts, as well as to those demanded 
 by his special faculty. These faculties are Divinity, 
 Physic, and Law. Degrees in Divinity are practically 
 nothing but the payment of a sum of money. Those in 
 Law are procured by examination, and those In Physic 
 also. As might be' expected, the examination in the 
 latter faculty is the most rigorous. There seems no 
 reason to doubt that degrees in Law will cease to be 
 taken, and it is very unlikely that Oxford will ever be a 
 medical school. It is desirable, however, to show what 
 is the course intended by the academical body in re- 
 lation to this faculty, in a subsequent part' of this work. 
 
30 ' EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 / To all practical purposes, the course of study whicli the 
 university prescribes, is that of Arts. 
 
 Degeees in Arts. — These degrees are two, those of 
 Bachelor and Master. The former of these only is 
 obtained by examination, the latter is a mere matter of 
 time and money. 
 
 The examinations which must be undergone for the 
 degree of bachelor of arts, are four in number. The 
 first is called Responsions, and is popularly known as 
 Little-go. The next is called the first public examina- 
 tion, and is known as Moderations. The third is the 
 second public examination ; and the fourth on one of 
 three subjects — mathematics and physics, natural science, 
 law and modern history. The first three must be 
 passed by every candidate, and the choice of the last 
 is voluntary. Difi'erent periods in the course of aca- 
 demical standing are assigned to each examination. 
 The responsions may be as early as the first term ; 
 the first public examination not earlier than the seventh 
 term; the second public examination not earlier than 
 the eleventh term. Exception is made in favour of 
 noblemen dnd privileged persons. These can, in case 
 they are not on the foundation of any college, be exa- 
 mined and graduate at earlier dates. Privileged persons 
 are the sons of noblemen and the eldest sons of baronets 
 and knights. Limits are assigned at which honours can 
 be taken in each of three public examinations. Those 
 in the first cannot be got later than the twelfth term ; 
 those in the second public examination, not later than 
 the eighteenth from matriculation. There are four 
 terms in the year. 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVERSITY. 31 
 
 The Examination called Responsions. — In the 
 computation of the sixteen terms necessary for a degree, 
 that in which the student is entered by matriculation at 
 the university counts, as one. Immediately on his 
 residence, he is therefore able to proffer himself for tliis 
 examination, and it is to be regretted that the authorities 
 have not sanctioned the rule, that this first probation 
 should not precede residence, if not matriculation. A 
 person who cannot pass responsions ought not to be at the 
 university at all, and as no distinction is made between 
 those who pass this examination ill and those who pass 
 it well, the minimum which it implies might fairly be 
 claimed from all parties who wish to make a trial for 
 academical degrees. Much mischief would be obviated, 
 since disappointment and expense to parents, and sloven- 
 liness in study, arise from the absence of this preliminary 
 test. But failing this corrective, the examination 
 should be passed as early as possible. 
 
 It is a feature of the Oxford schools that,tihe subjects 
 proffered by the candidates are in some degree optional. 
 Part of the method and quantity is prescribed, but 
 variety is left to the discretion of the individual. In 
 this examination the optional part is the selection of the 
 portion of a Latin and Greek author, and the choice 
 between two books of EucKd and the rudiments of 
 algebra. The prescribed parts are arithmetic as far as 
 decimal |iractions, translation from English into Latin, 
 and a series of questions on Latin and Greek grammar. 
 During two days the candidates are examined on .paper, 
 and then, after an alphabetical order, viva voce; oppor- 
 tunity being given, except in very bad cases, of re- 
 trieving errors and making up deficiencies by fresh 
 papers. They who satisfy the examiners receive a 
 paper attesting their satisfaction, which paper is called 
 
32 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 a testamur. They who fail to satisfy the examiners are 
 said to be "plucked," a term peculiar to Oxford, but 
 now become almost universal. Of course, the average 
 of rejected candidates is no great guide. It amounts to 
 about 25 per cent. At least this was my experience 
 when I filled the office of master of the schools, the 
 name given to the examiners in responsions or little-go. 
 
 The First Pciblic Examination. — This examination 
 is condijcted by officers called Moderators, and is the 
 most difficult of all those which the candidate for an 
 ordinary degree has to undergo. As before, certain 
 parts of the examination are optional ; the selection, 
 as before, being left to the candidate of the poet and 
 orator, portions of whose works he must proffer. One 
 of these must be Latin, the other Greek, and in effect, 
 the pass candidate generally chcJoses Cicero and Homer, 
 or some tragedian. He has the option of three books of 
 Euclid and algebra to quadratic equations, or logic. 
 As before, he is called upon to translate English into 
 Latin, and to answer grammatical questions on both lan- 
 guages. Added to these, he must offer the four Gospels 
 in Greek, and is expected to answer certain questions 
 arising from their contents, at the discretion of the 
 moderators. A competent acquaintance with this por- 
 tion of the examination is indispensable, and no excel- 
 lence can countervail the defect of this knowledge. 
 From those who are not members of the Church of 
 England an equivalent quantity of secular knowledge is 
 demanded, which must be satisfactorily known before 
 the success of the candidate can be contemplated. 
 
 Subsequently to this ordinary examination, those 
 among the candidates who wish to pass with distinction, 
 and who are therefore selected from the general mass. 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVEESITT. 33 
 
 are taken apart. The guide to their purpose is the 
 number of authors they proffer, and which must include 
 at least A poet and an orator. A far longer and more 
 searching inquiry is made into the proficiency of these 
 candidates, the paper work extending over nearly a week. 
 Logic, and this especially from an analytical point of 
 view, is required ; and great stress is laid on the exhi- 
 bition of that scholarship which is carefully taught in 
 schools, such as composition in prose and verse, with an 
 "empirical knowledge of grammar, and some acquaint- 
 ance with philological theories, such, for instance, as 
 are contained in the Cratylus and Varronianus of 
 Dr. Donaldson. The examination, in short, is one 
 which would be passed most effectively by persons who 
 had been weU drilled in the upper forms of public 
 schools. After the ' examination is concluded, a list is 
 published, containing three schedules, — one of those 
 who have acquitted themselves particularly well, an- 
 other of those who have done so generally well, and 
 a third of those who have done so well. The average 
 for seven years of those who have been placed in the 
 first division is twenty-six per annum. The same 
 knowledge of the Gospels, and facts connected with 
 them, is required from these candidates, under the same 
 conditions, but no amount of knowledge is "allowed to 
 affect the candidate's place on the list. 
 
 Opportunity is also afforded to parties who wish to 
 distinguish themselves 'in mathematics. The material 
 of the examination is "pure mathematics," and the 
 classical examination, either as an ordinary pass, or 
 with a view to being placed, must be undergone pre- 
 viously and successfully. The candidates are ranged, 
 as before, in schedules, with the same distinctive words 
 to denote the degree of satisfaction which the mode- 
 
 3 
 
34 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 rators have felt at their performances. The average of 
 persons who have been placed in the highest position is 
 eight per annum. The names in each of the schedules 
 are arranged in alphabetical order. 
 
 The Second Pdblic Examinations. — ^There are two 
 — one compulsory, and the other elective. The former 
 is that in Uteris humanioribus, or, as it is popularly 
 called, in Classics ; the other, at the option of the candi- 
 date, is in mathematics, law, and history (modern), and 
 physical science. The first examination, that which 
 has to be passed by all, will be dealt with first. 
 
 Here, the student who aspires to no position in the 
 class list proffers portions of two authors, one Greek 
 and the other Latin, as subjects for examination. The 
 choice of authors is bounded by the condition that one 
 must be a philosopher, the other an historian. As a 
 consequence, the range of choice is practically limited 
 in Latin to the philosophical writings of Cicero, if such 
 bald gossip can be called philosophy ; and in Greek, to 
 the works of Plato and Aristotle. Fortunately, for the 
 credit of the school, the latter of these authors is gene- 
 rally preferred, and, as a rule, nearly half the candidates 
 proffer a portion of Aristotle's Niccmachean Ethics. 
 The history is more various ; but the popular authors 
 are portions of Herodotus in Greek, and of Livv in 
 Latin. ^ 
 
 The examination in these authors consists in giving 
 portions of average difficulty for translation, with ques- 
 tions on the matter of the books, those in history being 
 confined to facts contained in the subject, and those on 
 philosophy being generally aimed at reproducing a 
 resume of the arguments used by the author in question. 
 It need hardly be said that the philosophy elicited is of 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE. UNIVERSITY. 35 
 
 the feeblest and most evanescent description conceivable. 
 The real test of the examination is the power of faithful 
 translation, a power generally acquired by a diligent 
 ixse of printed translations. This portion of the work 
 occupies a single day. 
 
 Besides this, an examination is held in divinity. The 
 nominal range of this subject is the history of the Old 
 and New Testaments, the Greek text of the Gospels -and 
 the Acts, and the Articles of the Church of England, 
 with Scripture and other proofs of their authority. Till 
 lately this portion of the examination was carried on 
 wholly viva voce, ^ but tlie author of this book, when 
 filling the office of public examiner, was able to in- 
 troduce, with very beneficial effects, a divinity paper, 
 — an innovation which has been particularly successful, 
 as well as equitable. 
 
 As before, those parties who dissent from the dia-^ 
 cipline and doctrinea of the Established Church are 
 allowed to tender an equivalent; and, as in the case 
 of the previous examination faniiliarly called Modera- 
 tions, no excellence in. the knowledge of this subject,, or 
 of its equivalent, is allowed to assist in the passing of 
 the candidate, though it must be rigorously exacted. 
 
 It is not easy to say why the university has loaded 
 the knowledge of divinity, as it is ordinarily called, 
 with this discouraging condition. The only argument 
 I have ever heard alleged in its fevour is, that the 
 sacred nature of the subject makes it improper that 
 divinity should be the ground of specific distinction^, 
 and that the reverence due to revealed truth wofild be 
 sacrificed in the desire to acquire credit by the posses- 
 sion of information on the material. But, in practice, 
 the impropriety lies in the conditions, and the irreve- 
 rence is enhanced by the way in which the perfunctory 
 
 3—2 
 
36 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 theology of the Oxford schools is learnt for the purpose 
 of effecting a pass. 
 
 The knowledge exhibited by the candidates is pecu- 
 liar. It is quite possible that persons may have a sound 
 practical acquaintance with Christian doctrine, without 
 possessing sufficient technical information for the satis- 
 faction of the examiners. I have known cases in point, 
 and those of a painful kind ; yet were the examiners to 
 demand anything beyond a mere acquaintance with facts, 
 were they to exact the poorest proofs of the Articles 
 and doctrines of the English Church, they would reject 
 candidates by wholesale. The most ludicrous errors 
 are constantly made in the divinity examination. The 
 most irreverent methods are resorted to for obtain- 
 ing the bare minimum, and, of course, under such a 
 system, the tendency is always to a minimum. A 
 doggerel memoria technica, and a jargon of mutilated 
 words expressive of persons or periods, are among the 
 devices frequently resorted to for creating a temporary 
 knowledge of Oxford divinity. I do not, of course, 
 mean that all learn after this fashion; but some do, 
 and the theory of the university offers the strongest 
 inducements to all its students for adopting these pro- 
 cesses. The only remedy for these evils lies in one 
 of two alternatives. Either the study of theology and 
 certificates of proficiency should be confined to the 
 domestic organization of the colleges, or the university 
 should incorporate excellence in this branch of know- 
 ledge with the other proficiencies of the candidate. 
 These alternatives are on the hypothesis that the uni- 
 versity should in its public relation to its junior mem- 
 bers require proofs of this ' knowledge from all. It is 
 of course, possible to make the examination distinct and 
 voluntary. 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVERSITT. 37 
 
 Of course, the method of the passman's theological 
 study, negligent as it is, is even more favourable to 
 information than that of the candidate for honours. 
 Loaded with other work, the knowledge of which is 
 relative to his object — academical distinction — this kind 
 of student is still more disinclined to lavish time on 
 what is of no immediate avail. The depression to a 
 minimum rate is still more marked in the honour schools. 
 And the natural reluctance of the examiners to reject- 
 ing a candidate for honours conduces still more to this 
 undesirable result. As a rule, the " divinity" of a'CEtn- 
 didate of this kind is scantier and shallower than that 
 of an ordinary passman, and is accepted with more 
 consideration. 
 
 As before, part of the examination is conducted viva 
 voce, and in public, the candidates being examined in 
 alphabetical order, -The purport of this portion of the 
 work is partly to remedy the defects of the written 
 examination, partly to make further inquiries into 
 knowledge of facts in the history, philosophy, and 
 divinity required from the candidates. As before, they 
 who pass have a paper given them bearing the signa- 
 ture of the examiners, while the names of those who 
 fail are passed over in silence. 
 
 Certain persons who, attempting only to satisfy the 
 examiners, do more than satisfy them, are by the prac- 
 tice of the schools, and under the sanction of the 
 statute, distinguished by having an honorary class — ^^of 
 the lowest kind, that is, the fourth — assigned to them. 
 Occasionally, the still larger distinction of an offer to 
 receive such parties into the number of candidates for 
 honours is made. A few such cases have occurred in 
 my experience. But the offer is, as might be expected, 
 declined, and is in effect little more than the publica- 
 
38 EDUCATION IN OXPOED. 
 
 tion of the fact that such a person -will be rated in the 
 fourth class under extraordinary circumstances. Pass- 
 men generally court this honour before examination, 
 and regret its bestowal subsequently. As they are 
 grouped with the lowest honour candidates, it requires 
 explanation in order to prevent persons from imagining 
 that they have tried higher things and signally failed. 
 Such explanations are inconvenient and egotistical. 
 
 The Classicai Examination for Hono0es. — Those 
 persons whose list of authors denotes that they purpose 
 attempting the distinctions of a classified proficiency, 
 are examined, as in the case of the " Moderations," 
 subsequently to the general body of ordinary passmen. 
 The number of such persons varies, but it may be 
 taken on the whole, mider the present system, at 
 betweeen thirty and thirty-five twice a year. 
 
 In theory the candidate has the option of the authors 
 which he proffers for examination; in practice the 
 authors proffered are generally identical. They' are 
 especially historical and philosophical. The ordinary 
 list comprises one or more of Aristotle's works — the 
 Nicomachean Ethics invariably being offered; one or 
 more of Plato— the Republic being specially selected; 
 with the Novum Organon of Bacon ; and Logic, viewed 
 especially from a psychological aspect. To these is 
 ordinarily added the Analogy or Sermons of Bishop 
 Butler; and, together, they form the philosophical 
 subjects, or, as they are called collectively, science. 
 
 The historical part of the books consists of Herodotus, 
 Thucydides, the First Decade of Livy, and tte Annals 
 or Histories of Tacitus. 
 
 But the names of these works give a very superficial 
 conception of the examination, and the knowledge of 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVERSITY. 39 
 
 their contents woixld not alone, in the existing practice 
 of the schools, entitle a candidate to any eminent dis- 
 tinction. The procedure of the schools is not by 
 authors "but by subjects. Thus, papers are set seve- 
 rally in Logic, in Moral Philosophy, in Political Philo- 
 sophy, in the History of Philosophy, in Greek History 
 and Antiquities, and in Roman History and Antiquities. 
 As might be expected from the age of the candidates, 
 the papers on Moral Philosophy are the best answered, 
 those on Political Philosophy the worst. That on Logic 
 is of various value, but is almost always of speculative, 
 not a practical kind ; that on the History of Philosophy 
 still more fluciuating and uncertain. Besides these, 
 the examiners require Latin prose, that is, the trans- 
 lation of English into Latin ; and opportunity is given 
 to show powers in Greek prose composition. Finally, 
 the books offered are the material for a further exami- 
 nation, passages being selected which are difficult to 
 translate ; grammatical, philGlogical, and other formulae 
 being proposed in the form of short passages from these 
 authors, and forming one of the most valuable tests of 
 proficiency. 
 
 Of course, in so varied and searching an examination 
 a principle of compensation is inevitably acted on. 
 Singular ability is frequent in special subjects, average 
 ability in all is more frequent, great ability in all is 
 rare. This arises not only from the nature of the 
 examination, which deals with very distinct mental 
 powers, but from the diflferesat capacity for aggregafaiog 
 facts, and the further difference of the particular powers 
 for collecting particular facts. Of course the practice 
 of diligent study, and the habit of question and answer 
 go far towards amalgamiafing these powers, and as a 
 rule those candidates are most likely to be distinguished 
 
40 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 who have steadily practised the faculty of %yriting on 
 questions analogous to those given in the schools. 
 
 There is a viva voce examination, open to the public, 
 in which the candidates are further tested. The value 
 of this part of the procedure has been gradually 
 diminishing from various ca uses, which it is not neces- 
 sary to dilate upon. 
 
 The candidates are arranged into four classes, the 
 names being published in alphabetical order. The 
 average of first classmen over a period of six years is a 
 little more than twelve per annum. 
 
 The first class in classical literature represents the 
 highest general distinction which the University can 
 give. It deserves all that can be awarded to it by 
 public opinion, and even more, since it implies vastly 
 more than the highest honours which are put in parallel 
 columns to it. It denotes years of laborious study, 
 with the possession of extraordinary mental powers. 
 It searches to exhaustion the stores of accumulated 
 labour, the patient drilling of schools, and the voluntary 
 acquisitions of painstaking research. True, it is com- 
 parative. A larger field of candidates for university 
 honours than that which the languishing public repu- 
 tation of Oxford affords, and the monopoly of colleges 
 continually narrows, would supply a far more copious, 
 and, by implication, a far better material. But as it is, 
 it is the estimate of the best of all the University does 
 for, or gives to, the nation. Other classifications are 
 only those of feeble growths in unpracticable soil, some 
 necessarily weak, and some temporarily so from the 
 scanty and superficial nature of their requirements. 
 
 Since the alteration of 1850, when the examination 
 statute was remodelled, and the change was an experi- 
 ment and is a failure in its general bearings, the first 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVEESITY. 41 
 
 class in classical literature is diminished from its pre- 
 vious width. Scholarship has ceased to form an 
 integral part of it, and the extent of the material of 
 examination is diminished by a half. There is a great 
 and a radical difference between the old and the new 
 first class, both in the number and acquirements of the 
 candidates. 
 
 The Optional Schools. — Mathematics have never 
 flourished in Oxford. Distinguished persons have occa- 
 sionally proceeded from this university, but their 
 number is small. The subject of an ordinary exami- 
 nation for a pass, is either six books of Euclid, or the 
 " first part of algebra." As three books of Euclid are 
 an optional portion of the pass examination under the 
 moderators, this school is extensively preferred by 
 passmen, a few weeks' or even days' study being all 
 that is required for the mere pass. 
 
 In the honour examination, mixed and pure mathe- 
 matics are subjects. The acquirements needed for high 
 distinction in this school ai'e considerable, and repre- 
 sent a great deal of previous la,bour and training. But 
 the number of candidates is very small, and the average 
 of those who have been rated in the first class is, during 
 a period of six years, only three and two-thirds. This, 
 too, is less than the average before the break-up of the 
 present system by the statutes of 1850, since between 
 the years 1847 and 1852 inclusive, the average was 
 nearly six. 
 
 The other two schools are of a modern date, and of 
 a more pretentious character. They affect to be in 
 accordance witli the wants of the age, and profess to 
 be an instalment of the services which Oxford is here- 
 after to bestow on the vast fields of physical and social 
 
42 EDUCATION IN OXFOED, 
 
 science. To judge them by their professions would lie 
 unfair, and even ludicrous, and it remains to be seen 
 whether they will be subordinate to these gigantic pur- 
 poses. One has only to view them now in their present 
 aspect and present working. 
 
 There is a very general tendency, founded upon a 
 very wholesome judgment, and very imperfect pre- 
 mises, towards requiring special information upon defi- 
 nite points of practical knowledge. We see in all 
 directions how much national wealth and national 
 greatness are due to the division of learning, as well as 
 to the division of manual labour, and the man who 
 affects universal information is progressively considered 
 a quack. There certainly has never been in the his- 
 tory of mankind any period in which so much is done 
 by definite application to definite subjects, none in which 
 popular judgment is so accurate upon the capacity of 
 individuals. At the same time, better educated people 
 can hardly get on without some acquaintance of the 
 general facts and laws of nature and social science, the 
 prominent phenomena of modern civilization, and the 
 general means by which those results are gathered — 
 results with which we are habitually familiar. These 
 seem the utilities of knowledge, the current coin of 
 current history. 
 
 And certainly this general information is, and in a 
 still greater degree was, at a minimum in Oxford. It 
 is a fact that nowhere could you find educated people 
 who were so ill-informed as in this university. Modem 
 history was nowhere known ; modern science was no- 
 where studied. Parties who knew every name and fact 
 in Herodotus could not say what was the date of the 
 Eeformation or Long Parhament, and had the most 
 shadowy impressions of the notables in European Ms- 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNrVERSITY. 43 
 
 tory. Men who had learned all about the law courts 
 and economy of Athens and Rome were ignorant of the 
 very elements of the modem science of wealth, and of 
 the principles of English legislation. There was good 
 reason then for many people to lament that there was 
 no resting-place for the study of contemporaneous 
 philosophy and modern history> and it was tolerably 
 1 certain that, when the need of knowing something was 
 admitted, that the professors of these neglected sciences 
 — and they existed all along — should claim attention to 
 the expressed deficiencies of an Oxford education. 
 
 Hence arose the two schools of physical or natural 
 science and modern history and law. The former of 
 these has always aimed at a high standard, and has 
 asserted that it demands an intimate acquaintance with 
 certain branches of this philosophy. Three are pre- 
 scribed by the statutes ; mechanics, chemistry, and phy- 
 siology .; and while the candidate for an ordinary pass 
 is required to have a rudimentary knowledge in two at 
 least of these, the candidate for honours is expected to 
 possess a rudimentary knowledge in all, and a lai-ge 
 knowledge in one of the three. 
 
 There is, of course, no education in the sense of 
 method and training in such studies. Attempts to make 
 the science practical have been generally fiiilures, and 
 •it is even -out of the question to expect that the candi- 
 dates should possess any large power of estimating the 
 principles of these inductive sciences. I liave heard 
 more than once of persons achieving the highest honours 
 in these departments of physical phUosophy with six 
 months' reading, and, though I am quite prepared to 
 admit that previous m«thod bas been the foundation of 
 such success, yet I feel sure that not a single " first " 
 in chemistry would be fit for a laboratory, a single 
 
44 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 " first " in physiology for the certificate of the Apothe- 
 caries' Company, a single " first " in mechanics for the 
 commonest functions of the commonest engineer. There 
 is, of course, a lack of mechanical training and empi- 
 rical knowledge which Oxford students are not willing 
 to acquire if they could, and the university is not com- 
 petent to give if it would. I dare say the students of 
 this school, few as they are, acquire a power of chat- 
 ting upon natural history and natural science. The 
 examiners, it is true, have' not had the means of 
 awarding such distinctions as they give to many per- 
 sons hitherto ; the number of first-class men in this 
 department of study having been, for six years, only an 
 average of three, and the candidates for an ordinary 
 pass being very scanty. 
 
 The school in law and modern history has been, in 
 point of popularity, more successful. About half choose 
 this, and the candidates for honours are numerous. 
 
 Persons who wish to merely pass in this school have 
 the option of proffering that' period of English history 
 which extends from the Conquest to the accession of 
 Henry the Eighth, or that period from Henry the 
 Eighth's accession to the reign of Anne. In the former 
 portion the student is required to be acquainted with 
 the law of real property ; in the latter, that of personal 
 property and the rights of persons. No reason is given ■ 
 for this combination, and one does not see that a reason 
 could be given. The Institutes of Justinian may be 
 offered in lieu of either portion of law, but it seldom 
 happens that this treatise is read. The text books are 
 Hume and Blackstone. 
 
 The subjects offered for examination by candidates 
 in honours, include the periods needed for passmen, 
 and even more ; general historical knowledge being 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVERSITY. 45 
 
 required up to the date of the French Eevolution. 
 Each candidate is required to offer a special portion 
 of history treated in a minute and special way. Fur- 
 ther, he generally gives a list of books, including 
 Hallam's historical works, portions of Gibbon, Cla- 
 rendon, Ranke, Robertson, and Guizot. International 
 law may be offered, or the elements of political 
 economy. But these subjects are not compulsory, 
 and the highest honours may be be obtained without 
 them. Nor is it needful that the candidate should have 
 any acquaintance with modern languages. 
 
 It is unfortunate that no portion of this examination 
 should necessarily include anything requiring the use 
 of reflective or logical faculties. The school is one of 
 mere cram. The law exhibited is, as might be expected, 
 deplorable, and there is hardly any person who ventures 
 on political economy. The weight of the examination 
 lies in the knowledge of the constitutional antiquities 
 of Hallam, and the learned platitudes of Guizot. 
 Hence the highest honours are often obtained from very 
 brief study, and, indeed, there is no distinction awarded 
 by the university which is more pretentious and more 
 delusive than this. The average of first-class men for 
 six years is a little under six per annum. ■ 
 
 These examinations passed, the student is pern^tted to 
 take his first degree, that of Bachelor in Arts. By an 
 ancient custom in the university, any master of arts 
 is empowered to refuse this degree, and indeed any 
 other degree, three times without alleging any reason ; 
 but is required to state his reasons on the fourth rejec- 
 tion, which are then submitted to the decision of Con- 
 gregation — the assembly empowered to grant degrees. 
 Practically this privilege is never acted on, except when 
 creditors empl6y the offices of the university^advo- 
 
46 EDUCATION IN OXFOKD. 
 
 cates — called proctors in the Vice-Chancellor's Court — 
 to represent that the candidate is the defendant in an 
 action for debt, a cause -vrhich the university rules to be 
 sufficient for the postponement of the degree. 
 
 The cost of a bachelor's degree is 11. 10s. This is 
 exclusive of the fees paid on the occasion of each of the 
 examinations described above, and which amount in the 
 aggregate to 3Z. 12s. Fees are not returned to rejected 
 or plucked candidates. 
 
 Besides the examinations, a certain residence in the 
 university or its precincts, i. e. within one mile and a 
 half from the city church — the centre of the town — is 
 required. This amounts in the whole to twelve terms, 
 the Oxford year containing four terms. These twelyfe 
 terms equal, on an average, seventy-two weeks. For- 
 merly sixteen terms, or four years, must have inter- 
 vened between matriculation and the first degree, but 
 from the example of Cambridge this period has latterly 
 been shortened. In practice it rarely happens that 
 stiidents are prepared for their degree at the minimum 
 of time. Among many reasons which may be given 
 for this prolonged residence and prolonged expense, two 
 are prominent ; the absence of a university matricula- 
 tion examination, and the option afforded to the student 
 (feebly corrected by college discipline) of presenting 
 himself for examination at any time he pleases. An 
 efficient matriculation examination would, I am per- 
 suaded, ordinarily shorten residence by a full year, 
 and a limitation of the period at which students must 
 present themselves for examination, would, by keeping 
 before them the necessary termination of their univer- 
 sity career, save well nigh as much more from procras- 
 tination and waste. 
 
 Only lately a custom was abrogated of levying a 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVEESITY. 47 
 
 very heavy fee from those persons who, presenting 
 themselves for degrees, were' possessed of 3001. a year 
 of their own. These unfortunates were called grand 
 compounders. The tax was rescinded, I believe, from 
 its having been adroitly made in one case ridiculous. 
 
 The degree of Master of Arts, which may be taken 
 three years after that of bachelor, provided the name 
 of the bachelor is continually on the books of some 
 college or hall during the interval, and the dues to the 
 university or college are paid, is a mere affair of 
 money. It costs 121. About eighty per cent, of the 
 bachelors of arts proceed to this further degree, the 
 aggregate cost of the intermediate payments, and the 
 fees for the degree being about 36Z. 
 
 The Act of Parliament 18 & 19 Yict., under which 
 the constitution of the university is now regulated, has 
 rescinded by special provision the necessity, on the 
 occasion of matriculation and the taking a bachelor's 
 degree^ of subscribing to the Thirty-nine Articles of the 
 English Church, and certain declaratory Canons expres- 
 sive of hostility to Popery. But the subscription and 
 the oath to the Canons are retained for the .degree of 
 Master of Arts, though it does not appear that the 
 university may not, if it is disposed, waive compliance 
 with these practices. All the powers and franchises of. 
 the University are lodged in Convocation, that is, the 
 masters of arts and doctors in all faculties except 
 music, either immediately, as in the election of members 
 of Parliament, and certain professors ; or indirectly, in 
 the sanction which this body gives to bye-laws of the 
 university prepared and proposed by a committee ' of 
 the residents, styled the Hebdomadal Council. 
 
 Intermediate to Convocation and this Council, in all 
 matters relating to the government of the university. 
 
48 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 is a local body called Congregation. This term was 
 applied, previous to the Act of 1859, to an ill-defined 
 aggregate of persons, who sanctioned the publication of 
 decrees without, it appears, having any power to reject 
 them. Congregation has, under the present law, cer- 
 tain important privileges ; especially the power of 
 debate, of suggesting amendments and improvements in 
 what has been proposed, and in rejection on division. 
 It also elects the Council, but the arrangement by which 
 more than two-thirds of this committee must be selected 
 from a small portion of the university, and the possi- 
 bility of the remaining third being chosen from the 
 same fraction,' have caused that there is a chronic dis- 
 agreement in almost all matters between the Council 
 and Congregation, and have reduced the Council to the 
 practice of overwhelming Congregation with a mass of 
 propositions at once, in the hope, it would seem, of 
 passing at least some portion of its proposals. The 
 members of the Council must be resident, the members 
 of Congregation must also be resident, with some excep- 
 tions. As a result, the direction of academical legis- 
 lation is more and more local, more and more charac- 
 terized by devotion to the real or presumed interests of 
 the colleges. 
 
 The power of retaining the privileges of a member of 
 Convocation is limited by certain bye-laws of the 
 university, requiring uninterrupted holding of the 
 name of the master or doctor on the register of the 
 university, and on the butler's books of some college 
 or hall. If the name is lost from either, heavy penalties 
 are exacted for replacing it, and when these penalties 
 have once been paid, a fresh negligence is visited with 
 conditions of an impracticable character, unless the 
 applicant for readmission can satisfy the authorities 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVERSITY. 49 
 
 that he has been innocent in the omission, when a 
 private statute may be procured authorizing the renewal 
 of his relations with the university. 
 
 The privileges of Convocation are purchased by an 
 annual payment of ll. 6s. to the university, and what- 
 ever else the discretion of the college to which the 
 graduate belongs thinlcs p'ropfer or prudent to demand. 
 The latter exaction is, of course, variable. But the 
 aggregate is so large, that of the masters of arts, forty- 
 five per cent, decline, after graduation, to remain mem- 
 bers of Convocation ; for as the vast majority of these 
 graduates are clergymen with scanty incomes and 
 considerable claims, one may conclude that the pay- 
 ment is a more valid motive to separation from the 
 university, than that of indifference to the parliamentary 
 franchise and legislative control of Convocation. Of 
 this annual payment a portion is devoted to the income 
 of the Bodleian Library — a thoroughly public purpose ; 
 the remainder, and by far the largest portion, goes to 
 meet the local rates and taxes apportioned to the real or 
 supposed rental of the several colleges. It is easy to 
 explain the origin of this arrangement, but singularly 
 difficult to excuse its dishonesty. 
 
 I may observe, in concluding this account of the 
 processes necessary to the attainment of the degrees 
 of bachelor and master of arts, with the contingent 
 honours on laborious study and original ability, that 
 there is no definition of the age at which students may 
 enter the university. That it is desirable for the 
 university to limit this period, is, I think, proved from 
 the fact that a serious objection is felt to the length of 
 time necessarily occupied in preparatory labour before 
 the labour becomes productive. Parents point to the 
 twenty-three or twenty -four years of preparation, as a 
 
 4 
 
50 EDUCATION IN OXrOED. 
 
 reason for not contemplating the university as a place 
 in -which they may put their sons. Coupling this 
 rational objection with the vulgar error of conceiving 
 that academical instruction has no practical value, they 
 have decKned first to consider the university as coming 
 ■within the natural field of public competition, and have 
 thence ceased to feel any interest in its characteristic 
 merits or faults. 
 
 Practically, the age at which students graduate is 
 determined by the canon of the Church declining holy 
 orders to any candidates under twenty-three years of 
 age. The majority of students contemplate the Church 
 as the future field of their labour, and drag up the age 
 of those who do not. It would, I think, be an excellent 
 reform in the university, were the age of matriculation 
 limited somewhat loosely, and that of the right of 
 competing for honours rigorously. At present the 
 honour schools are caricatured by the privilege afforded 
 all persons to enter them, whatever their age may be. 
 Thus, since 1846, four first-classes have been obtained 
 by members of Magdalene Hall. But in each case 
 they have been achieved by gentlemen who have 
 entered the university late in life, a'nd with all the 
 advantages of faculties trained elsewhere, and trained 
 fully. In one case the honour of a first-class was 
 obtained by a candidate who had been for many years 
 a master of arts of Cambridge. Opportunities such a& 
 these are a direct injury to those who at a necessarily 
 early period of life, and with powers far less matured, 
 have to cope at once with the difficulties of acquirino- 
 methodical skill and accumulated information. 
 
 The precise privilege accorded by degrees in arts, as 
 in other faculties, is the right to teach. The words 
 addressed by the Vice-chancellor to the several gra- 
 
THE STTJDEIfT AND THE UNIVERSITY. 51 
 
 duates, are a confirmation of what the candidate has 
 formally prayed for and Convocation has permitted. 
 But this is the sole direct privilege of a degree. That 
 bishops should exact the degree from those who present 
 themselves for holy orders, is a voluntary practice of 
 theirs, highly beneficial to the university, since without 
 it there would not, one may assume, remain one-fifth 
 of the present number of stud^its ; but it is one com- 
 pletely in their power to omit — a practice they may, and 
 do increasingly depart from. The connection of Oxford 
 with the bar has long since departed ; the prejudices of 
 the pre-Reformation university leading -to the study of 
 civil as opposed to common law ; and the privilege of a 
 call of graduates at an earlier date than that of non- 
 graduates, having been in later times neutralized. The 
 experimental knowledge necessary or desirable for 
 medical study has, at a later date, but at a sufficiently 
 j-emote one, transplanted the science of therapeutics 
 from small provincial towns to the metropoUs, and 
 nothing but vanity or dilettantism would hope to revive 
 it in Oxford. 
 
 Whether or no it is wise or expedient to grant a 
 monopoly of occupation to those who have passed an 
 examination in a special phase of knowledge, is a ques- 
 tion as yet in its infancy, when considered theoretically, 
 and one to be decided, one may surmise, in the general 
 way such questions are argued out, by the inductions 
 of economic science. I make no doubt that the practical 
 solution is in the negative. At any rate, the only 
 profession in which ihe public habitually and even 
 uniformly prefers the services of accredited persons, is 
 that of the law, in which there was not till lately any 
 test of the proficiency of attorneys, and is not of neces- 
 sity any test for that of advocates. The application of 
 
 4—2 
 
52 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 the rules of an arbitrary system, such as law is, can 
 safely be left, according to the ordinary method of supply 
 and demand, to the care of its machinists. But in 
 medicine, despite the provisions of increasing acts of 
 Parliament and the social jealousies of the craft, there 
 are as many heresies as there are in theology. 
 
 But though one may consider that the legislative 
 monopoly of the doctor and the lawyer — I do not mean 
 the word offensively, as there are habitual correctives 
 to the fact — may very well be left to its natural destiny, 
 and that the judgment of the public is pretty correct on 
 this point; yet the same judgment is tending with 
 increasing determination towards exacting tests of 
 educational proficiency. "We have heard, probably, the 
 last cackle of the geese on the Capitol, when a formal 
 defence has been uttered on behalf of bad spelling, and 
 the defence has been ridiculed. But we want to know 
 how these requisites can be weighed? We want to 
 know more and more whether individuals are equal to 
 the social requisites of a liberal education ? And herein 
 lies, I imagine, the future of the university. It has 
 supplied to the few who enter its precincts these advan- 
 tages of a liberal education in the best way it can, 
 seeing that it is crippled by the selfishness, the igno- 
 rance, the timidity, and the obstinacy of a domestic 
 monopoly. It showed a wiser way when it dealt with 
 the general question of public education, and assumed 
 what is its best and most natural power, the task of 
 estimating the produce of schools in its local examina- 
 tions. This movement, though it is yet in its infancy, 
 is the harbinger of better things for the country and 
 for itself, if, as may be hoped, the details of the process 
 may eventually react on the discipline and method of 
 the vmiversity itself. 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE TTNIVERSITY. 53 
 
 Otheu Faculties than those of Aets. — There are 
 three faculties in Oxford besides that of Arts : Divinity, 
 Law, and Medicine. 
 
 Degrees in divinity are merely the payment of a sura 
 of money. It is true that the degree of bachelor of 
 divinity is preceded by a formal disputation, as it is 
 called, in the divinity school ; two or moye persons 
 affecting to argue a theological thesis, one of them de- 
 fendirig, the other objecting. This is a relic of the time 
 in which such disputations were a reality, and the 
 general body of the university attended to estimate the' 
 ability with wliich such a thesis was defended or im- 
 pugned. ■ Now it is a miserable farce. The form of the 
 disputation is, I believe, arranged beforehand between 
 the parties seeking a degree, the Regius Professor of 
 Divinity sitting as moderator, with a view to controlling 
 the dialectics of the disputants, and guiding the sym- 
 pathies of a crowd of auditors. But the dialectics are 
 the veriest chips, and the crowd is nowhere. No person 
 graduates in divinity, one may conclude, from choice ; of 
 old the statutes of several colleges required this degree 
 from the Fellows, and, therefore, it was taken, but there 
 seems little reason to doubt,' that this condition being 
 removed, degrees in divinity will be confined to bishops, 
 heads of houses, and ambitious schoolmasters. 
 
 Till lately, what can be said of divinity, might equally 
 have been said of law. Graduates in law were always 
 such persons as the statutes of their colleges compelled 
 to proceed in this faculty, or who wished to practise in 
 ecclesiastical or other courts, where the rules of the 
 civil code were accepted, or where a degree in civil law- 
 was required from the proctor or advocate, or who desired 
 iiO write themselves down as doctor, and chose this faculty. 
 Latterly, the university has instituted an examination 
 
54 EDTJCATION- IN OXFORD. 
 
 in civil law, and it may be possible that in future a few- 
 candidates will be found to avail themselves of its pro- 
 visions. But in the absence of any. reason for doing^ 
 so, it is not very likely that the number will be large, 
 or that civil law will ever form again a definite subject 
 of study at the university. Still, degrees in civil law 
 will signify some acquaintance with the subject. 
 
 The faculty of medicine has always been more re- 
 spectable than the others. Obviously it was impossible 
 that it should be the reward of perfunctory formalities. 
 The examination has always been a matter of fact, and 
 proficiency has been claimed from candidates for degrees. 
 With a harmless and natu2:al pedantry, the university 
 has required an acquaintance with Hippocrates, Galen, 
 Aretasus, and Celsua, while it has left the inquiry into 
 the capacity of the candidate on the inductions of modern 
 therapeutics to the discretion of the official and other 
 examiners. There are, however, only twenty-three 
 doctors of medicine on the books of the University of 
 Oxford. 
 
 That such should be the case, is no matter of wonder. 
 There is, perhaps, no profession in which the workman 
 is more diligent in acquiring knowledge and experience ; 
 none in which there is more actiTe and honourable com- 
 petition. To be great in this art, one must not only 
 meet with those adventitious helps which bring its 
 professors into notice,- but one must show that they are 
 not mere accidents by proof of unquestionable skill and 
 habitual tact. Besides, the tendency of medical science 
 is progressively more and more towards a division of 
 labour. The most skilled among physicians are they 
 who deal with specialities, and while these specialities 
 demand an unremitting attention, they demand still 
 more a wide field of observation. Reputations are 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVERSITY. 55 
 
 founded more upon width of paxticular knowledge than 
 on the possession of general- information. And equally 
 the credit of theoretical knowledge is progressively con- 
 fined to the study of special points, in physiology and 
 natural philosophy. 
 
 To suppose that in a country town of 35,000 inhabi- 
 tants,, there will he a sufficient field of observation, is a 
 delusion. To imagine that medical studies can be re- 
 called from large cities is an absurdity. The imiversity 
 may laudably provide for the sufficient information of 
 its iev^ candidates &r medical degrees, and the pecu- 
 cuniary emoluments attached to the study of thera- 
 peutics. As long as there is, or can be, one medical 
 student in Oxford, there should be an opportunity for 
 him to exhibit his proficiency. But, the attempt to 
 revive the practical and extensive study of physic in 
 Oxford, is as rational as to galvanize a corpse and call 
 the spasm of its muscles, life. 
 
 There is, I should add, a voluntary examination in 
 theology. Hitherto this has been a total failure. The 
 university is now attempting to recast its statute, and 
 it is expected that the subject will be carefully studied. 
 But the promoters of the statute have not explained the 
 ground of their hopes. At present, the university is 
 coquettii^ with the requisites exacted by the bishops 
 for theological learning. But there is no reason to 
 believe that ' these requisites will square with Oxford 
 studies, or that their lordships are not better judges of 
 what they need from candidates for holy orders than the 
 university has showed itself 
 
 Beades the abovenamed faculties, the university grants 
 degrees in music. These degrees are not necessarily 
 accompanied with the study of arts, and hence do not 
 confer academical rights on the parties invested with 
 
56 EDUCATION IN OXFOED. 
 
 them. Of old, music was one of the subjects required 
 from candidates for degrees in arts, and when the habit 
 of studying the practice of harmony died out, an at- 
 tempt was made to found a separate school of music. 
 The plan failed, degrees having hitherto rarely been 
 attempted, except by the college and cathedral organists. 
 Latterly, the system has been recast, and I am informed 
 that the degree in music represents a large acquaintance 
 with the principles and practice of the science. But, of 
 course, such a school as this is more an excrescence than 
 a part of the system of Oxford studies. The connection 
 of the musician with the university is of the most 
 transient and unreal kind. Whether or no it would be 
 possible for the professors of this art to extend their 
 connection with Oxford, is a question which could not 
 be solved except under very altered circumstances from 
 those which affect the course of academical studies now. 
 At present, though, in rare cases, parties who have 
 graduated in arts, are found to prosecute this braiich of 
 human science, the occurrence of such events is occa- 
 sional and explainable, and the extension of such a body 
 of graduates is exceedingly unlikely. 
 
 The fees for bachelor in divinity and medicine are 
 14Z. ; for that in law, 61. 10s. ; for the doctor's degree, 
 in all, 40Z. Bachelors of music pay 51., and doctors 
 10?. But it must be added, that graduates in music 
 have to pay the expense of performing an elaborate 
 exercise. 
 
 Besides those degrees which are accorded for the 
 course of study which candidates have to pass through, 
 or which are the right of academical stafiding, and the 
 voluntary expenditure of money in this purchase, some 
 degrees are bestowed in an exceptional manner. 
 
 These are by diploma, by decree of Convocation, and 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVERSITY. 57 
 
 honorary ones. The first of these is a rare distinction. 
 It is the formal degree, however, of English bishops, 
 the practice of the university being to bestow honorary 
 degrees on colonial bishops. It has occasionally, how- 
 ever, been bestowed 6n individuals, who ai'e, or are 
 supposed to be, eminent for their merits or accomplish- 
 ments, or who are high officials. The second is gene- 
 rally that of master of arts, and is accorded to those 
 persons who, having been introduced into the university 
 without any previous connection with its studies, have, 
 in some way or the other, been made members of the 
 professorial staff. The third is far more common. At 
 the Commemoration, the annual academical festival, a 
 batch of such honorary graduates is created, the indivi- 
 duals selected for this distinction being generally those 
 who have some considerable external reputation. The 
 honour, such as it is, is perhaps made a little too cheap, 
 and now and then the patience of the university is sorely 
 tried by the fact that the dignity of the degree — ^gene- 
 rally that of doctor of civil law — is bestowed on parties 
 who are hardly of sufficient character or credit for 
 the distinction. 
 
 All degrees of this kind proceed in practice from the 
 Council, for though the Convocation has a negative voice 
 on the choice of the Council, the voice is seldom heard ; 
 and when it has been heard, as far as we can learn, it 
 has been disregarded. Honorary degrees confer no 
 academical privileges, though, when judiciously be- 
 stowed, they are evidence of the appreciation felt by the 
 university for external merit and public reputation. 
 
 Univeesitt Pkofessoes. — The aids afforded by the 
 university in its corporate capacity to the student, are 
 the lectures of the public professors. These are very 
 
5S EDUCATION IN OXFOED. 
 
 numerous, and represent well nigh all branches or 
 ancient and modern learning. They are differently 
 endowed, varying on this score from very large annual 
 stipends, to comparatively small ones. The occupants 
 of these offices are understood to work under the direc- 
 tion of definite statutes, prescribing the number of 
 the necessary lectures, and the penalties attached to the 
 non-performance of these statutable obligations. 
 
 There are four divinity professors : the Regius pro- 
 fessor, the Margaret professor, the professor of pastoral 
 theology, and the professor of ecclesiastical history. 
 To these may be added the professor of Hebrew, whose 
 duties are naturally rather theological than philological. 
 All of these professors are endowed with canonries 
 at Christchurch. The divinity lectures are generally 
 attended by persons who contemplate holy orders, and, 
 as a rule, the bishops exact a certificate of attendance on 
 one or more courses of divinity lectures from their 
 candidates. 
 
 There are eight philological professors: the pro- 
 fessor of Greek, the professor of Latin, the professor of 
 Sanskrit, the professor of Anglo-Saxon, two professors 
 of Arabic, the professor of the exegesis of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, and the professor of modern languages. Sub- 
 ordinate to these, are certain university teachers, who 
 are bound to afford gratuitous or regulated teaching to 
 members of the university. These are appointed seve- 
 rally for instruction in French, German, Italian, 
 Spanish, and Hindustani. 
 
 There are four professors of moral and mental philo- 
 sophy: the Waynflete professor of moral philosophy. 
 White's professor of moral phUoaophy, the professor of 
 1 ogic, and the professor of poetry. 
 
 There are three professors of history and economics : 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVERSITY. 59 
 
 the Camden professor of ancient history, the Regius 
 professor of modern history, and the professor of 
 pohtical economy. 
 
 There are three professors of jarisprudeace : the 
 Regius professor of civil law, the Vinerian professor of 
 common la,w, and the Chichele professor of inter- 
 national law. 
 
 There are nine professorships of natural philosophy : 
 that of natural philosophy, that of geometry, that of 
 astronomy, that of botany, that of rui'al economy, that 
 of chemistry, that of experimental philosophy, that of 
 mineralogy, that of geology. 
 
 There are four professors of physiology and thera- 
 peutics : two of anatomy, the Regius professor of 
 medicine, the clinical professor of medicine. 
 
 There is also a professor of music. 
 
 It will he seen, then, that the university is amply 
 provided with the means of public instruction in the 
 persons of its professors. In all likelihood the number, 
 will be increased hereafter by the creation of new offices. 
 
 There can be no doubt that generally the occupants 
 of these professorships are willing and anxious to do 
 their duty by the offices which tiaey holdj, and [hj the 
 luiiversity which they serve. But it is equally un- 
 doubted that professorial teaching is not effective in 
 Oxford, and that attendance on the lectures of pro- 
 fessors is rarely serious, and never stuidious. 
 
 Two causes conduce to this result in an eminent 
 degree. One of these is in the nature of things. The 
 days are gone by in which the instruction of a body of 
 men is attained by oral teaching. Books are multipMed, 
 and knowledge is placed in the easiest, the mast striking, 
 and the most accessible form in a host of publications 
 which are within the reach of most persons. The pro- 
 
60 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 fessor is apt to become a mSi-o teacher, except lie be 
 engaged on some subject which is not generally com- 
 mended to immediate popularity. 
 
 Still, the advantages of oral instruction, the oppor- 
 tunity which it gives of question and answer, and the 
 fact that a competent teacher is not only a book, but an 
 index to his art, would have made it practicable, even 
 under the altered circumstances of the present time, 
 that very large benefits would be offered and eagerly 
 accepted by persons with whom the possession of 
 knowledge bears a high market value in the endow- 
 ments bestowed on proficiency under the names of 
 scholarships and fellowships. But there is a state of 
 things in Oxford which thoroughly neutralizes such 
 hopes. This is the monopoly of college tutors. 
 
 The modern sense of the words tutor and tuition, is 
 a striking instance of the way in which the inherent 
 meaning of terms is altered. A tutor is properly a 
 person set over the conduct and morals of those 
 committed to his care. A college tutor is properly a 
 sort of academical curate, who is usually responsible for 
 the guidance and government of youth. The word has 
 not the remotest connection with education. Tutors 
 were licensed by the university authorities, and were, 
 like curates, removable at the discretion of these authori- 
 ties. Now, however, this duty is merged in that of 
 teaching, and attendance on the lectures of college 
 tutors is always compulsory, and seldom discreet. As 
 ' a consequence, the hours of public teaching are absorbed 
 by the routine of the college lectures, and the public 
 professor has to scramble for the scraps of the undergra- 
 duates' time. There cannot, I believe, be conteived or 
 imagined a more suicidal and more mischievous mono- 
 poly than that of the college tutor. College lectures 
 
THE STUJbENT AND THE UNIVEESITT. 61 
 
 are, as a rule, perfunctory, repressive, irritating. For 
 one man who learns and profits by them, ten are 
 depressed and discouraged. Under a healthier system, 
 the fancy that a college could give adequate instruction 
 in the various studies of the university, to the various 
 capacities of its members, would be discerned to be the 
 paradox which it is. 
 
 This it is which more than anything else deadens the 
 energies of the active professor. Were it removed, 
 though one cannot expect that the palmy days of pro- 
 fessorial teaching could be created or revived, yet much 
 would be done which it is now hopeless to look forward 
 to. If, indeed, a professorship is a reward for past 
 services, and is to be looked on as a comfortable provision 
 for acknowledged capacity, it may be well to continue 
 the present state of things ; but the practice of the uni- 
 versity is strangely at variance with its statutes. On the 
 one hand, it exacts the fulfilment of rigorous conditions 
 from its officers, or affects to exact them; and on the 
 other, it permits" a state of things which negatives the 
 conditions by completely emptying the lecture-rooms. 
 
 In one professorship, and one only, a provision is 
 made that the professor should give general proof of 
 his efficiency by the publication of one or more of his 
 annual lectures. Perhaps it was not by accident that 
 this rule was introduced into the statutes of the pro- 
 fessorship of political economy, when one estimates 
 the- serious results which might ensue from erroneous 
 teaching on this subject, provided tlae professor had 
 hearers. But the rule is an admirable one in all cases ; 
 and forms, when honestly enforced, a perpetual barrier 
 against incompetence and sloth. Perhaps the best 
 proof of its effects on public teaching would be found 
 in the list of the individuals who have held the pro- 
 
62 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 fessorship of political economy, though the professor is 
 elected in almost the worst way possible, by the general 
 suffrages of Gonvooation, and is the worst paid of the 
 body. 
 
 Except where special provision is made to the con- 
 trary, professorial lectures are gratuitous. In some 
 cases, the smallness of the stipend is the cause for this 
 provision ; in one or two, however, this cause does not 
 apply. An attempt to assign the right of taking fees 
 from the audience of a professor's lectures was made 
 several times in the past year, but failed. 
 
 For some years an attendance at two professorial 
 courses was exacted from any candidate for a degree. 
 As might have been expected, in the absence of any 
 certificate on the part of the professor that the student 
 had derived any benefi.t from the lectures,, the attendance 
 was regular indeed, but meant nothing more than the 
 expenditure of so much time for the purpose of pro- 
 curing a necessary formula. The rule was thereupon 
 rescinded, with the consent of many among the professors 
 themselves. Had the professors been empowered to 
 refuse their testimonial in cases where they found that 
 the attendance had been unprofitable, there would have 
 been virtually two more examinations for a degree. To 
 this, however, it need hardly be said, the colleges were 
 unanimously averse. It is not imderstood that those 
 professorial lectures which had been found useful or 
 instructive, have suffered under the abolition of the 
 rule, except in so far as they have lost the attendance 
 of those whose presence was reaUy a nuisance. 
 
 There can be no doubt that even under existing 
 circumstances, students may derive great advantage 
 from professorial lectures, especially if those lectures 
 are made something more than a mere reading. Adverse 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVEKSITY. 63 
 
 as is the position in whicli the professors are placed, in 
 the struggle after an undergraduate's time, this position 
 has been vastly improved within the last ten years. 
 During the time that I was myself an undergraduate, 
 attendance on professorial lectures was rare and un- 
 profitable ; that it is better now is due to the painstaking 
 and energy of some among those who in this later period 
 have occupied professorial offices. But the painstaking 
 and energy are due to moral and personal causes, which 
 are honourable in individuals to the highest degree, but 
 are no safe or permanent motive for future action. It is 
 only in changiug and stirring times that the ordinary 
 impulses of human conduct are superseded. Even in 
 these cases there has been previously a repression of 
 natural action, and altered circumstances strike people 
 with greater distinctness than they otherwise would, 
 when such parties have been subject to incidental dis- 
 couragement. But they who are old in easy and negli- 
 gent habits, are very slow to discern a new state of things, 
 and still more slowly adapt themselves to the novelty. 
 
 Provided the professor is ceanpetent and energetic, 
 those lectures will naturally be best attended in which 
 the teacher deals with a subject of immediate academical 
 value. Here, as elsewhere, the pursuits of under- 
 graduates are directed by the rewards of proficiency, 
 and with great justice the university sets the largest 
 prizes before the successful student of litercB humaniores. 
 As I have said above, this school not only represents 
 the largest amount of knowledge, but the fullest habit 
 of mental training. It is only by vulgar and ignorant 
 people that education according to models of ancient 
 eloquenccj poetry, history, and philosophy is derided. 
 Much, no doubt, of the labour expended on certain 
 branches of this precious inheritance of antiquity is 
 
64 EDUCATION IN OXFOED, 
 
 wasted, and much of the detail of youthful study is 
 fantastic and conventional ; but the inner spirit of the 
 whole thing is sound and true. The revival of letters, 
 the restoration of a pure religion, and the gigantic 
 vigour of that learning and energy of which modern 
 civilization is the fruit, came from the reverent and 
 patient study of ancient genius. What We have re- 
 maining to us of that bygone time is as fresh as though 
 it were written yesterday — jewels always precious, 
 though the setting is antique ; gold of the purest coinage, 
 though the type and the legend point to acts and per- 
 sons who are ennobled as long as man is to be, by their 
 being the fortunate examples of bygone but perennial 
 worthiness. 
 
 They who have studied the history of human learn- 
 ing and human progress, gather each in his degree the 
 knowledge of how modern thought has naturally fallen 
 into the paths worked out for it by the giants of the 
 ancient world. The analysis of man's mind, the limit 
 of its powers, are mapped out and defined by those men 
 who showed in their ovra energies the most that man 
 could do. Constantly as men search into the meaning 
 and extent of their own capacities, and reconstitute the 
 principles of reason and art, are they more and more 
 enlightened as to these restless workings by the calm, 
 clear light, the delicate and subtle art of those masters 
 of the Grecian w;orld. The store of those great thinkers 
 is far from exhausted, because far from being under- 
 stood. They are always teaching, even from the relics 
 of their labour ; ever suggestive when read over for the 
 hundredth time. The more they are studied, the more 
 they instruct. No human being has ever influenced 
 mankind like Aristotle, in whom the philosophy of 
 antiquity culminated, every page of whose thoughtful 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVERSITY. 65 
 
 writing contains well nigli the material for a volume. 
 He invented terms, whict are the watchwords in every 
 civilized tongue, of power and patience. It is every- 
 thing for Oxford that his thinking is academical edu- 
 cation ; while he is taught and learnt there will be 
 no fear that the highest forms of human learning will 
 suffer by contact with a smattering, sciolism of physical 
 science. 
 
 Besides the larger investigation of the philosophy of 
 Aristotle, much attention has latterly been given to that of 
 Plato. Formerly this author was hardly read at Oxford, 
 and the revival of the study is due mainly to one of the 
 professors. Far inferior as he is to liis pupil and rival, 
 the subtle, soothing, gentle mysticism of Plato is at 
 once a relief and a foil to the sterner reasonings of 
 Aristotle. 
 
 It is particularly in the direction of philosophy that 
 the Oxford professoriate is developing its energies, and 
 honestly working out its duties. Not but that much is 
 left untried. Very little is done here directly with the 
 philosophy of art, and especially with that of rhetoric. 
 Neither ancient nor modern history, as yet treated, have 
 emerged from the gossip of archaeology and detail into 
 the picture of social states, and the induction of 
 political science. Archaeology and facts are the necessary 
 material of the philosophy of politics, but to stop short 
 at these preliminaries is as weat as it is to theorize 
 without the knowledge of them. As a general sum- 
 mary, Oxford teaching is that of knowledge, not use. 
 
 Upon these points then especially, the philosophy of 
 ancient and modern, mental and moral science, and the 
 analysis of economic conditions and political forms, 
 there is reason to hope that the labours of the Oxford 
 professoriate may be stimulated, as undei'graduates con- 
 
 5 
 
66 EDUCATION IW OXFORD. 
 
 template a careful studj of either in the present school 
 of litercB humaniores, and a developed and amended 
 scheme of law and modern history. At present the 
 former is hampered by the inherent vices of the Oxford 
 or rather the collegiate system, and the latter is still 
 a sham, and j withal a superficial sham. The law, as I 
 have already staied, is the veriest smattering in the 
 subject, which six months in an attorney's office would 
 put to the blush. The history is the collection of facts 
 without principle, of details without inductions. And 
 the remedy for this state of things is to be found, one 
 may hope, in the labours of the professors of common, 
 civil, and international law, in those of the professors of 
 political economy, and of the professors of modern 
 history. Hitherto the colleges have not been able to 
 absorb this portion of university education into the 
 dull routine of their appointed lectures. The student 
 in this school must or will seek his information without 
 the walls of his college, and from the lips of professors 
 and private teachers, when he is unable to obtain out of 
 books the reasonings which give life and light to juris- 
 prudence and history. 
 
 As long, indeed, as the special study of the University 
 of Oxford is directed towards the philosophy of human 
 nature and human history, as long as it insists on a 
 power of accumulating and methodizing the facts which 
 the varying but recurring story of human thought and 
 human action announces — and one would rue the day 
 when this, the highest of all learning and the most use- 
 ful of all teaching, were omitted or subordinated — so 
 long will there be ample opportunity for the recognized 
 teachers of the university to do the best service to the 
 public in general, and the student in particular. The 
 criticism of the multiform theories of philosophy and 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVEESITY. 67 
 
 history, the analysis of the principles of jurisprudence 
 and economic science, are the natural field for an edu- 
 cation, the first methodical direction of which is attempted 
 in the abstract study of a rigorous logic, and the 
 practice of dialectics. It is in the examination of these 
 theories and principles that the professoriate may train 
 young men, and teach elder ones. It is in appreciating 
 the large and growing interest which the public life of 
 this country feels in these and cognate subjects that the 
 future duties of the professors lie. 
 
 Hitherto, it need hardly be said, we have no such 
 labour in Oxford. Scholarship, philosophy, and history 
 are borrowed from French and German authors. In 
 scarce any of these has Oxford any native growth. 
 Very little has been added to the general stock of 
 human learning out of the vast endowments of uni- 
 versity and collegiate income — endowments equalling 
 the incomes of many States. The most notable among 
 Oxford authors have hated and despised the place of 
 their education, or at least regretted that so vast a 
 power of stimulating causes should have eventuated in 
 such scanty results. But with an active staff of public 
 teachers, and a resolute determination, both within and 
 without the walls of Oxford, to give every opportunity 
 for entrance into this arena of academical distinction, 
 and to unfetter the trade of learning, and the right of 
 teaching, there can be no doubt, on the narrowest and 
 scantiest estimate of human motives, that the future of 
 the university would in some degree, at least, recall the 
 past, and that while the number of students would be 
 largely increased, the inducements to active and metho- 
 dical study wbuld call out in fuller measure the energies 
 of the teacher, and secure the profit of the learner, and 
 through him of the country at large. We should thus 
 
 5—2 
 
68 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 find that the highest schemes of mental, moral, and 
 political philosophy, would be not, as now, the produce 
 of minds which have gathered conclusions experimen- 
 tally and illogically, but would represent the patient 
 and conscientious activity of those who have the leisure 
 to coUect facts, the inclination to order them, and the 
 power to combine them into a coherent system. 
 
 ■ I have made the foregoing observations, partly because 
 it is desirable to show what is the legitimate result of 
 that professorial system which the Act of 1854 intended, 
 and the regulations of the commissioners worked out ; 
 partly to denote that this system is in a state of transition ; 
 partly to point to the causes which may nullify its 
 objects. Without a large modification of the discipline 
 of college lectures, and a greater freedom given to the 
 student in the selection of the subject and the teacher 
 of his future learning, the professoriate of these daj's 
 will be a mere pageant of names, a series of well- 
 endowed sinecures. 
 
 Besides the oral teaching of the professors, the uni- 
 versity provides experimental instruction to its students 
 in the public libraries and the museums which it con- 
 tains, access to which is ready to all who wish to enjoy 
 their benefits, either as a matter of right, or on the easy 
 terms of an introduction. 
 
 Foremost among these institutions is the Bodleian 
 Library. This great collection of books begins from 
 the time of James I., in whose reign Bodley revived 
 the library which had been, according to the tale of 
 the middle ages, first instituted by the good Duke 
 Humphrey of Gloucester. Bodley gathered books 
 himself, got as many as he could from his friends, 
 did much in stone and mortar, gave statutes to his 
 foundation, and left the university a fair estate as a 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVEESITT. 69 
 
 means for maintaining the chief officer of his institution 
 and enlarging its treasures of learning. Since that 
 time an annual payment from all members of the 
 university, as well as large gifts from the funds of 
 academical savings, have been devoted towards the 
 same purpose. Other benefactors have bestowed much 
 on the same institution, and the Legislature has sanc- 
 tioned a tax on all publishers of a copy of each book 
 printed in the kingdom, with the view of enlarging the 
 material of this public library. From such sources as 
 these the annual increase of the institution is very con- 
 siderable. 
 
 The tax in question is one on authors. It is obvious 
 in such a trade as that of , publishing, that practically 
 any impost of the kind must affect those whose payment 
 is the last in the series of those who derive profit from 
 a commercial transaction in which different interests are 
 involved. The affectation of considering this tax as one 
 laid on publishers, is either a transparent mistake, or the 
 specious pretext for a fraud committed by unfair against 
 fair dealers. The tax, except in very exceptional cases, 
 is one of the lightest and least appreciable. It returns 
 in the most convenient form to those parties who are so 
 far mulcted of their profits, by the fact of its forming 
 an aggregate for easy, commodious, and instructive 
 reference. In every sense of the word, the Bodleian 
 Library, in common with other such institutions, is of 
 great public utility. 
 
 The library is open for longer periods of the day and 
 year, as it appears from a return made by the present 
 head librarian, than any other public library, except 
 that in the British Museum. The graduates of the 
 university have the use of the library by right, though 
 no one is permitted to borrow a book out of the building. 
 
70 EDUCATION IN OXFOED. 
 
 Undergraduates and strangers can readily obtain admis- 
 sion, on the introduction of responsible parties. The 
 university has for some time past sanctioned by formal 
 statute the creation of an evening reading-room, but 
 the authorities, with characteristic tardiness, have taken 
 no steps to realize the statute. The fault, however, is 
 not in the management of the Hbrary. 
 
 The catalogues are well arranged, and the discovery 
 of any book which may be needed by the student is 
 easy and ready. Nothing can exceed the convenience 
 of the room, its harmony with the purposes of study, 
 its light and quiet. The courtesy and kindness of all . 
 the officials in this great library is deserving of the 
 gratitude of every one who has ever had occasion to 
 use the treasures it contains. They never spare their 
 trouble, nor grudge their valuable information. Here, 
 at least, there is nothing which one can possibly complain 
 of, and the facilities of this noble collection are enhanced 
 by the admirable conduct of its staff. 
 
 Unfortunately few persons use it. Many causes 
 conduce to this fact. Colleges contain libraries from 
 which books may generally be borrowed ; and the hours 
 at which the library is open, as far as undergraduates 
 are concerned, are absorbed by the devouring dulness 
 of college lectures. The elder members of the univer- 
 sity are engaged in the routine of their labour, and, 
 perhaps, would not study if they could. There is some 
 hope that the inducement of an evening room may 
 cljange this state of things. 
 
 There is another library of the same public kind, 
 but limited in the- nature of its collection to works 
 on physical science. This is the Radcliffe Library. 
 It is, perhaps, less used than the Bodleian, even when 
 one takes into consideration the narrower extent of its 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE TrNIVEESITY. 71 
 
 selection. The Taylor Institution also contains a small 
 number of works in modern languages, and a fair 
 amount of rubbish. Such books as are to be had in 
 the Taylor Institution can be taken home by parties 
 who wish to use them, and the reading-room in this 
 building is open in the evening.- The room is seldom 
 used, but then there is very little to use it for. The 
 fact of the scanty use of this limited and very un- 
 equal library, is made a reason for delaying the evening 
 room of the Bodleian. But the cases are no way 
 parallel. 
 
 The collections of objects of natural philosophy and 
 art which the university contains are scattered in various 
 places. It is expected that they will be collected into 
 the new museum, which the university has been latterly 
 building at so prodigal a cost that the expense of the 
 structure has doubled the architect's estimate. At 
 present these collections are inaccessible, in great 
 degree in consequence of the inadequate space afforded 
 them. 
 
 However, in natural history, at least, there are flie 
 materials of a mizseum inferior to few in the countrj'. 
 The late Dr. Buckland collected a set of geological 
 objects of vast and varied value, the extent of which has 
 been increased by the energy of his successor. There 
 is a fair mineralogical museum, an increasing anatomical 
 one, and an indifferent collection of stuffed animals.- 
 The liberality of Mr. Hope has enriched the university 
 with an invaluable entomological series, and the growth 
 of a complete museum of recent and fossil shells is 
 rapid. There is abundant opportunity for a far larger 
 study of natural history than there is ever any reason 
 to expect will occur in Oxford. And the study of 
 chemistry is provided for by a well-arranged laboratory. 
 
72 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 the only part of the new museum at present in working 
 order. 
 
 There are in Oxford the materials for a school of art. 
 By the liberality of a private subscription, aided by a 
 munificent gift from the late Lord Eldon, the university 
 became possessed of a large collection of the original 
 drawings of some of the greatest Italian masters. Be- 
 sides these, it possesses a few pictures of no very high 
 order of merit, but of some value. Perhaps in time 
 to come this collection may be enlarged by gifts or 
 bequests. Sometimes donors have bestowed pictures on 
 colleges, with what motives, except a mistaken piety, 
 one cannot imagine. Those which were given to ^Christ 
 Church have been almost inaccessible to the public, and 
 have been completely neglected by that corporation. 
 On the other hand, the few pictures which have been 
 bestowed on the university have been carefully pre- 
 served, been freely exhibited, and, as far as possible, 
 judiciously placed. Besides the pictures in the univer- 
 sity galleries, the Bodleian possesses the most exquisite 
 gems of miniature missal painting conceivable, which, 
 like everything else the Bodleian possesses, are available 
 for the use of parties who require or wish them. 
 
 The Univeesity Prizes. ^The University of Oxford 
 is not wealthy, but devotes the funds at its disposal to 
 purely public purposes. The main source of its revenue 
 is a successful printing trade, which it carries out as 
 one of the patentees of a regulated monopoly, the pub- 
 lication, namely, of Bibles and Prayer-books. From 
 this revenue it has from time to time endowed professor- 
 ships and founded prizes. It acts largely, however, as 
 trustee for several endowments, generally more honour- 
 able than lucrative, under the name of university 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVERSITY. 73 
 
 scholarships and prizes. A successful competition for 
 certain among these is, after the honour of the univer- 
 sity class list, the most characteristic and reputable 
 distinction in the academical course of a student. Some 
 of these scholarships and prizes are confined to the earlier 
 period of a student's life, some are extended to later 
 occasions. 
 
 The earliest endowments which bygone liberality- 
 afforded to study and learning were, as has been 
 already stated, donations to the university. Gradually, 
 and by steps which cannot be traced, these donations 
 were limited to the students of particular houses. In 
 later time they formed part of the foundation of some 
 among the earliest colleges, such as those of Exeter, 
 Balliol, University. At the time of the Reformation, 
 and, indeed, for some time afler, there were no estates 
 held in trust by the university for the general body of 
 its members, without distinction of college or hall, and 
 with a view to the promotion of learning among inde- 
 pendent students. 
 
 The first gift to the university in which provision was 
 made for parties who were not possessed of any college 
 emolument was that of Lord Craven, in 1647. He 
 intended his scholars, whom he endowed, for that time, 
 munificently, to be unattached to the foundations of any 
 coUege — the statute, grounded on his bequest, excluding 
 foundation members from the advantage of his liberality. 
 Latterly, this was interpreted to apply to those only who 
 were not scholars or fellows of any college at the time 
 of their election. The bequest was also clogged with the 
 condition of a preference to the name or kindred of the 
 founder. 
 
 After certain changes, in which the leading features 
 of the founder's will were preserved, the whole scheme 
 
74 EDUCATION IN OXPOED. 
 
 was remodelled by the commissioners under the Univer- 
 sity Reform Act, and the new plan is to come into effect 
 on the avoidance of the present occupants. In point of 
 stipend, the Craven is the most valuable of all the 
 university scholarships — of those, at least, which are 
 open to undergraduates. Where it has been procured 
 by examination, its possession has always been a cre- 
 ditable achievement; but the limitation to non-founda- 
 tioners, and the preference to founder's kin, 'have 
 hitherto made the field of competition narrow and the 
 occupancy ambiguous. A student might hfive been a 
 Craven scholar without being better than an ordinary 
 passman. Hence, any inference from the possession of 
 the scholarship would be fallacious, without an explana- 
 tion of the circumstances under which the election took 
 place. 
 
 More than a hundred years after this bequest, certain 
 fellowships and scholarships were founded by Mr. Viner, 
 for the study of common law. This gentleman, how- 
 ever, nullified his gift by permitting the election of the 
 scholars to Convocation. Hence the scholars were chosen 
 without any consideration of their knowledge of common 
 law, or without any pledge that they would study it. 
 As a consequence, numbers of Vinerian scholars used 
 the endowment as a means for eking out a fellowship, 
 and finally took orders without having learned an atom 
 of the common law of England. This state of things 
 was, however, changed in the last few years, and the 
 election has become the consequence of an examination. 
 Hereafter there will be an annual election, and the 
 scholarship will be held for five years, with a stipend of 
 351. per annum. 
 
 The other university scholarships are much later in 
 point of time, the gift which gave the first stimulus to 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVEESITT. 75 
 
 this valuable and satisfactory form of academical emolu- 
 ment having been that of the late Dean of Westminster, 
 Dr. Ireland. Dr. Ireland had himself been a servitor 
 at Christ Church, had owed his education to the coarse 
 beneficence of that kind of dotation, and repaid thou- 
 sandfold the advantages he had received. 
 
 He founded four scholarships of thirty pounds a year 
 on the widest possible basis, no preferential claim being 
 admissible. The right of competition is contiaued during 
 the whole of an undergraduate's ordinary career, that 
 is, till his sixteenth term, so that every matriculated 
 person has four chances. The tenure of the scholar- 
 ship is for four years, and though the material of the 
 examination is that of school learning, and is therefore 
 so far narrow, the credit attaching to the successful 
 candidate is deservedly large. 
 
 Soon after this foundation, the university created from 
 its own resources an annual mathematical scholarship 
 modelled on the plan of Dean Ireland's scholarship. 
 Subsequently, however, the scheme was altered, and in 
 place of a single mathematical scholarship, two were 
 framed, one for juniors, that is, for persons who had not 
 exceeded the ninth term from their matriculation, and 
 one for bachelors who have not exceeded their twenty- 
 sixth. The tenure of each scholarship is for two 
 years, and the value of the senior and junior scholarships 
 are respectively AOl. and 301. per annum. 
 
 A biennial scholarship in mathematics was also 
 founded by Dr. Johnson. It is of small value, and has 
 generally been obtained by the senior mathematical 
 scholar of the year. The proceeds of this scholarship 
 are expended in books, which must be theological or 
 classical. 
 
 Some of the relics of the foundation of Hertford 
 
76 EDUCATION IS OXFOED. 
 
 College were made into a prize by George the Fourth, 
 for the encouragement of Latin learning, candidates 
 being limited to the second year from their matricula- 
 tion. The scholarship, which is annual, and only 
 enures to the occupier for the year of his election, is of 
 the same yalue for that year as Dean Ireland's scholar- 
 ship, and is also a prize denoting the great acquirement 
 of the successful candidate in the ordinary school 
 learning of Latin. 
 
 In connection with the Taylor Institute, the purport 
 of which is the teaching of the modern languages, 
 four scholarships have been founded, each of which, of 
 the value of 251. annually, is tenable for two years. 
 These scholarships have been in existence for two years 
 only. 
 
 In the years 1831 and 1832, certain Hebrew scholar- 
 ships were founded, two by Mrs. Kennicott, and three 
 by Mr. and Dr. Pusey with Dr. Ellerton. As those on 
 Mrs. Kennicott's foundation may be held for four years, 
 the election takes place at irregular intervals ; but those 
 on the Pusey and Ellerton foundation are elected 
 annually. The former are limited to the year after 
 which the candidate has taken the degree of B.A. ; the 
 latter can be contended for by parties who are under 
 the degree of M.A. or B.C.L., or who, having taken 
 this degree, are not more than twenty-five years of age. 
 The scholarships are of about the same value as the 
 Ireland scholarship. 
 
 There are also two scholarships for the study of 
 Sanskrit, which are tenable, if certain conditions of a 
 stringent character as to residence and age are fulfilled, 
 for four years, and are annually worth 501. 
 
 Besides these benefactions, there is a valuable scholar- 
 ship attached to the study of law, which originated in a 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVERSITY. 77 
 
 testimonial declaratory of the sense entertained by the 
 university of Lord Eldon's political services, amounting 
 to 2001. a year, and three for the study of medicine, 
 derived from the remodelling of Dr. Radcliffe's bequest 
 for travelling fellows. These also are equal to 200?. a 
 year each, the necessity of residence abroad during 
 some part of the tenancy being exacted from the 
 occupiers of these emoluments. The electors of the 
 Eldon scholarship are certain parties who act as trustees 
 to the fund, but who are bound in the exercise of their 
 patronage to consider a series of conditions derived from 
 the academical distinctions of the candidates. The 
 appointment to the Radcliffe fellowship is the consequence 
 of an examination in medical and other science, with 
 the additional provision that candidates shall already 
 have been tested in the first class in natural science. In 
 either case the scholars are bound to proceed respectively 
 to the status of barrister and physician. Generally speak- 
 ing, the condition has been fulfilled, and the object of 
 the foundation accomplished by the parties who have 
 been invested with these advantages. 
 
 Tor nearly a century there have been certain prizes 
 bestowed for compositions in prose and verse. At 
 present they are regularly awarded from a fond derived 
 from a bequest of Sir Roger Newdigate, and from the 
 liberality of the Chancellor of the University. They 
 are of the annual value of 201., and when once obtained 
 cannot be a second time successfully competed for. 
 They are four in number: two for verse; Latin and 
 English, limited to undergraduates ; and two for prose ; 
 Latin and English, assigned to bachelors of arts. The 
 successful prizes are recited at the annual festival of 
 the university which goes by the name of the Comme- 
 moration. In case the compositions are not of sufficient 
 
78 KDUCATION IN OXFOKD, 
 
 merit, no prize is awarded, a circumstance which has 
 occurred four times within the last twenty jears. 
 Naturally the number of competitors for the Newdigate 
 is much larger than that for any other of the prizes. 
 Young poets are plentiful. 
 
 The institution of these prizes has been followed by 
 that of others, the earliest, after them, having been some 
 on divinity. Either from incompetence or from indif- 
 ference, it has frequently happened that no prize has 
 been bestowed from the bequest of Dr. EUerton and 
 Mrs. Denyer. 
 
 Latterly the fashion of prizes by way of testimo- 
 nials to eminent names in literature has obtained in 
 Oxford. The death of Dr. Arnold was made the 
 occasion of founding a prize to his memory, the subject 
 being alternately one in ancient and modern history, 
 and the successful candidate — the period of his candi- 
 dature is limited to eight years from matriculation — 
 receives 42 Z. from the fund. Similarly, on the death 
 of the late Dean of Christ Church, Dr. Gaisford, a 
 double prize for Greek prose and verse was instituted 
 out of a subscription collected in his honour. Lord 
 Stanhope has also bestowed on the university an annual 
 prize of 201. for an essay on some point of modem his- 
 tory, within certain chronological limits. 
 
 On the whole success in competition for university 
 prizes, as is the case with that for university scholar- 
 ships, is understood to be highly creditable to the 
 candidates. Nevertheless, in working out the general 
 purposes of academical study, the direction in which 
 prizes have been bestowed is either too much that of 
 merely testing school work, or of giving an external 
 impetus to studies which are either novel or languish- 
 ing. And it is to be hoped, as there are other equally 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVEKSITY. 79 
 
 important portions of the general theory of academical 
 education, that more of such prizes may be forthco'ming 
 on these subjects. 
 
 It does not follow that those persons who have been 
 successful in the competition for university prizes should 
 have also made a good figure in the university class 
 lists. No doubt, as a rule, they do, especially when 
 they have appeared as prize essayists in English and 
 Latin. But the examination in Uteris humanioribus, or, 
 as it is commonly called, but very vaguely, in Classics, 
 is far more general than any subject for a university 
 prize is or could be. It is necessary to state this fact, 
 since it has been a feature in the details of late acade- 
 mical reform, to put the prize essays on the same foot- 
 ing with a first class. 
 
 Subjoimed is a table containing an account of matri- 
 culations and degrees of bachelor and master of arts 
 respectively for the last twenty years, divided' into 
 quinquennial periods. The obvious inferences are : — 
 
 1. That there has been a considerable diminution in 
 the numbers of the university on the last two averages, 
 when one estimates the matriculations, and that this 
 becomes more serious and important when one con- 
 siders the vast increase of national wealth during the 
 last twenty years. In this period the real valuS of 
 imports and exports, the best test of national wealth, 
 has more than doubled, and it may fairly be .argued 
 that if the University of Oxford had been commen- 
 surately appreciated according to the development of 
 national prosperity, that it would have shown a very 
 different set of figures fi:om those appended. 
 
 ■2. That of the parties who have matriculated during 
 the last twenty years, about 73-3 per cent, have pro? 
 ceeded to the degree of bachelor of arts. The bache- 
 
80 
 
 EDUCATION m OXFORD. 
 
 lors, when compared with matriculations, must bo 
 sought for in the fourth year from the matriculations, 
 the masters in the seventh. Thus the bachelors of 
 1853 and the masters of 1856 correspond to the matri- 
 culations of 1849. In this year the number of matricu- 
 lations was the largest during the whole period, 443 ; 
 the bachelors and masters in the respective years being 
 also most numerous, i.e. severally 354 and 261. ^ 
 
 3. The quinquennial average shows a steady increase 
 in the amount of masters of arts. This result is pro- 
 bably due to the greater facilities which railway com- 
 munication has afforded members of the iiniversity in 
 coming to Oxford for the purpose of graduating, and 
 in the increased value of the parliamentary suffrage. 
 Latterly, also, the removal of certain impediments in 
 the way of proceeding to this degree, and especially that 
 of the compulsory three weeks' residence, has tended to 
 increase the number of these graduates. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Matricula- 
 tions. 
 
 B.A. 
 
 M.A. 
 
 Year. 
 
 MatricDla- 
 tions. 
 
 B.A. 
 
 M.A. 
 
 1840 
 
 1841 
 
 1842 
 
 1843 
 
 1844 
 
 396 
 441 
 379 
 390 
 398 
 
 254 
 272 
 287 
 280 
 284 
 
 194 
 200 
 179 
 181 
 234 
 
 1850 
 
 1851 
 
 1852 
 
 1853 
 
 1854 
 
 Average 
 
 1855 
 
 1856 
 
 1857 
 
 1858 
 
 1859 
 
 Average 
 
 409 
 359 
 413 
 406 
 393 
 
 305 
 306 
 300 
 354 
 258 
 
 196 
 204 
 256 
 
 247 
 198 
 
 Average.. 
 
 400-8 
 
 275-4 
 
 197-6 
 
 396 
 
 304-6 
 
 220-2 
 
 1845 
 
 1846 
 
 1847 
 
 1848 
 
 1849 
 
 438 
 411 
 406 
 412 
 443 
 
 281 
 303 
 252 
 273 
 298 
 
 208 
 201 
 240 
 196 
 201 
 
 344 
 385 
 380 
 399 
 419 
 
 236 
 291 
 269 
 277 
 300 
 
 189 
 261 
 241 
 234 
 258 
 
 Average.. 
 
 422 
 
 281-6 
 
 209-2 
 
 385-4 
 
 274-6 
 
 236-6 
 
 Matriculations. 
 
 Total for 20 years 8,021 
 
 B.A. 
 5,681 
 
 M.A. 
 4,318 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVEESITY. 81 
 
 OxFOBD Local Examinations. — No sketch of Oxford 
 education would be other than very imperfect which 
 did not take into account the remarkable and truly 
 national movement of 1857, in what have been 
 called middle-class or local examinations. This work 
 of the university has been so singular and important, 
 has been so characteristic in its value, and, with 
 very explicable exceptions, so appreciated by those 
 who were able to avail themselves of it, that it bids 
 fair to be a solution of a very practical kind to a 
 vast social difficulty, and a serious social inconvenience. 
 It was no less than the bringing to bear on the general 
 education of the country those tests, and maybe those 
 influences, which this imiversity could so ably use, and 
 so disinterestedly employ. It is impossible to exaggerate 
 the merits of the movement, and it is quite out of one's 
 power to predict the action and reaction of the process 
 which was accepted, not without hesitation, but, in some 
 degree, by surprise on the part of the university. For 
 though Oxford .does not in any sense, except the most 
 indirect, educate the general body of the nation, yet the 
 university does not practically educate its own members ; 
 it does by them, except in so far as the professors teach, no 
 more than estimate the product of education by other 
 parties, and of various but assimilated kinds. 
 
 Everybody knows that an elaborate and organized 
 governmental system is employed to scrutinize the 
 profitable emplojrment of national funds in the esta- 
 blishment and working of those schools which are 
 aided by educatioijal grants. These grants form an 
 important and increasing charge in the annual estimates ; 
 and from the pecuh'ar disposition of the English nation 
 to recognize and deal exceptionally with those parties 
 who are, or are presumed to be, in need of what may 
 
 6 
 
82 EDUCATION m OXEOKD. 
 
 be called public or parliamentary charity, the schools 
 which are maintained by these grants are rapidly ap- 
 proaching perfection in the capacity of teachers, in the 
 means of instniction afforded to the poor, and in the 
 selection of the best and ablest from the I'anks of those 
 who are taught, with a view of their being made school- 
 masters and schoolmistresses, under the name and with 
 the allowances of pupil teachers. No one can read the 
 reports of the school inspectors without recognizing that 
 an elaborate and highly efficient organization is at work 
 on the system of instruction adopted and maintained for 
 the children of the poor. No one can doubt that the 
 police of the system, so to speak, is effective and exact, 
 and that the product is as elaborately useful as the time 
 and material of the pupils can supply. Probably, too, 
 in the whole range of public questions there is not oiie 
 on which the general opinions of public men are so 
 i agreed, as on the principle of national education, as 
 ' applied to the poorer classes. If governmental chaxity 
 is excusable, this is the most excusable form of it. That 
 differences should occur as to the wisdom of sectional as 
 opposed to secular national education is only a part of 
 the great question which is still agitating men, and which 
 is as yet unsolved — the advantage, namely, or disadvan- 
 tage of a public recognition of religious differences. 
 
 Again, there are certain persons whose fitness is 
 certified by definite general or special tests. The uni- 
 versities examine their own students, and determine their 
 qualifications, unfortunately in the main only for one of 
 the professions which educated men fill — that, namely, of 
 the Church. The benefit which the credit of the vmiversity 
 examinations bestows on the clergy of the English Church 
 is incalculable. After one deducts the natural de- 
 preciation of gossip and party spirit, there is on all hands 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE TJNIVEESITY. 83 
 
 admitted the fact, that the clergy of the English 
 establishment are not only the most highly educated 
 ecclesiastics in the world, but, as a body, the best in- 
 formed men on general subjects in England. To them, 
 more than to any other body of men, the special and 
 most valuable features of English better-class society are 
 due. The most ordinary acquaintance with the social 
 history of England is conclusive on this point. Never^ 
 may be^much better, but always better on all social points 
 than the landed and other wealthy property-holders of 
 England, it is by their means especially, that the satyrs 
 amd drunkards of a late age have been raised to the 
 signal social decency of the present time. This object 
 has indirectly at least, and not a little directly, been 
 produced by the universities and their standards of 
 education and intellectual refinement. Not, indeed, that 
 the terms of the social equation- are not numerous, and 
 supplied from very different sources; but among them 
 none has been more dominant in the product than the 
 influence of academic estimates on the many moral agents 
 with whom the university annually supplies the country. 
 But waiving the question of the public value of social 
 influence of such persons, there is plainly a conclusive- 
 ness given to the reality of their educational status by 
 the certificate of a degree. 
 
 Similarly the effect produced upon the few members 
 of the legal profession who receive a university educa- 
 tion is relatively effective on the whole class. The 
 influence is waning indeed, in the progressive diminution 
 of numbers iu students from the university who graduate 
 at the Inns of Court. So, also, the education of country 
 gentlemen, though fer less academical than it once was, is, 
 to a certain extent, provided for by the standards taken 
 in those who have graduated at Oxford and Cambridge. 
 
 6—2 
 
84 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 But there is a vast mass of education of which there is 
 no effective test. By far the largest number of those 
 who are educated at public schools enter on their special 
 branches of study when they leave those schools. In 
 professional life, and in the upper walks of trade, the 
 age at which general education ceases is from seventeen 
 to eighteen. In the ordinary business of trade and 
 agriculture, it ceases at from fourteen to fifteen. Hitherto 
 the tests by which the capacity of teachers and the infor- 
 mation imparted to the pupils are estimated, have been of 
 the most meagre and unsatisfactory kind. The power of 
 parents to determine the most important conceivable thing 
 — ^the best means and the best places for the instruction 
 of their children — ^was either absolutely wanting or totally 
 empirical. Hence there is nothing in which incompe- 
 tence has been more loud and pretentious than in 
 scholastic business. The most successful schoolmaster 
 was often, and is often, far from being the most capable 
 person, but the most unblushing and impudent charlatan. 
 The road to profit lay in puffs and advertisements. 
 
 Now the chief use of advertisements is the instruc- 
 tion of the purchaser in the place where he can pro- 
 cure, at prices which he can comprehend, goods which 
 he can estimate the value of. But an advertisement is 
 a delusion or a guess, when it puts forward the sale of 
 that which persons are quite unable to appreciate. 
 And education — that is, the special powers of individuals 
 to educate — is one of those things about which parents 
 are very apt to be misinformed and mistaken. It is 
 true, indeed, that they can ordinarily estimate the 
 common routine of proficiency in commercial requi- 
 sites — that is to say, the knowledge of reading, spelling, 
 writing, and rudimentary arithmetic ; but the method 
 of teaching,the way in which what is known has been 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVEESITY. 85 
 
 imparted, and the extent to whicli this has systemati- 
 cally been put into the minds of young persons, they 
 take on faith, and are perpetually deceived in. It was 
 tolerably well understood, indeed, that the ordinary 
 teaching of schools was unsatisfactory, and that an 
 inquiry into it would reveal some significant and serious 
 facts. The real want of information about it was most 
 of all felt by the schoolmasters themselves, whose in- 
 terest it was to have their goods tested by capable and 
 critical judges, that they might have some appeal in 
 the midst of the clumsy competition of persons very 
 unequally competent, for the custom of persons singu- 
 larly incapable to form an accurate judgment about the 
 worth of the commodity. It was of the last importance 
 to such persons that they should be supplied with this 
 desideratum — a test, that is to say, of the value of their 
 method and their teaching, and this by some unmis- 
 takeable authority. 
 
 Any governmental inspection was out of the question. 
 There is nothing in which there is a stronger, and one 
 may say a more rational, dislike to government inter- 
 ference than in the education of one's own children. 
 There is not only an indefinite suspicion of it, but in ^ 
 the minds of those who have formed a judgment, the | -. 
 continental system is one sn which small advantages of ) 
 uniformity and regularity axe purchased at the serious / 
 cost of the sacrifice of independence and parental autho- 
 rity. Even in the necessary intrusion of government 
 inspection into the system of national education, care 
 is taken that the possible prejudices of parents during 
 the education of their children from public charity 
 should not be shocked by an educational method which 
 was wholly secular. The distinctions of religious 
 bodies have been preserved and stereotyped in the 
 
 / 
 
86 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 inspection ; far more, one may be certain, from jealousy 
 of any attempt at centralization, than from a belief that 
 religious truth was likely to be compromised by a 
 merely secular method. 
 
 Now it is obvious that no body could be found whose 
 capacity could more completely satisfy the want, and 
 whose position could more fully negative this jealousy, 
 than the universities. It was plain that these institu- 
 tions, dealing with a form of education typically perfect, 
 and with a range of information actually universal, 
 could test in the best possible way the results of an 
 instruction which, after all, is in a small and inferior 
 degree a copy of that which prevails at these corpora- 
 tions. And, on the other hand, the universities were 
 by way, if of anything, certainly not to absorb the 
 schools into their system ; but to look on them at the 
 best as likely to supply from their better scholars, more 
 and better instructed students. Their position was at 
 once that which would create confidence and disarm 
 suspicion. 
 
 Besides, it was seen that in the case of elder youths 
 the examinations which the university might give 
 would meet another and very important necessity, that, 
 namely, of exacting sufScient educational proofs from 
 those persons who contemplate professional specialties. 
 Medical men and attorneys are invested by the Legis- 
 lature with peculiar and exclusive privileges, such, 
 indeed, as are accorded to no other professional men. 
 As a consequence the field of competition, though suiS- 
 ciently wide for the practitioner, is more or less 
 narrowed for the public. But it is not desirable, what- 
 ever may be the view entertained about the wisdom of 
 granting legislative sanction to professional privileges, 
 that such persons should be in matters of ordinary 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVERSITY. 87 
 
 education, inconveniently ignorant. Hence the medical 
 profession long since, and the legal lately, has demanded 
 proofs of .the general education of those persons who 
 were by way of entering the practice of either profes- 
 sion. But the union of this general examination with 
 the special one was awkward and deceptive, and no one 
 doubts that the decision on it would be on every ground 
 better lodged in the hands of such persons as are found 
 in the universities, whose competency and caiidom: are 
 beyond question. 
 
 Furthermore, there was seen to be an opportunity for 
 the- universities to set, by their stamp of proficiency, a 
 sign upon candidates for employment in public offices 
 and in the public companies. Whatever be the merits 
 of the examinations for government offices, the assimila- 
 tion, in degree at least, of these examinations to those 
 held in the universities was pretty suggestive of the 
 source from whence the style of examination was drawn ; 
 and, on the other hand, few persons would doubt that, 
 were such examinations conducted by the university, 
 there would be, for those who desired it, a great advan- 
 tage purchasable at a cheap rate ; and in government 
 appointments, at least, a certainty that the universities 
 would be candid judges of proficiency, as they were 
 disinterested and imprejudiced in matters of immediate 
 or temporary party feeling and politic.al patronage. 
 
 There was, therefore, combined, in the acceptance of 
 any project for creating, by the spontaneous working 
 of the university in the direction of these voluntary 
 examinations, the satisfaction of several important in- 
 terests and the solution of several social problems. 
 On the one hand there might be derived an easy, cheap, 
 and expeditious way for determining the proficiency of 
 youths, and this as a proof to parents and a test to 
 
88 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 schoolmasters. On the other, there was the opportunity 
 for the public to be satisfied of the general capacity of 
 persons seeking employment and deserving it, as far as 
 any merely intellectual test could estimate these deserts. 
 And, above all, there vras a conviction that the uni- 
 versities were at once able to do the work and placed 
 far above any interested considerations in accepting an 
 office of such public value and of so delicate a nature. 
 That the Convocation of Oxford took upon itself the task 
 was as surprising as it was public-spirited ; and one may 
 be confident that the real nature and direction of the move- 
 ment will be yearly more fully appreciated and acted on. 
 
 The credit of the movement is immediately due to 
 Mr. Acland, and Dr. Temple, the present head-master 
 of Rugby. It was farthered by the late warden of New 
 -College, Dr. Williams, at that time vice-chancellor 
 of the university, and the master of Pembroke, the 
 present vice-chancellor. A statute was passed embo- 
 dying the principles of a double examination for seniors 
 and juniors, and the grant of a title — that, namely, of 
 Associate in Arts, A. A. — to the former. Provision was 
 made also for the creation of a board of delegates, who 
 might carry the measure into eiFect, by framing regula- 
 tions, and elaborating details. The result was a scheme 
 mainly founded on the form of a tentative examination 
 held at Exeter in the summer of 1857, and which is 
 already fully in the possession of the public and those 
 interested in the plan. 
 
 It is well known that the scheme was favourably 
 accepted by the persons for whom it was designed. The 
 numbers presenting themselves for examination were 
 very large in the first year, and though, owing in great 
 part to crude notions about the tendency of the move- 
 ment, and to the disappointment felt at the large pro- 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE UNIVERSITY. 89 
 
 portion of failures, the numbers fell off slightly in the 
 following year, yet the plan was an obvious success, 
 because it was a great boon. Very soon ihe University ^ 
 of Cambridge followed in the wake of that of Oxford, 
 though with less numbers ; and even the University of 
 Durham entered the field. 
 
 The system of these local examinations had to contend 
 against some jealousies and some vulgarities. The former 
 of these proceeded especially from the dislike felt by 
 many persons in Oxford, and a considerable majority of 
 the Senate in Cambridge to the grant of any title to' the 
 senior candidates. The sister university has more than 
 once refused to grant anything more than a certificate 
 of proficiency, and lately the majority against any step 
 towards an amalgamation with the Oxford scheme has 
 been more decisive than the arguments alleged for the 
 refusal to grant a title. 
 
 These arguments have chiefly been, that there was 
 reason to expect a confusion between any title and those 
 degrees which the universities bestow as the mingled 
 claims of residence and proficiency. It was held that 
 persons would mistake A. A. for B.A. But such a 
 mistake would be very short-lived. That it would be 
 made at all, was a strong expression of the opinion that 
 the country had ceased to comprehend, because it had 
 ceased to value, academical degrees. The best way to 
 escape from any such error would, it appears, consist in 
 familiarizing the public with inferior but analogous dis- 
 tinctions. One might as well refuse to coin silver because 
 people had but a feeble appreciation of the value of gold. 
 
 Another reason was, that the grant of a title to youths 
 under eighteen would promote and stereotype vanity in 
 the young. It is difiicult, indeed, to see how they who 
 are acquainted with the history of the universities could 
 
90 EDUCATION IN OXrOED. 
 
 allege so cMldisli an argument. Not long since, the ordi- 
 nary age at which the degree of B.A. was taken was 
 hardly more than that which now forms the maximum 
 age for the seniors' examination. Besides, even if altered 
 circumstances are a plausible ground of objection to a 
 different title or status, one may be sure that the precise 
 value of that embodied in the formula A.A. would very 
 soon be put at its proper rate. Scandals and mistakes 
 lie in dark places, which need to be enlightened. And, 
 after all, youthful vanity is sensitive enough, and deals 
 timidly with its capital. Carry out the principle, and 
 all emulation is bad. Intensify it, and the competition 
 which is favoured by acknowledged merits is absurd. 
 Better give no distinction, for fear it should be abused. 
 Better omit all praisej lest it should terminate in morbid 
 self-esteem. 
 
 Another objection was taken to the scheme of a far 
 less rational kind. ' It was supposed that the popular 
 name, that of " middle-class examinations " (which, by 
 the way, was no phrase of the university, but one im- 
 ported from the Exeter experiment), implied a class of 
 persons below, forsooth, the average social condition 
 of most youths in public and private schools. The 
 process was not designed or fitted for the sons of gentle- 
 men; and some small schoolmasters actually alleged 
 this as a ground for declining to take advantage of the 
 university scheme. 
 
 Of course, it is inevitably the case in a social state 
 like that of England, where there are a variety of grades, 
 more or less simply marked, into all of which every in- 
 telligent and well-conducted person may enter, that there 
 should be an affectation of social rank and a mannerism 
 of gentility. Indeed, these pretensions are the stock-in- 
 trade of comedy-makers, novelists, and character writers. 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE TINIVEKSITY. 91 
 
 The thin dignity of Mrs. Jones versus Mrs. Smith, and 
 of both versus Mrs. Brown, are etereotyped realities. 
 The spirit of mock distinction is most rampant, when 
 people torture patronymics into all varieties of spelling, 
 or introduce additions to their names which have no 
 proper place in their pedigree. The ass tries to snip 
 his ears, the goose to spread his poor stumpy tail into 
 the peacock's orb. 
 
 Half the boys in England are turned in this way into 
 premature prigs. The healthy equality of youth is 
 dwarfed by those coddling vulgarities. True self-respect 
 is lost in the wretched and valueless tinsel of sham self- 
 created rank. 
 
 Tar better was the old feshion of the ancient world, 
 in which, long before the rules of a more huma^nizing 
 faith had igaored these paltry distinctions, we read of 
 how all were taught in the same school, served in the 
 same ranks, were drilled to the same method, were 
 instructed in the doctrine of mutual dependence. The 
 discipline was far more healthy, and men quite as digni- 
 fied. They sought for reasons on which they should 
 rest pretensions. There is, as far as I know, only 
 one way to spell Pericles, Alcibiades, Socrates-r-a good 
 many wsiys of spelling Smith. 
 
 I have my hopes that good sense and good manners 
 win meet the absurdity of these insulated affectations. 
 Liberty and equality are, I am fully persuaded, incom- 
 patibles ; but the reasonable inequalities of social life, 
 and they are ^eat conveniences to many people, are not 
 to be multiplied by self-created distinctions. 
 
 The number of candidates for the several certificates 
 in the first year was — seniors, 401 ; juniors, 750. In 
 the' second, 299 seniors, 597 jimiors. In the present 
 year, the seniors are 300, the juniors 589. Of those who 
 
92 EDUCATION IN OXTOKD. 
 
 obtained certificates in the first year, 150 were seniors, 
 280 juniors. In the second, 151 seniors, 332 juniors. 
 In the third, 152 and 346. 
 
 The primary objects of the examination were the 
 supplying a test of ordinary educational proficiency, 
 and of enabling young persons to exhibit special know- 
 ledge on special subjects. As these special subjects are 
 not practically capable of distinction in the juniors, the 
 product of the several subjects proffered was grouped 
 together, the estimate being collective. In the case of 
 the seniors it was conceived that there was sufficient 
 specialty in direction of those studies which youths of 
 sixteen to eighteen are engaged on, to justify a distri- 
 butive estimate. But it is not quite settled whether this 
 principle of distinction was a wise one, even on the 
 admission that such persons are engaged in specialties 
 of a sufficiently distinct kind. 
 
 The great evil of the distributive method is the un- 
 equal value of the several sections. If this unequal 
 value were a matter of such notoriety as to make the 
 estimate of those who stand in the highest place in 
 one subject, as compared with those who are similarly 
 situated in another, easy, much of the evil would be 
 obviated. But in the general darkness of the parties 
 primarily interested, i.e. parents, there is no reason to 
 believe that the distinction of classified subjects, accord- 
 ing to their intrinsic worth, would be fairly or satisfac- 
 torily settled. Again, so eminently is the practical 
 aptitude of persons to particular branches of knowledge, 
 and the thumb rule of ready habit at once the worthiest 
 part of the knowledge, and the most difficult to test in 
 an examination, that we would hardly believe that any 
 certificate of proficiency in the scientific part of the 
 subject, would guarantee a useful acquaintance with it. 
 
THE STUDENT AND THE XTNIVERSITY. 93 
 
 It is the hardest thing conceivable to devise an exami- 
 nation which shall be satisfactory in any knowledge the 
 immediate value of which resides in empirical skill. 
 And this, hard as it is in the case of men who are 
 taking certificates of professional skill, is still harder 
 with boys whose knowledge, at the best, is little more 
 than headwork. I have referred before to this in 
 speaking of the Oxford school of natural science. 
 
 Another difficulty of a serious character is the posi- 
 tion of theological knowledge in the examination of 
 seniors and juniors. To have exacted membership 
 with the Church of England from all candidates would 
 have been, one may be permitted to assert, to imperil, 
 if not to negative, the whole value of the movement as a 
 national one. It was necessary, then, to leave to those 
 who are not members of the Church of England, or who 
 do not think fit to declare themselves such, an oppor- 
 tunity of avoiding an examination in the distinctive 
 doctrines which the Church accepts and endorses. At 
 the same time it would have been impossible to examine 
 — even had it been desirable — in the various tenets of 
 various religious bodies. The third course, that of pro- 
 viding an examination which would be passed by all. 
 Churchmen and Dissenters equally, though adopted by 
 Cambridge,* was unsatisfactory in theory, and no less 
 in practice : in the former, because no scheme could be 
 wide enough to include all persons, who might possibly 
 wish to be examined ; in the latter, because so general 
 a material is not religious knowledge, but moral philo- 
 sophy, since the acceptance of this part of the examina- 
 tion implies an admission of its authoritative character. 
 The fact that such an examination was almost uni- 
 versally accepted by the Cambridge candidates is no 
 argument against the inherent inconveniences of the 
 
94 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 course adopted in the sister university. There is not 
 likely to be an objection to an examination in a diluted 
 revelation, and so much of a moral creed as society 
 generally admits ; but this is not theology in any sense 
 of the word. The gist of an examination in the general 
 truths of natural and a few tenets of revealed religion 
 exists in the ordinary acceptance of them ; were it not 
 for this, were a religious examination a merely intelT 
 lectual process, an atheist might as properly satisfy a 
 test of theological proficiency as the most devout and 
 consistent believer. If, however, the general agreement 
 of various religious bodies is to be the minimum of dog- 
 matic examination, one is at a loss to see on what principle 
 the university is able to determine the minimum. 
 
 But, in the case of Oxford, the coiurse pursued — and 
 one might multiply arguments about the unsatisfactory 
 character of the Cambridge plan — was different enough, 
 and distinct enough, but still marked by serious incon- 
 veniences. The university wished to examine in the 
 teaching only of the Church of England, and to exact 
 compliance with this condition, unless under a definite 
 statement of non-conformity. The former regulation, 
 on the hypothesis of a divinity examination at all, was 
 reasonable and safe enough, when accompanied by cer- 
 tain compensating provisions ; the latter' is one, the 
 wisdom of which is open to grave doubts, and the 
 propriety of which is, I think, still more questionable. 
 
 This compensation is a classification of those candi- 
 dates whose divinity examination may be satisfactory. 
 Without such a classification the tendency of the quan- 
 tum offered is and must be, in the nature of things, to a 
 minimum. The university scheme has been accepted 
 because it is the supply of a popular want. But 
 the acceptance of the supply is always measured 
 
THK STUDENT AND THE UNIVERSITY. 95 
 
 by the want. Now, one of the characteristic features 
 of the demand was the system of classes. This is 
 bestowed in all branches of knowledge except one, 
 that is, the knowledge of divinity, in other words, the 
 material of a religious education. As a consequence, 
 there was no incentive to exertion in a mere pass, and 
 the amount of knowledge actually proffered has been 
 in the three years of the movement markedly declining. 
 Unless the classification of candidates is adopted, one 
 may expect to see this deficiency increase. 
 
 The hardship supposed to be entailed on the children 
 of dissenting paorents, who are unable to show the results 
 of their particulair teaching, is, I think, exaggerated. 
 After all, religious instruction, communicated on con- 
 scientious grounds, and with a view to the moral culture 
 of yoath, is very different from that information which 
 forms the material for question and answer, and a formal 
 examination. 
 
 To exact compliance with a condition which asserts 
 recusancy or dissent is, in my opinion, unwise and im- 
 proper. With a fortuitous wisdom, the Legislature has 
 declined to deny the right of churGhrmembership in 
 pursuance of overt acts of schism, or non-conformiiy. 
 And, as this view of the Legislature has been imported 
 into the Oxford Reform Bill, it is not desirable, or even 
 proper, that the regulaftions of the university should be 
 narrower than public convicticxns. There is a national 
 church, the width of whose doctrines and, in great 
 degree, of whose discipline is sufficient for even an 
 argumentative ccmformity. It would be an evil day if 
 the beneficent working of its present activity were ex- 
 chaaaged for that narrow exclusiveness which extreine 
 men advocaite, and which God's providence and man's 
 common sense have hitherto successfully repelled. 
 
PART III. 
 
 THE COLLEGE. 
 
 I HATE attempted to show in the foregoing pages what 
 are the relations in which an undergraduate stands to 
 the University of Oxford, what is the process which he 
 goes through in obtaining his degree, and what in 
 general is the relative value of the various distinctions 
 in the various faculties of Arts, Divinity, Law, and 
 Physic. I have ventured occasionally on some few cri- 
 ticisms in the course of this detail, more, indeed, hy way 
 of explaining anomalies and connecting facts, than 
 because I was willing to discuss these anomalies and 
 facts, or from the feeling that the criticism was in any 
 way exhausted, or suggested improvement totally ex- 
 pounded. And I have appended to this account a state- 
 ment of the extraordinary and important movement of 
 1857, in the so-called local or middle-class examina- 
 tions, because I felt sure, although this is no way a part 
 of Oxford education, properly so called, that the 
 systematic instruction of the great body of the middle 
 classes would be increasingly influenced and finally 
 distinctly directed from the limits and the divisions 
 assigned, or to be assigned, to it by the -Oxford de- 
 legates. 
 
 The next part of the work before me is to designate 
 the relations in which an undergraduate stands to his 
 college, that institution which appearing subsequently — 
 
THE COLLEGE. 97 
 
 though at a very remote period — to the university, has • 
 finally absorbed it, though in several points it is even 
 novr distinct from it. Every undergraduate must be 
 attached to, and for a considerable time reside within ■ 
 the walls of a college ; and every graduate must, by a ■ 
 bye-law of the university, remain a member of a college, 
 under the penalty of losing all academical privileges - 
 direct or indirect. The direct privileges are the right '. 
 to interfere, on occasion arising, with the self-government 
 of the university ; the indirect, is the parliamentary 
 suffrage of those who are technically called members of 
 Convocation, that is, masters of arts and doctors in the 
 several faculties. These privileges are preserved by the 
 payment of an annual fine, the proceeds of which are 
 distributed partly to the general purposes of the uni- 
 versity, partly to the relief of those institutions in which 
 the so-called foundation members have all the authority, 
 and reap all the benefits. 
 
 There are nineteen colleges in Oxford, and five halls. ^ 
 There is a nominal equality between the colleges and 
 the halls, but a marked practical disadvantage in the 
 position of the latter institutions. The explanation of 
 this fact will come hereafter. It is only necessary to 
 state here, that the members of halls labour under so 
 many serious inconveniences that at present it is a loss 
 to be connected with them. 
 
 As institutions, the halls are of earlier date than the 
 colleges. There were, we are told, more than three 
 hundred of these establishments in the pre-Reformation 
 period. But such places of education have long since 
 been merged in colleges, or have been aliened to private 
 individuals, with the exception of the five which now 
 remain, and which seem to have accidentally escaped the 
 fate of their kindred, generally by the fact of their 
 
 7 
 
 ^ 
 
98 EDUCATION IN OXFOED. 
 
 having been connected directly or indirectly with some 
 college. 
 
 The characteristic features of a college are, that it 
 is an aggregate corporation, empowered by charter 
 to hold lands and tenements, and goyerned by statutes 
 administered by a head and fellows. They have 
 nearly all been the creation of private benefactions, 
 and originally the buildings of the society were in- 
 tended, and only provided accommodation, for such 
 parties as wei'e designated by the founder as the 
 recipients of his endowment. In one college — All Souls 
 — this rule holds good still, no person being admitted to 
 that society who is not a member of the foundation. 
 But in all other colleges, either from remote periods, 
 or sometimes within the memory of the present genera- 
 tion, extraneous persons have been permitted to become 
 members of the society, on payment of such charges as 
 the college thought proper, on conditions of a more or 
 less stringent kind, and occasionally on the under- 
 standing that they appeared in the society, or, as it is 
 technically called, on its books, as of those higher 
 academical grades named noblemen and gentlemen 
 commoners. 
 
 The Head of a College is known by various names. 
 He is president, warden, master, rector, principal, pro- 
 vost, as the case may be. In one society he is called the 
 dean ; this personage, the head of Christ Church, being 
 also the chief dignitary of the cathedral church. In all 
 cases but the latter, the head of the college is elected 
 from the fellows on the occasion of a vacancy, and 
 almost always by them. The Dean of Christ Church 
 being at once an ecclesiastical and an academical officer, 
 is nominated by the Crown, the foundation which he 
 rules being an endowment of Henry the Eighth — ^if. 
 
THE COLLEGE. 99 
 
 indeed, it can be called hia endowment, since it repre- 
 sents the relics of a, far more extensive scheme, which 
 Wolsey contemplated and planned, and for which he 
 'provided funds. Suspended at Wolsey's disgrace, the 
 college was reconstructed by the king. 
 
 Previous to the Act of 1854, the choice of the felows 
 on the vacancy of the headship was restricted, and 
 occasionally confined to the members of some particular 
 foundatian. Now, however, the choice of the feUows, is 
 free, and they are generally empowered to elect a head 
 out of other societies as well' as their own. There is no 
 reason to believe that the permission will be acted on, 
 for there is, naturally enoHgh, a considfirable espvit de 
 corps among the members of amy particular society, amd 
 it would never probaWy happen that any stranger, 
 however mieritorious, would be preferred to one of the 
 society, however incompetent the members of the society 
 may be out of whom to make a choice. 
 
 The functions of a head of a college are rather to 
 reign than to govern. As far as possible the fellows 
 would aadeavour, and stucceed in their endeavoois, to 
 prevent any increase of his authority over themselves, 
 amd the tendeMcy of their relations tO' him, both by pre- 
 cedent and by their mutual combination, is to limii that 
 attthority whicih the head has previously possessed. 
 Over Hindergradnates, however, the authoatity of the 
 head is absolute, though in all likelihood this aiuthority 
 would not be arbi'trarily exercised without discontent on 
 the part, of the suberfinate a®tho(rities> and perhaps 
 without provoking an appeal to th®; Visitor. The visitor 
 is an individual — ^generally of high official rank — to 
 whora the founder of the college assigned the business 
 of interpreting his statutes, and enforcing obedience to 
 them, when any member of the society is, or fancies 
 
 7-2 
 
100 EDUCATION IN OXFOED. 
 
 himself, aggrieved. Most of the visitors are bishops. 
 Thus, the Bishop of Winchester is visitor to five colleges, 
 and others to a less amount. The Crown is visitor to 
 three among the colleges, and one is liable to the appel- 
 lant jurisdiction of a nobleman. 
 
 The heads of halls, called Principals, are nominated 
 by the Chancellor of the University. This privilege of 
 the chancellor is a usurpation, but one of ancient date, 
 having been procured by Leicester, chancellor in 
 EUzabeth's reign. The farce of an election is, how- 
 ever, enacted when a nomination is made. As a rule, 
 heads of halls are ' persons of ability and pretensions. 
 These personages have a far more active set of func- 
 tions to fulfil than the heads ' of colleges, since they are 
 not neutralized by the fellows ; and, indeed, unless 
 possessed of private means, are considerably dependent 
 upon the numbers of their undergraduates for their 
 income. The head of a hall, however, like the head of 
 a college, seldom takes any part in the instruction of 
 the undergraduate members of his society. These 
 duties are delegated to a vice-principal, and occasionally 
 to additional teachers. One of the headships of the 
 halls is in the patronage of a corporation — Queen's 
 College. 
 
 Halls have no endowments. Neither are they cor- 
 porate bodies. The fragments of academical patronage 
 which they possess, are held for them in trust by the 
 university. In one of them, Magdalene Hall, the 
 annual income from estates given for their benefit is 
 said to be considerable. 
 
 By the statutes of the university^ no change can be 
 made in the tariff of the expenses to which Aularians, 
 that is to say, members of halls, are subject, without 
 the consent of the members of the society. Like many 
 
THE COLLEGE. 101 
 
 other statutes of the university, this regulation is either 
 ignored or systematically broken, and the members of 
 these societies are liable to whatever charges the ca- 
 price, negligence, or necessities of the head may impose. 
 Imposts which emanate from an irresponsible head are 
 in their nature endowed with a marvellous vitality, and 
 are continued often after the necessity for which they 
 arose has ceased, or are imposed for considerations 
 which are utterly incongruous with the nature and 
 extent of the impost. This, however, will be seen to 
 be almost as characteristic of colleges in their relations 
 to undergraduate members. 
 
 It has been stated before that no person could be a 
 member of the university unless he resided within the 
 walls of a college or hall. When halls were numerous 
 and easily created, and when sites were procurable at 
 cheap rates, as in early times, this condition was no 
 hardship, but rather a benefit, as it gave an opportixnity 
 for discipline in turbulent times, by rigidly marking off 
 academical from private or civic arrangements. But 
 when the ancient halls were lost, the condition, enacted 
 first by Laud, that every graduate or undergraduate 
 should be a member of some existing college or hall, 
 tended to produce a state of things in which the uni- 
 versity would be practically closed to all, except persons 
 of fair income, or possessed of eleemosynary emolu- 
 ments — a result but very slightly and temporarily 
 modified by an effected supervision over expenditure. 
 It has been said that, at the beginning of the present 
 century, the rule had fallen into disuse, but has revived 
 by the urgent representations of those colleges where 
 incapacity or misfortune had caused their walls to be 
 empty of all but the foundationers. Since that time, 
 the statute has been rigidly enforced, and all under- 
 
102 EDUCATION IN OXFOED. 
 
 graduates are required to reside twelve terms, or three 
 years, within the walls of a coliege or hall. After that 
 they are free to live out of college, and, indeed, are, as 
 a rule, obliged to q^uit their rooms. The only excep- 
 tions to the rigour of this regulation, are the cases of 
 those young persons who live with their parents within 
 the precincts of the university, and of those whose age 
 the vice-chancellor considers is a sufficient guarantee 
 for their powers of self-control. The former are very 
 few indeed, the latter are those exceptional middle-aged 
 persons who enter at one or two of the halls, and one of 
 the colleges, as gentlemen commoners. 
 
 It is not easy to conceive a scheme which is more 
 likely to prevent the enlargement of the university, the 
 improvement of study in the place, and of the practical 
 faculties of its recognized teachers, than this statutable 
 monopoly of the existing colleges and halls. Freed from 
 all considerations, except those of merely filling their 
 sets of rooms, the authorities of these societies enjoy all 
 the advantages which the prestige and endowments of 
 the university possess, without any claim being made 
 upon their energies beyond the routine of the books 
 they read when they were undergraduates themselves, 
 and the traditional jargon of college lectures. Nothing 
 but the rivalry of one or two among the colleges raises 
 this state of things above the dead level of a uniform 
 dulness. And the consequences on the relations be- 
 tween the university and the country are even more 
 deplorable. With a population greartly increased, and 
 with national wealth almost enlarged by one-half, if not 
 actually doubled ; with general and special education 
 still more extensively enlarged witMn these twenty 
 years, the number of undergraduates in the university 
 has absolutely declined within this period, and the sym- 
 
THE COLLEGE. 103 
 
 pathies of the ■Bation with its ancient academies have 
 grown weaker and weaker. Men care less amd less for 
 academical diBtinctioiiSj know less aaad less of academical 
 learning, feel less and less the immediate influence of an 
 'academical training, and the lOOHimeDtion between the 
 nniyersities and the Chuueh bids fakr to be the flole 
 remaining linlc between the oonijitry and its noblest 
 corporation. When these things are commented on, 
 the general answer given in fawomr of maintaining the 
 monopoly of the coBeges, is the superior moral training 
 which their domestic system aferds. The statement 
 begs lie q^uestiom, and the fact is problematical There 
 is no reason to believe that life within the walls of a 
 college is provocative of morality. Perhaps it may 
 even be dangerous to it. At any rate, the direct in- 
 fluence 'of- college authorities on the practice of under- 
 graduates, is conflned to a discipline which tarns religion 
 into a penalty, and uastruction into a routine. Com- 
 pulsory attendance on Divine service in college chapels 
 does not, as a fact, induce greait reverence for the 
 holiest things, but rather suggests a sort of tabulated 
 quittance 'of formal observafQces. The ^rery phrase, 
 commonly used to denote obedience to these requh^e- 
 ments, is no direct evidence towards the favourable 
 efects of the discipline. " Keeping chapels" is a remote 
 metaphor for praying in God's house. 
 
 Eqmaily so is the -case with college lectures. I can 
 confidently state that these performances are almost 
 universally quoted by imdergraduates witii contemf* 
 and dislike. It is very often with great injiisddce that 
 young men criticise the perfimetory attendance on a 
 conscientious college lecturer. But the limitation of ihis 
 time, by a programme which is arbitrary, and often 
 unsuitable, is apt to produce in the undergraduate's 
 
104 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 mmd a sense of utter weariness or of active irritation. 
 People are unwilling to learn perforce, and many a man, 
 who has taught to the best of his power, is bafEed in its 
 results by the unwillingness of those who think his 
 lecture a bore, and his authority a tyranny. 
 
 Nor is one prepared to think much more highly of 
 the domestic supervision of college authorities. It is 
 true that there is a standing rule in all colleges to the 
 effect that no egress is permitted from colleges after 
 nine at night, when the gates are shut, and that all 
 entrance after that hour is noted and fined. This, how- 
 ever, and an occasional interference with an occasional 
 uproar within the college, are all that the direct dis- 
 cipline of the institution enforces on its junior members. 
 But for the rest there is not, and I honestly believe 
 cannot be, any remedy. Gambling and drinking may 
 go on within a college to a far greater extent, for a far 
 longer time, and with far more ruinous effects, than 
 they could without a college. And though it may be 
 the case that the latter of these vices has declined of 
 late years, yet I have been told, on the authority of 
 a respectable Oxford tradesman, that the number of 
 packs of cards which he has supplied to the members 
 of a particular college, in one term, is something quite 
 incredible. Nothing but constant interference or es- 
 pionage could prevent such practices, — methods impos- 
 sible or mischievous. Of course, there are cases in 
 which the college tutor has that singular tact by which 
 the confidence of young men is won over to their good, 
 and an influence is exerted which is invaluable, because 
 it is critical and permanent. But such powers are as 
 extraordinary as they are eminent. Nay, I should 
 almost say that they occur in spite of, and not in the 
 least in pursuance of, the system of college life. Fur- 
 
THE COLLEGK 105 
 
 ther, they rarely affect more than a few. Indeed, with 
 the general mass of men, especially young men, deference 
 to a rational and honoured authority is seldom given, 
 and given with increasing hesitatioui except under ex- 
 ceptional circumstances. Personal influence is, I helieve, 
 far more difficult in the case of youths than in that of 
 grown men ; and this comes from the fact, that where 
 impulses are strong characters are variable, and personal 
 influence is accorded to those who have the gift of dis- 
 cerning characters. Again, there is less common ground 
 between the several parties than there is when men of 
 similar experience, but unequal powers and abilities, come 
 into collision. But, in addition to the natural difficulty 
 of assimilating on this fashion minds and feelings so 
 remote from each other as those of a college authority 
 and an undergraduate, the sharp line drawn between 
 what is called in Oxford a " don," and a young man, 
 increases the unlikelihood of these reciprocal influences. 
 Graduates are here, when brought into relations with 
 imdergraduates, " upon parade." There is the obvious 
 and easy acquisition of a formal stiffness, and the difficult 
 and cautious habit of conscientious tact. What wonder 
 if, with no ordinary motives to accept the latter labour, 
 that most older Oxford men adopt the former sloth ? 
 
 I have dwelt upon these facts, in the beginning of 
 what I am now saying, because just as the colleges have 
 absorbed the university, so the monopoly of education 
 and of the locus standi of education has brought about 
 and perpetuates several evils. First, the limitation of 
 the university and the inexpansiveness of its existing in- 
 stitutions; next, the elimination of almost all the human' 
 motives which would lead the man in authority — the 
 teacher — into making the most of his opportunities, and 
 adopting a general appreciation of his duties ; third. 
 
106 EDUCATION IN OXFOKD, 
 
 the facility with which temptations are brought before 
 young men, ifrom the absence of anything like domestic 
 control in that state of things which most familiarly 
 affects it ; and, lastly, the difficulties which lie in the 
 way of a healthful influence over the minds of those 
 whose moral and intellectual good is that which the 
 colleges affect to consider their peculiar care. 
 
 Mateiculaihon. — When a college is in high reputa- 
 tion, and a variety of circumstances conduce to par- 
 ticular reputations of particular colleges, it is not easy 
 to procure enrolment among the members. In some 
 cases, several years must pass between the notice given 
 of the intention of a parent to send his son to one of these 
 colleges in high repute and his consequent residence. 
 The law of residence within the walls of a college makes 
 entrance occasionally very difficult. The monopoly of 
 education enables the authorities in these establishments 
 to prescribe, in the case of those who are anxious to enter 
 their walls, a considerable amount of patience, and to 
 entail no little disappointment. Of course, no rational 
 objection can be made to any rule which the domestic 
 . discipline and academical interests of a college pre- 
 scribe. The only hardship resides in the system which 
 prevents any education in any place except those build- 
 ings which, from their limited extent, constitute a 
 narrow monopoly, and in which privilege is a stimu- 
 lant of nothing but mediocrity. 
 
 Everybody who has paid the least attention to the 
 facts, as they at present exist in Oxford, must be aware 
 that certain colleges have a very high reputation for 
 success in academical d:istinctions, and that among these 
 none takes so high a place as BaUiol. The position, 
 indeed, which colleges severally have in academical 
 
THE COLLEGE, 107 
 
 honours amd prizes will be found in the tables subjoined 
 to this portion of my work, and to which the reader is 
 referred for information. 
 
 In case a parent desires to matriculate his son at 
 one of these particularly reputable colleges, it will be 
 Beedful that he should give notace of his intaatiom to 
 the head of thaA college some years previously, and 
 it is safe to do so four or five years before the time at 
 which it is intended that the residence should com- 
 mence. Not bnt that it often happens, in those colleges 
 even which are most seleet, that an occasional scarcity 
 of applicants for matriculation may render it easy to 
 get a person in without such long notice -, but the 
 opportunity is rare, aad should mot be depended on. 
 It is far better to secure, as &r as may be, an opening 
 at some future and wther remote period. I am quite 
 aware that this necessity is an evil and a great loiae, 
 because it may often happen that persons are undecided 
 abonit sending their sohs to the university till long after 
 the period which I have designated as that in which 
 application should be made ; but it is not possible to 
 provide a remedy against soch a state of things. The 
 privilege of matriculation at a reputable coUege is, and 
 will be, a matter of competition, and, therefore, must 
 follow, as the area is limited by the statute to which 
 I have BO often referred, the ordinary rule of supply 
 and denand. 
 
 Notice being given, then, to the head of a college to 
 the effect that it is wished that an individual should 
 enter a particular college at some future time, it is 
 understood that the head registers such applications; 
 and when the time comes at which the residence is to 
 commence, notice is given to the parent that his son 
 may become a candidate for matriculation. 
 
108 EDUCATION IN OXrOED. 
 
 Bat it by no means follows, when the candidate is 
 summoned, that he will he entered at the college in 
 question. , Most colleges in any repute demand a cer- 
 tain amount of proficiency on the part of the person 
 who contemplates belonging to their society — knowledge 
 which is tested by a matriculation examination. Rea- 
 sonable self-interest, and, indirectly, the well-being of 
 the university depend on this rule. It is obviously 
 undesirable that persons should come to Oxford that 
 they may learn everything about the subjects in which 
 a degree denotes a certain proficiency. The more such 
 incompetent persons there are, the more surely is the 
 ordinary standard lowered. And even if the univer- 
 sity, as is to be desired, were to institute a matricula- 
 tion examination for itself, it would still be a judicious 
 measure for colleges to have their own rule about the 
 competency of their undergraduate members. And it 
 is more to be regretted that the university has not 
 sanctioned this matriculation examination, because there 
 is great suspicion — though I fully beheve an unfounded 
 suspicion — that the standard of the college examination 
 is variable, and regulated by the amount of candidates 
 presenting themselves. I say unfounded, because it is 
 so obviously the interest of a college that it should have 
 hopeful undergraduates, that nothing would be more 
 suicidal than to import a number of persons whose 
 attainments are scanty and abilities unpromising. Of 
 course, when a college is but scantily filled, and mem- 
 bers are needed, the standard is necessarily low, and 
 the examination itself in all likelihood a farce ; but, 
 then, this is no more than would be the case when 
 a college matriculates members without examination 
 at all. 
 
 In some colleges the matriculation examination is 
 
THE COLLEGE. 109 
 
 very severe, and the standard is systematically high. 
 This, we are informed, is particularly the case at Balliol. 
 But in point of fact this college has the reputation, and 
 the deserved reputation, of very considerable products ; 
 and it is not to he wondered at that it should, like most 
 sensible manufacturers of products, take some guarantee 
 to the goodness of its raw material. It has indeed been 
 said, with a pardonable exaggeration, that a matricula- 
 tion at Balliol is as good as a scholarship elsewhere; 
 in other words, that it denotes an equ9,l amount bf 
 knowledge with that ordinarily required for a scholar- 
 ship. 
 
 I am not acquainted with any coUege which does not \ 
 require a formal examination of its undergraduates / 
 before matriculation. Some of the halls even demand / ' 
 the fulfilment of this condition. In the largest of them, 
 however, namely, Magdalene Hall, no examination is 
 required, and consequently many persons matriculate 
 at this society who are unable to procure their degree, 
 or who expend an immoderately long time over it. 
 The gentlemen commoners of Christ Church are also 
 exempt from the operation of this domestic rule. Of 
 course the same effect is to be expected in this case as 
 at a hall where no examination is held at entrance. 
 But the body of gent]^emen commoners is small in 
 Christ Church, and a considerable portion of them does 
 not care to graduate at all, but merely spends an idle 
 year or two in Oxford, and sets a bad example. 
 
 It may be taken for granted that the general rule in 
 these private examinations for matriculation is to make 
 the standard of proficiency equivalent, or nearly equi- 
 valent — the quantum being more or less — to what is 
 ordinarily exacted from a candidate .for the certificate 
 of satisfying the examiners for responsions, or little go. 
 
110 EDUCATION IN OXFOED. 
 
 By this I mean acquaintance with the grammar of the 
 Greek or Latin languages, expressed in the power of 
 translating at sight, and of giving evidence of knowing 
 the principles and rules of the construction of sentences, 
 moderate capabiHty in the translation of English into 
 Latin, and familiarity with the method of arithmetic, of 
 the rudiments of algebra, and the first four books of 
 Euclid. This will be, as a rule, the outline of the 
 examination. In some colleges the questions will be 
 more severe. But it is impossible to determine what 
 is the amount of knowledge required in these sub- 
 jects for the satisfaction of the domestic authorities 
 of any college. This varies with the collie, and in 
 all likelihood with the numbers generally pressing for 
 admission, and the ordinary status of the parties matri- 
 culated at the several colleges. It may, in short, be 
 a very severe examination, and it may be a most formal 
 one. 
 
 There is a practice in BaUiol, aad maybe in some 
 other colleges of high reputation, to reserve a number 
 of vacancies for those parties who distinguish them- 
 selves at the scholarship examination, but who are not 
 yet. members of the university, and have not given 
 their names in as expecting to be members of the 
 college. In these cases the promise which is shown 
 in the examination is met by an offer of immediate 
 matriculation on the part of the college. As notice is 
 given that such a reservation is customairy at the 
 college, no fault can be found with the arrangement, 
 though it m'ay happen that persons may be disappointed. 
 Even were no notice given of the reservation, but 
 merely a general understanding was afforded that the 
 college would matriculate those- candidates who are 
 hopeful in preference to any others, the rule, though 
 
THE COLLEGE. Ill 
 
 not perhaps a prudent one, ■would still be bona fide and 
 appreciable. 
 
 But there is not, as I am inforiaed, any ground for 
 the ordinary charge laid ta this college that the autho- 
 rities are in the habit of postponing long existent claims 
 to matriculation for the sake of kidnapping all the best 
 commoners they can. With the exeeption of the reserve 
 — and of this, as I have said, due notice is given — the 
 authorities of this college invariably keep good faith with 
 the parties who have notified their intention of sending 
 their sons to the society,, subject always to the rule that 
 the candidate for 'maitriculation is duly qualified accord- 
 ing to what it is asserted is an invariable standard. 
 Of course, when this examination is genuine there will 
 be disappointment. Parents, and especially ill-informed 
 parents, almost always rate the capacity and attain- 
 ments of their children at a higher status than is 
 justified by facts, or proved on inquiry. And it ia with 
 such persons as these that the greatest disappointment 
 arises. 
 
 It is customary for colleges to a£Bx a variable Mmit 
 to the age at which they will maitriculate applicants. 
 As a rule, ihis would not be more than twenty. They 
 who> are much senior to this must seek some society 
 whose limit is less rigidlly retained, and these will 
 generally be such as have small numbers ia proportion 
 to their accommodation. When the age is, as people 
 wo'iald say, advanced, that is, from twenty-five upwards, 
 parties can rardy matriculate except as gentlemen 
 commoners; and at present no society appeaars to admit 
 such persons, except Worcester, and Magdalene HalL 
 In the form^ of these socidiies they are fellow com- 
 moners, that is, they associate with the fellows. In the 
 latter they hare the sole privilege of paying higher fees. 
 
 a 
 
112 EDUCATION IN OXiOED. 
 
 If the ordeal of a matriculation examination is passed 
 through successfully, or the college accepts the under- 
 graduate without inquiry into his capabilities, the next 
 process is that of his appearing before the vice-chan- 
 cellor to be admitted as a member of the university. 
 This admission may take place at any time, even in the 
 vacation, though, for certain reasons, matriculations 
 rarely occur except in term time. Of these the prin- 
 cipal is, that the term in which an undergraduate is 
 matriculated counts for one of the series he has to 
 keep towards taking his degree, and this without the 
 neces.sity of further residence. Another reason is, that 
 many colleges do not admit undergraduates except at 
 specified times. What these times are may be learned 
 from the head of the college, from the vicegerent, or 
 the dean. The last-named officer is the person by 
 whom the matriculating parties are presented to the 
 vice-chancellor. 
 
 The reader will remember that there are four acade- 
 mical terms in the year, and that sixteen of these terms 
 — the number has lately been reduced to twelve — 
 were necessary to the taking of a degree. But these 
 twelve must be spent in residence. Now the occasions 
 on which examinations may be passed for the degree 
 are fixed at two periods in the year — after Easter, that 
 is to say, and after Michaelmas. If the undergraduate 
 matriculates, then, before the long vacation, or in the 
 term immediately following Christmas, he can graduate 
 in his twelfth term; and at the same time the oppor- 
 tunities given him for being an honours' candidate 
 are lengthened to his eighteenth term — the maximum 
 period of standing permitted by the existing statutes of 
 the universily. If, on the other hand, he matriculates 
 in the Easter or Michaelmas term, he can proffer 
 
THE COLLEGE. 113 
 
 himself for his degree in his thirteenth term ; and he 
 is barred from the honour schools after his seventeenth. 
 As, therefore, it is desirable to shorten the time of 
 residence, if the student is ambitious of a common pass 
 only, or to lengthen the period of study if he contem- 
 plates graduating in honours, it is worth while before 
 matriculation takes place to consider which of the two 
 alternatives is to be preferred. As a rule, however, 
 one may observe, that if an undergraduate is properly 
 prepared before he enters the university, there is no 
 doubt that he will do as well in the shorter as he would 
 in the longer period. Delay in presenting oneself for 
 an examination generally means idleness, except in those 
 cases in which residence has beeli an occasion of rudi- 
 mentary as well as of advanced study. 
 
 Residence and College Discipline. — As I have 
 already stated several times, residence must be within 
 the walls of a college or hall, except under extraor- 
 dinary circumstances. 
 
 The rooms which are assigned by the college autho- 
 rities are of very different kinds in point of conve- 
 nience. When the undergraduates are freshmen, as 
 they are familiarly called, they have to put up with 
 small and inconvenient apartments, situated, ordinarily, 
 in the highest story of the buildings. After a time, 
 they have the choice of better rooms, as vacancies occur 
 in them, though, occasionally, residence is completed in 
 the chambers in which it has commenced. As the fur- 
 niture is the property^ of the undergraduate, and the 
 _ expense of paying for furniture is larger as the rooms 
 are niore desirable, it is sometimes necessary to put up 
 with the inconvenience for the sake of economy ; and, 
 as a rule, the system on which the succession to the 
 
 8 
 
114 EDUCATIOT«T IN OXFORD. 
 
 furniture of an outgoing tenant is either by a Taluation 
 — which is paid fey the incoming tenant, or by a rude 
 system, according to -which the former pays two-thirds 
 of what was paid by the latter. 
 
 The rent of rooms is generally low, and generally 
 uniform. The rooms, as has been observed, are unfiir- 
 nished ; and the tenant has to pay rates and taxes, 
 besides some nondescript charges, called college or hall 
 dues, which, in all likelihood, form a building fund for 
 the general purposes of the college. Rent varies from 
 61. a year to 16Z., or even more; but the rate is exceed- 
 ingly moderate. A very dishonest practice prevails, or 
 did prevail, in some societies, of levying room rent, as 
 well as other charges, during the time of non-residence, 
 or even after the necessary period of intramural resi- 
 dence was over, and the undergraduate was allowed, or 
 rather compelled, to go out of college. It is generally, 
 however, abandoned now ; bnt it existed at the time of 
 my undergraduate residence at Magdalene Hall, and, 
 I am informed, exists there still ; and though it may be 
 argued that the practice merely meant that 1'6Z. a year 
 was claimed for rooms instead of 12Z., yet the fashion 
 of short weight and short measure, to which the prac- 
 tice is strikingly analogous, has never, I believe, been 
 defended on customary grounds, except by people who 
 cultivate a very low sense of even the morality of -expe- 
 diency. 
 
 In many colleges undergraduates, according to ancient 
 custom, are assigned to the personal supervision of a 
 tutor. This word, as I have before said, has quite 
 passed away from its earlier meaning, which is a legal 
 one. It implies guardianship, the protection of the 
 weaker by the stronger, whetber the weakness of the 
 former be that of age or sex. When employed by 
 
THE COLLEGE. 115 
 
 the university in ibygone times, it denoted that the 
 tutor was responsible for the conduct, and, in some 
 degree, for the morals of his pupil, in much the same 
 way as a curaie, or other ecclesiastical personage, 
 was respanaSjle for the personal character of his 
 parishioners. At the time, too, when residence was 
 begun at very early years, and the universities were, 
 in reaJiJy, so many public schools, the word had a 
 practical, as well as legal, signiScsunoe. The tutor 
 was the academical guardian of the boy who was in- 
 trusted to the discipline of a college life; and though 
 we haTe, perhaps, at present reached the maximum 
 age at which young men wall be subjected to the 
 stadies lof a college life, because it is the age at which 
 jKrsoBS ordinarily enter, after a long course of train- 
 ing, on the active duties of a pirsfessional life, yet the 
 maximum has only been recently obtained, and many 
 persons are even now engaged in the wort of Oxford 
 instniujtion who are oontemporaries of the system in 
 which youths, fully two years yoBiager than the ordi- 
 nary avsEage of the present time, 'entered on the Oxford 
 curriculum. 
 
 Of course, the tutor has long ceased to be the agent 
 for the moral information of undergradnates. Thait he 
 should have ceased to stand in this position is due to a 
 variety of causes. The prominent featuoe of modera 
 times — 'parsomal independence — is the latest among these 
 causes. Mare mature years, ihe greater difficulty of 
 personatl control, the improved canon of social morality;, 
 and, above all, the monopoly of the coEeges, have singly 
 and collectively been sufficient to do away with the 
 ancient syfitem of authority and dependence. All the 
 authority •thatt remains is, &om one point of view, con- 
 ventional, and, from the other, capricious. The coUege 
 
 8—2 
 
116 EDUCATION IN OXEORD. 
 
 tutor administers the prescribed discipline of the college, 
 and the undergraduate submits to it, in some degree, 
 because he has the wit to see that rules — even arbitrary- 
 rules — are necessary ; and because he is going through 
 a routine which has a social value, at least, and, in 
 many cases, a value of a different and more tangible 
 kind, and to which the routine, and all its incidents, are 
 a temporary necessity, if not a rational discipline. ■ 
 
 College tutors, in point of fact, if they would only un- 
 derstand it, are in an unfortunate and abnormal position. 
 Though they are hypotheticaUy trusted with pastoral 
 functions, they are checked by the difficulty of dealing 
 with individual minds, and chilled by that absence of all 
 reasonable motives for exertion which a safe monopoly 
 is sure to effect. And though there is evidence of indi- 
 viduals taking on themselves the voluntary labour of 
 personal influence for individual benefit, yet the old bane 
 of inadequate impulses to labour is sure to infect even 
 the most earnest men with the poison of mannerism and 
 the unwisdom of onesidedness. With an antiquated law 
 to administer, they are shut out from modifying it, by 
 the rigour of precedent, and the barrier of imperfect 
 sympathies. Men who live in Oxford see that the in- 
 fluence of seniors on juniors is rapidly getting less and 
 less, and this while the old forms of dependence seem as 
 stubborn as ever they were. That college tutors should 
 have become college lecturers, is a natural product of 
 the system, but a product the natui'e and effect of which 
 I cannot discuss here, though I hope hereafter to say 
 something about it. 
 
 The characteristic parts of college discipline are: the 
 rule that undergraduates should be confined to college 
 after nine in the|evening, a rule which has been modified 
 into a fine for being out of college after that hour, or what 
 
THE COLLEGE. 117 
 
 is technically called "knocking in," no undergraduate 
 of the society being permitted to go out of college after 
 that hour; the general condition of residence, that all 
 parties under the degree of B.A. should attend college 
 chapel as a formal requisition, at least once a day ; and 
 the compulsion laid on them of attending college lectures, 
 according to a scheme which is ordinarily put out at the 
 beginning of the term. It is upon the violation of these 
 rules, that the college authorities ordinarily exercise their 
 official power. To these may be added, the penalties on 
 the occurrence of marked ignorance and indolence — 
 being plucked, as it is called — in any examination; and 
 any other evidence of misconduct with which the do- 
 mestic discipline of the college visits its members with 
 heavier or lighter hand, according to the strength or 
 weakness of the domestic executive. 
 
 When an undergraduate has resided twelve terms in 
 college, he is, as I have stated, allowed, or rather, 
 obliged, to give up his rooms. Afterwards, if he needs 
 to reside in Oxford, he lodges in private houses. These 
 houses are, however, under a strict discipline. The 
 occupiers of them are obliged to consent to certain con- 
 ditions, on the non-ftdfilment of which their licence is 
 forfeited, and they are what is technically called dis- 
 commoned. The force of this process is, that no 
 member of the university is suffered, under penalties, 
 to make any negotiation or contract with them. Lat- 
 terly an attempt was made to render these conditions 
 more strict, and to enforce them on resident bachelors 
 of arts. The plan failed, as a needless stretch of 
 discipline over senior men. The chief conditions com- 
 prised in the formal obligation laid on lodging-house 
 keepers ar^ : the rule that their doors should be closed 
 after nine, that no egress or ingress be permitted 
 
118 EDUCATIOiSr IN OXFORD. 
 
 without the knowledge of the master of the house, and 
 that a register of such egress and ingress should be 
 furnished, according to the rule; laid down by the 
 undergraduate's college, to tihose officials under whose 
 discipline he may be. 
 
 Lodgings are far from expensive in Oxford, and when 
 one considers that the season of the place, so to speak, is 
 less than six months in a year, and that during two or 
 three of these months lodgings are rarely occupied, the 
 lowness of the charge is even more remarkable. Many 
 circumstances, however, conduce to this. College 
 servants, in the first place, are generally the owners of 
 lodging-houses, and seek to add to an income, respect- 
 able already in amount, by the casualties of occupancy 
 by undergraduates. Few, if any, live by letting 
 lodgings. Next to these are the tradesmen, mamy of 
 whom, occupying the gromid floor of their houses for 
 business purposes, live themselves in the suburbs of the 
 city or the villages adjacent to it, and put some house- 
 keeper or other in charge of the upper rooms. Again, 
 as undergraduates always dine in college, and as they 
 are not, in theory at least,, permitted to procure any 
 food or drink, which the college supplies them with, 
 elsewhere, the attendance on the inmates is very scanty, 
 and the cooking next to nothing. Hence the establish- 
 ment of a lodging-house keeper is of the narrowest 
 kind, one female servant is often all that is needed for 
 several persons, and the capital of the owner of the 
 lodging-house is invested in little more than rent and 
 furniture. 
 
 There is no reason to believe that, vices of a particular 
 character are assignable to the residence of under- 
 graduates in Oxford lodgings, but direct evidence to 
 the contrary. I can at least assert, that during the four 
 
THE COIiEGE. 119 
 
 yeaars in .wMch I have had some pastoral work in one of 
 the largest of the villages near Oxford, from which 
 village numbers of domestic servants in Oxford come, 
 thai I have never met with more than one or two 
 persons who, having been, domestic servaniis, have fallen 
 into' evil courses; amd in these few cases the offender 
 has. heea the keeper of the lodging-house and not his 
 iainates. The ordinary agenta of these results are, as 
 far as I can learn, shopmen and folks little above the 
 original station of these unfortunates. 
 
 Attendance at coUege chapel is a means of discipline, 
 secured by the evidence of a bead-roll, and enforced by 
 penalties. The list is kept, in most cases, by the Bible 
 clerks, who employ the time while the lessons are 
 read in noting the preSence of those who are in chapel. 
 In some colleges, however, this unseemly practice. is 
 abaDjdoned, and one of the college servants is charged 
 with the duty of taking note of the attendance as the 
 several individuals enter the chapel doors. The prayers 
 used are ordinarily the fiill service, of the English Church ; 
 in one of the colleges only, i believe, is there any 
 dieviatioa from this practice, a practice directed by the 
 Act of Uniformity. But in Christ Church there is a 
 special service, much shorter than the common form of 
 prayer, and this service is in Latin. On particular 
 days, too, the service is performed in the Welsh language 
 at Jesus College, this society being mainly composed of 
 natives of , the Principality. Prayers are said, as a rule, 
 at half-past-seven or right in the morning, and iroia 
 half-past-four to five in the evening. In Christ Church, 
 however, evening pirayers are said at a late hour. 
 
 In four of the colleges the service is choral, either by 
 the tenor of its foundation, or by some subsequent 
 arrangemenit. These colleges are Magdalene, New, 
 
120 EDUCATION IN OXFORD, 
 
 Christ Church, and St. John. But another service is 
 provided at Magdalene and Christ Church, at which 
 undergraduates are commonly present. Some other 
 colleges, as Queen's and Exeter, have latterly established 
 a choral service, but the practice is novel and perhaps 
 precarious. At any rate, there is no provision made for 
 the choral service in the older or later statutes of these 
 colleges, and the formation of the choir has been a 
 voluntary effort. 
 
 Prima facie, the practice of making religious worship 
 a portion of domestic discipline, seems likely to neutralize 
 the sense of religion for the sake of enforcing a formal 
 obedience. And this is no doubt a frequent effect of 
 compulsory attendance. But there may be, and are 
 beyond question, many undergraduates to whom the 
 office of daily prayers is an encouragement, a comfort, 
 and a means of moral and religious strength. Perhaps 
 all the good of the service would be obtained if atten- 
 dance were allowed to be voluntary. 
 
 College lectures are also, as I have observed, a means 
 of discipline as well as of instruction. They are, I 
 conceive, far more powerful for the former than for the 
 latter effect. I have already commented on the causes 
 which lead to their being perfunctory and dull. If a 
 college lecturer makes them better than ordinary, it is 
 supererogatory, and due to his own conscientiousness 
 and activity. But colleges are drained of their best men, 
 who quit Oxford for schools and other extraneous 
 work ; and while the least efficient of the seniors cling to 
 the lecture, which they have read for so many years, 
 the rest of the lectureships are in the hands of younger 
 masters, who are eager to get away from a work which 
 is destitute of all ordinary human motives. Besides, no 
 college, except under the rarest circumstances, employs 
 
THE COLLEGE. 121 
 
 any person on its staff, except he happen to be a fellow 
 of the society, and the most vital interests of under- 
 graduates would be, and indeed are, habitually over- 
 looked, to carry out the rigour of a rule which seeks to 
 avoid offence by the sacrifice of duty and principle. 
 
 Of course there are marked exceptions to these 
 functional mediocrities. There are many persons in 
 Oxford who conscientiously and laboriously further the 
 moral improvement, as well as the intellectural culture 
 of the undergraduates under their care. But they do so 
 in despite of, and not in pursuance of the state of things 
 under which they live and work. Their " noble rage " 
 is repressed by the decorous feebleness which surrounds 
 them. And that I may not seem to have stated what is 
 not apparent to any but mysejf, or to a few, any of my 
 readers who chooses to peruse the articles contributed, 
 some years ago, by Sir W. Hamilton to the Edinburgh 
 Review, wiU see the case stated far more strongly than I 
 have stated it; and any one who takes occasion to 
 question the first half-dozen Oxford graduates whom 
 he meets, will find that what Hamilton reprehended 
 has not passed away, but is just as characteristic as 
 ever. 
 
 Habits of Undekgbadpate Life. — Many farcical 
 novels have been written on the practices of young men 
 at college, and some few serious ones. Attempts, too, 
 have been made fi-om time to time to describe the 
 temptations and the results of the necessary training 
 for an Oxford degree; and even the cumbrous volume 
 of evidence procured by the Royal Commissioners, 
 prior to the Act of 1854, contains some few notices 
 of what young men are and do in Oxford, and how 
 they spend their time. None 'of these accounts, how- 
 
122 EDUCATION IN OXFORD, 
 
 ever, give any accurate information on tlie subject ; and 
 from the vevj various motives wtich bring persons to 
 the university, as well as from the very various 
 characters congregated in it, it is not likely that more 
 than the most general features of academical life can be 
 depicted. 
 
 Oxford undergraduates are no worse, but, in many 
 traits, fair better than most aggregates of young men. 
 The discipline of the univers^ity — ^I do not mean by this 
 the colleges — has something to do with this, the tradi- 
 tions of the place vastly more. Undergraduates have 
 their own laws, and their own customary rules of social 
 life, and these, though often formal and priggish, are 
 very effective and very useful. Their code of honour, 
 it is true, is a little one-sided, and their notions of right 
 and wrong somewhat defective and partial, but they 
 have both code and notions. They do not mind run- 
 ning into debt, and they are apt. to waste their money 
 and time — money often procured by great domestic 
 sacrifices, and time which is the most critical in their 
 /- lives; but they are ordinarily truthful, decorous, and 
 I high-spirited. They are great admirers of courage and^ ^ 
 endurance, and have those virtues themselves in the"^ -.^ 
 fullest degree, and they feel a sincere respect for ,tho^!~. 
 painstaking members of their own body who achieve ^X 
 academical distinctions.! I never heard that an Ox- 
 ford undlergraduate was guilty of an act of cruielty, 
 or that he offered an insult to a woman. Further, to 
 use a bygone political phrase, they are, as a rule, strong 
 Tories ; not because, I take it, they have any profound 
 respect for authority, but beeaiiise they are strongly 
 infected with what has been called the gentlemanly 
 heresy. Nothing, perhaps, has more contributed to the 
 contempt felt by Oxford men for Oxford tradesmen 
 
THE COLLEGE^ 123 
 
 than tke toiittiHg and servility of the latter. When it 
 comes to pass that men shall no' longer be ashamed of 
 an honest calling, and shall not prosecute it by forms 
 which argae lack of self-respeet aad independence, the 
 last relics ©f this social barbairiam will, I imagine, be 
 found in the cringing and supple petitioners for under- 
 graduate cnstom. 
 
 But whatever may be the feelings of Oxford under- 
 graduates towards what is without their own body, and 
 however contemptuous is the mannerism of academical 
 fifeemasonry,, there is. not a paEtiele of this feeling shown 
 towards amy of their own body whose antecedents are 
 below the ordinary rank from which most educated 
 persons come. It is no reproach to a young man, and 
 not the most distant alhision is ever made to ihe fact, 
 that he has come of low origin. The best position in 
 the university is repeaitedly taken, by persons whose 
 parents are, socially speaking, in a very humble grade. 
 So thoroughly republican in this direction is the feeling 
 of the place, that external social difiFerences are rarely 
 remembered even against arrogance and presumption. 
 There are, it is truej. affectations about partifiukr col- 
 leges, and the members of one society pretend now arid 
 then to look down on other societies, but the feeling is 
 collective, not towards individuals. And in this charac- 
 teristic, Oxford undergraduiaie life contrasts in the most 
 favourable way with any other social arrangement and 
 social practice which can be named elsewhere. There 
 ia no place^ I repeat^ wheire antecedent social differences 
 are so Uttle counted on as here. And this is the more 
 remarkable, because the existing statoites of the univer- 
 sity put some de:6nite premiuims on social rank, and have 
 a distinct leaning towards vulgar kinds of tuft-hunting. 
 Where men's rank, or supposed rank, ia distinguished 
 
124 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 by dress and privilege, the most odious form of servility- 
 is encouraged. 
 
 Along with this general sense of equality, there is a 
 strong esprit de corps in the members of particular 
 colleges. This feeling does not spring, I repeat, from 
 reverence towards the authorities of these institutions, 
 and very little from association, but eminently from the 
 habitual cultivation of local affections.^ The most 
 rollicking muscularity has a very warm interest in the 
 intellectual prowess of his college ; and the most 
 secluded student is in a very unhealthy frame of mind, 
 if he feels no pleasure in the victories of his college 
 boat, and his college cricket club. And though, in 
 after life, this sympathy is resuscitated for unreasonable 
 electioneering predilections, yet it is, on the whole, a 
 wholesome and rational feeling. There are very few 
 men to whom, whether the time has been well or ill 
 spent, whether there is great satisfaction or great regret 
 felt at the way in which the four years have passed, 
 who do not fuUy comprehend that those four years 
 were the happiest and healthiest of his life. One's 
 university is worth loving, with all its inequalities and 
 shortcomings ; one's college is worth loving, too, despite 
 its management ; and so natural is the feeling, that the 
 exception to it cannot be the fault of the man, but must 
 be of the place and its governors. 
 
 The most natural distinction which can be drawn 
 between one set of undergraduates and another, is that 
 of those who read, and those who do not — in other 
 words, of those who intend that their academical educa- 
 tion should be the means of a step in life, above that 
 which is attained by an ordinary degree. Every uni- 
 versity distinction has its value, and if rightly used, 
 like any other capital, will return its profits. The 
 
THE COLLEGE. 125 
 
 extremes are, of course, an ordinary degree, and the 
 fullest honours which the university assigns. 
 
 An education which extends over four years, and in 
 which the competitive process which lies at its terminal 
 tion is the consummaljon, is an admirable test of per- 
 severance and industry — the main elements here, as 
 elsewhere, of success, — ^but is a very strong trial of 
 patience to those who are unable to realize the future. 
 It is not easy for young men who have their head 
 given to them, after years of domestic and school 
 restraint, to anticipate the benefits of a voluntary dis- 
 ciphne. I^ence it is, and will be constantly the case, 
 that young men who have achieved nothing in Oxford 
 are found foremost in after life. The stimulus of a 
 remote advantage is the least effective when motives, 
 by the very nature of things, vary. And hitherto the 
 theory of the university examinations has no way fur- 
 thered, but rather damped these prospective energies. 
 Nor, as might be expected, has the collegiate system 
 of domestic training done much to supply the lack of 
 motive, or remove the natural hindrances of thought- 
 lessness and negligence. 
 
 Parents, too, have been much to blame. If they 
 insisted on their sons testing their own powers and 
 work, by appearing in the Ksts of competitors for acade- 
 mical honours, they would largely profit their children 
 and strengthen the hands of the university. In the 
 nature of things, as this nature works at present, the 
 direct control of the university and college on a young 
 man's time is weaker and weaker, and the indirect in- 
 fluence of academical distinctions is far less appreciable 
 than it should be. But here, as elsewhere, parents 
 exhibit the most culpable indifference to the best in- 
 terests of their own children, and suffer the most sacred 
 
126 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 obligations which lie upon them to be deputed to the 
 chance impulses of the pupil, and the scanty influences 
 of the teacher. They would not, as has been said of 
 old over and over again, trust the supervision of their 
 pecuniary concerns to the irresponsible and unsupported 
 agency of others ; but in what is of the largest concern 
 to them they are slovenly and incautious to the last 
 degree. 
 
 Reading men are, as may be expected, the most 
 orderly and well-conducted of the general body of 
 undergraduates. But there are other persons, and they 
 form a numerous body, whose character is very com- 
 mendable. These are the individuals whose abilities are 
 not of such a kind as to secure them any position, or 
 any very marked one, in the intellectual trials of the 
 university, but whose character or training makes them 
 averse to its vices. Such men are a credit to Oxford, 
 and of great practical service to those with whom 
 they associate. Without any affectation of purism, 
 they give a high tone to the morality and manners of 
 the place. 
 
 I never heard of any person whose health was 
 seriously injured by over-reading, if, indeed, it was 
 injured at all by the process. Novelists represent these 
 adarming results in their fictitious narratives, but the 
 health of young men is injured by a vast many prac- 
 tices, which cannot be converriently confessed to, whUe 
 the most reputable among the causes which might, 
 injure health is a passionate attachment to study. I 
 should listen with great incredulity to any person who 
 alleged that his health had given way to over-much 
 mental exertion. Where we do know Ihat great efibrts 
 are made, and a great strain is put on the intellectual 
 powers, we do not find that these formidable results 
 
THE COLLEGE. 127 
 
 ensue. And it is tke more necessary that we should 
 understand liow little reality there is in iihe charge 
 upon study of its producing physical dehility, becajuse 
 this is a point on which parents, aaad especially mothers, 
 are habitually deluded. I have often heard parents, 
 sensible follis in their way, deprecate the toil over books 
 during an undergraduate's residence, and urge upon 
 their children not to ruin their powers by an over-eager 
 pursuit after knowledge ; but these good people are not 
 aible to quote authentic cases of the deplorable effects of 
 this single excess. Hard reading cannot be pursmed 
 without weariness, and weariness is rest, and slip-slop 
 reading is lio task, hut a mere relaxation. 
 
 Along with systematie indolence, the worst vices of 
 undergraduate life are drinking and gambling. The 
 former vice is, in pursuance of the practice of society 
 generally, very much on the decline, and the last few 
 years have seen a marked and important improvement 
 in this respect ; but the latter practice is, I am informed, 
 on the increase. Every occasion in which the theory 
 of chances can be applied is material for this faslnon. 
 Boat races, horse races, billiard matches, cricket matches 
 — a thousand and one things are available for the wildest 
 application of the doctrine of probabilities. It is said, 
 however, that one necessary term in the equation of this 
 propen^ty is often wanting. Men do not me^t their 
 liabilities. I am not sure whether this is the case or 
 no ; but, if it be, indifference to the dishonour of default 
 is a (Considerable corrective to ithe passion. 
 
 The out-door amusements of umdergraduates are some- 
 times excessive, but generally very sensible. Boat-racing 
 and cricket, tennis and racket, are favourite sports. As 
 a rule, the occupations of Oxford men are musoidar and 
 fatiguing. Many men play billiards, and, as usual, the 
 
128 EDUCATION IN OX'FOBD. 
 
 constant hdbituis of this amusement are among the most 
 disreputable persons to be found. Everybody knows 
 that no game presents more convenient opportunities 
 for the dishonest dissimulation of skiU ; but, of course, 
 where everybody is known, there are, comparatively 
 speaking, few occasions on which the wily errors of a 
 practised player may be turned to pigeoning. 
 
 As may be expected, the worst discipline is found in 
 those societies where there is scanty supervision, or a 
 divided and contradictory authority, or the presence of 
 undergraduates who are not amenable to academical 
 penalties, because they are indifferent to them. Where 
 young men are left entirely to their own discretion, 
 without any authority residing within the walls, as at 
 Magdalene Hall, there is not likely to be any great 
 sobriety of demeanour ; or if there be, it is from the fact 
 that the junior members themselves establish a quasi 
 Committee of Public Safety. Where, again, as at Christ 
 Church, the preposterous combination of a disunited 
 capitular body, and a staff of tutors without personal 
 authority, represents what should be the domestic 
 control of a large body of young men, one is not pre- 
 pared to expect any very good product. And the evil 
 is increased, hypothetically at least, by the fact of there 
 being a large number of undergraduates habitually at 
 Christ Church, who do not, and perhaps do not intend 
 to, take their degree or even pass any examination. It 
 is in vain that the university arms its officers with 
 penalties, and the college affects to exercise discipline 
 over such persons. They leave the university if they 
 are threatened with a crisis ; and as they would have 
 been no better for its instruction, so they are no worse for 
 its punishments. But they are a very great nuisance 
 during the interval. 
 
THE COLLEGE. 129 
 
 There are, indeed, persons who argue that these 
 irregUjlar members of the University are advantageous, 
 by their bare presence, to the interests of the body 
 itself, because they will hereafter look back to the 
 casual years of their Oxford residence with affection 
 and consideration. But in truth nothing but the worst 
 parts of the University system, that is to say, those 
 parts which rely on jobbing, are helped even possibly 
 by the fact that those gentlemen have had free quarters 
 for a year or two in Oxford. And in all likelihood 
 they look back on those times in after life as a delusion, 
 and maybe as a swindle. People who do not graduate 
 at their University are ordinarily shy of acknowledging 
 a previous connection with it. The University needs 
 not, or ought not to need, the chance support of a mere 
 squirearchy. It is very doubtful whether the Univer- 
 sity ever gets any support except when the support 
 assumes the form of political obstructiveness. 
 
 That the University will have t£) rely on itself for 
 its place . in the respect of the country is plain to the 
 meanest capacity. Even if a great corporation whose 
 public merits lie in the advancement of learning, had a * 
 milHon patrons, such a corporation, in these days at 
 least, is happily on its trial. The grace of self-govern- 
 ment is only durante bene placito, however long the 
 sentence may be postponed by party considerations. 
 Reform is progressive, and the smallest innovation is a 
 breach in the dyke. No delusion can be, more mis- 
 chievous than the very common one, that there is 
 such a thing as a final change. Unless men move 
 onwards in the practice of their public duties, when 
 they have once been made subject to the rule of public 
 opinion, there will soon be an end of their voluntari- 
 ness. Men must prove their usefulness, or the eyes of 
 
 9 
 
130 EDUCATION m OXFORD. 
 
 society are permanently fixed on the vanishing point of 
 their utility. ^ 
 
 What Oxford has lost, and what it is still losing, 
 — I speak for Oxford only — as the mother of English 
 learning is not to be calculated. What it may even 
 now regain if it sets itself diligently to its duties is 
 more intelligible. How, one by one, its ancient univer- 
 sality has past away, is the saddest fact in its past 
 history, and the largest difficulty in its present posi- 
 tion. But no recovery is likely by strengthening the 
 monopoly of what is, after all, an aggregate of lodging- 
 houses. 
 
 College and Universitt Seaeghing. — The instruc- 
 tion of undergraduates is partly compulsory, partly 
 A'oluntary. Compulsory instruction is afforded by 
 \ college tutors and college lecturers, voluntary instruc- 
 ' tion by University professors- and a class of teachers to 
 which I shall particularly advert in the next chapter. 
 
 In some colleges- an undergraduate is committed to 
 the charge of a tutor, who is supposed to be responsible 
 in some degree for the studies and conduct of his pupil. 
 But the connection is exceedingly slight, and has a 
 continual tendency to become slighter. The system 
 is, in short, a relic of what once existed universally, 
 and to which, as I have already stated above, the name 
 tutor points. Till late years, or comparatively late 
 years, the relations of the pupil to the tutor were 
 included in the fact that the tutor formed a sort of 
 intermediary to the head of the college, and in part a 
 delegate, and that the pupil received religious instruction 
 from the tutor, who was a kind of academical curate. 
 But no other education was provided by the college, 
 beyond the incident of some established lecturers. The 
 
THE COLLEGE. 131 
 
 present position of the college tutor was creatied by the 
 voluntary efforts of some oonscientious persons in the 
 first place,, and has been stereotyped by the interests 
 of others in the second- 
 There is no. radical difference existing between.the col- 
 lege tutor and college lecturer. The phrases have come to 
 mean that the tutor is generally one of the senior officers 
 of the establishment, the leotwrer one of those who has 
 latterly been plaeed* on the staff. The lecturer i sbg 
 way of beeoming a tutor. Tutors are appointed by the 
 head of the college,, though custom rarely allows- the 
 passing by any one of ihe fellows who is even decently 
 competent for his functions], a competence jneasured; by 
 his position in. the class schoolsi The nomination, is 
 always from the fellows,, except when, thera occurs an 
 aJbsolute deficiency of proficient! persons among that 
 body, and ordinarly the tutor ia deprived of his ofiBce. on 
 marriagBi though,, in exceptional, cases, the office is 
 retaiaed.by married men. But there are, it apgearBj.no 
 means by which an incompetent tutor can be superseded 
 or divested of his office, or if there be^ I am not aware 
 of these means being adopted. It is not therefore 
 necessary that' the senior tutors, should be very able 
 persons-. The older members of the University or- 
 dinarily migrate to other spheres- of labour, as schoolsj 
 and the like^ since the income of a college tutor is 
 generally small, and dependent on, celibacy ; while men 
 who- wait on ini Oxford in- college: employment^- are 
 naturally not so active as- those wio' leave it. 
 
 The lectures of a college tutor are addressed to a 
 dass- of' variable numbersj. are more or less catechetical, 
 and on a considerable variety of subjects*. Genejcally, 
 however, one of the tutors- takes- on himself the office of 
 instruction in grammar, and in translation, from Latin 
 
 9—2 
 
132 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 and Greek to English, and of composition in those 
 languages ; another gives lectures on philosophy accom- 
 panying some text hook, a third deals with history. Some 
 colleges have no mathematical lecturer, but the great 
 majority, in later years, have added this office to their 
 staff. Very few colleges offer instruction in modern 
 history or physical science. 
 
 The pupils attending the lectxu'e translate a portion of 
 the author who is taken as a text book, the teacher select- 
 ing at his discretion the person who is to translate, in 
 order, if possible, to secure the previous preparation by the 
 whole class. But no precaution can prevent the slovenly 
 method of preparation, the use of translations, and the 
 most superficial knowledge of the contents, and even of 
 the grammar of the author. It is almost needless to say 
 that the lecture naturally tends towards the calibre of the 
 worst informed person in the room. The teacher corrects 
 the errors of translation, and adds observations of his own, 
 more or less valuable, according as he has made the 
 author his particular study, and as he is competent to 
 illustrate the book, the style, and the matter to which 
 it refers. The hearers are supposed to take notes. Of 
 course there is greater opportunity for taking notes 
 when the subject treated of by the author involves 
 something besides art or grammar. I am not aware 
 that criticism on the style, the spirit, the psychological 
 significance of the ancient drama, or the ancient 
 narrative forms part of a college lecture. It did not in 
 my time, and I have seen no trace of it since. Nor is 
 instruction in grammar more than empirical knowledge. 
 The analogies of language, and the logic of construction 
 are not taught in these lectures. The teacher's ambition 
 is bounded by the formularies of accidence, and the 
 traditional rules of Greek and Latin syntax. In history. 
 
THE COLLEGE. 133 
 
 also, ethnological and geographical instructions are not 
 afforded, still less is the political philosophy of the 
 author expounded. The text of the author is all that is 
 illustrated, and this more by requiring more or less 
 exact translation, than by any original criticism. In 
 philosophy, however, there is rather more scope for 
 particular instruction. But even here it is very rare that 
 any large view is talien of the author's meaning. The 
 practice, and the laudable practice, of requiring acquain- 
 tance with the text, generally supersedes any investiga- 
 tion of the matter and its criticism. 
 ■ The product of the term's work is tested by a domestic 
 examination, called collections. All undergraduates who 
 have not passed the final university examination are 
 required to submit to this piece of discipline. This 
 domestic institution is, however, of very scanty utility. 
 The colleges have not adopted the very sensible rule of 
 similar institutions in Cambridge, that, namely, of giving 
 terminal annual prizes for proficiency. Hence, and for 
 other causes, these collections are looked on by undergra- 
 duates more as a piece of discipline, conscientiousness in 
 the submission to which is visited with no reward, and 
 negligence with no penalty beyond a scolding. Very 
 rarely does it occur, that the only real punishment 
 annexed to a shabby performance in these examinations 
 is infiicted, the loss, namely, of term, and very often " 
 does it occur that the punishment is deserved. But to 
 inflict- it would be simply a vicarious penalty; the 
 undergraduate's parents would be mulcted for the 
 sloth of the son, and maybe for the carelessness of the 
 tutor. 
 
 Annexed is a list of the colleges with the number of 
 tutors in each, the number of subjects for which tutors 
 are appointed, and the school honours acquired by those 
 
134 
 
 EDUCATION IN OXFOED. 
 
 tutors. It is perhaps the fairest way in which I can 
 give materials for judging the present status of the 
 several colleges, when taken in connection with other 
 tabular statements. 
 
 COIXEGES.* 
 
 .SB 
 
 a 
 
 si 
 
 
 
 ;fea 
 
 lb 
 
 ■gs 
 
 E S 
 
 ' University 
 
 Balliol 
 
 Merton 
 
 iExeter 
 
 Oriel 
 
 Queen's 
 
 :New 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 AllSoiils .... 
 
 Magdalene 
 
 Brasenose 
 
 Corpus 
 
 Christ Churdh 
 
 Trinity 
 
 St. John's 
 
 Jesus ;... 
 
 "Wadham 
 
 Pembroke 
 
 Worcester 
 
 Halls: — 
 
 St. Maxy 
 
 Magdalene 
 
 New Inn 
 
 St. Alban's 
 
 St., Edmund .. 
 
 Iiitton's 
 
 But here, as elsewhere, I must caution my reader 
 against an error into which he may be dravpn by such 
 statistics as I can give. It is one inherent in all tabu- 
 
 * The figures come from the Oxford Calendar, the lists in which 
 are furnished by the college authorities. 
 
THE COLLEGE. 135 
 
 lated summarieB by which general inferences are sug- 
 gested, and in which only one or two of the constituents 
 of the ipuodiuct can be exhibited. Anybody can -see 
 what academical honours a college tutor ha« acquired, 
 butiio one can estimaie wha/t are the capacities which 
 he possesses of (imparting the knowledge he has,' still less 
 of what he has dome by way of improving a stocik, the 
 amount of which was taken possibly many years ago. 
 In the imperfect state in which we are, and must be 
 left, about a "vaat many of the elements of administrative 
 capacity, such staitisfcies afford, .even in combination 
 with others, only qualified ircferences. But as far 0b 
 they go they are just. They stand in preoisely the 
 same logical position as any other inference from 
 any other competitive examination, are "possessed of the 
 same value, 'and open to ithe same objections. In the 
 present state of inquiry, they are asll that can be aimefl 
 at ; but it is bvit fair that one should point out their 
 worth asnd their 'weakness, thotigh the coufttry at large, 
 and equally the University, assigns, as a rule, a final 
 value to these bygone trials of comparative aequdsitiun. 
 
 JZha-public jtiea!ching_ of the university ie alJbat-Jby^ 
 _EafessorSi. I have already adverted lio this rpart of the 
 academical system, in the first portion of this work. 
 
 Attendance on professorial instruction is rarely of 
 much value before the latter portion .of an umdergra- 
 duate>s residence in Oxford. TheeairliBr trials ^to which 
 his acquirements are subjected, are so exclusively of 
 school-learning, that the diffuse generalities of a profes- 
 sorial lecture are rarely of any service in the acquisition 
 of what I have already stated to beiempirical knowledge. 
 Nor would it be possible, -unless the professor became, 
 as he is said to be, in the Scotch universities, a mere 
 schoolmaster, that the lectures he gives could become 
 
136 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 in the slightest degree serviceable for the earlier public 
 examinations. 
 
 But when these earlier trials are over, and the final 
 examinations are all that remain for the student, the aid 
 ^ of professorial teaching is appreciable, and if some of its 
 present inconveniences are eliminated vsrill be very con- 
 siderable. Not but that under the best of circumstances, 
 its value will be qualified, and necessarily supplemented 
 by other assistance. In the nature of things, the pro- 
 fessor's class is larger than the coUege tutor's, and very 
 distinct from the personal relations of the private tutor. 
 Still more marked is the character of his teaching. It 
 is eminently of generalities, of matters which make a 
 vast show, which can be of infinite value, and which 
 may become, and often do become, in the pupil's head a 
 mere gabble of platitudes. There is nothing, as we are 
 daily more and more aware, more easy than the reputa- 
 tion procured by the knowledge of general principles. 
 Much of the reproach cast on learning is due to the 
 confusion between the voluble retail of propositions 
 taken at second-hand and the patient aggregation of 
 these propositions from a careful induction of particulars. 
 And, of late years, Oxford learning has been seriously 
 impaired by a deference to the facilities of acquiring these 
 generalities. The fashion of the time is, perhaps, in 
 favour of these wide formularies ; but they are, unless 
 accompanied with a large inward training, mere parrot 
 phrases, which are worse than useless. There is some- 
 thing in the whimsical wish that penal servitude without 
 the option of a fine, should be visited on those who are 
 always referring one to first principles, and who habitually 
 talk of subjective and objective. 
 
 All this, however, which suggests contingent evils as 
 associated with the professorial system when applied to 
 
THE COLLEGE. 137 
 
 tlie practical objects of academical education, must be 
 understood to refer to that portion of it only which 
 belongs to the ordinary curriculum of an Oxford degree. 
 When the student aspires to an acquaintance with 
 modern languages and physical philosophy, the public^ 
 teaching of Oxford supplies all that can be desired or 
 even procured. At no time and in no place have the . 
 various professorships of physics been filled with more 
 intelligent, competent, and, what is far more to the pur- 
 pose, more conscientious teachers. The interests of 
 physical science cannot be entrusted to more diligent 
 and energetic keeping than they are at pre^sent ; and 
 though the habits of the university, and the natural 
 suspicion felt towards an active band of innovators on 
 the ancient studies of Oxford, the smart of an extrava- 
 gant expenditure on the museum just erected for the 
 purposes of this new philosophy, and the well-defined 
 impression that this is not, and wiU not be, the place for 
 any practical or large development of natural science, 
 have made the professors of these mysteries at once 
 painstaking and vigorous in advancing their favourite 
 studies ; yet one may fairly say, that whatever they 
 can do towards making their knowledge available and 
 their lectures attractive, will be certainly done to the 
 full, and in the most solid manner. 
 
 Most colleges have libraries, which are open under 
 certain restrictions to all members of their societies. 
 There is no difficulty, however, in procuring admission 
 to the Bodleian, if an undergraduate requires the assist- 
 ance of any books which are too expensive for his 
 purchase, or are not procurable in the college stock, 
 But few young men employ the University library. 
 This is mainly due to the fact that the Bodleian is open 
 only at those times when undergraduates and graduates. 
 
138 EDUCATIOT^ IN OXFOBD. 
 
 pupils and tutors, are engaged in their respective occu- 
 pations. Perhaps, when the long-expected reading- 
 room is provided (and these conveniences are accorded 
 with singular slowness in the University), more persons 
 will 'be found to employ the ad-vantages which the TJni- 
 T-ersity library affords. At the same time it must be 
 remembered that much of the reading of undergraduates 
 is gathered from a very small range of books, that in- 
 terpretations and commentaries on those books are oral 
 or traditional, and that there is little immediate profit 
 in studies which lie ontside the narrow course of 
 academical instruction, since they would not be tested 
 by academical examination or invested with academical 
 distinction. Teacher, pupil, and examiner act and re- 
 act upon each other. 
 
 Private Ttjition. — A rery large number of resident 
 graduates occupy themselves in Oxford as private 
 tutors. There is nothing remaiikable in the fact, far 
 the private teacher is the most ancient institution in -the 
 place, from which professors are an offshoot, and on 
 which college tuition is a late usurpation. The terms 
 of a degree are a licence to teach, whatever the degree 
 may be ; the special subject in which the graduate is 
 empowered to instruct others being definitively stated in 
 the terms by which he is invested with his academical 
 status. 
 
 But, even if the prirate tutor could not claim cus- 
 tomary antiquity and a formal recognition of his func- 
 tions, 'the exigencies of a natural demand would call 
 him into existence. He is wanted for the work of the 
 place; and if college instruction were ever so much 
 "improved, and professorial teaching made ever so effec- 
 tive, the inevitable result of a larger competition for 
 
aJKE GOELEGE. 139 
 
 academical honours would only call forth the energies 
 -of a lairger body of privstte tutors. As a proof of this, 
 there is no college in which so efficient and laborious 
 a staff of cdllege tutors can be found as at BaUiol, ithere 
 is no college which has for the last twenty years come 
 near it in the acquisition of -academical honours, and 
 there is ceritainly none, the undergraduates of which 
 xead so steadily with private tutors. And beyond 
 •doubt, now that this college has very wisely made a 
 rule, which, by the way, should have been made fear rthe 
 whole University, that 'every undergraduate shall, imder 
 ^ain of dismissal, appear in the final school, not as a 
 'Candidates for a pass, but 'for a class ; it will inevitably 
 follow, that a still larger number of Balliol ainder- 
 graduates will'seek the services of ithose men who 'give 
 private and persona:! instruction. It betrays an lutter 
 ignorance of the nature of things, and of the ordinary 
 'rules which regulate every kind of competition, <when 
 coUege tutors affect to dissuade under^aduates Aom 
 the use of private tutors, on the plea that college 
 lectures are sufficient for the purpose. The better the 
 college lecture is, the more need is there for private 
 instruction ; and if, as sometimes may be the case, the 
 ■college lecture is whoUy worthless, there is still a meed 
 of private instruction, though for a different reason. 
 15^0 doubt, to a person of veryJarge abilities, a private 
 tutor may not be necessai'y, and especially is this the 
 case when such persons do, from indolence or per- 
 versity, decline to compete for academicalhonours ; but 
 it 'may well 'be -doubted whether, iin such cases as these, 
 •the assistance of college lectures is at all appreciable in 
 the product. Of course, if college tutors act volun- 
 tarily as private tutors to their undergraduates, 'the case 
 is different ; but -such vdluntary action is rare, is pre- 
 
140 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 carious ; and in default of ordinary human motives — 
 thoscj namely, in whicli the services rendered are repaid 
 by a pecuniary equivalent — is not over trustworthy. 
 At any rate, these exceptional cases are no calculable 
 diminution to the general rule. 
 
 It is not difficult to detect the cause of this use of 
 private tutors, though their employment adds largely, 
 in many cases, to the expenditure of an undergraduate's 
 career. To most men a degree, to some ^ class, is the 
 object of Oxford residence and study. Now, for the 
 degree there are a vast many candidates whose abilities 
 or previous education preclude them from any hope, as 
 at present constituted, of academical distinction. To 
 such persons, the earher the degree is gotten, the less 
 is the total of academical expenses. And though the 
 general ignorance of pass-men^exercises a very depress- 
 ing effect on the examination schools, yet the tendency 
 of these schools is inevitably to exact as much as can 
 safely be demanded from the candidates for a degree. 
 The quantity, in short, suificient for a pass is, even 
 without the knowledge or the will of the examiner, 
 comparative. Thus, at present, there is less virtually 
 required from the undergraduate than there was prior 
 to the change of 1850. A common degree is certainly 
 worth less, if the general public were able to appre- 
 ciate it. In those days, undergraduates habitiaally read 
 for six months with a private tutor, previous to appear- 
 ing for their degree ; and I can safely assert, from my own 
 extensive experience as a private tutor, acquired far more 
 knowledge of a solid kind than they now do in the slip- 
 slop quality of a very much diminished quantity. The 
 oiEce of the private tutor, to mere pass-men, has, for all 
 good, passed away ; the work now gone through on this 
 score, being the veriest cram which the ingenuity of 
 
THE COLLEGE. 141 
 
 the tutor can furnish his pupil with, in order that he 
 may, so to speak, dodge the examiner. This is not the 
 fault of the tutor, as silly people think, but it is the 
 fault of the University which has prepared an examina- 
 tion, the details of which are to be got up in this 
 trumpery, superficial manner. To blame the tutor is 
 as reasonable a thing as it would be to blame an 
 advocate, who uses the best of his skill and experience 
 in defeating, the application of a particular law to a 
 particular person, who happens to be his client. Any 
 person who has any experience of the practical ope- 
 ration of such a state of things, is aware that the 
 ingenuity of the advocate is as much a profit to the 
 future action of the legislator as it is immediately to his 
 client. 
 
 The case is still stronger in the private tuition of 
 the class man. Here competition is far more charac- 
 teristically the feature of the examination. Beyond 
 doubt the amount required of the class men has been 
 constantly increasing during the prevalence of the old 
 system, up to the time in which it was superseded by that 
 of 1853, when the classification of 1850 began to apply to 
 the final schools. And with equal certainty have the 
 modified and scantier quantities profiered at present, 
 been higher in point of quality within the limits assigned 
 to them, and subsequently created for them than they 
 were at first. Nor does this fact take away from what 
 I have said elsewhere, about the unsatisfactory nature of 
 the present class schools. Scholarship, it is true, is 
 progressively enfeebled, a careful acquaintance with 
 books is getting rarer, and the substitution of general 
 principles, general knowledge, crude criticism on events, 
 and a gossip of phiiosophy has been but a poor recom- 
 pense for what, has been lost in these matters. But 
 
142 EDUCATION IS OXEORD. 
 
 nevertliel ess more of these novelties are acquired, stored 
 upi and reprodiiced under the pressure of the examiners' 
 requirements, and' the inevitable tendency to a larger 
 standard of quantity and: quaUty. Though candidates 
 for honours are put into classes, the limit of knowledge- 
 ^required for each class shifts- insensibly,, and continually 
 verges towards more ample claims. The system, in short, 
 though: nominally formal and. uniform, also, is practically 
 and really competitive, and the examiner is not only 
 true to his own function, but is carrying out the principles 
 of his office and duty, when he seeks continually to 
 raise the general standard for the class schools and the 
 examiners-. 
 
 And now that there is added to the ambition of 
 distinction in the class schools, the palpable and material 
 advantage of an open competition for those fellowships 
 which are being.flung. among the successful competitors 
 for academical honours; and the gld. fashion according 
 to which petty caprices,, social affectations, andj personal 
 influences had far more to do with the disposal of fellow- 
 shipSj than: intelleetuaL or moral worth, is passing away, 
 the preparation; for such; a competition, will yearly 
 become more severe, and the study more careful and 
 laborious. It is under such circumstances as reasonable 
 to expect that! undergjaduates will be content, with the 
 college- or professorial lecture, when they are alive to 
 what is at the end of their academical course^ as to 
 conceive a manufacturer will put up with antiquated 
 'macliinery and unskilled labour, when the most delicate 
 appHances of invention, and the readiest, skill in- work- 
 manship are absolute essentials to fortune,,and a manifest 
 economy of capital. And, they whose interests- are most 
 bound up in the ultimate success jof undergraduateSj 
 parents, namely, and friends, may be welL assured, that 
 
THE COLLEGE. 143 
 
 in the catalogue of academical expenses there is: none' 
 which returns more abundant profit upon, outlay than, 
 the cost of a private tutor. Over and over again it. 
 happens, that a parsimony on this score, or an ill-advised, 
 notionithat collegiate instruction is fully enough for all the 
 exigencies of academicaL education and its degree, have 
 been stultified by the fact, that undergraduates who, 
 should under proper teaching and moderate pains have 
 taken their degree in the shortest time allowed by the 
 statutes of the university, have remained in Oxford for 
 two or three years longer than was necessary, frittering, 
 away the most important period of their life, wasting, 
 money which has been -provided for them by many domestic 
 sacrifices, and acquiring habitS; of sloth in, preparation, 
 and of indifference at what ought to be the most serious 
 misfortune and the greatest, shame to- a rightHmndedi 
 youth, the disgrace of being plucked on one's presenting 
 oneself for a creditable qnalification. There is nothing, 
 I am persuaded, in the whole course of an under- 
 graduate's career which- is more damaging, to him,, than 
 the being forced into, or being led into the miserable 
 habit of searching^ out the minimum of duties,, and 
 trying to dodge claims on his capacity, which tiie 
 university,, for its own credit and his good, exacts, from 
 Mm. 
 
 A college tutor ought never to be trusted with, the 
 answer to the question: Ought my son to have a 
 private tutor ? The best, mem have their amour propre, 
 and the most conscientious college teacher is- tetchy 
 about any doubt- as to the efficiency of his instruction.. 
 And naturally enough : he has no credit, or but little, 
 if his pupil succeeds, because his share in the success is 
 divided among others, nor has he any scandal at his 
 failure,'because the same process of distribution relieves 
 
144 EDUCATION IN OXrOED. 
 
 him from the collective inconvenience, and from any 
 sense of personal inefficiency. But were he and all his 
 colleagues ever so clever, ever so good, ever so efficient 
 as teachers, the inevitable necessity of personal instruc- 
 tion in matters of such large importance as a class is, or 
 should be, are a total hindrance to his supplying all 
 that is needed to the candidate. 
 
 The expense of a private tutor, when compared with 
 the highest rate of college tuition, is considerable. If 
 the pupil reads an hour every other day with his teacher 
 the fee is lOl. for two months (eight weeks), the ordinary 
 duration of the term ; if every day the fee is double. 
 Few persons, however, use a tutor's assistance every 
 day, or when they do, employ these services under the 
 immediate pressure of an examination. The fees are 
 settled by custom ; and it is perhaps fair to add, that a 
 very moderate income as a private tutors implies, not only 
 from the nature of his labours, but from the fact that his 
 services are required periodically only, and ordinarily 
 with considerable intervals of comparative inaction, that 
 he is working very hard. 
 
 There is a perfect free trade, a competition between 
 private tutors. Occasionally, it is true, the recommenda- 
 tions of college authorities have considerable weight with 
 certain undergraduates; but in the majority of cases, 
 and certainly in the best men, both as tutors and pupils, 
 this has but Httle to do with the success of a private 
 teacher. He stands on his own merits; and though 
 young men are sometimes apt to prefer the services of 
 persons about their own age, and fresh from the schools, 
 in preference to those who have had larger experience, yet 
 one is well enough aware that this is frequently paralleled 
 in other occupations, and is quite within the calculations 
 of an open competition. 
 
THE COLLEGE. 145 
 
 Naturally, too, there are Tarious kinds of private 
 tutors. Any one who takes the trouble to read the 
 slang novels of Oxford life, in which it would seem that 
 the main business of undergraduates is to indulge in 
 riot and debauchery, will find caricatures of the fast 
 private tutor, who crams his pupil in divinity by a 
 profane jargon, and stuffs his head with a memoria 
 technica for the schools. But such an evil — enormously 
 exaggerated in the publications I refer to — is but part 
 and parcel of the ordinary features of competitive occu- 
 pations. .There are young men in the university who 
 are a scandal to it, and there are, maybe, teachers who 
 assimilate their teaching to the capacity and character 
 of those whom they prepare. But if this be the case — 
 and I am by no means by way of sayiug that it is, 
 except in a very modified degree — it is, I repeat, the 
 fault of the university which makes such teaching 
 possible ; and whatever this teaching may be, it certainly 
 has no resemblance to the coarse buffoonery which 
 characterizes college novels. People who read them 
 may safely disbelieve them. 
 
 As the choice of the pupil is iree, so the relations of 
 teacher to his pupil are personal and often intimate. 
 These relations are, however, but temporary ; and not 
 so frequently as might be is there exercised influence 
 over undergraduates by these teachers, which is the 
 more profitable as it is entirely voluntary. That these 
 relations are not more intimatb and advantageous, is far 
 more the fault of parents than of undergraduates. It 
 would be highly desirable if parents, leaving their sons 
 in Oxford to make choice of their tutor, would establish 
 some relations between themselves and him. I can 
 speak from experience of the happy effects which have 
 occurred when this confidence has been given and 
 
 10 
 
146 EDUCATION IS OXFORD. 
 
 claimed, and of the mutual advantage of an intercourse 
 authorized on this fashion. 
 
 But even apart from this rare incident, and it is to 
 he regretted that it is rare, there is no occupation, 
 despite its laborious nature and comparative uncertain- 
 ties, despite its responsibilities and its anxieties, more 
 grateful to well-meaning persons than that between 
 pupil and private teacher. It is no small pleasure to 
 watch the gradual progress of an educated intelligence, 
 to mark how the several steps of an elaborate system 
 of logic, of psychology, of moral philosophy, and of 
 political science are developed in the mind of those 
 who receive implicitly with a view to understanding 
 completely what they receive. There is no occasion 
 in which the authority of the teacher is so thoroughly 
 tempered and so completely corrected by the rational 
 acqiiiescence of the pupil. There is no occasion on 
 which one has so fully the satisfaction of working out 
 one's own train of thought before the inquiring mind 
 of an interested hearer, where one is more sure that 
 plainness of language and accuracy of detail are neces- 
 sary, and where logomachies are less profitable. It is 
 as though one were anxiously watching from a central 
 mountain top, and saw, one by one, the beacons in a 
 long line receiving and transmitting the light oneself 
 has set up. 
 
 I am confident in saying that Oxford is indebted to 
 the private teachers within it for well nigh all its 
 developments in learning. On many grounds they 
 have not been so extensive as might be, desired, and 
 they are still less known than extensive. But this is 
 the only part of the academical system to which the 
 wholesome stimulus of copapetition is applied; and com- 
 petition, be it remembered, regulated by the fact of its 
 
THE COLI/BGE. 147 
 
 being affected by other more lucrative callings, as -well 
 as the fact that it requires a certain acknowledged pro- 
 ficiency for its exercise. Most of our best thinkers 
 have spent years in the service of private teaching, and 
 there, if they hafve got them, ' is ito be found 4he origin 
 df the careiiil analysis and lucid .expcffiition vrhieh 
 belongs to the strongest and healthiest mind. Pity it is 
 that when they get uaed to their work they leave it for 
 more profitable, if not more grateful, employment; and 
 that the best teachers ©f young inen are obliged to quit 
 their station for the imstruotiom of boys. Pity it is 
 <stiU more, that this large power for the moral govern- 
 ment -iijrf youth is, by its bfsing 'onesided and partial 'in 
 its influences, less isffeotisie for the great ends it might 
 serve, and 'occasionally does serve, in pursuance of 
 relations which, beginning from the best source, volun- 
 tairy confidence, do affect intellectual draining, and might 
 affect. personal character. 
 
 EEAin!sr:U TOR ExAmsTAirioNS. — P-ekiod at which the 
 
 DjSG'REES SHOtJLB BE TAKEN. — PaSS AMB CtASB. — ^I am 
 
 not in the present chapter, by way of giving any 
 advice .to undergraduates as to the method that they 
 should adopt in preparing themselves for examination, 
 nor of prescribing what is the time at which •it is 
 advisable for persons who contemplate honours to 
 proffer themselves as candidsctes:; nor, again, of enter- 
 ing into the comparative ,cap:aidties of undergraduates, 
 the books they should read, the school they should 
 prefer to compete in, the tests by which they may dis- 
 cover whether the beat of their genius lies in the direc- 
 tion of classical learning, of historical research, of 
 mathematical deductions, of physical philosophy. They 
 must find these thiags out for themselves; nor do I 
 
 10—2 
 
148 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 think, were I ever so competent to deal abstractedly 
 with all these questions, that much profit would ensue 
 to the reader from my attempting to give him directions 
 for the solution of these personal inquiries. 
 
 Several geiitlemen of considerable experience have 
 attempted the discussion of these matters. As may be 
 expected, the result is either a series of generalities or 
 a scheme as practicable as the bed of Procrustes. No 
 writing ever raises such hopes, and ever disappoints 
 them more fully, no, not even a newspaper, as a guide 
 to students in reading for university honours. Without 
 exception, works of this kind are and must be delusive. 
 And as long as no two minds are exactly constituted 
 alike, so long will this kind of advice be nugatory. 
 Further, even if one could make minds as uniform as 
 possible in power and material, the numerous con- 
 tingencies of training, physical continuity, actual know- 
 ledge, and the like, would still create a variety which 
 no generalities caii practically unite. Everybody must 
 find out for himself what is the best method of dis- 
 covering his own powers, and, which is generally 
 antecedent to the discovery, giving those powers the 
 fullest opportunity of development, No one, I hon- 
 estly believe, would ever rely on a guide to university 
 honi)urs, except he were of such capacity as not to 
 attain them at all. The writers of these works are, as 
 may be expected, composing an autobiography of them- 
 selves during their course of study, an(? are still 
 occupied with the process by which they themselves 
 have won their position. 
 
 It is worth while, however, for the sake of parents 
 and parties interested in another way with the proceed- 
 ings of young men in Oxford, to state briefly what 
 reading for examinations is, and to say a little about 
 
THE COLLEGE. 149 
 
 the other topics which are put at the head of this 
 chapter. 
 
 That system of the university which leaves it op- 
 tional with undergraduates to appear as ordinary pass- 
 men or as candidates for honours, inevitably suggests to 
 the majority of men that they should accept the former 
 alternative. The distinction destroys, in many persons' 
 minds, all inducements to careful study. It bids a 
 young man weigh himself before he is, as he must be, 
 weighed by others. And though this is an excellent 
 moral rule in certain cases, yet, in the determination as 
 to our own resolution in ppstponing present pleasure 
 or care for immediate regularity and study, with a view 
 to subsequent distinction, it may be doubted whether 
 the university does not put a premium on sloth. At 
 any rate, the effect of the practice is that few, very few 
 men, out of the mass of undergraduates — and these 
 undergraduates are, or are supposed to be, the pick of 
 public schools — read for academical honours. Of course 
 there is no remedy for this but the abolition of the hue 
 which separates pass from class, the rating all can- 
 didates for degree in classes, and by implication, ex- 
 tending the number of the classes. But until this 
 regulation is accepted, these motives against reading for 
 honours will have their way. 
 
 Furthermore, that alteration of the university sys- 
 tem, which allows a class list to intervene between the 
 first pubKc examination and the final one, is, as I have 
 already said, a strong inducement to decline the attempt 
 at honours in the final school. If the candidate is rated 
 in the highest place under this examination, he is un- 
 willing to risk this position by a second trial : if, on the 
 other hand, he takes a low place, he is discouraged 
 from a further attempt. These causes have, therefore. 
 
150 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 effected that, in the first place, hut a small portion, fromi 
 one-third to one-fourth of the candidates for a degree 
 appeared in the class schools; and on the subsequent 
 alteration of the examination statute to its present pro- 
 portions and regulations, the number of candidates has 
 sunk to one-tenth. 
 
 1 repeat these- circumstances, because they show the 
 effect of bad legislation, and are, as far as I know, the 
 immediate explanation of the singular phenomenon, that 
 in a vmiversity whose characteristic studies are classical 
 learning, the number of those who read in any sys- 
 tematic way is progressively declining, and to expound 
 the reason why so large a proportion of Oxford students 
 are content with an unadorned degree. 
 
 A common degree may be attained with care by any 
 person of average abilities and ordinary school aquire- 
 ments, by the work of about an hour or two daily.. 
 The vast majority of pass-men do not read so much. 
 They go into lectures, as I have observed, and the 
 scanty knowledge they have may be kept alive by the 
 routine which they undergo ; but for real reading, six 
 weeks' or a month's exercise at the text of the author,, 
 and the matter of his writing in some eases — the former 
 procured by translations, and the latter by a process of 
 cramming — is all that is ordinarily given to each exami- 
 nation, because it is really all that is required. The 
 rest of an undergraduate's time is occupied in those 
 pursuits which gratify his tastesj develop his muscles, 
 improve his manners, draw upou his funds,, or in any 
 other way, bring about what his father meant him to 
 achieve at the university, or, perhaps, did not mean him 
 to achieve. Of course, all these advantages may be 
 procured in company with a considerable amount of 
 real knowledge and mental training; and though they 
 
THE COLLEGE. 151 
 
 are exceedingly valuable, they could be gotten by 
 virtue of any aggregation of young men, and are not 
 any part of the academical theory.. It is worth while 
 tO' mention this, because many of those who uphold the 
 details of the university and collegiate system, assign 
 these results to academical influences. 
 
 The reader, therefore, will be prepared for the con- 
 clusion at which' I arrive from the facts of the present 
 academical system, that as long as this prevails — and 
 indeed after its alteration, in case there be no intention 
 on the part of the undergraduate to compete for any 
 academical honours which are worth having: — that he 
 should attempt his degree at lie earliest possible period, 
 and pass, or attempt to pass, evCTy esamination, as soon 
 as the university allows him. 
 
 The earliest period at which an undergraduiate can 
 attempt his responsiona or little go is liis second term, 
 that is,^he can, if there be, as there ordinarily will be^ an 
 examination for this certificate of proficiency, appear for 
 it in the first term of his residence. Then,.in his seventh 
 term, he can profier himself fJaz the " first public exaani- 
 nation," known, as moderations ; and in his twelfth^ for 
 his final examination. In plain; English, he can get his 
 degree, and ought to get it,iin two years and a half,, or 
 three years at the outsidei Ibom. the date of his matricu- 
 lation.. He should not, however, be- sent to Oxford 
 until he. is fully able to pass his responsions ; and- his 
 education has been a fraudy or a, nallity, if he is not 
 competent for this. If parents would only insist on 
 their sons presenting themselves for these examinations^ 
 in case they do not desire and expect that honouxs 
 should be attempted, they would be fulfilling, far more 
 fully than they imagine, their duty towards Aeir chil- 
 dren; they would strengthen the authority of the 
 
152 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 university, they would save a vast amount of money, 
 and obviate a vast amount of idleness, folly, and vice. 
 
 On the other hand, considerable latitude as to time 
 should be accorded to those parties who desire to dis- 
 tinguish themselves in the class schools. No one, I 
 repeat, can advise them what to read, beyond what the 
 practice of the university commends, experience of 
 the schools sanctions, and their own capacity qualifies. 
 More time must be given, and more money must be 
 spent. And no wonder; the> prize is great. The 
 training is, if wholesome, invaluable. The material 
 value of a good class is not in process of depreciation, 
 but inevitably in the ascendant. The moral value of a 
 habit of study, and the steady contemplation of a remote 
 object of acknowledged worth, is greater still. It 
 would be well if parents not only recommended, but 
 insisted on, [the trial being made. There is no one 
 who, handled judiciously, and who follows the course 
 designed for him, and approved by his own experience, 
 who would not be bettered in the process. If there be 
 any persons who would not, and could not, be improved 
 by steady and systematic study, the university is, I con- 
 ceive, no fitting place for them, and they, I am sure, are 
 neither ornament or profit to the university. I can 
 safely say that I have seen, both in my experience as a 
 teacher and as an examiner, hundreds of young men to 
 whom the university and its teachings would have been 
 the means of great knowledge and sound method, but 
 who have lost those opportunities, for lack, I iniagine, 
 of discreet firmness on the part of their parents, and 
 rational advice on that of their academical guardians. 
 
 ExPENDiTUKE. — ^Ncxt to the question of the ultimate 
 utility of an academical education, and before it with a 
 
THE COLLEGE. 153 
 
 very large class of persons who mightj a priori, be anxious 
 to avail themselves on behalf of their children of the ad- 
 vantages, moral, social, intellectual, and material, which 
 three or four years' study at Oxford would afford, that of 
 the necessary expenditure holds its place. On this point 
 there is a very general and a very well-founded alarm. 
 It is ordinarily understood to be enormous. Each year 
 of academical life is known — and the academical year is 
 only twenty-four weeks — to cost half as much as, very 
 often, the whqle family of the undergraduate is main- 
 tained at. Many a clergyman, with an income of four 
 hundred a year, or thereabouts, wishing that one of his 
 sons, at least, should have the same education, and per- 
 haps follow the same profession, as his father, begins to 
 save, and pinch his family, from the very boyhood of 
 the son, in order that he may accumulate enough for a 
 liberal education at Oxford. England is cram ftdl of 
 daily histories, more touching in the voluntary privations 
 of fathers, and mothers, and daughters, for the sake of 
 one who is to inherit his father's position, than the most 
 pathetic passages of novels. Derived from these priva- 
 tions, out of the wanton forgetfuhiess of the son, and the 
 uncomplaining patience of his family, out of the misery 
 of evil example, and the facility and width of its con- 
 tagion, incidents have occurred of a far more tragic 
 cast than the world knows, and perhaps would care to 
 know, since the tragic sense is strongly infected with 
 flunkeyism. If folks could tell where to gather it from, 
 and how to get at the facts, they might be overwhelmed 
 with materials for those sentimental sorrows which well- 
 off people enjoy, and philanthropic novelists profit by. 
 
 Many people who, knowing that there are facilities 
 for ruin or vicarious suffering, as the case may be, in 
 the discipline of Oxford, which no other place of educa- 
 
154 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 tion can ky claim to, either ignorantly or carelessly 
 defend' its domestic institutions, and point to individual 
 cases in wliich tkere tave' been great results with, great 
 economy of means, and a just appreciation of an under- 
 graduate's duties and opportunities. As well quote tie 
 occasional success of wild, speculation, in the forgetful- 
 ness of the larger amount of mischief and loss. The 
 dfifemje is the gambler's reason. It does not meet the real 
 chargOi that there are more young men. of fair hopesj and 
 more than average powers, at the university of Oxford^ 
 who do not succeed at all, or whose success is dispropoi;^- 
 tionately small,, than in any other institution where per- 
 sons are gathered together for the purposes of education. 
 
 The academical year is ordinarily twenty- four weeksi.- 
 That iS'tO' say, no undergraduate need reside longer than 
 this period in eadh of the three years which make up the 
 amount of time required by the university for his 
 degree ;, and,, indeed, must get permission — a. permission^ 
 seldom granted except in Easter — ^to reside in Oxford; 
 during vacations. That is, the whole period required by 
 the Oxford statutes is seventy-two weeks at the most. 
 By peculiar management it may be limited to sixly-four 
 weeks. 
 
 It can rarely happen that the annual expenditure of 
 an undergraduate's residence is less than 200L. I have 
 inquired over and over again, and; with invariably the 
 same answer. I dcnot mean, to say that there have not 
 been cases in which this amount ha& proved to be much, 
 above what has been expended ; but for one case of an. 
 economy below the limit, there are twenty or more 
 above it. There are found, it is true, young men 
 whose conscientiousnessj or self-respect, or indiflFerence 
 to the social habits of the place, or absorption! in study,, 
 and the like, keep withia a. narrow expenditure. But 
 
THE COLLEGE. 155 
 
 the cases are exceptional. The tendency is the other- 
 way. Such economy means that an umdergraduate is 
 above liia fellows in his tastes and character, and no 
 account can be- taken of such moral monsters in a dis- 
 quisition on the ordinary practice of young men. The 
 great magority will go in the same way with' each other ; 
 and it is well if the limit which I have assigned is rigidly 
 kept to. It is at least ample. 
 
 Gut of this annual expenditure, college bills amomit 
 to between 801. and' 100^ These- bills include tuitioa 
 provided by the- college, rent of rooms (unftiTnished, the 
 furniture being purchased and transferred on entering 
 and leaying rooms) ;- kitchen and buttery — ^the former 
 of these two providing dinner, the latter commons and 
 beer. The college does^ not supply the undergraduate- 
 with tea, coffee, sugar: , Most colleges arrange for the 
 undergraduates' washing and coals> and these items are 
 included in the bill. Beaides these, a fixed sum is paid 
 for- servante, besides a variable gratuity, left to the dis- 
 cretion of the undergraduate. This division of servants* 
 payments is- a wise regulation, as the supply may be 
 stopped in case the servants neglect their duties. The> 
 servants paid vol>untarily by the undergraduate are 
 the scout, porter, bedmaker, messenger, and' shoe- 
 cleaner,, and the amounts paid to each vary from 1?. to 
 2s. 6d. a term, more or less-, according to the custom o£ 
 th'e college. These items will make the expenditure up 
 to lOOL or 1201. a year. 
 
 For the remainder, it goes to clothes, tra-velling, wine, 
 pictures, horses, or whatever other articles the under- 
 graduate needs or fancies, amd it is in these that expen- 
 diture is exteasragaaA. or ecomonidcal.. Of coursej. they 
 who receive much company in their rooms raise the 
 college biU to a larger amount than what I have de- 
 
156 EDUCATION IN OXFOKD. 
 
 noted ; but, in the ordinary course of things, note is 
 taken of lavish college expenditure, and a limit put 
 upon it by the domestic authorities. The check is not 
 so stringent as might be, for it is, of course, necessary 
 for this supervision that the college tutor should be 
 vigilant and active, and that the relations of those 
 tindergraduates whose expenditure ought to be care- 
 fully checked should communicate their wishes to the 
 authorities of the college. Parents are ordinarily far 
 more to be blamed for the extravagance of their sons 
 in the university than they are aware of, or would be 
 willing to admit. 
 
 The great cause of this large expenditure, on the 
 part of the average number of undergraduates, is the 
 same as that of the extravagant and ruinous prodigality 
 of others — the force, namely, of example ; and the un- 
 likelihood of any one young man being better — or, 
 indeed, much worse — than the conduct of the general 
 body of young men. Shut up within the walls of one 
 building, with very little virtual superintendence of 
 their conduct, and scarce any of their expenditure, the 
 limits to extravagance and foolish waste are found only 
 in the taste of the majority. Too old for the coarse 
 authority of a pedagogue, and too young for the dis- 
 cretion of their own time and means, the facility for 
 gding wrong is not so surprising as the fact of so many 
 doing well. Oxford is shut to the nation, and the most 
 powerful means for producing the large influences of 
 liberal education over an extended, and increasingly 
 extended, area are sacrificed, as has been already said, 
 to the monopoly of the colleges, who boast of their 
 domestic institutions with little evidence and less reason 
 in their favour. 
 
 It is not difficult to discover what direction under- 
 
THE COLLEGE. 157 
 
 graduate extravagance takes, if one is at the pains to 
 cast one's eye over an Oxford directory, or trades' list, 
 and get a knowledge of the multitudinous hangers-on 
 to the colleges. There is a very considerable floating 
 population in Oxford, which has what is technically 
 called no occupation, but which is really engaged in 
 ministering to the boating, cricketing, and horse-riding 
 pastimes of the place. Some portion of this- population 
 might naturally be expected in every place where there 
 are masses of young men aggregated, and the world 
 could not go on without tailors and hosiers. But the 
 amount of such parties is a marked and suggestive 
 feature in the economical history of Oxford. At first 
 sight, it would appear that the object of the university 
 was the enjoyment of social pleasures and athletic 
 amusements. 
 
 That parents contribute largely to the follies of their 
 own children during the time of their undergraduate 
 career, even when they deprecate the foUies themselves, 
 woiild be a matter of which they, on their own part, 
 would be conscious, if they cared to investigate the general 
 details of necessary expenditure and voluntary expense. 
 But it is the misfortune or the fault of most parents 
 that they think tjieir duty is fulfilled, if they simply 
 accept the status quo nunc of academical institutions, 
 and determine whether, on its ordinary conditions, and 
 with its ulterior advantages, they think it desirable to 
 incur the estimated outlay on an academical education. 
 They omit two important acts of common prudence, 
 which together would do more to expand to the fuUest, 
 and afterwards to force another kind of expansion of 
 the university, when its present resources for the ac- 
 commodation of undergraduates is overpast. These are : 
 putting themselves en rapport, so to speak, with the 
 
158 EDTJCATION IN OXPOED. 
 
 neeessary expenditure of the place ; and the other is, 
 after having defined the limit of expenditure which they 
 can afford, employing supervision of a qualified land, 
 either from a college, or, better, if it could he from a 
 private tutor. 
 
 Until, then, parents commend themselves to the con- 
 sideration of what goes on in the university to which 
 they send their sons, or would like to send them, there is 
 little hope of any great diminution of ordinary, and little 
 more hope of a prevention to extraordinary expenditure. 
 There is no reason to believe, judging by the obvious 
 moral eflfects of a monopoly, and a sufficient supply from 
 a permanent demand — such as that of the general requi- 
 site on the part of bishops of graduation at a university 
 — :that the colleges will reform themselves in the par- 
 ticular of expense. There is no human motive why 
 they should; and, as has been elsewhere stated, one 
 cannot rely on the exceptional and rare occurrence of 
 active, self-denying superintendence, when the superin- 
 tendence is voluntary. It is idle to expect anything 
 from human nature, unless it be roused by stimulants 
 and checked by safeguards. Neither of these are to be 
 discovered in the decorous uniformity of college life and 
 college authority. 
 
 But the negligence of parents is not the sole cause 
 of this large expenditure and occasional extravagance. 
 There are certain relations in which a particular class 
 of trade stands in Oxford to the undergraduates, which 
 contribute very powerfully towards these evils. This 
 trade is that which unites, naturally enough, high prices 
 with extraordinaiy facilities of credit, and which is espe- 
 cially directed towards supplying those who ought not 
 to have the latter, and ought not to afford the former. 
 
 The credit system in Oxford, though less characteristic . 
 
THE COEItEfiE. 159 
 
 than it tisfid to be, is still a marked feature in academical 
 lifia. Every undergraduate can get aity amount of 
 .goods he likes — ^within conceivable limits — from any 
 number of tradesmen. I presume ;that, in the long run, 
 such business is lucrative and safes, but it must be at 
 very considerable sacrifices to the purchaser. At any 
 rate, Oxford credit has been known over and over again 
 to be, in after life, a mill-atone round the neok of those 
 ■who have spent a ahort^time in ;the university. I hav« 
 known persons of forty or fii'ty years 'old wko have not 
 yet escaped from its consequences. In fact, many 
 tradesmen habitually suggest that amounts need not be 
 settled till after the degree is taken, and the 'Bxistmg 
 privileges of the University Coturt are a great protection 
 to -their kind of business. 
 
 By a statute of the university, no one can be presented 
 to -his degree, pendente lite. Hence it is in the power of 
 any creditor to enter an action against his debtor, at any 
 time, even immediately before his graduation, and so 
 expose him to the disgrace and scandal of having his 
 degree refused in open Convocation. Of course, this 
 privilege is rarely taken, the practice of trade in Oxford 
 not being to disturb a connection with a particulaar 
 college or eoUegea, by pressing the settlement of claims 
 in so summary a manner. But the indirect influence of 
 the regulation is large, and payments of account, with 
 virtual or actual acknowledgments of the whole debt, 
 are the natural consequences of the statute. 
 
 It sometimes happens, however, that tradesmen bring 
 actions in the University Court. This court, elsewhere 
 described, is, a^n'on, the very worst vehicle for theidis- 
 charge of justice between suitors. Its business is neces- 
 sarily small, its fees must be large, and its judgments 
 may be partial. So evil was its reputation, that while 
 
160 EDUCATION IN OXPORD. 
 
 the jurisdiction which it possesses was by a clause in the 
 University Act of 1854 retained, it was enacted that it 
 should be assimilated to the county courts in procedure, 
 and that the judges should frame a body of regulations 
 for its guidance. Neither assimilation nor regulations 
 have, as far as I have heard, been forthcoming. 
 
 It must inevitably be the case where a judge being 
 resident on the spot is one of a body which is in a normal 
 state of antagonism to another corporation, and is there- 
 fore disposed to concede in what does not immediately 
 concern that portion of his own body which is brought 
 into collision with the other corporation, that there is a 
 very definite tendency towards conciliation, even to 
 the verge of unfairness in his judicial procedure. 
 There is quite enough to dispute about, between the 
 authorities of the university and city, without importing 
 into these disputes the wretched squabbles between 
 undergraduates and tradesmen. Besides, a privilege, 
 such as a peculiar court, is odious; and, in order to 
 retain even a shadow of popularity, it must make a 
 sacrifice of interests. When those interests are other 
 people's, the surrender is easy; but the justice of the 
 procedure may be sadly marred. 
 
 The most ludicrous stories are told of the judgments 
 of bygone assessors in the Vice-Chancellor's Court. I 
 have heard of one who ruled against two receipts 
 pleaded in bar of an action for debt, that it was more 
 likely that the undergraduate should have forgotten to 
 send the money than that the tradesman should have 
 given false evidence. I have heard of one who 
 habitually decided according to the fact of a particular 
 proctor, i.e. an advocate, being retained, and who gave 
 private interviews to plaintiifs. And as for the rules of 
 the civil code having been the basis of ordinary judg- 
 
THE COLLEGE. 161 
 
 ments, I imagine that the assessor did not, very pro- 
 bably, know the names of the treatises comprising 
 those codes, and certainly not their contents. The 
 Vice-Chancellor's Court is a remnant of barbaric 
 feudalism, tempered by a mild disinclination to offend 
 plaintiffs. 
 
 I do not pretend to discuss the vexed question of how 
 far it would be well that short periods should constitute 
 legal limitations, but I am sure that the best moral 
 arguments which could be alleged, and maybe the best 
 economical ones also, might be gathered from the facts 
 of those actions which are brought on the part of those 
 tradesmen whose dealings are ordinarily with young 
 men, and more particularly with young men at the 
 imiversity. And this more especially from the circum- 
 stance that when cases of this kind are decided by juries, 
 in suits brought against the guardians of infants, there 
 is so marvellous an elasticity in the interpretation of 
 the phrase " necessaries," that one is disposed to doubt 
 whether juries should be trusted with more than the fact 
 of the contract, but that the meaniiig of the word 
 should be left to the discretion of the judge. 
 
 Many remedies have been suggested for the preven- 
 tion of the credit system, of which the best seems to be 
 that which makes Oxford debts subject to the equitable 
 judgment of a magistrate appointed for that purpose, 
 and without appeal except to the Court of Queen's 
 Bench. And this form of equitable jurisprudence is 
 the more rational in a place like Oxford, where very 
 many transactions bear so questionable an aspect as to 
 suggest that the ordinary process of trade has been 
 made a stalkiag-^horse for the practice of money-lending 
 at exorbitant rates. I am well aware, from cases that 
 have come to my own knowledge, that such transac- 
 
 11 
 
162 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 tions have been effected under the colour of legitimate 
 trade. 
 
 Whatever, then, may be the causes which lead to 
 the large expenditure necessary for an academical 
 degree, the fact remains the same. It may be the case 
 that some persons are willing to make that degree the 
 measure of a certain age, in which the business of life 
 is protracted ; and of a certain cost ; and to argue that 
 the value of the degree is to be estimated by the time 
 it takes to achieve it, and the money payments neces- 
 sary to procure it. But, in effect, a conventional value 
 founded on so artificial a rule is at best temporary, and 
 will inevitably be superseded sooner or later by some 
 other means or by an external reformation. It is im- 
 possible that the credit of the highest English educa- 
 tion should be made to rest on the facts that it is com- 
 pleted at twenty-three years of age, and at the charge 
 of 1,0007., or thereabouts. Many, very many, will 
 decKne to compete for it on these terms, and they who 
 wish for it will, by the creation of other institutions, or 
 by the force of a public estimate of the product, be 
 disposed to seek similar advantages elsewhere, at a less 
 overwhelming cost. At the same time, even under the 
 present circumstances, the I'eader will, it is to be hoped, 
 find, as he goes on with this work, that there are mate- 
 rial advantages still connected with the university 
 education of no inconsiderable amount. 
 
 At present let us consider the effect of this large 
 expenditure on those who do come to the university, 
 and the indirect hardship inflicted on those who do not. 
 There are two evils which result from the conscious- 
 ness that the members of the university are limited by 
 dearness and monopoly. These are laziness and one- 
 sidedness. Not only is it true, where exclusiveness is 
 
THE COLLEGE. 163 
 
 the rule of those who profit by any calling, that the 
 numbers of those who are customers of that calling 
 are narrowed to an extent which would not have 
 naturally been contemplated, but they who enter into- 
 the field are, by the same cause, indisposed to exert 
 themselves. There are many young men in Oxford 
 who want the stimulus -of competing numbers. Sup- 
 pose it were possible that persons could be examined 
 in the Oxford schools who had not been submitted to 
 the parental despotism of college life, and that such 
 persons bore away the prizes of academical distinction.' 
 The obvious effect of such competing agencies would 
 be the activity of those who are being deprived of their 
 reputation by the energies of other teaching and other 
 methods. 
 
 Again, with all its equality, the tendency of under- 
 graduate collegiate life is to onesidedness. That men 
 leave the university with but a scanty comprehension' 
 of the varying conditions about them, and with narrow 
 stereotyped views, is so general an impression that it 
 cannot be false. The views of such men are, to use a 
 cant phrase, shoppy. They cannot ordinarily escape 
 the clumsiness engendered by a single aspect of human 
 action and human motives. They make a world of" 
 their own, ■ which is habitually eclipsed by larger 
 worlds. And nowhere is this felt so painftdly as in 
 that profession which the university prepares so largely , 
 for. The energies and self-denial of parochial clergy- 
 men are beyond praise, while their tact and judgment 
 are too often below contempt, and their practice, even I 
 in the most familiar parts of their duty, and the most 
 ordinary details of social life, exposes them in the worst 
 manner to the alternations of fraud and suspicion. Nor- 
 is it wonderful when one reflects on that utter lack of 
 
 11—2 
 
164 EDUCATION IN OXFOED. 
 
 anything like a dialectical education, and familiarity 
 with the realities of modern society which is discernible 
 so openly and so perpetually in the course of an acade- 
 mical curriculum. Some one has spoken of this igno- 
 rance of the details of social life, and the relations of 
 the clergyman with his people, under the name of the 
 " gentlemanly heresy." This tact, which should have 
 come elsewhere, must subsequently be picked up by 
 experiepce and inconvenience, if it is gotten at all, since 
 the fruits of what might have been once learned in 
 Oxford, are often gone for ever by being missed at the 
 proper time. 
 
 Still more formidable, however, is the effect on those 
 who do not come to the university. Of these, numbers 
 are, no doubt, prevented by the expense attending an 
 academical curriculum. Yet nothing is more alien to 
 the genius of the university than such a hindrance. 
 Whatever developments there may have been made in 
 the doctrine that the raising oneself from the lowest 
 social position to the highest is the best right of liberty 
 and civilization, this power, or privilege, or right, or 
 whatever else it may be called, is the most ancient 
 characteristic of the university of Oxford. It was 
 emphatically the means whereby poverty was able, out 
 of the diligent attendance to letters, to raise itself, iper 
 saltmn, to the most reputable social state. And such a 
 privilege has only been broken in upon since the com- 
 mencement of the present century, though it has gone 
 on decreasing till the general body of those who in old 
 times mounted to eminence by their academical labours 
 have been excluded from the university, in pursuance 
 of the worst and most artificial condition, the very 
 poverty which it was the first object of the collegiate 
 foundations to reheve and sustain. It is a hardship 
 
THE COLLEGE. 165 
 
 not the less real because so long ignored, and a hard- 
 ship of the highest order, that men are deterred on 
 pecuniary grounds from attempting that which their 
 intelligence and their industry give them abundant war- 
 ranty to hope. This right of poor men to come to 
 Oxford is very different from the right which has often 
 been claimed for them, and, in my opinion, under the 
 present Act, wisely resisted, that, namely, of poverty 
 being a claim to college emoluments. It is doubtful 
 whether such a privilege, that is, the privilege based on 
 mere poverty, is equitable, and it is perfectly certain that 
 the interpretation of the privilege would be nothing but 
 an endless job, as it was before the negation of the pre- 
 vious system was imported into the Act. 
 
 It is, as might be expected, disastrous to the univer- 
 sity. As has been already said, in the face of a vast 
 increase of material wealth and of population, the num- 
 bers at the university have not only been stationary for 
 the last twenty years, but have actually, in some degree, 
 retrograded. The institutions of the place are beginning 
 to feel the effect of putting impediments in the way of 
 great abilities with insufficient means, by the great decline 
 in popular estimation which Oxford has experienced. 
 
 But it is even more disastrous to the nation. Out 
 of those who have been enabled^ through the medium 
 of the university, to set a mark upon their ability, in- 
 telligence, and industry, and thereupon to approach the 
 larger duties of a higher, and reasonably higher, station, 
 England, in old times, gathered her jurists, her states- 
 men, her churchmen. It must be supppsed that the 
 education given is the best of it's kind, and the distri- 
 bution of academical distinctions equitable and appre- 
 ciable. But when the field of choice is progressively 
 narrowed, other sources supply the deficiency, thoughj it 
 
166 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 may be, in an inferior degree. It is inevitable that they 
 should. Yet the means by which proficiency should be 
 tested, when it is not tested by a demonstration of actual 
 knowledge at some one great time, bat by an estimate 
 of a series of facts spread oyer a large space of time, are 
 rare, capricious, uncertain. We do not educate the best 
 of God's gifts, natural quickness and conscientious in- 
 dustry, in what we confidently assert is the best way, 
 because we have walled round the domains of know- 
 ledge by a cordon of narrow fortresses, and provided 
 that no one should enter, except he be possessed of a 
 golden key. 
 
 The Compaeatite Meeits of dipfeeent Colleges. — 
 One of the commonest questions people ask is — " To 
 what college shall I send my son?" — and it is a ques- 
 tion to which it is far from easy to give an answer. 
 Indeed, the determination of the question must be due 
 in general to accident or prejudice. People, who have 
 themselves been at a particular college, have ordinarily 
 esprit de corps enough to advise their own, when the 
 querist has no means of arriving at a conclusion for 
 himself. Again, colleges have local and particular 
 connections. For instance, Exeter has a large west 
 country connection, and a very considerable clerical 
 one. Balliol and University are strongly occupied by 
 a Scotch and north of England connection. Jesus is 
 almost entirely Welch. Trinity is powerfully Wyke- 
 hamist. Queen's was, and, maybe, is, eminently limited 
 to Cumberland, Northumberland, and Westmoreland. 
 Brasenose is a good deal beholden to Manchester and 
 its neighbourhood. And so, in their degree, with the 
 rest. This peculiarity is due, as a rule, to the fact that 
 the foundation of the college in question was limited to 
 
THE COLLEGE. 167 
 
 some particular district ; and though, generally speak- 
 ing, these esEceptional preferences are abolished, yet the 
 effect of the abolition is not remote enough to be re- 
 cognized. Besides, the alterations which affected the 
 foundation members were not extended to those unin- 
 corporated benefactions which are known by the name 
 of exhibitions. For instance, some of the best Balliol 
 men are the exhibitioners from Glasgow University. 
 These exhibitions, were founded by Snell and Warner, 
 with a view to promote episcopacy in Scotland, at some 
 period before the Eerolation of 1688. I am not aware 
 whether they have subserved that purpose, or whether 
 the rigour of the Presbyterian discipline has been con- 
 tented by the acceptance of valuable eleemosynary aid, 
 and has received the endowment, while ignoring its pro- 
 visions. But whether' or no, it is certain that the most 
 promising students in the University of Glasgow are 
 annually drafted off to Balliol, to the great advantage of 
 that college in particular, and the university in general. 
 Such an election tends powerfully to produce and main- 
 tain the reputation of a college, and, similarly, hmitations 
 of exhibitions, in favour of particular colleges, though 
 the academical distinctions of their occupants may often 
 be anything but large, have a very marked effect in 
 maintaining the numbers of the college to which they 
 are attached. 
 
 Of course, it is not difficult for any person to answer 
 the question of the comparative merits of different col- 
 leges in certain special cases, and in certain obvious 
 phenomena. Balliol, judged by the standard of the 
 class lists and mufversity prizes, is a far better college 
 than Christ Church or Brasenose, or, indeed, any other 
 in Oxford. So with others in an inferior degree. 
 
 I have added to this chapter certain tables of a 
 
168 EDUCATION IN OXPOED. 
 
 statistical character, which, as others of the same kind, 
 must be accepted with certain limitations and explana- 
 tions. In truth, one cannot observe with too much 
 frequency that the estimate of any product, which is 
 based on statistical returns, is liable to a fallacy, derived 
 from the fact that the product is a quantity, in the 
 analysis of which all the forces are seldom discriminated 
 and reckoned. Thus the accompanying tables will 
 point to an extraordinary number of first-class men in 
 BaUiol. No doubt Balliol is the most distinguished 
 college, and not only is it far beyond all others during 
 the last twenty years, but is far beyond any parallel of 
 any other college at any other period. But this pro- 
 duct is, at least, as much due to , the excellence of the 
 material entered at BalUol, as to the subsequent training 
 in that institution. Young men do not come to Oxford 
 in a state of ignorance. They have been prepared with 
 more or less exactness, care, and success for a long 
 period of years, and it needs no proof that similar 
 abilities, tasks, and acquirements are apt, all other influ- 
 ences being equal, to gravitate to the same centre of 
 activity. I do not, of course, mention this to the dis- 
 paragement of the college, which must command the 
 respect and good will of all who are anxious for tlie 
 preservation and increase of learning in Oxford, but 
 because, in common fairness, one is boimd to state what 
 hindrance there may be to an absolute inference from 
 tabular statements. 
 
 The tables annexed contain, then: — 1st. The number 
 of undergraduates at each college and hall during the 
 last twenty years. 2nd. Quinquennial statements of 
 the number of first-class men obtained in each college 
 and hall, in classics and mathematics, during the last 
 twenty years. 3rd. Similar returns for a similar period 
 
THE COLLEGE, 169 
 
 in university prizes. 4iih. Number of matriculations 
 and admissions in each college and hall during the last 
 twenty years, distinguishing scholars from commoners. 
 5 th. Number of rooms available for undergraduates in 
 each college or hall. 
 
 Now, though these tables will not entirely explain 
 why it is that certain colleges are far ahead of others 
 in all the distinctions which the university affords, yet 
 they do show some very important particulars, and 
 point to the remarkable incongruity between the num- 
 bers on the books of several colleges and the number 
 of honours acquired by those who have matriculated 
 at this or that institution. And it must be added, that 
 a further research into the migrations from Balliol to 
 other colleges, by such persons as, having been matricu- 
 lated at the former college, subsequently procure a 
 footing on the foundation of other societies, would have 
 added considerably to the list of those persons who have 
 been distinguished at this society. But the discovery 
 , of such names would have been very difficult, and the 
 result would have been of little practical value. 
 
 I shall take for granted, then, that the reader will be 
 enabled to draw his own inferences from the tables 
 which I have presented to him, and to conclude, as far 
 as such tables can be the basis of inference, about the 
 present and past position of the several institutions. It 
 will be seen, of course, that the whole of this tabular 
 exposition is founded on the presumption that the pro- 
 duct of the class schools, and of university prizes, is 
 the most obvious test of the nature and character of 
 each particular college. , 
 
170 
 
 EDUCATION IS OXFOBD. 
 
 TABLE I. _ - - - 
 
 ISTtiMBBK q/"CrNDEEGBADc:ATBS in each College and Hall during 
 
 
 1841. 
 
 1842. 
 
 1843. 
 
 1844. 
 
 1845. 
 
 1846. 
 
 1847. 
 
 1848. 
 
 1849. 
 
 1850. 
 
 COELEGnS: — 
 
 TTniver^tv 
 
 51 
 80 
 40 
 
 135 
 80 
 81 
 22 
 43 
 4 
 15 
 
 101 
 18 
 
 182 
 85 
 59 
 48 
 86 
 42 
 87 
 
 30 
 85 
 31 
 15 
 26 
 
 62 
 77 
 43 
 
 124 
 79 
 93 
 18 
 52 
 4 
 14 
 
 114 
 17 
 
 189 
 92 
 68 
 44 
 85 
 48 
 90 
 
 28 
 
 102 
 
 24 
 
 9 
 
 25 
 
 64 
 83 
 41 
 
 126 
 81 
 75 
 17 
 57 
 4 
 18 
 
 120 
 19 
 
 204 
 84 
 71 
 44 
 80 
 49 
 95 
 
 33 
 
 88 
 
 28 
 
 7 
 
 22 
 
 65 
 82 
 38 
 
 107 
 73 
 67 
 15 
 59 
 4 
 17 
 
 102 
 17 
 
 196 
 77 
 66 
 42 
 73 
 45 
 
 101 
 
 32 
 79 
 27 
 7 
 23 
 
 68 
 85 
 37 
 
 118 
 72 
 71 
 13 
 54 
 5 
 16 
 91 
 17 
 
 192 
 64 
 70 
 43 
 77 
 50 
 94 
 
 30 
 104 
 28 
 10 
 33 
 
 60 
 
 82 
 
 36 
 129 
 
 77 
 
 73 
 
 20 
 
 54 
 6 
 
 17 
 
 93 
 
 19 _ 
 187 
 
 67 
 
 63 
 
 47 
 
 83 
 
 63 
 
 98 
 
 31 
 96 
 32 
 10 
 
 34 
 
 64 
 80 
 40 
 
 136 
 76 
 61 
 20 
 48' 
 4 
 23 
 92 
 20 
 
 195 
 73 
 70 
 50 
 92 
 69 
 96 
 
 31 
 
 81 
 
 22 
 
 8 
 
 32 
 
 65 
 86 
 36 
 
 135 
 80 
 73 
 18 
 57 
 4 
 23 
 
 104 
 21 
 
 191 
 80 
 67 
 56 
 86 
 71 
 
 102 
 
 33 
 
 86 
 
 27 
 
 8 
 
 32 
 
 62 
 88 
 36 
 
 120 
 74 
 73 
 20 
 56 
 4 
 20 
 97 
 23 
 
 193 
 75 
 67 
 52 
 81 
 78 
 
 107 
 
 33 
 97 
 19 
 9 
 33 
 
 74 
 
 TiallM 
 
 91 
 
 40 
 
 
 l.SO 
 
 Oriel 
 
 81 
 
 
 80 
 
 l^ew 
 
 19 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 AU Souls 
 
 52 
 
 4 
 
 Magdalene 
 
 Srasenose ......... 
 
 17 
 
 qn 
 
 'Corpus 
 
 20 
 
 Christ Church ... 
 Trinity 
 
 178 
 
 7fi 
 
 St. John's 
 
 63 
 
 Jesus 
 
 W^adhaoi 
 
 51 
 
 80 
 
 Pembroke 
 
 Worcester ...■. 
 
 82 
 114 
 
 Halls : — 
 St. Mary 
 
 41 
 
 
 101 
 
 New Inn 
 
 20 
 
 St Alban 
 
 6 
 
 St. Edmund 
 
 Litton's 
 
 32 
 
THE COLLEGE. 
 
 171 
 
 TABLE I. 
 the last Twenty Yean. Taken from, the IJnitbbsiit Calehiub. 
 
 Colleges: — 
 
 University 
 
 Balliol 
 
 Merton 
 
 Exeter.. 
 
 Oriel 
 
 Queen's 
 
 New.... 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 All Souls 
 
 Magdalene 
 
 Brasenose 
 
 Corpus 
 
 Christ Church 
 
 Trinity 
 
 St. John's 
 
 Jesus 
 
 Wadham 
 
 Femhroke 
 
 Worcester 
 
 Halls: — 
 
 St. Mary 
 
 Magdalene 
 
 Kevrinn 
 
 St. Alban 
 
 St. Edmund ... 
 Litton's 
 
 69 
 92 
 43 
 
 133 
 87 
 82 
 23 
 55 
 3 
 17 
 74 
 19 
 
 187 
 69 
 62 
 51 
 83 
 72 
 85 
 
 54 
 
 UL06 
 
 21 
 
 7 
 
 24 
 
 65 
 82 
 43 
 
 137 
 82 
 64 
 28 
 53 
 4 
 20 
 77 
 17 
 
 168 
 73 
 71 
 47 
 81 
 7-4 
 99 
 
 53 
 
 102 
 
 11 
 
 7 
 
 17 
 
 61 
 83 
 43 
 
 142 
 77 
 58 
 34 
 51 
 4 
 17 
 72 
 25 
 
 184 
 60 
 62 
 44 
 79 
 77 
 98 
 
 7U 
 81 
 48 
 
 137 
 86 
 48 
 29 
 45 
 4 
 28 
 86 
 29 
 
 188 
 66 
 61 
 48 
 76 
 75 
 
 106 
 
 65 
 84 
 46 
 
 126 
 78 
 54 
 23 
 51 
 4 
 32 
 90 
 30 
 
 192 
 70 
 68 
 46 
 83 
 79 
 
 115 
 
 32 
 
 92 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 77 
 90 
 43 
 
 126 
 77 
 49 
 23 
 42 
 4 
 35 
 81 
 33 
 
 202 
 64 
 63 
 47 
 86 
 78 
 
 106 
 
 21 
 
 93 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 16 
 
 3 
 
 185Y. 1868. 
 
 71 
 87 
 44 
 
 137 
 74 
 53 
 26 
 41 
 4 
 30 
 83 
 41 
 
 216 
 66 
 72 
 45 
 82 
 71 
 89 
 
 18 
 92 
 11 
 
 9 
 17 
 
 4 
 
 69 
 98 
 39 
 
 145 
 74 
 56 
 26 
 37 
 4 
 42 
 90 
 41 
 
 211 
 77 
 63 
 42 
 83 
 59 
 83 
 
 12 
 90 
 
 6 
 10 
 23 
 
 6 
 
 13li9. 
 
 73 
 106 
 
 45 
 162 
 
 85 
 
 47 
 
 26 
 
 41 
 4 
 
 38 
 
 84 
 
 47 
 214 
 
 83 
 
 56 
 
 41 
 
 85 
 
 63 
 
 75 
 
 16 
 85 
 
 5 
 10 
 22 
 
 7 
 
 1860. 
 
 72 
 101 
 
 45 
 171 
 
 87 
 
 63 
 
 34 
 
 40 
 4 
 
 55 
 
 99 
 
 47 
 2U 
 
 81 
 
 49 
 
 44 
 
 72 
 
 66 
 
 68 
 
 18 
 
 73 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
172 
 
 EDUCATION IN OXFOED. 
 
 TABLE II. 
 
 Quinquennial Statements of the Numeee o/FibBt Clabsmen obtained 
 by eocA College and Hall /or the last Twenty Years, and general 
 Total o/Fikbt Classmen in Mathematics /or the same Period. 
 
 CoLLEaES: — 
 University .... 
 
 Balliol 
 
 Merton 
 
 Exeter 
 
 Oriel 
 
 Queen's 
 
 New 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 All Souls 
 
 Magdalene .... 
 
 Brasenose 
 
 Corpus 
 
 Christ Cliureh . 
 
 Trinity 
 
 St John's 
 
 Jesus 
 
 Wadham 
 
 Pembroke 
 
 Worcester 
 
 HALLS'! — 
 
 St. Mary 
 
 Magdalene .... 
 
 New Inn 
 
 St. Alban 
 
 St. Edmund.... 
 
 Total.... 
 
 4S 
 
 1845-49. 1850-54 
 
 5 
 14 
 
 1 
 1 
 2 
 
 54 
 
 5 
 18 
 
 71 
 
 Total, 
 1855-69. 20 years, 
 
 8 
 21 
 1 
 1 
 I 
 3 
 
 55 
 
 21 
 
 57 
 6 
 8 
 7 
 
 10 
 4 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 11 
 18 
 14 
 11 
 
 1 
 11 
 
 6 
 11 
 
 2 
 6 
 1 
 1 
 
 228 
 
 Matheha- 
 
 TICS. 
 
 1840-59. 
 
 8 
 6 
 10 
 6 
 6 
 6 
 
 1 
 7 
 6 
 8 
 4 
 9 
 2 
 5 
 5 
 3 
 
 I 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 98 
 
THE COLLEGE. 
 
 173 
 
 TABLE III. 
 
 UNiVEBSiir Pkizes* obtained in each College and Hall during the 
 last Twenty Years. 
 
 Colleges:— 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 2 
 8 
 I 
 
 i 
 1 
 1 
 
 u 
 a> 
 
 w 
 1 
 
 8 
 1 
 2 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 o 
 
 00 
 
 i 
 
 S 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 5 
 
 i 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 o 
 
 1-3 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 B 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 'o 
 
 1 
 
 f 
 
 c 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 .s 
 
 3 
 
 i 
 1 
 
 ■3 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 13 
 
 1 
 
 to 
 
 i 
 
 1-^ 
 
 s 
 
 1 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 University. 
 
 Balliol 
 
 Merton ... 
 
 2 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 3 
 3 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 3 
 
 1 
 13 
 
 4 
 4 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 1 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 26 
 
 67 
 
 7 
 
 Exeter 
 
 ... 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 ... 
 
 2 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 2 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 lO 
 
 Oriel 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 ... 
 
 
 10 
 
 Queen's ... 
 New 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 ?n 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 ... 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 
 13 
 
 All Souls... 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Magdaleue. 
 Brasenose . 
 Corpus ... 
 Christ Ch. 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 I 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 1 
 
 3 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 2 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 2 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 11 
 14 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 ... 
 
 13 
 
 Trinity ... 
 St. John's 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 
 
 5 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 ?1 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 Wadham.. 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 14 
 
 Pembroke 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 Worcester . 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 ... 
 
 1 
 
 
 8 
 
 Halls: — 
 St. Mary... 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 ... 
 
 
 9, 
 
 Magdalene 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 St Alhan . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 St "Rflmd 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 ■ 1 
 
 
 
 
 '" 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 > The dates denote the period at irliiclitlie prize was fonnded. 
 
174 
 
 EDUCATION IN OXrORD. 
 
 TABLE IV. - - - - - 
 
 MateicitlationS and Entkies at each CoLiiEGE and Hail, 
 
 
 1840. 
 
 1841. 
 
 1842. 
 
 1843. 
 
 1844. 
 
 1845. 
 
 1846. 
 
 1847. 
 
 1848. 
 
 
 Colleges: — 
 
 s. 
 
 c. 
 
 B. 
 
 c. 
 
 s. 
 
 c. 
 
 s. 
 
 0. 
 
 S. 
 
 c. 
 
 6. 
 
 c. 
 
 s. 
 
 c. 
 
 s. 
 
 C. 
 
 S. 
 
 c. 
 
 
 Uuiversity . 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 20 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 4 
 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 20 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 
 19 
 
 3 
 
 18 
 
 3 
 
 13 
 
 
 BaUioI 
 
 3 
 
 14 
 
 2 
 
 20 
 
 3 
 
 22 
 
 2 
 
 23 
 
 2 
 
 20 
 
 2 
 
 20 
 
 2 
 
 20 
 
 3 
 
 22 
 
 2 
 
 23 
 
 
 Merton 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 ... 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 
 Exeter 
 
 3 
 
 30 
 
 S 
 
 35 
 
 3 
 
 21 
 
 5 
 
 35 
 
 2 
 
 43 
 
 2 
 
 41 
 
 4 
 
 39 
 
 2 
 
 30 
 
 2 
 
 32 
 
 
 Oriel 
 
 1 
 
 18 
 
 
 17 
 
 
 22 
 
 
 21 
 
 
 19 
 
 
 16 
 
 
 21 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 Queen's 
 
 7 
 
 21 
 
 9 
 
 25 
 
 1 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 17 
 
 3 
 
 20 
 
 5 
 
 20 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 32 
 
 4 
 
 20 
 
 
 New 
 
 6 
 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 12 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 11 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 
 All Souls ... 
 
 1 
 
 ... 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 2 
 
 ... 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 ... 
 
 
 ... 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Magdalene . 
 
 4 
 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 
 Brasenose... 
 
 6 
 
 27 
 
 6 
 
 29 
 
 6 
 
 20 
 
 7 
 
 19 
 
 5 
 
 22 
 
 U 
 
 24 
 
 6 
 
 24 
 
 8 
 
 16 
 
 6 
 
 19 
 
 
 Corpus 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 
 Christ Ch.... 
 
 4 
 
 60 
 
 6 
 
 54 
 
 6 
 
 51 
 
 9 
 
 45 
 
 8 
 
 48 
 
 10' 
 
 44 
 
 9 
 
 42 
 
 11 
 
 52 
 
 15 
 
 48 
 
 
 Trinity 
 
 3 
 
 21 
 
 5 
 
 24 
 
 1 
 
 19 
 
 5 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 14 
 
 3 
 
 22 
 
 4 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 18 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 
 
 St. John's... 
 
 1 
 
 13 
 
 5 
 
 21 
 
 5 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 14 
 
 2 
 
 20 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 18 
 
 
 Jesus 
 
 4 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 
 13 
 
 7 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 16 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 
 "Wadham ... 
 
 ... 
 
 24 
 
 2 
 
 18 
 
 1 
 
 20 
 
 2 
 
 20 
 
 3 
 
 18 
 
 
 29 
 
 4 
 
 24 
 
 4 
 
 17 
 
 3 
 
 17 
 
 
 Pembroke... 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 25 
 
 2 
 
 22 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 
 22 
 
 
 Worcester . 
 
 3 
 
 20 
 
 1 
 
 26 
 
 3 
 
 27 
 
 2 
 
 25 
 
 4 
 
 17 
 
 3 
 
 27 
 
 2 
 
 28 
 
 2 
 
 27 
 
 2 
 
 30 
 
 
 TTat.t.r- — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 St. Mary ... 
 
 ... 
 
 16 
 
 
 7 
 
 ... 
 
 13 
 
 
 18 
 
 ... 
 
 9 
 
 ... 
 
 11 
 
 
 16 
 
 
 13 
 
 • •• 
 
 14 
 
 
 Magdalene . 
 
 ... 
 
 20 
 
 
 28 
 
 ... 
 
 25 
 
 
 11 
 
 ... 
 
 25 
 
 
 19 
 
 ... 
 
 16 
 
 
 25 
 
 ... 
 
 30 
 
 
 New Inn ... 
 
 ... 
 
 13 
 
 ... 
 
 8 
 
 ... 
 
 12 
 
 
 8 
 
 ... 
 
 10 
 
 
 15 
 
 ... 
 
 6 
 
 
 8 
 
 • ■• 
 
 6 
 
 
 St. Alban... 
 
 ... 
 
 5 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 ... 
 
 4 
 
 ... 
 
 4 
 
 
 3 
 
 ... 
 
 1 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 St. Edmund 
 
 ... 
 
 6 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 6 
 
 •.■■ 
 
 7 
 
 ... 
 
 12 
 
 
 10 
 
 ... 
 
 5 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 Litton's 
 
 
 ... 
 
 
 -, 
 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 
 ... 
 
 
 ... 
 
 
 
 ... 
 
 
 
 
 ... 
 
 
THE COLLEGE. 
 
 175 
 
 TABLE IV. 
 'stinguishing rouNDATiONBBS (a.) from Commoneks (c.) 
 
 1849. 
 
 1850. 
 
 1851. 
 
 1852. 
 
 1853. 
 
 1854. 
 
 1855. 
 
 1856. 
 
 1857. 
 
 1858. 
 
 1859. 
 
 B. 
 
 0. 
 
 S. 
 
 c. 
 
 8. 
 
 0. 
 
 s. 
 
 c. 
 
 8. 
 
 c. 
 
 8. 
 
 0. 
 
 s. 
 
 c. 
 
 8. 
 
 0. 
 
 8. 
 
 C. 
 
 8. 
 
 0. 
 
 8. 
 
 c. 
 
 5 
 
 20 
 
 1 
 
 19 
 
 2 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 19 
 
 6 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 
 18 
 
 3 
 
 17 
 
 5 
 
 17 
 
 5 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 21 
 
 3 
 
 23 
 
 2 
 
 23 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 26 
 
 2 
 
 14 
 
 2 
 
 19 
 
 3 
 
 23 
 
 2 
 
 19 
 
 2 
 
 24 
 
 3 
 
 27 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 11 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 41 
 
 4 
 
 37 
 
 2 
 
 35 
 
 4 
 
 40 
 
 1 
 
 27 
 
 1 
 
 25 
 
 3 
 
 34 
 
 3 
 
 42 
 
 5 
 
 37 
 
 3 
 
 49 
 
 6 
 
 50 
 
 .. 
 
 20 
 
 ... 
 
 27 
 
 ... 
 
 16 
 
 ... 
 
 14 
 
 4 
 
 22 
 
 2 
 
 17 
 
 2 
 
 20 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 
 17 
 
 4 
 
 24 
 
 2 
 
 17 
 
 4 
 
 25 
 
 6 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 ... 
 
 14 
 
 7 
 
 25 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 22 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 14 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 ... 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 ... 
 
 2 
 
 ... 
 
 1 
 
 ..., 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 1 
 
 ... 
 
 1 
 
 ... 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 ... 
 
 4 
 
 ... 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 11 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 13 
 
 7 
 
 22 
 
 8 
 
 17 
 
 8 
 
 15 
 
 5 
 
 16 
 
 9 
 
 27 
 
 8 
 
 14 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 14, 
 
 6 
 
 25- 
 
 5 
 
 14 
 
 6 
 
 20 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 ... 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 4 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 13 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 42 
 
 5 
 
 49 
 
 6 
 
 41 
 
 6 
 
 57 
 
 8 
 
 48 
 
 7 
 
 54 
 
 3 
 
 55 
 
 6 
 
 55 
 
 3 
 
 53 
 
 6 
 
 58 
 
 6 
 
 50 
 
 2 
 
 23 
 
 1 
 
 19 
 
 6 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 13 
 
 3 
 
 22 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 19 
 
 5 
 
 20 
 
 2 
 
 22 
 
 2 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 19 
 
 4 
 
 18 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 15 
 
 4 
 
 20 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 4 
 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 15 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 23 
 
 2 
 
 23 
 
 2 
 
 23 
 
 4 
 
 15 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 3 
 
 26 
 
 2 
 
 18 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 19 
 
 3 
 
 23 
 
 
 13 
 
 1 
 
 25 
 
 
 14 
 
 5 
 
 21 
 
 2 
 
 22 
 
 1 
 
 25 
 
 1 
 
 16 
 
 3 
 
 14 
 
 2 
 
 18 
 
 2 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 20 
 
 5 
 
 31 
 
 2 
 
 25 
 
 2 
 
 22 
 
 4 
 
 27 
 
 4 
 
 30 
 
 6 
 
 23 
 
 1 
 
 14 
 
 3 
 
 14 
 
 5 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 13 
 
 2 
 
 14 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 28 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 14 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 8 
 
 .. 
 
 41 
 
 ... 
 
 23 
 
 
 17 
 
 ... 
 
 23 
 
 ... 
 
 19 
 
 ... 
 
 28 
 
 
 23 
 
 
 22 
 
 
 22 
 
 
 18 
 
 ... 
 
 14 
 
 .. 
 
 10 
 
 ... 
 
 9 
 
 ... 
 
 1 
 
 
 4 
 
 ... 
 
 4 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 4 
 
 ... 
 
 2 
 
 .. 
 
 1 
 
 ... 
 
 3 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 ... 
 
 
 ... 
 
 ... 
 
 
 ... 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 1 
 
 ... 
 
 1 
 
 ... 
 
 3 
 
 " 
 
 7 
 
 ... 
 
 2 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 2 
 
 ... 
 
 5 
 
 ... 
 
 3 
 
 
 11 
 3 
 
 
 5 
 2 
 
 
 7 
 3 
 
 ... 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 ... 
 
 6 
 2 
 
176' 
 
 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 TABLE V. 
 Rooms available for TJndergeadxjates. 
 
 Colleges. Rooms. 
 
 University 53 
 
 Balliol 64 
 
 Merton 31 
 
 Exeter 119* 
 
 Oriel 55 
 
 Queen's 84 
 
 New 35 
 
 Lincoln 40 
 
 All Souls 4 
 
 Magdalene 50 
 
 Brasenose 75 
 
 Corpus 35 
 
 Christ Churcli 159t 
 
 Trinity 61 
 
 Colleges. Rooms. 
 
 St. John's 56 
 
 Jesus 50 
 
 Wadham 62f 
 
 Pembroke 61 
 
 Worcester 67§ 
 
 Halls. 
 
 St. Mary 30 
 
 Magdalene 41 
 
 New Inn 11 
 
 St. Alban 10 
 
 St. Edmund 27 
 
 Total 1,280 
 
 That otlier considerations enter into tlie fact of a 
 young man's being sent to Oxford, I am perfectly well 
 aware. That these considerations constitute the sum of 
 many people's objects, I am equally alive to. Social 
 position, the fact of acquiring a particular tone and 
 manner, the influence of association, and the possibility 
 of the student's acquiring some valuable acquaintances, 
 and a definite locus standi with persons to whom it is 
 desirable that he should be known, are very valid 
 reasons with many persons. Some of these will never, 
 it is likely, be ineffective, but some have progressively 
 become inoperative. The days of patronage — mere 
 patronage, that is to say, the promoting of inefficient or 
 less efficient men to offices of trust and reputation — are, 
 it is plain, rapidly passing away. The potency of noble 
 friendships, and the value of hanging on to Lord Tom 
 and Lord Harry, are at a discount. However strong 
 
 * Including eight sets borrowed from Jesus College, 
 t Including "students'" rooms. } Including four E'ellows' sets. 
 § Including five Eellows' sets. 
 
THE COLLEGE. 177 
 
 toadyism may be even now-a-days, the adept in the art 
 has seldom much profit beyond the approval of his own 
 conscience. 
 
 Besides, these indirect advantages, were they ever so 
 powerful, are completely compatible with that to which 
 they may be and ought to be subordinate. The uni- 
 versity should not he a place for sowing wild oats in — 
 a mere playground for noisy and ijgnorant boobies. 
 That such people are permitted and encouraged is a 
 mischief and a scandal. They are a snare to their 
 companions, and a hindrance to the well-being of the 
 place. It would .be well if we were rid of them ; and 
 the hypocritical argument that it is beneficial to those 
 persons that they have had a year or two's stay in 
 Oxford, and that they become a power to the university 
 by the rallying round it of those who have been edu- 
 cated within its precincts, is as contemptible as it is false. 
 The real meaning of such reasoning is that such persons 
 pay well for the room they occupy. Meanwhile, they 
 frighten a far more valuable class of- persons from en- 
 trance into the university, and drag down the education 
 and character of those who do belong to Oxford. 
 
 CoMPABATivE Merits of Colleges and Halls. — 
 The reader may remember, from what has been stated 
 before, that the halls are the most ancient places of 
 academical education, and that they were originally in- 
 stitutions in which the students elected their head, and 
 governed the details of the society in matters of ex- 
 penditure and the like. Indeed, the latter privilege is 
 existent stilL by statute, and there is even now a form 
 of election on the death or avoidance of a principal; 
 though, as the nomination of the head has been usurped 
 to the Chancellor since the time of Leicester's chancel- 
 
 12 
 
178 EDUCATION m OXFORD. 
 
 lorship, the electionj except for the sake of being a record 
 of a better state of things, is a mere farce. As it is, the 
 head of a hall has no more interest in his society than a 
 lessee has in the future destiny of the land which he 
 holds for a term of years. 
 
 Before the Act of 1854, the halls were tolerably pro- 
 sperous. A great many people came to Oxford who 
 would not come now, in consequence of peculiar advan- 
 tages derived from local preferences and kindred to the 
 founder. Hence there was a superfluity of numbers 
 by the side of accommodation. Besides, it was the 
 fashion, in the time antecedent to that change, to send 
 awa,y young men from the colleges who were stupid, 
 ill-behaved, or refractory. It is difficult to see on what 
 principle of morality an institution which had accepted 
 the education of an undergraduate could dismiss him 
 when it found that his mind was weak ; or, what is 
 equally possible, college instruction was inadequate to 
 fit him for his degree. And it is even more difficult to 
 determine on what ground it was argued that A. B., 
 whose conduct made him unfit for'a particidar college, 
 should be fit for another society, and should depart with 
 a testimonium of merit. Perhaps, it was that cheap 
 conscientiousness which wiU not take the ■ trouble of 
 doing a general duty, but cherishes a particular and 
 unsacrificing benevolence. 
 
 Out of this practice three of the halls derived their 
 inmates. These were St. Mary Hall, Alban Hall, New 
 Inn Hall. The last-named institution was actually 
 fitted up for the purpose by the late principal. Dr. 
 Cramer, who, it is said, took the principalship on con- 
 dition of making the buildings available. It was seldom 
 the case that any person matriculated at these societies. 
 'The inmates were the outcasts of more orderly colleges. 
 
THE COLLEGE, 179 
 
 The cost of living at them was, by the ordinary scale, 
 enormous. They contained, no doubt, a pleasant and 
 varied society ; but it was not in that time ordinarily 
 thought well of, even when estimated by the coarse rule 
 of undergraduate proprieties. The institutions were 
 called refuges for the destitute, and residence in them 
 was almost as costly as a sponging-house to an in- 
 solvent. 
 
 The other two halls, Magdalene and St. Edmund, 
 were not of this character. The latter always had, as 
 will be seen from a reference to the tables annexed to 
 the foregoing section, well nigh as many xmdergra- 
 duates as it could hold. The society had the reputation 
 of being one of what is technically called the Evangelical 
 school ; and, perhaps, it owed, in some degree, its num- 
 bers to this reputation. But it had the advantage of 
 possessing a vice-prindpal of very high character, of 
 very respectable attainments, and of sterling conscien- 
 tiousness. He was a member of the society by the 
 way, a rare wisdom in the management of a hall. He 
 worked well nigh all his life with the people whom he 
 taught, and at the close of his days received a taxdy 
 acknowledgment of his services from the present Bishop 
 of Winchester. In all likelihood, however, the connec- 
 tion of St. Edmund Hall with Queen's College (the 
 principalship of it and a valuable hving are in the gift 
 of the college, and descend, like any other kind of 
 patronage, through the Fellows of that society in order) 
 was, in some degree, the cause of its numbers ; at any 
 rate, it declined in quantity when that college declined. 
 
 Magdalene Hall has always had a large supply of 
 undergraduates, and did, on the whole, rank fifth in 
 the scale of quantity. It has succeeded to this state of 
 things from a considerable antecedent and even historical 
 
 12—2 
 
180 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 connection. Under tlie present circumstances, apart 
 from its connection, the popularity of its principal had 
 no small weight in increasing its inmates. Besides, it 
 had three open scholarships, of considerable value, in 
 the time when there were very few of such commodi- 
 ties. There have always been, too, a copious body of 
 elderly people, as the phrase goes, in Oxford, who have 
 gravitated to this society, under the form of gentleman 
 commoners. And it is fortunate for the reputation of 
 the society that they have ; for, out of six first-class 
 men, during the last twenty years, three have been 
 gentleman commoners, one a scholar, and two com- 
 moners. The open scholarships have not generally had 
 the effect of producing this distinction. Since the be- 
 ginning of the foundation only one has achieved this 
 place, and that case is at the commencement of the 
 limits which I have assigned to the tables, namely, 1840. 
 With all the halls, however, matters were seriously 
 changed when the Act of 1854 came into operation. 
 The numbers, as will be seen, declined in nearly all 
 these societies, and no doubt they are likely to decline 
 still more. Nothing can have been a greater miscalcu- 
 lation than the expectation commonly entertained by the 
 framers of that Act, that the development of its principle 
 would lead to the formation of new halls. The writer 
 of these pages urged that, wise and necessary as the pro- 
 visions of that Act were, they would inevitably tend to 
 the damage of the old halls, and that the creation of 
 new ones would necessitate a far more searching and 
 total change than anything which the legislature con- 
 templated, or than the university was likely to initiate. 
 And this was due to the peculiar institutions of the 
 university, to the distribution of property within the 
 boundaries of the city, and to the constitutions of the 
 
THE COLLEGE, 181 
 
 halls themselves. With the former of these conditions 
 I shall have to deal shortly ; with the latter, at present. 
 Halls are entirely under the management of the 
 principal. He is practically irresponsible, the appeal to 
 the chancellor, whose nominee he ordinarily is, being 
 only that to any other visitor,, and therefore long since 
 inoperative. He has no interest in the society beyond 
 the fact of its being a means of income, nor does he 
 affect any interest. Sometimes the only real value 
 which his headship is to him, is a house in Oxford, and 
 the position given him by reason of his office. He is 
 but remotely concerned in the credit or disrepute of the 
 members of the society of which he is head. He takes 
 ordinarily no part in the instruction of the inmates of his 
 hall, and but little in their discipline. He nominates 
 strangers to all offices of trust and authority in the 
 society, and never thinks that those who belong to the 
 hall have any claim upon him for the discharge of the 
 ordinary functions of college tutor or lecturer. Except 
 for trivial matters, no person who has distinguished 
 himself at a hall is employed in its management. He 
 can appoint and displace these officers at his pleasure. 
 They are wholly dependent on the discretion or caprice 
 of the principal ; and generally the nomination of a new 
 head is followed by the dismissal of thpse who had been 
 hitherto engaged by his predecessor. In a college, the 
 authority of' the head is largely modified by the resist- , 
 ance of those who work the college, and is ordinarily 
 neuti-alized ; but in a hall, the head is, if he wills, 
 absolute as long as he lives. He can turn his hall into 
 a private house, or a set of chambers for stmngers, if 
 he wills. The heads of halls are generally the occupants 
 of other offices. Of those at present in this position, 
 two are university professors, two hold country livings. 
 
182 EDUCATION m OXFOED. 
 
 and the remaining one is a fellow of a college, and the 
 rector of an Oxford parish. In the last-named case, the 
 headship was held immediately hefore the present 
 occupant by the registrar of the university, and before 
 him by a canon of Christ Church. Depending but 
 little on the success of the establishment over which 
 they preside, their interest in the well-doing of its 
 members is naturally languid. They have no feeling 
 for a society to which their relations are whoUy fiscal. 
 They generally remain members in name, and almost 
 always in sympathy with the society from which they 
 were taken to fill the office of head. All, with the 
 exception of the head of Magdalene Hall, keep their 
 names on the books of their parent college. 
 
 That peculiar esprit de corps which is so character- 
 istic of the colleges is wholly wanting in the halls. The 
 members of these societies have the least possible con- 
 nection with the place of their education after its period 
 is over. There are very few among them, I apprehend, 
 who do not regret that they ever had to do with the 
 institutions in question. And no wonder, for their 
 sympathies with their society are exceedingly slender. 
 
 Furthermore, the instruction is indifferent in poiat of 
 quantity. In my time, there was but one lecturer in 
 Magdalene Hall, though it had between eighty and one 
 hundred undergraduate members. And this can easily 
 be understood, when one remembers that the office of 
 teacher depends on the caprice, and is determined by 
 the decease or promotion, of the existing head. Men 
 will not take a precarious office unless they are well 
 paid for it; and as the amount received for college 
 tuition is pretty much regulated by custom, the proceeds 
 from this source of income cannot conveniently be dis- 
 tributed among many recipients. 
 
THE COLLEGE. 183^ 
 
 The discipline is also likely to be bad. Most of the 
 halls have, it is true, an officer resident in the walls of 
 the society. But in the largest of the present halls, 
 Magdalene, all the tutors are married, and reside at a 
 distance. The undergraduates are left entirely to their 
 own discretion. But within the walls of a college, disci- 
 pline, such as it is, is, I conceive, far more important 
 than instruction. At any rate, the culture may be- 
 procured from without, while the aggregation of a large 
 number of young men in one building, without any 
 supervision at all, is not likely to result in anything but 
 disorder. On the whole, then, it is, in my opinion, a 
 great misfortune to any person that he should be a 
 member of a hall. While an undergraduate, as com- 
 pared with the member of a college, he > lives as 
 expensively, he is taught less carefully, and he is over- 
 looked less steadily. When he has taken his degree, 
 he is at a still greater disadvantage, for all the oiScers 
 of the institution at which he has graduated are indif- 
 ferent to his future well-doing. And as in a college 
 there is a perpetual desire to promote the fortunes of 
 those who have been members of the society, so the 
 utter absence of this desire in a hall is something more 
 than a negation in the competition of the university; it 
 is a positive hindrance and loss. 
 
 Of late three of the halls have attempted, as I am 
 informed, a greater economy of expenditure than pre- 
 vailed in them before lie. Act of 1854. This at any 
 rate was necessitated hj iiiat event. Had not some 
 reform taken place, they would have been empty. In 
 one of these the experiment was founded on a private 
 benefaction ; in another, it is a voluntary act on the part 
 of the principal; in a third, it was urged upon that 
 authority and accepted by him. But it is too early to 
 
184 EDUCATION IN OXFOED. 
 
 predict anything from the trial. Certainly very large 
 advantages are needed in the way of economy and dis- 
 cipline to counterbalance the inconveniences resulting 
 from membership in a hall. 
 
 I should therefore strongly dissuade any parent from 
 sending his son to any existing hall. In their present 
 state there is none of that esprit de corps which, in some 
 degree at least, stimulates the energies of a college, and 
 none of that competitive spirit which would result from 
 a larger interest, and a larger stake being invested by 
 the authorities in the welfare of the society. I can 
 understand, even under the depressing circumstances 
 which would affect the attempt to create independent 
 centres of education in Oxford, that unshackled activity 
 would do a great deal, even against the prestige of the 
 existing colleges. I can readily imagine a state of 
 things in which a vast influx of students might be 
 expected in the university ; but I cannot conceive any 
 practical good likely to arrive from the slovenly despotism 
 of a head who has larger interests elsewhere, and none 
 in the society which he governs. It would be well for 
 the university if the buildings of the halls were handed 
 over to the nearest college, and infinitely advantageous 
 for the inmates of those buildings. , 
 
 Pkivate Halls. — By a provision in the Act of 
 1854, the university in Convocation was empowered 
 to make regulations, under which private halls might be 
 instituted. It does not appear that parliamentary 
 sanction was necessary for this purpose, for the uni- 
 versity had, by its ancient statutes, full power for the 
 creation of these establishments. It must be understood^ 
 then, that the seeming proviso was an exhortation or a 
 command on the part of the legislature, intended to 
 
THE COLLEGE. 185 
 
 promote action on the part of the university. The 
 result was a statute in the following terms. 
 
 It will be seen that the facilities for opening a hall 
 are very considerably limited by the condition of previous 
 residence in the university, a condition the reasop of 
 which it is hard to find, except it be in the jealousy felt 
 at the possibility of these institutions. But there are 
 other circumstances which make the creation of these 
 halls very unlikely, and their want of success all but 
 certain. 
 
 When the legislature sanctioned the establishment of 
 private halls, one among the reasons given for the 
 provision in the Act was the convenience which would 
 be added for the residence of young persons of large 
 means or large expectations in the home of some person 
 who would give more attention to their conduct than can 
 be looked for, or even desired, in a college. But no one 
 has as yet availed himself of the licence for this purpose, 
 and no parent has initiated such a step for his own son. 
 
 Another reason assigned for the change, was the 
 facility it would afford for the extension of the university. 
 Such an argument betrays a singular ignorance of the 
 university, the colleges, and the hindrances in the way 
 of developing this enlargement, on the condition of 
 residence within the walls of any one building. Of 
 course it was implied that private halls could be carried 
 on with greater economy than colleges or any existing 
 institution of the kind. This, however, is far from 
 being likely, and the ignorance of such a state of things 
 is one of painful significance, arguing as it does the 
 absence of any information, and one might almost say 
 interest, in the domestic system of the colleges, and the 
 peculiar circumstances which affect the tenure and 
 possession of houses or other available sites, within those 
 
186 EDUCATION m OXFORD. 
 
 precincts wMcli form the local limits of the university. 
 It is sufficient here to say that only two private halls 
 have been attempted; that one of them was a failure 
 from the beginning, one person only having belonged to 
 it, who had migrated from a college in consequence of 
 having failed to pass his examination ; and that the other, 
 though it has continued for some years, and has been 
 presided over by one of the ablest and most competent 
 members of the university, has never had more than 
 seven members, and it is not likely to be remunerative 
 to its head. 
 
 There are, however, many grounds on which the 
 institution of private halls was not likely to be successful. 
 One of them is the advantageous position of the existing 
 colleges in respect of their buildings, and the comparative 
 cheapness of rooms within their walls. For many years, 
 as I have elsewhere observed, the colleges and halls 
 have contrived to fasten the burden of one part of their 
 local taxation on the general body of the university, and 
 till lately the colleges and halls were extra-parochial, 
 and therefore not liable to the relief of the poor. Nay, 
 even after a special Act of Parhament was procured — 
 the necessary consequence of many years of incessant 
 squabbling — by which the colleges were rated, the 
 largest of them has taken advantage of the general 
 provisions for the rating of extra-parochial places, has 
 made itself a parish, and of course has no paupers to 
 maintain. But with the greater part of Oxford, that 
 at least which falls within the limits of the united 
 parishes, and in which there is union rating, the poor- 
 rates are very high, and form a very considerable item 
 in the charges of house-rent. And when there are 
 added to these material advantages attached to the 
 college, the large moral ones of prestige, habit, and the 
 
THE COLLEGE. 187 
 
 like, there must be a far greater mimber of persoTis 
 seeking admission to the university than at present, 
 before the candidates apply themselves to the masters 
 of licensed private halls. But all things considered, the 
 number, of matriculations has declined, and to me, it 
 seems, is declining. 
 
 Again, it is not easy to get a fitting house for the 
 establishment of a private hall. These institutions 
 would naturally be set up in those parts of the city 
 ■which are easy of access to ajcademical buildings and 
 the ordinary conveniences of the university. But by 
 far the greater portion of the limited area is the property 
 of corporations. The number of freeholds is singularly 
 small. I have not been able to arrive at the esact 
 proportions, but I am informed by some persons on 
 whose experience I can place the ftdlest reliance, that 
 seven-tenths, at least, of the area available for building 
 purposes, within the natural limits of the academical 
 structures, is the property of the colleges or the city. 
 Now such corporations are not capitalists, nor are they 
 improving landlords. They live, so to speak, from 
 hand to mouth, will do nothing, and can do nothing. 
 Any person who walks down the principal streets of 
 Oxford can distinguish, at a glance, the few freeholds 
 from the numerous tenements held on lease. The latter 
 are old, shabby, low, and inconvenient The streets, 
 I admit, are made to look picturesque enough, by their 
 tumble-down structures of the Stuart period, but the 
 buildings themselves are hardly available for any but 
 the rudest purposes. And if the colleges had the will to 
 grant long leases, they have not fte power. They wjere 
 eidinarily restricted to a period of forty years, a limit 
 rational enough in the days of EMzaJbelihj when houses 
 were well nigh worthless, and college authorities had 
 
188 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 fallen into the common vice of corporations of granting 
 long leases at large fines and nominal rents, but in the 
 present time, when the tendency is in another direction, 
 the hindrance to improvement is inconceivable. And 
 in those fe.w cases in which the colleges have procured 
 private powers of longer leasing, the disinclination felt 
 towards the tenure, or the extravagant ground-rents 
 required, have made nugatory these offers of longer 
 leases. Moreover, the evident disposition on the part 
 of colleges to resume their leases, and to grant tenancies 
 at will, is a great bar to any occupation of their estates 
 for building purposes. The old system of renewable 
 tenancy, oil the payment of a fine, was a hindrance to 
 improvement, because the tenant was in constant danger 
 of being called upon to pay interest for his own outlay ; 
 but it was not worse than that which seems now likely to 
 prevail, the letting houses by landlords who have no 
 funds with which to improve, or even to repair. . Except 
 on the prospect of slovenly overlooking, corporations are 
 the worst landlords conceivable. 
 
 For these and other grounds which it is not necessary 
 here to make mention of, I do not, for my part, think 
 that the establishment of private halls is likely to be a 
 success. One only direction, in which it was at all 
 likely to be available, was in the provision for Non- 
 conformists. But it need hardly be observed that this 
 result, though anticipated in the Act of 1854, has not 
 taken place. The subscription to the Thirty-nine 
 Articles, that is to say, in other words, to all and 
 every part of the political and social, as well as to the 
 religious, formulae of the Church of England, is required 
 from all masters of arts ; and none but masters of arts, 
 or other members of Convocation, can be the heads of 
 private halls. Now, I do not mean to say that one could 
 
THE COLLEGE. 189 
 
 not find among the masters of arts many persons who 
 would have no hesitation in accepting NonconformistiS 
 within their houses, as, indeed, some of the colleges 
 have accepted a few. But I have great doubts whether 
 parents, who strongly or conscientiously believed in the 
 special tenets of the several Protestant sects, would 
 entrust their children to the care of a person who was 
 bound to derive his domestic services from the Book of 
 Common Prayer, in default of taking them to some 
 neighbouring church or college chapel, unless it were 
 on the part of those who believed that their creed 
 was too diverse from that of the Establishment to 
 suffer risk by contact. Hence none, I believe, but 
 Roman Catholics and Jews have as yet matriculated 
 in Oxford. 
 
 Pkospects of Nonconformists at Oxford. — The 
 Act of 1854 — and it was a characteristic feature of the 
 law and a special motive in legislation — took away the 
 necessity of subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles 
 and the three clauses in the twenty-seventh Canon, 
 from all persons who matriculated or proceeded to the 
 degree of bachelor of arts. In other words, the ad- 
 mission of Dissenters to the education of the university 
 was indirectly conceded. Those persons had been all 
 along admitted to Cambridge, by the 'fact that the 
 above-named subscription was not required at matri- 
 culation; and the consequence has been that several 
 Nonconformists have been educated at Cambridge, and 
 achieved high honours in the schools of the sister 
 university, though they are prevented from gradua- 
 tion. No part, however, of the government, scheme 
 excited such hostility in Oxford as this, and. against the 
 possible contingencies of it several precautions were 
 
190 EDUCATION IN OXFOED. 
 
 taken. Compensative amounts of book learning were 
 provided for in the examination of Dissenters, and, as I 
 have already stated, the creation of private halls was 
 rigorously limited to resident or quasi-resident masters 
 of arts, whose method of religious instruction was to be 
 guided by the formulse of the Established Church. At 
 any rate, one cannot see how the teaching was to be 
 of a general kind, whUe the prayers were of formal 
 orthodoxy. 
 
 Of course, the admission of Dissenters to the several 
 colleges rests with the authorities of those several 
 estabhshments. One does not see, except on the com- 
 plete destruction of the privilege of self-government, 
 how the legislature could prescribe that nonconformists 
 should demand admission to these private institutions. 
 The legislature, in short, provided that these persons 
 should be able to graduate, but could not, or would not, 
 supply them with the means of graduation; in other 
 words, take precautions for providing opportunities for 
 study in Oxford, apart from any connection with exist- 
 ing colleges and halls. Yet, without this opportunity 
 being given, one does not see how any practical result 
 could possibly ensue from the licence of graduation 
 afforded to nonconformists. And, be it observed, the 
 graduation is only initiative; the claim of nominal 
 orthodoxy is exacted from all persons, without excep- 
 tion, who wish to become, members of Convocation ; of 
 those, in short, who desire to attain to that position in 
 connection with the university, which is certainly in- 
 tended to be the ultimate object to which all previous 
 processes are subsidiary. 
 
 I do not criticize at length this narrow and barren 
 privilege. I think its limitation illiberal, and I think it 
 is unwise. I see no reason why religious tests should 
 
THE COLLEGE. 191 
 
 be exacted from those who claim academical distincT 
 tionsj any more than from those who aim at a social 
 or political status. I do not, and dare not, believe that 
 the fLiUest liberty to others can, by any possibility, be 
 baxnrfal to the English Church. However rigorous 
 may be the standard of orthodoxy in the ministry of 
 the Establishment, I cannot see with what propriety a 
 minute rule o£ faith should be exacted from her lay 
 members, still less why those who do not profess alle- 
 giance to her should be debarred from the membership 
 with the secular distinctions of that university which 
 should be the pride, as it surely is the property, of the 
 whole nation. I never yet heard of the aristocracy of 
 letters, or of royal roads to learning, or that the limitation 
 of the prerogative of learning to theological conformity 
 was a strong stimulus to either learning or conformity. 
 
 While there are, however, overwhelming reasons to 
 be given why Nonconformists should be admitted to the 
 fullest privileges of the university, it does not seem to 
 me that they can fairly claim the endowments of the 
 colleges, or even the right to reside within them. The ' 
 former of these would be, in the majority of cases at 
 least, ia direct contravention of the founder's intention, 
 and would be, therefore, bad faith to bygone bene- 
 factors. After all, if one departs from established 
 formulse, one does not, and cannot, exclude any one. 
 Admit a Protestant Dissenter, and you should admit 
 a Jew, a Mahommedan, a heathen, to academical en- 
 dowments. I caimot see what power can honestly and 
 equitably draw a line. Toleration is not width, but 
 inclusiveness. The least limit on its extension is the 
 destruction of its essence. , 
 
 Furthermore, residence within a college is what I 
 think nonconformists could not reasonably ask for, or 
 
192 EDUCATION IN OXPOED. 
 
 the authorities of a college -wisely grant. These places 
 are societies in which familiar intercourse is more or 
 less compulsory. We who live in Oxford, after periods 
 of polemical disputations, have ordinarily been to out- 
 ward appearance indifferent and uniform in our theo- 
 logical generalities. In so narrow and limited a society 
 we cannot afford to differ, which is to quarrel. The 
 odium theologicum needs, to make it even tolerable, a 
 wider area than Oxford affords. Where it exists it is 
 only in barren minds and unsocial tempers. And I 
 am persuaded that the social difficulty of nonconformity 
 is, among liberal-minded Oxford men, the largest objec- 
 tion to its being brought into familiar intercourse with 
 the acceptance of Anglican doctrines. Hide it as _ 
 people will, professions of Protestant belief are now-a- 
 days far more base:d on social orders than on any deeper 
 foundation ; far more maintained by social isolation than 
 by rational argumentation. Few people, I apprehend, 
 who are informed about the strength of divers sects 
 have any doubt of this fact, however disagreeable it 
 may seem to enthusiasts and advocates. And where 
 those social difficulties do not apply, I am quite sure 
 that Oxford collectively, and Oxford men individually, 
 can challenge comparison with any others on the 
 ground of liberality. Intolerance crops out in the 
 most unlikely regions, even in the hunting ground of 
 the most vigorous voluntaryism. 
 
 The whole of the Oxford colleges are the gifts of 
 private munificence. It is true that one of them is 
 nominally a royal foundation. But, in fact, Christ 
 Church was far more really endowed by its first 
 founder, Wolsey, than by its second founder, Henry 
 the Eighth. The present college is but a skeleton of 
 the vast place which Wolsey schemed, and which he 
 
THE COLLEGE. 193 
 
 heaped with wealth. It passed through the exchequer 
 of the bluff king, and came out with less even of the 
 metal it went in with, than the coinage which came 
 from the royal mint of that age possessed of silver. 
 Parliament, too, has done nothing in the way of endow- 
 ment for Oxford. Some Scanty professorships were put 
 on the civil list, but they were more than met by the 
 proceeds of the stamps on matriculations and degrees. 
 
 Were it not for the monopoly that the colleges cluag 
 to, and the hindrances they put in the way of persons 
 using the university cheaply — were it not for the fact 
 that they have grasped at and retain the whole autho- 
 rity of this great corporation— no difficulty could reason- 
 ably be made at their own discipline, however capricious 
 it may be, within their own walls. It is in the fact 
 that no person can make use of Oxford, except as a 
 member of an existing college or hall, or as the member 
 of an impossible establishment, based on a rash and 
 unprofitable private speculation, that the true hardship 
 and really public wrong consists. 
 
 There is then, in my judgment, no remedy by which 
 all persons can avail themselves, without distinction, of 
 academical instruction in Oxford, than by the removal 
 of the following obstructions. There must be accorded 
 a power of becoming members of the university without 
 the necessity of residence in any existing college or 
 hall, the university providing, as it can from its privi- 
 leges, against any want of discipline among such mem- 
 bers — a discipline which may be searching, but neces- 
 sary, and no more a reasonable ground of objection "to 
 those who reside within its compass than the discipline 
 of a camp is to those who think proper to inhabit it. 
 And if it be thought imperative that domestic control 
 should be exercised over those students who gather to 
 
 if 
 
194 EDUCATION IN OXTOED. 
 
 the university — a control I confess to thinking metapho- 
 rical, unreal, and nugatory — it -will become necessary 
 for the larger interests of education, that some legis- 
 lative Act should enable the purchase of freeholds 
 within the limits of the university, as defined by Act 
 of Parliament. The dead hand is the blight of this 
 place, as would easily be found on inquiry. The gifts 
 made with a view to foster learning have been its 
 heaviest hindrance ; the wealth with which letters have 
 been endowed has made this alma mater the veriest 
 stepmother to genius and labour. 
 
 FUTUEE PkOSPECTS OF THE UnIVEESITT OF OxFOED. 
 
 — If my reader has followed the facts, and argued from 
 the figures which I have laid down in what I have 
 written, he will not be at a loss to divine what is likely 
 to take place in the further history of this place. And 
 what has to be said in a subsequent part of this work 
 will not materially modify the necessary inferences 
 from what has been said. The very large assistance 
 rendered to those who are competent to hold the foun- 
 dation scholarships and exhibitions provided in Oxford, 
 will not seriously aiBFect those who are compelled to 
 consider the future advantages of an expenditure of a 
 very great amount, at a time of life when large and 
 hitherto unproductive outlay has been made, and at an 
 age which is so critical for good or evil. The course 
 of education in Oxford must be estimated not only by 
 its social but by its material value, and this is what is 
 the great difficulty in the extension of the numbers 
 who enter the university. Can we, in short, get any 
 guarantee that this education will promote the moral 
 and material interests of those who spend so many 
 valuable years in its acquisition ? 
 
THE COLLEGE. 195 
 
 I take for granted that in itself that education is of 
 the highest order. Few persons disparage it but those 
 who are ignorant and self-conceited.. After all, by far 
 the largest amount of what people learn does not tend 
 to a direct, but to an indirect, utility. It seldom 
 happens that they who study mathematics need to use 
 them. The simplest rules of arithmetic meet the 
 ■ordinary business of life. The empirical knowledge of 
 grammar is sufficient for the general purposes of 
 educated intercourse. Few persons make a practical 
 use of historical knowledge. Physical science is com- 
 monly an amusement, rarely an occupation. And 
 similarly in what it is the fashion to call a higher style 
 of education, the usefulness of its prodsict lies in its 
 method, and the display of its facts is called pedantry. 
 Now there is nothing more difficult than to give a true 
 estimate of the relative values of what indirectly con- 
 tributes to education, and yet nothing more easy and 
 specious than to censure knowledge which has no 
 immediate and obvious application. Of course they 
 who do not possess it, and from whom its indirect 
 operation is hidden, are by way of denouncing its sup- 
 posed advantages. Perhaps the uniform testimony of 
 those who have received a liberal education is more 
 conclusive than the dissatisfaction and dislike of those 
 who have not procured this specialty. Perhaps, how- 
 ever, this statement that the worth of an Oxford educa- 
 tion, when it is of the highest order, is specially 
 eminent, will but be Hnderstood' by a reference to a 
 series of obvious and, at the same time, important 
 iacts. 
 
 For some few years now — years sufficiently long to 
 test the material submitted to that form of inquiry 
 which the government has instituted, and the legisla- 
 
 13—2 
 
196 EDUCATION IX OXFORD. 
 
 ture indirectly sanctioned — ^public employment has been 
 guarded from the danger of nomination by the form of 
 a specific examination. In some departments of the 
 public service, the rule detur digniori has been inter- 
 preted by the giver of, and not by the nominee to, 
 ofiBcial occupation. In other words, examination has 
 been exercised upon those who have been named for 
 place ; though all candidates, except those who have 
 been fortunate enough to get their claims endorsed by 
 members of Parliament, and such folk, have been pre- 
 cluded from giving proof of proficiency. Since, how- 
 ever, the individuals who form the legislative and 
 executive body have insisted on retaining the power of 
 nomination, and the pleasure of being bored by their 
 pohtical friends and supporters, rather than of con- 
 sidering the rational method by which the public service 
 might, apparently, best be carried out, it would not be 
 just to governmental officials, and still less to the uni- 
 versities, to compare the status of those who fill respon- 
 sible public offices with the best specimens of academical 
 education. 
 
 But in one, and that a notable case, this provisional 
 system of examination has not prevailed, and there are 
 annually thrown open to absolute public competition the 
 various offices in the Indian Civil Service. Yet, on 
 looking at the list of those who succeeded and those 
 who failed last year in the competition for these offices, 
 — offices, we are assured, of considerable immediate, and 
 very great progressive value ; which have been puffed 
 with great vigour, and which, no doubt, would have been 
 reasonably estimated without the puffing; there is not 
 to be found a single first-class among the successful 
 competitors, though all who approached in some degree 
 to that status have been placed, and placed well, in the 
 
THE COLI,EGE. 197 
 
 published lists. No doubt, if the best Oxford men had 
 entered the lists, they would have distanced their com- 
 petitors, when one sees how much was done by second, 
 third, and fourth rate ones. Why it is that the best men 
 do not compete for these offices is no part of the present 
 purpose to inquire. It is a sufficient proof of the goodness 
 of an Oxford education when one is able to point out 
 that the best men do not try, and that their inferiors 
 generally succeed. Yet, with this significant proof of 
 what might be done with the superior material of an 
 Oxford education, one is, on inquiry into costs, a good 
 deal startled at the ordinary estimate of the university 
 and its functions. This estimate is one from facts. 
 
 It is tolerably plain that the influence, claims, or 
 whatever else one pleases to call it, of the university 
 have declined. It is a small matter that the number of 
 students is absolutely fewer than it was twenty years 
 ago, were it not for the prodigious development of 
 national wealth, of national education, and of public 
 morality. Add to this the increasing competition for 
 employment, and the large impulse given to the desire 
 after progressively higher social rank, and no external 
 circumstances can explain the decreasing popularity of 
 the universities. But, one by one, the university has 
 lost its hold on the great professions, or is losing its 
 hold. It is no longer needful for a judge to be a 
 graduate; and, though one is far from asserting that 
 his legal powers are diminished by the lack of acade- 
 mical training, yet one shrewdly suspects that his tone 
 and manners might now and then have been mended if 
 he had had the advantage of certain educational, asso- 
 ciations. One deplores its being conceived that any 
 public functionary of great dignity and official repute 
 can dispense with being a scholar and a gentleman. At 
 
198 EDUCATION IN OrFOKD. 
 
 any rate, the necessity of accredited education — I do 
 not mean information — is being increasingly recognized 
 in all public employment of a far lower kind. I con- 
 clude that the Civil Service and Indian examinations, 
 the presumably searching inquiry into the competence 
 of officers in the Queen's service, and the like, are not 
 intended merely to exclude those who cannot read, write, 
 and cast accounts, or to relieve members of Parliament 
 from the scandal of giving or the odium of refusing 
 nominations to those who are wholly unfit to receive 
 them. There is some inconsistency in the claim on 
 subordinates, that they should be educated men, and 
 the remission to dignitaries of any such condition. 
 
 In the same way, the direct influence of the univer- 
 sity on the destinies of Churchmen has of late years 
 become slighter. I am not aware of any period in the 
 modern history of the English Church in which two 
 bishops have been successively appointed from the roll 
 of Oxford graduates, whose names are not found in the 
 class list. But a bishop ought to be able to translate 
 the Greek Testament. It seems to be a misfortune to 
 the Establishment, when it is not thought necessary that 
 learning should be an element in the acknowledged 
 capacities of its chief ofScers. The greatest human 
 glory of Protestantism — at least, its first promoters 
 thought so — is that it claims the allegiance of learning 
 to its inferences and judgments. And the claims that 
 the diffnitaries of the Church should be taken from the 
 best sons of the university seems to me to be a corporate 
 right of the highest rank, and the most indisputable 
 equity. And as such claims could not be disputed, so 
 I do not think they can be ignored, if the universities 
 did their work. Piety, to be sure, and activity have 
 very far more urgent rights than learning ; but why not 
 
THE COLLEGE. 199 
 
 have both ? Are they naturally or commonly separate 
 among the clergy ? 
 
 It is not , my business to point out how the material 
 interests of those who now-a-days enter into holy orders 
 are modified by the negligence shown in these and 
 other matters to the claims of learning, or how a bastard 
 priestcraft is encouraged by modern practice. But the 
 increase of subordinate places of clerical education is a 
 notable and acknowledged fact* They have generally 
 originated on the ground of economy. I do not dis- 
 parage the endeavours of conscientious people in sup- 
 plying a want severely felt for the services of men who 
 are inadequately paid. But I am sure] that the natural 
 tendency of theological seminaries is vulgarity and 
 narrow-mindedness. I am convinced that the advan- 
 tages of supervision and special training are more than 
 counterbalanced by mannerism and esoteric sympathies. 
 KTay, I am strongly inclined to disbelieve in the value of 
 supervision, when exercised over youths of twenty-three' 
 years old and upwards. The plants that hold their own 
 are not bred in a hothouse. , 
 
 The remedy for this evil is found, I believe, in the- 
 cheapening of education at the universities. People 
 cannot afford the present cost. They ought not to 
 afford it. On the cpmmonest ground of prudence, it is 
 absurd to spend 1,000Z. on what is, materially speaking, 
 a problematical good, unless there be abundant funds to 
 meet such an outlay. And. yet the University of 
 Oxford, were it not as a nursery of Churchmen, would 
 be nowhere. If once the claim on the part of th& 
 bishops of an academical education were remitted, the 
 university would be denuded of the great majority of its 
 students. Yet the date of this remission does not seem 
 to be very far distant. When the ancient connection is 
 
200 EDUCATION IN OXFOED. 
 
 once invaded, it is not long before it is weakened and 
 finally set aside. 
 
 A powerful contributory to this result will be rapidly 
 efficient from the reconstruction of the colleges. Under 
 the former institutions, by far the largest proportion of 
 collegiate endowments were assigned to special, and 
 generally narrow, localities — to particular schools and 
 particular families. With few exceptions, the first of 
 these limitations has been done away with, and, without 
 exception, the last is. The succession from schools, 
 too, has been much modified. Absolute nominations 
 are, generally speaking, no longer possible. These 
 nominations, in the better-endowed schools, are promised 
 to children in their cradle. The emoluments in some of 
 the older and richer foundations were as close a matter 
 of patronage as the election to a pocket borough before 
 the Reform Bill. You can trace, if you will, particular 
 families in certain schools or colleges, who, from their 
 haying taken care to possess a permanent interest in the 
 shape of some fellow, or the like, on the books of any 
 one college, were the perpetual occupants of these 
 charities. These parties rarely distinguished them- 
 selves in the university, seldom were much public credit 
 to the society which provided for them, but they swelled 
 the numbers of the university. They are passing 
 away ; and though one does not regret their departure, 
 they leave a notable vacancy. 
 
 With rare exceptions, the local endowments were 
 absorbed by the sons of clergymen. These persons 
 were, perhaps, better educated than the squires or rich 
 tradesmen's sons; they were certainly better informed 
 of the advantages to which they were born. So 
 thoroughly were the old foundations understood to be 
 endowments in which there was practically no competi- 
 
THE COLLEGE. 201 
 
 tion, that husbands used to take — so it was said — tlieir 
 wives to favoured villages that they might lie-in there. 
 Now these preferences are generally annulled, and with 
 them a large class of persons will be incompetent to 
 maintain their children in Oxford, or unwilling to 
 prepare them for an open and competitive examination. 
 
 The preference, occasionally the absolute limitation, 
 to the members of a particular family, was another 
 source of supply. Whatever may be the physical law 
 which checks the geometrical increase of individual 
 stocks, it is certain that in many cases it was found 
 almost impossible to find candidates for these offices. 
 Several of the fellowships at Pembroke stood vacant for 
 years, for lack of founder's kin. In some colleges the 
 preferential claim was enlarged by the discovery of a 
 remote common ancestor. Sometimes the preference 
 was formally set aside. In one college the founder's 
 kin was enormously large. Hence the visitor limited 
 the right to half the foundation. But it may be 
 doubted whether the ingenious antiquary who drew up 
 the pedigrees was not satisfied by proofs of descent 
 which would have hardly been legal evidence. How- 
 ever, be this as it may, the claim is gone ; and it cannot 
 but be the case, that many persons who would have 
 otherwise entered at Oxford ,on this score will be 
 deterred from the attempt. 
 
 Again, the very few opportunities for open election 
 had brought about a thoroughly well-adapted system of 
 intrigue, and a complete departure from the spirit of 
 statutes, the letter of which, in some points, was 
 aifectedly kept. This applied to the best colleges in its 
 degree, and was characteristic of the worst. All Souls 
 and Merton were by foundation well nigh as open as any, 
 but -they were systematically filled by the younger sons 
 
202 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 of noblemen and squires. It is needless to observe that 
 these gentlemen were not endowed with any great stock 
 of academical learning. The scandal, indeed, of these 
 and other such establishments precipitated the Act of 
 1854. They were monasteries without devotion, learn- 
 ing, activity, or utility. Now such persons as these 
 will, except under very altered circumstances, hardly 
 frequent the university in future ; and though we may - 
 not feel acute regret at losing their presence, they may, 
 and must, be missed in an aggregate of numbers. 
 
 Now, if we set against the diminutions in numbers — 
 and the Ust of such cases might have been extended — the 
 mere fact of open competition for academical emolu- 
 ments in Oxford, large, characteristic, and valuable as 
 they are, it will not be difficult to anticipate a great 
 decline in the external appearance of its prosperity. 
 One is prepared for fewer students from the very fact that 
 many, very many, will be unable to hold their own in 
 the university. The difficulty has been for some time 
 felt, and some plans have been suggested for its amend- 
 ment. One of my own friends, one of the best and 
 worthiest of Oxford men, the late Eev. Charles Marriott, 
 of Oriel College, had his plans of poor men's colleges, even 
 before the Oxford Reform Act. It was a happy thing 
 for liim that he did not try them, for they would have 
 failed, and added one more to the many burdens under 
 which his, great powers finally broke down. The dif- 
 ficulty Tvill now be intensified and become more alarm- 
 ing, not from the absence of worthless people, but from 
 the inherent vices of the collegiate system. 
 
 I do not believe that literature is prosecuted for the 
 sake of a prize assigned to it at some particular period 
 in the career of the student. I do not think that large- 
 endowments are any security for the possession of that 
 
THE COLLEGE. 203 
 
 which forms the staple article in reward for which these 
 very endowments are bestowed. I look at the poverty 
 of the German universities, and I find their fruits are 
 extraordinary, and universal. I find my own university, 
 the richest in the world, far richer in its income than all 
 the universities of continental Europe, from St. Peters- 
 burg to Cadiz, far behind, in its literary labours, some 
 of the smallest and most modern establishments in the 
 pettiest Grerman principality or dukedom. But withal 
 I think, under two conditions, that this ancient and 
 noble foundation, the most characteristic and national in 
 its aims which can be conceived, would be as far before 
 the worth of foreign academies as it is far behind it now. 
 
 These are the recogaition of the rights of this corpo- 
 ration in the distribution of public employment and in 
 the domain of public service, and the provision of a 
 truly national, that is to say, a cheap education. I am 
 aware that the practice in foreign countries, of seeking 
 for public men in the various universities, has been 
 charged with the evil of bureaucratic pedantry ; but, in 
 the first place, institutions do not make men, but are 
 made by them; and in the next, the English univer- 
 sities are not the creatures of official mannerism, but 
 are independent and self-governing, though indefinitely 
 liable to the force of public opinion. But, unfortunately, 
 that self-government has, in Oxford at least, been turned 
 to the suicidal advantage of a specious monopoly. One 
 cannot hope that the universities can claim what is their 
 natural due, untU they fulfil their natural duties. If 
 they would initiate the cheap education of which I 
 speak, they would be, as they were even in the darkest 
 periods of English history, the centres of its enlightrai- 
 ment and true progress. 
 
 An Oxford education costs a thousand pounds. It 
 
204 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 miglit be done for a hundred. Of course, this implies 
 the permission to reside in Oxford, without being 
 attached to any college or hall, to choose one's own 
 residence, one's own scale of charges, to avail oneself of 
 the gratuitous — it ought to be gratuitous, or nearly so — 
 education of the public teachers and professors, and to 
 submit to the discipline of the tmiversity, a discipline 
 easily extended and readily enforced. 
 
 Many and many a young man prepares himself for 
 the medical profession in London, at the cost of a pound 
 a week for board and lodgings. Both items are 25 per 
 cent, dearer in London than in Oxford. What can be 
 done there can be done here. Twenty-four weeks' 
 residence is all that is needed here in a year. The 
 necessary cost, even on a London estimate, is therefore, 
 on this head, 72l. The university fees are, collectively, 
 about \5l. more, and some of these even are indefensible. 
 Examination fees are 31. 13s. 6d. Professor's lectures 
 are entirely or nearly gratuitous. 
 
 Now, here is the material for a cheap education of 
 the highest class. Here is that in inert perfection which 
 our forefathers, for a series of ages, laboured to effect. 
 They, it is true, founded colleges for poor men. These 
 colleges have wholly departed — and by a natural and 
 unblameable process — from the purpose of their founders, 
 and are now the chief impediments in the way of that 
 which bygone generosity and self-sacrifice, or vanity, 
 or superstition, or what you please, wished to procure. 
 Now~a-days, when we have quiet days, and in some 
 degree a fair estimate of literary labour, the endowment 
 is well enough as an honour or a help, as corks are to a 
 young swimmer, in the struggle of life. The university 
 is better than its riches, and many men do without the 
 latter, who owe all in life to the former. 
 
THE COLLEGE. 205 
 
 Nowj mark the consequence of an altered state of 
 things. Oxford has numerous professors who are 
 utterly unoccupied. They are engaged in spasmodic 
 efforts at getting hearers, and are forced against their 
 will into lazy apathy. As a whole, the public teaching 
 of the university: is unwillingly contemptible. One 
 must either pity the men who have no one to teach, or 
 one must despise the men who continue the same func- 
 tional gabble to successive aspirants for a certificate. 
 Some of the ablest Oxford professors lecture to women 
 and strangers. I have gone in to a lecture on a subject 
 of the profoundest interest, and I have seen there three 
 or four Fellows and so forth of the lecturer's college, one 
 or two citizens, and an ambitious imdergraduate, who 
 took notes for ten minutes, and slept for fifty. It is in 
 vain that founders of professorships annex penalties to a 
 slovenly performance of public offices. Under existing 
 circumstances, one cannot find a remedy : but permit 
 something beside college monopolies, and the laziest 
 professorial sinecurist will be forced into activity or 
 resignation. The creation of an independent order of 
 students is the very life of the Oxford professoriate, and 
 is the only way in which it can escape from a destruc- 
 tive experiment. 
 
 Look through the annals of English literature, through 
 the biographies of English worthies, and find how it has 
 been that honest labour has brought forward, under 
 such a state of things as I wish might be revived, the 
 yearnings of native enterprise. Why are such men 
 debarred from their best right, a university education ? 
 Why should their powers be straitened by the miserable 
 selfishness of a shortsighted monopoly, backed by the 
 affectation of the impossible discipline of the colleges ? 
 
206 EDUCATION IN OXFOKD. 
 
 The best discipline, as it exists at present in Oxford, is 
 that of the proctors. 
 
 I know that there are men who think that Oxford 
 exists for the sake of squires and boobies. I know that 
 there are people who measure the value of education by 
 the rude and coarse rule of what it costs, instead of by 
 what it does. Many people have drunk of the ashes of 
 the golden calf, and have gathered a vigorous flunkey- 
 ism by the draught. I do not envy them the enjoy- 
 ment, provided they derive an unobstructive pleasure. 
 But one would not wish to waste time in arguing with 
 them. 
 
PAET IV. 
 
 SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, AND 
 OTHER ENDOWMENTS. 
 
 I DESIGN in this concluding portion of my work to give a 
 succinct account of those emoluments which are attached 
 to the several colleges, and to one or two of the halls, 
 as far as information for the purpose is available. It is 
 in these endowments that the largest modifications were 
 effected by the Act of 1854, and these, by way of making 
 the benefactions of founders more accessible to the 
 community at large, more conducive to the interests of 
 learning, and more equitable in their distribution than 
 heretofore. Hence, as a rale, the changes of the Act, 
 carried out by the instrumentality of a board of com- 
 missioners, in joint action with the authorities of the 
 several colleges, were based on a uniform principle, or 
 set of principles. 
 
 The ancient colleges were founded at very different 
 times, and with very different purposes. The funds 
 of those which are nominally the most ancient — Uni- 
 versity and Balliol — ^had originally a widely different 
 object from that which they assumed after successive 
 alterations in their application, having been apparently, 
 in the first instance, temporary benefactions. The 
 collegiate system began with Merton, the founder of 
 the college which bears his name. But it is easy to 
 give some general classification, under which the 
 
208 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 several colleges might be ranged, and the several 
 endowments distinguished. 
 
 First, then, there were, and still are, two grand divi- 
 sions, into one of which all academical emoluments will be 
 arranged. There are those which are intended to aid in 
 the maintenance of an undergraduate, and those which 
 are the rewards of a graduate. These emoluments are 
 ordinarily distinguished as scholarships and fellowships, 
 but there are other phrases used to denote the former 
 of these advantages, such as exhibitions, when the 
 annual stipend does not form part of the college founda- 
 tion ; and again, in Christ Church, studentships ; and in 
 Magdalene, demyships. So in Merton, the scholar- 
 ship is called a postmaster, a corruption, it appears, of 
 the low Latin word portionista. On the other hand, 
 the graduate students of Christ Church correspond in 
 the main to fellows elsewhere. 
 
 Properly speaking, the only endowments which are 
 ordinarily reckoned among the scholarships and ex- 
 hibitions of the several colleges are those, the funds of 
 which are managed and distributed by the college. But 
 there is a very large and well nigh unknown income 
 derived from schools, and occasionally from corporate 
 bodies, which is virtually academical. Por instance, 
 most of the great London companies elect exhibitioners 
 to certain literary charities. So again, almost all en- 
 dowed grammar-schools, and not a few unendowed ones, 
 have exhibitions annexed to their foundation, or deed of 
 management, which are occasionally of very large value. 
 Nay, certain insurance companies have actually attached 
 the foundation of scholarships to their schemes. In most 
 of these cases, the college or hall to which the recipient 
 is attached is a matter of free choice, and frequently 
 the university also. An attempt was made some years 
 
SCHOLAKSHIPS, PELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 209 
 
 ago to systematize information on this subject, in a work 
 called the Liher Scholasticus, but I am not aware how 
 • far the enumeration was correct, still less whether it was 
 exhaustive. Most grammar-schools, however, make 
 their advantages known by advertisement. Still, be this 
 as it may, the assistance rendered undergraduates by 
 these corporations is very large, and very notable. 
 
 Again, some of the scholarships attached to colleges 
 were, and some still are, elected from a favoured school. 
 In these cases the' college had, or had not, as the case 
 might be, the power of rejecting an unfit candidate. 
 Of late years, colleges have asserted and acted on the 
 right of rejection, but ordinarily, in a time not remotely 
 distant, the election was a matter of course, and the 
 college examination a matter of form. At any rate, 
 if it were not so, it is difficult to account for some 
 elections. And, on the other hand, • some scholarships 
 were entirely at the disposal of the college authorities, 
 and were disposed of by a more or less eq[uitable exami- 
 nation. 
 
 Preferential claims were founded either on the attach- 
 ment of the scholarship to the candidates of a certain 
 school, or to birth in a particular region, or to kinship 
 with the founder. By far the larger amount of scholar- 
 ships were of the first and second kind. Sometimes the 
 preference was absolute ; that is, no election could be 
 made except a qualified candidate presented himself. 
 Sometimes it was relative, that is to say, other things 
 being equal, the choice was to fall on the favoured region 
 or kinsman. The natural tendency was to make relative 
 preferences absolute. But, as a matter of fact, those 
 colleges which have, of late years, been in greatest 
 repute were wise enough to reverse the process and 
 reduce the preferential claim to a minimum. 
 
 i 14 
 
210 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 i 
 
 Again, when tlie college elected, it sometimes was the 
 rule that the feUows shouldj in their turn, nominate the 
 scholars. It is needless to observe that such nominations 
 were almost always of near relations. Thus, till the 
 recent Reform Act, the canons of Christ Church 
 hahitually nominated their sons to studentships. So I 
 have been informed, prior to the changes introduced by 
 the late master of Balliol, the fellows nominated the 
 scholars, who, in turn, succeeded without examination 
 to vacant fellowships. Of course these colleges made 
 the largest figure in the class schools in which there 
 was an open election. 
 
 So much for the scholarships whose ordinary duration 
 was five years when they were terminable, which the 
 great majority were not, but a step to a fellowship after 
 a time more or less protracted. Fellows were ordinarily 
 elected absolutely from the scholars. In some cases this 
 was a provision of the foundation. Occasionally it was an 
 innovation on the part of the corporation. In no case, 
 I imagine, could the statutes of the coUege be cited in 
 favour of the absolute election of the senior scholar. 
 Such elections from scholar to fellow prevailed at Corpus, 
 Wadham, Magdalene, Queen's, Worcester, Jesus, Pem- 
 broke, and, generally, at Trinity. 
 
 Sometimes there were no scholars at all. This was 
 the case at All Souls, and originally at Merton, BalHol, 
 University, Lincoln, Brasenose, Oriel, Exeter. At this 
 last college there was generally no rule that the fellow 
 should have graduated, and hence Exeter had the ad- 
 vantage of being able to elect promising undergraduates 
 who. were near their final examination. Where scholars 
 were added subsequently to the fomidation, the custom 
 of absolute election from the roll of scholars did not 
 prevail. 
 
SCHOLAESHIPS, MLLOWSHIPS, ETC. 211 
 
 Sometimes there was no effectual distinction between 
 scholars and fellows. In these cases the scholars were 
 almost unifoi'mly elected from some school, and, after a 
 probation of two years or upwards, were admitted as 
 actual fellows. Nothing now short of inability to achieve 
 a common degree was any hindrance to the retention of 
 the fellowship. This was the characteristic of New Col- 
 lege, St. John^s, and Christ Church. The election to fel- 
 lowships was either by express provision of statutes, or, 
 by successive innovations, closer than in the case of scho- 
 larships: TiU late years, the condition of the under- 
 graduate fellow of New College was still more quit of 
 academical obligations, since he took his degree without 
 examination at all. 
 
 As regards duration: the condition of celibacy was 
 attached to all scholarships and fellowships, with the 
 single exception of Eadcliffe's travelling fellows. This' 
 condition was originally, I imagine, an act of fortmtous- 
 wisdom, and has its beginning in the compulsory 
 celibacy of the Roman clergy. But it is a wise 
 rule ; the reasons against it being gathered from ex- 
 ceptional cases, and being really very shallow, and' 
 quite discordant with the very purpose of these emolu- 
 ments. 
 
 Generally speaking, the fellowship was a freehold, 
 those which at first were temporary having been made 
 permanent in the great niajority of cases. But in some 
 colleges the fellows were superannuated after a particu- 
 lar period. The most notable example of tliis rule was 
 at Wadham. Much may be said in favour of thiS' 
 provision, but modern legislation has made the discus- 
 sion of it unimportant, since the rule is everywhere 
 rescinded. 
 
 Very few fellowships have been created since the* 
 
 14—2 
 
212 EDUCATION lU OXFORD. 
 
 foundation of Worcester College, . and those that have 
 been date from a recent period. 
 
 Most fellowships were limited to persons in holy 
 orders, and were, after a time, vacated on failure of 
 compliance with this condition. 
 
 Annexed is a table, giving in the first column the 
 number of fellows in the several colleges before the 
 alterations consequent upon the Act of 1854, and in the 
 successive columns, marked with the years 1840-1859 
 inclusive, the number of successions to fellowships 
 during twenty years. The comprehension of the table, 
 however, requires a few cautions. 
 
 In the cases of New College, Christ Church, and St. 
 John's, it must be remembered that the numbers 70, 
 101, and 50 represent scholars as well as fellows. It 
 was not possible to distinguish them, unless one had 
 excluded from the list of fellows all undergraduates. 
 Next, it must be borne in mind that undergraduate 
 fellows were eligible at Exeter. It must be understood, 
 too, that three of the fellowships at University, eight at 
 Queen's, and all at Wadham were terminable. Two 
 at Pembroke were in the same condition, but the 
 occupants were re-eligible, and have been re-elected. 
 Some of the fellows at this latter college could not 
 be filled up for want of candidates. The total suc- 
 cession in twenty years will be represented by the 
 decimal 1-427. 
 
SCHOLAESHIPS/ FELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 
 
 213 
 
 
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 No. of 
 Fellows. 
 
 1840. 
 
 1841. 
 
 1842. 
 
 1843. 
 1844. 
 1845. 
 1846. 
 1847. 
 1848. 
 1849. 
 1850. 
 1851. 
 1852. 
 1853. 
 .1854. 
 1855. 
 1856. 
 1857. 
 
 wt-i. bsh-coh-"- H-co. to a * 
 
 1858. 
 
 U>COb9- ^ • H-^ — • fcOH-U)!-'" 
 
 1859. 
 
 Total. 
 
214 
 
 EDUGATION IN OXFOKB. 
 
 Annexed is also the number and value (nominal) of 
 the several benefices held by the different colleges : — 
 
 COXLEGES. 
 
 5| 
 
 'A g 
 
 ^ 
 
 US. 
 
 ^1 
 
 i 
 
 Colleges. 
 
 m 
 
 I- 
 
 Uniyersity ... 
 Balliol 
 
 10 
 20 
 17 
 16 
 13 
 27 
 37 
 11 
 17 
 36 
 24 
 22 
 89 
 8 
 
 £ 
 
 5,062 
 
 6,186 
 
 5,865 
 
 8,134 
 
 4,533 
 
 12,280 
 
 16,554 
 
 4,016 
 
 7,835 
 
 12,517 
 
 11,278 
 
 10,215 
 
 21,232 
 
 3,701 
 
 22 
 
 4,879 
 
 St. John's ... 
 
 28 
 
 19 
 
 12 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 £ 
 14,865 
 6,939 
 
 Merton 
 
 Exeter 
 
 Wadham .... 
 Pembroke ... 
 Worcester .... 
 University ) 
 of Oxford 1 
 
 Total ... 
 Canonries, ) 
 &c. (say) 1 
 Gl«be,&c. ... 
 
 Total ... 
 
 5,174 
 4,024 
 2,759 
 
 Oriel 
 
 Queen's 
 
 New 
 
 1,611 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 AU Souls ... 
 Magdalene... 
 Brasenose ... 
 ■Corpus ...:.. 
 -Christ Oil. ... 
 Trinity 
 
 
 441 
 
 169,209 
 14,400 
 17,000 
 
 200,609 
 
 These tables of the number and value of college and 
 university livings need, however, some correction. 
 Those are not reckoned of which no return is made as 
 ±0 the amount of income. It must be remembered that 
 returns are ordinarily of tithe-rent charge, and do not 
 include glebe. Some college livings, too, are of very 
 small nominal amount, but are not by any means, there- 
 fore, of small annual value. The livings at Christ 
 Church, though the most numerous, are, on the whole, 
 the poorest. The second list of livings connected with 
 Brasenose are assigned to Hulme's exhibitions. ' They 
 are, on the whole, apparently of small value, but this 
 appearance is, as I have observed, delusive. 
 
 It will be seen that rapid succession to fellowships 
 does not, as might have been expected, go with a large 
 number of livings, but that the precise reverse has been 
 the case. Those colleges are best endowed with livings 
 
SCHOLAESHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 215 
 
 whose succession has been the slowest, with one excep- 
 tion. The best and largest number of benefices are at 
 New College and St. John's. But in these colleges the 
 succession to fellowships has been very slow. This 
 feet may, perhaps, be accounted for by the practice 
 which prevailed before the Act of 1854 in these two 
 colleges, of the absolute and immediate succession of 
 nominees from public schools, who had no need of study 
 during their ruidergraduate life, and eventually no 
 prospect, except in' waiting for a college living. Now 
 that this state of things has been altered, or is in course 
 of alteration, there is reason to believe that the succes- 
 sion will be more rapid than elsewhere. The same 
 circumstance also applies, in a modified degree at least, 
 to Magdalene College, where the practice of absolute 
 succession had been substituted for election. Here the 
 succession was slow, though the benefices were nume- 
 rous and valuable. It is understood that the nominal 
 value of the Magdalene College benefices is far below 
 their real value, owing to some late legacies to the 
 college. 
 
 The reader will remember that the state of things 
 suggested by the annexed table represents what is 
 passing away. Though to appearance less in number, 
 college emoluments and expectancies will be far more 
 available and far more valuable in reality, when the full 
 operation of recent changes comes to be felt. Several 
 colleges, too, are empowered to augment the number 
 of their benefices by the employment of incidental or 
 regular accumulations in the ftmds of the society. 
 
 In many cases the head of the college is also pos 
 sessor of a benefice. This takes place in Exeter, Oriel, 
 Merton, New, Lincoln, All Souls, Trinity, and St. 
 John's colleges; and at Magdalene and St. Edmund 
 
216 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 halls. The officers of one college are a dean and 
 canons, and thus are possessed of large and unreturned 
 advantages. One of the professors holds a benefice, 
 and two of the heads of houses are possessed respec- 
 tively of canonries in Gloucester and Rochester cathe- 
 drals. 
 
 Endowments before the Act. — Scholarships. — In 
 a previous part of this work, when I compared the 
 colleges together by certain statistical tables, in which 
 the several circumstances which seemed to contribute 
 to the particular reputations of colleges were aggregated, 
 one of the statements which was made bore on the 
 number of matriculations and other admissions among 
 the body of undergraduates, with a distinction between 
 scholars or incorporated members of the foundation, 
 and commoners, or those who were not connected with 
 any corporate endowment, but ostensibly living at their 
 own charges. This table of course implies the annual 
 succession to those benefactions which are apparently 
 intended for undergraduates, though it often happened 
 that the benefactions in question were enjoyed by gra- 
 duates, who were occasionally of very considerable 
 standing. In this table scholarships and Bible cl.erk- 
 ships were included, and also those exhibitions which 
 the college specially designated. Those scholarship 
 exhibitions formed a considerable portion of the aggre- 
 gate in Lincoln College, and latterly in Balliol, the 
 college in its returns having been at the pains to specify 
 the individuals who enjoyed those eiholuments. On 
 the other hand, no distinction till latterly was made 
 between scholars and commoners at Oriel College, and 
 hence the reader will not find till latterly any specified 
 number of scholars in this society. 
 
SCHOLARSHIPS, rEIiOWSHIPS, ETC. 217 
 
 Now on taking a calendar at random, that for in- 
 stance of 1851, which is before the late changes at the 
 university, I find that there were, excluding exhibitions, 
 375 scholarships in Oxford. This number, I must 
 observe, includes all those fellows of New College, 
 Christ Church, and St. John's, who are below the 
 degree of M.A. But it does not include the exhi- 
 bitioners, for the reason that only some of them are 
 given, and it is only on some of these that one could 
 get any return. Any account, then, with so very large 
 an unknown quantity, would be delusive. But I have 
 no doubt that the exhibitions attached to the several 
 colleges were as many as the scholarships, and those 
 attached to endowed grammar-schools, city companies, 
 and the like, as many more. Nor should I hesitate in 
 asserting that before the Act of 1854 there were well 
 nigh 1,200 endowments attached to the colleges, or 
 enjoyed by members of them. Those endowments 
 varied in every conceivable particular. Some were 
 of very considerable value, as 1201. a year, and even 
 more; some were of almost nominal value, as 5Z., and 
 even less. Some were open to all candidates, some 
 assigned to narrow local limits, decayed schools, and 
 particular families. Some were of very short duration, 
 the limit being within a particular time, a particular 
 age, or a particular academical standing; some were, 
 either virtually or by usurpation, of an indefinite dura- 
 tion. Some were procured by examination, some by 
 an afiectation of examination, some by accident, most 
 by favour. Most were limited by the condition of 
 poverty on the part of the recipient; few were given 
 in pursuance of that condition, except when the recipient 
 was subjected to an inferior position or called upon to 
 exercise disagreeable duties. There was, in short. 
 
218 EDUCATION IN OXFOED. 
 
 every conceivable variety in the tenure, the credit, 
 the difficulty, the value, the continuity of those several 
 benefactions, in not one of which save those vrhich 
 were limited to the kin of the founder, or to the 
 sons of certain professional persons, did the grantor 
 intend anything but the cultivation of religion and 
 learning, however much his conditions may have 
 accidentally impaired the former or frustrated the 
 latter. 
 
 It is, of course, very plain that this large distribution 
 of academical endowments must have had some very 
 remarkable results — results suggestive of far more 
 powerfiil impulses than any enumeration of a part 
 among these emoluments would satisfactorily account 
 for. The greater part of the funds destined for the 
 sustentation of undergraduates at the university was 
 unknown, and, in some degree, is unknown still; and 
 still more unknown were the parties who enjoyed those 
 benefits. But, if we remember that, on my calculation, 
 well nigh 1,200 separate endowments were bestowed 
 upon little more than 1,400 or 1,500 undergraduates, 
 we shall see that few of those who ordinarily resided in 
 Oxford were actually and entirely at their own charges. 
 Further, it is plain that while there existed, in the great 
 majority of cases, preferential claims to these pecuniary 
 aids, that very many persons relied on these aids for an 
 academical education, and that very many, without 
 these aids, would have never come to the university 
 at all. Again, the presence of exhibitions of great 
 value, at endowed grammar-schools, has not been 
 suggestive of any very excellent instruction at these 
 schools, or of any very great capacity on the part of 
 / those who have enjoyed them. Ordinarily, the edu- 
 \ cation of an endowed grammar-school is the worst 
 
SCHOLAESiffiffS, FELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 219 
 
 conceivable, and tiie most successftil among the places 
 where boys are taught, axe proprietary establishments, 
 or those which are of the nature of proprietary 
 ones. It is a very striking fact that colleges, which 
 could adopt the rule of iksteris paribus in the case of 
 endowments from favoured schools, but did so un- 
 wilHngly, were constantly obliged to throw open their 
 scholarships to general competition, because the average 
 of school nominees was so wretehedly bad. Of course, 
 this rejection was not practicable in those very nume- 
 rous cases in which the nominee chose his own uni- 
 versity or collie. 
 
 Now, let us see what is the effect of the University 
 Act on these endowments. I have distinguished them 
 into three classes. 1st. Those which form part of the 
 corporate revenues of the college, the election to which, 
 and the disposition of which, was in the hands of the 
 college authorities, and who therefore ordinarily opened 
 their election, in appearance at least, to as large a field 
 of 'Candidates as they could find or aggregate. These 
 were the scholars proper. 2nd. Those exhibitions 
 which were limited to particular colleges, though the 
 candidates were, maybe, supplied from some particular 
 schools, or were chosen from the number of those who 
 were already on the books of the college. Something 
 is known about these, since the college was ordinarily 
 the trustee of the endowment in question. 3rd. Those 
 which were confined to partieialar schools or particukr 
 but extra-academical electors, and about which, the 
 colleges and the university, except indirectly, knew 
 nothing, since the choice of the college or the uni- 
 versity is left to the exhibitioner's discretion. 
 
 Now, the whole of those who come under the first 
 class have passed through the melting pot of the 
 
220 EDUCATION IN OXFOED. 
 
 university commissioners. Most of those of the second 
 have also. None, or next to none, of the third have, 
 they being dealt with, as occasion arises, by the Charity 
 Commissioners, and frequently set on a thoroughly new 
 footing, along with the school which they are connected 
 with, by some scheme which has emanated from some 
 functionary or other in the Court of Chancery. Nor, 
 indeed, does the disquisition on these last come properly 
 into any account given of the university, except in so 
 far as it serves to point out how very much they who 
 are studying in Oxford are beholden to an immense 
 and unknown extent of eleemosynary aid- 
 Preference to kindred has been wholly swept way. 
 Generally speaking, too, local claims are abrogated. 
 The exceptions to this latter alteration will be given 
 hereafter in detail. 
 
 Hence, in the great majority of cases, those scholar- 
 ships which are attached to the several colleges in aid of 
 those who seek education in the university, are open to 
 general competition, the only limitation beipg ordinarily 
 that of age, which can rarely be more advanced than 
 twenty. Poverty, that unknown quantity, is no longer 
 a claim. A duke's son, or a millionnaire's, has as much 
 right to compete as the son of the poorest and meanest ' 
 man, and no more. Any person who is born in the 
 condition of allegiance may be elected. Illegitimate 
 children, generally excluded by college statutes, are, 
 as a rule, equally competent with others. The chance 
 of success in the competition is determined by the 
 knowledge and abihties of the candidate, and the skill 
 of the college examiner in detecting the present powers 
 and the future capacities of the examinees. The general 
 theory of the recent changes is absolute equality among 
 the candidates, and absolute equity on the part of the 
 
SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 221 
 
 examiners ; the latter condition being presumably 
 guaranteed, and not without reason, by the interest 
 which the college will feel in the reputation of those 
 whom it places in the advantageous position of founda- 
 tion members, 
 
 It is clear, then, that the Act of 1854 recognizes in 
 the electors to the several emoluments which are 
 attached and to be attached to the several colleges, 
 the position, the duties, and, as far as possible, the 
 liabilities of those who would legally "be described as 
 the instruments of active trusts. The examiners for 
 college scholarships are supposed to be by way of 
 giving true deliverance upon the merits of those who 
 are submitted to their choice. According to their 
 powers, I make no doubt they do ; though it happens, 
 not unfrequently, that their judgment is singularly 
 fallible. The reason of this is, I think, due to some 
 defects in their system of examination!— to some errors 
 of judgment in their general method of surveying can- 
 didates, which should be, but is not, purely abstract, 
 and about which I shall have to say a little in a future 
 paragraph. 
 
 I have mentioned that, on a consideration of a par- 
 ticular year, I set down the number of scholarships at 
 375, previous to the Act of 1854. But, as that Act 
 has made a very large difference in the nature of these 
 emoluments, on the ground of their local extension, so 
 it has made a very great extension on the score of 
 quantity. 
 
 Previous to this Act, some of the colleges had the 
 wit to see that the creation of open scholarships was 
 the only hope of it being possible that the individual 
 college would take a fair position in the class schools. 
 They admired the wholesome innovation at Balliol, but 
 
222 EDUCATION IN OXFOED. 
 
 followed it only hy the foundation of open by the side 
 of close scholarships. One of the earliest of these was 
 University College. 
 
 The commissioners, as we have seen, dealt generally 
 with the difficulty of turning an absolute preference 
 into a competitive examination. It did away with even 
 a cceteris paribus preference, on the general moral 
 ground that the conservative tendency of corporations is 
 so marked and so entire as to turn even the slightest 
 preferential rule into an absolutely exclusive one. Con- 
 servatism is a negative notion ; and as no human action 
 can be wholly negative, the necessary impulse of this 
 feeling or set of feelings was exclusiveness. 
 
 But it did more than this. Rightly judging, on the 
 hypothesis of the advantage derived from gifts for lite- 
 rary purposes, that these gifts were far more effective 
 when bestowed on undergraduates, and maybe knowing 
 that the ultimate .tendency of these endowments — which, 
 under the name of fellowships, are rewards imposing no 
 duty and no labour on their recipients — was a pleasing 
 but an inert mental state, they suppressed fellowships 
 for the sake of enlarging the number and increasing the 
 stipends of the scholars or undergraduate members of 
 the university. The extent to which this was carried 
 will be seen hereafter. 
 
 I may state hei'e that those gifts which were less than 
 a century in remoteness were, as far as regards pre- 
 ferences to founder's kin and local claims, left unchanged. 
 It is possible for people to endow particular spots of the 
 earth's Surface, and particular families over the earth, 
 or particular professional occupations, with the same sort 
 of premiums which generally ruled in the university 
 before the Act ; but the benefaction must be temporary. 
 
 The greatest hardship in the redistribution of acade- 
 
SCHOLAESHIPS, FEU-OWSHIPSj ETC, 223 
 
 mical endowments was tlie abolition of family claims. 
 It was tangible, and it was fair. A paterfamilias my- 
 self, I am, I confess, hardly used in being annulled in 
 the person of my children of a convenient privilege at 
 a foundation, the claimants at which were not incon- 
 Teaieutly numerous. We may be dunces and fools ; 
 we may not be fit for open competition. But, then, on 
 the other hand, we founded the college (I speak for the- 
 ancestor), and left by far the largest share to the general 
 public. "We might be bye fellows ; we might, in our 
 degree,, share the benefaction of our ancestor, without 
 daiming, except on the ground of distinctive and irre- 
 spective merits, the administration of the charity with 
 which our own folk have eiidowed the nation. " One 
 would not, like King Lear, give all," And it must be 
 remembered that the perpetuity, if it can be called so, 
 which the founder secured to his family, was no act of 
 vanity or arrogance, no perpetual entail either legally or 
 equitably, but one rather of humility. It was pardon- 
 able, nay, laudable, that the giver should provide for 
 his own ; and when out of his wealth and abundance he 
 ministered, as he thought, to the needs of others,, who 
 shall blame him if, knowisng that riches take to them- 
 selves wings and fly away, he had forethought for his 
 own poor kinsfolk and descendants, in the place which 
 his own munificence had endowed ? The day is gone 
 by, I take it, when people will found colleges, or give 
 benefactions for literary purposes; and I make no doubt 
 that this rude disclaimer of a title to preference, in a 
 limited number of cases, under a rule that the advan- 
 tage bestowed should not constitute a right to claim 
 interference with the educational functions of the college, 
 will do more to prevent gifts than any other proviso in 
 the new Act. 
 
224 EDUCATION IN OXPOED. 
 
 Much has been said by the advocates of no change, 
 and the successfal advocates of total change, about the 
 intentions of the founder. In many cases these were 
 obvious and intelligible ; in some they were temporary 
 and mutable ; in some they were capricious, and would, 
 in all likelihood, be disclaimed now-a-days, were it pos- 
 sible, by the benefactors themselves. Thus, the rule 
 that no persons should be elected except from those 
 counties where the donor possessed estates was one of 
 the last kind. The regulation that provision should be 
 made for the northern counties because they were 
 ravaged and impoverished by the incursions of the 
 Scots, is happily set aside by an improvement in the 
 social state and poUtical relations of two nations now 
 made one. But the rule, that the founder's kin should 
 not need the liberality which the benefactor himself 
 bestowed on others, seems to me to be natural on the 
 one side, and grateful on the other. It is easy to say 
 that the provision was perverted, but checks could have 
 easily been devised. It is very obvious to say that 
 families increase in geometrical ratio ; but this is a 
 mathematical position, not a matter of fact — assumed, 
 indeed, by economists as a general tendency in popula- 
 tion, but known by genealogists to be largely corrected 
 in its application. If, indeed, the geometrical increase 
 is the rule, where is the evil in competition from a large 
 body of applicants? If the descendants are few and 
 needy, is it not just that they should share, as they were 
 expressly intended to share, their ancestor's dotation ? 
 It is natural, but not honest, that a man without a 
 grandfather should claim the estate of him who has one. 
 And, it may be observed, the privilege of founding a 
 college open for the general pubhc was only granted on 
 payment of heavy fines to the Crown. The reader may 
 
SCHOLABSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 225 
 
 find, for instance, in the Pastori letters that the fine on 
 amortisement equalled, in some cases, the fee simple of 
 the lands, and this was the age in which some of the 
 richest colleges were founded. 
 
 The condition of preference in a greater or less degree 
 to founders' kin applied to Balliol (long since omitted). 
 New, All Souls, Brasenose, Corpus, St. John's, Wadham, 
 Pembroke, and Worcester. It may have been the case 
 with other colleges, but it ruled in ,the above-named 
 up to the time wheil the statutes were reconstituted. In 
 those founded since 1760 the preference of the founder's 
 kin is almost uniformly a condition. 
 
 Endowments with LiMiTATiON.^Though the com- 
 missioners appointed to administer the Act of 1854 made 
 short work with the preferential claims of founders' 
 kin, and, generally sppaking, with those attached to 
 particular places, some were left which are attached to 
 certain districts and to certain schools (the preference 
 being ordinarily based on the union of local schools with 
 birth in. particular places), or to schools apart from 
 places, and to the sons of. certain professional persons. 
 As far as the information is available, I shall make use 
 of it in the present section. 
 
 The scholarships at University are all open, and 
 without limitation ; and are ten in number, of the annual 
 value of 601. 
 
 There are fifteen exhibitions. Three preferentially 
 attached to certain Yorkshire schools ; four to the gram- 
 mar-schools of Rochester and Maidstone; two in the 
 gift of Lord Leicester's heirs, le. Elizabeth's Leicester; 
 two connected with the Charter-house ; two bestowed 
 on the Bible clerks; and two on those members of the 
 college who are proficients in mathematics. 
 
 15 
 
226 EDUCATION IN OXTORD. 
 
 At Balliol there are ten open scholarships worth about 
 ^51. per annum. 
 
 There are also fourteen Scotch exhibitions, ten of 
 which are elected from Glasgow University; five scholars 
 from Tiverton school, besides exhibitions; two exhibitions 
 of lOpZ. a year attached to the college, besides some 
 exhibitions for Tiverton and Ludlow. 
 
 There are fourteen postmasters (scholars) of Merton, 
 with four other scholars, all of which, with the exception 
 of two limited to Eton foundationers, are open. 
 
 There are ten open scholarships at Exeter College. 
 Ten others are limited to persons born or educated in 
 the diocese of Exeter, and two to persons bom in the 
 Channel Islands, or educated at the so-called Victoria 
 and Elizabeth colleges at Jersey and Guernsey. But 
 the limitation is in favour only of those who are properly 
 qualified. 
 
 The college has also twenty exhibitions, limited 
 generally to the western counties, and one fellowship in 
 the gift of the dean and chapter of Exeter. 
 
 Oriel College has ten or more open scholarships of 
 the value of 60Z. per annum with rooms. It has also 
 eighteen exhibitions, also generally open. 
 
 Queen's has fifteen scholarships which are open. But 
 it has several valuable exhibitions annexed to birth or 
 education in Westmoreland, Cumberland, and York- 
 shire. St. Bees, Carlisle, Appleby, Kendal, Kirkby 
 Lonsdale, and Whitehaven schools are thus favoured. 
 Queen's has also an exhibition assigned to natives of 
 Middlesex. Queen's College is particularly rich in 
 exhibitions. 
 
 New College has thirty scholarships limited to 
 Winchester grammar-school. Six of these are elected 
 annually at the school from those who have been educated 
 
SCHOLAESHIPS, I'ELLOWSHII'S, ETC. 227 
 
 there, whether foundationers or not. Of its thirty fellows, 
 fifteen are limited to those who have heen twelve terms 
 at New College, or two years at Winchester school. 
 The college is also peculiar in having from eight to 
 ten choral scholars, whose duty is to take part in the 
 college chapel services, and who are, therefore, specially 
 examined in music. The value of the' New College 
 scholarships is not less than 901. per annum, including 
 rooms. 
 
 Lincoln has eighteen open scholarships and one 
 limited to the county of Bucks. These are of no less 
 value than 501. per annum. 
 
 All Souls educates no undergraduates except (ordi- 
 narily) four Bible clerks, 
 
 Magdalene has forty demyships liable to no limitation, 
 except that, when vacancies occur, one must be 
 fiEed up by proficients in mathematical, and another 
 by those in physical science. It has also twenty ex- 
 hihitiens. 
 
 Brasenose has six scholarships for Manchester, Marl- 
 borough, and Hereford, worth 521. per annum ; twelve of 
 36Z. 8s. ; and four of 361. 8«, for Manchester alone. 
 The hmitation is to persons properly qualified. It has 
 also some open scholarsliips of indeterminate number, 
 and of 601. annual value. 
 
 It has fifteen exhibitions of 155^. per annum assigned 
 to members of the college of not less than three years' 
 standing, and a large amount of ecclesiastical preferment 
 annexed to these and previous exhibitioners, which is 
 distributed at the discretion of the founder's trustees. 
 Three exhibitions have also been founded at the college 
 for the support of the sons of poor and deserving clergy- 
 men, or of poor laymen. All these exhibitions imply 
 that the tenant contemplates taking holy orders. 
 
 15—2 
 
228 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 Corpus lias twenty open scliokrships, and seven open 
 exhibitions. 
 
 Christ Church has fifty-two junior students ; of these, 
 twenty-one are limited to Westminster school, and are 
 tenable for seven years. The remaining thirty-one are 
 open, but every third and sixth vacancy is assigned to 
 proficiency in mathematical and physical science. 
 Christ Church has also a number of exhibitions in the 
 gift of the chapter, and a peculiar body of students 
 called Servitors. 
 
 Trinity has thirteen open scholarships and certain 
 exhibitions, one of which is assigned to Winchester 
 students. 
 
 St. John's College has not been hitherto reconstituted, 
 but is in course of modification. At present its emolu- 
 ments are confined to Merchant Taylors', Coventry, 
 Bristol, Reading, and Tunbridge schools, with a preference 
 of founders' kin in six of its fifty scholars or fellows. 
 
 It has also four fellowships limited to the kin of the 
 founder Mr.Fereday, or, in default, to natives of Stafford- 
 shire, or, failing the competency of these preferential 
 parties, to any person. Mr. Fereday granted his fellow- 
 ship for fourteen years with power of re-election. 
 
 Jesus College has, or will have, twenty-four scholar- 
 ships, the annual value of which is 801. Of these, 
 twenty are. limited to the Principality and Monmouth- 
 shire, two to the Channel Islands, and two are open. 
 Persons educated in certain Welsh schools, i. e. Aber- 
 gavenny, Bangor, Beaumaris, Bottwnog, and Cowbridge 
 for four years are eligible equally with those born in 
 Wales. 
 
 A moiety of the fellowships is limited to natives of 
 Wales and Monmouthshire, and two of the fellows must 
 be proficients in the Welsh language. 
 
SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 229 
 
 Tlie college has a vast number of valuable exhibi- 
 tions, limited, as before, to natives of the Principality 
 and Monmouthshire. 
 
 Wadham has fifteen open scholarships, and several 
 exhibitions, open also to general competition. The 
 scholarships are of not less than 421. annual value. 
 
 Pembroke has twelve or more scholars, five of 
 whom are from Abingdon school, two years' education 
 at the school constituting eligibility ; two limited, as in 
 the case of Exeter and Jesus College, to the Channel 
 Islands, and the Channel Island schools ; and the others 
 open. The scholarships are worth 50?. a year and rooms. 
 
 The college has also ten exhibitions, which it calls 
 unincorporated scholarships; one of which is Channel 
 Island, one connected with the Charter-house, one with 
 Eton ; two open ; and four respectively assigned to 
 Gloucester, Cheltenham, Northleach, and Chipping 
 Carapden schools. 
 
 Worcester has fifteen scholars ; six annexed to Broms- 
 grove school, one to Staffordshire, five to clergymen's 
 sons, and threfe open. They are, or will be, worth 501. 
 per annum, with rooms. 
 
 It has four Bromsgrove school exhibitions, two for 
 Charter-house, and one for Yorkshire. 
 
 AH the fellows on one foundation, that of Mrs. 
 Eaton (their number is indeterminate), must be the sons 
 of clergymen of the Established Church of England and 
 Ireland. 
 
 Two of the halls possess certain benefactions. There 
 are three scholarships at Magdalene Hall, founded a 
 few years ago by a Mr. Lusby; and one, of small 
 amount, derived from a subscription in honour, of Dr. 
 Macbride. It holds also some exhibitions Umited 
 generally to Worcester school. 
 
230 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 St. Mary's Hall has some scholarships fbnnded by a 
 Dr. Dyke, limited to three of the western counties, and 
 one by a Dr. Nowell. 
 
 I am not aware of any permanent endowment attached 
 to the other three halls. 
 
 In the previous account given of the number of scho- 
 larships at a particular date, 1851, it will be remembered 
 that 375 were of this character. But this number 
 included the Bible clerks, a body of which I shall make 
 further mention, and who are about two in number, 
 on the average, in each college. Omitting these, the 
 number created by the new Act is 370. But this 
 number omits all mention of those which will appear at 
 St. John's College after its reconstitution, and specifies 
 only the number generally, as at present existent. In 
 all likelihood the amount will finally reach 400 or 
 upwards, besides new exhibitions which are by way of 
 being created, and which are now, as a rule, not to be 
 held with scholarships. 
 
 The annual value of the scholarships at different col- 
 leges is very various. Some are as low in annual 
 value as 40 guineas, or even less ; others as high as 
 901., or even more. The value of the scholarship is 
 generally, and ought always to be, announced in the 
 advertisement of vacancies. 
 
 But though the nominal number of scholarships is 
 not much higher than it was before the Act of 1854, 
 the succession, which is the real point to be considered, 
 is far more rapid. At the present time even, there is a 
 demy at Magdalene who graduated twenty-two years 
 ago, and a scholar of Worcester who took the same 
 position eighteen years since. In the ordinary course 
 of things, persons who were necessarily, or by innovation, 
 elected from the roll of scholars, had to wait many 
 
SCHOLAKSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 231 
 
 years for their fellowsMp, and of course kept others 
 out. 
 
 All this has been altered. Yery few scholarships 
 are at present tenable for more than five years, the 
 candidate being, ipso facto, superannuated at this date, 
 or at an earlier period Let it then be understood, that 
 the average is five years. It will follow then, that not 
 less than eighty scholarships will annually be available 
 for competition, the majority of which number is with- 
 out limitation; and taking these scholarships at the 
 average value of 65Z. per annum,, the resources in the 
 hands of the colleges for the encouragement of promising 
 students equals 26,000Z. a year, 5,200?. of which is 
 annually open to competition, apart from what is at 
 least double in amount, the unincorporated and school 
 exhibitions. The university is entrusted to distribute, 
 for the same purpose, the sum of 1,835Z. in annual 
 income, 766 Z. of which is annually competed for. ■ 
 
 If, then, we include with the endowments attached to 
 the fomidation of each college, those exhibitions which 
 are connected with a college or a school, and estimate 
 them at the rate which I have stated on inquiry to 
 represent the proportions which they bear to each 
 other, there is, or will be, I make no doubt, no less than 
 a sum of 80,000?. per amium bestowed on those who 
 desire, or receive, as the case may be, eleemosynary aid 
 in Oxford as undergraduates. 
 
 The annual value of the fellowships and college 
 headships, buildings included, is at least 140,000Z. We 
 shall, under the new Act, have decennial returns — at 
 least they must be laid before the visitor — of the income 
 of each college. 
 
 The annual value of ecclesiastical benefices connected 
 with the coleges is at least 200,OOOZ., and the income of 
 
232 EDUCATION IN OXITORD. 
 
 the university, including its trust estates, will bring the 
 gross total to not much less than 500,000^. per annum. 
 Not much less than a moiety of this sum is expended in 
 pensions — that is to say, in assistance or reward without 
 service or labour being rendered on behalf of the 
 stipend. I do not mean that the stipend is not, or 
 rather will not be, deserved ; but it is absolutely 
 irrespective of any return for the future on the part of 
 the recipient. 
 
 This great annual income is thrown, in the main, 
 open to the country at large. "With the smaller portion 
 of it, the expenditure of a considerable sum is needed 
 as an addition to the help afforded. With the larger 
 part, the condition of a degree in the university, or an 
 incorporation from Cambridge or Dublin universities — 
 academical reciprocities do not include Dm'ham and 
 London — is needed besides certain other obligations 
 antecedent and subsequent on the election to the endow- 
 ments in question, on which I shall comment in a subse- 
 quent-paragraph. 
 
 People are not, I believe, aware of how largely 
 literature is endowed in England and how much more 
 fully it will be endowed in time to come, when the 
 tenants of those fellowships which are of a restricted 
 character have passed away. It is true that the endow- 
 ment is limited by conditions imposed on candidates for 
 collegiate emoluments, and by occupants after election. 
 And, perhaps, no reform or change in the existing state 
 of the colleges would have been more serviceable and 
 more beneficent than a permission granted, or maybe 
 an obligation laid on the authorities of those institu- 
 tions, to allow moderate pensions from their funds to 
 those persons, and there are too many of them, who, 
 after a long and useful life of literary toil, need and 
 
SCHOLAESHIPSj FELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 233 
 
 deserve pecuniary assistance in the evening of their 
 days. 
 
 Endowments of the NATtjRE of Scholaeships. — 
 There are, as has been already stated, intrinsic differ- 
 ences in the eligibility and reputation of those emolu- 
 ments attached to foundations.. These differences do 
 not arise from the greater or less capacity and profi- 
 ciency of the recipient, but from the real or presumed 
 social status attached to the aid in question. In other 
 words, there aire poor scholars who derive assistance 
 -from certain more or less permanent funds in connec- 
 tion with or out of the general revenues of the different 
 colleges. 
 
 ' These persons are called, as the case may be, Bible 
 Clerks or Servitors. As is usual with phrases denot- 
 ing the relation of persons to official rank and duty, 
 these terms have totally departed from their original 
 meaning. The Bible clerk was in old time (after the 
 Eeformation, however, I presume, for I have found no 
 trace of the office before that time) the person who, 
 while the rest of the society were at their common 
 meals, read some portion of' Scripture, with a view to 
 tlae checking indifferent or ordinary conversation. It 
 is well known that such a practice prevailed in most 
 monasteries during the time of refection, or meals - 
 taking ; and in all likelihood the custom was induced 
 from this source upon the reformed colleges. In 
 modern times, these duties evaporated or were com- 
 muted into that of marking attendance at chapel, a 
 function which has been latterly, in many societies, 
 committed, as it should have been long since, to the 
 porter or chapel door-keeper. 
 
 The servitor (he exists at present at one college only. 
 
234 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 Christ Church) is the relict of a very numerous and 
 important class of persons. In those times when per- 
 sonal servitude was no discredit, and the relations 
 between ranks were based upon the subordination of 
 juniors to seniors, as much as upon that of mean to 
 noble blood, the performance of functions which would 
 now-a-days be thought servile was familiar and natural. 
 In all likelihood when the' founder of a college pro- 
 vided, as he sometimes did, maintenance for both 
 scholars and fellows, the scholars were the personal 
 servants of the fellows. Hence in the old accounts of 
 colleges one may read of many kinds of such subordi- 
 nates, who worked out by menial service the necessary 
 period of their academical career under the names of 
 servitores, batellarii, and the like, nor is it more than 
 a century since such persons ceased to be general in the 
 university. 
 
 These servitors were known, as was the fashion, by 
 a peculiar dress. They wore a square cap without 
 any tassel, and a gown of stuff, without certain plaited 
 work on portions of it. These distinctions have been 
 latterly done away with, either in whole or part They 
 dined after the other students, on the broken meat of 
 the superior tables, served up in savage fashion; and 
 it was the custom that on some special occasions they 
 should bring a dish to the high table in memory of tbeir 
 previous servile condition, and their present inferiority ; 
 a custom remitted about twenty years ago. They 
 naturally formed a society by themselves. 
 
 There are thirteen or more servitors at Christ Church. 
 It is understood that the advantages of a pecuniary kind 
 attached to the office or benefaction which they enjoy 
 are considerable. Some of these servitors have achieved 
 very creditable positions in their society. Not long 
 
SCHOIiAESHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, ETC, 235 
 
 since one of tlie number obtained a double first-class. 
 But as regarded any future position in the college, that 
 is to say, the place of one of the students, i. e. fellows, 
 of the college, it was rigorously denied them. The 
 individual to whom I refer was refused a^ studentship 
 by the late dean, notwithstanding his high academical 
 position. Similar cases are recorded. The only pro- 
 spect before a servitor was that of becoming one of the 
 college chaplains, an office analogous but inferior to the 
 minor canons of cathedrals, with the ultimate prospect 
 of a college living, which has been refused by all the 
 students in succession. 
 
 The exclusion of those who have been servitors at 
 Christ Church from the hope of any emolument or 
 reward in their own college has been rescinded, among 
 some other practices of that society, by the provisions 
 embodied in the ordinances under the Act of 1854. 
 One cannot comment too strongly on the meanness and 
 vulgarity which created and endowed the precedents on 
 which the previous rule was founded, or fail to recog- 
 nize how readily corporate a-utkorities create and defend 
 any practice which is elastic in one direction and rigid 
 in another. 
 
 Ordinarily servitors were the sons of poor clergymen. 
 Sometimes, but rarely, they were the sons of college 
 servants, and inferior tradesmen. 
 
 Much may be said in favour of granting pecuniary 
 assistance to those whose antecedents naturally entitle 
 them to look forward to the same social grade as their 
 parents, but whose means are not adequate to the 
 expense, or whose abilities and acquirements are not 
 such as to give them a fair prospect of competing on 
 equal terms for open scholarships. Except on the broad 
 rule that such aid must, in the vast aggregate of cases. 
 
236 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 where the poverty of parents precludes the hope of 
 academical education, be capricious and arbitrary, the 
 disposition to succour and promote the future prospects 
 of such individuals is laudable and kindly. But no 
 such reason can be alleged for the caprice of selecting 
 persons whose manners, social position, and intelligence 
 do not warrant their expecting any better status than 
 that in which they were born, and putting such parties 
 into what finally will be an anomalous and extraordi- 
 nary social superiority. It is not just, sensible, or 
 prudent, and not even benevolent. Such people are 
 apt to be ashamed of their immediate kindred, have 
 suggested to them by the very circumstances of their 
 rise in life that they should be supple and cringing, 
 rarely warrant the exceptional generosity shown them 
 by subsequent usefulness, and certainly are the objects 
 of a choice for which no cause can be given but per- 
 sonal favour and unreasoning patronage. While it is 
 the duty of the university and its colleges to give as 
 broad an opportunity as possible for persons who wish 
 to avail themselves of academical education, however 
 poor their circumstances and mean their birth may be, 
 it is as surely its duty to rest the claims of candidates 
 for its pecmiiary aid on as few and as equitable principles 
 of distribution as can possibly be framed. 
 
 At those colleges where a musical service forms part 
 of the foundation, there are to be found a body of indi- 
 viduals who are responsible for the due performance 
 of choral functions. The only corporations in which 
 this forms a fundamental part of the establishment are 
 Christ Church, Magdalene, New College, and St. John's. 
 In the first and last of these, the men's parts are per- 
 formed by the same sort of persons as one ordinarily 
 finds in cathedral and capitular foundations, under the 
 
SCHOLAESHIPS, PELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 237 
 
 name of lay vicars, or singing men. In Magdalene and 
 New, somsj at least, of these offices aye filled by under- 
 graduates ; and in the last named of these societies, the 
 college has very wisely created a class of choral scholars, 
 with a view, we may presume, to the formation of an 
 educated body of musical experts. Those portions of 
 the service which must be performed by clergymen are 
 supplied in Christ Church by the chaplains, and in 
 •Magdalene and New by persons holding the same title, 
 but in a different position, because not forming a part 
 of what ordinarily constitutes a cathedral establishment. 
 On the other hand, the • colleges maintain social dif- 
 ferences between the chaplains and the fellows. 
 
 Besides these, each of the above-named colleges has a 
 body of choristers. In St. John's the boys have, I 
 believe, no education beyond the necessary musical 
 training ; but in the other societies the boys are care- 
 fully and efficiently instructed by proper teachers. 
 Within the last twenty years the Christ Church 
 choristers were the servants of the chaplains ; and as 
 the servitors were fed on the broken meat of the 
 noblemen and gentlemen conlmoners, , so these boys 
 fought and scrambled for the fragments of the chaplain's 
 table. The alteration, I am told, was made at the 
 earnest and repeated expostulation of the chaplains 
 themselves, who induced the authorities of Christ 
 Church, if not to feel a sense of duty or decency, at 
 least to comprehend its existence in others. 
 
 The president and fellows of Magdalene collected the 
 boys into a home, under the care of a master, whom 
 they allowed to take additional boarders, and to create 
 a sort of grammar-school. It is understood that the 
 advantages belonging to a chorister's office in Magdalene 
 College are, both immediately and prospectively, very 
 
238 EDUCATION IN 05F0ED. 
 
 considerable, and there is no small competition for 
 election into their number. At New College, the 
 choristers have long been collected in one house, and 
 placed under proper supervision ; and here, again, great 
 and beneficial changes have been introduced into the 
 instruction and management of the children. It is 
 generally the case that choristers, if they take well to 
 learning, and are otherwise promising, fill subsequently 
 the place of clerks or choral scholars, and will, on the 
 whole, have a progressively improvable condition. 
 Sometimes exhibitions are specially attached to the 
 order of choristers. 
 
 The PmifCiPLES on which Elections to Schola.r- 
 SHIPS ARE Made. — In the vast majority of instances, 
 those acquirements are tested in scholarship examina- 
 tions which are ordinarily cultivated in grammar- 
 schools ; and conversely grammar-schools make it their 
 business to train their youths up to what is the general 
 or traditional form of college examinations. They act 
 reciprocally on one another. Underlying this process, 
 however, it is generally understood that the examiners 
 at the several colleges frame their judgment of a candi- 
 date's merits, not only in what they see in his present 
 information, but what they can predict from his abilities 
 will be likely to secure a good place in the final exami- 
 nation in the classical school. The prediction is, how- 
 ever, very frequently falsified, and that, not merely 
 from a wrong judgment on the part of the examiners, 
 but from circumstances connected with the future career 
 of the individual who is elected to the scholarship iia 
 question. 
 
 Very few opportunities were given in Oxford for the 
 study of mathematics, and very few aids afforded to 
 
SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 239 
 
 those whose taste or abilities made them proficients in 
 this hranch of knowledge. It was always the case, 
 however, that particular attention was paid to mathe- 
 matics at Merton College; and in the election of 
 ■postmasters — the scholars of this college^— places were 
 always reserved to those who showed marked profi- 
 ciency on this subject. Merton, though a very small 
 college, has had more mathematical first-class men, 
 during the last twenty years, than any other establish- 
 ment in Oxford. 
 
 Latterly, however, the reconstitution of the several 
 colleges has introduced a change in this respect. 
 Special studentships are reserved to undergraduates in 
 Christ Church, and demyships in Magdalene, for pro- 
 ficients in mathematics. Such a provision is very 
 laudable and very suggestive. With a folly which is 
 strangely contrasted with this wisdom, a folly so marked 
 as to make the wisdom seem fortuitous, studentships 
 and demyships are reserved in these two societies for 
 proficiency in physical science, the unlikeliest thiug 
 that schoolboys could have even a bare smattering in. 
 But of this hereafter. 
 
 In the ordinary coiirse of things, the college adver- 
 tises its vacant scholarship some weeks, or even months, 
 before the day of election, the day being sometimes 
 fixed and sometimes variable. The advertisement is 
 generally inserted in a newspaper called the Oxford Uni- 
 verdty Herald, a paper which I should imagine has the 
 smallest circulation of any periodical in existence. From 
 this, or by the announcement of their correspondents, 
 it gets witia some irregularity into TJie Times and other 
 newspapers of wide circulation, and from which, one 
 may condBide, the general public derives its infor- 
 maloon. 
 
240 EDUCATION IN OXFOED. 
 
 It has lately been tlie fashion -to specify, along with 
 the fact of the vacancy or vacancies, the annual value 
 and other advantages of the scholarship in question, to 
 state the limitations, whatever they maybe, under which 
 candidates are admitted, and the requisite testimonials' 
 and the like which must be transmitted or presented 
 to the head or vicegerent of the college or hall in 
 question. 
 
 These conditions are generally^l. Age, which is 
 seldom more than twenty years. 2. Baptism, which 
 must be certified by copies from the church register. 
 3. Marriage of the parents of the candidate, a condition 
 almost universal before the Act of 1854, but seldom 
 exacted now. 4. Evidence of good character. 5. A 
 formal memorial from the candidate praying permission 
 to stand, and generally demanded in the form of a 
 Latin letter. 6. In exceptional cases, evidence of local 
 claims, poverty, or special descent ; the latter generally 
 from persons in holy orders. As there are about 30,000 
 clergymen of the Established Church, the latter con- 
 dition is a tolerably wide one. 
 
 The examination of the candidates is mainly on paper, 
 but partly viva voce. It ordinarily lasts four or five 
 days, and is, or is intended to be, as searching as 
 possible. 
 
 It may be stated generally that an examination for a 
 scholarship awarded to proficiency in classical acquire- 
 ments, or, in other words, to that which is relative to 
 the Oxford first-class, comprises an inquiry into the 
 candidate's knowledge of the Greek and Latin lan- 
 guages. This is tested in four or five/ ways. 1st. By 
 translations of difficult portions of authors in these two 
 tongues into English, the passages being selected, with 
 more or less care and judgment, from those books which 
 
SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 241 
 
 are not ordinarily read at schools. 2nd. Translation 
 from! English prose into Latin and Greek prose. 
 3rd. Translation into Latin and Greek verse, the Latin 
 verse being generally elegiac or lyrical, the Greek* 
 iambic measures. 4th. Cjuestions on empirical Greek 
 and Latin grammar. 5th. Original essays. 
 
 These tests are of very various real and hypothetical 
 value. Unfortunately, they do not always coincide. 
 By far the safest test is that of Latin prose, and of 
 English translation, when the translation is estimated 
 by exactness and facility. But these portions of the 
 examinations are seldom weighed at so high a rate as 
 some others. 
 
 The labour of reading over a vast amount of rubbish 
 has brought the test of essay writing into disfavour. 
 But where it has been made, and it is said in some 
 cases still to be made, a critical test, its value is very- 
 great as a prediction of capacity. 
 
 Unfortunately, however, the English universities and 
 the English grammar-schtolsy in their reciprocal action 
 on each other, have given an enormous and utterly 
 disproportionate value to the faculty of stringing to- 
 gether Greek and Latin verses. I do not know how 
 the custom arose, but it is a very old one. I remember 
 to have read how, shortly after Eton College was 
 founded, one of the younger Fastens, in the collection 
 of these letters, sends his father from Eton a miserable 
 doggrel couplet, which he announces with great pride 
 as his own composition ; and so I conclude that, in this 
 school at least, the fashion of verse-writbg, as a means 
 of education, is antecedent to the revival of classical 
 literature. 
 
 As it is, the power of writing Greek and Latin verses 
 is as fair and critical a test of the present and future 
 
 16 
 
242 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 / ' capacities of the candidate, as dancing on the tight-rope 
 ( or playing a piano would be. The power is exceptional, 
 and except in those cases in which there is a far 
 more ample and safe mode of forming an estimate, is 
 wholly worthless. However, it is of great hypothetical 
 weight, and will be perhaps till college examiners get to 
 be a little sensible of the utter inutility of their favourite 
 test. 
 
 The examination is not conducted according to the 
 plan which prevails in public competitive ones. In 
 these — by the way, the university has indorsed this 
 practice by its rule in the "local examinations" — the 
 candidate is only known by a number, the most abstract 
 and therefore the least suspicious way conceivable. 
 There is no evidence that there are not other influences 
 at work beyond an estimate of wprk done, and pro- 
 spective hopes. Yet I make no doubt that, practically, 
 the election is equitable. The interests of colleges are 
 getting to be so very much committed in the future of 
 its scholars as to make favouritism, generally spealcing, 
 unsafe and unwise. But it would be well to adopt the 
 rule of public examinations elsewhere. 
 
 And this is the more to the purpose becfl,u8e, without 
 doubt, a very different principle prevailed before the 
 Act of 1854. With the exception of certain marked 
 and well-known societies, I do not believe that an election 
 under the old system was ever bond fide. And, m fact, 
 whenever the very smallest element of patronage is mixed 
 up with the form of an open election, it is wonderful to see 
 with what tenacity people who have to give cling to the 
 right of arbitrary choice, and disclaim the practice of 
 choosing arbitrarily. It is not easy to account for this on 
 the ground of the satisfaction which people feel at denying 
 themselves the pleasure or the profit of the licence to 
 
SCHOLARSHIPS, TELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 243 
 
 €njoy a furtive iniquity. All evidence is against the 
 likelihood that people will do what is righteous, when 
 they have the privilege of committing irresponsifele in- 
 justice. And certainly no evidence can be more con- 
 clusive than that gathered from the contrast between 
 the solemn injunctions of academical benefactors — ^in- 
 junctions fortified as far as may be with oaths and 
 penalties — and the marked breach of injunctions, viola- 
 tion of oaths, and inutility of penalties against fraudulent 
 preferences. 
 
 There is, however, a practical difference between the 
 intrinsic estimate of scholarships, which is immediately 
 derived from the class schools. It is plain, since Balliol 
 has achieved fifty-seven first-class men in twenty years, 
 and Jesus College only one, that a scholarship at the 
 latter college is less significant than a matriculation at 
 the Ibrmer. And the same feet will apply in its degree 
 to other societies, when contrasted with Balliol College, 
 and with one another. That an undergraduate gained 
 a coUege scholarship is no evidence in his favour, and it 
 will not, though improved evidence, be a very conclusive 
 kind of it now. 
 
 Hence any information as to the relative values of 
 scholarships and the comparative scale of merit attached 
 to success in these trials would be impracticable. In the 
 first place, it would be interminable ; in the next, 
 fluctuating. The best test is that of the class schools. 
 Biit this test is a remote one. Apart from other 
 circumstances, in estimating the merit «f a college' 
 election, one is met by the problem of how far the 
 cdlege examiner was up to his work, and eompetait to 
 determine the present and predict the future. 
 
 However, with all their difiiculties in detail, one may 
 have some confidence in the election of scholars on the 
 
 16—2 
 
244 EDUCATION IN OXPOKD. 
 
 estimate of classical and mathematical proficiency. 
 These matters represent the labour of many years, and 
 the competitive processes of schools, misguided often and 
 mistaken, but still competitive. 
 
 Far different is it with the ridiculous sciolism which 
 has created scholarships for physical science. If it be 
 understood, and this maybe vras the intention of this 
 provision, that physical science will be taught in schools, 
 the revolution in ordinary school education would be 
 ludicrous, inconvenient, and mischievous. One may 
 safely say that the change will not take place. And 
 in default of such a change, what does the provision 
 mean ? why, merely that some advertising or informed 
 schoolmaster will teach one or two of his boys a smat- 
 tering of chemistry and physiology, and with very trifling 
 pains will get the credit of having put one of his pupils 
 into a scholarship ranked on equal terms with what is the 
 result of many j^ears' patient learning and careful com- 
 petitive instruction. The capital of your mere student 
 in physical science is the smallest conceivable. Social 
 reputations in older life may be founded on the scantiest 
 possessions in it. Scholarship reputations in boys v/ill 
 rest upon still scantier qualifications. Nay, I have 
 already heard of a candidate and a successful one for 
 a physical science scholarship, who was unable to obtain 
 a far less valuable exhibition, in his own college, for 
 proficiency in the subject for which he got his scholar- 
 ship, because he was not up to the mark, or because the 
 cram of his examination work had evaporated. 
 
 Elections to FELLOWssn's. — Fellowships were ap- 
 parently, in the early history of the university, con- 
 ferred on its junior members. In some colleges, as 
 New and St. John's, these offices were possessed by 
 
SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 243 
 
 youths on their quitting school. The same or a similar 
 state of things prevailed at Christ Church, where the 
 reader will remember they are known by the name of 
 Students. There was no distinction between the under- 
 graduate fellows and others, except the accidental one 
 of seniors and juniors, and the period of probation, 
 which, however,, equally affected all who were admitted 
 to the emoluments of a fellow for a longer or shorter 
 period. At Exeter, too, though it does not appear 
 ^hat freshmen could be elected to a fellowship, under- 
 graduates were. But, with these exceptions, the prac- 
 tice was uniformly to elect those only who had taken 
 the degree of B.A. 
 
 Again, the conditions annexed to all fellowships were 
 pretty uniform. In the first place, they were almost 
 always obliged to reside. Leave of absence from 
 Oxford was only gra,nted on rare and urgent occasions, 
 at the recommendation of the highest authority, and for 
 short periods only of time. It does not appear that this 
 residence involved any duties, except those implied in 
 residence, namely, that the fellows should addict them- 
 selves to study. But the practice of exacting residence 
 has long'fallen into desuetude, and the obligation to study 
 has been very generally ignored. 
 
 In the next place, the fellow was obliged to proceed 
 to ordinary academical degrees, and, in certain cases, to 
 degrees in some particular faculty. Occasionally, the 
 number of fellows was parcelled out into those which 
 should graduate in arts, divinity, or law. The signifi- 
 cance of this rule, which prevailed in New College, St. 
 John's, All Souls, and to a certain extent in Magdalene, 
 was the exaction from the fellow of a particular course 
 of reading. Of course, when the exercises for superior 
 degrees became a farce, and academical education was 
 
246 EDUCATIOJI IN OXFORD. 
 
 concluded with the degree of B.A., the necessity of 
 taking this degree was rested solely on the pecuniary 
 disabilities, or the removal from the list of fellows, as 
 the case may be, of those who neglected to fulfil the 
 condition. 
 
 Furthermore, the condition of celibacy was attached, 
 either expressly or by implication, to all fellowships. 
 The only exception, as far as I am aware, to this con- 
 dition was in the case of Radcliffe's travelling fellow- 
 ships, which were held by students in medicine, and 
 terminable at the conclusion of ten years. Occasionally 
 the founder excluded ipso facto from his benefaction 
 those who had engaged themselves to be married — qui 
 sponsalia contraxerint. Fox did so at Corpus. But this 
 rule fell into disuse. Most fellows of colleges are, or 
 have been engaged to be, married, and have suffered 
 from the nausea of deferred hope. The heads, too, of 
 the colleges were generally required to be celibates, but 
 gradually have been relieved from this condition, the 
 last case in which the limitation was remitted having 
 been that of the headship of Wadham, in the present 
 • generation. It is easy to see the- reason of the rule — 
 the founders have purposed that the recipients of their 
 benefaction should live together. Fox, in his statutes 
 to Corpus, expressly compares his college to a hive. 
 
 In by far the largest number of cases the fellows 
 were called upon, after a given time, to take holy 
 orders. In some colleges only one or two lay fellows 
 were allowed. In some, all must eventually take priest's 
 orders. In two it appears that no such rule existed. 
 These were Merton and All Souls. The former case is 
 marked, because Merton was undoubtedly the founder 
 of the collegiate system. The latter college was, how- 
 ever, in reahty, a chantry, which, by some strange acci 
 
SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 247 
 
 dent, survived the fate of its brethren at the Reformation. 
 In order, moreover, to secure that the fellow should take 
 holy orders, the statutes ordinarily required that he 
 should graduate in theology, and proof must Jje given 
 on pr,esentation for degrees in theology that the appli- 
 cant is in priest's orders. The conflicting interests of 
 different persons on the foundation caused that these 
 rules should be pretty correctly kept. 
 
 Very few fellowships were open to general competi- 
 tion. They were at Balliol, with the exception of two. 
 They were in a very few cases at Oriel, But they 
 were in no other society. Local restrictions of a more 
 or less narrow character, previous connection with the 
 college, kinship with the founder, and similar regula- 
 tions, made the real field of competition exceedingly 
 scanty in its dimensions. 
 
 The electors were bound by their statutes to choose 
 such persons as would promote the interests of the 
 college, and with them those of religion and learning. 
 This obligation was commonly construed in such a way 
 as to render incompatible what the founder conceived 
 was harmonious. Perhaps, the interests of the college 
 even were not finally considered. At any rate, those 
 elections which were professedly most open were seldom 
 free from suspicion. The examination was little more 
 than the thin cover of a foregone conclusion — a veiled 
 sophism. The writer well remembers, in the case of a 
 particular college, in which it was possible to elect 
 undergraduate fellows, that two vacancies occurred and 
 were duly advertised as open to general competition — 
 at least competition as general as was in those days 
 ordinarily possible. He told an individual, who was 
 then and is now of considerable note in Oxfisrd, that two 
 undergraduates whom he named would be elected ; and. 
 
24S EDUCATION IN OXFOKD. 
 
 of course, was answered it was no such thing, and that 
 the examination would be bond fide. From ten to fifteen 
 first-class men were candidates. The two undergra- 
 duates TJipre elected, and both got second-classes a year 
 after their election. But of such elections one might 
 relate dozens, even when there was the afiectation of an 
 elaborate examination. Nothing, in short, was more 
 characterized by dishonesty and jobbing, than Oxford 
 fellowship elections before the Act of 1854. Nothing 
 was more thoroughly dissimilar from the reality than 
 the appearance of an open election, and nothing which 
 seems creditable is less intrinsically creditable than the 
 fact of a man's being one of those fellows under the old 
 system. 
 
 Since the Act of 1854, new statutes have been pro- 
 mulgated and confirmed for all the colleges but one. 
 This last, however, that, namely, of St. John, is in the 
 course of being reconstructed. The alterations gene- 
 rally made in the statutes are marked and tolerably 
 imiform. 
 
 Undergraduate fellows are absolutely done away 
 with. The mischief induced by permitting young men, 
 in the impossibility of exacting strict discipline, to look 
 forward with certainty to a provision for life, is so 
 obvious and was so great, that the Commissioners could 
 not but do away with it. Thus in those colleges where 
 these undergraduate were mixed up with graduate fel- 
 lows, a line is drawn, and those below it are the tenants 
 of terminable scholarships. 
 
 Again, the necessary election of fellows from scho- 
 lars, which prevailed at Queen's, New College, Corpus, 
 Trinity (generally), Balliol (in its close fellowships), 
 Jesus, Pembroke, Wadham, University (in part), Wor- 
 cester, and Magdalene (by usurpation) is done away 
 
SCIIOLAESI-IIPS, mLLOWSHIPS, ETC. 249 
 
 with. Scholars have now no larger claim on the 
 electors than any strangers to the society. 
 
 Further, kindred, to the founder is no longer any 
 right. Generally, too, local, school, and professional 
 claims are annulled. The exceptions are fifteen fellow- 
 ships at New College, and a moiety at Jesus. In the 
 former case the candidates must have been members of 
 New College, or persons educated at Winchester in the 
 first place, and in the latter, natives of the Principality 
 or Monmouthshire. 
 
 Two fellowships only, I believe, are in the gift of 
 extra-academical parties. One at Exeter is bestowed 
 by the dean and chapter, another at Lincoln by the 
 bishop of that see. 
 
 Certain fellowships at Worcester are still limited to 
 sons of clergymen of the Church of England. 
 
 Eesidence is no longer required. There i^, indeed, 
 provision made in the several statutes that it may be 
 exacted at the discretion of the head, on pain of forfei- 
 ture by the fellow. But as the exercise of this discre- 
 tion must be exceptional, and will certainly seem like 
 persecution, one may safely conclude that the occurrence 
 of it will be rare. 
 
 The head may be nominated or elected from other 
 persons than those who have been fellows. In some 
 colleges the fellows had the liberty of choosing an 
 alien member for their head. But I never heard of 
 the privilege being employed more than once, and this 
 was two or three generations ago at Balliol. But it 
 was a proper thing to put this licence into the hands of 
 the college. 
 
 The fellows must remain single during the time of 
 their tenure. In most cases a year after the marriage 
 is allowed to the fellow, and is called his year of grace. 
 
250 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 The fellows must be members of tbe Churcli of 
 England. Any act which may be legitimately con- 
 strued as at variance with her communion, or in dero- 
 gation of her teaching and discipline, is held to be 
 overt, and to warrant dismissal from the list of fellows. 
 There is no great reason to believe that this rule 
 would be enforced with any rigour on laymen, at least 
 it is ordinarily understood not to be very terrible to 
 clergymen. Of course an actual secession is another 
 affair. The condition of churcli membership is in- 
 tended to be a law, but is probably little better than 
 a protest. 
 
 On the other hand, terminable fellowships are 
 abolished. These existed absolutely in Wadham and 
 Queen's, and optionally in University and Pembroke. 
 There is an optional terminability in the new fellowships 
 of St. John's, but these fellowships, having been very 
 lately founded, are an exception to the Act. 
 
 Again, the necessity df proceeding to degrees in 
 divinity, law, and the like, is done away with. No 
 penalties are affixed to those who do not graduate in 
 special subjects. There is no doubt that, this rule will 
 have a powerful effect on the number of law and divinity 
 graduates. 
 
 Finally, there is a large infusion of laymen among 
 the fellows of the newly framed colleges. It is not 
 possible to say how many there are, because the number 
 of fellowships is perpetually and will be perpetually 
 changing. Still it seems to be intended that the educa- 
 tion of undergraduates, the discipline of the college, 
 and all matters bearing on its relations to the university, 
 should be in clerical hands. Hence when the number 
 of clerical fellows falls below a certain amount, provi- 
 sion is made, either that the next elected person should 
 
SCHOLAESHrPS, PEM-OWSHIPS, ETC. 251 
 
 be in full orders, or that one or more of the lay fellows 
 should vacate their offices and pensions. 
 
 A fellow is disabled from holding his fellowship, and 
 if it happen before, from standing for a fellowship, if 
 he has a certain amount of personal income. This 
 regulation is supposed to preserve the intentions of 
 founders in excluding those who were not by their 
 circumstances in need of eleemosjrnary endowments. 
 It is doubtful whether the rule will be maintained ; it 
 is certain that it has already been broken. The amount 
 is generally 5QQI. per annum of stock, land, &c., and an 
 ecclesiastical benefice of 300Z. per annum net. One 
 does not see on what grounds this large difference is 
 made, except it be that the clergyman ought to be poor. 
 
 If a fellow accepts a college living, his fellowship is 
 avoided. But this rule does not hold good, if the 
 living has been refused successively by all clerical 
 fellows. 
 
 One fellowship in every college may be assigned to 
 distinguished persons, even though they are married 
 or otherwise disabled. They must, however, have had 
 an honorary degree, or one by diploma conferred on 
 them, or must be professors in the university. Two 
 such fellowships, have been bestowed, so to speak, in 
 ernnmendam. But no college can give more than one 
 SQch fellowship away. 
 
 The Commissioners instituted what I cannot help call- 
 ing the silly practice of creating honorary fellowships. 
 Nothing but an absurd vanity can desire such a dis- 
 tinction, a vanity prevalent enough, and mischievous 
 enough in the Church. Not many such have been 
 ■bestowed. They have been instituted, however, rather 
 plentifully at Christ Church; but one supposes it is 
 because this society desires patrons. 
 
252 EDUCATION IN OXFORD- 
 
 Most of the colleges have contributed largely from 
 their revenues to the endowment of professorships. In 
 some cases the assignment has been made, in some it is 
 to be made, the university in Convocation being ap- 
 pointed the judge of whether the offer or the direction 
 of the offer is desirable for the general purposes of 
 instruction. Thus, Magdalene is to found four such 
 ofEces. Queen's has consented to endow Sedley's pro- 
 fessor ; Oriel, the Regius professor of modern history ; 
 Wadham, that of experimental philosophy ;. Corpus, 
 that of Latin : the necessary funds for these purposes 
 being derived from the suppression of fellowships. All 
 Souls has already created one, a professor of inter- 
 national law, and is by way of accumulating funds for 
 another. 
 
 It will be seen, then, that by the omission of certain 
 conditions of birth and the like, the relaxatioii of those 
 rules which affected the person who had been elected in 
 the choice of his- profession, and by the permission of 
 non-residence, that fellowships, looked at from a pecu- 
 niary point of view, will be far more valuable; and 
 looked at by the facilities afforded for candidates, and 
 the pretty uniform rule attaching to them of detur 
 digniori, that they will be more accessible to the general 
 body of literary persons who have graduated at the 
 university. Furthermore, it is likely that these facili- 
 ties of acquirement, largeness of tenure, and freedom, 
 comparatively speaking, from subsequent conditions, 
 will have a tendency towards making the succession 
 more rapid, and of considerably increasing the advan- 
 tages derived to the clerical fellows from college livings. 
 They present, in short, a mass of emoluments to pains- 
 taking and successful labour, on those subjects which 
 form part of the academical curriculum which are 
 
SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 253 
 
 well worthy of the knowledge and interest of the puhlic 
 at large. 
 
 It is of great interest, however, to know on what 
 principle the election is made, and is likely to be made 
 for the future. 
 
 First of all then, the Commissioners have universally 
 ruled that tlje election should be made according to 
 merit, and have left, as indeed they must have left, the 
 judgment about the merits of the several candidates in 
 the hands of the head and fellows of the respective 
 societies into which the candidates desire election. But 
 the head and fellows are bound in conscience to act as 
 trustees, and to make their election in accordance with 
 the conditions of the .trust which they administer. 
 
 Such an election implies an examination. This 
 examination is^ to be sure, at the discretion of the 
 electors, but it naturally flows into the same channel 
 with that which the university prescribes in the honour 
 schools, and which acts as a check upon error or unfair- 
 ness in the election. The colleges are empowered to 
 make any subject the mat,erial of their examination: 
 and there is nothing to prevent any particular college 
 from giving a preference to proficiency in mathematics, 
 modern history, or physical science, and there is no 
 doubt that, in course of time, such preferences will be 
 occasionally made^ 
 
 On the presumption that the examination for a fellow- 
 ship is generally identical with that in the honour schools; 
 the previous status of the examinee in that school, and, 
 thereupon, recognized acquaintance with the material 
 on which the candidate's claims are rested, is ordinarily 
 a great guide to the head and fellows for electing into 
 colleges. This prejudice in favour of those who have 
 stood well in these examinations is as natural as it is 
 
254 , EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 just. The public examiners are far better judges of 
 individual and relative proficiency than any elective 
 body in Oxford. 
 
 One cannot ever expect to see that elections, in 
 which so close a personal relation subsists, or is sup- 
 posed to subsist, between the several members of a 
 college, will be ever rested absolutely on the intel- 
 lectual powers and learning of the candidates, however 
 much it may be the duty of electors to make their 
 election on this ground only. Yet the scandals of the 
 old system will be avoided, in great degree, and wiU be 
 still more inoperative, if it ever comes to pass, as the 
 writer earnestly hopes it may come to pass, that the 
 monopoly of the colleges is done away. The external 
 stimulant of a body of independent students will do 
 more to purge colleges of the remaining tendencies 
 towards favouritism and incompetence than any other 
 process. 
 
 There is one college in which the rights of the 
 electors are modified. This is All Souls. Here, no 
 person can be a candidate, unless he shall have gained 
 a first-class — by which is not meant a so-called first- 
 class in moderations, a phrase the university has care- 
 fully avoided — in the final examination, or have pro- 
 cured one of the university prizes or scholarships. One 
 must assign this limitation on the powers of the All 
 Souls' fellows to the fact that no endowment was more 
 scandalously mismanaged and perverted than that of 
 this society before its late changes^ Candidates might 
 have been elected from any part, of the province of 
 Canterbury, with certain preferences to the kindred 
 of the founder. Chichele himself was the son and 
 brother of London tradesmen. But, in course of time, 
 the college became a club for younger sons of peers 
 
SCHOLAllSHIPS, PELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 255 
 
 and country gentlemen. Sometimes these persons had 
 ■worked well and achieved academical honoiu's, for, 
 thirty or forty years ago, it was the fashion for noble- 
 men and country gentlemen to be scholars ; but the 
 college had, latterly, elected common passmen, if they 
 could only show a sufficient social position. In 1851, 
 they had two first-class men among their number, and 
 the majority of the rest had only a common degree. 
 
 The late warden, however, informed the Commis- 
 sioners that, in his opinion, the fellowships were granted 
 at All Souls for merit. It does not appear, however, 
 that any person agreed with him. 
 
 When a fellow is. elected, he has generally to pass 
 a year, and sometimes a longer period, on probation. 
 During this time he is ordinarily obliged to reside in 
 Oxford, in order, we may presume, that the college 
 authorities may see whether his conduct is such as to 
 warrant his permanently remaining a member pf the 
 society. I am not aware of a probationer having ever 
 failed of confirmation in his fellowship, for many years 
 past. Such cases are on record, however. This lenity 
 is strongly contrasted with the rigour sliown in demand- 
 ing, or professing to demand, conclusive proof of the 
 character of candidates. Yet it would be hardly pos- 
 sible for all probationary fellows to satisfy the moral 
 sense of their electors. 
 
 By the present statutes of each college, fellows may 
 be expelled, on formal complaint, for any gross immo- 
 rality, or for ceasing to profess accordance with the 
 doctrines of the Church of England. Many persons, in 
 time past, have resigned their fellowships on the latter 
 ground, and generally because they have joined the 
 communion of the Roman Church. A few, however, 
 have quitted the emoluments of their collie from 
 
256 EDUCATION IN OXFOItD. 
 
 becoming conscientious Dissenters. I never heard of 
 a fellow who was expelled for immorality, and I have 
 certainly known of some who deserved to be. In all 
 cases where penalties are enforced, or even threatened, 
 there is an appeal to the visitor. 
 
 The succession to fellowships must, ifa the nature of 
 things, become progressively more rapid. The number 
 of fellowships is in some degree diminished; and, under 
 their new constitutions, they will be of a larger income, 
 taken individually. But, on the other hand, the dis- 
 proportionate pecuniary advantages belonging to the 
 senior fellows, which operated as a constant inducement 
 to retain them, will cease. There will be a large in- 
 crease of lay fellows — so large, beyond doubt, as to 
 always press on the maximum amount. And the reason 
 is obvious, because, in the great majority of cases, the 
 material prospects of a clergyman are exceedingly small. 
 This will cause fewer persons to be qualified for college 
 livings. Since, also, the rule of merit is to supersede 
 local and family claims entirely, and will interrupt per- 
 sonal favour in a great degree, the persons admitted to 
 the benefactions will be, one may certainly conclude, 
 more active and intelligent than formerly. Now, such 
 persons are not apt to remain single. 
 
 The succession in twenty years, under the old system, 
 was represented by the decimal 1'43, or nearly 15 to 
 20, in twenty years. I make no doubt that, hereafter, 
 it will be so much more rapid as to induce a mutation 
 every ten years. The number of fellowships under the 
 new constitution will be about 350. 
 
 There will, therefore, on the foregoing hypothesis, 
 be in Oxford an annual supply of 35 freehold pensions 
 granted, almost uniformly, to young men of twenty- two 
 to twenty-five years old, each of about the annual value 
 
SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 257 
 
 of 2301, without duty, either special or local, and with 
 no subsequent obligation or condition, except celibacy 
 and conformity. These fellowships will be bestowed 
 on the precedeht condition of a degree, and with the 
 concurrent condition of that sort of satisfaction which 
 the Oxford schools exact in the first place, and a private 
 college examination endorses in the other. There is, I 
 apprehend, no occupation' which provides more social 
 and material advantages than those offered by the 
 college emoluments in Oxford, under the existing state 
 of things. 
 
 The Celibacy of Fellows, the Condition of Chuech 
 Membership, and their Freehold Nature. — The 
 circumstances which belong to fellowships have been 
 matters of considerable dispute. . Many persons are 
 found who dispute the wisdom of the first, condition, 
 and a very large section of nonconformists deny the 
 justice of the second. Again, the advantage which the ■ 
 occupant of a fellowship has in possessing a tenancy for 
 life is a matter of consideration, even though the con- 
 tinuity has been extended to those foundations the en- 
 joyment of which was in former times terminable. 
 
 r have already adverted to the likelihood that the 
 condition of celibacy was originally an accident, diie to 
 the fact that the pre-Reformation colleges were generally 
 founded for the secular clergy, to whom, as well as to 
 monks, marriage was forbidden. It is well known, 
 also, that the marriage of clergymen was viewed for 
 a long time after the Reformation with great disfavour, 
 and that the superiority of a celibate state was a charac- 
 teristic tenet of Laud and his school. However this 
 may have operated, it is cl6ar that it became or was 
 made a rule in the foundation of the post-Reformation 
 
 17 
 
258 BDUCATIOSr IN OXFORD. 
 
 colleges that fellowships should be vacated by marriage, 
 and it will be remembered that there is only one college 
 in Oxford which was not brought directly or indirectly 
 under the influence and control of Laud. 
 
 The arguments in favour of retaining the condition 
 of celibacy are — 1. That it ensures a quick succession. 
 'So doubt, if persons could marry, and retain so de- 
 sirable a freehold as a fellowship is, the senior fellows 
 would all be married — as, indeed, they are at Trinity 
 College, Dublin, and St. Mary's, Winchester. There 
 would always be a considerable number of feEowships 
 occupied by such persons, and the succession would be 
 about, maybe, one-third what it now is or rather will 
 be. 2. That it ensures the presence of a number of 
 resident tutors, who can under the same roof superin- 
 tend the moral control of the young men within the 
 college. This, no doubt, is an exceedingly^ powerful 
 argument. No one would wish- that a body of young 
 men should be aggregated within a buildingi and then 
 left entirely to their own sense of discretion and de- 
 corum. Still, it must be observed that very few of the 
 feUows do reside, and still fewer will reside when the 
 new constitutions have their full play. Talten, how- 
 ever, with the first reason, it is obvious that very few 
 persons would be found, if all fellows might marry, who 
 could live within the walls. 3. The moral influence 
 exercised on the fellow himself. This^ again, is a very 
 important reason. Few men make up their mind to a 
 single life; and it is found frequently to be the case 
 that, great as are the conveniences, comforts, and 
 luxuries of college life, they are readHy resigned by the 
 best men, in order' to have a home. The condition of 
 celibacy is an indirect method of making a fellowship 
 terminable. It operates as a stimulus- to labour and 
 
SCHOLABSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 259 
 
 energy upon a body of men who would naturally be 
 indisposed to any labour or energy at all. 4. It 
 creates society among educated men,, to whom such a 
 state of things would bo difficult, if not impossible, were 
 they married. A college is a club, so to speak, the 
 members of which have more or less to 'live together. 
 It may be doubted, however, whether the life of a 
 common room is provocative of much intercommunion 
 of ideas. 
 
 I am not aware of any very good argument against 
 enforcing celibacy. Generally folks look on such a 
 rule with what is partly a suspicion of its moral bearing, 
 partly a notion that it infringes a natural right. No 
 doubt a man has a right to marry. But most rights 
 are largely invaded, and happily invaded, by social con- 
 siderations. No doubt S'ingle men are less moral than 
 married ones — at least it is ordinarily assumed that 
 they are ; but it may be questioned whether that per- 
 son should not only be condonedj but rewarded, who- 
 asserts his inability to fulfil what is at once a recognized 
 obligation and a moral duty. I think that by the same 
 rule, a man might be claimed to be maintainedi by 
 society who has a distaste or dislike to an employ- 
 ment which he is able to follow, and which might be a 
 means of subsistence to him. People argue about the 
 propriety of marriage from the' practice of the most 
 imprudent, and about the necessities and conveniences 
 of domestic life from the practice of those who have the 
 means of rightly enjoying them. 
 
 Something, it is true, may be said from the fact, that a 
 long life in college unfits a man for occupation else- 
 where; that, in short, an old fellow of a college forms a 
 very clumSy and inefficient parochial clergyman, sadly^ 
 deficient in tact, and rarely able to deal with the very 
 
 17—2 
 
260 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 great difficulties whicli increase upon the incumbents of 
 parishes. But this belongs particularly to a state of 
 things which is passing away, and which must hold but 
 slightly in future. Besides, it might be met by 
 another remedy than that of allojving fellows who had 
 occupied their fellowship for such and such a number 
 of years to marry and retain it. 
 
 Nothing, I am persuaded, but sentimental reasons 
 can be alleged for making fellowships into freeholds. 
 People picture to themselves aged fellows of colleges 
 thrust out upon the world with poverty instead of a 
 comfortable maintenance. But if a man cannot, after a 
 tenure of twelve or fifteen years, sufBciently settle himself 
 in life, as no longer to need eleemosynary aid, he never 
 deserved to have it. A fellowship should be considered 
 as a help to start in a profession or professions where 
 merit is slowly, though, in the end, surely appreciated, 
 not as a benefaction for life. It should not be the end 
 of academical existence. There are numbers of men 
 ruined by having fellowships, because, knowing they 
 have a permanent provision, they are negligent in their 
 subsequent exertions. And any hardship which could 
 occur, as it might occur, to fellows by the determination 
 of their fellowships might be met in the case of clerical 
 fellows by continuing the right of presentation to livings 
 after the fellowship had terminated, and, as I have 
 suggested, by granting pensions to those who, having 
 been fellows, were reduced by misfortune or disease to 
 narrow circumstances. A fellowship is to a man in the 
 prime of life and reputation often a positive evil. Who 
 does not know that the most useless and unsatisfactory 
 members of society are those who have small patri- 
 monies, sufficient to keep them going, but not so little 
 as that other stimulants to exertion may affect them? 
 
SCHOLARSHIPS, PEIXOWSHIPS, ETC. 261 
 
 It was very well when proficiency and industry in 
 letters were neglected or unrewarded, that persons 
 should have permanent fellowships, but it may be 
 doubted whether what was once a rational method may 
 not in these times totally defeat its own- purposes. 
 
 No person can hold a fellowship unless he be, and 
 remain, a member of the EstabHshed Church, that is, 
 unless he professes his agreement with its discipline 
 and doctrines. This arrangement has been impugned 
 by many nonconformists on the ground that it is not 
 equitable to annex theological conditions to the occupa- 
 tion of literaiy rewards. 
 
 It is not, I think, easy to meet this reasoning when 
 one is simply supplied with an argument from the will 
 or intention of the founder. It is true that there is a 
 vast difierence between the succession of the present 
 English Establishment to that which ruled previous to 
 the Reformation, and the relations of the Enghsh Esta- 
 blishment to the body of nonconformists. It is true 
 that exact conformity with the religion of the State was 
 prescribed or implied in the subsequent foundations, not 
 only by the legal disabilites under which nonconformists 
 were, but by thegenerally expressed condition that the 
 fellows should take holy orders. It is true, moreover, 
 that an honest declaration of disagreement from the 
 doctrine and discipline of the English Church is a more 
 commendable act than the acceptance of a benefaction 
 under the continual operation of the doctrine of reserve. 
 But even apart from the specious argument derived 
 from the changed circumstances of the time, and the fact 
 that long since it has been impossible for the statutes of 
 founders to be literally observed, the violent and total 
 change introduced in the year 1854, and subsequently, 
 renders any appeal to the founders' intentions inoperative. 
 
262 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 and any disclaimer of the abstract right of noncon- 
 formists impertinent. On the mere view of abstract 
 justice, Dissenters have as fair a claim to academical 
 emoluments as professed Churchmen. 
 
 The real difficulty, and with it the real answer to these 
 claims — setting aside the unlikelihood of the Church 
 quitting its hold, except under strong compulsion, of 
 what has been so markedly her own for more than three 
 hundred years — is the social difficulty to which I have 
 before adverted, when speaking of the prospects of 
 Dissenters as to admission into the existing colleges. If 
 .there were an infusion of confessedly nonconformist 
 fellows, one might, I think, securely bid adieu to any- 
 thing like peace and quietness among them. The eifect 
 would be, I am sure, a destructive discord. People in 
 -Oxford can well enough, and painfully enough, re- 
 member the blind and furious bigotry of contending 
 parties, though both professed themselves staunch 
 members and special representatives of the Church of 
 England ; but it is not easy to conceive what would be 
 the result of a collision between those who, at any 
 rate, assert their connection with the Establishment and 
 those who hold it to be a delusion, or a usurpation, or a 
 tyranny, or a heresy, or whatever else they may be dis- 
 posed to designate it. A college is more or less a 
 home, more or less an imitation of domestic or common 
 life. With the friendliest feeling towards those who 
 differ with him on theological points, one might, demur 
 to familiar intercourse, and still more to compulsory 
 association, with those who have marked religious dif- 
 ferences with one. At any rate, that feeling is one of 
 general indifference which disclaims a preference to the 
 company of those who agree with him. 
 
 But in its degree this claim is met, though not in an 
 
SCHOLAESHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 26S 
 
 overt w.ay, by the large infusion, of the lay element in 
 the body of fellows. It is notorious that the ties 
 which annex laymen to the English Church are fewer 
 and slighter than those which iinite the clergy to Jier. 
 It has long since been ruled that what is binding on the 
 latter is inoperative on the former, and that a layman 
 may i^ore what a. parson must defend ,and uphold. 
 Nay, the tendency of the presenttime, if one can take some 
 of the most influential reasoning to be conclusive, is to a 
 progressively increasing laxity. We are told that non- 
 conformists are, in the eye of the law. Churchmen, and 
 that they ought to be invariably .ctmsidered snch. 
 
 Something may be stated here by the way, as a 
 defence for the retention of so many clerical fellowships 
 and an explanation for the grievance felt in the abolition 
 of so many more. It is certainly difficult to see how the 
 framers of the report, on which the Act of 1854 was 
 founded, harmonized their reasoning as to the creation 
 of lay fellowships with their favourite argument for 
 change, that of benefit to the society by the introduction 
 of a better cla-ss of men. It is not likely that lay fellows 
 will be resident in Oxford, nor is it .desirable that they 
 should be. They will seek their fortunes elsewhere, and 
 will return nothing for the .aid they receive. They do 
 so now, and they will more largely hereafter. 
 
 The best argument for the retention of clerical fellow- 
 ships is to be immd in the poverty of the Church. Ho 
 one, I repeat, chooses the Church as a profession on 
 account of the material advantages incident to it, unless 
 these have been mapped out for him already. By far 
 the largest portion of that ecclesiastical wealth which 
 people say is so prodigious, is in the hands of private 
 individuals, bought and sold openly lat a high per cent 
 of |>ra:chase, asnd as accessible to the body of those who 
 
264 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 are in holy orders, as any man's balance at his banker's 
 is to his neighbour. For the rest it is ordinarily the 
 prize of political interest, of relationship to official 
 patrons, or of active partizans. A man may be as wise, 
 as eloquent, as active, as self-denying as man can be, 
 nay, he may throw large human learning into the sum 
 of his accomphshments, and remain as a clergyman 
 unnoticed and poor. He labours under political and 
 social disabilities. His choice of a profession is irre- 
 vocable, though he may have mistaken his capacities 
 and resources. He cannot get his living out of the 
 Church, and he cannot get his living in it. He has, it 
 is true, a barren social precedence, constantly imitated, 
 frequently denied, and always watched with distrust and 
 jealousy. It is through the college fellowships, directly 
 and indirectly, that the reputation and numbers of the 
 clergy, their learning and devotedness, are constantly 
 supplied in spite of these prodigious disadvantages. It 
 is by means of these endowments that men rise by the 
 force of self-denial and will, if not to the eminence 
 which patronage bestows, to the independence and 
 usefulness which conscientiousness eifects. 
 
 Future of the Univeksitt. — What may in time to 
 come be the work of this ancient and richly endowed 
 seat of learning, will depend upon the wisdom with 
 which it adapts itself to the wants of the age, the judg- 
 ment with which it exercises its invaluable privilege of 
 self-government, and the liberality with which it admits 
 students into its arms, and gifts them with its emolu- 
 ments. That these emoluments will increase indefinitely 
 in value, is plain, as the resources of the colleges are 
 almost invariably derived from real estates, let in many 
 cases at rents most disadvantageous to the colleges, 
 
SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, ETC. 265 
 
 SO disadvantageous, indeed, as to suggest to many tenants 
 that their occupancy gave them a right to demand 
 compulsory enfranchisement. In some of the richer 
 colleges, it is notorious that land is let at half its value, 
 and that leases, held under these corporations, are often 
 worth half as much as freeholds. College estates, it is 
 likely, will never be managed so judiciously as those of 
 private individuals, but by a system of liberal leases, 
 at rack-rent, they might be prodigiously enhanced in 
 value. The custom, however, of renewal on fines is 
 fast dying out, and the revenues of the colleges will be 
 increased proportionately. 
 
 In many points the direct tendency of the university 
 is to meet the needs of the time by cautious conces- 
 sions. With very different views as to points of detail, 
 most Oxford men are agreed in considering that what 
 now forms the staple of academical instruction should 
 be retained. It has stood the test of centuries, it is 
 prolific of useful men, and it is due to other causes than 
 those which are derived from it, that it has not pro- 
 duced great scholars and profound thinkers. Whatever 
 may be their faults and shortcomings, no national insti- 
 tutions are so pure in their practice and so conscien- 
 tious in their public life as the universities. The worst 
 jobbing in the worst times at the worst college was 
 integrity itself by the side of the dishonesty with which 
 the emoluments of endowed grammar-schools have been 
 administered. 
 
 That the universities should exercise an increasing 
 control over the education of the country must, it 
 aj^pears, result from their secularization, their accom- 
 modation to modern habits of thought, and their public 
 acts. It is not necessary that conformity should hence- 
 forth be the condition of academical distinction. Ox- 
 
266 EDUCATION IN OXFORD. 
 
 ford has accepted the importunate wooing of physical 
 science, and recompensed it with a prodigal self- 
 sacrifice. It has initiated a voluntary system of school 
 inspection. It has even opened its arms, at the earnest 
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 without it, to medicine and mechanics, the nymphs 
 who have either jilted it long ago, or disdained its 
 addresses. 
 
 The universities have done much for the present, are 
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 have been democratic both in their meanness and in. 
 their dignity. The dawn of English history exhibits 
 the prime of their rude strength ; their pedigree begins 
 with that of the national liberties, and their domestic 
 struggles coincide in all points with the best and worst 
 ages of the national character. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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