a colouring to many of its statements; but it is for many reasons worthy of preservation and careful reference. The few copies of it obtained by the Oxford booksellers for sale were eagerly bought up.

In the autumn of 1850, the quasi-establishment of a Popish hierarchy in England (commonly protested against under the title of 'The Popish Aggression') produced great disgust by its assumption of ecclesiastical titles, a local habitation and a name;'-and not only disgust, but active, energetic protests and addresses to the Queen, from the University, the City, and the Clergy of the diocese.

N. B. It has subsequently become the fashion to laugh at the feeling excited by this aggressive movement; but as long as Popery is unchanged, such an assumption is sure to be followed by farther encroachment.

CHAPTER

XX.

Recollections from A.D. 1851 to A.D. 1856.

A.D. 1851.

[B.A. 312. M.A. 196. Hon. D.C.L. at Commemoration, 5.]

FEB. 8. The following advertisement from a private tutor (slangicè 'coach'), who called himself M.A. of Oxford, appeared in the 'Times: '—

Coaching extraordinary, by an M.A. residing in London. As the Great-go even now looms in the distance, application (to Omicron, Oxford and Cambridge Club) should be made immediately, as only two gentlemen can be admitted into the Hansom. N.B. Each pupil must live like a hermit and work like a horse.'

Feb. 21. Classical Oxford made a small but graceful return to classical Greece, by voting, in Convocation, books (printed at the University Press), to the value of £150, towards the formation of a library for the University of Athens, with the cost of the binding. Parvula pro magnis Oxonia grata rependit.

Feb. 25. Very considerable alterations were proposed and carried in Convocation, as to the Exercises for the Degree

of B.C.L., substituting a bonâ fide Examination in place of the old Disputations, which had been long represented by certain threadbare strings,' i. e. logical arguments on legal questions; e.g. 'Quid existimas de hac quæstione, An dominium acquiri possit sine possessione?' The disputants had their traditionary Latin arguments, pro and con, served out to them by the Clerk of the Schools, with a huge folio of Justinian for references (to fill up the hour required by the Statute), till, on the Clerk's appearing with his watch held up (and mumbling something which sounded like 'tempus præterlabitur est') the Professor, who had been reading a book or a newspaper all the while, stopped the disputants with the welcome 'sufficit.' This statement will hardly be believed, --but having myself taken a part in the solemn mockery several times, I can vouch for its unexaggerated accuracy1. The same farce took place in Medicine at this time, and ten years earlier in Divinity. But—' Magnus ab integro

sæclorum nascitur ordo.'

1 Cambridge was in these matters much in the same state as Oxford; as appears from Mr. Walsh's Account of that University, published in 1837. He says, 'At the present day Acts and Opponencies in some cases have merged into a mere idle form, in others they are compounded for by the payment of a sum of money. In the latter case, the money is deposited as a caution for the performance of the exercises; and as, of course, they are not performed, the "caution" is then forfeited to the University, and the matter is at an end. In the former case, the whole ceremony is carried on nearly in the following way: Thomas Styles, from the Respondent's seat, speaking in Latin: "Accuratus fuit Newton; accuratus Wood; accuratus quoque Locke." John Noakes, from the Opponent's seat: "Si argumenta tua falsa sint, cadunt; sed falsa sunt, ergo actum est tecum." These words are repeated until Thos. Styles has kept the requisite number of Acts, and John Noakes the requisite number of Opponencies. They then change places, and Thos. Styles refutes John Noakes with John Noake's own syllogism;-and Da Capo ad libitum. This method of performing disputations is called “ Huddling.”'

1851

'THE COMMISSIONERS ARE COMING!'

6

361

This spring was a time of more than usual excitement. 'No peace with Rome,' 'No concealed Jesuits,' &c., were the cries in the Church; Change of the Ministry' and 'failures in the attempt to form another,' in the State; 'The Commissioners are coming,' in the University; the Sanatory Question,' in the City of Oxford. It was only a wonder that in the natural world things went on as usual; that the Examinations too were carried on with only a little more plucking than before; that the University Sermons, and Degreedays, the Sessions, and the Assizes, succeeded each other in the accustomed jog-trot way; nay, that concerts and dinnerparties were given and attended. M. Jullien advertised his Promenade Concerts, and M. Soyer gave a series of 'Lectures' on his cooking apparatus, as the self-appointed Professor of Gastronomy and the Ars coquinaria.

I have before had occasion to apply the common observation, that Counsels' opinions may, by a careful getting-up of questions, be obtained on both sides of any matter. At this time the Hebdomadal Board had (they believed) abundant materials in proof of the illegality of the Commission, and four distinguished lawyers, Turner, Bethel, Keating, and Kenyon, advised the University to demand, or rather' pray,' that the Commission might be recalled and cancelled; or at least to require the legal validity of the Commission to be shown.

This year was marked by two important events, the decennial census of the population of Great Britain, and the Great Exhibition. The former did not indeed concern the University as such, though the College strictness of nightdiscipline afforded great facilities for counting noses. To the latter the University did not, I believe, contribute anything, the Colleges being well satisfied with looking after their own little Exhibitions. Of the citizens, Mr. Spiers was, I

think, the only exhibitor; - his stall of papier-maché, &c. being very attractive.

April 6. Two more of our Oxford most valuable men deserted to the Roman camp,-Archdeacon Manning and Mr. Hope, Q.C.; both formerly Fellows of Merton, both highly gifted, loved and esteemed.

About this date King's College, Cambridge, at length followed the example of New College, Oxford, by giving up the privilege of graduating without undergoing the usual Public Examinations. The King's men thus acknowledged that there is no royal road to learning, as New College had found that, to be semper novum, a little renovation was in conformity with the spirit of Wykham's statutes.

May 21. In a full Convocation, a Petition to her Majesty in Council' against the Commission of Inquiry,' &c. was carried by 249 votes against 105; majority, 144. Mr. Neate, of Oriel, spoke against the Petition; but men came to vote and not to talk or be talked to; and permission to address the House in the vernacular was not then so easily granted as has since been the case. The Petition, however, was not likely to stop the current of reform that was setting in so strongly Oxonwards; for on the 17th of June Lord John Russell being asked in 'the House' whether the proceedings of the University Commission were to be suspended till the above-mentioned Petition was presented and decided upon, emphatically answered 'Certainly not.'

June 17. A statute, which proposed to increase the incomes of certain Professors, was very roughly handled. 1. £150 to be added to the annual stipend of the Reader in Mineralogy. Placets and Non-Placets equal;

i. e. 57. It was therefore lost.

2. £150 to the income of the Reader in Geology, lost by one vote. Placets 60, Non-Placets 61.