The Express.
London, England, 1864-03-09 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9.

TEE conversation which took place in the House
of Lords last evening will be read with much inte-
rest both at home and abroad. The invasion of
Jutland, now announced as an intention by Aus-
tria and Prussia, and the despatch of an Austrian
naval squadron to the neighbourhood of the war,
are producing their natural effects. Both move-
ments may be defended on military considerations;
of each it may be said that it has been rendered
necessary by the course of events. But as those
events have been brought about by the German
Powers, they are answerable for all the 000/0-
quences which flow from them. It was fore-
seen that Austria and Prussia would
not be able to remain within the limits
which they at first announced as defining
their own action. They first pretended to invade
and seize Holstein and Sleswig without making
war, and now they allege the rightful and neces-
sary resistance of the Danes as a reason for seizing
Jutland also. Lord ELLz.reos.ouou last night
avowed the opinion expressed ten days ago in these
columns, that the Austrian fleet is sent to the north
of Europe to assist in the reduction of the Danish
monarchy. That opinion may prove erroneous,
but it will be observed, and at Vienna the lesson
may be useful, how little value is attributed in the
most conservative assembly in Europe to the assu-
rances of the Austrian Government. The House of
Lords, in calling on Ministers to regulate their
policy towards Denmark in frank co-operatioc with
Parliament, is truer to its functions than the
House of Commons has shown itself this session.
We regret to find Lord Bream, when urged by
Lord DERBY last night to lay the latest infor-
mation before Parliament in an official form,
raising objections on the ground of " the great
" pressure at the Foreigu•oftice." These are words
that ought never to be heard in Parliament. The
country pays liberally for the services it requires,
and it would be intolerable if important informa-
tion were withheld from Parliament because there
were not clerks enough to prepare it for presen-
tation. We must hope that a serious deliberation,
founded on ample authentic materials, will take
place upon the affairs of Denmark before the
Easter recess.

THE Convocation of the University of Oxford
yesterday determined that the Professor of Greek
must content himself with 401. • year. Irish
vicars in the time of GOLDNXITH were rewarded
after this fashion, and it seems that one of the
most distinguished scholars and most conscientious
members of the University of Oxford deserves no
better reward. If this were the deliberate opinion
of one of the chief seats of learning in the king-
dom, it would be simply scandalous. Indeed,
such a fact would furnish conclusive evidence that
the University had failed in its duty, and needed
some radical reform. But to anyone who under-
stands the true character of Convocation, yester-
day's result is by no means surprising. Convoca-
tion consists of those graduates who keep their
names upon the books, and who have leisure to
come up to Oxford and to record their votes. It is
obvious, therefore, that Convocation must be
principally composed of those country clergymen
who have the means of expending in luxury two
or three pounds a year, and who can sacrifice a
Tuesday in the week out of their daily avocations.
And so it was. Anyone who took the trouble to
contrast the voters who emerged from the two
several doors of the Theatre, could have no dif-
ficulty in appreciating the character of the sup-
porters of either side. On the one side were all
the genius, intelligence, and moral excel-
lence that confers distinction upon the Univer-
sity. From the other door came forth
• sprinkling of electioneering intriguers, mingled
with a crowd of respectable but superannuated
rectors and vicars, whose early years at the Uni-
versity may perhaps have been spent in "rousing
" the night-owl with a catch," but who may have
hoped to atone for their youthful aberrations
by a dogged devotion to what in their con-
scientious torpor they deem the Truth. There
is something to be said for the rubicund and
well-favoured rector who has spent forty years
comfortably iu his parsonage, undisturbed by the
questions which have moved the world, and who
now comes up to the scene of his early days to
protest against what, according to brains unvexed
by thought or study, may be new and dangerous
doctrine. But the misfortune is that the University
of Oxford should be practically governed by this
order of men. They have their uses and their merits,
but they ought not to be permitted to represent,
because they do not in fact represent, the real
spirit of the University in the year 1864.
To sum up. The vote which was yesterday
recorded is a scandal to the University. By the
initiated it will not be misunderstood; foe it
cannot be taken to represent the real feeling of
that great Institution. The clergy who are gra-
duates do not constitute much more than • third
of the whole number. Those of them who keep
their names on the books do not represent the
University, and ought no longer to be
allowed to represent it. In the present case