The Sun.
London, England, 1852-08-28 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING,

THE OXFORD 171V1VERSITY COlll-
- ON.
, .The temperate advocates .of academical reform have
rot ueresaonable congratulated themselves on tee tone
of the On..tord University Report. Among the peen,-
stricken alarms so industriously fomenced ei; the ciaidel
of the High Church party on tho birth of the Cemmis-
sion, not the least ominous and seductive was the imputed
centralizing tendency of the measure: academical and
collegiate indepedence, presumably the vital principle of all
that was great and good in Oxford, was about to be ab-
sorbed in the vortex of Parliamentary management; and
the authors of the report before us were rnagaified by the
jealous eye of a sinister fancy into a perpetual Board of
Control, encamped under the presidency of a Minister of
Public Instruction, in the heretical regions of White-
hall. The enormous increase in. the value of capitular
estates, under the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commis-
sion, and the prevalence of the mischievous system of
fines in the administration of college property, not un-
naturally cherished the suspicion that the latter was
destined to a similar reform; and, indeed, we ourselves,
though far from apprehensive of a permanent aliena-
tion, were not unprepared for the suggestion of Paths'
mentary facilities towards the adoption of a scheme un-
attainable by the colleges save at a large immediate
sacrifice; and, initiatrd as yet, we believe, only in a
single instance, and that merely on a partial scale. Yet,
in spite of tans(' dismal auguries, there has been, with
a few seeming rather than real exceptiene, no violation
of the municipal privileges Engliehmen so dearly prize.
The government of the University and colleges is still to
be internal, and administered by its constitutional ma-
chinery; the dignity of the Chancellor is unimpaired,
and the powers of the visitors, whom the founders estab-
lished, have been raised from tho sphere of an extraordi-
nary to that of an ordinary jurisdiction. Otherwise,
too, the report breathes little in common with the spirit
of radical innovation. It is no dreary scheme of artifi-
cial uniformity, dictated, like a Greek constitution, by the
tyranny of single principles, and modelled on one-sided
views by the obliquity of sectarian caprice Framed in a
spirit of Roman comprehensiveness, and imbued with a
truly English endurance cfce.sual anomalies, it bends with
elasticity to the varied sway of antecedents, and gra-
duates its measures with a discriminating deference to
special claims, and exigencies,
tions. True, in the main, to the temper of the people
and permanent oblige
whose reforms exemplify the proverb, "The nation that
has no yesterday has no to-morrow," in the most im-
portent of its changes we see the hand of Renovatiob,
not of Revolution; and many an institution, undermined
by age, has been remodelled on its ancient base, and re-
stored to its original idea.
The scene opens with the constitution of the Univer-
sity; and a well-known figure, long the butt of acade-
mical artillery, the Hebdomadal Board, is the first vic-
tim paraded on the arena of reform, amid the all but
unanimous acclamations of the authors of the evidence.
We cannot but applaud the sacrifice; yet the substitute
is surely capable of amendment. The Commissioners,
indeed, have rightly declined to expand the powers of
Convocation, and thereby inflict upon the University
a democratic legislature, the worst possible govern-
ment for an academic community. Doubtless,
also, Convocation will find in the house of Con-
gregation,-thus adroitly restored to its original func-
tions, a more congenial superior than " the board," and
the admission of the professors and senior tutors, within
the narrow oligarchy of the ancient Senate, will give to
the Initiative Council, many '• of the valuable elements
for legislation which the place can supply, intellect,
practical habits, the feeling and opinion of the time, a
knowledge of the subjects which the University pro-
fesses to teach, of its state, moral and instructional, and
of its trusts, property, and finances." I3ut—so strong
is the rapport from their very " age and practical ha-
bits," between the senior tutors and the heads of houses
—such a council must ever lack the cardinal virtue of
antagonism; the principle of progres will bo very im-
perfectly represented. The report itself supplies a hint
upon which we may venture an amendment. The mem-
bers of the committees are to be partly official, partly
elective. Surely an election, perhaps trienially, of a
fixed proportion of members from the most eminent of
the collegiate staff, would contribute not a little to
quicken' the pulse of academical energy, and to keep
open the avenues of a friendly and reciprocal feeling, a
point of indefinable consequence, between the two houses.
In other respects, the happiness of the suggestion
seems unimpeachable. The executive character of the
Council, itself not unmanageably large, will bo
ina only be convoked
mate-
rially aided by delegacies and committees; and the
dangeren-
countered of
growth of organized parties, are at any rate partially bi tys
the
sinking
uaionnt o a d
that
h at debating a
shall
hg ll society, or of the
by the Vice-Chancellor whenever propositions for dis-
cussion are signed by a fixed majority of its members,
or are introduced by the Hebdomadal Board, which,
though shorn of its ancient supremacy, is still to share
the right of initiating measures, and may safely monopo-
lise the transaction of ordinary business and the main-
tenance of discipline—its sole legitimate province. The
constitution of the proctorate has also been amended; nor
will the effusions of juvenile essayists and poets any
longer be subject to the ordeal of elderly gentlemen,
who, though models of respectability in their own
sphere, occasionally test their classical proficiency by
exhorting the House of Convocation to brand the hour
of the Commission's issue, " nigrissimo U ) carbone."
Much difference of opinion exists on the subject of
University extension. In the inferior colleges many a
vacant chamber fruitlessly solicits the patronage of
candidates denied admission, for lack of room, in the
more reputable houses; so that, if the colleges were
equal in the confidence of the public, the supply of ac-
commodation might probably answer the demand.
Again, the sons of the aristocracy, the squirearchy, and
the higher section of the middle classes are at present
the life-blood of Oxford; directly professional instruc-
tion, whatever the expansion of her system, the Uni-
versity can never give; and solicitors, merchants, and
general practitioners, alive to the value of an early
initiation in their own pursuits, will pause ere
they prolong from the ego of 19 to 22 the term
of a merely general education. Yet, with every
allowance for such considerations—and it is probably in
deference to them that the Commissioners incline
to that project for University extension which is
most susceptible of rapid contraction, and least prodigal
of original outlay—there can hardly be a doubt of the
desirability of rendering the blessings of academical
training at any rate available on a wider scale. The
reduced average of expenditure, not exceeding 2001. for
a degree, at which the report computes the liabilities of
students living in lodgings unconnected with the col.
leges ; the opportunity thus offered of giving as Univer-
sity education to a larger and a poorer class, the expe-
diency of rekindling the energy of the colleges by
of the
com-
petition, and of counteracting their absorption
University and the professoriate, aro the attractions
to this scheme in the eyes of the Commis-
sioners. The competition between its advantages and
those of independent or affiliated halls mainly binges
on the efficiency of its safeguards for discipline
and morals ; and with these we are by no means satis-
fied. The report appeals to the example of Cambridge,
but this is at best a double-edged argument, for every
Cantab will admit that if the industrious flock to lodg-
ings_
to study unnisturbcd, the e fop, man is no less
anxious to secure them for their opportunities of license.
The wealthier students, indeed, are to be boarded in the
houses of professors, or to live with responsible tutors ;
but the poorer scholars are invited to dispense withoa.
resident master in their house, and only remotely co
trolled by " tutors or guardians of the students," ii ke
spe-
cies of wandering University police, who are. to
themselves acquainted with their pupils, end to influence_
them, morally and religiously, " so far as the case may
permit." And the comparative isolation of such u
existence is no slight objection to the plan. " thus h
and
and
nullus homo," says the adage; education iu its largest
the
most liberal sense, the formation of character, and
culture of manners and moral sentiments,
and not mere
ll such
instruction, is the work of the University ; and the
training demands an intercommunity of life,
healthy action and reaction of social intercourse.
The subject of college expenses, and the vexed.. _
ques-
tion of academical debt, so often agitated in t,,ne.....scala.
co-
lumns, has been handled by her Majesty's ''-'"
re-
sioners with tact and moderation. No considerableerality of
duction, they admit, "can be effected in the gee avowedly
bursar's bills, the chief sources of expenditure
arising from the private amusements of undergraduates.
ether to
They are above the folly of attempting altog
disParegelßent
level distinctions of fortune. There is no
crude and
of manly sports and exercises: and, withrejectin
the ex-
abortive suggestions for encountering debt .
ant prohi-
ploded armoury of sumptuary laws and string
a.,enoe of
bitionse they mainly trust to the increased i "°""
y of reason-
University authorities and tutors, the
euPP; themselves,
able wants within the walls of the college
ant students,
the summary removal of idle and extravag will offer
the multiplied incentives which their reforms
area of acade-
mical honourable exertion, and the enlargedntented with a
mical studier ; and profess themselves
contented
:shall be
law that shall enact, " That no debt w
recoverable which has been contracted by a minor in
state pupilari, unless the bills shall Gave been sent to the
the articles were
Young man in the same term in which ment, a second
supplied, and unless, in case of non.
PaYwithin a given
bill shall have been sent in to the tutor
-
time after the delivery of the first;
tb© the earliest item
silenced within six months of the data -
in the bill."
c invoke the aid
It has long been felt that without a corresponding
change in the tutorial staff, the recent expansion of
academical studies would be little better than a dead
.rig.y ,
I
letter. The Commissioners, accordti
of the professors, whose functions the colleges have so
way of emancipating stu-
long absorbed; and also, by vl'a classics, after their
dents from a further study of then a
d redistribution of
first public examination, recorane amon-
g four the subjects subjects of the final' examinationtai philosoph_
y and
tract schools—viz., theology, s'"
Pi snd political economy,
philology, jurisprudence, history,
e- We sncerely
and mathematical and physical ' -- keicne Poets andi orators
deprecate the contemplated change•
a are usually re r the
only, under the existing systee- amendment stoop ass,
first examination; so that, if thisa Plato, and Thucydides
the immediate study of Aristlh; plan is quite at issue
will be vitally discouraged.
h basis of all such legis-
lation; facts that must be the
latiott; it assumes a wide expansion
h nothing but a sphere
of
of the first examination, wham
of schoolboy great
advance in the standard of
we y
pro-
ficiency can render feasible. extension of the r cordially
sympathize at once with the
a scale that mayp e.
fessoriate and its endowment on several departments f
in-
duce men of real eminence in theheir
home for life. Ornil
learning to regard Oxford as t requisite from the
lectures are in these days lessno
were formerly from be-
wilderingthe multiplicity, than theystandard
literature on such
poverty of books. Even
. soon
comparatively anti.
topics as political economy is
quated; nor can all our magazines of law hocks atone
Jurisprudence, for the want of a Reader in General J • dence, an
institution that has long been urgently demanded for the
hatter education of its
reform of the law and the - be
students.

1 " Let the Vinerian Professorship of le .a," say, Mr.
1 Stephen Ilnaiian iu his evidence, " be made a working
1
renbhy, and Ox.lord will soon become, a school of juris-
prudence, which will not only invigorate youth for the
more prae;,:cal and severe s'.utlies of the ions of court,
but will gradually infuse into the English law a more
healthy, sensible, and scientific spirit, and thereby do an
incalaulable service to the nation."
Ranged on the same side are the authorities of Lords
Brougham and Denman and Baron Parke; and it can
hardly admit of doubt that the hanks of the Isis will offer
a more genial soil for such a study than the regions of
the
Middle Temple, where, as a recent experiment re-
minds
us, it will be too late to recur to theory after im-
mersion in the details of practice, and amid the manifold
distractions of them metropolis. And in this cause the
interests of the University are embarked in the same
boat with those of the law and the country. A few
months ago Lord Brougham had concerted a scheme for
amalgamating the inns of court into a legal university,
with regular lectures and examinations for degrees.
With such an arrangementj.ia,3
an acadctnicsl probation of
three or four
compa-
tible. The plan could hardly fail falillartdol3illibbeerabzoth,
law, by thus contractie
educa-
tion, and the Church, wrieral
hoec favourite Usti
versify into a mere
ad-
vantages of the academic schen.'474wln'ilrY. But the
be available on a
wider scsie. It is not only the ministers,'
elligriderdbianE:;
but the authors
of the law who require to be traied
in the principles
of jurisprudence. •''„ '''
Future statesmen the Corn •
mizsioners, " and that important class Of ''Y' rnen
to adm iinistee justice, as magistrates, and
who are
to exercise
great influence, as landed proprietors, may reap much
beeefit from these studies, combined as
they will be with
history and political economy."
The merit of these suggestions is unhappily oh
.scured
by the very indefinite terms in which the functions of
the professors and the lecturers are alluded to.
lecturers aro described as subordinate to the professors,The
but are evidently destined to address classes; and, ifs
wo are equally at a loss to discern how they are distin-
guished from the college tutors; how the Commissioners
propose to find room for both in their system, and how
they are to defend themselves against the private tutors,
who have long triumphed over the very beet efforts of .
the college staff, and whom the new lecturers can in
nowise supersede; as they will not be able, being called
upon to deal with classes, to graduate their instruction
according to individual capacities and needs—the very
essence of private tuition.
So fertile in fallacies is the field of historical parallels:
such is the tendency of the mass to fancy affinities
rather than distinguish contrasts, that a stupid cry of
Germanism has been raised, though from nn vary
formidable quarter, against tl.em rteual of the profes-
soriate. Certain sages gravely, but rather blasphem-
ously, argue that sciences sophistically handled abroad
must needs be essentially sophistical. It is almost an
outrage on common sense to remin3 them that it is the
very absence of professorships in England that consigns
our youths to the mercy of foreign manuals, histories,
and editions; that, to use the language of Professor
Vaughan, " Had we a professorial system of our own,
the spirit of our own institutions, intellectual character,
domestic life, and moral qualities, would necessarily be
at work in the minds of our professors to form a litera-
ture and philosophy independent, native, and, in the
truest and most valuable sense, genial; it would there-
fore not tend to make us copyists of foreign systems,
either in form or spirit, but would open for U 3 a new
source of independence in these things."
The vesting the majority of appointments to professor-
ships by the Commissioners in the Crown will be ex-
ceedingly distasteful to the University, and certainly
calls for a protest in favour of sharing nomi-
nations between the Prime , Minister and limited
bodies of eminent men, a mode of election avow-
edly successful and strongly recommended by
the evidence. Public lectureships having been
established by former founders and visitors, and having
only become obsolete through the neglect of their heirs,
the endowment of the professorships from the corporate
revenues of those colleges which can hear the charge
without impairing their educational functions, is rather
an act of reconstitution than of appropriation. But the
cardinal reform recommended by the Commission is un-
doubtedly the opening of the College Fellowships, of
course with every security for vested rights, to the free
competition of industry, character, and talent; it is the
keystone of the arch; the vital principle, the determin-
ing element of the practical value of their amendments.
Any candid imagination may be left to infer the inten-
sity of the evil, and its mischievous operation iu at once
robbing undergraduates of their legitimate stimulus
to study, and in abandoning their education to the
sheer caprices of chance, from the simple fact that
out of 542 fellowships only 22 are free
from multitudinous and tyrannical restrictions of
birth, parentage, and school connexion. Space forbids the
citation of more than a summary of the very able and
elaborate argument whereupon the Commissioners
ground their appeal for the removal of these limitations,
to Parliament—to Parliament, because, although the law
will permit changes to be made with the joint consent
of the college, the founder's heir, and the Crown, there
is but faint hope of the colleges taking the initiative, espe-
cially in the teeth of the oaths which in many statutes
solemnly denounce every innovation. The right of the
Legislature to interfere:with the University scarcely need
discussion, since it is very questionable whether it has
not already sacrificed its legality by exceeding its powers
in altering the Laudian Statutes; but the right of iuter-
forme° with the colleges is implied by the very nature
of corporate property and of trusts; by the illegality of
the founders' attempt, by stringent provisions, to
attain a perpetuity in the laws affenting pro-
perty, a proceeding disallowed is courts of
law as "contrary to public policy ;" by,
the definitive principle that, in the construction of testa-
ments, a general and paramount shall prevail over a par-
ticular intent; and from the daily precedents of the ali-
enation of private property on compensation similar to
that tendered by the Commissioners; even if we wore to
put out of court the many venerable authorities—among
others those of Coke and llallarn—cited by Mr. Dampier
in his " Statement." In subjoining the summary alluded
to above, it is only •
just to glance tat the limitations in
favour of schools connected with colleges, whose vital
interests are maintained while their subordinate relations
have
been modified; and, in behalf of the principality of
Wales, to which its exclusive •
a part of
College has been reserved, on the ground of its poverty
and long arrears of England in the scale of intellectual
advancement. .

" For many reasons, therefore," such is the conclusion
of the report, " and among others because the property
of colleges is not, and cannot be applied as the founders
directed; because it is now often made useless, and some-
times worse than useless; because experience has shown
that own
that the efficiency of a college and the services which it
renders to the University, are in direct propor-
tion to its freedom from restrictions; because
the particular restrictions imposed by founders
now really defeat their paramount objects, and
are wholly unsuited to the present state of the em-
pire; because the changes proposed are by no means
greater than those which the colleges have already ad-
mitted in almost all respects; because such changes are
essential to the success of almost any attempt to increase
the numbers, to extend the studies, or to improve the
instruction of the University; and, lastly, because the
colleges cannot remove restrictions without external as-
sistance; we are of opinion that the Legislature should
relieve college foundations from all limitations in the
election of their members, whether arising from birth.
place or parentage."—Times.

SEABORNE MAILS.
[N signifies that tho mails aro sent front the General Post-oftio
by the night—and M by the morning—dispatch.)

;When made up in From what when
PLACES. General Post-office port dis- duo.,
London: patched.
America (by Brit. pkt.)N Aug. 27 .. Liverpool 'Sept. 2
America (by U.S. pkt.) N! .. • • ,Liverpool !Aug. 31
America (by U.S. pkt.) Southampt. Arrived
Australia (via South-
ampton) .. M
ISouthampt.
Ditto (via Marseilles) .. .. Dover ..
Ditto, via C. of G. Hope 'Plymouth.. Nov. 30
Africa (West coast).. N 14th of tho month Plymouth Aug. 2G
Alexandria* • • ...... N 19th & 30th of mo.!Dover .. Aug. 28
Belgium I Dover .. Daily
Brazil .. .• 9th of the month Southampt. Sept. 1G
Buenos Ayres M 9th of the month , Soathampt. Sept. 16
C allfornia(vi a Chagres) M 2d& 17th of month Southam pt. Sept. 1
Cape of Good Elope N 14th of the month Plymouth.. Aug. 26
Cape de Verds N 2d of the month .. 'Plymouth— Aug. 26
Constantinople* N 7th 17th 27th ef mo Dover .. Aug. 30
Central America .. hi 2d & 17th of men. Southampt. Sept. 1
Channel Isles N Mon., Wed., &Fri., Southampt. Tu. Th. Sat
Chill . 2d fic 17th of mnth Southampt. Sept. 1
France .. M6c N Twice daily .. 'Dover Twicedaily
Greece* .• .• N 7th 17th 27th ofmo Dover .. Aug. 30
Hamburgh N Tuesday & Friday London .. Taos. Sat.
Rolland Wednes. & Satur. i London .. Mon. Thur
Honduras .. • . N 17th of the mouth Southarapt. Septa 16
Ireland .. M& N Twice daily .. Holyhead.. Twicedally
India (via Southamp.) M 20th of the month Southampt. Sept. 28
India (via Marseilles) N Bth&24th ofmontit Dover ••
India, via C. of G. Hope N 15th of month Plymouth.. Aug. 26
Mauritius .. .. If' 15th of month Plymouth.. Aug. 26
Mediterranean (via I
Southampton) Di 20th of the month Southampt. Aug. 28
Meditcrranerui (via
Marseilles) N fah& 24tli ofmontb Dover • •
Mexico .. M2d of the month.. Southampt. Sept. 1
Madeira .. 1119th of the month Southampt. Sept. 16
Malta* 701,17th,19th,27th 1 Dover Aug. 28
& 30th of month
Naples* .. N sth 15th 25thofme Dover Sept. 2
Papal States* N stlllsth 25th of mo Dover .. Sept. 2
Peninsula M 7th 17th 27thef mo Southampt. Sept. 6
Peru •• 2d & 17th of mntb Southampt. Sept. 1
Tuscany* .. N sth 15th 13th of mo Dover .. Sept. 2
West Indies .. 17th of the month Southampt. Sept. 1
West Indies (except
Havanna & Nassau) M,2d of the month .. Souplalnpt.

- -
12d of the month .. ISonthampt. I
,00ntrias thral Marked (I) are conveyed by
Mee-

* The mails to those
French packet Vi 4 Mari

THE NEW PAULIAMENT......-THE BUSINESS of THE
COUNTRF.—We understand that the Speaker of the House
of Commons feels no slight anxiety lest the unprecedented
number of new Members in the approaching Parliament
should prove the source of very serious inconvenience in the
transaction of public business in Select Committees. The
number of new Members is 260, and of this number only
about twenty were Members of Parliaments which preceded
the last. The Speaker is, therefore, apprehensive that the
great majority of the new Members will be so unacquainted
With the forms of procedure that seriours inconvenience will.
result to the public business, when the session is so far ad'
vanced, that it will be necessary to employ Committees
nearly all thoso Hon. Gentlemen who will not be abr
i_
ebtablish their right of exemption by advanced years °in
de-
health. In the meantime, the Right Hon. Gentleman general
rives no small consolation from the fact, that
election has left him upwards of 100 Members
Parliament who are first-rate men of busicr means to draw
tees; and on the good offices of thoedh
the
businesS part
.tofctohnlemlaitte.
largely in the beginning of what is ea
of the session, in order that the be attained before
to acquire all the knowledge which can .
le,--ildvei i •
raay have time
their services become is idispensab
raw reliCruitst.ser
er have con-
tra steam
The owners of
witch e C
eluded a contract h Port Philip, and Sydney-
a mail to the Cape of Good Hope,
the Pr-oace for the conveyance of
This vessel will sail from non the 4th, and from Ply-
ed
letters are to be postid on
mouth on the 7tb, proximo; ail
Lon
the evening of the 6th.