The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-03 00:00:00

in s?:te r‘f Wor.Tr-rorma ; •and L0nd,,,,, C,i-
poration and Oxford itself, the last great moru-
meats of mediaeval civic and university instim-
tions, must be stripped of their ivy, and assimi-
lated to the rest of the modern social fabric. Ling
was the dignified resistance to the utilitarians, and
we could almost have wished that the Heads of
Houses had awaited in their places the attack of
the modern Gauls, as Rome's ancients are said
to have awaited, with statue-like repose, the
ruffians of the host which had already stormed
the city, but the near approach of the Reformers
seemed too much for Hebdomadal nerves, and
silent resistance descended to a counter proposal
and a convocation coup d'etat.
It is gratifying, however, to be able to inform
the uninitiated reader, that the RUSSELL-GLAD-
STONE Oxford Reform Bill is rather a resurrection
of old Oxford than a fatal mutilation of the Uni-
versity. Till about the times of the Reform Bill
hardly any one, certainly not many of Oxford's
most learned sons, knew anything about its real
history. The demands of Dissenters at that time
to share the education of a national institution
led, as much as anything, to careful investigation,
and the Edinburgh Review had unquestionably the
honour of doing more than perhaps all besides to
force the truth upon the minds of those specially
concerned, and to call more general attention to
the true state of the question. With all his won-
derful argumentative acuteness, his vast learning,
and his habits of unwearied research, the well-
known writer of these articles placed the whole
subject in the light of day, and made the know-
ledge of but very few the property of all. He
showed, beyond all controversy, that Oxford as it
is, is not Oxford as it was, nor Oxford as it might
be, with infinite advantage, too, to education and
the nation.

At its commencement, and till the time of the
Reformation, Oxford was a University ; now, and
nearly since that time, it has been a collection of
private school corporations, and the university has
been reduced to a cipher. As a university, it
consisted in early times of a large body of recog-
nised public teachers, whose classes were open to
all, and of the students. For a very long time,
all graduates on taking their degrees engaged by
so doing to lecture publicly for a certain time in
the University ; hence there was ample instruction
for any number of students. At first it was gra-
tuitous, but small fees were subsequently allowed.
Partly to enable poor students to attend the lec-
tures, and partly to watch over their morals,
houses superintended bya graduate, and frequently
endowed more or less, were opened and licensed ;
nor could the license be refused to reasonable qua-
lifications. Hence the rise of colleges which were
charitable institutions to aid poor students. With
the same object graduates of eminence were sa-
laried as lecturers, to save the students the ex-
pense of the fees ; these were the professors. For
a long time Congregation consisted of all the gra-
duates engaged in teaching in the university, and
it was their right to originate all measures and
propose them to Convocation, which comprised all
the non-resident graduates also. As the Heads of
Houses, such as have been mentioned above, gained
influence, they and the college deans were also
included in the Congregation. It would be
uninteresting to the general reader to peruse
the details ; but the results were these—
that salaried graduates termed professors,
whose lectures were public, became, by the
time of LAUD, the chief teachers in the University ;
that till the Reformation the Halls, which were
free, counted by hundreds, and the students by
thousands ; but that afterwards the Colleges con-
trived to get all the tuition to themselves, and the
College fellows to become the sole tutors, while
the professors became a nullity. These results
were mainly brought about first by LAUD'S estab-
lishing the famous Hebdomadal, a weekly board,
composed of the Heads of Houses, persons of no
other qualifications than that of being more easily
manageable by LAUD himself ; and next by the
Earl of LEICESTER, the Vice-Chancellor in 1750,
having obtained for himself and his successors the
sole power to license halls or private houses, a
power which they have used ever since to suppress
all competition with the Colleges. Hence profes-
sors, as efficient public or University teachers,
have been reduced almost to a form, and halls, in-
dependent of the Colleges, which as parts of the
University, could, with the aid of professors, be-
come stimulating rivals to the Colleges, have
ceased to exist. The present halls belong to the
Colleges. So far, therefore, as the bill now before
Parliament gives legislative power to the resident
teachers, increases the number and importance of
professors, whose lectures are open on equal terms
to all, and facilitates the opening of private houses,
it does but restore Oxford from its present condi-
tion of an aggregation of close Colleges to its for-
mer one of a national University.