The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-10 00:00:00

THEATRE-ROYAL, HOLBORN.

THIS EVENING, THE MISTRESS OF THE MILL. After
which MONEY: 3t r. Barry Sullivan, Mrs. Hermann Vezin, Mr.
G. Honey, i rs. C. Horsman, &c.

110VALTY TBEATIZE.
Under the Management of Miss M Oliver.
'I'IITR EVENING. at 7:1). IN FOR A IfttLlD Y. Followed by
A 110VING COMVISSION. And TDB ATILT RY BILLY
TAYLOR. To eoneltule with CLAUDE DUVAL: Mr. Day,
Mr. Dewar, Mr. Danvers, Aliss M. Oliver, Miss K. Bishop.

PRINCE OF W A LES'S LorAL THEATRE.
Under the 7%Tanageinent of iss Marie Wilton

THIS EVENING, SCAOOL: MessroCiT;;;:il.lsfontarlie.
Addison. Glover. and Banerntt: Mrs. "Buckingham White. Miss
C. A ddiFon, and Miss Marie Wilton. After which, A WINNING
HAZARL). And A LAME EXCUSE

ST. GEORGE'S THEATRE, REGENT STREET.
TOTS EVENTN(4, at 8, TILE. ROYAL ORIGINAL CHRISTY'S
MINSTRELS' Ethiopian Entertainment. immense Success of
BARGE BLUE. The Only Leon

Every Night, at 8
on RISTY MINSTRELS. St. James's Hall,
Wednesdays and Saturdays, at 3 and 8 all the year round.

ROYAL ALHAMBRA PALACE. THREE BALLET
Promenade Concert. Band of GO. Begin at 8. Is. Box-olllct
open from 11 to 4.

ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, Bogert's-path. OPEN daily (ex-
cept Sundays). Admission, ls.; on Mcndays, 6d. Children
under twelve, 64

cti
121,,J0g . s'4k-t 4A-
N):4 CC)1131
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LONDOIV, THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1869.

'rho Sheldonian theatre is every succes,ive year
becoming more and more like a bear- garden on the
day of the Oxford Commemoration. The under-
graduates were yesterday so clamorous, however,
were so utterly repressible in their unrulyneFs, that
the Vice-Chancellor was at length
h a d threatenedncotptlledto
toc dlosoe
the proceedings abruptly, as
in the earlier part of the Encmnia. Fun and frolic are
all very well, but sheer noiseand senseless tom- foolery,
even the crass stupidity of a Dogberry mi ht
recognize as " very tolerable and not to be endured."
VERGES himself m;gbt have been goaded into sar-
casm by the first and last incident of yesterday's

demonstration on the part of Young Oxford. Like
the flutter of a scarlet rag before the eyes of a mad
bull was the appearance, first of all, of a green
necktie, and, last of all, of a white hat before the
outraged tastes and senses of the mob of under-
graduates. According to the Tinzesreporter, their first
furious onslaught was directed against " an unfortunate
bachelor who bad happened unthinkingly to adorn
his neck with a somewhat conspicuous kerchief.
Shouts of ' green tie' arose, and were repeated usque
ad nauseam for the space of fully three-quarters of an
htur. The person was asked to retire, those in his
neighbourhood were invited to turn him out,' he
was entreated to change his tie or to take it off :
one enthusiastic commoner went so far as to tear off
one of his ' leading-strings' and offer it as a substitute
for the obnoxious article. All seemed for nearly all
hour to be in vain ; bet importunity at length pre-
vailed; the offender, amid volleys of applause, quitted
the house, and the academic youth were able to turn
their attention to other matters." Now, surely, than this
nothing could very well be more utterly nonsensical.
Skipping for a momemt the whole of the intervening
proceedings, however, we come to the record given
by the same inexorably realistic authority, of the
preposterous circumstance of these same undergra-
duates having their attention unfortunately attract( d
towards a white hat held in the hand, not worn upon
the head, of a gentleman standing in the area of the
Sheldonian Theatre. Quoth the reporter in record-
ing this "last scene of all" in this "strange,
eventful " charivari— " The Undergraduate is
afflicted by a disease which, for want of
a better name, we 4aarvan, Pao. tat..
phobia.' At the sight of a bat of the obnoxious
hue, he foams, he shrieks ; he is no longer master of
his actions. The solemn warning bad been given by
the Vice-Chancellor; the warning was understood to
imply a probability, at least, of the abolition of
Commemoration for all time to come—a terrible
consequence this, which those present would, one
might have thoight, fully appreciate; but all was
in vain. With the hated white hat before their
eyes the infuriated mob of Undergraduates could
do nothing but rave and hoot ; and the
Vice-Chancellor, unable to obtain attention,
rose from his seat, and, accompanied by t'.c
Doctors, left the building. A volley of groans,"
adds the saddened recorder of these absurdities,
" followed, the exact meaning and object of which
appeared uncertain. We had thought" he ob-
serves, "disapproval of the abrupt termination of the
proceedings was intended; but we have since heard
that the Procuratorial staff was the special object
of the demonstration." Hitherto, it must be said, the
undergraduates in pastyeara,whetherrernote or recm t,
have in some measure con'rived always to redeem their
annual hubbub in the old Sheldonian Theatre from
degenerating into an unmitigated nuisanc by inter-
polated cries, flavoured with wit, or in some way
good-humouredly provocative of laughter. This year
it has, unhappily, not been so. All the intermediate
portion of the proceedings might have been beforehand
accurately enough reported by anticipation. As a
matter of course the name of theUniversityChancelloy,
Lord DERBY, was cheered heartily and repeatedly ; so
also were the names of Mr. GATHORNE iiARDY, of Sir
ROUNDELL PALMER, of the Lord Bishap of 0 X FORD,
and of the ex-Premier, Mr. DISRAELI—the last men-
tioned of whom has always had his hold somehow
noon the hearts of Young Eogland. Groans aid
hisses were the greeting accorded to the once popular
name at Oxford, the still and more than ever dominant
name in England, of Mr. GLADSTONE. Yells and
howlings were the repouse to the yet more execrate I
name of JOHN BRIGHT—so completely on a level with
,he times are these wonde:fully sagacious wiseacre=,
the younger Oxonians, yesterday crowds I into the
gAllery of the S:teldonia.n thea'rc in their capacity
as undergrAduates. The changes were rung of course
upon the facetious cheers awarded alternately to the
ladies in pink, in blue, in yellow, to the Ladies in Hats,
and the Ladies in Spectacles—tint:l Common Sense
was fai i to say—Hold ! Enough. Than all this
nonsensic d kind of thing occtning annually as it dogs

at one of our highest seats of learning, surely there
is nothi,g that could very well be more heirt-de-
pressiog or more thoro'ighly melancholy. Rather
than witnNss the continued repetition of it, one
would willingly realise in sober earnest the threat
hinted at yesterday afternoon by the Vice-C:ianc ;nor,
namely, that of putting an end, for once and for all,
hencefo th and for ever, to the folly, and tumult, and
at:surditv of the Oxford Commemoration.

A FEW months ago the Conservatives were for
ever taunting the Liberals with their want of dis-
cipline, with their divisions and dissensions, and they
were told to compare their disorganised condition
with the splendid organisAtion of the Conservatives.
All is changed now, and the charge of to-day is, that
the Liberals are so " subservient to the whip,"
that they will do anything, for they have
passed every clause of the Irish Church Bill
without al-kr...tic:-1. Lord CLAUD JOTIN HAMILTON,
referring to this unanimity at a public meeting on
Tuesday night, attempted to be very sarcastic about
the cheers with which Mr. OLADSTONE was greeted
on Mondqy as he entered the House. The Radicals,
said his lordship, in e'oquent phraseology, had
received the " straight tip ;-" the " ovation " was a
preconcerted thing. The Whips planned it, and the
docile Ministerialists carried it out. Lord CLAUD
did not 'seem' to see that this perfect harmony of
action between the Whips and the rank
and file is the strongest possible proof of
Liberal consentaneousness. But nothing will please
the Conservative party. If the Liberals quarrel
they are overwhelmed with taunts, and their
independence is denounced as impotence ; if they
co-operate, their unity is stigmatised as base sub-
serviency. Lord CLAUD made another notable dis-
covery. The voice of the majority of the electors
throughout the kingdom was mere noise and clamour;
but the voice of the majority of the electors at Staf-
ford was a glorious voice, and a proof that the
people of England were returning to right reason.
A majority is a convincing argument when it is a
Conservative majority, but if it is a Liberal majority,
it is clamorous noise and brute force. And yet this
style of thing was cheered by the people who heard
it.

WE are not surprised that the Duke of ARGYLL
has discovered the Life Peerages Bill to be " not
worth the paper on which it is written," so far as
the obj ect of bringing the House of Lords intoharmony
with the nation is concerned. As we pointed out on a
former occasion, the supposition that the nomination
of two life peers a year would popularise that
House is altogether absurd. It is the old story
of " a pill for the earthquake." In fact the " compro-
mise" by which Lord IlussELL's proposed quartett
was reduced by Lord CAIRNS to a duett is simply
one of the most ludicrously incongruous events that
the country has witnessed for many a year. Here
we are on the eve of a great conflict between the
House of Lords and the nation, a conflict which, if
it be really fought, must work irreparable mischief
to the first combatant, and at such a so-
lemn moment their lonlships devote whole evenings
to the discussion of sneh questions as will cause
rich city merchants to be offended if they are offered
only a life peerage ? What will the daughters of
life peers say if they are not permitted to call them-
selves " honourable "? The whole thing is painfully
grotesque. The only rational ideas in connection with
it were, first, that the Lords are not in harmony with
the nation ; second, that the Lords must always be
subordinate to the Commons. Yet even this wasques-
tioned. The Duke of ARGYLL, indeed, plainly shewed
that power had once belonged to the Sovereign, then