The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1880-02-26

requiring SUFFICIENT sum TO be SET aSluo IoT
the support of four of the most distinguish
ed scholars at the universities, two at Cam
bridge aud two at Oxford. In selecting
them, he required that preference should be
i given to his own kin, to natives OF Harrow
and to such as are s'most mete for toward
ness, poverty and painfulness. To obtain
the first position at the school is high
honor, and brings the successful pupil prom
inently to the public attention. His future
course is watched with no small interest.
Under the head of university intelligence,
the success of the Oxford dons and the Cam
bridge wranelers is annually given through
all the newspapers to the country. Thus
the Times, refers TO Cambridge commence
ment.
| UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE.
The following list of honors at the Bachelor OF
Arts Commencement was issued to-day The
moderators we're Percival Frost. NJ. A., g.
Johns. Examiners: Arthur Cockshott. NJ A.,
Trinity Anthony William Wilson steel, N: A..
| Honviile and Caius: Wranglefs: DR.. Mouiton'
st. Johns: 2. Darwin. Trinity.
Here follows list Of forty seven young men
| upon whom honors were conferred. OF the two
highest the first and second senior wranglers the
Times proceeds to say1
Mr. John Fletcher Moulton. of St. Johns Col
lege. the Senior Wrangler, the third son Of the
/ D.. e.
was born at Madeley, in shropshire in Novem-
Der, 1884, and is therefore just twenty years
g B, WAS r. New
| until the age OF sixteen, when he presented him
self at the senior Oxford Middle-class Examina-
tion and was placed first in the general list For
the next three years he was engaged in tuition.
during which time he matriculated at the Lon
don University. and carried off the exhibition In
mathematics, besides passing the honorary
examinations In classics and chemistry From
this time he seems to have devoted his ats ntion
| uoor nor fjorrR n m a m a
reer has been one OF uninterrupted success In
| April, 1854, he obtained the first Minor Scholar
bridge and in June gained the Mathematical
Exhibition at the first B A; Exsmina ion at the
| there gaining the Matheu atical Scholarship. In
October of the same year he commenced resi-
dence at cambridge and during his whole OF his his
elected a Foundation Scholar Of his college.
Ter in 1854, was Mr., Mouton's private tutor thu
ADDING another to the long succession OF senior
Rev. J. V. DLrell was his college tutor.
| Mr.. Geo: Howard Darwin, OF Trinity college
the second Wrangler. the second t son OF Mr.
"Origin OF Species" Is in his 23rd year. and Is a
native of Down, in Kent. He was educated at the
| Charles Pritchard, President of the Royal AS
| Economical Society, and Hulsean Lecturer at the
Master, and the Rev Alfred Wrigley Nj. A., F.,
| r. A. s.. the present Head Master In the Easter,
Term 1861 ne was eaecseG 3 M
| college. Like the Senior Wrangler. Mr.. OAR
| wins private tutor was Mr.. Routh, his college
tutor being the Rev. r. Burn
| The schools of Elton, Rugby and Win
chester hold equal rank with Harrow. The
head scholars from each, who annually enter
the Universities, compete on their new
| theatres for scholastic honors amid the
| anxieties Of their friends and the general
| exps Citations of the public. The successful
| collegian is almost certain to pass, in time,
| from the University to some high position,
sometimes in Parliament and sometimes at
| the bar. This was the case with William
Pitt, Horace Walpole, Sir Robert Peel, Lords
| Aberdeen, Palmerston and many Others
| This fact refutes charge brought against
| the English by the French that they are in
sensible to literary merit and heap honors
| upon actresses, danseuses and sOngstresses,
who have the entire to the houses of the first
nobility, while poor honsme de lettres is left
to starve in garnet. 10
1t is true that Milton sold Paradise Lost
for els, while Charles II, to whom the Brit
ish Parliament granted sac millions Of dol
lars annually for his support, was spending
hundreds of thousands upon his mistresses
and bastards. Yet even then all England
was not insensible to the genius of Milton,
or enamored of the depravity of Charles
The poets admirers were found among those
| from whom the chief glory of nation
arises, and the sovereign was the leader OF
society, and those whom we might not inaptly
style the dangerous classes" The one was
serving his God and country, rejecting
honor upon human nature, and the other
entai.ing a line of spurious nobility
upon England. Ignorant people in our
day look up to and reverence those
whom they are taught to style sour
betters," and who are they? Charles
II, by his mistress. Lucy Walton, had son
whom he created Duke of Monmouth by
another favorite, Nell Gwynn, a second son,
whom he created Duke Of Richmond, and
by Barbara VilIiers he had three sons, one
created Duke OF Cleveland, the second Duke
of Grafton, and the third Duke Of Nortnum-
berland. These were few only of his ia
vortes and his .bastards, and he INDUCED them
to the utmost OF his power. All these mis-
tresses and their bastard sons were recog-
nized at court and supplied with money to
maintain their ''exalted" rank. His unhap-
by Queen was obliged to humliate herself
and treat them with courtesy. even familiar
ity. The men who surrounded the King
we're Of like Oh aracter, and while Charles
reign was tue most scandalOus which Eng
land has ever seen, those of other and even
very much later sovereigns have been dis
graced by great and DISGUSTING inn
morality aud RIGHTEOUSNESS. Mr.. G. S. Par
nell, who il creating so much interest in
this country by his eloquent appeals on be-
half of his suffering countrymen, recently
repealed, in a vigorous style, peculiar to him
self,a an attack made upon his veracity by Lord
Alfred S. Churchill, brother of the Duke OF
Marlborough. When speaking in Spring field,
Mass, January 80, Mr.. Parnell referred to
Lord Alfred Churchill's cable dispatch and
said:
"This young nobleman says that my statement
that the relief fund OF the Duchess OF Marbor-
ough is being administered for political purposes
is false. Now have the best and most recent
information from the distressed districts that my
statement is absolutely true and that all persons
out of favor with their landlords prec,uded
from participation. More than one parish priest
also has already complained that the fund is be-
ing administered for sectarian purposes. The
word of the descendant, on the one hand, OF the
notorious Sarah Jennings, mistress OF the Duke
of York and on the other hand, of Churchill,
first Duke of Marlborough, OF whom Macaulay
writes as foil rvs: THAT he owed his rise to his
sisters dishonor, and that he had been kept by
the most profuse, i'm perlous and shameless Of
har1ots,' will be scanned somewha closely by
the American people, who at least can boast that
their ancestors were honest men ami women.
This vigorous retort tells incidentally the
story of the reign of George Ill. Society
took its tone from the COURT and we doubt not
in the days to which we refer, pretty ballet
girl was more highly esteemed In West end
society than scholar literary man or states
man. Happily these days have passed away let
us hope never to return. Under the reign of
Victoria, the Court has set an example of pu-
rity and domestic virtue, worthy of all praise.
The taunt of the French in the present day
is an anacronism. However true it once
was, it is not so in the present. This may
be asserted with force, Notwithstanding the
many vices which furnished the character Of
the Prince OF Wales IN his earlier days, and
which he has been weak and wicked enough
to carry into maturer years.
While the facts we have mentioned in con-
nection with the distinguished University
student, attest the favor with which the Eng
lish of our day, look upon the successful stu
dent and literary man, it cannot be denied
that the chief Importance is attached to
wealth and ancient lineage. When during
the Premiership of the Earl of Derby
lS67-lS6S-he was supposed to be danger
ously ill and the politicians were casting
about for successor, the old grandees, their
organs and supporters, spoke in the follow