New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-10-28
THE MASTER OF BALLIOL
AS HERETO AND AS vICE-CHANCELLOR
OF OXFORD.

| by every body a shining illustration oil tne NC"
| liberalism In the University. And not In the UNI
versity only, but throughout England Inc iace
that DR.. JOweti bad q claim by custom 10 inc posi-
does not lessen the significance of the event Inc
Vice Chancellor goes out OF Office every four years
and the then oldest Head Of college has claim 70
succeed him. DR.. Jowett as Master OF BallOl hau
this claim None the less tho nomination Is IN tne
hands Of the Chancellor of the University anu the
Chancellor of the University is Lord Salisbn-y. III
he had chosen to pass over DIR. Jowett ana seecV
| the next in turn. / apprehend no legal authofiV
| could have compelled hun to respect precedent
| Twenty years ago the Lord Salisbury OF tnat day
| would surely have done it. Now there Is hardly
hint that Lord Salisbury thought of devlatlng from
routine, and hardly a criticism upon him for lhsin'i
ing rs his viceperent man who is correctly and tr-
umphantly described an unrepentant heretlc'
| For hereto DR.. Jowett surely was III the eye OF
| the great body of the Church twenty years ago. IL
he was not hereto In the technical sense. 10 was
something in their eyes much worse lie was not
then Master of Balliol but the Regus Professor OF
| Greek Lord Palmer5ton's influence had got MIN
that place in 1855. In 1850 he appeared as one of
the authors of Essays and Reviews" and the
storm broke on his head as on other heads which
were concerned in the writing of that famous vol
umc He had made himself known by other means,
and the country parsons OF England, then slngu-
larry ignorant and bigoted body, sought n charac-
| terstic revenge. Those Of them who were grad
yates of Oxford had right OF voting IN certain
University matters. They tried to expel DR.. Jowett
from his Professionally. and when they failed IN
that voted to withhold his salary. This piece OF
clerical spite did as much as any one thing to make
the Professor popular. Presently ho became
Master OF BalliOl-sO eight years Iater-and MS
reputation as a dangerous did not prevent MIN
from making his college foremost IN the Univer
sty. To be a Baol man Is Of itself almost dis
tnction, and in academic distnctions-in the win
ming ofunyer,ity prizes and honOrs-ltis some years
since any other college has had chance of rival
ling Ballio. As a teacher. as college head, as
leader of youth, Dr. JOwett may bo llkened to
very different man, the late DR.. Arnold. Their
means were not the same, but their hold on the
young men of their day is equally remarkable.
1t is worth noting that of the five clerical authors
ont of the who contributed to Essays and |
Reviews" three were afterward promoted either
in the Church or the University. The Rov. Mark
PattisOn was made rector of Lincoln College the
very next year. Dr. Temple. the Head Master to
Rugby, appointed in 1869 by Mr.. Gladstone
Bishop of Exeter. and few people can have forgotten
the excitement and agitation which followed. An
attempt was instantly set on foot to induce the
Dean and Chapter to refuse to elect in pursuance
naturally led the way. DR.. Pussy denounced the
appointment as a horrible scandal. Though the
capituar election Is only q form, there were six
votes against to thirteen Tor DR.. Temple, and when
the ceremony Of confirmation took place, twenty
policemen required to keep the pence in the
church. Against his conservation eight Bishops
protested, formally or informally. The Bishop OF
London himself who performed tho ceremony,
made a speech regrettng that DR.. Temple had not
published some declaration or reCantatiOn, and
regretfully ayOwing that he mad no alternative but
to obey the royal mandate | suppose DR.. Temple
lived long enough to regret the apology he did sub
segucntly make, and his withdrawal of his essay
from the book Contrast all this with the aCquies-
cence and approval which thirteen years later greet
DR.. Jowetts appointment to place of administra
tive authority IN the Uni gcrity of Oxford.
Meantime Dr. JOwett has gone on extending his !
fame as a scholar by the trauslations OF Plato and
of Ihucydi1es He has denounced none of his here
sizes. 1t Is understood that the antipathy which
Lord Salisbury, rs Defender of the Faith, may feel
to him is sofenel by degree of political sym
patny. DR.. JOwett Is an example of the cOnserva-
two influence in politics of humane studies. as
NJ Renan and NJ. Tane are in France. In truth he
never was an unbcliever in religion; at most a
sceptic on some points and polite scepti;sm about
the bcucGcence of modern reform is at the bottom
of his political conservatism. There is great Justice
in the remark of a Liberal critic: The most
superfno moIalizng in the ecture-room did not
prevent Ballot from beng the home OF q sort Of
cherubic Jingoism"
It can do no harm to take down once more from |
its shelf the dusty volume which two and twenty |
wears ago conyulsed the ecclesiastical world in Eng |
land The first edition-t went through many-has |
long been a scarce book wel-shapcd and we'll |
printed octave with the respectable inn rint of
orthodox publishers, j. W. Parker X Son. Appear
ing to-day for the first time, 1t would cOnyu!Se
nothing; its radlcalism has long since become the
creed of church conservatives; there Is nothing |
new in It, though something that it true. IL can be
read IN parts if without great profit still without
WEAKNESS but almost with sense that its interest
is historical. The men who figure in it have grown
old two OF the best known are dead the contest in
which they were engaged Is going on but is fought !
in new folds. The militant clergy has abandoned |
the intrenchments il then defended, and what this
volume really marks Is the site of the victory then
won for free thought and free inquiry.
ESSAYS and Reviews publishedin 1890 and |
DR. Jowett's was not the least notable of the con-
trbntions to IT, At that time the Church st II held
ont for the Mosaic cosmogony. The efforts to
reconcile the legend of Genesis with the facts OF
geology had not been abandoned. The doctrine of
the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures main
tanned with vehelnence, and the charge of ndelity
WAS one which the students OF physical science and
of philoogy had alike to meet 1t Is hard to believe
that 1t is less than quarter of n century since this
state OF things existed but so it u.s. and the outcry
AGAINST Dr. Jowett can only be understood by
reference to it,
Dr. Jowetts subject was the Interpretation of
Scripture and if / may use II familiar term he
gave away" his fellow professors and cleIgymen.
A sentence or two will show why they resented his
detection so keenly. "AmOst ell intelligent
persons" said he. arc agreed that tho earth has
f,,,, No. f tbah inf,r