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    peated—bungled—trembled—lurched — leered — and went down . Now , because T&r . Duffy did just the opposite of all this he succeeded , tie may have read thd anecdote , in the pleasantest of the books of Disraeli the elder , of that young French advocate who practised oratory while pacing about a cabbage garden , and when he broke down before the Court said to the Judges" Video certe ^ ubd non estis caules" Mr . Miall , not quite a man of the world , had not calculated the difference between the Judges and the cabbages—between Bage M . P . ' s , who have no delicacy if they are bored , and patient and deliberative , assenting , mild , dissenting

    meetings , composed of ladies and gentlemen educated into good demeanour by much sitting under of varieties of heavy shepherds . Mr . Duffy leaped into the arena with a smile—commenced by a joke—putting his savage sneers into passing parentheses ; and confined his papistical declaration against Spooner to negatives , vvhich were good humoured but telling exposures of Mr . Spooner ' s authorities for intolerance ; fastening , for instance , on Sir Francis Head ' s Fortnight in Ireland —( " Well divided , " said Mr . Duffy , " week for observation—week for reflection" )—clever , clinching , and brief , the speech got attention , kept it , and

    repaid it—wherefore the Liberals said " hear , hear , " heartily , and the Tories looked pleased . For Mr . Duffy had a bug-a-boo sort of reputation as a rebel aniong good and brave English country gentlemen ; and they were glad at having , in place of a " blood-anouns" hero , a quiet , genial , accomplished , and apropos speaker—for you don't suppose Spooner is such a favourite but that they enjoy a laugh at him ? Why Mr . Duffy should have surprised anybody , as he evidently did , it is not easy to say ; for as he was on Tuesday he has been all his life—always in earnest , but talking his earnestness calmly , and never venturing on melodramatic politics in the Mitchell or Ferrand style . He went into a rebellion—coollv , and smiling like a

    gentleman ; and if he had had the pikeing of Lord Clarendon ifc would have been with a " Pray permit me . " The extravagances usually associated with the Young Ireland school were never of his creation : and though there was in his heart very likely , on Tuesday , a vehement vigorous disgust with that oligarchical Parliament which has ever flirted with the Spooners , and which still insists on tyrannical systems in Ireland with Irishmen , he would as soon of thought of reciting " the Harp that once , " of offering an insult to men whom he is only entitled to consider as mistaken . The " dying on the floor" school of Irish M . P . ' s has gone out : and English M . P . ' s will take care to encourage such men as Mr . Duffy—insisting on " independence " to a fanatical fault—honest and ultra—but courteous

    and clever . And what was said here last week , in remarking on Mr . Lueas ' s aecent reception in Parliament , may be repeated in reference to Mr . Duffy . Does it not illustrate the magnificent freedom of English public life , that the Nation can talk its " leaders , " and talk them with effect in the House of Commons . The fact may modify the Nation ' s prejudice against British prejudices . The novelty of useful braina and practical capacity among the Irish members has been recognised in these pages . The change which the last election ( the result of Mr . Duffy ' s Nation exhortation ) produced in the

    characteristic of Hibernian M . P .-dom has been recognised in these pages ; and in acknowledging party successes , like that of Mr . Duffy , all the prophecies which wore submissively presented in these pages are sufficiently fulfilled . The cheers which welcome a Duffy—which endure a Lucas — which , for some years , have enjoyed the epigrammatic but harsh Moore— -attest that good Irish members will effect in time a good Irish policy . But something else was suggested in the Leader— that the result of the defiance offered by Messrs . Lucas and

    Duffy to the Aberdeen Government , would bo a dismemberment of the " Irish Party ; " Mr . Duffy answered the Leader , and pledged the Nation to the asHCrtion that the Irish party , hiivo Sadlcir and Keogh , would be in February what it had been in November . What is the result P Take tlio week ' s reports : Mr . Flaherty defying Mr . Lucas , Mr . Fitzgerald defying Mr . Flaherty , Mr . Sergeant Shoo defying Mr . Lucas , and ditto ditto ditto . Let us ask Mr . Duffy—Where is the Irish party now ? "A STiWNClicit . "

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    ttEPORT OF TflK OXFORD UNIVERSITY COMMISSION . I , TiiIB in still the chief Blue Book of the day . It has OHctiped tlio umlul fate of its fellows , contrary to the augtiriuH of many and the wishes of more . It in just now tin hnportntit text-book of national study ; and after inspiring the pens of Quarterly Reviewers , itself more remltiUu nn < l attractive than their lucubrations , it has titiiutttrtl hito the world of realities , and hLiuUIs prominent among the top ic * of cUily journalUmi . It

    has forced a recognition from the Premier who had denounced the legality of the Commission . It is embalmed in a royal speech , and is recommended to the consideration of the governing body of the University which repudiated it , and which , therefore , following the example of its Chancellor , now submits to the investigations of a committee appointed by the Hebdomadal Board , the principles which it so recently denounced .

    Now , at the outset of the considerations which we propose to lay before our readers upon the questions discussed in the Report , we state at once that we augur no great results for University Reform from the enquiries of this Common-room-Committee . The Hebdomadal Board has compromised itself too seriously to permit us to expect much from its ungracious labours . The age of sudden conversions has returned , so at least said The Times lately ; but whatever sincerity marked those of the days of Constantine and Clovis , political and prudential motives tell materially with penitents of the nineteenth century . Men are not now remarkable for making a clean breast of it . Especially

    they eschew all confession of sin , and only accept the " situation" on the time-honoured principle of making the best of a bad job . Oxford , however , notwithstanding the shield which Mr . Gladstone cast in front of her , neither accepts nor promises to accept . She did all she could to hinder the appointment of the commission and to thwart it when appointed . She discoursed learnedly of ancient privileges , and her colleges have displayed equal acumen in asserting the dignity and antiquity of their vested rights , and the solemn obligations of statutes which could permit no other than the sufficient interference of their visitors . Oxford denounced the Commission to her late Chancellor as

    mischievous and unnecessary . She declared that " supposed obstacles to an improved system of study , if they exist , produce no material effect upon the general academical system . " She submitted a case to counsel respecting the legality of the commission , and , fortified by the opinion of gentlemen learned in the law , carried , by a majority of 249 to 105 in Convocation , a petition to the Queen , in which intimation was given of possible disobedience to the royal authority under which the Commission was empowered to act . None who read the correspondence an d documents contained in

    Appendices A , B , of the Report , can hesitate to admit that the University—the nominal University—has declared reform unnecessary and dangerous . It has also , by the broadest implication , if not by positive declaration , asserted the sufficiency of its present studies . It refuses to stir . Through the measured phrases of Dr . Plumptre , the cold acknowledgments or silence of Heads and Visitors , this stands out as the indisputable and main fact , draped of course in ample talk of great things done almost to supererogat ion , and—O the gods—of solemn responsibilities and the Laudian statutes !

    It is for the nation to extract a reality from a pretence : and while we write there are signs in the political heavens which it will not be well for the Hebdomadal Board—we may drop the pretence of the University—to neglect . The Deluge , whose waters will bury some ugly things , looms nearer daily , and the Board must bestir itself now that the friendly and perhaps collusive protection of Lord Derby has been exchanged for a more searching supervision . Nor shall we grudge to Oxford the initiative or completion

    of the work , and shall only wish her soon rid of ho ungracious a task . " If it wore done when 'tis done , then 'twere well it were done quickly . " To bo thus rid of it the authorities must adopt the watchword of the Chancellor-Archbishop , and bo all for Thorough : little less , in short , than the body of recommendations put forth by tho Commission will satisfy the public , too long trifled with on all subjects connected directly or remotely with tho church , and which loudly , in tho case of the Universities , demands c ommon endowments

    for tho common good . Tho question of the visitatorial rights of tho Crown in one worthy only of academic dissertation , and is not to be seriously entertained . Tho Act of 13 th Elizabeth , granting incorporation to tho scholars and masters of tho Univoraty , dirtjx > sen of it . Those who desire , however , to hcx ) how corporate bodios can at exigency deny the principle which they havo at other times asserted , <> . (/ ., against tho Parliamentary Visitors in

    1047 , will find a satisfactory statement in the Report of the CominiKHion , pp . ' \ , 4 , and the subject is fully treated in the evidence of Mr . Wilkinson among othorn . Sir K , Head ( Evidence , p . 158 ) , in stating the cftflo ns between tho country and the University rtnd tho colleges , proposes a ' distinction in dealing with those bodies which tin ) former will be not indisposed to accept . " In tlio cuho of public corporations like tho University , t think it ih not only allowable , but oflseutlally right , that the LoeuilnturO dionld frorii timo to

    time interfere to regulate and modify the action of their own creature by positive enactments eliminating all hindrances to the mam object for which such a corporation was instituted , and directing in what manner the privileges granted by the Crown and the nation " can be best used for the advantage of the nation at large . In the case of private corporations , I think the analogy of English law and the sound feeling of the English people would be best consulted by making the interference negative ; that is to say , by declaring null any laws , statutes , or bye-laws , which the Legislature directl

    may deem mischievous , but abstaining from y enforcing against the will of the members any particular course of action . " It remains to be seen how the colleges will act . The silence of their Heads and the example of Brasenose augur ill for any general resolution to meet frankly the necessity of their position ; but we warn them against the plea of inability to modify in any essential manner their statutes . Legislative sanction will not be wanting to assist them ; but it will not be forgotten that not a few of the most important of those statutes have been violated systematically to the advantage of Heads and Fellows , while recommendations such as those of the Duke of

    Wellington in 1837 , have , in spite of promises , slept unregarded . " With respect to the colleges , " said the Duke , in a debate upon the question of a change in the statutes , " I have received accounts from several of them that they are reviewing their statutes . Several are in communication with their respective Visitors , and others with the Fellows of their Colleges , with whom they must communicate in order to make effectual reforms . They are going on as well as they can at the present moment . " These anticipations , it

    is needless to say , have not been realized , aud the Commissioners ascribe this perhaps to the necessity of legislative aid , without which the Colleges are declared to be unable to effect the alterations they strongly recommended . They pass over the little fact that such assistance was never sought . The Colleges ( to which we shall again return ) shelved the subject when the danger was past , and have not mooted it since . Something more than correspondence with Visitors and Fellows is looked for now . They too must be thorough , even with ' admission of dissenters' looming in the

    future . The Commissioners have little more to say in behalf of the University than of the Colleges . No single reform can be pointed to among the changes and alterations referred to in the letters of the Hebdomadal Board to the late Chancellor , tending to the main point of all , the nationalization of the University . The changes have had regard solely to collegiate studies and collegiate examinations , for so long as the existence and claims of the Professors are ignored in the examination statute , the machinery of the schools is worked by and for the Colleges only . We must dissent then from even the qualified commendation of the

    Commissioners . To the propriety indeed of the principles recognised by the University since 1837 , none can demur . Certain regulations , which are now incapable of observance in the present day , have been repealed , and the necessity of rescinding oaths to enforce the observance of statutes , even when accommodated to modern times , admitted . An admonition to matriculating students by the Vice-Chancellor , has been substituted for the oath formerly taken ; and all oaths required at degrees , excepting those of allegiance and supremacy , abolished . It was quite time ; but thd admonition itself comes with an ill grace from those who havo sworn to the Laudian statutes , of which more anon . The matters sworn to on matriculation must have caused a whimsical or sorrowful surprise to many whom curiosity has led to explore tho antique mysteries of the Htatute-book . If we recollect rightly , ono section solemnly forbids the undergraduate to read tho book to which ho has assented on oath , till ho has proceeded to tho B . A , degree . Such modifications , however , are scarcely worthy of commendation or of comment . They will not atone for the abuses which remain . Nor , even when these are removed will the University l ) o what it yet must ho . Tho Commission is only tho pioneer to the overthrow of the old breastworks which separate Oxford and England .

    Oxford Iiub had its war of words respecting its statutes , as everything besides . It is a grave question there ( and there only ) , whether Convocation possesses tho power to alter tho Laudian statutes . Dr . Macbride decides for the affirmative , excepting , indeed , tho three known as tho Caroline , which camo " direct from the crown . " Oddly , he Hays that theHO chiefly refer to the Proeuratorial Cycle ; yet tho first , ominously enough , constitutes tho Hebdomadal Board , the main

    cause , " under Laud , " of all the existing evils . Others , with Dr . Phillimore , hold the contrary , and declare that the power of revision belongs to tlio Crown only , and this was tlio decision of Sir John CainpboH dhd

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    208 THE LEADER . { "Saturd ay ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 26, 1853, page 208, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1975/page/16/