At the meeting of the University of London Convocation on
Tuesday last, the Draft Revised Charter was laid on the table, and Lord Herschell moved its acceptance by Con- vocation in a very able speech, the only defect of which was that he passed over sub silentio the chief flaw in the scheme,— the constitution proposed for the new Senate, which either leaves the University practically headless, or throws it into the hands of those who must be regarded as the foes of the existing University, and the most contemptuous of the critics of its past work. Sir Richard Quain seconded Lord Hersohell's motion in the name of the medical advocates of the new scheme ; and then Mr. Bompas, Q.C., replied to Lord
Herschell in a masterly defence of the past action of the University, and a still more able attack on arproposal which would have paralysed effectually all the most fruitful of the University's functions. Dr. Pye Smith, with his usual ability,. defended the Draft Charter, though he frankly admitted its grave defects ; but his manipulation of the mythical Sibyl and her nine books, by way of warning to the University.not to reject the place of repentance still left open to her, was not exactly a happy rhetorical expedient. After one or two other speeches, and especially an able one from Dr. Collins,. the Draft Charter was rejected by the decisive majority of 461 to 197, or not quite two and a half to one.
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