Earl Stanhope, in a letter to the Times, agrees with
us in con- demning the proposal to remove the scene of the Oxford Encwnia to the Divinity School and to abolish Commemoration Week. He suggests that rowdyism should be prevented by admitting Under- graduates by tickets, to be granted only by the Heads of Colleges ; but the Heads might demand a little too much decorum. Cannot the University authorities station a few watchers in the galleries, and mark and punish any Freshmen who descend to blackg,uardism in the ordinary way? Two or three expulsions would soon put a stop to that sort of thing. An Oxford correspondent says it is only intended to suspend Commemoration for a year or two, and not to abolish the festival ; but he might almost as well say that a Bank is only about to suspend payments. Unbroken tradi- tion is the preservative of such festivals, and can never be departed from without a serious change. There is a want of backbone somewhere in Oxford, or the authorities could never be so flabbergasted by a dozen unmannerly boys.
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