Mr. Lowe's attack on the Universities for allowing the greater
number of its graduates to pass on such very easy terms has called forth a letter from Mr. Fowler, of Lincoln College, ad- dressed to Thursday's Times, which shows how obsolete Mr. Lowe's knowledge on subjects of this kind too often is. Mr. Fowler states that while in 1875 only 394 students graduated, 311 took honours of some kind in the various schools; in other words, allowing for a few double honours—honours in more than one school—three-fourths of the graduates graduated creditably, and not without study. Mr. Fowler is also very indignant with Mr. Lowe for saying that the pass examinations in the Uni- versity of London " enormously " exceed in difficulty those of Oxford. "Enormously," no doubt, is a word difficult to de- fine, but certainly matriculation in London is a much more difficult examination than " responsions " at Oxford, nor is the London pass-examination for the degree nearly so easy as the Oxford pass. We might perhaps say, speaking roughly, that the difference represents at least a year's good work for an average man.
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