THE GOVERNORS OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY.
21st Tuly 1852. Sin—I am one of these who, like yourself, took a keen interest in the late election at Oxford : I rejoice with you that the strange coalition between the driest form of mere obstructiveness and the fiercer spirit of honest but mis- guided antagonism to Rome has met with so signal a defeat. The rival claims of Mr. Gladstone and the Warden of Merton have been sufficiently discussed; but there is one feature in the late contest which seems to me to touch on points of wider and more permanent interest than even the repre- sentation or misrepresentation of the University of Oxford. Your well- known interest in the cause of Education, and with it of University Reform, will, I hope, excuse my trespassing upon you. Shortly before the poll, there appeared a carefully-written appeal to the electors in favour of Dr. Idarsham' emanating apparently from authority. ; circulating as an advertisement in the Times—as a correspondent's letter in the more friendly Herald. Its tone was that of the calm and comfortable assertion of an undeniable truth. Its purport was to warn us M.A.s against refusing our votes to Dr. Marsham on the ground of his already filling so important a post in the University : it urged in his favour that the duties of a Head of a College were notoriously of a imerely formal nature; moreover, an Saturdays, we were told, the honourable Member might sleep within the walls of his College, discharging [in the pm-Sabbatical hours] his duties to Oxford and to Merton ; while in Michaelmas term, the autumnal session of '52 being overlooked, the Senator would be entirely free to act the zealous Warden. It was added, with an eye to the University Reformers, that much good might be expected from the introduction of a member of the Hebdoma- dal Board into the freer atmosphere of the House of Commons : the remark savours perhaps rather of Hushai than Ahitlaophel.
You, Sir, will agree with me, that it is hard to say which calls more loudly for censure in such an argument—the low view taken of the duties of a Head of a College, or the cool assurance with which a state of things, looked on with shame and sorrow by all true friends of Oxford, is paraded before the public as though it were a fundamental law, confessed and acquiesced in by all. Little could the framer of this document guess, little perhaps will ho understand, the indignation which he has roused in the hearts of many who at Oxford and elsewhere are spending their best energies in the great cause of education—eagerly looking to the day, not, they trust, far distant, when that noble University shall bear her part in the great work of educating and Christianizing England free from the shackles and encumbrances under which she now groans. It is at first sight incredible that they to whose direction, to whose almost absolute authority, the discipline, the finances, the education of the University are intrusted, should find their duties merely formal ; but far more incredible that their friends should publish their shame through the length and breadth of the land. When the dust of the election is laid, the Hebdomadal Board will give their advocate short thanks.
Far be it from me to dispute the fact of the leisure which the Warden of Merton is said to enjoy : the College over which he presides would, I dare say, have neither lost much nor gained much by his election. But is not this the very root of one half the evils which those who wish well to Oxford, whether Pro-Commissioners or Anti-Commissioners, would fain destroy. ? We are for all practical purposes governed by a body of men who do not, in many cases could not, take part in the education of the place, much less sympathize with its wants and feelings. There has been of late years abun- dance of movement elsewhere : College tutors are at work with a spirit and energy once rare, now common ; even professors are awakening from their long torpor: but, with a very few striking exceptions, the Heads of Houses still " sit beside their nectar." Literary strife, the flux and reflux of opin- ion, even the jar of Oxford theological controversies, are to them but an un- easy dream, "like a sound of little meaning, though the words are strong" ; and evil comes of it. The young man's doubts or faith, his mysticism or scepticism, must look for help, guidance, sympathy, elsewhere. The authors they read, the men who stir their hearts and mould their minds, are sealed books, perhaps unknown even by name, to those who rule them. Even from the safer ground of their classical studies the Heads of Houses, with one or two honourable exceptions, stand aloof: some, indeed, are (alas for Oxford!) notoriously unfit to do otherwise.
Yet these gentlemen, whose time hangs so heavily on their hands, are, practically speaking, our sole governors : working Tutors may groan, Re- formers may threaten, the Commission report, even Conservative residents petition and be rebuffed ; but, unless the public and Parliament aid us, the great fact remains and will remain, that one of the noblest educational esta- blishments in the world is governed by a body of men who, however re- spected and amiable in private life, bear no part in its daily toils, efforts, aspirations, or success.
The result of this election will, I trust, have taught the public, if it fail to teach the Heads, that something more is demanded of the representative of a learned body than popular manners and a general dislike of Free-traders, Jews, Tractarians, Evangelicals, Reformers, and other troublesome bodies; and that something more is required of the rulers of Colleges than to wear their robes, perform routine duties, and resist change ; that great posts, whose duties, if rightly discharged, would tax to the full the energies of an Arnold, are not to be treated as sinecures for sexagenarians, whose educa- tion, say their own admirers, is not yet completed. I remain, Sir, with great respect and many apologies, your obedient
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