Sir Stafford Northcote made a speech on Tuesday at Stamford,
—a borough which be formerly represented in Parliament,—on Education, but, of course, he did not succeed in saying anything impressive on that exhausted subject. He revived for his audi- ence, however, a curious fragment of forgotten history. " He was not aware, when he first presented himself before them as a candidate, that he was committing a great offence against the statutes of his own University,—that of Oxford. There was in- serted in the Statutes of Oxford a strict prohibition against any member lecturing or taking any part whatever in the public proceedings of Stamford. There was considerable dissension existing among the students upwards of 500 years ago, and it was so keen that many of them left the University of Oxford, and took themselves to the University of Stamford." We wonder no- body interested in the Universities tells us the story of this little academical drama of former days, if indeed it be recoverable. Probably the story would throw some light on the literary condition of England at that time, and very likely, too, on its social condition. What made the Oxonian malcontents go to Stamford ? Was it the number of religious houses? Both Parliaments and Councils were, we believe, in the middle-ages summoned to Stamford.
Previous page
