29 APRIL 1854, Page 2

On the first reopening of Parliament after the Easter recess,

the House of Commons was enlivened by a burst of faction and politi- cal sectism ; the subject being the fertile one of Oxford University and its reform. On the Order of the Day, that the House resolve into Committee on the Government Bill, Mr. Heywood moved an amendment, to refer the bill to a Select Committee, in the hope of extracting from that species of grinding-mill " an improved mea- sure" for next year ! Mr. Heywood we believe to be an honest man, although he is to a certain extent " un homme incompris "— the unacknowledged depositary of a mission on the subject of Uni- versities and Dissenters, a statesman unappreciated. For its pro- fessed purpose the move was a mistake; since of all subjects to agree upon in the arena of a Select Committee, Oxford would be the most hopeless. The debate on the amendment is our evi- dence. The genuine object of the reactionaries who supported the amendment is to have as little of any bill as possible. They in turn are aided by party ; which can, through Mr. Disraeli, throw out taunting suggestions that the University Bill may as well be hung up beside the Parliamentary Reform Bill,—gladly anticipating an addition to the list of Ministerial objects frustrated. The genuine and far-going Reformers, who seem to aid this strange Tory and reactionary conspiracy, desire to obtain a measure more searching than the present—one of a pattern which it would be impossible to carry. In short, there cannot, in the Parliament now living, be any agreement upon a measure of University Reform in regard to its merits. Each section will retain its own views. Hence, it is an occasion on which the measure to be carried must emanate from one section alone, and must be carried by the influence of that see- tion. The bill before the House would be a great improvement on the existing system, or on any bill to be proposed and adopted by the Tory section ; and it has the merit of opening the way for farther reform. It is not the bill of the far-going Reformers, and they need not adopt it as theirs ; but it is their duty to assist Ministers in carrying it, as a means of making way and opening the path for all needful improvement.