THE OXFORD ADDRESS TO THE CROWN.
28th May 1851.
Sm—It may be a waste of words to enter upon the consideration of what course should have been adopted when a particular one has been actually selected and carried into effect by those with whom the decision rests. Still I would ask your indulgence for a few remarks on the late act of the Uni- versity of Oxford in addressing the Crown on the subject of the Commission, which, if the Hebdomadal Board would have allowed me, I would most wil- lingly have :made before the decision instead of after. And this I am the more anxious to do, as the same mixture of delay and precipitation which is so peculiarly characteristic of that venerable body, has also precluded me from recording my vote upon the subject.
I know not which most to marvel at, the enormous time, seven months or thereabouts, which the Board appears to have consumed in its own delibera- tions on the subject, or the few days which it allowed to at least the non- resident members of Convocation for the seine purpose. For my own part, the first intimation I received of any contemplated measure on the subject was contained in the Guardian of May 14th; and from its being in the Post- script, I suppose I may fairly conclude that it had only very recently be- come matter of public notoriety. I had barely time to think over the mat- ter in my own mind, and to write to a friend in Oxford, when I learned from the latter on the morning of the 21st, that the Convocation was fixed for the very next day, when I could not possibly attend, being on a journey, without entirely breaking up plans which had been long arranged. From the same cause, I did not see the paper which contained the information till the 16th : I had therefore just five days for deliberation and conference with others ; and I suppose that those who were best off had not more than the number of months which were devoted by the Board to its own consultation. The result I find, from your paper of Saturday, to have been such that one vote would have been of extremely small consequence either way : but I cannot think it either fair or respectful to the governing body of the Univer- sity to be treated in this way by its own usurping Committee. My own intention was to have voted against the address; and, as having previously spoken my mind pretty freely in your own columns on the subject of the Commission and its constitution, I am anxious for an opportunity of stating my reasons for so doing. Any one who may chance to remembermy former letters on the subject will be aware that I am no friend to the Com- mission : I should have had strong doubts as to the expediency or propriety of any Commission ; that a Commission sent to the University by Lord John Russell could have for its final cause anything but mischief, I had no sort of doubt at all : the constitution of the Commission justified my views, com- posed as it was of men several of whom are of unquestioned ability, and none of whom have to the best of my knowledge given any reason to doubt their honesty, still all of them who have any reputation in the University are known to be of one way of thinking in academical matters ; in short, the Commission was a packed jury sent to give a verdict in its own cause. But these are not the grounds stated in the address, as of course they could not be with any decency or propriety. stated in a public document. The address protests asainst any commission in the abstract; and from this view I entirely dissent. The present Commission, as far as I understand it, does not profess to be armed with those compulsory powers which only an act of Parliament can give ; it is simply sent to collect what evidence people choose to give it whether any corporation or any individual chooses to take any notice of it or not, is left entirely to his or their private notions of what is right and ex- pedient. Except in dignity and circumstance, a royal commissioner of this sort does not really difier in any important particular from a Times commis- sioner. You may answer him with all respect, if you will ; but you may also, if you will, send back his letters unanswered, or request him to walk off your premises. I believe the former course to be much the wiser ; but the latter is clearly open to those who prefer it. Now it seems to me that such a commission is a mistake on the part of those who issued it,—that is, granting, for courtesy's sake, that my Lord John really wanted to get a full and fair statement of the case. Where to take any notice is perfectly optional, the probability was that few would take notice except those favourable to the Commission ; so that, even granting the Commissioners to be possessed of superhuman impartiality, they could hardly fail to present a onesided report, drawn up entirely in their own favour. I see no reason whatever for a Parliamentary Commission to be issued, but I believe that such a one would' be a much better engine for eliciting truth. The actual Comnsiesion is a weak measure in the true Russell style: it is a mischievous vexatious impertinence ; but it is no violation of the chartered rights and libertieii of the University, nothing against which the University was in any wise called upon to protest. Indeed, granting the existence of the Commission, I considered that it was —not of course the duty, but the most prudent course, for all corporations or individuals to whom the Commission might apply for evidence, to give evidence fully and freely—reserving of course any cases where silence may be imposed by statutory obligations from which the supreme power of the Legislature alone can release. I see nothing against even a College answer- ing questions as a body: by so doing they do not admit any unstatutable authority : the Commission does not profess to hold a visitation or to exercise any jurisdiction; it simply asks for information, just as any one who con- templated an historical or statistic work might ask for it, while the society can give or withhold it as it thinks best. And it appears to me much better to give it, simply to avoid the danger of onesided statements which I men- tioned above. Consequently, when the Commissioners did me the honour to forward me a circular of questions, I thought I should have been very much wanting to my own views had I not accepted that opportunity of formally setting them before that body. And I must in justice state that the paper I received was courteously worded, and professed to do nothing more than ask myself and the other persons to whom it was addressed for such statements of facts and opinions as we might think proper to give. Furthermore, it should not be forgotten, though it may suit the con- venience of the Hebdomadal Board to forget'it, that the Commission is our only hope, slight as that hope may be, of delivering the University from the Board itself. The existence of the Board rests on one of the Caroline statutes, which it is understood that the University cannot alter without the previous licence of the Crown. Now, whether probable or not, it is quite possible that the result of the Commission may be a recommendation to the Crown to set free the University in this respect : indeed we could not reasonably expect the Crown to issue such a licence without some previous inquiry of this sort. On this ground, therefore, I hold the Commission to be, in the abstract, law- ful and reasonable. I am not sanguine enough to expect any such good luck as that the Commission should propose the abolition of our Council of Ten, but I could not oppose our solitary chance of deliverance. In voting for the address, I should have felt that I was voting for the continuance of the Heb- domadal Board !
The course I should have proposed would be, to wait till the Commissien- era make any definite recommendation ; and then, if they either propose anything illegal, as any change by the sole exercise of the Royal authority in matters beyond its province, or any objectionable change by the legitimate authority either of Crown or Parliament, to petition against it. This may of course still be done ; but it might have come with a better grace had no pre- vious petition, which will probably be ineffectual, been presented against the
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