The Chair of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford has been given
to the Rev. W. W. Shirley, son of the late Bishop of Sodor and Man. Mr. Shirley has been scholar, fellow, and tutor of Wadham Col- lege. He took a first class in mathematics in 1851, but was pre- vented by ill-health from taking honours in clasgcs. For the last ten years Mr. Shirley has worked at history, especially the Church history of the Middle Ages. He has edited the Fasciculi Zizanio- rum, a collection of tracts and documents on the Wycliffe contro- versy, and the first volume of a collection of Royal Letters from the reign of Henry III., both of which are among the most valu- able and scholarly productions of the Record Commission. Mr. Shirley was appointed Modern History Examiner in 1861, and. a, select preacher in 1862. He belongs, we believe, to the Arnoldite or Liberal section of the Low Church School of Theology. The appointment is a fair one, though not the best that could be made.
