A Plea for the Abolition of Tests in the University
of Oxford. By Goldwin Smith. (Wheeler and Day.) A Letter on Southern Independence . By Goldwin Smith. (Macmillan and Co.)—The opinions of the Regius Professor of Modern History are too entirely the result of independent thought to be held lukewarmly. Quod milt, id voids vat. Both these arguments, therefore, are the arguments of a partizan, not the summing up of a judge, but so considered they are masterly, and we do not hesitate to add, unanswerable pieces of reasoning. When we cell Mr. Smith a partizan, we do not mean to imply that there is a syllable of which his opponents could fairly complain, or which those who think with him need regret as injurious to the cause, but they are written for the public who have not yet taken a side ; and rightly so, for those who have will certainly not be persuaded even by rhetoric which should extenuate their injustice. Indeed both in arrangement and choiceriof topics as well as in expression both essays are models of political writing, and seem to indicate the direction in which the author's genius is certainly leading him.
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