SIR,—The Warden of All Souls has a fine vein of
gentle raillery. He has only to extract deftly a few phrases from the context of Mr. Blake's article to make it seem absurd. We all know too the skill of his advocacy, especially when, candid and open-minded himself, he presents his client's case from the Judge's Bench. Mr. Sparrow is all composure and courtesy him- self; and despite the clamour of the traffic in the High Street, he apparently enjoys mental seclusion to a rare degree, and is able to remain unaware of the honest indignation felt at the
manccuvres and misrepresentations of those in high places, who so long succeeded in conceal- ing, or distorting, the real opinions of the university.
Mr. Blake's article, a most restrained and truthful account of recent happenings here. though he makes no effort to hide his own views, does indeed demand an answer, not on the issue to which Mr. Sparrow seeks to divert attention, and not from Mr. Sparrow himself. 'e great question that has now emerged is one larger than that of the roads: it is the question of the reality of the democratic con- trol which Masters of Arts, teaching and administering in the university, are supposed to exercise over its policy. It is only the Hebdomadal Council, the servant in name of Congregation, that can answer this; and no doubt this is not the proper place to take the matter further.
A word might be added about the letter of Your other correspondent. Many of us here will regret that Christ Church sold part of Cornmarket Street to Marks and Spencer. But all colleges, even the richest, are hard pressed for money; and though I imagine no exact computation is possible, it is unlikely that the new store will add more than fractionally to the congestion in the centre of Oxford. If there is ever some decentralisation of the Oxford shopping centre, it will solve the prob- lem created by a new store in Cornmarket Street as part of the whole problem. I do not write in consultation with anyone in Christ Church, nor do I deny that they perhaps made a mistake from the university point of view. That is a mere nothing compared with the ser- vices Christ Church rendered (and that St. John's are now rendering) to the interests of the university, when the proper custodians of those interests were prepared to allow them to go by default.—Yours faithfully, P. A. BRUNT Oriel College, Oxford
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