MR. GLADSTONE AND THE RECTORY OF EWELME.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIEr-May I supplement your correspondent's letter with some additional facts of importance, as they were related to me at the time by Mr. Gladstone himself P The Bill severing the Rectory from the Regius Professorship of Divinity at Oxford left the appointment of future incumbents entirely open. When the Bill was submitted to Mr. Gladstone for his approval, he inserted a clause with his own hand to provide that all future incumbents should be,—not Oxford graduates, but members of Oxford Convocation, like the late Sir William Palmer, for example, who was a Dublin graduate. This Mr. Gladstone did out of a sentiment of affection for Oxford; but he told me distinctly that he had not the least intention to restrict the appointment to men educated at Oxford, and I suppose that be was the best interpreter of his own clause. When the first vacancy in the Rectory took place the living of Southwell was also vacant, and Mr. Gladstone's intention was to appoint. Dr. Mayow, a learned man, to Ewelme, and Mr. Harvey to Southwell. It was repre- sented to him, however, that Ewelme would not suit Dr. Mayow, who was an Oxford man. So he nominated him to Southwell, and Mr. Harvey, a learned divine, to Ewelme, where he would be near Oxford libraries. An outcry was immediately raised that Mr. Gladstone had violated the statute in order to promqte a political follower, whereupon Mr. Harvey wrote a letter to the papers to say that be had no acquaintance with Mr. Gladstone, had been a Tory all his life, and had never given a Liberal vote. The outcry, on Mr. Gladstone's explanation in Parliament, immediately collapsed. Yet the original accusation is continually revived. It is a pity that Mr. Paul did not look up his facts before repeating
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