On Wednesday, in the absence of Lord Granville, the Chancellor
of the University of London, who was prevented by the tragic death of Lord Frederick Cavendish from at- tending, Sir George Jessel, the Master of the Rolls, and the Vice-Chancellor of the University, distributed the diplomas and certificates gained during the year by the students (male and female) of the University of London, remark- ing that it was the first occasion on which these diplomas and certificates had been distributed by a graduate of the University. He enlarged on the rapid growth of the Uni- versity, in spite of all the opposition and checks with which it had met, and in spite of the very high standard of examina- tion resolutely maintained by the authorities of the University.. He complimented the young ladies on the distinguished success which many of them had achieved, and remarked that if they would but wear in the drawing-room the academic costume- which they had worn in that hall, "it might further objects which, in spite of their ardent devotion to study, were still dear to the female heart." And in fact, the academic costume bad (by virtue of various gores and gussets). been made to accommodate itself most happily to girlish figures and faces. Unfortunately, the Vice-Chancellor, who, considerable as he is as a Judge, has on many subjects the mind of a bitter partisan, ended a good speech with a weak and pointless sneer at the Vivisection Act, which he dragged head and shoulders into the course of a pane- gyric on science. This panegyric he illustrated by recording the pleasure which he himself had derived from watching through a microscope the circulation of the blood in a frog's foot, but warned his audience not to attempt to secure for themselves the same pleasure, since he believed that a frog's. foot had been placed under the protection of an Act of Parlia- ment. We venture to say that the Master of the Rolls did not believe anything of the kind, and certainly it is quite unworthy of him to speak as if an Act passed to protect animals against torture of the cruelest kind, were chiefly concerned in imposing meddling restrictions on painless scientific observation. If Judges can talk so childishly, what wonder that surgeons and physicians rage, and imagine vain things P
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