[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR, — In your article "Oxford
and Cambridge" (December 2nd) you made, implicitly at least, some criticisms upon the Bishop of London, against which I venture to protest. In the first place, is the Bishop, when delivering a sermon exclusively addressed to undergraduates, to be deterred from saying what he deems it his duty to say by the thought that outside Oxford his words may be misquoted and wrested from their context so as to produce an effect quite other than he intended P He surely cannot pause to think what the sensation-mongers will make of these friendly criticisms. If a preacher is not a mere opportunist, if his duty is to correct evils which he knows to exist, he is often bound to throw them into strong relief. The picture is for the audience, not for the world outside. It is not the Bishop's fault that he is haunted by reporters anxious to make "copy." Now every one who knows anything of Oxford is quite aware that many undergraduates occasionally drink themselves into various degrees of intoxication, and that some Colleges are worse in this respect than others. That is not because undergraduates are naturally addicted to drink; they are far too healthy in mind and body to be addicted to such an odious vice. The mischief is due to the low standard of public opinion which prevails even in educated circles in regard to intemperance. Occasional drunkenness is too often regarded either with amusement or as an amiable weakness, especially when the offender is young. This moral latitudinarianism naturally prevails widely in youthful society. Can we wonder that undergraduates, fresh from the discipline of school and severed from the refining influence of their homes, restraints which ought to be re- placed, but are not, by a vigorous public condemnation of any symptom of alcoho'ic excess—can we wonder that they often permit conviviality to degenerate into intemperance? The Bishop of London has, I believe, done a great service to his University in endeavouring by means of his vast influence with undergraduates to create a strong public opinion amongst them against intemperance. That, and that alone, would extinguish excessive drinking, which is, I believe, but far too slowly, on the wane.—I am, Sir, &c., S.
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