16 FEBRUARY 1907, Page 13

THE LATE LORD GOSCHEN.

[To MR EDITOR OV Smenvott." J SIR,—I remember being told by Mark Pattison, who was one of the Examiners in the School of Literae Humaniores in the October term 1854-55, when G. J. Goachen's name appeared in the First Class, that he "wrote twice as much as any one else, and that every word might have been printed as it stood." "Twice as much" is, of course, a figure of speech. The form of the Oxford papers in those days limited the space which an examinee could give to his answers. It means, I suppose, that a quite unnsuakamount of very small writing was compressed

into the sheet. The other characteristic of the papers Pattison certainly insisted upon. Another anecdote, which I heard long afterwards at one of the delightful dinners which Mr. R. H. Hutton sometimes gave at the Devonshire Club, I may take this opportunity of relating. It refers to the time when Goschen had parted, or was about to part, from his political friends on the franchise question. "The Tories want a bowler," said a friend to him.; "why don't you engage your- self to them P' "I prefer to play with my own eleven," was Goschen's answer. The engagement was made, nevertheless, before very long. The metaphor was appropriate enough, for though he probably never had a bat in his hand, it was to the cricketing news that he always turned when he opened his