OXFORD IN DR. JOHNSON'S TIMES.* Tins volume might, perhaps, have

been more aptly entitled, " Johnsoniana," for it is a miscellaneous collection of essays, most of them enlarged reprints from periodicals, on desultory points relating so Johnson. The question which suggests itself is whether there can be anything still to be said in regard to Johnson's life which warrants the composition of a new book about him. Dr. Hill is sensible of the fact, and thus formulates an apology for his venture :—

" My justification is twofold. In the first place, I have found out my way in Oxford to rooms in Christ Church and Pembroke College, in which are stored up the documents which have enabled me to set a matter at rest which has been the puzzle of Johnsonian critics for more than forty years I have, moreover, in the hours that I have spent in the Bodleian Library, turned over many an interesting record of Oxford as it was in the early part of last century. But the chief part of my labour has certainly lain among books that have been for years in the possession of every man that was inclined to read them. When I first began to study these works, I read with the eager interest of one who was merely anxious to learn, and not as one who had any

thoughts of setting up for a teacher himself But as I continued to read I began to feel that in every separate portrait that

had been drawn of that great man (Johnson] there were great imper-

fections As these convictions grew upon me, I began to set forth the views that I had formed I also formed the plan of writing sketches of the lives of some of Johnson's friends trust that I have done something to give a juster view of Johnson and of his biographer (Boswell), that I have helped some little towards a better understanding of one or two among the men whom they reckoned as their friends."

Whether Dr. Hill really has succeeded in presenting Johnson, Boswell, and their companions in any new light is not quite clear, but what he certainly is justified in laying claim to is that he has settled a moot point in Johnson's biography, and that with great industry he has illustrated the condition of Oxford as a University in the last century. The moot point in question is the term of Johnson's residence as an undergraduate,—whether of three years, according to Boswell's statement, supported by Hawkins, or of only fourteen months, as first suggested by Croker. The matter has been discussed since Croker's time 'with elaborate ingenuity by Mr. Fitzgerald and Mr. Elwin, who being unable to discover proof positive for a conclu- sion, have fortified themselves by plausible surmises, until Dr. Hill now seta the matter at rest by unimpeachable evidence drawn from the prosaic records of the Battellbooks of Christ Church. Johnson himself said with much distinctness that his college life was known to two contemporaries, one being a certain John Taylor. But it has been accepted that this Taylor matriculated a year after the date when Johnson was said to have Mt the University, by those who yet believed him to have resided only fourteen months. This supposed fact was a sadly perplexing crux, until Dr. Hill, by turning over the pages of musty account- books, has exploded it, and recovered the unimpeachable record of John Taylor's matriculation only four months later than John- son's. This circumstance—doing away with all incompatibility between the simultaneous residence of the two men—coupled with certain entries in the books of Pembroke College, conclu-

• Dr. Johnson: his Friends and Ms Oritic4.

Smith, Elder, and Co. 1878. By G. B. Hill, D.C.L. London :

sively establish that Johnson's university career barely extended over fourteen months. Interesting though it always is to define accurately all facts connected with the life of a great man, the fixing of this point would not of itself be sufficient to impart any general interest to Dr. Hill's publication. That interest, in our opinion, is concentrated mainly in his first chapter, headed, "Oxford

in Johnson's Time." Unlike the other chapters, it is a wholly new

production, no part having before appeared even in the form of a sketch, and it embodies in a lively and entertaining form a highly instructive picture of the University, the materials for which only laborious industry could have collected.

Dr. Hill's starting-point is that of contrast between the bitter tone in which Gibbon spoke of his Oxford experiences, and the warm attachment Johnson ever entertained towards the same University. "To the University of Oxford I acknowledge no obli- gation, and she will as cheerfully renounce me for a son, as I am willing to disclaim her for a mother," wrote the historian. Every one must remember the keen sarcasm with which Gibbon describes his own college life, and that which was openly led by the Fellows of Magdalen. Was this undisguised neglect of all tutorial obligations and of every pretence to academic duties special to Magdalen at the time, or was it more or less common to all Oxford ? We rise from the perusal of Dr. Hill's entertaining pages with the unpleasant impression that the state of things described by Gibbon was by no means peculiar to Magdalen. No doubt a decidedly studious youth could then find amongst Oxford Tutors and Fellows men who would respond to his craving for instruction. Dr. Hill has unearthed a programme of study drawn up for some student by a tutor, which is suf- ficiently comprehensive to please even our modern Civil-Service Commissioners. The point is not what an exceptional under- graduate like Johnson or Lovell Edgeworth could contrive to extract during a University residence, by their unusual deter- mination, for their own peculiar benefit, but what Oxford in its then general condition offered as a place of discipline and instruc- tion to a common-place and average youth. The answer can only be that in this respect the Colleges generally were abodes of indolence and coarse dissipation. The whole place was permeated with abuse, and prejudice, and gross stag- nation of mind. The worst stories of monastic irregularities are matched by well-attested facts of Oxford doings. Not above a few years before the time we are writing of—as is admitted by that staunch old Tory, Hearne—the head of an Oxford Hall shut it up entirely, refusing to take any students, and enjoyed his emolu- ments in the country. A telling illustration of the feeling of thc Uni- versity authorities is afforded by the treatment dealt out to any undergraduates guilty of strict religious observances in the manner of the Methodists. Such a case happened, though after Johnson's time, in St. Edmund's Hall, where six students came to be ob- noxious for their strict religious practices. it appears that the Principal was indisposed to take steps against them, but the Vice- Principal, manifestly a man of vehement impulses, called on the Vice-Chancellor, in his capacity of Visitor, to proceed to extremes, and pronounce the expulsion of the six young men. An inquiry was held, and sentence was pronounced. From a statement in support of the Vice-Chancellor's judgment, it is made to appear that they were all "totally ignorant of Greek and Latin," and that, moreover, they had been brought up to mean trades. One of the lot, Benjamin Blatch by name, was, however, exempted from punishment, though "he confessed ignorance, and declined all examination." But then we read in a defence of these proceedings by Dr. Nowell, the Principal, that "as he was represented to be a man of fortune, and declared that he was not designed for Holy Orders, the Vice-Chancellor did not think fit to remove him, for this reason only, though he was supposed to be one of the righteous overmuch." This case produced a sen- sation, and gave rise to a public protest ; for to render the injustice more glaring, one Welling, also belonging to St. Edmund's Hall, who had said publicly that only a knave could believe in the miracles of Moses, received altogether different treatment. This individual,—

" Was a poor foundling beggar-boy, bred in a workhouse, and thence received into the house of a hatter, to run errands. Next he had been the scout of an apothecary. Then he had been taken into the house of a pious clergyman and schoolmaster, where he got a smattering of learning. Next he had been an assistant in a school. Here he main, tamed his Deistical principles, till the maid-servant being found with child, both he and she were dismissed. He married her, and she getting a place in a Jew's family, could now contribute to his support."

As Welling had indulged in his irreligious remarks publicly in St. John's gardens, and moreover, aggravated the offence by being in a state of intoxication, this scandal was perforce brought under the notice of the Vice-Chancellor, who was obliged to hold an inquiry. Welling, however, probably in consequence of some pro- tection, did not suffer any practical inconvenience, though the evidence against him appears to have been conclusive. The Vice-Chancellor was satisfied with his professing belief in the miracles of Moses, and an expression of contrition at having been drnek. Welling subsequently found no difficulty in being ad- mitted to orders, and received a cure of souls. It is recorded that, in reply to a question how he could have brought himself to take this step, he jocularly remarked, "Why shotild I not read the Bible for money, as well as any other book ?" Well authenticated anecdotes of this character illustrate vividly the then condition of the University and of the Church.

That Oxford was distinguished as a hot-bed of Jacobite senti- ment is notorious, and Dr. Hill has collected various interesting notices in connection with public manifestations of this political feeling. It exhibited itself not merely in academic utterances— Jacobite speeches by University Dons on State occasions—but repeatedly led to sanguinary riots, attended with the destruction of property. On more occasions than one the military had to be called in, and Oxford assumed the appearance of a city in the occupation of the soldiery. In 1716, on the Prince of Wales's birthday, the streets were the scene of a regular stand-up fight between the soldiers, the townspeople, and the University, in the course of which houses were wrecked and the Vice-Chancellor mobbed and hustled by the soldiery. This disloyal feeling con- tinued long, and two years after Culloden there was again a dis- turbance, of which an amusing narrative is preserved by a Windsor Canon, and therefore stout Hannoverian, called Blagrove, who happened to be present. Being in Winter's coffeehouse, he was told of some rioters in the street uttering treasonable cries :—

" There had been that day an entertainment in Darnel College, a very hotbed of Jacobite; to which had been invited, among other out-college guest; Mr. Dawes, Mr. Whitmore, and Mr. Lnxmoore. The guests, as soon as they left Balliol, had begun their treasonable cries. The Canon hurried into the street, and heard the rioters, as they went down High Street, not only bless King James and Prince Charles, but also d—n K—g G—e. He boldly laid hold of one of them, but his com- rades desired him to let him go. Some even pulled off their clothes, and struck the Canon. They then went down St. Mary Hall Lane, waving their caps, and shouting the most treason- able expressions, when they met two soldiers. The gownsman, being seven or eight in number, demanded the soldiers' swords, tore the coat of one of them, and insisted on both crying, 'King James for ever !' The Canon tried to take refuge in Oriel College, for the rioters had now increased to forty. Some cried,' D—n K—g G—e and all his assist- ants !' and cursed the Canon in particular. Mr. Dawes laid hold of him, and then stripping to fight, cried out, am a man who dares say, "God bless K—g James the Third ;" and I toll you my name is Dawes, of St. Mary Hall. I am a man of independent fortune; and therefore afraid of no man.' The Proctor came up at that moment and seized Mr. Dawes, who, even when in the Proctor's hands, shouted, 'G —d bless my dear K—g J—s."

The Canon, having lodged a formal complaint with the Vice- Chancellor, the latter expressed regret at the occurrence, but said "nothing could prevent young fellows getting into liquor." He promised, however, to set them an "imposition," and postpone their degrees by a year. More than this the Vice-Chancellor re- fused to do. "In consequence of this," says the Canon, "the rioters were treated with general respect, and I was as generally hissed and insulted." Canon Blagrove was not a man easily put down. At the next assizes he lodged an information against the Vice-Chancellor before one of the Judges. Subsequently the matter was taken up in higher quarters. The offenders were brought before the Court of King's Bench, when Whitmore and Dawee "were sentenced to be fined five nobles, to suffer two years' imprisonment to find securities for their good behaviour for seven years and to walk immediately round

'Westminster Hall, with a label affixed to their foreheads denoting their crime and sentence, and to ask pardon of the several Courts." The Vice-Chancellor himself was also threatened with prosecution, though that was allowed to drop. How little effect the pro- ceedings had in restraining disloyal manifestations was shown by the seditious harangue of Dr. King, Principal of St. Mary Hall, in the following year, at the opening of the Radcliffe Library, a harangue in which he openly prayed for the Pretender's return, in phrases so poWerful and so sarcastic, that the speech twenty years later was fresh in the mindof John Wilkes as a masterpiece of auda- cious sedition. The reader on turning to Dr. Hill's book will find not a few other striking illustrations of Oxford life as it was in the last century, and of an University system where a Professor- ship of Greek was " a very pretty sinecure, requiring very little knowledge," which a Chesterfield could recommend as a berth suitable to a foppish youth.