It is clear that Professor Henry Smith will poll a
respectable poll at Oxford, but that the Conservative will beat him, almost probably, by three to one. On Thursday evening the numbers. were,—Mr. Talbot, 2,459; Professor Smith, 941. Professor Smith has probably alienated a good many votes and gained none by his approval of Lord Salisbury's despatch, but had he even been as thorough-going in his Liberalism on the Eastern Question as the Duke of Argyll, he would not have had the remotest chance of defeating Mr. Talbot. Oxford University is Conservative to morbidness ;—Conservative on every isms that can be raised from the cradle to the grave, especially those of the cradle and the grave. Sooner than return a man who would open the Churchyards to Dissenting ministers, it would restore the Turk, abolish the Czar, and encourage M188111131=8 to become once more aggressors on Europe. Professor Henry Smith has not done badly in showing that at least a thousand electors,. even in Oxford University, are Liberals ; and in all probability, there would have been more, had not Professor Smith qualified his Liberalism by his general approval of Lord Salisbury, and consequently of the irrepressible Turk whom that nobleman's Despatch proposes to put on his legs again. Not all the Queen's ships, nor all the Queen's men, will be able, we trust, to effect that very undesirable restoration.
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