NONCONFORMIST WRANGLERS. [To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR:1
Sin,—It ia needless to assume any special affinity between Non-
conformity and mathematical capacity. A Wranglership means unusual natural powers, with, or (in the old days quite as com- monly) without, any long previous training. A first-class in the
Classical Tripos, whatever else it may imply, means at lettat ten years' really good teaching. This is nowhere to be had in such
perfection as at our groat public schools. But from the large majority of them, Nonconformists have been virtually excluded, either by the scruples or by the social position of their parents. Still, in my own year, when three of th6 first seven Classics came from Eton, there were three members of independent Churches in the first class of the Classical Tripos, besides possibly other Nonconformists. If this is not a fair sample, it is still less a solitary instance. I have no means of saying bow often the names of Nonconformists have appeared in Oxford first-class lists ; but if we may argue from the number of times in which a Balliol scholarship has been won by a Nonconformist, it must tie somewhat frequently.—I am, Sir, &c.,
A CAIII3RIDGE aRAMIATE.
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