OXFORD LETTER

On academick liberty

MERCURIUS OXONIENSIS

GOOD BROTHER LONDINIENSIS, Your last letter, which came to Oxon in the dead Easter season, now lies before me on squire Todhunter's table. 'Tis your letter on academick liberty: a very delicate topick, on which, as you say, we publick-spirited men should think cleerly. For at present,

though united in our resolve to defend that liberty, we seem divided in our un-

derstanding of it; so that 'tis like those doc- trines of our holy faith which we all believe, but over whose meaning we constantly fall out and crack each other's pates. Therefore I am very ready to open the matter with you, especially since some novel interpretations are now being hawked amongst us, and that by emissaries from your own university.

For I must tell you that, at the end of our last term, all we members of Congregation

receiv'd a circular letter signed by ten zealous Friends of Liberty (five of 'em Balliol men), summoning us to that coll., on a certain day, to set up a new body call'd a Council for Academick Liberty. Such a council', it seems, was first set up in London a year since, by your local Marx Brothers, after the sad fate of your Master Robin Blackburn; and the Praeses or chairman of it is one Master Griffith, your professor of publick law, the great defender of Master Blackburn; and now (we were told) this same Master Griffith would come to Oxon in order, with the aid of the Balliol men, to plant a colony in our midst; and at this meeting in that coll. he would explain the

necessity of it. I did not myself attend his

meeting, fearing to risque my old bones in such a prodigious crush; but a gdod friend

who obeyed the summons has reported the proceedings, which I shall now abridge to you My friend arrived early in Balliol coll., to forestall the multitude, which in the end rose

to twenty-five persons. These heard an elo- quent discourse from Master Griffith, who curdled their blood with dire warnings: for he told 'em that academick liberty was now everywhere assail'd, as in Manchester, Brummichem, Hornsey, Guildford, War- wick-upon-the-File, and even—and here he dropt a tear for the late blessed martyr St Rudi Dutschke—in our sister university of Cambridge. Which being so (said he), we in Oxon must not sit still, enjoying our sabbath rest (for he allow'd that our own liberty was not yet in peril), but must beat the drum and pay each of us fifty shillings a year to sustain the good old cause and publish the new gospel in those dark corners of the land; for secresy (said he) is the arm of tyranny, vice- chancellours, registrars, and such domestick tyrants not relishing the light of truth break- ing in on their dark doings, etc. etc. And he bade us not shrink from publick action and pressure on those 'whose minds need chang- ing'—that is, who dissent from him; for that form of academick liberty, to manage our own minds, it seems, is to be deny'd us.

At this there were murmurs in the hall, and my friend, who had come thither all on lire to contribute his mite to so noble a cause, began to grow cool; but to cleer his mind he made bold to ask Master Griffith how his Council' distineuish'd this.idelicate

elixir of academick liberty; for that being once known, 'twould be easier (he thought) to discover its enemies and the .means of resisting 'em. To which Master Griffith replied gravely that 'twas best not to enter upon any definitions or deductions from first principles, for that was the barren exercise of 'the Schoolmen, but he and his friends, being followers of the late Lord Chancellour Bacon, preferr'd the inductive method, which Meant (said he) that they defin'd liberty as they went along, by the light of Nature, according as they chose to interpret it in such cases as they saw fit to notice; which cases were those of Master Blackburn, whom the governours of your London School of Oeconomicks had used their liberty to send away (but not of Sir William Armstrong, to whom Master Blackburn's friends deny'd liberty to speak), and of Master Atkinson, whom the Senate of Brum- michem university had used its liberty not to imploy, and of Master Arblaster, of whom you shall soon hear more, for they had printed a special" pamphlet about it, which they now distributed); not to speak of the blessed martyr St Rudi, of whom 'twas

thought best to say but little now, he having become either too sacred or too taedious a subject for common discourse. And out of such cases (said he) a definition of academick liberty will emerge; as indeed it will, though 'tis not quite the definition which we have used hitherto.

After this, the assembly went on to elect their new Councill and my friend, coming homewards along Turl-street, -stepped aside to discuss a bottle of Rhenish wine with me; over which we discoursed more profitably on this subject of academick liberty, and I now venture to send you the summ of our discourse. For it seern'd to us that there are three sort of academick liberty, which 'tis better to distinguish than to confound.

Some say that academick liberty is the right of an university to be free from outward controul either by her Majesty's government, which supplies all such bodies annually with vast summs of money, or by the citizens of the Commonwealth, from whom those summs, by taxation, are drawn. To which I answer that such freedom, if .desirable (which I doubt not), can only be by permission, and limited, not absolute, and must be cle,erv'cl byonerit, utility, atylioRd

behaviour, not claim'd as of naturall right; for he who pays the piper has always the right, though he may be persuaded to fore-go it from time to time, to call the tune.

Others say that academick liberty is the right of all academicks, within their university, whatever its form of government, to teach what they will and as they will. To which I answer that, for the same reason, this right also (how desirable soever in prac- tice) is conditional!, not absolute : for 'tis not to be presum'd that society will pay us to teach obsolete or impertinent topicks, or to encourage indecencies (like Mistress Mus- cutt), out of meer respect to our learning, of which we declare ourselves the judges; for that were to make us popes and deprive our fellow citizens of their liberty to define 'true learning and the purpose of a university.

And I further note, that in the time when our two antient universities enjoyed both these two sorts of freedom, and could also justify that enjoyment (as now they cannot), being freeholders accountable to none for their ample revenues, 'twas precisely then (being the time betwixt the Revolution of '88, and the reforms of the last age) that they were most corrupt and fallen, and needed at the last to be purged and corrected by her Majesty's government, with the support of the people.

Therefore I come to the third sort of academick liberty, which is the liberty not of universities in the Commonwealth but, within the universities, of students against tutours, lecturers against professors, and all men against vice-chancellours and registrars; which sort of freedom, being closely akin to power, is rather to be call'd democracy than liberty, for all men know that 'tis compatible (at times) with the most perfect tyranny. And this, it seems from their own examples, is the sort of freedom which our new-fangled Councill seeks to secure for us, and then to protect by insisting also on the other two: for having set up an internal! democracy within the university, they would protect it against society and government by claiming an absolute right to be independent of both.

But the great quaere is, here as always, Who whom? For we have seen elsewhere that such perfect models of academick democracy, unless regulated by checks and balances, can soon be animated from outside, by some party or sect, which can Then quite destroy true, conditional' academick liberty, either directly, as now in Germany (see the letters of Mercurius Berolinensis), or indirectly, by affronting both government and citizens, on whose con- sent that liberty depends, and causing them to restrict or withdraw it. On which last topick I would have you read the shrewd paper by Master Edmund Ions, which was lately sent to us both by Mercurius Eboracensist. Therefore I resolv'd, after my friend was gone, to study this question by reading the pamphlet he had brought me from that meeting, about the sad case of Master Arblaster; which case was un- questionably the sole origin of this agitation, and the occasion of our new Council at Ox- on, just as that of Master Blackburn had previously occasion'd yours in London.

From this I learn'd that Master Arblaster is (need I say?) a Balliol man, who, being a temporary lecturer at Manchester, in- lEdmund Ions, 'Threats to Academic Free- dom in Britain' obtainable from 'Crith.al Quarterly', 2 Radcliff ..Avenue, London W10 ("ice judiciously writ a publick letter trouncing his own Vice-chancellour and Registrar as devious tyrants; for which rash act he• was privily admonish'd- by his professor. Whereupon, taking fright lest he be not elected to a new post, then suddenly vacant in that university, he spread his fears to his old mother college in Oxon, as the head- quarters of his party. And now 'twas the turn of his professor to be alarm'd. For suddenly that poor man receiv'd a strange private let- ter, writ in smooth, cozy terms (but late' anguis in herba), from a lady in Oxon, warn- ing him that unless he would guarantee (which was beyond his power) that Master Arblaster should be appointed to that new post, or promoted to a better post elsewhere, his own name would be traduced in Oxon, without let, for ever. (This pretty letter is printed in the aforesaid pamphlet, but with the name of the writer discreetly suppress'd. However,- 'tis not hard to conjecture: I will tell you sub sigillo; meanwhile, if you would seek it, you need not look beyond Balliol coll.). And this was the first warning shot fired out of that aggrieved coll., to show that it must not be slighted, even in the free Palatinate of Lancashire. Howbeit, the pro- fessor was not cowed thereby, but replied civilly enough that Master Arblaster's opi- nions and acts, how rash soever, were neither here nor there, but that he must take his chance of election, along with others, his disloyalty to that society in which he had freely chosen to work not having given him such absolute claims that no others might be allowed to compete with him.

So the Manchester men proceeded to an election, in the usual! way, and Master Arblaster was so unfortunate as to miss the post. Whereupon they of Balliol coll., being enraged, resolved to bring out their heavy guns. So after some creaking and rumbling, and greasing of wheels, and priming of powder, and smoaking of tallow-dips, a great cannonade was fired towards Manchester: for the then Master of Balliol coll. (the late Dr Hill) and two other Balliol men writ a huge snorting letter to that poor professor (who was but one elector among six), declar- ing their high displeasure at his gross con- tumacy, and signifying clearly their own philosophy, which is, Nolite tangere christos tneos. And when even this noyse brake not that stubborn university, they resolv'd to make the matter general!, and so they sum- moned all us of Oxon, as their subjects, and bade us set up this new body to ensure 'the radical] reconstruction of universities and other educationall institutions', as the sole means to secure to the Balliol men their Imperial! privilege of giving law to us all, and planting their young fry in our midst, whether we would have 'em or not, and altering our antient system of election for their benefit, and being judges of their own merit, etc., etc.; which is what they mean by academick freedom.

I am glad to say that poor Master Arblaster has not suffer'd in all this, being now safely placed in Sheffield university, where I wish him well, doubting not that he

an innocent young nian whose sole misfortune (besides a rash pen) is to have been damaged by ill-chosen friends; so that We may liken him to those Roman senatours whose fate is described by Tacitus: quihus deerat inimicus, per amicos oppress!. Which fate, since we keep a different sort of com- pany, I am confident will never overtake either you or

your true friend

MERCURIUS OXONIENS1S