TEE OXFORD COMMISSION REPORT.
Oakland., Dureb,y, 15t6 August 1852.
Sin—I had hoped that my letter in your paper on the 7th instant might have been the last on the subject ; and I am certainly a little surprised that those who felt themselves aggrieved by anything I had said should (as far as your columns are concerned) have waited for my voluntary withdrawal of a statement which had been privately denied to me, instead of publicly proving me wrong in the first instance.
The letter of ",L C.," of "University College," contains neither facts nor arguments ; but I cannot help remarking his expression that the "faulti- ness" of the transaction, "as defined by myself in my first letter, is now acknowledged to have existed solely in my own imagination." " Acknow- ledged " means, I suppose acknowledged 13y myself: now I have acknow- ledged nothing of the kind ; I objected in the first instance to election without examination ; I object to it still, as objectionable in itself, and in- consistent with anything like reforming principles. What prime. facie evidence led me to regard as personal or party purposes, direct testimony, has reduced to a grave error in judgment ; but the objection to the proceeding in itself, irrespective of the motives which led to it, remains where it was. To the more important letter of your other correspondent I will say this much. "One of the Electors" agrees with me, I understand him, in with).- lag to throw the Fellowships really open : if he, or any of those who voted for the gentleman referred to, proposed so to do, (that is, to announce the vacancy and examine the candidates,) but found those who were finally the majority opposed to that course, all I have said falls to the ground. But was it so ?
As for the "intellectual merits" of the respective candidates I can say nothing, because I know nothing; but I cannot admit that the result of an examination which happened four years before (that is your correspondent's measure of " recently ") can be a sufficient test. To one, like myself, quite unacquainted with both candidates, the prima fade view is, that the sup- porters of each candidate might think equally highly of their respective favourites. To return to "J. C. " : your readers would know best "what sort of blows mine are," if, instead of crowing over me for voluntarily admitting myself to be wrong in one point, he had endeavoured to convict me of in- accuracy in those points where I still hold myself to be right. Besides matters of opinion, I have given references to passages in which I consider the Commissioners to have misrepresented myself and my College. If he can show that such is not the case, I will very willingly "apologize to the Commissioners for my mistake," but not before.
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