THE PROPOSED EXAMINATION STATUTE AT OXFORD.
rTo TUE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.'1 you allow me to appeal, through your columns, to Members of Convocation, and to beg them to forbid by their votes what seems to many an act of injustice ? Candidates for Classical Honours in Moderations are now permitted to offer themselves for examination either in their fifth or their eighth term. About three-fourths of their number choose the longer period. The shorter is supposed to snit only the more brilliant scholars among them. It is proposed to practically refuse this choice to students who begin their residence with the present academical year. They will be compelled to present themselves in their fifth term, i.e., in November next, or to submit to a new system of examination, which is to come into force in March, 1886. This compulsion it is proposed to exercise by a declaratory statute which Convocation is to be asked to pass on Tuesday next. At present, the Examination Statute clearly gives the right of choice (so, at least, an eminent legal authority, Mr. Charles, Q.C., has declared). This obvious intention it is proposed to override by a declaratory statute, importing into the words as they now stand a meaning which they cannot bear. It is against this proposal that I appeal to Members of Convocation. The fair course will be to have two examinations in the first half-year of 1x6, one under the old, the other under the new system. This would be strictly in accordance with precedent, it might be done with very little trouble, and it would avoid what may be a cruel injustice and injury to many meritorious. students. The voting takes place on Tuesday, the 27th inst.,
at 2 p.m.—I am, Sir, &c., ALFRED CHURCH, Moderator in Classical Honours, 1881-2. University College, London.
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