24 NOVEMBER 1877, Page 3

Of course, Dr. Darwin was not admitted to his degree

v., ith- out various heavy undergraduate jokes. "The missing link "- an ape-like man, or man-like ape—was swung over his head, and the usual courtesies of undergraduate barbarism freely vouch- safed. But more has been made of these outbursts than they de- served. Undergraduates, like boys in general, have a kind of constitutionally recognised right to be rude in given places and times, and have even the impression that society expects them in those times and places to discover new modes of being rude, if society is not to lose its spirits. That the rudeness to Mr. Darwin was neither very original nor very neat, must of course be admitted. But probably it was a sort of perverted undergraduate fatalism which forced them into this not very brilliant display of high spirits. On the whole, it must be admitted that Cambridge, in doing what in her lay to honour Mr. Darwin, has done greater honour to herself, and that the clumsy freaks of the undergraduates do not materially derogate from the honour which the University has thus earned.