It is quite plain that Oxford and Cambridge use the
words " progress," " natural." "..bstructien," &R., in a sense different from the official and popular use : they suppose themselves to be a sort of " fast!' corporatiOn, characterized.by a go-ahead progress beyond the age ; a 4apimsbaon which. attests, titre closeness of their seclusion. They evidently suppose also that they can shut out inquiry, and will probably be as much astonished when it comes as the monasteries were at seeing Henry the Eighth's Commis- sioners within their walls. Perhaps the proposed Commission should have been preceded by another—one to instruct the Heads of Houses, and other learnedly ignorant functionaries, on the actual state of the world and the consequent necessities of the age. They do not seem to know, that if they cannot be converted into something possessing a sort of contemporary character, and some degree of general, not exclusive, usefulness, the question of their reform may, in these revolutionary times, be merged in the larger and ulterior question of their existence.
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