THE VACANT PROFESSORSHIP OF HISTORY. [To THE EDITOR Or THE
"Brno•raxon."] SIR,—The appointment to the Professorship of Modern History in Oxford is a question of national importance, as it affects the training of men who will be legislators and states- men after a little. Of all modern history, that which it is most important to have effectually taught is the inter- national history of England and Ireland. There is one man, it seems to me, pre-eminently fitted for such a task. I am sincerely sorry for my part that he is a Unionist, but we all know from ample evidence that he does not permit his per- sonal polities to colour a historical narrative. On the con- trary, it seems to me that he sat down before historical problems with inflexible patience to study them, and a fixed determination to be always just. There is slight need of specifying the name of Mr. Lecky ; for to whom else would the description apply P For my part, I have only taken up my pen to say, as an Irish Nationalist, that I would be sincerely pleased to see this Unionist appointed to expound the story of the Union, or any other of the great international trans- actions which preceded or have followed it.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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