A large contingent of clergymen went up to Oxford on
• Tuesday week to vote in Convocation against the proposal that the rule which restricts the choice of Examiners in the Theology School to persons in priests' Orders should be rescinded. The object of the change, as the Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History explained, was to admit learned but orthodox Nonconformists as Examiners, and it had been accepted by Congregation, whose members are resident; but the country clergy would none of it. They would hardly hear the advo- cates of the scheme, "howling at them," as Dr. Bigge re- marked, until they were unwilling to go on speaking ; and they voted it down by 676 to 278. The proposal seems reason- able, nevertheless, and entirely in accord with modern legisla- tion for the Universities ; but the majority were evidently passionately opposed to it, so opposed, indeed, that in their enthusiasm they forgot that courtesy and sense of fair play which, as a rule, Oxford men are proud of showing. If Oxford is to take the part in the national life which all her loyal sons must desire she should take, she must give up her jealousy and dislike of the Nonconformists. It had seemed during the past twenty years as if this jealousy were dis- appearing, and therefore the result of Tuesday week is all the more disappointing. The remedy, of course, is to let Oxford be governed by the resident M.A.'s, and not in the last resort, as now, by rural clergymen, who are often entirely out of touch with University affairs.
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