The spokesmen of the Queen's University deny that any of
their graduates received honours with only a score of 15 marks out of 124. They say that the 15 marks were marks given in excess of an undefined limit which was regarded as the pass-limit, that they were fifteen marks over and above the number necessary to "satisfy the-Examiners." On this, Mr. O'Donnell, the Queen's graduate who represents the advocates diaboli against the Uni- versity, writes to yesterday's Times to ask why, then, the number necessary to pass is kept shrouded in such mystery, why are we told of the fifteen over and above x, while x itself remains the unknown quantity of the problem? The question is pertinent. It is certainly even more interesting and desirable for the credit of the University that that proportion of the maximum number of marks which is requisite in order to pass an examination should be distinctly known, than even that the margin between pass-men and honours should be known. When the limit .for the pass is kept in the dark, there is reason to fear -that the Examiners' bowels of mercy have more to do with the granting of the degree than the attainment of any fixed standard of learn- ing. It is more important to understand what constitutes the conditions of salvation for the herd, than the mere excess-virtue which ,goes to make the saint.
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