No defence, or attempt at defence, was really offered by
the Council to the meeting. The dignitaries of the majority stood on their dignity, denied all responsibility, and stayed away. The younger members of the Council kept silence. The external friends of the Council confined themselves to insisting on the great reputation of Mr. Grote. The only advocate for the defence was Professor Key, and he was not a very wise one. He compensated himself for having published one or two very temperate letters by the only violent speech of the evening,—a speech which he him- self now probably regrets. Professor Key, however, made one, and only one, effective point. He showed that it might be very objectionable to place in the head-mastership of' the school an eminent minister of religion. We agree with him, but why ? Because the head master of the school is not, like the under masters or the professors of the College, before all things a teacher. On the contrary, his main function is that of a manager, an administrator. He stands to the parents of the boys almost in the same position in which the Council of the College stands to the parents of the students. He is the representative of impartial administration. We have always maintained that in the Council there should be some attempt at variety, if not equilibrium of creeds. But for the individual professors know- ledge and teaching power are the great considerations, as com- pared with which all others are utterly insignificant.
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