begging does not follow. To get money is a pleasant thing, but not right at all hazards. Least of all should Oxford University sell the birthright of its authority for a mess of pottage.

C.C.C., Oxford, May.

CHANGES AT OXFORD AND THE

CHANCELLOR'S SCHEME

Lord Curzon, the Chancellor, actually did bring out the scheme of reform to which allusion is made in this letter. The scheme was a fairly substantial volume entitled 'Principles and Methods of University Reform (1909)'.

The changes indicated in Case's letter have been partially carried into effect. That is to say, statutes have altered the composition of the Hebdomadal Council, in the direction of making it more professorial', and of making Congregation a body of Masters of Arts who are not merely resident, but who actually hold official posts in the Colleges or in the University. But no change was made in the composition of Convocation (which consists of all Masters of Arts) except by the admission of women to the Degree of M.A. since 1920.

FROM The Times, JANUARY 25, 1909.

On Friday, the 15th, you published a special article entitled 'Oxford at the beginning of Hilary Term ' from your Oxford Correspondent, who says that 'we are still awaiting the Chancellor's promised scheme of reform, delayed, unfortunately, by his bad state of health', and then proceeds to discuss the reform of Congregation, or the assembly of all members of Convocation, resident in Oxford. He alludes to a proposal, which is to come in the form of a resolution before Congregation on the 26th inst.: That it is desirable that Congregation should be limited to members of Convocation who hold or have held University or College appointments, or are directly concerned with the studies, teaching, or administration of the University.' As this proposal seems likely to be part of the Chancellor's pro

mised scheme of reform', perhaps you will allow me to make a few criticisms on it, and on the treatment of it by your Correspondent.

1. It is a proposal to convert Congregation from a residential into an official body, and to make a bureaucracy of teachers and administrators the practical government of the University. But in order to ensure that end it has to disfranchise about 150 out of about 500 resident members of Convocation, and reduce them to passive spectators of what is going on in their own University in which they reside. A few curates and chaplains, and one or two others, will be disfranchised", says your Correspondent. But he is misinformed. Statistics have been collected and show that more than two-thirds of about 150 who would be disfranchised are laymen. Many are honour-men-men who have distinguished themselves either in their academical career or in after-life. All of them are well qualified to judge by the experience of residence, and at the same time ensure the variety of opinion calculated to correct the prejudices of a profession.

2. A more serious objection is that the proposal is a fragment of a larger scheme for changing the whole government of the University, which theoretically consists of Council, Congregation, and Convocation. The Vice-Chancellor proclaimed this constitutional programme in his speech of October 6, in which, after alluding to the Chancellor's scheme, he spoke as follows:

'Quae ante alia corrigere, me iudice, conandum haec sunt: Concilii Hebdomadalis, Congregationis constitutio; Convo'cationis ipsius forsan serius aggredienda recensio.'

There is then a project in the background for altering the composition of the Council, which will probably end in trying to make it, as well as Congregation, more official by making it more professorial. More sweeping is a further project to alter the

composition of Convocation, or the assembly of all paying Masters of Arts, resident or non-resident. The present proposal to change Congregation and the further project to change Convocation are nearly connected, because both mean disfranchisement, and the former will encourage the latter. The real interest of the proposal', says your Correspondent about the former proposal, lies in the measure to which it would logically lead—a limitation of the "irresponsible vote in Convocation.' By the 'irresponsible vote' he appears to mean the vote of non-residents, from whom, on his own responsibility, he proposes to take all control of the curriculum of education in the University of Oxford. Finally, the whole aim of these so-called reforms of the government of the University is oligarchy, disfranchisement, bureaucracy, officialism, professionalism, narrowness-for even learned men may be

narrow.

3. There remains the still greater objection-that the proposal to change Congregation, whether followed or not by other proposals to change the whole constitution of the University, is a preparation, if not a part, of a still more general scheme to introduce all manner of changes, which your Correspondent calls the Chancellor's promised scheme of reform'.

Among these projected changes, he says, it is urged that the University should appoint a delegacy or a committee to do officially the work now done by the Association for the Education of Women'. More officialism; but the real question is whether there is any ulterior purpose which ought now to be stated. Far more important, however, is the Correspondent's reference to working-class education, now being started under the Delegates for the Extension of Teaching beyond the limits of the University, and managed by a Committee, half of

which consist of persons who need not be members of the University, but may be members of trade unions. Nobody can pretend to foresee the farreaching consequences of such an institution; but your Correspondent mentions one consequence, highly characteristic of this begging age.

'An

appeal', says he, is being issued to the Colleges for a part of the funds required for carrying on the work.' The effect of this appeal would be to take funds from members of the University to spend on non-members, and that at the expense of undergraduates and their tutors, who, on the faith that they will be fairly and properly treated, have joined the colleges.

Whatever may be said for or against the multitudinous projects in the air at and around Oxford, I think, Sir, all England will agree that Oxford University is great and good enough not to be played with, or to be made the subject of experiments, or to be left in the dark. Here is the University about to meet on the 26th of January as if there was nothing to think about except who should be a member of Congregation, when the real question is-What next? Who should also be a member of Council, and who of Convocation? When the constitution has been changed what further changes will it introduce simply because it has been changed, and how far will it be wiser than the present government of the University? But these questions cannot be answered by the University, because it does not know, and is deprived of the means of knowing, partly because it is only consulted about one thing at a time and about one partial change after another, and partly because it knows that there is a scheme, of which one change after another is to be a part or a preparation, but without knowing what the scheme is as a whole. There is nothing so misleading as piecemeal legislation, in which each majority is

obtainable for each part, when all would be disgusted if they could only comprehend the whole.

Everybody in Oxford is sorry for the ill health of the Chancellor, at a moment when he aims at great things. But it is a pity that he has not put the whole of his 'promised scheme' before the University. We hear of reforms in the position of women-students, in the opportunities of the working classes, in the duration of the terms, in the curriculum of education, in the aggrandizement of the University, in the control of college revenues, in the composition of Council, of Congregation, and of Convocation-reforms, in short, of the whole constitution and conduct of Oxford. The University knows almost as little as the public about the details, connexion, and consequences involved in this mere skeleton of a possible scheme. Let us have the whole scheme complete, and not accept one part after another—and then repent too late. Oxford.

On a division the voting was as under:

PROFESSOR CASE'S POSITION ON THEOLOGICAL DEGREES AT OXFORD

The proposal to open Degrees of B.D. and D.D. without religious test was negatived in Convocation-placets 334, non-placets 763. After the War, however, Theological Degrees were thrown open without restriction to any particular denomination.

FROM The Times, APRIL 26, 1913. There are two main objects to be considered on this question:

1. The first object is to preserve the ancient value of the Doctor of Divinity, who in taking the degree