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fairly dragged into this public scandal , let us ask Lord Shaftesbury and his colleagues whether they attach much importance to signatures oi addresses and petitions ? We notice that this address contains less than 563 , 000 signaturesnot many more than the odd thousands to the monster petition" in favour of the Charter , which amounted to millions yet that bulkyroll was not viewed with great respect in the House oi Commons . Nor ought those half million of signatures to be . Copies of the address have lam in numberless shops about the metropolis and the country towns . Women seldom trouble
themselves much about the subject-matter of that to which they attach themselves , and a vague idea that to sign their names would be doing some great service in "the cause of the negro , " and something also connecting the fair writer with the Duchess of Sutherland , and divers literary ladies , forms an easy premium to purchase autographs ,, more valued probably when attached to youthful documents not intended for the public eye . We are certain that many a fair hand has done a wiser act from kinder motives , than in this inconsiderate indorsement of the Duchess of Sutherland ' s monster negro love letter .
The Spanish Government has quite taken the wind out of the sails of Lord Shaftesbury and his fair fellow-voyagers . To emancipate the slaves of a colony is a distinct act , a practical result . We may suspect , indeed , that Spain is perpetrating that act of benevolence exactly on the same principle as that which actuated the chimney-sweeper when he handled the tart in the pastry-cook ' s shop—that is , tokeepit tohis own use . Spain may desire Cuba to seem less
annexable . It is possible , however , that the project may expedite the American act which it is intended to circumvent ; in any case it complicates the Spanish and negro question in the West Indies . It may lead to international questions and difficulties ; and then the husbands of the Mrs . Beecher Stowe party in Stafford House may find it very inconvenient to have had their wives figuring in this attempt at petticoat coercion of the great American Republic .
THE BOW STREET DECISION ON THE UNSTAMPED PRESS . The decision of Mr . Henry at Bow-street , recorded in another column , has affixed a fine of 51 . to the act of selling the Potteries Free Press . Last week 3000 copies of this little paper were demanded by tho working class of South Staffordshire , and 4000 would have been sold had theybeen ready . This popular source of information is for the present closed . We must be permitted to protest against tho remarks of the Daihj News of the 18 th inst . on this prosecution . The Daily
News alleges that Mr . Truelove , a general bookseller and publisher , sought to " make his way in the world" by the sale of this particular paper . The imputation ' is as incorrect as it is ungenerous . It was the mere caprice of the Stamp-office to select Mr . Truelove . No one concerned in this ease seeks any notoriety by the proceeding . It is a disagreeable duty to contest with tho Government any question , but where a pure sense of public duty dictates the step , we trust tho public will disbelieve all imputations bo unfounded and injurious as thoso the Daily News has seen fit to make .
Mr . Parry , the barrister who defended this case , gave notice of an appeal to the sessions . Not out of any disrespect to Mr . Henry , whoBO judgment was carefully nnd considerately expressed . Mr . Henry rested on the letter of the law , but had the verdict proceeded from a jury , we are sure it would have been different . None who listened to tho able and mcatmrod address of Mr . Parry , for tho ( iefendniit , could doubt that a jury would have decided the cast ? on the peculiar groundH of equity involved in it . It was , no doubt , incumto consult tho Act
bent on his Worship simply of Parliament ; but a jury would not fail to have weighed tho official facts , ' strikingly brought out amfliiiniiiouHly set forth by the learned advocate , to tho effect that the Infund Iveveuuo OfhcerH ignore 1 , 110 law , and make a law themselves , and Hum prosecute-a Vendor for not respecting tho letter of an Act of which thoy for years havo violated both tho latter and tho spirit . Tho Solicitors for tho " Association for tho Repeal of tho Taxes on Knowledge , " who conducted this cumo , wore Messrs . Anhurst and Son , of tho Old . Jewry . Tho public nood no highor guarantee that Una oaao in jio vulgar nocking for notoriety
on the part of any Vendor , but a bond , fide trial of a public principle . We shall watch the new issue to be raised at the sessions ; and , in the meantime , we pray thefriends of apopularpress not to let the question slumber , either in Parliament or on the platform .
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OXFORD UNIVERSITY COMMISSION . IV . UNIVERSITY EXTENSION—EECOMMENDATIONS OF THE TTTTOBS' ASSOCIATION . The Tutors' Association properly addresses its first report to the consideration of University Extension , and we readily acknowledge the value of its labours , while regretting , for the sake of its reputation and influence , that it has rejected the most important of the recommendations of the Commission upon this subject . We looked for the Association ' s report , No . 1 , with some little expectation , remembering the respectable and influential names which supported those recommendations . Would the Association accept propositions which perhaps , beyond all others , would restore to the University a real and efficient existence ? A plan of extension , so simple and reasonable as , while permitting to the colleges full scope for self-modification and enlargement , should enable all who would to reside , subject only to University control , might be expected to command attention , and even acquiescence , from a body whose interest in the welfare of Oxford is so strong . Names of no little weight , even among the Tutors , have given a hearty support to the propositions of the Commission . It might be hoped that what they wanted in numbers would be amply supplied by their influence and activity , by the necessity and gravity of the case
itself , and by the general approbation with which the Report has been received beyond the University . On the other hand , who were the men of the Association ? Did it number in its ranks those in whom the general public had recognised theUniversityrepresentatives of its wants and expectations ? The amendment which rejected , by a majority of 38 or 39 , to two or three , the proposal of the Commission , that residence in private lodgings , without connexion with a College or Hall , should be permitted , solves the query . A majority may be too large . Corvees and corn laws have been imposed by " overwhelming majorities , " where only one class was represented , but their final dissolution has only been the more complete . And the Association must endure to be told that a less unanimous harmony
would have been to its advantage . It has given an unqualified adhesion , to the least important of the recommendations of the Commission . It has no less emphatically and co rdially rejected that which is the main sinew of University Reform . The Tutor * of Oxford could hardly be expected to decide otherwise . They have taken their stand upon the least invidious ground that could be selected , and have silenced the real friends of the U niversity to be found among their number , by an " overwhelming majority . " They resist a step which would go far to abolish Common-Room preeminence and idle College lectures . Like good engineers they look to the outworks . And certainly , no wonder . Chapel attendance and tests , not saving even
Mr . Foulke ' s baptism nnd three creeds ( Ev . 225 ) , may follow hall dinners and battell bills , and so a vile confusion in the great seminary of religious and useful learning ! But the public , which is not afraid of these things , will look with dissatisfaction at this opening of the Association ' s labours , and will resolve that a body which rejects by twenty to one a proposal for opening a close corporation , is not competent to decide a question of national importance . Mr . Gladstone i « said to bo in correspondence with tho Association . We trust that ho has not pledged himself to thoir league and covenant . Ho will find that there in a public opinion which , for Oxford as well as for India , will refuse to ratify the decrees of a conclave .
The moans for promoting University Extension suggested by tho Commission , in tho paper of questions which it circulated , worn tho following : — 1 . Tho establishment of now hulls , whether as independent societies , or in connexion with colleges . 2 . Permission to undergraduates to lodge in private houses more generally than at present . 3 . Tei-mission to students to become members of tho University , nnd to bo educated in Oxford under duo superintendence , without subjecting them to tho expenses incident to connexion with a college
or hull . 4 . Adinishion of persons to Profe . snori »\ l lectures to whom tho professors should bo authorized to grant cortilicatoH of attendance , without requiring »» y f " " ther connexion with tho Uiiiverhity . And it was urged that the University should bo empowered to satisfy itself by actual experiment which or how many of those plans , " oach utronuouBly and exclusively supported by ubto and earnest porsqus , " would
prove most advantageous , and it was added that the simultaneous operation of all , so far from preventing , might promote the success of each . Those who perceive that the question really at issue here is but a more covert phase of that between Tutors and Professors , will not be surprised that a body composed exclusively of the former have decided on rejecting propositions which would very certainly interfere with what we must call a monopoly . We say this in no desire to prejudice the Association with the public . To the question of Collegiate extension it addresses itself heartily , and when we know that no few Oxonians doubt , with Dr . Maobride , the possibility of
any important enlargement of the University , we argue against the Association with no disposition to cast unnecessary reflections on its labours . The interests of the nation and of Oxford , however , demand all plainness of speech at the present time . We may love Csesar well , but we love Rome more . And while we do not say that the words of a distinguished tutor—Mr . Pattison—will be found to have their illustration in the labours of the Association , " nothing would be more feeble than for us to emerge from this crisis of opinion with a scheme of paltry reforms / ' we must repeat , that if it should have influence enough with Parliament to substitute its own scheme for that of the Commission , Oxford will remain little less a close borough than it now is .
To the fourth of the suggestions given above , the Association does not address itself . Nor is it made the subject of any lengthened notice by the Commissioners , who content themselves with showing that the practice of granting certificates of attendance on the Professors ' lectures already exists . We trust that the practice will be continued and enlarged by the success of a more extended and active Professoriate . The test of the value of Oxford will be the extent to which its instructions are accepted ; nor is it unreasonable to expect
that if the capital recommendation of the Commission be adopted—that students shall be permitted to study for a degree unconnected with a College or Hall , —many who at first propose to themselves only to obtain a certificate , will become resident members of the University . Such a result is , however , contingent upon the adoption of that proposition , and perhaps on this account the Association has disregarded the fourth suggestion , and directed the force of its attack upon the third , which it deprecates in toto .
The arguments of the Commission in favour of this mode of extension are to the following effect . Ifc obviates the g rave difficulties arising from the necessity of at once expen ding a large sum of money up on Halls , whether affiliated or independent , an advantage , however , which it only possesses in common with the moro popular scheme of establishing boarding-houses in connexion with the Colleges . It renders an university education accessible to a class much poorer than that
which at present resorts to Oxford . The presence of such students would tend generally to introduce quieter and more frugal habits , and to discourage those extravagant ways of thinking and living which now deter many parents from sending their sons to Oxford at all . The danger attending tho command of unlimited credit being almost entirely abolished , such students would be exposed to few temptations . Students of this class will not bo exempted from University control . The wealthier among them would bo boarded in the houses of professors , or live with private tutors who would be responsible for their behaviour ; permission to live independently in lodgings would bo granted to tho poorer , on special application to tho Vice-Cliancellor , by whom tho lodging-houses would be
licensed and placed under strict regulations . Above all and tho argument we hold to bo decisive—tho creation of a class of University students , unconnected with the Colleges , would tend to restore its proper superiority to tho University , now absorbed by tho mibordinnto institutions . No suggestion of an importance comparable to this has , it appears to uh , been oflered on any side , and we are the more desirous of pressing it on tho attention of ouv readers , because whilo many nUginatizo it as revolutionary , others are induced , by tho more plausible tactics of it . « opponents , to regard it as mi experiment of no remarkable value , or at bet > t not liluily to produce any advantage that should compensate for tho irritation whicli its adoption would create in Oxford .
Tho Tutor * ' Association naturally rofu . tes to entertain this third recommendation . What of nrguincut siga ' mst ifc they or others havo urged is easily disposed of . It is argued that Mich University students would he littlo nmouiiblo to control , although tho Commissioners propose a Kystem of discipline fully as strict as that to which undergraduates , whether in or out of ( ,, ' ollego , nro at present subjected . , In tho face of facts , it is useless to talk of the nuiHirvision exercised by tutors , us thq discipline of tho University ban been long ndminiHterc ^
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300 T H E LEADE R .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 26, 1853, page 300, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1979/page/12/
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