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and it was , then , very fine to hear Mr . Disraeli , as he threw back his coat flaps and put himself into the attitude of . a conqueror , agree to the adjournment , intimating that he would regard the division ~( fbr and against going home ) as a division for and against the Derby Board of Admiralty . The effrontery was Bublhne , the more that it succeeded , and did effectuallygetrid of the question , —Mr . Keating riot having that weight in the land which would render his accusatory oration of consequence to the Tories . It was a hard fought and an exciting sight j and the white vests and white neckcloths- —( why will young politicians , knowing their faces will be crimson at
midnight , wear such garments ?)—went home in the cool morning light , well content with themselves and the club , and with a profound heartily expressed aversion for " snobs , " who , like Sir Benjamin Hall and Mr . Keating , will not permit a " fellow" to do what he can for his party . The Government members and ministerialist classes , enjoyed the fun just as inuchj and the Purists are so few that their feelings need not be calculated . And of what avail is it , after such a set of scenes , such a tactique , such an exhibition of lax political morality , to assure the club that though it is careless and corrupt , the country condemns ? The Duke of Northumberland will return his members in
the north , and Mr . Stafford will give his dinners in the west , just as usual ; and what cares either for the abstract head-shaking of a great nation which believes it is self-governed , and is proud of its representative institutions ? "AStbangeb . " Saturday Morning .
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OXFORD UNIVERSITY COMMISSION . ¦ . ' ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦;/ . ' . ¦ ' ¦ : vi . * . . ' ' . - . Patient waiting sometimes has its recompense , sometimes not . We have tarried , hoping that that Association of Tutors , to whose labours , as based upon what theTimes called " a perception of affairs not likely to be surpassed elsewhere , " we have been directed to look for a satisfactory scheme of University reform , would , before long , give us another " instalment of their views / ' Rusticus expectat . ^ And now that Commemoration and Installation are over , and hall and chapel
empty , the whole subject is discarded , for a time , with who knows what chances of further postponement ! Longvacationsare useful tomanybesides the overworked lawyer . They shelve disagreeable questions , and open vistas of a comfortable limbo for India bills , episcopal settlements , and University Commissions . Conscience , too , favours the situation : for the corporate conscience is always comfortable , and , if it cannot boldly assert that to-day is as yesterday , at least it can undergo a moderate martyrdom , for the sake of bearing its testimony that to-morrow shall be as to-day . There is , indeed , Lord John Russell ' s warning of the finger , whereat corporate conscience changes colour .
How to diminish the cost of an Oxford degree ? Such is the only question which appears thus far to have occupied the venerable energies of the University , and in what fashion has even this question been met ? A body of teachers should have regard , above all , to the interestfl of sound education . They should discard all that might interfere with that object , nor hesitate , if necessary , to sacrifice for it even " that domestic control an discipline / ' which have hitherto given a distinctive character to Oxford . Of what service to education is that distinctive character , when no students remain ? They should daro to disclaim the artificial
distinctions which genius and learning have never recognised , and , condemning alike tho tnft and the un-Sefcd cap / should have carefully abstained from sub-Sting for these gradations of status , on tho s core of ^ . y , whid » w «« i ^ ifadoI ««» to ^ mtiinef . aitlio 8 o S nits of a barbarous age . Tho highest amhuinbIcs of our schools teach a hotter lesson than th y t wh . ch the Oxford tutors inculcate . Eton and K . ^ b boraborn * arc re publics , and Oxford has profited hUfe by those classic antiquarian store , for which * l . o ahghte u 1 othor Honrccfl of knowledge , if dio haa not learned JL IH-tern wither whore rank and wealth enjoy tho
suiwhino of academic favour . The Tutor ' * Association , on tho ground of discussing Sfs a iSSErS their inyntenouH a , l iu 0 oli 0 gO 8 R per CommisHumoi vs ola Umt . ndvanta fi of tho ^^^ ^ )^^^ o }^ um ^ m ^ v ^ tr ^
extravagant . They do not pretend to agree with Dr « Whately , who denies that a man can live in decent lodgings at less cost than if he had College rooms and dined at the Hall table . They know that the " reasonable . charges" made for rooms , tuition ,. battells , &c , make the cost of a degree from six hundred to a thousand pounds ( one gentleman calls 725 ? . a very low sum ) . Indeed , the delirious extravagance which often closes
the orgies of the wine party by " running a tick , " has been in no slight degree fostered by the difficulty of calculating what the annual College expenses will amount to . All these irregularities incident to College bills are known to the Tutors , and their remedy for them is to leave their own societies as they are , and by affiliated Halltf , and Heaven knows what besides , to open to men of frugal habits and moderate means , a postern by which to creep to a degree .
The Tutors neither expect nor desire any extension of the University through the medium of the Colleges , which , in fact , are by no means full now . In 1846 , the vacant rooms vwere sixty or seventy , and the number is now considerably greater . The prestige of Oxford is to be kept up by Fellows who divide a handsome surplus , and by Under-graduates who spend largely and dress well . For the people at large , who very inconveniently , and , according to Mr . Mansell , very absurdly , may , with sundry changes of University administration and instruction , press to Oxford for a degree , the Tutors have a scheme by which they will
practically understand the old distinctions between commoner * and servitors . They will virtually find themselves sitting below the salt , trenchermen , bearers to table of the feast of which they will partake at an humble distance . Their Oxford homes will have nicknames—Poor Man ' s Hall—Bastille—and the honourable cares " of poverty , its sweet and scanty fare and scrupulous self-denials , become matter of sarcasm or dull jest to the lounging tooth-picks of the College-hall . The Tutors know that the association of commoners and servitors has been productive of a thousand petty but severe annoyances to the latter , and yet they think
to establish a grade of students who would be deprived of those opportunities of establishing good fellowship or friendship with their more fortunate fellow-students , which living under the same College-roof supplies . They are wedded to their theory of " domestic discipline , " and therefore they will have none of those who might practice in Oxford " the brave struggles" so often witnessed in the Scottish Universities , if admitted as of old without being forced to join any College or Hall . There , a man will pass his fivo months , at an expense of eleven or twelve pounds—nay , of five , spending his superfluous money in books . Ho will go homo and work at farm labour , in order to come up tho next session to College—" such a man as , " says
the evidence from Aberdeen , " will be an honour to any profession ; " but he must by no means ask for permission to reside at Oxford if unconnected with College or Hall . Tho Halls are almost all gone , and those which remain are , with little exception , in doubtful odour . We hear complaints of their being- rnther loci UcenticB than loci pcBftitentim . Tho Colleges are luxurious and slothful ; yot must all comers join one or othor , or somothing modelled upon ono or other . Our morals an d domestic discipline require it , else Oxford will bo contaminated , especially if men try to live on twenty or thirty pounds for the session in lodgings , selecting—shocking to say—their own tutors , or perhaps worse—disregarding them in toto . A good professoriate would mako such a contingency often very
likely . Now , tho fact is that all these ingenious nnd elaborate schemes of extending the University while leaving tho Colleges to their lettered repose , is inero labour lost . Howidlo to protend to be worious in calculations respecting tho minimum costs of a degree through tho agency of charitablo foundations and rigorous supervision , when nothing is hotter known than this , that an Oxford education is denr nt any price . Nor will tho statute of 1850 itself , requiring , an it does , throo several examinations in tho school of L i term Humanioros , largely tend to counteract tho present influences of tho place , which c ertainly do not tend to draw to it that middle class
bfood , mingled , in no stinted measure wtfch that of the artisan , without which no educational iiiHtitutioiiH can preserve vitality- There is still too much of tho tovjours perdrix . Mr . Lowo remarks ( TUv . 13 ) that ho had scon " in Australia , Oxford men placed in positions in which they had reason bitterly to regret that their contly education , whilo making them intimately acquainted with remote ovonts and distant nations , hud left them in utter ignorance of tho laws of Naturo , and placed them under immense disadvantages in that struggl" with her which they had to maintain . " Such words ' have their application wtill , as Oxford will find when eho invites new coniorn on hor dioap ny » tem . Let hor darflto diMttrd her own tradition * , «» "l tho practice of
even the most liberal of our institutions , and require as a necessity no further evidence of classical knowledge thanmay berequiredfor scientific investigation , and it will be seen , . with a large and earnest professoriate , whether Oxford cannot vindicate University studies against Carlyle ' s formidable indifference . At present , nothing is more " a sham . " No study flourishes . Oxford still educates a large proportion of the clergy ; but learned theologians , observe the Commissioners , are very rare in the University , and , in consequence , still rarer elsewhere . No efficient means exist for training candidates for holy orders in those studies which belong peculiarly to their profession . Oxford has ceased to be a school of medicine ; the few who take medical degrees there with a view to social consideration , study their profession elsewhere . Nor is the number of barristers educated
at the University by any means increasing . Of these neglected , and , so far as Oxford is concerned , almost exhausted professions , some attempts arc being made to inspire the least promising—the first . Lord Derby recommends a separate school of theology ; sundry true friends of reform desire a school of lay theology . Very good , but somewhat awkward for the clergy . What detection of vamped sermons ! What discernment in plagiarisms!—nay , what unkennelling of heresy and false doctrine !—what reduction of prelatic and priestly dimensions to primitive godly simplicity ! For the rest , that other school , it is mere talk . Oxford will
never see a school of theology . Is not admission of Dissenters looming in the distance ? And even were it not so , how can this poor distracted compromise of aJDowning-street Church ,. affect to teacli theology to expound articles and catechisms , and dogmatise on sacramental systems ? Why , its National Society meets in a fright , listens to some talking about irregular baptisms in a panic , and closes its convulsions with a hasty scramble out of the way of " that horrid Denison , " and a " thank God it ' s no worse I" No , tho Church of England will not establish a clerical school of theology in Oxford . ( To be continued . )
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"PREPAID TAXATION . " Letteb III . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sir , —In common , I believe , with many others , I think that class-taxation is invidious and unjust , quite as much so as class-Protection was or can be . To tax a man to enable him to carry on a trade , and likewise to tax him by the success of that trade , may receive the sanct ion of Parliament , but such a law , though in force , can never on principle bo admired . It has neither the sanction of cominon-tfenso nor ordinary honesty ; besides which , it must bo admitted to bo a departure from tho principles of Free-trade now ruling the destinies of our country .
In looking around to discover how wo may the better supply " tho public chest" upon safe principles , ( and by safe I mean such princip les as will receive tho sanction and tho contented and enduring approval of " tho masses , " ) there cannot , I think , be much fear of failure if we apply a moderate tux : which shall reach every man in his turn , and by an universal action obtain without oppression or party-favotir tho means for which wo are seeking .
It is related , as I have read , that at ono period in the history of Holland , the taxes wcro oppressive to Much a degree , that murmurs were heard on all sides , nnd that tho Government applying itself to the relief of the sufferers by offering a reward , induced an ingenious financier to originate a new method , which he did by suggesting a stamp on paper , or as wo may more properly term it , " stamped paper . " I am not prepared to say that his idea was acted upon to
any extent , nor what it may havo produced , but I think that in a busy country like ours , with its multifarious transactions " on paper , " that an iminenso rovonuo might bo obtained from tho ways and by tho suggestions forming' tho Huhjcot-matfcer of my former letters . There is a tax , as wo all well know , on tho manufacture of paper—and an abominably inquisitorial tax U > acknowledgodly in ! Trade , which ought to l > o free , is crippled and confined by it , and an array of oflidala employed to collect tho impost .
It in necessary to Iwuv in mind , when considerin g tho taxoH which" I have proponed iu my former lettera an part of tho Hcheino of " ¦ Prepaid Taxation , " that I am not proponing to lay more taxes on " tho pooplo "my object and aim aro to rai « o a revenue by moans simple , and inopproBHivo In their application , so as to relievo thoao who now Huflbr undefr a burden frotn taxation , and to cheek that enormous evil , tho oxpennoH of collection . I am awaro that at tho present time , no ono proponing frosh taxes either ought to or can obtain favour . I do not in eflcct propose further , Imt other taxes . Bering thi « principk in mind , I few * Ma 6 ott to
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Jtnt / y 9 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER : 865
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Leader (1850-1860), July 9, 1853, page 665, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1994/page/17/
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