discordant, principles acted on. The object contemplated in the collections which are confined to an examination of the student in the regular business of the term, is to secure from him a constant attention to the lectures, by the prospect of an examination in them being always close at hand. The exclusion of all, besides these lectures, from the subjects of the examination, makes this object the more sure, because it takes away the student's chance of making up for the neglect of them by the display of acquirements irregularly made in his private studies. This method, in short, is the most effectual for accomplishing one important object of college tuition-the student's adoption of the course marked out for him by his college. It forces him, by means of a moral restraint, into the college discipline, and checks that desultory and injudicious application of talent which young and ardent minds are so apt to make. It prevents the student from pursuing too exclusively the studies for which he may have the strongest inclination and the most decided turn, instead of submitting to be trained in such as are the more requisite for the formation of the intellectual character, from the very circumstance that the natural turn is not for these. On the other hand, the requisition of something more than the lecture-subjects of the term, or of something in lieu of It them, is not without its apparent recommendations. seems calculated to stimulate those who are qualified, by superior talent or preparation, to go beyond the regular routine of college business, which is of course marked out in reference to the average ability of the several classes-perhaps even lower than this-and thereby to make up for the apparent disadvantage of sailing, as it were, under convoy, and being occasionally obliged to lie to for those who are lagging behind, and detaining their free course. It would be unnecessary, after this statement of the different ends proposed in the two plans, and the means by which they are respectively pursued, to offer any opinion as to which is better.

Not the least important feature of college training remains yet to be noticed. It is the practice of writing weekly short essays on a given subject, occasionally interchanged with a copy of Latin verses, for those skilled in versification. The efficacy of this weekly exercise, as an instrument of education, must of course depend on the judicious selection of such subjects as may lead the student from the stringing together of phrases and common-place sentences to an actual discussion that is interesting to himself, and thence an exercise to his mind. Much, too, must depend on these essays being regularly returned to the writers, each with such observations

as shall not only form his crude opinions, but also point out his defects whether in matter or in style, and suggest the most likely methods of removing them; with nicely-measured praise also, and censure-at all events, with marks enough on each exercise to show that it has received an attentive perusal from the censor. Such is the plan pursued in those colleges and halls which estimate highly the practice of theme-writing; and all allow it at least a place in their system. In some, the composition is alternately English and Latin; in others, Latin alone. No one, however, but a witness, can be fully aware of the difference between the habits of composition acquired by men of apparently equal calibre, in the course of a few terms, according as the attention has been directed or not, to the discussion of subjects which really interest the writers, instead of vague commonplaces about abstract notions of virtue and vice, happiness and glory; and according as the writers have or have not received constant correction, encouragement, and advice, however slight-even if no more than enough to make them feel that they are writing to be read; that they are addressing themselves to one who will attend to them and reply to them, and that one a person whose remarks have the weight of authority.

In addition to these modes of direct instruction, which every college and hall appoints, the liberality of benefactors has provided them very generally with the means of indirectly promoting the studies of the place by premiums in the form of exhibitions, scholarships, and fellowships. As in the case of the university-the public body-of which each is a component part, the colleges are thus entrusted with the means of encouraging eminent acquirements; and, in some instances, as, e. g., in the instance of the Hebrew scholarships at Wadham, the encouragement extends to subjects that make no part of the necessary Oxford education. Many of these endowments, unfortunately, are hampered in their operation by some restrictions in the donor's will-by the scholarship or fellowship being confined to natives of a particular county, or even parish, or to those educated at particular schools; and although, in some instances, these restrictions have been relaxed, on the plea of compliance with the spirit of the bequest, yet they continue to form one of the main impediments with which the spirit of improvement in Oxford has to contend. These endowments are for the most part confined to colleges. The halls have no fellowships, nor are they corporate bodies; but some small exhibitions have been left to

C 2

some of them; i. e., to the university, for the benefit of members of this or that hall.

*

The mutual relation which has been now shown to exist between the public examination appointed by the university, and the instruction provided by the several colleges and halls, naturally leads us to one more inquiry respecting the Oxford system. As that system has been thus far represented, it appears that the university--the federal body-having to grant, as such, the certificate of education, assumes, as is reasonable, the province of deciding on the qualification of the candidates, and does not leave to each separate college the business of determining who of its members are or are not fit; but delegates the office of making the necessary scrutiny to public examiners. It might be expected, in like manner- -as the matriculation of new members is an act not of the several colleges, but of the university, and as the enrolment of the name which entitles the member to the privileges of the university is made on the university register, and accompanied by certain public forms and requisitions-that the qualification of the candidates for admission would likewise be determined, not by the several colleges, but by the university that admits them; and that public examiners would be appointed to pronounce, in each instance, whether the candidate is so qualified. This is not, however, the case. Every college and hall examines, if it thinks fit, its own candidates for admission, and pronounces, each according to a standard of its own, on their fitness or unfitness for the university. At the same time, the university may be considered as interfering, in some degree, in these private decisions, by the appointment of a public examination called the Responsion, for members who have been matriculated not less than six, and not more than nine terms-for members, in short, who have proceeded about half way in their progress towards that examination, which is to decide their claim to the testimonial of a university education. This examination, which is conducted by public officers called masters of the schools, is confined to a single Greek and a single Latin author, a portion of Euclid's Elements (not less than three books) and Logic, which may be either added or substituted for the latter. It is conducted, moreover, principally with a view to ascertain the elementary knowledge of the student,

* New College is an exception to this rule, the fellows of it being examined for degrees by their own college. This apparent privilege is deeply lamented by many members of that college, as excluding the great majority from all chance of obtaining the principal university honours, and thus depriving them of all the

benefits of emulation.

The

rather than his progress in those branches of knowledge which he is supposed to be pursuing his preparation, in short, for the studies of Oxford, rather than his proficiency in them. This is indeed apparent from the restriction laid on the subjects of examination. Such an examination is plainly, therefore, no part of the test for ascertaining the qualifications of a candidate for a degree, but only of his fitness for pursuing those studies which are to qualify him: it is an inspection of the arms and accoutrements, rather than a review of the manœuvres in which the use of them is displayed. responsions were substituted for some old exercises in the form of logical questions and responses; but are no otherwise connected with these forms, and are, in fact, so obviously applicable to the purpose which has been explained, that the previous existence of those old exercises, at that stage of the student's progress, requires to be stated, in order to account for these initiatory examinations taking place, not (as would seem natural) on the admission of a member, but from his sixth to his ninth term. It has accordingly been proposed by some to remove it nearer at least to the matriculation; but the proposal has not hitherto met with the concurrence of the majority of the university. Some again have proposed to divide the responsions, keeping the scientific part of the examination whatever, in short, relates to the studies which may be supposed to have been commenced at Oxfordwhere it now stands; and to place earlier that more elementary grammatical examination for which the student ought to have been prepared at school. If this should ever be made to precede the matriculation itself, and to determine the admission of candidates to the privileges of the university, it would doubtless stimulate the schools throughout England in the same manner as the examinations for the degree have been found to act on the several colleges and halls in the university. Few will be hardy enough to maintain that such a stimulus is not needed.

As it is, our schools are exposed to the full force of a temptation which, more or less, besets every place of education; the temptation to neglect the great mass of the students, and bestow whatever pains are bestowed on a few who promise to obtain high distinction. To qualify one hundred youths to fill usefully and respectably their stations in some confined sphere is far more toilsome, and rewarded with far less credit in the eyes of the world, than to expend all one's care on one or two who are likely to make a figure, while all the rest are neglected. The excellence of any school is usually measured by the number, the absolute number, of

prize-men or class-men, &c., that it has sent out, without any inquiry being made what becomes of nine-tenths of those (nominally) educated at it. Boasts of this kind might be met by the reply of Bias the atheist, to those who triumphantly showed him the votive tablets of those whom the gods had saved from shipwreck-Where are the pictures of those who were drowned?'

Schools, as we have said, are exposed to the full force of this temptation. In colleges it is checked by the circumstance that, as it is a credit for its members to gain honours, so it is a disgrace to have any of them altogether rejected. This tends to secure a due share of attention to the great mass of students; and the same advantage, in the case of schools, would be obtained by the proposed examination. It will be obvious that, in the foregoing survey, the university of Oxford has been considered solely under that one aspect which strictly comes within the province of this Journal-as a seat of education. Many topics, accordingly, of interest and importance -many, too, connected with the advance of science and literature, have been either omitted, or else slightly alluded to, for the sake of giving prominence to the main feature which we have been attempting to delineate. The influence of its libraries-its common-room society-its pulpit, might have been introduced, perhaps, not unfitly into the account; as well as other matters more remotely affecting the intellectual character of the place. But enough has been probably stated to satisfy ordinary curiosity respecting the real state of its education, and the main instruments of it which are at work.

One statement further, however, it may be useful to make, respecting the expense attendant on this course of Oxford education. On no one point relating to the university is there so much misapprehension abroad. It is not uncommon to hear it asserted that an Oxford education costs the student from two to three hundred a-year, and in many instances considerably more. Now, it is very true that students at Oxford do often spend such incomes; but it is not the education-it is not the board and lodging, much less the instruction, and the privilege of keeping terms, that cost this. It is spent, whenever it is spent, in the indulgence of those habits for which parents are content that their sons shall pay, whether at Oxford or elsewhere-in keeping a horse, perhaps, dressing expensively, entertaining friends with breakfasts, or wine parties, with expensive desserts, and the like; not to mention the extravagance into which a heedless or ill-disposed young man is likely, in any place where he may be residing, to