Mr. Roberts, formerly librarian of All Souls', sent to Wed-
nesday's Times a very sufficient reply to the complaint urged last week in our own columns against the Oxford University Com- mission, by, Mr. A. J. Butler, of Winchester, for having withdrawn from competition two out of three vacant All Souls' Fellowships, which were to have been competed for next November, according to an advertisement in the Universay Gazette of 10th July. Mr. Roberts states,—(1) that the Commissioners were requested by a large majority- of the College to take some such step ; (2) that the notice issued last summer was well understood to be provi- sional, subject to any action which might be taken by the University Commission ; and (3) that for other reasons, the vacancies advertised are by no means always filled up ; last year, for example, only one of two advertised vacancies having been filled up. This seems to us a quite sufficient reply, Every one knew that the All Souls' fellowships were just those with which the Commission was most certain in some way to deal, and probably the fault, if there was any fault, rested rather with the authorities who advertised the vacancies without waiting for the Commission to meet, than with the Com- mission, for withdrawing two out of three from competition, when it did meet. Vested interests are very sacred things, no doubt ; but in England we are apt to make a sort of fetish of the mere shadowy anticipations of them.
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