The Ewelme Rectory debate, —which did not go to a
divi- sion,—came off on the evening of yesterday week too late for our last impression. Mr. Gladstone made, on the whole, a very successful defence of his appointment, arguing that the true object of the Ewelme Rectory Act was not to limit the patronage to men brought up at Oxford, but so to keep up the connection between the University and the Ewelme living, that if the Rector were not already a member of the Convocation of Oxford, the University should have the power of vetoing his appointment by refusing to make him one. In the Collier case the Government had used a puisne judgeship as a mere stepping- stone to a seat on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and had itself conferred the qualifying office as well the office for which the latter qualified ; but in this case the University of Oxford had sanctioned the appointment, by admitting Mr. Harvey to Convocation without the slightest opposition, where op- position would have been perfectly feasible, and not even irregular.
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