The Universities
Ab Isidis Ripis
Sin,—This summer term has, so far, been distinguished by better weather than is usual, and, also, by the visit to Oxford of the French President and of M. Briand. The weather we still have, the President has gone, with a D.C.L. by diploma, and has left behind him a sprinkling of Legions of Honour and a four-foot high Sevres vase. He was received in state, cheered by a large crowd, saluted by a guard of honour, and informally escorted (except at lunch) by fourteen French journalists who twittered with excitement, and one of whom so closely resembled the anarchists of Mr. Phillips Oppenheim as to waken distrust in some of the spectators. Eights Week shows, we hope, some signs of a revival in Oxford row- ing ; with majestic case Christ Church have paddled home, once snore head of the river. In the Parks the eleven has proved itself capable of good individual performances, but, as a team, highly erratic. The Rhodes house, the first design of Sir Herbert Baker that Oxford has yet seen, creeps slowly skyward, watched by critics who doubt all additions to our architecture, and by others who hope that here may be our first really great building of the present century. It is not yet widely realized that this, " the Rhodeum," will become a centre of Imperial studies, and that to its library the Bodleian is prepared to move some 20,000 volumes of past accumulations.
The torpor that brooded Over our legislation for the lait two or three years—a shadow thrown by the Statutory Commission—has gone with the death of that busy and abused body. Few of us yet fully understand the statutes under which we now liVe ; for we haVe, so far, learnt them only from the book, not through constant practice. In Committees and in Council we have to flutter the pages of Statuta et Deereto, and waste time doing so. But we are again masters of our own house : we now are trying to implement the Royal Commission's Report in such of its recommendations as were left to our discretion and command general assent. By a large majority. Congregation, in May, permanently increased the emoluments of sixteen science professors who control the more important departments, giving each of them an extra duty allowance of £200 a year. The annual sum of about £7,000 (it will probably be more in a few years) is about to be returned by the University indirectly to the Colleges ; for nearly a fifth of the inter-collegiate faculty lecturers—that is, the College Tutors—are to be made University Lectuiers, and actually to be paid for lecturing. It is expected that the Boards of Faculty will select those Tutors who can and will follow research, and, by offering them a title and £200 a year apiece, will free them from much of the burden of school examining during vacations. INhether this will weaken the reproach so often launched against Oxford, especially by those who know little of the tutorial system, that our contributions to new learning are few compared with the number of our teachers, remains to be seen.
We expect one warm debate, one close division, before you print this letter. The question to be discussed is limitation of the numbers of women admitted to the University. A petition that female matriculations should never exceed-a fourth of the male was widely signed last term ; and a statute that incor- porates the principle of limitation is now drawn up. = The Women's Societies offered a pledge not to enlarge themselves for the next ten years ; nor, after that, &vie- with twelve months' notice. A statute already prevents the foundation of a new woman's College except after University approval. One might hold these to be adequate safeguards that masculine supremacy is assured ; but the promoters of the petition dub them illusory and talk of a principle that must be asserted. The connexion of an arithmetical formula with the principle that Oxford must remain predominantly a man's University— which no one has yet questioned—may seem dubious. But now, as always, mention of " principles " sets Oxford abuzz.-L. I am, Sir, &e.,
YOUR OXFORD CORRESPONDENT.
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