The Conservatives' Wednesday victories were broken this week by a
great defeat. The second reading of Mr. Dodson's Bill, for admitting Oxford graduates to the highest Arts' degree, that of M.A., without theological teat—they now sign the Articles, and also the three Articles in the 36th Canon—was carried in a House of 400 members by a majority of 22-211 to 189. Besides those who voted, sixty-four members paired, so that it is nearly the fullest vote we have had for the last few years. It is curious that Lord Palmerston neither voted nor paired on the motion. Was this an act of deference to Lord Shaftesbury ? Neither did Lord Stanley, who usually deserts his party on questions of this nature. Mr. Gladstone made a y# and very remarkable speech in favour of the Bill, but avowed his intention to vote in Committee for a test, not for the degree but for the right to sit in Convocation, the test to be a declaration of bond fide membership of the Church of England. Mr. Neate, Mr. Grant Duff, and Mr. Charles Buxton, all made admirable speeches in favour of the Bill, Mr. Grant Duff remarking that the high exclusive feeling at Oxford is rather of modern date, since at the close of the seventeenth century a Greek Church College was established in Oxford, which lived for about ten years, " no attempt being made to proselytize the students or deny them the privileges of the University. Twenty years later the University bestowed the degree of D.D. on a Roman Catholic divine." Oxford is changed since then. We have become " earnest," and compute the value of orthodoxy at a much higher price, —3601. a year at least.
