OXFORD "COMMEMORATION."
(TO THE EDITOR OF THE “Bvscrrevoa.1 Silt,—Will you allow me to make one or two remarks upon this subject, by way of explanation of the course adopted by the University authorities?
1. The recommendation of the Council, which is no doubt in- tended to destroy Commemoration as it is, is carefully limited to the year 1875.
2. The great extravagance which has compelled the authorities to take some steps towards repressing it is a thing of recent times. Twenty years ago there were very few balls, and such as there were cod but little, and yet I believe that Commemoration was at least as heartily enjoyed.
The reason why many of us, who agree with nearly the whole of your article of last Saturday, approve of the steps that have been taken, is simply that we see no other way of breaking through the tradition of extravagance that has grown up of late. We hope and expect that, after a year or two's interval, Commemora- tion may be restored on its ancient footing, when the gaieties were confined within modest limits of expense, and little or nothing went on, except triennially, at what was then known as a "Grand Commemoration."
Let me add that there is no connection, except in time, between excluding the Undergraduates from the Theatre and checking the expense of the annual saturnalia. The former is, in my humble opinion, ill-judged ; the latter necessary, under present circum-
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