76 Oxford Bigotry and Oxford Studies. 



in reforming the abuses of Oxford. The merit of bringing about 

 an efficient reform must belong to a king of the Hanoverian dynasty. 

 Such a reform may perhaps be less palatable to the college authorities 

 than that introduced by Laud two centuries ago. 



In what condition is the University of Oxford at present, and to 

 whom almost exclusively is the work of education confided ? The 

 following remarks are intended to throw some light on this question 

 and to show that the present system of instruction is not the most effi- 

 cient that, considering the means and wealth of the different collegiate 

 establishments, might be fairly demanded from them by the English 

 nation. 



It is scarcely necessary at this stage of the enquiry to remind any 

 of our readers, that an University degree was originally nothing more 

 than a licence to teach in the particular faculty, in which the degree 

 was taken, imposing also an obligation to teach during a certain 

 period and to receive certain fees for such instruction. From the 

 thirteenth to the sixteenth century the University was ruled and taught 

 by the graduates at large," all of whom had an equal right of teach- 

 ing publicly the subjects competent to his faculty and to the rank of 

 his degree ;" and accommodation was furnished for the numerous 

 teachers who once exercised their legal vocation in the schools. 

 Oxford, which has now only one set of schools, had formerly 

 nearly on the site of the present schools above forty sets of schools 

 or rooms, in which the masters received their pupils. The change 

 from the above system was gradual. The period of the obligation 

 to teach was first shortened ; and subsequently the actual practice of 

 instruction during statutory regency was wholly dispensed with. A 

 set of voluntary regents men competent to teach were left to carry 

 on the business of instruction ; but they in their turn were first rivalled 

 and then supplanted by salaried teachers, readers, or professors, who 

 engaged, for a stipulated salary derived partly from endowment 

 partly from fees levied on the graduates, to deliver lectures to the 

 undergraduates without fees from them.* Attendance on them 

 once voluntary became obligatory by statue considerably anterior 

 to the Laudian code. Archbishop Laud, indeed, found a system in 

 operation that needed but little change. The charter of 1636 ratified 

 the old system ; and it continues to this day as the system recognised 

 by the University, although it has been long abolished and rendered 

 void by the encroachments of the endowed societies that reside in 

 Oxford. The only use of the public schools, at present, is for the 

 examinations prior to the first degree in arts and for various exercises 

 necessary to the higher degrees. The right of examination for the 

 degree in arts still resides in the University :-~butit is not now exer- 



* The system during the fifteenth century reminds us of the modern Universities of 

 Germany, where the teachers are divided into three classes, 1. Professores ordi- 

 wanY the official salaried teachers and governors of the Universities. 2. Professores 

 extraordinarii, licensed [ teachers wholly paid by students acting either as jsuper- 

 numeraries or giving instruction in subjects not taught by the first-mentioned class. 

 Out of the second class the first is generally chosen. 3. Professores privatim do- 

 centcs, licensed to give private instruction, but not to lecture to classes of students in, 

 the University. 



