PROFESSOR POULTON. 19 



Universities, and indeed throughout the whole of the 

 British Empire. Cambridge has recently made great and 

 important changes precisely in the direction I am in- 

 dicating changes tending to relieve this pressure ; and we 

 in Oxford have made alterations intended to produce the same 

 effect. I believe we are likely to improve still further in this 

 matter, and, without losing our modern efficiency, regain a 

 greater freedom and greater elasticity, and a freer recognition 

 of unusual powers in these respects assimilating more closely 

 to the Universities of three-quarters of a century ago. 



Turning now to the ancient Universities as the lists where 

 new ideas are compelled to undergo the trial of combat, we 

 observe that the battle of evolution began with the dramatic 

 encounter between Huxley and Wilberforce at the meeting 

 of the British Association at Oxford, in 1860, and, according 

 to Professor Newton, came to a close with the victory of the 

 new teachings, only two years later, at the meeting of the 

 same Association at Cambridge. 



Whatever happened in the great arena furnished by the 

 ancient Universities, there can be no doubt that for many years 

 neither of them was at all willing to accept the conclusions of 

 Darwin. One of the most strongly antagonistic letters 

 received by Darwin was written by his old teacher, Sedgwick. 

 Whewell kept the " Origin of Species " out of the Library at 

 Trinity for some years ; while Professor Westwood seriously 

 proposed to the last Oxford University Commission the 

 establishment of a permanent lectureship for the exposure of 

 the fallacies of Darwinism. 



Charles Darwin was offered the honorary degree of 

 D.C.L. by Lord Salisbury, on his installation as Chancellor of 

 the University of Oxford in 1870. After the lapse of nearly 

 forty years there can be no harm in the candid admission that 

 Lord Salisbury's list was opposed, although unsuccessfully, in 

 the Hebdomadal Council. There is no evidence that any 

 special exception was taken to the name of Darwin, but 

 certain members of Council objected to the proportion 

 of scientific men. The opposition was unsuccessful, the 

 Chancellor's list was passed as a whole, and became 

 the list of the Council; but, unfortunately for Oxford,. 



