28 UNIVERSITIES : ACTUAL AND IDEAL. [LECT. 



one might speedily expect changes of another kind in 

 Oxford and Cambridge. A Commission has been 

 inquiring into the revenues of the many wealthy 

 societies, in more or less direct connection with the 

 Universities, resident in those towns. It is said that 

 the Commission has reported, and that, for the first 

 time in recorded history, the nation, and perhaps the 

 Colleges themselves, will know what they are worth. 

 And it was announced that a statesman, who, what- 

 ever his other merits or defects, has aims above the 

 level of mere party fighting, and a clear vision into 

 the most complex practical problems, meant to deal 

 with these revenues. 



But, Bos locutus est. That mysterious independent 

 variable of political calculation, Public Opinion which 

 some whisper is, in the present case, very much the 

 same thing as publican's opinion has willed otherwise. 

 The Heads may return to their wonted slumbers at 

 any rate for a space. 



Is the spirit of change, which is working thus 

 vigorously in the South, likely to affect the Northern 

 Universities, and if so, to what extent ? The violence 

 of fermentation depends, not so much on the quantity 

 of the yeast, as on the composition of the wort, and 

 its richness in fermentable material ; and, as a prelimi- 

 nary to the discussion of this question, I venture to 

 call to your minds the essential and fundamental dif- 

 ferences between the Scottish and the English type of 

 University. 



Do not charge me with anything worse than official 

 egotism, if I say that these differences appear to be 



