UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL. 35 



if, in consequence of a little longer delay in issuing it, 

 all the measures of reform we proposed had been an- 

 ticipated by the spontaneous action of the Universities 

 themselves. 



A month ago I should have gone on to say that one 

 might speedily expect changes of another kind in Ox- 

 ford and Cambridge. A Commission has been inquir- 

 ing 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 Commis- 

 sion 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, whatever his other merits or de- 

 fects, has aims above the level of mere party fighting, 

 and a clear vision into the most complex practical prob- 

 lems, meant to deal with these revenues. 



But, Bos locutus est. That mysterious independent 

 variable of political calculation, Public Opinion which 

 gome 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 vigor- 

 ously in the South, likely to affect the Northern Uni- 

 versities, 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 preliminary 



