lviii report — 1860. 



allow sufficient time to the student to accomplish his object. The great 

 majority of physical students must necessarily belong to that class who have 

 their subsistence to earn ; and however earnest may be their zeal for mental 

 improvement, there will be few candidates for the honours of the Physical 

 School unless due encouragement be given to excellence in that department. 

 It was therefore with sincere pleasure that I learnt that three Fellowships 

 had been founded at Magdalen College as prizes for proficiency in Natural 

 Science ; and that at the same College, and at Christ Church and Queen's, 

 Scholarships and Exhibitions had been provided for students who evince 

 during their examinations the greatest aptitude for such studies. Moreover, 

 the acquisition of a RadclifFe travelling Fellowship has been made to depend 

 upon obtaining distinction in the School of Natural Science. In addition to 

 all this, that beneficent and enlightened lady, Miss Burdett Coutts, has founded 

 two Scholarships with the view of extending among the Clergy educated at 

 the University a knowledge of Geology. Great hopes are justly excited in 

 the minds of all well-wishers to the University by these events, and by reflec- 

 tion on the great change of opinion which must have taken place since the 

 period when Dr. Kidd, with the aid of Dr. Daubeny, Mr. Greswell and others, 

 in vain attempted to raise a small sum by private subscription for building a 

 modest receptacle for the various collections of Natural History. How little 

 could these public-spirited individuals have foreseen, that within a few short 

 years a sum approaching to £100,000 would be appropriated to the building 

 and furnishing that splendid monument of Oxford's good will to science, the 

 New Museum ! 



It would not be right, however, if, while speaking in just and sincere terms 

 of praise of all that excites my admiration in the late proceedings at Oxford, 

 I were to withhold the honest expression of my opinion on points on which 

 I feel compelled to differ from the course pursued. I will therefore refer to 

 two measures, one of which especially I cannot but regard as a mistake. 

 The first is the repeal of the statute which enforced attendance on two courses 

 of Professorial lectures ; a requirement, which may have had no small influ- 

 ence in creating a taste for natural science among that large class of students, 

 whose only object it is to obtain, in a creditable manner if possible, but at all 

 events to obtain, the distinction of an Academical degree. At the same time 

 I cannot but be sensible that the amount of instruction imparted in this way, 

 even if the attendance were much more than nominal, must necessarily have 

 been small, not from any want of competency in the teachers, but from the 

 inherent defect of the system of lectures unaccompanied by examinations; 

 and on this account I the less regret the change. 



The second, and more serious mistake, in my humble opinion, is the re- 

 jection by the Congregation in 1857 of the proposal of the Hebdomadal 

 Council, that the Undergraduate, after passing his first two classical exami- 

 nations, should be permitted to select his own line of study, and submit 

 himself at his option to a final examination in any one of the four Schools, 



