1691 THE EOMANES LECTUEE 275 



inaudible, or indistinct, to any portion of his audience. 

 And I hope that neither age nor infirmity, any more 

 than inability to speak the English language, mil be 

 deemed a hindrance to the issuing of invitations to 

 the men of high distinction in their several depart- 

 ments. For, on the one hand, in order to have 

 attained such distinction, it must often happen that 

 such men -mR have attained old age, Avhile, on the 

 other hand, it is of more importance that they should 

 be represented in these decennial volumes than that 

 men of less eminence should be chosen in ^-iew of their 

 superiority as lecturers. 



G. J. EoMAiJES. 



To the great satisfaction of the whole University, 

 Mr. Gladstone most generously consented to give the 

 first lecture, which consent he signified in the follow- 

 ing letter : 



Grand Hotel, Biairitz : December 18, 1891. 



Dear Mr. Eomanes, — Until I received your kind 

 letter I reposed undoubtingly in the belief that the 

 Yice-Chancellor had accepted my answer as the 

 answer which best met the case.^ I thought and 

 think it right, for no one knows my poverty except 

 myself. But Oxford is Oxford, and I think that if she 

 desired me to climb up the spire of Salisbury, I should 

 attempt it, or play the Qrceculus esiiriens in any 

 manner she desired. Your letter opens to me unex- 

 pectedly the fact that there is a desire, and that the 

 proposal was not simply a courtesy. 



' Mr. Gladstone had declined at first, but yielded to a second urgent 

 request from the founder. 



