Meanwhile the mediæval aspect of Oxford was modified by many new architectural features. Early in the century additional buildings sprang up in Magdalen, Corpus, Queen’s, and Oriel. To the same age belong the Codrington Library at All Souls’, with the new Library and Peckwater Quadrangle at Christchurch, and other college buildings. In 1713 the Clarendon Building was opened to receive the University Press. Books had been printed in Oxford since 1468, when Caxton’s invention was still on its trial, but Delegates of the Press were not appointed until 1586, and the University privilege of printing dates from the patent granted in 1633, at the instance of Archbishop Laud. After 1669 the University Press was set up and worked in the Sheldonian Theatre, but the copyright of Clarendon’s ‘History of the Rebellion’ having been presented to the University, the profits were applied towards the cost of erecting the fine edifice known as the ‘Clarendon Press’ for 118 years. A still more important benefaction was that of the celebrated Dr. Radcliffe, who died in 1714, leaving a large sum of money to be accumulated for the foundation of a Medical Library, an Infirmary, and an Observatory. The first stone of the library was laid in 1737, all the houses in ‘Cat Street,’ north of St. Mary’s Church, having been demolished to make room for it. It was opened for the use of students on April 13, 1749, after a ‘two days’ solemnity,’ including a Public Act, and a concert managed by Handel, whose oratorios had been received with great applause at Oxford six years earlier, and whose ‘Sampson’ was performed in the Sheldonian Theatre on the following day. The Infirmary and Observatory were completed in 1770 and 1795 respectively, but are not under University control, though closely associated with University studies. In 1788 Sir Robert Taylor, an architect of some eminence, bequeathed a large sum to found a building for the cultivation of ‘the European languages,’ but this bequest did not take full effect until 1848, when the present ‘Taylor Institution’ was opened. Meanwhile, in 1771, an Act of Parliament had been passed enabling the City to rebuild Magdalen Bridge, and take down the east and north gates, the south and west gates having been already demolished. By these alterations the conversion of Oxford into an University town was finally consummated, and few of its inhabitants now realise that it was once a fortified city sheltering a cluster of poor schools and halls not yet aspiring to the dignity of colleges.
Effects of the French war upon the University. Opposition to reforms
The general history of the University in the present century may be divided into two periods: the first terminated by the Reform Act of 1832, and the great ecclesiastical reaction which followed upon it; the second embracing the last two or three years of William IV.’s reign, and the whole reign of Queen Victoria. The new Examination Statute of 1800, and the subsequent introduction of the class system,[16] were the only events of any academical importance in the earlier of these periods, and nothing occurred to disturb the repose of the University during the last twenty years of George III.’s reign, or the ten years’ reign of George IV. The domestic records of this interval are meagre and trivial in the extreme. When the Peace of Amiens was proclaimed in 1802, there seems to have been a short-lived revival of educational vigour at Oxford; when the war broke out afresh in 1803 volunteers were again enrolled from the University, and Oxford studies again began to languish. In 1805 these were vigorously attacked by Sydney Smith in the ‘Edinburgh Review,’ and vigorously defended by Mr. Copleston, afterwards Provost of Oriel, himself among the foremost of University reformers. While the country was engaged in its desperate struggle with Napoleon, the ‘class system’ was being quietly introduced, and supplying a new incentive to industry. The political animosities which had agitated the University in the last century had completely died out, but it is certain that Oxford was profoundly affected by the anti-Jacobin panic which set in after the French Revolution and lasted for a whole generation. It is, however, some proof of a latent inclination to moderate Liberalism among Oxford graduates that in 1809 Lord Grenville was elected Chancellor after a contest with Lord Eldon. On the other hand, the sympathies of the University on all ‘Church and State’ questions were identical with those of George III. So far back as 1810 a petition was presented against Catholic Emancipation, and when Robert Peel was elected member for the University in 1817, it was fully understood that he was to oppose the Catholic Claims. In 1829, the University Convocation reaffirmed its reprobation of these claims by a solemn vote. Peel resigned his seat, and upon a new election was defeated by Sir Robert Inglis. In a like spirit the University petitioned in 1831 against Parliamentary Reform, in 1833 against the Irish Church Temporalities Bill, and in 1834, with only one dissentient, against the grant of a charter to the new London University. No doubt, in this last case the instinctive hostility of Churchmen to a non-religious academical body was quickened by a less honourable jealousy of a rival institution to be invested with the power of granting degrees. In spite of the Oxford protest, the charter was granted at the close of 1836, and in the following year a similar privilege was conferred upon Durham University.
Reception of the Allied Sovereigns. Abolition of the Mayor’s Oath
Two other incidents in University life during this somewhat obscure period deserve a passing notice. In 1814 Oxford was enlivened by the famous visit of the Allied Sovereigns, when Blucher was received with enthusiastic plaudits in the Sheldonian Theatre. Had the loyalty of the University been doubtful, the Prince Regent must have been reassured by the fervent display of it on this occasion; but these royal visits had lost their significance when the adhesion of Oxford ceased to be a factor in Imperial politics, and the subsequent receptions of Queen Adelaide and Queen Victoria, though almost as hearty as that of Queen Elizabeth, were tributes of respectful homage and not of political devotion. In 1825 the mayor and bailiffs of Oxford were released by a document under the University seal from the penance laid upon them after the great riot on Scholastica’s Day in 1354, when they were required, as we have seen, to attend St. Mary’s Church yearly with sixty leading citizens, to celebrate a mass for the souls of the murdered scholars, and to offer one penny each at the altar. No sooner was the Sacrifice of the Mass forbidden in the reign of Elizabeth than the citizens hastened to give up this annual appearance, but were compelled to resume it by an Order of Council, a litany being substituted for the mass. The whole ceremony was now abolished; but another grievance of earlier origin still remained, and was not finally removed until the year 1859. By the letters patent of Henry III., already mentioned, dated 1248, the mayor and bailiffs, on taking office, were directed to swear that they would keep ‘the liberties and customs of the University,’ the Chancellor having been previously informed, in order that he might witness the oath personally or by a deputy. This obligation, though it may have been sometimes evaded, does not seem to have been disputed for more than six centuries. In 1855, however, the mayor and corporation requested the University to dispense with the oath. The University at first demurred, but after friendly conferences gave its sanction to a Bill for abolishing the oath, upon condition, however, of its being once more taken by the mayor and sheriff for the last time. In 1859 this Bill, introduced at the instance of the City, but with the concurrence of the University, was passed into law, and the standing feud so long maintained between these ancient corporations was thus brought to an amicable conclusion. The harmony which has since prevailed between the authorities of the University and the City may have been partly due to other causes, but it has certainly been promoted by the disuse of a humiliating formality, well calculated to revive the memory of barbarous violence on one side and invidious pretensions on the other.
FOOTNOTES:
CHAPTER XVII.
OXFORD STUDIES AND EXAMINATIONS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
Examination Statute of 1800 and later amendments
‘The studies of the University were first raised from their abject state by a statute passed in 1800.’ Such is the testimony of the Oxford University Commissioners appointed in 1850, and it is amply confirmed by University records. The Laudian system was doomed to failure from the first, inasmuch as it provided no security for the capacity of examiners or against their collusion with the candidates, while these were animated by little fear of rejection and no hope whatever of distinction. The statute of 1800, for which the credit is mainly due to Dr. Eveleigh, then Provost of Oriel, was directed to cure these defects. That it was regarded as a vigorous attempt to raise the standard of degree examinations is proved by the fact that in 1801, the last year of the ‘old system,’ the number of B.A. degrees suddenly rose to 250, largely exceeding the average of degrees and even of matriculations in several preceding years. The new statute was deliberately based on the Laudian system, in so far as it presupposed an inherent supremacy in the faculty of Arts, and it was unconsciously based on the old mediæval curriculum of Trivials and Quadrivials, in so far as it specified grammar, rhetoric, logic, moral philosophy, and the elements of mathematics—with the important addition of Latin and Greek literature—as the essential subjects of examination. But it effected a grand reform in the method of examination. Candidates were to offer themselves either for what has since been known as a ‘pass,’ or for Honours, and the Honour-list was to be divided into two classes, in which the names were to be arranged in order of merit. There was also to be a further examination for the M.A. degree, comprising higher mathematical subjects, history, and Hebrew; while candidates for the B.C.L. degree were to be examined in history and jurisprudence, besides the subjects required for the B.A. degree. Moreover, the examiners were thenceforth to be paid by salary, and chosen by responsible officers to serve for considerable periods. They were solemnly charged to deliberate maturely and secretly on the merits of the candidates, sepositis omnino amicitiâ et odio, timore ac spe. Material changes were introduced into this system by statutes of 1807, modified again in 1809, 1825, 1826, and 1830. The general effect of these changes was to substitute, in the main, written papers for oral questions, to establish two stated times in the year for examination, to subdivide the list of honours into three classes, to relegate mathematics to a ‘School’ by itself, to abrogate the examination for the M.A. degree, and to make the Greek and Latin languages, philosophy, and history, the staple of examination in what now came to be called the Literæ Humaniores School, though permission was given to illustrate the ancient by modern authors. Meanwhile, the old scholastic exercise of Responsions in Parviso was replaced by an elementary examination, bearing the same name, to be passed in the second year.