On Saturday, September 25th, Curators could not form quorum, and deferred next meeting till Saturday, October 9th.
Saturday, October 9th. Again no quorum; and yet it might easily have been formed, as three Curators were on or close to the spot.
Saturday, October 23rd. Six Curators met and did nothing.
Saturday, October 30th. Curators met and refused me the loan of MS.
My letter addressed to the Vice-Chancellor was read, and notice was given for Saturday (December 3rd, 1886,) of a motion, “That the MS. required by Sir R. F. Burton be lent to him”—and I was not to be informed of the matter unless the move were successful. Of course it failed. One of the Curators (who are the delegates and servants of Convocation) was mortally offended by my letter to “The Academy,” and showed the normal smallness of the official mind by opposing me simply because I told the truth concerning the lâches of his “learned body.”
Meanwhile I had addressed the following note to the Most Honourable the Chancellor of the University.[[422]]
23, Dorset Street, Portman Square,
November 30th, 1886.
“My Lord,
“I deeply regret that the peculiar proceedings of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, necessitate a reference to a higher authority with the view of eliciting some explanation.