improvement, which indeed was rendered necessary by the first, and was scarcely less important, was that the Examiners should be paid functionaries, selected by responsible officers, and appointed for a considerable period.

Subsequent Changes up to the Year 1850.

In 1807 further and important modifications were made in the system. It was found that the subjects of Examination were far too numerous to be deeply studied, except by the very ablest Candidates; and therefore Mathematics and Physics were separated from the other subjects, which were comprehended under the name of Literæ Humaniores. Honours could be obtained by proficiency in either School. The distinction between the Examination for the first Degree in Law and Degrees in Arts, and also the Examination for the Degree of Master in the latter Faculty, had been silently abrogated; consequently Law and Hebrew fell out of the University course. The Litera Humaniores were defined as comprehending the Greek and Latin language, with Logic, Rhetoric, and Moral Philosophy, no mention being made of Metaphysics or History. The principal part of the Examination seems to have been oral, and thus success naturally depended rather on skill and accuracy in construing the Classics than on acquaintance with Philosophy or History. At this time Logic was put more prominently forward; and a knowledge of "Rudiments of

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Religion," which was still required from all candidates, received a broader definition, being now made to comprise the Gospels in Greek, and the Evidences, in addition to the Thirty-nine Articles. The Statute also prescribed that there should always be two Classes of Honours, whatever might be the number of distinguished Candidates, and that the names should be arranged in each Class, not according to merit, but in alphabetical order. A Third Class was virtually added in 1809, when a separation in the Second, by means of a line, was enjoined.

By a Statute passed in 1825, in consequence (as the preamble states) of the increase of Students in the University, the distinction between the two Schools of Classics and Mathematics was still further recognised by the appointment of separate Examiners for each. The classification of the honorary distinctions was rendered still more definite by giving the name of "Third Class" to the lower division of the Second.

But the increase in the number of Candidates produced an effect which had not been foreseen. It became necessary that the Examination should be conducted more and more on paper, and therefore knowledge of Philosophy, together with skill in Composition, increased gradually in importance, and perhaps skill in Construing proportionably declined.

In 1830 these changes were carried further in the same direction. A Fourth Class was established; and the Examinations of Candidates for an ordinary Degree were separated from those of Candidates for Honours. The "Literæ Humaniores" now included Ancient History, with Political Philosophy, as well as Rhetoric, Poetry, and Moral Philosophy; and the important permission to illustrate ancient by modern authors was then first introduced.

In furtherance of the great purposes of the Examination Statute, it had soon appeared desirable to add an earlier Examination to that for the B. A. Degree. In 1808 a Statute was passed, ordering all Students to be examinedin the course of their second year after Matriculation—in the Elements of Greek and Latin, and of Logic or Geometry. This Examination was substituted for a scholastic exercise of an entirely different character, called "Respon"sions in the Parvise.”

This previous Examination continued unaltered down to 1850, when it was slightly modified in the great change which we shall presently describe.

Such are the chief alterations introduced by successive

Statutes passed in the half century which has just elapsed; changes in themselves and in their consequences the greatest that have been effected in the University since the revision of the Statutes in the time of Archbishop Laud. Like that revision, they have widely affected not only the University, but the Colleges also. The old Disputations and Exercises enjoined not only in the Laudian Code, but in most of the College Statutes, have been almost entirely superseded by the act of the University.

The Examinations have become the chief instruments not only for testing the proficiency of the Students, but also for stimulating and directing the Studies of the place.

Present State of Classical Studies, and Effect of the Examination on Ordinary Students, and on Candidates for Honours.

The general effect of this change has been exceedingly beneficial. Industry has been greatly increased. The Instruction in the Colleges has become indirectly subject to the control of the University. The requirements of the Examinations for an Ordinary Degree, slight though they be, have yet a great effect on that period of the Academical course which immediately precedes them. The idlest and most careless Student is checked in his career of idleness by the approach of his Examinations.* The severity of the Final Examination may be judged of by comparing the number of those rejected at Oxford with the number of those rejected in other Universities. It appears from a Return made to the House of Commons that, on an average of the same four years (1845-1848), the number of those who presented themselves for Examination, and of those who assed the Examination, were respectively-at Dublin, 259 and 242; at Cambridge, 370 and 342; at Oxford, 387 and 287.+

* Compare evidence of the Dean of Llandaff, p. 221.

† Printed by order of the House, Feb. 5, 1850. (See Appendix K., pp. 69, 71.)

DEGREE EXAMINATION.

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The stimulus of the Examination for Honours is found to be very strong. The average number of Candidates for Honours in Classics is not less than 90 out of nearly 500 Candidates for a Degree. Of these 90, about 10 obtain a First Class. This honour, then, is no mean distinction. That it has been honestly and deservedly awarded is proved by the confidence which the Examiners, for the most part, enjoy, and by the success in after-life of those who have won it.

Evils incident to the Examination.

It is not to be denied, however, that some incidental evils have followed the introduction of the new system. The Studies of the University are directed to a single Examination; and this has tended to discourage the pursuit of the subjects which were not included within the range of that Examination. One effect of this has been that the attendance on the Lectures of Professors, instead of receiving an additional impulse from the revival of study in the University, has diminished, except in those cases where the Lectures are considered likely to aid the Students in gaining Honours. The Examinations themselves have encouraged a good deal of spurious knowledge. On those also who seek only the Ordinary Degree, the whole effect has been less salutary than might have been hoped. The range of subjects is too narrow to interest the great mass of Students, and the minimum of knowledge required is so scanty as to leave all but the dullest and most ignorant unoccupied for the greater part of their academical course, and therefore exposed to all the temptations of idleness.

Requirements for a Common Degree.

We have said that the number of Candidates rejected in Examinations for an Ordinary Degree is considerable. But, notwithstanding this, the amount of attainment commonly exhibited in these Examinations is small. An ordi

nary Candidate has prepared usually four plays of Euripides, four or five books of Herodotus with the History, six Books of Livy also with the History, half of Horace, four Books of Euclid, or (in lieu of Euclid) Aldrich's Compendium of Logic to the end of the Reduction of Syllogisms. He is also expected to translate a passage from English into Latin, and to construe any passage of the four Gospels; to repeat and illustrate from Scripture the Thirty-nine Articles; and to answer questions on the historical facts of the Old and New Testament. The Examiners are satisfied with a very slight exhibition of knowledge as regards many of these subjects. "If decent Latin writing should be insisted on, "the number of failures would be more than quadrupled." The Latin and Greek authors are commonly got up by the aid of translations. The knowledge of Logic insisted on is very meagre.

Requirements for Honours in Literæ Humaniores.

With regard to the Examinations for Honours, the course of classical reading seems to have become more and more limited. Under the Examination Statute of 1801, the circle of subjects included was large and not unworthy of a University. From the year 1807 to 1825 the Students were encouraged to study many works which have now almost entirely disappeared from the University Course, such as Homer, Demosthenes, Cicero, Lucretius, Terence, Plutarch, Longinus, Quintilian. A list of twenty classical authors was not unfrequent even so late as 1827. present fourteen, thirteen, or even twelve, are sufficient for the highest honours. The authors now usually studied at Oxford, by the most distinguished Students, are: (1.) in Philosophy, Aristotle's Ethics, with his Rhetoric or Politics, two or three Dialogues of Plato, Butler's Analogy or his Sermons; (2.) in Ancient History,-Herodotus, Thucydides, the 1st or 2nd Decade of Livy, the Annals or the

* Evidence of Prof. Walker, p. 291.

At