1. Les Aristocraties. Par ETIENNE ARAGO. Edited, with English Notes, by ERNEST BRETTE, &c. &c. Trübner & Co. 1868.

2. Molière. Par GEORGE SAND. Edited, with English Notes, by THEODORE KARCHER, &c. &c. Trübner & Co. 1868. 3. English and French Correspondence for Boys. Cassell & Co. 4. Goethe's Iphigenie auf Tauris. Edited, with English Notes, by E. A. OPPEN. Longmans & Co. 1868.

THERE has been, as yet, very little systematic teaching of modern languages. To learn French, so as to read it with something like ease, and to write it with something like facility, used to be, if it is not now, the only aim and object of the study of French. We are happy in thinking there are strong indications of a change, and that modern languages may sooner or later take their proper place as instruments of mental culture. We who were brought up under the rule, so to speak, of Télémaque and the Recueil Choisi, were necessarily ignorant that there were such things as relationships of language, histories of language, a science of language. Or if we learned these things, we learned them by ourselves. In some respects, things have certainly improved; more honour is paid to modern languages, and a higher class of men is engaged in teaching them. Much, however, remains to be done; the old cumbrous grammars are still in the field; there is no work in general use on French literature, although many books have been published, from time to time, with selections from French authors. There is, as yet, so far as we know, no work at all adapted for school use which gives a history of the formation and development of the French language, the fusion of its two great branches, its connexion with Celtic and German, and a notice of the etymological curiosities of the language. In those schools where the pupils are able to study French by means of French text-books, which must not be ignotum per ignotum, and which involves considerable knowledge of the language to begin with, nothing can be better than the grammar of Noel and Chapsal; Demogeot on French literature; and the treatise of Chevallet on the French language. The first two, if they were translated, would be certainly better and more useful to us than any books we already possess on the subject; and the third might form the basis of a school work which would fill up a great gap in our teaching; for while we have Latin and modern French, the grandmother and the grand-daughter, we neglect altogether the daughter and the mother-the beautiful and flexible Langue VOL. I.

R

d'Oil-the tongue of the Fabliaux and Lais-the old language of Normandy, Picardy, and Burgundy.

George Sand's "Molière," and Etienne Arago's "Les Aristocraties," are two editions, with notes, of a more ambitious kind than one often has the good chance to find. Here we get not only the usual historical notes and translations of idioms, but also certain etymological notes, which, if they are not worth much to the student, may tend to excite his curiosity and lead him to investigate for himself. It is good for a boy to know, at least, that there is such a thing as modern etymology. Thus, we find derivations given to words like poltron, gueux, calque, blason, and calepin, all of which are curious and worth noting. Again, the edition of Arago gives us the cries of animals in French and English; the various idioms with which any noteworthy word is connected, as brûler and congé, and the editor appears to have been especially careful to let no difficulty pass unnoticed.

"Cassell's Manual of Correspondence" may be useful for occasional phrases. The original English part is weak, being written in the old style of the "Complete Letter Writer." Indeed, in reading it, one is almost led, so striking is the resemblance, to suspect plagiarism from that immortal work.

Of Mr. Oppen's performance, one has only to say that the book is neatly printed, and the notes are conveniently plentiful. The subject is that set for the Cambridge Local Examinations; and it is comforting to reflect on the great amount of good wrought by these, and the London Examinations, to gentlemen who get ready these little text-books. For, whether the subject be Shakespeare's Hamlet, Goethe's Iphigenie, or Corneille's Cid, a few days after it is announced, another of these neat little volumes, pretty little handmaids to a first-class, makes its appearance in cloth and gold," with English notes," and proves most useful to lots of hard-working aspirants. Can it be that all literature, ancient and modern, is thus parcelled out, docketed, and ready, with notes and all, to be sent to the printer at twenty-four hours' notice?

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Correspondence.

OXFORD LETTER.

ON Thursday, June 11, the University of Oxford finally passed a measure establishing the principle of Mr. Ewart's Bill, and permitting students to become members of the University without belonging to any college. Never was a great revolutionary change carried through with less conflict; the very opposition, such as it was, only served to emphasize the general conviction that the measure was either salutary or inevitable. Circulars signed with one or two names, usually potent to conjure up Tories from their country retirement to defend the Church and the Constitution, and classical education, all of which are usually said to be menaced at once by every Liberal proposition, failed to work the accustomed result. So few obeyed the whip, that the resident Liberals (including, of course, the semi-Conservatives who side with them on this question) carried the decisive division by a majority of twenty, without mustering their full strength, or canvassing for a single non-resident vote. No outsider who had witnessed the scene of the voting would have imagined it possible that the measure then being voted and carried so unceremoniously, piece by piece, involved a fundamental change in the constitution of the University, the reversal of a principle which has been steadily maintained since the days of Archbishop Laud. And yet, to an eye capable of seeing the true meaning of the change, the revolution is far greater even than it seems. It is impossible, all history shows it, ever really to restore the status quo ante any important change. Had the Laudian legislation

never taken place, we should probably have had a university more or less like the German or Scotch type; and it is as impossible as profitless to speculate on what might have been the ultimate destiny of the colleges. As it is, the colleges have been the University for over 200 years, and it has grown in that time into what it is, a most peculiar institution, potent in a variety of ways not strictly educational, and accustomed so long to dictate the course of the highest culture in England, that it hardly understands the imperious demands made on it for education in fresh subjects. It is obvious that reversing the policy of Laud, and allowing students once more to be independent of colleges, will not undo in a moment the work of two centuries. Were the colleges worth ever so little, a generation or two must of necessity elapse before they would cease to comprise the very large majority of members of the University; and they are worth a great deal; they have prestige, political and social influence, real advantages, educationally and morally. It is as between the colleges individually, not as between them collectively and the non ascripti" (to use the phrase which has sprung into use from the wording of the new statute), that the recent change will work most; and in this sphere it will probably have results of which the world outside the narrow circle of those familiar with the working of Oxford has very little idea. The principle of free trade is now fully and unreservedly established; and this by the simple process of extending to Oxford, simultaneously with

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the admission of non-attached students, the Cambridge method of allowing men to live fully in lodgings, instead of only after three years' residence within a college, as hitherto. The consequence is, that henceforth the limits to which any college can grow are fixed, not by the extent of its buildings, but by its capabilities for educating. Hitherto Balliol and New College, Corpus, Trinity, Brazenose, have been able to receive but a part of the men who were both anxious to enter and fit to be taken; and the rejected of the colleges in good repute had to find quarters elsewhere. Now the better colleges can take under their charge as many men as they can educate, and unless they decline in efficiency, will half empty their neighbours' buildings. It is as yet too soon to see see how the several colleges will accommodate themselves to the new state of things, how far they will find it possible or desirable to admit a class of semi-attached students, who shall receive nothing from the college but teaching, and shall have no necessary connexion with its social life, no right to use its hall and kitchen, its library and chapel. these matters there will doubtless be great variety of arrangement, as the University legislation does not interfere at all. When it is seen how free trade will work, what percentage of students will prefer being entirely free, what variation takes place in the number of members of the several colleges, what increase in the total number results, then, and probably not till then, will even the clearest-sighted of Oxford men be able to form a complete ideal of the college system of the future. At present, the reforms which are being made are slow and tentative, partly because in almost every separate college the battle of opinion has to be fought, and reformers are obliged to accept not what they desire, but what they can carry; partly, also, because the cooler and less violent of the reformers are not in a hurry. To do them justice, the delay is to their own personal loss in many cases; for, obviously, the existing tutors ought to enjoy the advantages of improved income, liberty to marry, freedom from tests-all that they hope in due time to win for their successors; and in not pressing on their reforms hastily, they are sacrificing their private interests to what they deem the general good.

Still, a beginning is being made in this respect, and in one matter at least of important reform which helps the personal interest of no single fellow or tutor, it would seem that the example once set would very soon be everywhere imitated. New College set the example of abolishing compulsory attendance at chapel; not, however, without devising a plan for imposing reasonably regular hours on the undergraduates, which was the disciplinary end for which attendance at morning chapel was thought essential; and two or three other colleges have already done, more or less, exactly the same thing. Of course certain organs in the press have cried out; of course it has been represented as a step towards destroying Christianity; equally of course, the objectors have never taken the trouble to understand the question. Between those who do and those who do not consider it moral and lawful to compel attendance at public worship, no argument is possible; the two parties differ in first principles, and can find no common ground to start from. But the practical fact is, and long has been, that men were not compelled; that is to say, no college in Oxford was prepared to resort to extreme measures, to expel a man who habitually disregarded the law, and was callous to the very trifling punishment of ordinary discipline. Hence, evil in all directions; the law suffered, as it always must, from imposing a rule and not really enforcing

it; religion suffered both ways,-by being made the subject of compulsion, thus precluding appeal to other methods, and, if compulsory attendance be deemed right, by its being enforced only nominally.

on

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STUDENTS' CLUBS AND SOCIETIES.

SIR, However much I may differ on some points from the writer of the paper Students' Clubs and Societies" in your last number, I am perfectly in unison with him as regards the substance of his article, showing, as it does, the necessity, and advocating the establishment, of some union or society by which members of the University of London could be brought together. That London students exhibit a remarkable apathy on the subject cannot be denied, but the time seems now to have arrived when a slight exertion on the part of present and of past students would effect all that can be expected for a commencement. The appearance of a magazine devoted, as the LONDON STUDENT is, to the interests of the large class from which it takes its title, will no doubt greatly accelerate the settlement of the matter; in fact, I myself, in common with a few other students, had intended to broach the subject in one of the educational journals, but the limited circulation they have among those to whom we wished principally to appeal, appeared likely to render such an attempt useless, and the announcement of a magazine for London students was a sufficient inducement to us to abandon the idea altogether, being perfectly confident that the first subject the new magazine would handle would be the unification of members of the University. I need hardly say that our expectations have been more than satisfied; recognising then the importance of having a special organ, London students should first of all accord to the new magazine the support to which its merits alone fully entitle it.

Before drawing the earnest attention of students to this subject, it is most expedient that there should be a clear understanding as to the nature of the union that it would be desirable to establish, and which would be likely to meet the wishes of the majority of those interested. I hardly think that what the writer in your June number seems to desire would receive general support, for he evidently not only highly commends the Oxford and Cambridge system, but also advocates its introduction, as far as possible under the peculiar circumstances, among London students. But it appears to me, from what I know of those universities, though my knowledge is not very extensive, that their sociability is carried to an extent which is, in many ways, hostile to close and earnest reading; moreover, it has to be shown whether this familiar intercourse produces generally any higher advantages than a polished and elegant manner, with its attendant extravagance. A polished exterior is something, it is true, but intercourse, limited to certain channels, I would be at the same time conducive to intellectual refinement, and would enable students to utilize, and hence to take a keener delight in their reading. Some means that would effect this is what we ought to adopt, more especially as, if we may believe our critics, we are characterized by extensive and diligent study.

Although many London students are opposed, some from prejudice, some from principle, to the Oxford and Cambridge system, we see, on the other hand, that debating clubs, with their annual or monthly meetings, are scarcely