Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/340

 Meanwhile Oxford was stirring Ms reforming zeal. Already in 1848 he described himself as 'rouge' in university politics (, ii. 195). In 1850 his relations with Oxford became closer on his accepting an ordinary fellowship and tutorship at University in succession to Arthur Penrhyn Stanley [q. v.]. He held the tutorship for four years and the fellowship for seventeen. The current agitation for academic reform attracted him more than normal educational duties. He threw in his lot with those who were attacking clerical ascendancy and were endeavouring to dissipate the prevailing torpor. With Jowett and William Charles Lake [q. v. Suppl. I] he drafted a memorial to the prime minister, Lord John Russell, urging the grant of a royal commission of inquiry into the administration of the university. His hand, too, appears in the vigorously phrased letters in support of the same cause published soon afterwards in 'The Times' above the signature 'Oxoniensis' (Life of A. C. Tait, i. 158-9). A royal commission was appointed on 31 Aug. 1850, and Stanley and Smith were made joint secretaries. The report, which was issued on 27 April 1852, approved the relaxation of religious tests, the abrogation of restrictive medieval statutes, the free opening of fellowships to merit, and the creation of a teaching professorate. The government introduced a bill to give moderate and tentative effect to these findings, and Gladstone, who during 1854 piloted the measure through the House of Commons, frequently invited Smith's assistance. On the passing of the Oxford University Reform Act an executive commission was appointed to frame the necessary regulations for the university and the colleges. Of this body Smith again became joint secretary with the Rev. Samuel Wayte, and he was busily occupied with the task for nearly two years until it was completed in 1857. It fell to him to draw the statute which instituted the order of non-collegiate students. The general result fell far below his hopes, but he looked forward to a future advance, now that the ice was broken. The business of the commission kept Smith much in London, where he widened his intercourse with men of affairs. With A. C. Tait, one of the original commissioners, with Edward Cardwell, and with Sidney Herbert, he grew intimate, and he was a frequent guest of Lord Ashburton at the Grange near Airesford, where he met Carlyle and Tennyson. His leisure in London Smith devoted to journalism of the best literary type. As early as 1850 he had begun writing for the 'Morning Chronicle,' the Peelite organ, and when the editor of that journal, Douglas Cook, started the 'Saturday Review' in 1855 Goldwin Smith joined his staff. To the first number, 3 Nov. 1855, he contributed an article 'On the War Pas- sages in Tennyson's " Maud," ' in which he betrayed that horror of militarism which became a lasting obsession. He wrote regularly in the ’Saturday' for three years, chiefiy on literary themes, for he was out of sympathy with the political and religious tone of the paper. Cook, the editor, described him as his 'most effective pen.' He also occasionally acted as hterary critic for 'The Times,' reviewing sympathetically Matthew Arnold's 'Poems, by A' in 1854. His pen was likewise busy in the service of Oxford. To the ' Oxford Essays ' he contributed in 1856 an essay on 'The Roman Empire of the West' by his old tutor Congreve, and another on 'Oxford University Reform' in 1858.

In the last year Smith's usefulness and ability were conspicuously acknowledged by an invitation to become a full member of another royal commission of great importance — that on national education, under the chairmanship of the duke of Newcastle. The section of the report issued in 1862 on the proper application of charitable endowments was from his pen. Smith deprecated the suggestion that his services should be recognised by office in a public department. But greatly to his satisfaction, on the nomination of Lord Derby, the conservative prime minister, he was appointed in 1858, without making any application, regius professor of modern history at Oxford. His predecessor was Henry Halford Vaughan [q. v.], and both Richard William Church [q. v. Suppl. I] and Edward Augustus Freeman [q. v. Suppl. I] were candidates for the vacancy. Smith's new post was, he asserted, ' the highest object of his ambition,' but he lacked the qualification of historical training. Abandoning for the moment his journalistic work in London, he settled down at Oxford, as it seemed, for life. Always of delicate health, he built for himself a house to the north of the city, beyond The Parks, in what was then the open country. For many years the house stood alone, but it subsequently became the centre of a populous suburb. The building, which was greatly enlarged after he ceased to occupy it, has since been known as 7 Norham Gardens, and was long tenanted by Prof. Max Müller.

Goldwin Smith delivered his inaugural