Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/311

256 Which were the Colleges that emulated the one of Aberdeen, by illustrating the maxim in Hudibras, what's the value of a thing But so much money as 'twill bring? we do not know; but the Principals, if not distinguished by their abilities in the Professor's chair, were clever at a bargain.—Like Wolsey's list of his costly plate, it is enough to spoil the breakfast of those graduates whose humanity would recoil at the idea of precluding artists, with numerous families, from finding employ in works too expensive to be got up consistently with the heavy duty exacted in this obnoxious shape.—Which makes the motives of the gentlemen of Oxford and Cambridge extremely questionable, in delaying to take the lead in relinquishing a claim so injurious to men of letters in general, and to he arts in particular, as is a copy of all new works, however expensive.—When we read, in the diurnal papers, that the Dean and Chapter of Durham have parted with £94,000 of their available property, in behalf of the University founded there—we are induced to ask, is there something in the air of the northern English counties more favourable to manly and liberal sentiments than that of the midland districts, where Oxford and Cambridge are situated?—or how is this striking contrast to be explained?