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BALLIOL COLLEGE.

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Scholarships were thrown open to public compe- tition ; and in 1838 the clerical restriction upon Fellowships was so far modified that any man might be elected provided that he resigned at the time when the Statutes called upon him to receive Holy Orders. The Act of Parliament, which reformed alike the University and the Colleges, was passed about the time of Dr. Jenkyns' death. The Blundell Fellow- ships were now thrown open, and the majority of the Fellowships exempted from clerical obligations. Under the Mastership of Robert Scott, who succeeded Jenkyns, Mr. Jowett (who in turn became Master in 1870) was the leading member of the Tutorial body ; and the system of the College was more and more adapted to what are understood as liberal principles of education. Among more recent institutions may be noticed the policy of attracting selected students for the Indian Civil Service, and of diversifying the common pattern of College life by the admission as members of the College of persons of various nation- ality who desired only instruction in certain subjects, and did not read for a degree. But the example of Balliol was soon followed by other Colleges.

' Every College has its own ideal, and that of

Balliol has been by a steady policy adapted to the modern spirit of work, employing the best materials not so much for learning as an end in itself, as a means towards practical success in life. In this field, in the distinctions of the schools, of the courts, and of public life, it has been seldom rivalled by any other College. ' The College has excelled particularly ' in its practical men of affairs, diplomatists, judges, members of parliament, civil service officials, college tutors, and school-masters. At the present moment it counts among former members no less than seven of her Majesty's Judges, and seven Heads of Oxford Colleges. But to show that another side of culture has been represented at Balliol in the present reign, we must not forget the band of Balliol poets, Arthur Hugh Clough, Matthew Arnold, and Algernon Charles Swinburne.'

The foregoing sketch is substantially abridged from a more comprehensive notice of this College by the same writer contained in The Colleges of Oxford, edited by the Rev. A. Clark (Methuen 1891), and passages quoted from it are placed between inverted commas.

REGINALD L. POOLE.

view «Y bekeblock, 1566. {Facsimile from Hearne.]