Page:Seventeen lectures on the study of medieval and modern history and kindred subjects.djvu/395

 direct the studies of their pupils, classes and individuals, to the specialised and differentiated details of their own subject, not merely to general class examinations in which all the candidates are expected to show the same sort of knowledge derived from the same sort of books. What I wanted from the Commission was not less work but more liberty; what I succeeded in getting was a little more elasticity of tether. But I will not grumble any more: it is over; both the evidence, voluminous and appreciative^ the formal audience, so redolent of sympathy and profound attention on the part of the Commissioners, the lively meetings of council and committee, and the truly charming debates of the professors and tutors: let them have the light that never was on sea or land, in the sweetness of memory,—a consecration, a professor's dream; at all events we have a system of faculties, informal instruction, and a visitatorial board.

But let us go on to more serious things than these. I have spent nearly eighteen very happy years in Oxford: holding the office for a longer period than any of my predecessors except Spence, who was professor for twenty-six years. Dr. Nowell, who was professor for thirty years, and Dr. Nares, who occupied the chair for twenty-eight years. The principal event that touches the constitutional position of the Professorship during my occupation is its final and complete connexion with Oriel College. Of the professors before me, three. Dr. Beeke, who was in office during the early years of this century, and two better known men. Dr. Arnold and Mr. Halford Vaughan, had been fellows of Oriel. The Ordinance of 1857, passed nearly at the end of Mr. Vaughan's tenure of office, allowed Oriel College to undertake the payment of a considerable sum in augmentation of the annual income provided by King George II, which augmentation might be exchanged for a fellowship of the College: and by a University Statute of 1859 a new body of regulations was provided for the conduct of the professor. Under these Mr. Goldwin Smith and I have held office; he being, as fellow of University, ineligible for the Oriel Fellowship, became by election after his resignation an honorary fellow, and I was in 1868 elected to the fellowship