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count out with all hie soul—for what can Mr . Hume do—go to a Casino ?—when there is no House ? These three gentlemen kept close to the door , expostulating with the guardians , who had got their orders , and had prorogued Parliament in defianee not only of all common sense , which is nothing , but of all the House ' s rules , which ought to be , a great deal , and might cause their dismissal , if Lord John , who has nothing else to do , were asked to go into the matter 5 and , of course , the body of members who held back , determining
not to be counted , enjoyed hugely the nervous grouphaughtily indignant metropolitan member , expostulating Mr . Gobden , alarmed Mr . Hume , and sulky Mr . Williams—chief keeper of that post which is the opposite of St . Peter ' s . The strangers loitering about wondered : this constitutional machinery was new to the enlightened Britons who , perhaps , could not understand why , as one could see the reporters' gallery full , the Speaker should insist on paying Lord Dudley Stuart the compliment of an attendance of at least forty—mystical number in senatorial architecture . But the innocent
strangers must , indeed , have been shocked at the joyous yell which burst out when Mr . Williams dashed the door open and appalled Mr . Cobden by the announcement , " House adjourned . " A boys' school cheer on news of an unexpected half holiday is the only parallel ; but there was this difference , that the shout of gentlemen who needn't have spent an hour there if they didn't like , was mainly called forth by malicious satisfaction at the sight of the humbled Stuart , the ghastly and indignant Cobden , and the perplexed and melancholy Hume . It was wonderful to observe the feelings which succeeded after the laughing was over , and men had to begin to think , their routine plans
being bouleversed , what they should do with thfcir evening . A large number didn't know ; and walked off to their clubs to enquire of Jawkins , whom they were so sure to see there . But a large party , led by Serjeant Murphy , was soon formed . " By Jove , " said the serjeant , with his usual happy inspiration , " let us run down the river and eat white bait ! " ( Loud cries of hear , hear !) And so fifty senators soon filled a steamer , and in less than an hour were at white bait , and brown bread-andbutter , and cold punch—criticising the career of Cobden , and wondering at the peculiar tastes of Hume . What could the constitutional waiters of Bladkwall and Greenwich have thought of the Imperial Parliament ?
The Oxford Installation has had something to do with the dulness of the week ; certainly in the Lords , where they hud nothing until last night , and as certainly in the Commons where , when Mr . Disraeli is not at his post—he only looked in for an hour on Thursday , but , of course , showed last night , with the new dignity caught from the under-graduates' cheers , cheers he would bo prouder of than of any " change "—matters always appear in suspense . In fact , there is only one thing people who take Parliament as their amusement have looked forward to , since the publication of the Aberdeen and Monsell letters—Mr . Disraeli ' s criticism
on the Cabinet squabble and Lord John s new position . Undoubtedly he has his chance now of a revenge on the coalition which overthrew him ; for they havo been terribly weakened during the last fortnight . First , the symptoms of vacillation in our Eastern policy ; next , Sir Charles Wood ' s insufficient measure and disastrous speech ; thirdly , Mr . Gladstone ' s ( perhaps one should say more strictly , Mr . James Wilson ' s ) financial failure in the city ; and lastly , the revelation tho Aberdeen and Monsoll correspondence afforded of Cabinet dissensions on a vital point with every British Government— -their Irish policy . Why should Mr . Dinraeli spare Lord
John ? His own friends do not : tho contemptuous insubordination rendering tho long retention of the leader-Hhip by a man whoso moral authority in gouts utterly" out of the question . But tho l ' eelites must not calculate that Lord John will bo sacrificed to their vanity ; Mr . Disraeli bus shown that ho understands Lord Aberdeen ' s blunders at Constantinople , and he will show , in due time , that he has at last mastered the complexity of the reduction of the debt Rcheine , which has so miserably disappointed Mr . Gladstone , and as completely and strangely fullilled Mr . Dinmeli ' H bap-hazard predictions . Then Sir Charles Wood ' s speech —is it at all likely that will escape ?
Or the dock-yard diseiifniiichi . seineut Hchomu ? which , it turns out , was Sir Junies Graham ' s pure Huggestionto bo regarded as 11 test of the tendencies of 11 Government pledged to Parliamentary " Reform ? " If it bo true that tho Cabinet is only kept together by the Oueen ' H entreaty Hint , the Turkish difficulty be . not more perplexed by a " crisis" at , ' . ome , the bust thing Ministers < an do is to leave Mr . Disraeli unanswered , -or to nut up Mr Onborno to reply without defending . Hut tho looncr tho Cabinet is re-am . » ged tli « better : and if Lord John thinks , as Mr . Kdwanl Kllico tells him , that , his secession would destroy the Government , that he can regather a party , and that Mr Gladstone has none yet—lie had better try , if only for Ins own Hake , with
the least possible delay . The nation would make him a Pont d'Or , and St . Nepomuck befriend him too in the passage . « A Stbangee . " Saturday Morning .
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THE INSTALLATION WEEK AT OXFORD . Oxfoed -has been beside herself this week — with " too much learning" the most obstinate opponent of the Reform Commission would hesitate to add . But the fact is , when these venerable and stagnant seminaries do break out and get into commotion , the excesses of ordinar y bodies less austere , and more prone to the foibles and vanities of this world , shrink into very small vices by comparison . There is n lassitude and njudeur about the dissipation of men " of the world , " which has nothing in common with the bursting and furious intoxication periodically raging in the sanctuaries of useless learning , worn out science , and dogmatic " compromise . "
The religious dissipation of fashionable watering places is a terrible phenomenon enough for any wellregulated and satisfied sinner to confront ; but for a spectacle to amaze , for an extravaganza to bewilder a guileless visitor from the nineteenth century , commend us to an Oxford installation ! Where shall we find a more delicate monster than a dancing Don—a mild tutor polking away his heart and his fellowship with a beautiful vision in muslin or barige in a college garden ? Where more graceful gambols than those
of the Hebdomadal Board lionizing fair intruders into their solemn precincts ? Nothing , too , can equal the abject and hopeless passion of a common-room prig who has been struck by some fine shaft in the course of a riding party to Blenheim , or a pic-nic at Nunebam . That mixture of brusquerie and shyness is ( as Sam Slick would say ) quite " cautionary , " one of the most amusing sights we know . The bigwigs and elder dignitaries ^ in general , are not less busily engaged in scaring the town with barbarous costumes , and lending an air of
burlesque to the more dignified ceremonials . As to the undergraduates , what with the doctrines they have imbibed in college , and the notions they have caught from the epoch , they offer the most curious compound of habits , tastes , and sympathies that can well be imagined . They cheer all that is Tory , and hiss all that is progressive ; yet among them will be found many minds as advanced , many opinions as subversive , " many intellects as intolerant of shams and compromises as the most liberal even of our readers could desire . Indeed , Oxford and its Commemoration
have a pleasant side as well as a grotesque one . There is something that smacks of what is called the " good old time" about the hospitalities in tho Hull , while the breakfasts and lunches in the rooms give you a twinge of remorse about the extravagance of our Protestant youth . Then in tho very awkwardness of common room gallantries there is a certain naivete of student and cloister life almost touching to contemplate . And in tho Tory fervour of the shouting galleries of the Sheldonian Theatre , mixed as it is with the slang species of wit that reminds you of the Simious school of comic literature so disastrously prevalent
in our days , you often meet with a line recognition of real worth , and a certain sturdy English feeling , typical of the national institutions . The " religion of the place , " too , inspires a certain affection even for the failings of Oxford , which many who breathe a keener atmosphere < 1 <> not porhups sufficiently appreciate . But how far Oxford has fallen away from its purpose and reason of existence as an institution , we need scarcely penetrate these semi-ecclesiastical buildings , now rioting with tho merriment of Homi-celibute fellows , to understand .
Think of the founders' wills , and the poor and indigent scholars , and the masses for nouls , us you can this week ! Oxford is no longer an educational , and only half an ecclesiastical , institution . But she would lain be more ecclesiastical , and oven lens educational , than now , making the Slate-paid ICstahlisluncnb a depositary of dogmas , mid , like all churches , keeping science and utility in the background . Wo have little exception to take to tho festivities and ceremonials of the pjist week which have been favoured with tho best of weather and the best of company . No doubt a curious moral or two might be pointed on the occasion . Lord
Derby , for instance , elected Chancellor by a knot of intriguers when ho represented Downing-Hlrcet , is now installed when he hits long nince faded into an iuipoHBible Premier , and Sees and 1 tanneries have fallen to the disposal of a coalition of opponents . Lord Derby is talking blandly about the necessity of " progress" to the approving smiles of Samuel Oxon , the . smoother of High and Low , who , at the . head of a goodly proecHh 3 oii of priests , re-opening a " restored" church , represents the " dogiindie- compromise . " Again , we find our noble Chancellor , who hiin taught us that the Church is 11 " compromise , " recommending a Hpednl school of theology by way of uieoting tho cry for
University reform in this blessed epoch ; and " Samuel Oxon" smiles approval again . In many respects , however , let us e xpress our belief that Lord Derby will have been proved to fill the Chancellor ' s chair to the eminent delight and satisfaction of his constituents . It may be doubted whether , among his predecessors , there has often been combined equal rank with the same sc holarship and eloquence . Lord Derby is an " old Eton fellow , " and Eton may be proud of a son who has preserved his love of Greek and his finished and elegant Latinity through the toils of Toryism and the Turf . The Chancellor astonished the deputation of native Dons at the private installation in Downing-street , when he replied to their laboured and canine address by a few apt and choice sentences
in the language and with all the ease of Cicero ! No doubt , then , Lord Derby has created a sensation by his Latin—a faculty which is better appreciated at Oxford than merely " useful" science . As a Tory chief , the new Chancellor represents the reigning spirit of Oxford , and his Latin was perhaps a grateful surprise to those who found a scholar where they expected nothing but a Tory . Mr . Disraeli , we are told , has been the real lion and favourite of the week among the undergraduates — a sentiment with which wo are not disposed to quarrel , though we know not whether to attribute it to the guerilla leader of the territorial Aristocracy , or to the brilliant novelist , or to the Caucasian mystic . We would rather believe it was simply the homage of youth to the pluck and genius ot the self-made man .
It was fitting that the name of Bulwer Lytton should be recognised with applause by an audience of scholars , or , if not scholars , enthusiastic readers of romance ; and surely Macaulny was a constellation bright enough to shed lustre on even a heavier body of Doctors than the much maligned squad of Protectionists who were generously honoured by their trusted chief with so appropriate a testimony of regard .
We cannot refuse a certain sympathy for the faithful few who having become impossible ministers , are still found to be possible Doctors of law . And , on the whole , the list of the new D . C . L . ' s is decently presentable . We are glad to sec Sam Slick among them ; wherever he appears he is welcome ; and Sir A . Alison , for the heavy business he has done in Tory literature , ns Professor Aytoun for the light ( that is , by comparison ) , certainly deserved a place in the illustrious Batch .
AVe shall not be captious about the honours conferred upon the rhapsodist of the Crystal Palace and Recorder of Hull , for has not the " Lily and the Bee " been translated into we know not bow many languages ? It was characteristic of the tone of Oxford life and shade to note how coldly the names of men eminent in art and science—such as Murchison , Eastlake , Brande ,
and Bright—were received , so little is science esteemed at Oxford . We may , however , excuse this ignorance or indifference to calmer and graver celebrities , at a moment when so many benches of the Tory side of tho House of Commons were discharging their contents upon 1111 audience of heated partisans . The commemorative event has , as usual , been marked by the appearance of occasional nnd fugitive odes , which have the liimrulur merit of divertinir attention
from the tweedle-duni tweedle-deo of the prize " poems . The week was ushered in by a Teimysonian " Appeal to Concord , " and to hospitable greeting . Now that the festivities are over , and Oxford is relapsing into . silence and sevei ity , we bear n shrill keen voice of some indignant Reformer , who , we cannot doubt , has sedulously shunned the fun and frolic of the week's forgetfulness , breathing itself forth in spiteful , an « l we may add , very choice Sapphics . Kveii the Reformer dare not or cannot write in his own tongue , takes refuge in Latin to vent , his bitterness , all the more bitter for the terse compression of the form , and appeals in " sharp Htinging lloratiau lines from the
perverted eloquence of Lord Derby , the 1 ' rotcan dexterity of face nnd principle of Mr . Disnieli , tin Hiiiileu of " Samuel" of Oxford , and the applause of hoys and girls , to the- observant indignation of a contemptuous country . These Sapphics , we repeat ., are almost perfect in form , and prove at least , that scholarship is not all with the Jinti-reforiners . Hut we are disposed to leave off' in hotter humour with Alma Muter , and to cast , the lust , look upon the masquerade of orders and dignities perpetrated by the Freemasons at the Town Jlall . In Freemasonry , at any rate , we believe the brethren will agree with us , Oxford needs no reform . Naturally enough ; for the " Order" dates , we are told , from before the Flood . A . X . Z .
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Juke 11 , 1853 , ] THE LEADER , 569
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NOTION TO COKKIOHI'ONDNNTH . " Paddy ' ' docs not , comply with our rulo . VVo do not , think Ilio oHoimo compiainod of wiin intentional on tho part of ( ho journal in < ju <> Htion ; lull we HympuUii / . o vory lioailily wil' - l ' addy ' H iittihii ^ H on tho tmhjoot , and should bo gliul to lliul niioco lor Iiifl lottor .
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Leader (1850-1860), June 11, 1853, page 569, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1990/page/17/
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