interest, and his manner of treating it won for the author a compliment quite unique, I believe, in the history of university prize essays-the thanks of the Agricultural Society were communicated to him by the then president, Sir J. Sinclair.

Few men have been better qualified than Mr. Copleston was, in his twenty-first year, to undertake the responsible office of college tutor, upon the duties of which he entered in October Term, 1797; while, strange to say, he almost immediately appears before us as captain in a regiment of Volunteers, and leading his pupils from the class-room to the drill-ground. It was the year of the expected French invasion, when all England was in arms. Happily the threatened danger passed away, and the Oriel tutor laid aside his sword; but so long as the alarm existed he applied his energies to this, as to every other matter claiming his attention, and made, as he said of himself, no inconsiderable progress in the science of tactics. Mr. Copleston was at this period, and for many years after, a person of very active and vigorous habits-e. g., in his diary for 1798 I find the following entry: Jul. 6. Walked from Oxford to Offwell with my brother-to Marlborough in one day.' And again, in December of the same year: 'Walked from Oxford to Ufton-the first twentytwo miles in five hours.' The next The next year is marked by his first introduction to Mr. Ward, afterwards Lord Dudley and Ward, who entered at Oriel in the October Term, 1799, as Mr. Copleston's private

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pupil. This academical connexion ripened into friendship, and led to an intimate correspondence of many years. Some of Lord Dudley's letters, it will be remembered, were given to the world after his decease in a volume published by the bishop, and more, now waiting to see the light, were intended to follow. There is an entry in the diary for this year, 1799, which I notice, as giving perhaps the last well-authenticated instance of robbery on the London-road by mounted highwaymen : January 12. Robbed by two mounted highwaymen, on my return to Oxford with Mr. Woollcombe and Mr. (afterwards Bishop) Mant, between Uxbridge and Beaconsfield.' The year 1800 was one of great interest and excitement at Oxford, being the æra of the new examination statute; and, as many of the old régime thought, the æra of an alarming revolution. No doubt it is well that there should be in every department of life conservatives by instinct, but Mr. Copleston was not reckoned among them; on the contrary, he came forward as a decided reformer, defended the statute in convocation against a vehement opposition, and, when it passed, undertook with five other colleagues the delicate and invidious task of conducting the first examinations.

It is impossible to write these notices of what passed at Oxford half a century since without a glance at present circumstances. That there should be some jealousy felt at the interference of an external power, and that some fears of the spirit of

neoterism should be excited-especially when the whole complexion of the times is taken into account-does not appear extraordinary. And this question not unreasonably occurs to the mind at the same time-Has it not been in some degree overlooked, that fifty years ago one, at any rate, of our universities proved to the world that she had a power within herself capable of overcoming that 'vis inertia' which attaches, more or less, to all long-settled institutions-capable of effecting against that power very decided and fundamental changes? Was it not then seen that the leading of a few powerful minds sufficed, without any impulse from without, to bring about a revolution in academic life, not less distasteful to a great number in its beginning, than salutary in its results? I am not able to refer to any written sentiments of Dr. Copleston upon the subject of A Commission of Inquiry into the State of our Universities,' nor would I venture to ascribe to him any precise opinion as to the expediency or propriety of such interference. But it would be wrong to withhold here what will be in the recollection of many of Dr. Copleston's friends—namely, that he would sometimes express freely and strongly his regrets, that some of our collegiate societies had not done more towards meeting the educational demands of the age. When Oxford was unjustly attacked as an ignorant and incompetent teacher of youth, she found her ablest defender in Dr. Copleston; but his candid mind refused to gloss over defects, which

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a partisan-spirit might indeed plausibly excuse, but which could not, as he thought, be reconciled with impartial and enlarged views of duty. Those who are interested in this question of academical education, as at present renewed, will not fail to appreciate the extracts from the Replies which are given in the Appendix.

I insert here, as bearing upon the subject just noticed, an extract from a letter written by Dr. Copleston to his brother in 1825

'When speaking of University expenses, it ought always to be observed that the mere college charges for rooms, diet, and instruction are seldom so much as 100l. a-year. The rest is just what a gentleman must spend wherever he is, provided he wishes to live as other gentlemen do. How absurdly they have been talking of late in Parliament on this subject, when discussing the project for London College. The expenses complained of are not those of a university. They are just what must arise from the fortunes of young men living together, not as boys, but as men; and if people of no fortune have the ambition to associate with the class above them, what right have they to object to the expenditure it involves? The same thing must occur in every other department of society. My own opinion is, that College expenses are less than when I was an under-graduate, and I am sure that the effect of strict sumptuary laws within its walls, is to drive many to engage in much larger expenses elsewhere.'

In the year 1800 Mr. Copleston was admitted to priest's orders, and instituted to the Vicarage of St. Mary the Virgin, a piece of preferment usually held by one of the resident fellows of Oriel, small in

point of revenue, and bringing with it little of parochial responsibility, yet desirable as an introduction to clerical duty. I shall have occasion to refer again to the following entry in the diary, and only notice it now, to show the accurate and methodical beginnings of one who was remarkable in after life for a munificent liberality: 'Jan. 1, 1800. Upon settling accounts, found myself possessed of 217.'

No one, probably, had a greater contempt for money, regarded simply as a possession, than the late Bishop of Llandaff, while no one understood better the practice of a rational economy, or valued it more in others.

1802. To follow him on in his rising honourswe find him elected Poetry Professor when he had just completed the twenty-sixth year of his age; and in the following October reading his inaugural lecture, the first of a series of thirty-five. It must be matter of regret that the whole plan of these lectures was not finally completed. Nevertheless, the 'Prælectiones,' as they stand, will never cease to delight those who can appreciate clear development of principles, just criticism, discriminating delicacy of taste, and, perhaps, above all, Latinity of such pure and brilliant water, that when, in our recollections, we compare it with Ciceronian gems, it loses none of its lustre. No scholar will be likely to underrate the labour of a production so finished, and so richly illustrated; but it is interesting to hear what the author himself says about it, in a letter written to his