the way in which they stick to one another. proud of their College. They were 'All Souls Commons and New College means so ran an old Oxford proverb. Their honest pride in their 'Nursing Mother,' as the founder of the College called it, with pious reference to the words of the Prophet Isaiah, and inscribed the name upon the furniture and equipment of the school of learning which owed its rise to his munificence, drew the members of the house together in close bonds of friendliness. During my long residence within its walls Queen's was a north-country College, and we had all the clannishness which marks the good people of Cumberland and Westmorland, almost as much as their neighbours in Scotland. When the College was opened up (wisely in my judgement) to all comers, it might have been feared that the old associations which connected it so closely with the two Northern counties might have been rudely severed, but with their shrewd Cumbrian sagacity the authorities then in power at the College conducted the transaction from the old to the new with such an absence of any bitterness, and with so cordial a reception of those who would in the course of time step into their places, that the Common Room of Queen's has not fallen away from its old reputation of being one of the pleasantest and most sociable in Oxford. The older members are received on their occasional visits by their juniors with a cheerful welcome which puts them at once at their ease. To this kindly temper so characteristic of the old house,' I must attribute the flattering remarks of your correspondent. I feel assured that he is much younger than I am, for few of my contemporaries at Queen's still survive. He will remember-for the good old custom is still kept up at Queen's-how on certain stated occasions the loving cup was passed round the table with the words, In salutem praesentium, in memoriam absentium. In the spirit of those touching words I will wish him Godspeed to all his undertakings both for this year, which has just begun, and also for many years to come. January 9, 1886. WILLIAM GEORGE WARD AND THE OXFORD MOVEMENT1. I. WILLIAM GEORGE WARD, though born in London, may fairly be reckoned among the notable men of the Isle of Wight. The family to which he belonged has been settled in this Island more than a century, and the Squire of Northwood has for four generations been among the largest landowners in the Wight. In the latter part of his life Mr. Ward resided at the family mansion, Northwood Park, Cowes, and afterwards at Weston Manor, Freshwater, where, to use the language of his affectionate biographer, he took a somewhat more active share in the responsibilities and the natural amenities of his position.' During Mr. Ward's residence in the Island it was my good fortune to partake not unfrequently of his hospitality, and I have had the pleasure of joining in many most interesting and instructive conversations with one whom old Oxonians recollect as perhaps the most accomplished conversationalist of their time. When Mr. Ward was at the height of his prominence and influence at Oxford I was an undergraduate, and was only permitted to gaze at him across the gulf which in those days separated us juniors from our seniors; but, as may be well supposed, many stories were afloat about so conspicuous a personage as Ward of Balliol. Soon after coming into residence as a scholar of Queen's I had the honour of being placed on the committee of the Union Debating Society, which did not then occupy its present magnificent lodgings, but had its reading room in a front floor over the shop of Mr. Vincent, the bookseller in High Street, while its debates were held in the picture gallery of Mr. Wyatt, printseller in the same street. As a rule the members of this society when they took the degree of Master of Arts did not frequent its rooms, but Mr. Ward was an exception, for 1 William George Ward and the Oxford Movement. By Wilfrid Ward. London, 1889. though he never came to the debating room he was most constant of all visitors to the newspaper room. His absence from the debates must have been a piece of self-denial to him who was, as the late Lord Cardwell said, 'the walking incarnation of the Union,' when that society was distinguished by the stirring debates to which the first Reform Bill gave rise, and where he took the part of 'Tory chief' when the generation of which Gladstone and Sidney Herbert were the leading lights had exchanged that mimic Parliament for the House of Commons. Early in the morning he would be seen gathering up a whole sheaf of newspapers under his arm, always including the Record, the organ of the Evangelical party, and, retiring to his chair, while seated on the remainder of the bundle of papers, would bury himself in the columns of the journal he was reading till roused by the arrival of some one he knew, when an animated conversation would arise on some topic of the day. This monopoly of what was held to be more than a fair share of the newspapers caused some irritation, which was brought before the committee by one of the members, who proposed that a rule should be enacted limiting the readers to one newspaper; but the proposal was wisely rejected by the majority of the committee, who held that it would be personally offensive to a most unselfish man, who, carried away by his eagerness to know all that was going on, had recourse to an expedient which might occasion inconvenience to others. Some good friend probably told him of the point that had been raised in the committee, for he soon afterwards discontinued the practice, and like the rest of the readers contented himself with one journal. Mr. Ward's bulky figure was, as might be expected, a source of mirth to the youthful wits of the University; a fragment from one of the innumerable squibs then flying about comes back to my memory, in which a gathering of the Newmanites, as the party was always called at Oxford, was described as coming up in crowds from ponderous Ward to fidgety Dungannon'-the late Lord Dungannon, who was remarkable for his restless movements. Mr. Wilfrid Ward is so good-humoured in the characteristic anecdotes which he gives of his distinguished father that he will forgive me for furnishing him with what I venture to think is an improved version of his own story (see page 28) of Mr. Ward being a candidate for a fellowship at All Souls, and which, if my memory does not betray me, was told me in the All Souls common room long after the occurrence. It was, and may be still, the custom of that famous house to invite the candidates for vacant fellowships to dinner either before or during the examination. Their demeanour at the dinner table was an admirable test of their manners and breeding, besides giving some indication as to whether they were what good old Dr. Johnson called 'clubbable.' When Mr. Ward had to pass this ordeal nothing could be more brilliant and charming than his conversation, and feeling himself at his ease in what is assuredly the most agreeable of all Oxford common rooms he released his feet from the encumbrance of shoes, as was his wont in his earlier days. One of the younger fellows of All Souls noting this stealthily kicked the shoes into a corner. When the company rose from table to go and take their coffee Mr. Ward was discovered seeking in vain after his missing shoes. It was this disregard of the proprieties of social intercourse, and not, as reported in his Life, the fact that he had not even taken the trouble to change his boots,' which weighed upon the mind of the dignified Warden of All Souls, Mr. Sneyd. Too high praise cannot be awarded to Mr. Wilfrid Ward for the thoroughness, fairness, and impartiality with which he has discharged what is a task of love and affection. The book is most fascinating, and has won the highest commendation from the very competent critics of the Spectator, Saturday Review, and Athenæum. If any fault is to be found with the workmanship of this book, it is a certain exuberance of materials, which may induce some readers to skip various passages in a work which deserves the most careful attention and study. The recollections of Professor Jowett, Master of Balliol, are found both in the volume and also in the appendix, a repetition which could hardly be looked for in so practised a writer as Mr. Wilfrid Ward. The centre of interest in this present volume of the Life, which is to be continued, is the publication of the Ideal of a Christian Church, and the consequences which followed that step. After taking my degree I was absent from Oxford for a short interval, studying German at Weimar, but I can add my testimony to the truth of what Mr. Ward's biographer has stated respecting the great consternation which that now wellnigh forgotten book raised both in and out of Oxford. Mr. Wilfrid Ward speaks of the interest taken in it by intellectual men of such different schools as John Stuart Mill, Comte, Dollinger, Sir W. Hamilton, and others. This I can confirm from my own experience. I was a visitor at Albyns in Essex, at that time the country seat of the late Mr. Raikes Currie, M.P. for Northampton, who belonged to the party which went by the name of 'Philosophical Radicals,' consisting of the historian Mr. Grote, Sir William Molesworth, and others. One of the guests had brought with him Ward's Ideal, and Mr. Currie took it upstairs with him to his room. The next morning at the breakfast table he told us that he had sat up till very late at night looking at its pages. An animated discussion followed as to its merits and demerits, and the general result was, that while no one doubted the writer's good faith and sincerity, nearly all who were present were of opinion that the book itself ought not to have been written by a clergyman of the Church of England. This was the verdict of the practical and common-sense English public interested in such questions. Mr. Gladstone, in an article which appeared in the Quarterly Review for October, 1844, gave form and expression to the popular feeling. The article contained a stringent criticism on the method and conclusions of the Ideal and on Mr. Ward himself on the ground that it ill became a clergyman of the Church of England to speak of her, even if he thought so of her, in terms so wanting in respect. So strong was the feeling against the obnoxious book that the Hebdomadal Board, consisting of the heads of houses, at that time the ruling authority in Oxford, considered it necessary to take steps against the author. In addition to the censure on Mr. Ward, the heads of colleges were ill-advised enough to attempt by a strict definition of the subscription to the thirty-nine Articles to abridge the liberties of the English Church. The excitement caused by this latter proposal was tremendous, for it became a matter no longer personal to Mr. Ward, but vital to the constitution of the Church. Protests came out against the new test, not |