OPENING OF THE THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE, CUDDESDEN, DIOCESE OF OXFORD.

THIS college, erected under the auspices of the Bishop of the diocese, and the able superintendence of G. E. Street, Esq., diocesan architect, was solemnly opened on the 15th of June. The Rev. J. L. Fish, M.A., who is to direct the musical arrangements of the college, exerted himself in collecting and training a choir, so as to give due effect to the ceremonies appointed by the Bishop for the occasion. The morning

seemed threatening, but by noon the slight shower which began to fall in the earlier part of the day had entirely ceased. At one o'clock a large choir, numbering about one hundred, consisting of boys and men from the parochial choirs of S. Thomas, S. John's, and S. Cross (Holywell), and S. Mary's (Littlemore), with several lay members of the University, and a number of clergy, among whom we observed the Rev. T. Helmore, assembled at the school-room; and, after partaking of a luncheon which their hospitable Bishop had kindly provided, vested in their surplices, the clergy also wearing hoods, stoles, and caps, moved in procession to the parish church. There they occupied the transept. Nearly one-third of the nave was filled with clergy in surplices (two only exhibiting the black gown), and the rest of it with laity, while an immense number of persons congregated about the door, desirous, but unable, to obtain admittance.

The Archdeacons and Rural Deans then entered the church, followed by the Bishop of the diocese, and the Bishops of London, Bangor, Chichester, Worcester, S. David's, New Zealand, and Natal. After they had taken their places in the chancel, the Litany was sung by the Rev. G. W. Huntingford, Vicar of Littlemore, and the Rev. C. J. Le Geyt, Chaplain of Magdalen College. It is impossible to describe the effect produced by the response of the immense choir. They sang in excellent tune and time, and the church seemed filled with a body of sacred harmony. The Litany ended, the Bishop of New Zealand preached a most eloquent and striking sermon, from Isa. lx. 22: "A little one shall become a thousand." The Right Reverend Prelate pointed out that two classes of men were engaged in doing God's work on earth, men of memory, and men of hope. The men of hope were of course the originators of great schemes, such as the founders of our universities and colleges: the men of memory, those who, succeeding to the administration of such institutions, maintained them according to the original intention. The work, for the inauguration of which the day's assembly took place, combined these two classes, as it was a new institution, but intended for the perpetuation in a slightly altered locality of the principles of the ancient colleges. The day's work was one of hope, and no doubt the "little one" would, under the Divine blessing, become a thousand, and have the privilege of training many a holy man for the ministry of the Church. The Bishop, in conclusion, touched delicately on the divorce which circumstances had created between Bishops and their Cathedrals and Chapters, implying that the erection of Cuddesden into the virtual Cathedral and Chapter of the Bishop of Oxford, was an exemplification of that law of compensation of which the history of the Church affords so many instances. The sermon ended, Psalms cxlix. and cl., were chanted from the "Psalter Noted," while a collection was made, amounting to £400.

The choir, clergy, and Bishops then left the church in procession, and proceeded past the palace to the college, the choir chanting Psalm lxxxiv. It was a beautiful sight to behold the long train of white surplices winding slowly along, while the deeper chanting of the clergy was responded to by the mixed voices of boys and men. Arrived at the

college, the choir and clergy filed off right and left to places appointed for them, while the Bishops and dignitaries took up their station in the midst, fronting the principal door of the building. The Bishop said some appropriate prayers, and then entered the chapel of the college, with the other Bishops and Rural Deans, to dedicate it, and through it the building. Its dimensions permitted of no larger congregation. Meanwhile the choir in the open air beneath sang "Veni Creator" from the Hymnal Noted, and the eighty-seventh and twenty-fourth Psalms from the Psalter.

By this time the Bishops had returned; and the Bishop of Oxford having ascended a platform prepared for the purpose, proceeded to address the people in a speech characterised by his Lordship's well known eloquence; pointing out the propriety of some place of retirement for the candidate for the ministry after the termination of his university course; and showing the absurdity of supposing such a place would interfere with the academical studies at Oxford. The other Bishops also spoke to the same purpose, the touching address of the venerable Bishop of Bangor in particular bringing tears into many eyes. The Bishop of Oxford then rose again and tendered his thanks, and those of all present, to the choir, who had gratuitously given their services, coming together for the love of praising GOD. In conclusion, he called on all present to join in singing Te Deum. Never perhaps was this sublime hymn more effectively chanted. The noble sound of so many voices joining in the open air in one of the church's ancient melodies struck every one present; and even the enemies of Plain Song were forced to acknowledge its grandeur. There could hardly be a more convincing proof of the superiority of the Church's music for such purposes; to have gone through the day's ceremonies with modern English chants would have been simply impracticable.

Te Deum ended, the Bishop dismissed the assemblage with his benediction, all the choir, and many others, kneeling on the ground to receive it; and thus terminated one of the most striking and impressive solemnities which has for a long time been witnessed. The remembrance of it will dwell long in the hearts of those who had the happiness of being present; and all, we are sure, must join in wishing the good Bishop GoD speed in his earnest and truly real labours for the Catholic Church of CHRIST, in which he holds so dignified a position.

We have already described the exterior of the building cursorily. It is one of the most picturesque piles of ecclesiastical architecture which our age has produced, and the colour which its tile-roof gives, is no little addition to the general effect. It may be rather too prononcé at present, but time and lichens will soon tone it down. Inside it seems to us rather crowded, the passages too are far from wide enough, and the very picturesqueness of the external outline has resulted in more ups and downs than convenience, we believe, would have dictated. If (absit omen !) a deceaɛe were to occur, we are puzzled to trace the course of the coffin. Nothing, we need hardly say, is so painful as the shifts which have to be resorted to in modern houses on such melancholy occasions. The chapel is a gem, and with very great reality Mr. Street has dispensed with an antechapel, returning the stalls round the

west end, the Bishop's seat being centrical, and the entrance on the south side. The reredos is an illuminated quasi-triptych, with a gilt cross in the centre. That which we least like in this chapel is the perpendicularizing tracery, which Mr. Street has placed in the eastern rose: the effect is far from felicitous. The other public rooms are the hall beneath the chapel, which is on the uppermost floor, and the common room (also library) which gives access to the hall itself.

THE ARCHEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE AT CAMBRIDGE. (From a Correspondent.)

In conformity with the wish you have expressed, that I should supply the Ecclesiologist with a record of the doings of the Institute at Cambridge this year, to match that which I supplied last year of its visit to Chichester, I hasten to give some account, while it is still fresh in my memory, of what was certainly a very agreeable and profitable week. The Cambridge Meeting, though not without some drawbacks, has been, on the whole, one of the most successful that the Institute has ever held, and has been a decided improvement upon that at Chichester in every respect but one. This is indeed only what we might expect from the difference between a small provincial city and a great university, where also some of the most eminent members of the Institute were on their own ground. The attendance was more numerous, and included a greater number of distinguished persons, and the average character of the papers was decidedly higher. There were many more of marked excellence, and none, that I heard at least, of the marked badness which distinguished some of the effusions of local oracles at Chichester.

In one point, however, the authorities of the Institute seem destined never to hearken to the voice of experience. The town in which we met was, of course, utterly neglected. Professor Willis, indeed, illustrated Jesus College Chapel in his happiest style; and Mr. Venables gave us an excellent historical paper on Great S. Mary's; Mr. Babington too put forth an admirable itinerary of the town and neighbourhood, but not a moment was allowed for any of us to put ourselves under his more immediate guidance. No opportunity was given for anything like an inspection of the colleges and churches of Cambridge, except that S. Sepulchre's and S. Benet's were left open for a few hours on two particular days. The whole time was devoted to four excursions, which occupied all the available days. Three of these certainly came within the legitimate scope of a Cambridge Meeting, and one of them, namely that to Ely, was an essential portion of the proceedings; but the day which ought to have been devoted to Cambridge was most absurdly given up to an excursion to Bury S. Edmund's. For this Cambridge was neglected, while of course Bury was very imperfectly seen.

We were told that this piece of folly was owing to an invitation from a local society in that town. But what then? The real object of the meeting ought never to have been sacrificed merely in order not to refuse an inconsiderate, however kindly meant, invitation. And surely it would have been a far higher compliment to Bury and the Bury Society to have reserved their town, as it deserved, for the scene of a distinct meeting some other year. Individually I suffered little. Knowing Cambridge pretty well, and not knowing most of the other places, I this year went the excursions, and enjoyed and profited by them. But had Cambridge been new to me, I should have had to choose between it and Bury. I know that some persons found no opportunity for seeing the inside of King's College Chapel till they went there to prayers on Sunday afternoon. I know that others were hoping that some year there would be a Bury Meeting, to give them the advantage of an excursion to Cambridge.

I will leave off finding fault as soon as I can; but I cannot help mentioning one thing more. The magnificent reception which the Institute has met with in other places, has perhaps led us into the delusion that we have a right to expect to have meat and drink set before us wherever we go. This error was fostered not a little by the hospitable greeting given us by the Mayor and Corporation of Oxford, and by the almost oriental splendour with which we were received by an individual Fellow of Exeter College; it was kept up last year by the Bishop and the Mayor of Chichester; nor were Ely and Saffron Walden and Anglesey at all behindhand on the present occasion; but to Cambridge itself we went to be undcceived as to this matter. No Sadler or Mc Carogher threw open the halls of civic magnificence; no Sewell or Gilbert converted a cloister into the semblance of a fairy palace. I heard much of feasting privately, and I did a little in that way myself, though having but few Cambridge acquaintance, much less than many others. But there was no public hospitality. The fact is that on these occasions private dinner-parties are simply an evil, as withdrawing persons from the evening meetings, and drawing an invidious line between those who have and those who have not the run of aristocratic or hebdomadal society. On the other hand a public conversazione, where a cup of tea and a biscuit is all that need be provided, is always one of the most delightful features of these meetings. You wander about, meet one friend here, another there; find an old acquaintance one moment, make a new one the next; discussing and speculating upon all points in the most easy and agreeable manner possible. For such a purpose the Hall of Trinity College, Cambridge, seems at least as well designed as that of Exeter College, Oxford; but no carpeted quadrangles, no illuminated gardens, no Distin family, had been provided for us in that or any other quarter. It was not very agreeable for the whole body to be hurried by interesting objects on an excursion, because there were "many dinner-parties," to which only a select few were invited. My individual thoughts wandered to the perfection of all archæological gatherings, the Cambrian at Tenby in 1851, the morning excursion, the evening meeting, the interval filled up by the general meal, with the Lords Spiritual and