ory of Ewelme, but only a person who was a
member of convocation of the university of Oxford. This limitation was
inserted by way of compensation to the university for the severance of the
advowson of the rectory from a certain chair of divinity. The living fell
vacant, and the prime minister offered it (June 15) to Jelf of Christ
Church, a tory and an evangelical. By Jelf it was declined. Among other
names on the list for preferment was that of Mr. Harvey, a learned man who
had published an edition of Irenaeus, a work on the history and theology of
the three creeds, articles on judaism, jansenism, and jesuitism, and other
productions of merit. As might perhaps have been surmised from the nature
of his favourite pursuits, he was not a liberal in politics, and he had
what was for the purposes of this preferment the further misfortune of
being a Cambridge man. To him Mr. Gladstone now offered Ewelme, having
been advised that by the process of formal incorporation in the Oxford
convocation the requirement of the statute would be satisfied. Mr. Harvey
accepted. He was told that it was necessary that he should become a member
of convocation before he could be appointed. A little later (Aug. 1) he
confessed to the prime minister his misgivings lest he should be
considered as an "interloper in succeeding to the piece of preferment that
parliament had appropriated to bona-fide members of the university of
Oxford." These scruples were set aside, he was incorporated as a member of
Oriel in due form, and after forty-two days of residence was admitted to
membership of convocation, but whether to such plenary membership as the
Ewelme statute was taken to require, became matter of dispute. All went
forward, and the excellent man was presented and instituted to his rectory
in regular course. There was no secret about operations at Oxford; the
Oriel men were aware of his motive in seeking incorporation, and the
vice-chancellor and everybody else concerned knew all about it. Mr.
Gladstone, when squalls began to blow, wrote to Mr. Harvey (Feb. 26, '72)
that he was advised that the presentation was perfectly valid.

The attack in parliament was, as such attacks almost always are, much
overdone. Mr. Gladstone, it appeared, was far worse than Oliver Cromwell
and the parliament of the great rebellion; for though those bad men forced
three professors upon Oxford between 1648 and 1660, still they took care
that the intruders should all be men tr