sted interests, that doctrine so dear to the British mind, would of
course secure every elector in the possession of his vote as long as he
lives and keeps his name on the books. But the ranks of the unqualified
would no longer be yearly reinforced. In course of time we should have
a competent body. And the great advantage of this kind of remedy is that
it is so distinctly an academical remedy. It would not come as a mere
clause in a parliamentary reform bill. It would affect the parliamentary
constituency; but it would affect it only as one thing among others. It
would be a general improvement in the character of the Great Council of
the University, which would make it better qualified to discharge all
its duties, that of choosing members of Parliament among them. In the
purely political look-out, we may believe that one result of the change
would be to make the election of Liberal members for the Universities
much more likely. But neither this nor any other purely political result
would be the sole and direct object of the change. Even if it did not
accomplish this object, it would do good in other ways. If the
Universities, under such a system, still chose Conservative members, we
should have no right to complain. We should feel that we had been fairly
and honourably beaten by adversaries who had a right to speak. It would
be an unpleasant result if the real Universities should be proved to be
inveterately Tory. But it would be a result less provoking than the
present state of things, in which Tory members are chosen for the
Universities by men who have no call to speak in the name of the
Universities at all.

EDWARD A. FREEMAN.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] That is, to all members of Convocation who are either resident or
hold University office. This, besides the Chancellor and a few other
great personages, lets in a few professors and examiners who are
non-resident.

[2] I use Oxford language, as that which I myself best understand; but I
believe that, all that I say applies equally to Cambridge also. For
"Convocation" one must of course, in Cambridge language, read "Senate."

HAMLET: A NEW READING.

There is a sense in which the stage alone can give the full significance
to a dramatic poem, just as a lyric finds its full interpretation in
music; but we prefer that a song of Goethe or Shelley should wait for
its music, and in the meantime suggest its own aerial accompaniment,
rather than be vulgarized in the s