Oxford reform and Oxford professors : a reply to certain objections urged against the report of the Queen's Commissioners / by Henry Halford Vaughan.

  • Halford, Henry, 1766-1844.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Oxford reform and Oxford professors : a reply to certain objections urged against the report of the Queen's Commissioners / by Henry Halford Vaughan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    overlook their moral condition. These institutions, for a short season, and with a circumscrihed operation, answered their purpose. They were, however, very commonly corrupted by the Heads and Tutors within a few years from then' first institution. Those who were appointed Tutors and Teachers purchased their posts, and received no salaries, but drew their profits out of the ])i’operty of the Colleges and the slender means of students. Trades were set up and practised, within college walls, and by the Tutors themselves. The Heads of Houses conspired with each other against the student, by meeting together and fixing extravagant prices for the food, and lodging, and instruction which were given. Having done this, they counterplotted each other by going round through the streets, and haunting low inns and alehouses, in which they cajoled the strange, idle, and unwary students to take up tlieii’ abodes within their College walls With their cham- bers, and their tables, and their lectm'e-rooms thus filled, they feared to scare these Commoners away again by discipline of any kind. They charged enormously for foul, insufficient nourishment. The instruction was of the most perfunctory kind. It consisted merel}^ in dictation of the text of authors ; and the teachers often handed over their manuscripts to some student, who read them aloud to his fellows. The Tutors, being Masters in the University, conducted the examinations with scandalous partiality—plucking the men of other Colleges without reason, and grossly favouring their own men.* Their inmates carried arms about the town, slept out at night, and committed such atrocities.