45. Comparison of the two modern political parties with the two Nations of the Universities.

The distinction of races has vanished in the nation at large, and political parties have taken their place. We may however remark that Whiggery* is of Scotch (or Germanic) origin; while Toryism had its strength in the South. The Southern element still prevails in the Aristocratic and High-Church spirit, and in the old-fashioned classical studies of the College system; and that this system is truly Romanic, may easily be proved by comparing it with the Universities of Spain, which have suffered least disturbance in recent centuries. The Northern system, driven out of Oxford, took refuge in Edinburgh, the Athens of the North, where every thing reminds us of the German Universities and of the German developement of the Reformation. The main strength of the Liberal intellectual developement in the last half century has come from Scotland and the North. That is ever the seat of the animating spirit, though the material power which ultimately works out the results will be found in the populous and wealthy South; whether in the seventeenth or in the nineteenth century.

* The name is derived from Whig, the Scotch name for sour whey. Tory is well known to be a word of Irish origin, originally applied to Irish Catholic outlaws.

It is a confirmation of the above to hear, that the modern intellectual Reform party itself, as well as its opponents, look on Germany as the fountainhead of its movements; and it seems that they cannot be altogether wrong in bestowing on us the honor or the shame. Each English University has still its Minority, representing the Northern interests, and, in no small measure, of real Northern extraction: and at every shaft which strikes the University, men's eyes instinctively turn northward for the bowman who shot it.

§ 46. Outbreak and Secession, in 1209.

Having endeavoured to exhibit the general meaning of the contrast between the two nations, as ever existing both in England and in the microcosm of the Universities; I must endeavour to collect such details as deserve notice, in the remote period when the two academic nations were in their zenith.

In the year 1209 a scholar practising archery accidentally killed a woman, and immediately made his escape. The townspeople seized some of his companions and hanged them, with the permission of King John, who was then residing at Woodstock. Such an outbreak on the part of the town is intelligible enough; but why the King should have countenanced them, needs some

explanation. The nobility were at this time struggling against the royal power, while the Pope too was aiming to gather-in the crop which had been fertilized with the blood of Thomas a Becket; by connecting the English Church more closely with Rome, and defending it against the encroachments of the Crown. The King would fain have played off the Pope and Barons against one another: the Pope, finding no sure aid in the Barons, had sought help from France; and in 1208 had issued his famous interdict. Hereupon, the mean, passionate and cowardly King, in universal spite against the Church, rejoiced to trample on ecclesiastical jurisdiction by the murder of a few poor Oxford scholars.

It is possible that the University had not wholly stood aloof from the contest between the Pope and King; and that this stirred up the wrath of the latter. However, they now determined on a suspension of all scholastic exercises, with the sanction of the Pope's Legate, Nicholas of Tusculum; who laid an interdict, not only on the Town, but on all Masters and Scholars who should continue in residence. The town immediately suffered by the departure of so large a body as three thousand Masters and Scholars, and in 1213, after the King had been humbled to accept his crown from the Pope in fee, the Oxford citizens had to submit absolutely to the mercy of the Legate. The Town-Warden gave security, by oath, in the name

of the Corporation, not to encroach in future on the episcopal authority: to offer masses for the departed souls; beside paying fines and remitting house rents to the living. The University also received privileges from the King on this occasion, to which it afterwards appealed: but of their nature we have no distinct account.

Yet it is a curious fact, that a considerable part of the University refused to abide by the decision of the Majority; continued their studies at Oxford; braved the Papal Interdict, and incurred the punishment of three years' suspension. Although no positive proof is attainable that this refractory body consisted of the Northernmen, I feel persuaded that this was the case. One may see in the proverb of the South Countrymen,* All evil comes from the North, how intense was the opposition at that very time.

§ 47. Riot of 1238.

The University after this began to feel its own strength; as is manifest from an occurrence which deserves to be told somewhat more at length. We take onr account from Matthew of Paris and Thomas de Wyke (in Gale, p. 43)

"About this time (1238) the Lord Legate Otho (who had been sent to England to remedy multifarious abuses in the Church) came to Oxford also;

* Applied to Bishop Gilbert the Northumbrian by a South English Monk, A. D. 1214-(Wharton Anglia Sacra, p. 146.

where he was received with all becoming honors. He took up his abode in the Abbey of Osney. The Clerks of the University, however, sent him a goodly present of welcome, of meats and various drinks for his dinner, and after the hour of the meal repaired to his abode, to greet him and do him honor. Then so it was that a certain Italian, a doorkeeper of the Legate, with less perchance of courtesy towards visitors than was becoming, called out to them with loud voice, after Romish fashion, and keeping the door ajar,-'What seek ye?' Whereupon they answered: 'The Lord Legate, that we may greet him.' And they thought within themselves assuredly, that honor would be requited by honor. But when the door-keeper with violent and unseemly words refused them entrance, they pressed with force into the house; regardless of the clubs and fists of the Romans, who sought to keep them back. Now it came to pass also, that during this tumult a certain poor Irish clerk went to the door of the kitchen, and begged earnestly for God's sake, as a hungry and needy man, that they would give him a portion of the good things. The Master-cook however, (the Legate's own brother it is said, who filled this office for the fear of poison,) drove him back with hard words, and at last in great wrath flung hot broth from out of a pot into his face.' Fie, for shame!' cries a scholar from Welshland, who witnessed the affront, 'shall we bear this?' And then bending a bow, which he

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