please when pleasure is required, but it is her peculiar power to astonish." "Nature has bestowed upon her more bountifully than upon others the power of displaying the vast, illuminating the splendid, enforcing the awful, darkening the gloomy, and aggravating the dreadful."

That which perhaps may be first noticed as the quality which places Mrs Siddons above all living rivalry, is the strong and sustained preservation of individual character; a power not confined to the classical propriety of a speech, nor the isolated beauty of a particular scene, but exhibited in the steady preservation and individualizing of each character from all others similar or approaching to similitude. She enters upon any part which she assumes with such extraordinary identification, as if from her birth she had been the individual whom she represents, and had never thought but with her thoughts, nor felt but with her feelings. With the most commanding beauty of form and varied grace of action; with the most noble combination of features and extensive capability of expression in each of them; with an unequalled genius for the art, the utmost patience as well as activity of mind, and the strongest ardour of feeling, there is not a passion which she cannot delineate, not a shade or modification of passion which she does not exhibit with philosophical accuracy; not a height of grandeur to which she does not soar, nor a darkness of misery to which she cannot descend. In what may be termed the eloquence of the art, the most critical sagacity could not suggest a delicacy of emphasis by which the meaning of the author might be more distinctly conveyed, or a shade of intonation by which the sentiment might be more fully or

of

faithfully inspired; and this is done without the slightest appearance laboured and studious research, but comes to the ear with the ease of immediate and natural suggestion. By the force of her talent, every description becomes impregnated with life, and starts before the mind with all the vividness of reality; by the touch of her genius, speeches, which in ordinary hands would be tame and languid, are warmed into emotion or exalted into energy; for it is one of the truest characteristics which distin guish genius in acting from inferior talent, that, while the latter condenses the warmest glow of passion into frigid declamation, the former raises declamation into passion, and animates it with all the variety of genuine feel ing. While other performers, of the present or of former days, have made nearer or more distant approaches to excellence, Mrs Siddons has reached it; and in her splendid and solitary example, our age has witnessed that wonderful combination of mental powers, and personal gifts, which, in the tragic department of her art, ha realized the idea of perfection.

After Mrs Siddons, the next auxi liary was Mr John Johnstone, who' for the first time made his appearance before an Edinburgh audience; and perhaps no performer ever made a stronger and more immediate impres sion upon us than this gentleman. The high finish of his acting, the quietude but unparallelled richness and poig nancy of his humour, the polish of his manners, the handsome gay good nature of his countenance, and marli ness of his figure and deportment, gave to his Major O'Flaherty sistible charms; and cautious and se vere as our audience is generally sup posed to be, they at once were sur prised into rapturous delight, and

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WE E trust we shall be considered as performing no unacceptable service to our readers, and especially to the Scottish public, in laying before them the following short account of the system of education pursued in the University of Oxford during the year to which this volume relates. And, first of all, let it be observed, that if our statements shall be widely different from those of some celebrated writers, we mean not to impeach their accuracy, or place our pretensions to public notice in competition with their fame. The author of the Wealth of Nations, and the historian of the Roman Empire, were certainly not exempt from prejudice; but we believe their accounts of Oxford to have been, upon the whole, just and accurate, and, if not altogether free from bias, guiltless, at least, of misrepresentation. We conceive it necessary, however, to explain distinctly, that we have nothing to do with the proceedings of the universi

ty in those days when the early exer tions of Adam Smith were chilled and impaired by a formal attendance on the frigid and perfunctory lectures of a Balliol Tutor, or when the monks of Maudlin, immersed in port and prejudice, left the genius of Gibbon secretly to waste its powers in the dangerous mazes of theological controversy. It may gratify private pique or national jealousy to confound the past with the present; but it is our duty to put upon record, for the information of those who shall come after us, a true and simple statement of what was done at Oxford in the year 1809. Whatever errors we may commit, our pages, we trust, shall long remain unsullied by the low buffoonery and distorted statements of facts, which the fashion of the day may tolerate, but cannot approve, in the adversaries of whatever is venerable for antiquity, or hereditary and external greatness, and uninfected with the solemn abuse which

the pride of office occasionally dictates to the more respectable advocates of established institutions. The corporation of the University of Oxford, as assembled in convocation, consists of such members of the different minor incorporations or colleges as have taken the regular degree of Doctor, or of Master of Arts. The convocation, under certain restrictions, has the power of enacting statutes for the government of the university, and of repealing them; and, as far as it contains within itself the means of its own improvement, is perhaps as well calculated for permanent utility as any institution which one age can frame, in necessary ignorance of the manners of succeeding generations. A great evil has however crept into this highly respectable institution, in consequence of the law, which prevents the introduction of any measure with out the previous sanction of an oligarchy, consisting of the heads of colleges and halls, which has been aptly compared to the lords of the articles in the ancient Parliament of Scotland. If these persons were erected into a separate house, with a veto on the proceedings of the con vocation, they might have the same power to resist rash and ill-digested innovations, in the exercise of which they have at all times shewn themselves so vigilant, without the pernicious accompaniment of preventing the discussion of useful improvements suggested by the progress of knowledge. But we confess we should be glad to see this thraldom totally abolished, which has always operated as a check to useful improvements, and injured the reputation of the university. We are indebted to a member of this meeting, the Rector of Lincola College, for a distinct explana

tion of its nature. It is statuted, as Doctor Tatham informs us, under the authority of an ordinance of King Charles the First, that the vice-chancellor, proctors, and heads of colleges and halls, shall hold a weekly meeting on Monday, at one o'clock, in which all measures shall be discussed previous to their being proposed in convocation; and farther, it is expressly provided that the statute shall not be altered, without the licence of the same royal authority by which it was originally sanctioned.-Doctor Tatham complains, that the statutable time and place for holding this meeting are not observed, and that a sort of secret junta controul the proceedings of the rest, by means of various illegal manoeuvres. The difficulty of repealing such a statute is obvious, but it is not insurmountable; and until some reformation in this radical point is made, Oxford will always be disposed to resist the improvements of a liberal age, and will continue to follow the progress of knowledge at a distance with slow and unwilling steps. We are aware of the importance of " removing the instructors of youth far above the necessity of flattering prevailing prejudice," or of courting public favour by popular arts, and are ready to admire the beneficial effects of that haughty tone of independence with which this proud corporation resists every untried system and unsound opinion. But, though this be the last place where rash experiments should be made, we deprecate the illiberal spirit which, arrogating the praise of perfection, would condemn improvements altogether, and even reject them as a subject of discussion, and of which truth forces us to confess some vestiges may still be traced in Oxford, fallen as she is

from the abominations of her ancient bigotry.

The different colleges, along with their wealth, derived from the piety of their founders and benefactors certain bodies of statutes for their internal regulation, framed in times of comparative ignorance and darkness, but which no power but that of the legislature can now alter or innovate. Many of the conditions of these intails are utterly impossible, and others are in practice explained away or neglected; but enough of them remain in full force to afford serious obstacles to the general utility of the college foundations. The choice of boys to fill up vacancies is in some instances limited to certain schools, dioceses, counties, and even parishes, frequently with a preference to the founder's kindred. Notwithstanding these limitations, it will sometimes happen that a considerable competition occurs for a vacant scholarship from some populous county, and in that case the best scholar is selected; but, in general, the admission upon a college foundation depends on very different qualifications from genius and learning. In cases where the electors are not restrained by statutes, the election is usually a matter of private favour.-It might be expected that the peaceful honours of a fellowship should be the reward of those foundation members, who have made most progress in their studies, and acquired distinction in the various exercises prescribed by the college and the university; but wherever the founder may have intended a fellowship to distinguish merit, it happens, by a singular but almost universal coincidence, that this merit is most conspicuous in him whose claim is sanctioned by seniority. In some societies the choice of a fellow is limited to those founda

tioners who have come from a particular school or county; in others, it is open to all the foundationers of the college: But, with a very few exceptions, the whole fellowships and livings in the gift of the Oxford colleges descend in regular succession to persons whose first admission on the books secured them from the fear of want, and who look forward to a certain inheritance, which their exertions can neither hasten nor improve.

Many arguments of serious importance may be advanced against the interference of the legislature with the principles of English law, which sanction these perpetuities. They must be considered, not so much in the light of national foundations as private property, and the expediency of tampering with any distribution of the latter, not positively prejudicial to the public, may be urged oathe strongest grounds; but this discussion, however interesting, we shall reserve for some future occasion.There is sufficient room, without entering upon this question, for any moderate reformer to exercise his ta lents, in provisions for enforcing the wills of founders and benefactors, where they are consistent with the ideas of a liberal age, and supplying such deficiencies as permit the boun ty intended for the advancement of piety and learning to be basely per verted to purposes of private interest.

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Even when the choice of the elec tors to vacant scholarships is limited in the manner already mentioned, the short notice that is often given of a vacancy is calculated to secure quiet admission of some one candidate, and to prevent a numerous competition. The vacancy must perhaps be filled up within a short time; but if it be certainly known several years