The life and letters of Benjamin Jowett, M. A., master of Balliol college, Oxford.

376

Life of Benjamin Jowett

[CHAP. XII

It was now that he began those liberal gifts to younger
men, which were so often repeated in later years. His
manner in doing such things was always felt to enhance
the benefit1, and it should be added that while his
generosity had no limit, the claims of kindred obtained
the foremost place.
In November, 1865, Mr. Ilbert 2, who had been elected
to a Fellowship in I864, completed his year of probation,
and his vote turned the scale in favour of the promotion
of liberal measures in College meetings. This put an
end to what had sometimes troubled Jowett more than
the 'persecution'-the weary striving against the dead
weight of a majority in his efforts to make Balliol
what he saw that it ought to be. Some plans which
he had long meditated now took practical shape. The
ground was laid for a revision of the College Statutes;
Balliol Hall was established; College lectures, instead of
being imposed compulsorily, were left open to the free
choice of the undergraduates, if only they attended
a certain number; the Divinity teaching was remodelled,
Jowett himself undertaking part of it; and the first
step was made towards an inter-collegiate system, by
having one Lecture-list for Balliol and New College
combined. All this was effected in the years between
I865 and I868. In January, I869, Jowett was appointed

preacher for the College3.
1 The following paragraph,
signed W. Y. A., appeared in the
New York Nation, in I893, after
the Master's death:'Meeting a young graduate
who was making a living by private tuition, he asked him how
he was getting on; the Tutor
replied that he had few pupils
that Term, and had been obliged

By the summer of i868
to give up his hope of going
to Germany in the vacation. A
few days later the Tutor was sent
for, and received an envelope
with the words, "I hope you will
go to Germany: good-bye! "'
2 SirCourtenayPeregrineIlbert,
K.C.S.I., C.I.E.
3 Resolutions of the majority
(I) for abolishing Catechetics,