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

1846-1854] University Reform 179
Those who in Oxford bore the name of reformers had
not all precisely the same ends in view. They were
agreed that the constitution of the University must
be altered, that its benefits must be extended, restrictions abolished, and the Professoriate strengthened. But
Oxford would not have been Oxford, if individuals had
not widely differed as to the particular changes required.
As usual, there were many who thought more of their own
rights than of educational needs. Resident members of
the University were naturally jealous of the non-resident
vote, and sought to revive Congregation, i. e. the House
of Residents, for legislative purposes, in place of Convocation, i.e. the body of M.A.'s at large. They would
have transferred the initiative from the Heads of Houses
(whose action in the Tractarian controversy had prejudiced their cause not only with Liberal reformers,
but with High Churchmen of the newer school) to the
whole body of residents. College Tutors were made
uneasy by the increasing importance of private tuition;
and opinions differed greatly as to the best way of
making the University a national institution.
Jowett's evidence before the Commission sets forth the
points which at this time he considered at once desirable
and practicable. His views as there expressed are anything but revolutionary: far less so, for example, than
those of Mr. Robert Lowe, who had recently returned
from Australia.
Jowett sought to strengthen what he found existingl.
For example, while proposing to enlarge the Professoriate,
he emphatically approved of the Tutorial system.
'What I want to see is the Church and State, instead of
Universities made somewhat more representing the worst half of
dependent on the State, so as to the clergy.'-Letter to A. P. S.,
become a real link between i85o.
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