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

1854-I860]

The Mastership missed

229

to awaken his own hopes. Nearly half of the Balliol
Fellows, by this time, had been his pupils, and the
self-devoted labour of twelve years and more had had its
effect. It was largely recognized that no College Tutor
had worked so well. And it became apparent that, of the
residents, he had the strongest chance. This is proved
by the fact that his opponents adopted the expedient
of bringing up a candidate from the country. Robert
Scott had taken a College living, Duloe near Liskeard,
in Cornwall, in I840, before Jowett's work as a Tutor
had begun, and in I850 had exchanged this for Luffenham, in Rutlandshire. He was an accomplished scholar,
and his lectures had been valuable (this Jowett himself
had found), but he could not be described as a 'great
Tutor,' and his one distinguished service, namely, his
share in the production of Liddell and Scott's Lexicon,
did not clearly mark him out as fitted for the control and
guidance of younger men. But he was orthodox; and
the opposition to Jowett, of which the strength was
proved by the event, found in him the most likely card
to play. Not that the objections taken to Jowett were
wholly theological. There were those who resented
the firmness of his attitude in College controversies,
and did not choose to place him in authority. The
parties were nearly balanced, and all depended on one
or two waverers, who on general grounds were thought
likely to be on Jowett's side. It is not necessary to
mention names; but two votes, on which Jowett had
counted, went the other way. One of these may have
been influenced by family associations. The other, who
really turned the scale, was said to have been talked over,
at the last moment, on theological grounds, by a disciple
and friend of Dr. Pusey.
The bitterness of the repulse was aggravated by the