then, it may be, should England herself weather the storm which is approaching, that Ireland may become something more than the half-sister of bondage and starved and ragged hatred which she is at present to the haughty and cruel yoke-fellow by whom her staggering steps of weakness have so long been urged towards the abyss of chaotic suffering and infernal ruin.

A WORD ON THE UNIVERSITIES.

Ir is a great subject of congratulation to the parents of the coming age, that the Universities are about to undergo a certain investigation, in whatever way it may be conducted. They are beyond doubt the property of the nation, and the nation is discontented with them. Had the visitorial powers been properly applied and kept up since each individual college was founded, there would not now be presented that Augean stable of abuse, defended by a Gordian knot of law, which opposes itself to the slowly but surely advancing reform, threatening these time-hallowed, but somewhat doting institutions.

With regard to the present Royal Commission of Inquiry, which so modestly repudiates the right of search, but intrudes itself as a polite but most unwelcome guest at the hall-tables and common-rooms of the grim old pensioners, whose ancestors, and not they themselves, fought the battles of education and learning, we will only remark, that we trust it will fulfil its design and intention to the letter, and make the whole English public aware of the manner in which the chosen youth of England are educated. If there be something undignified and ludicrous-something, indeed, of the

Paul Pry begging the question of his own intrusion-in the manner adopted to procure the needed information, still a farce may, perhaps, answer the purpose quite as well as a more solemn and weighty inquisition. For there is something farcical in the notion of this Commission with the white flag of truce entering the enemy's camp at noonday, to be deceived and blinded as much as possible, amid the conflicting murmurs around, and only to derive a certain style of evidence from the whisperings of naughty traitors and voluntary spies. Nevertheless, there is no doubt but that much will be ascertained in spite of opposition and deception, whilst the fact of public attention being directed in such a manner at all to the Universities will do much to check and remodel them.

We trust, amid other things, that such a report will be made from the evidence of tradesmen and undergraduates as may put a stop to the whole system of DEBT and expense which is the curse of Oxford and Cambridge. We do not mean that this should be merely modified, so that the peer and gentleman-commoner may still spend thousands, or run in debt for more, whilst the curate's son is prevented from ruining an affectionate father, upon whose savings he is sent to receive the advantages of an University education. The habit of debt will be found as fatal to great fortunes as to small, and expense even in a nobleman does not contribute to that information of the mind necessary to form legislator, or to give tone to the surrounding inhabitants of twenty square miles. Let the same discipline be observed that the sons of Louis Philippe underwent at such a college as that of Henri IV. A rich and noble youth will have then the advantage of being blasé a little later in life, and the blessing which Tacitus ascribes to the ancient Germans, "eoque in

exhausta pubertas," a fresh and unvitiated youth, will be thus in some degree secured to our country.

It is nonsense for the University authorities to affirm, that they have not the power to put an end to these abuses. We assert that they are fostered by them. They can send any tradesmen giving credit at Oxford out of the city in twenty-four hours, or expel any young man receiving it; and there is no reason why they should not do so, due notice being given.

With regard to the system of education, we can only say, that a separate College for the education of clergymen would be an excellent institution, if it only required a little decent apparent morality as the essence of its being. Those intended for the Church are too apt to drain pleasure to the dregs in their noviciate, knowing that they must rein in and pull up on the brink of going into orders. But we are not quite sure that these deliberate leopards possess the power of changing their spots, or that the Ethiop becomes white at will under the reversed process of what is technically called "japanning."

A great deal has been said in the House of Commons about the value of College Tutors and Fellows, whilst the fact that a late lamented Statesman was educated there is made a subject of boast amid the opposers of reform. Had Sir ROBERT PEEL lived a little longer, we believe fully that he would have advocated the necessity of a Commission, and proved the most unanswerable opponent of the disturbed Epicureans and retrograde Cynics of our universities. As to his being educated at Oxford, we can only say that he was not spoilt there. Whatever may be our opinion of him as a legislator, his character was early formed in prudence, selfcontrol, and propriety.

As to the Tutors, let us relate one fact, which speaks volumes as to Oxford, her education, her teachers, and her morality. In our own time, there was an individual of great talents and corresponding profligacy, who, we were given to understand, had been expelled during his own youthful career from the bosom of Alma Mater. He still, however, clung to her precincts with an irreligious irreverence, and revenged himself, as well as earned a handsome living, by assisting the duller of her children to pass her most unmeaning examinations. At last he got the reputation of being "so safe a coach," that the most Boeotian, and-to use an expression of our own scout-the most beer-drinkingest youth who employed his services was certain to succeed in passing "little-go," or achieving his degree. How, then, was so successful a plan of education pursued? Why, by an artificial system of memory, founded on the peculiar and favourite weakness of the individual. To a jockey, he identified somehow the Bible with Bell's Life. An aquatic hero received his instruction in a phraseology corresponding to his taste. We have ourselves seen the marker of a billiard-room with the Holy Scriptures in his hand as referee, whilst two youthful cigar-smokers, with the surrounding circumstances of pots of porter and lookerson, were being crammed with the New Testament! We may add that this enlightened individual, viz., the tutor, not the marker, who knew every stale subject that would be asked, and who had common-place books filled with question and answer, whilst, to use his own language, "he was down upon every dodge of the Schools," was paid by the job. Fifty guineas or nothing! the amount rising according to the importance and ignorance of his pupil, and a "pluck" being a forfeit of all claim to remuneration.

AUGUST, 1850.

THE WAR OF ITALIAN INDEPENDENCE.*

THE history of the late war of independence in Italy is a painful record of the past, from which the mind shrinks in the contemplation of the sad imbecility, the useless heroism, the splendid desperation, and the abominable cruelty, which by turns elevated and debased it. The perusal of these volumes has filled us with melancholy. Yet we recommend their study to all interested in the development of liberty and civilisation in the nineteenth century. The story of brave men is told therein, and those who have derived their notion of Italian rights, Italian wrongs, and Italian bravery and cowardice from the hireling journals of absolutists, will discover how different an estimation Truth and Heaven have already made in regarding the convulsions and throes of bleeding Italy under the yoke of the oppressors, traitors, and, worse than all, the miserable interpreters of inconsistency, who have wrought her ruin. Let it not be imagined for an instant that we are Red Republicans, or indeed Republicans, here, at all. We enjoy the blessings of freedom under an enlightened monarchy. A gradual reform, if it do not herald, at least follows, with equal step, the march of Time. General Pepe himself remarks to this effect:

"Do you wonder at my sympathy with Carlo Alberto-the sympathy of a king-hater and a republican? Do you wonder that, when I could have proclaimed a republic to the trembling despot at Naples, I preferred a constitution? Well, then, in the cause of liberty I acted thus. I wished for moderation. I saw Carlo Alberto fighting for freedom and a constitution-I saw in him a liberal monarch. I saw at Naples the necessity of a gradual change. I feared there what has since happened in France."

*Narrative of Scenes and Events in Italy, from 1847 to 1849, including the Siege of Venice. By Lieutenant-General Pepe. In two volumes. London: Henry Colburn.