Generational Conflict and University Reform History of Science and Medicine Library VOLUME 31 Scientific and Learned Cultures and Their Institutions Editor M. Feingold California Institute of Technology VOLUME 8 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/hsml Generational Conflict and University Reform Oxford in the Age of Revolution By Heather Ellis LEIDEn • bOSTON 2012 Cover illustration: “Oxford Commemoration—The Theatre from the Undergraduates Gallery.” Saturday June 25, 1870, The Graphic, p. 700. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ellis, Heather. Generational conflict and university reform : Oxford in the age of revolution / by Heather Ellis. p. cm. — (History of science and medicine library ; v. 31) (Scientific and learned cultures and their institutions ; v. 8) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-22552-7 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. University of Oxford—History. 2. Education, Higher—England—Oxford—History—19th century. 3. Educational change—England—History—19th century. I. Title. LF518.E55 2012 378.425’74—dc23 2012019687 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.nl/brill-typeface. ISSN 1872-0684 ISBN 978 90 04 22552 7 (hardback) ISBN 978 90 04 23316 4 (e-book) Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. For my Mother CONTENTS Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ ix Introduction: Generational Conflict and University Reform ............ 1 1. Riot, Revolution and ‘Reform’ in the Colleges, 1714–1789 .............. 21 The ‘New Independent Student’ and Meritocratic Reform at Cambridge ..................................................................................... 23 Riots at Oxford and the Threat of a Royal Visitation, 1714–1748 ............................................................................................. 32 Reaction at Oxford and ‘Reform’ of the Syllabus ........................ 39 Religious Dissent and the Impact of the American Revolution .......................................................................................... 48 2. ‘Adapted to the Present Times’? The New Examination Statute of 1800 ........................................................................................................... 64 The Impact of the French Revolution ............................................ 66 The New Examination System: The Statutes of 1800, 1807 and 1808 ..................................................................................... 75 The Reception of the New System .................................................. 81 The Spectre of Junior Rebellion ....................................................... 88 The University’s Response to its Critics ......................................... 92 3. The Emergence of a Junior Reform Programme, 1807–1823 ......... 104 Growing Undergraduate Resentment, 1807–1816 ........................ 106 The Beginnings of Junior Participation in the Reform Debate, 1817–1818 .............................................................................. 115 After the ‘Oxford Spy’: Student Journalism and Generational Revolt ................................................................................................... 124 4. Noetics, Tractarians and the Peak of Junior Influence, 1824–1836 ..................................................................................................... 139 The Statute of 1824: The Beginnings of a Conservative Consensus ........................................................................................... 141 The Emergence of a Noetic Reform Programme, 1825–1829 ..... 150 Back to School: The Failure of Noetic Reform and the Rise of Tractarianism ...................................................................... 166 viii contents 5. Defensive Modernization: The Tractarian Threat and the Royal Commission of 1850 ...................................................................... 187 ‘A Dangerous and Successful Conspiracy’ ..................................... 189 Reform within Oxford ......................................................................... 202 The Royal Commission of 1850 ......................................................... 208 Reactions to the Commissioners’ Report ...................................... 217 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 229 Bibliography ..................................................................................................... 235 Index ................................................................................................................... 251 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For all the kindness they have shown in the course of the research for this book I would like to thank Penelope Bulloch, Alan Tadiello and all the staff at Balliol College library as well as Hubert Stadler and Philippa Hicken at the Modern History Graduate Office, Oxford. I am also grateful to the staff of the Bodleian Library, the British Library and many of the college librar- ies in Oxford for generously assisting me in the course of my research. I would especially like to thank Oxford University History Faculty and Balliol College, whose generous graduate scholarships ensured that I was able to complete the research for the DPhil. In particular, I would like to thank my doctoral supervisors, Jane Garnett, and Stephen Harrison, whose insight, advice and support over the last few years have been invaluable. I also have to thank my colleagues at the Centre for British Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, for their patience and support in the final stages of writing up and in preparing the manuscript for publication. For their interest in the project and help in developing my ideas over a number of years, I would particularly like to thank Laurence Brockliss, Michele Cohen, Sean Brady, Paul Deslandes, Stefano Evangelista, Henry French, Glen O’Hara, Joanna Innes, Mary Clare Martin, Jessica Meyer, William van Reyk, Graciela Iglesias Rogers, Mark Rothery, Simon Skinner, Christopher Stray, Andy Wells and Sara Wolfson. I am also grateful to the team at Brill, who have been ready with help and advice throughout the various stages of preparing the manuscript for pub- lication. Special thanks go to Marti Huetink (History Editor), Claire Tutty and Rosanna Woensdregt (Assistant Editors in History). In particular, I would like to thank the editor of the series, ‘Scientific and Learned Cultures and their Institutions’, Mordechai Feingold, for his help and advice. My greatest debt of gratitude, though, I owe to my parents, Hilary and David Ellis, and to my husband, Alex Clarkson, without whose love and support over so many years this book would never have been written. I must also say a very special thank you to my son, Leo Clarkson, who joined our family while the manuscript was still being prepared and has given me the love and strength I needed to see the project through to completion. The book is dedicated to my wonderful mother who sadly passed away before its completion. You were, and remain, my inspiration. INTRODUCTION GENERATIONAL CONFLICT AND UNIVERSITY REFORM There have been many works dealing with the question of university reform at Oxford. It may be asked why another one is necessary. Most existing studies have, however, explained the course of reform primarily in relation to local institutional factors or the actions of particular indi- viduals.1 When there have been attempts to locate reform of Oxford’s curriculum, examination system and institutional structures in the wider context of social and political developments in Britain, they have usually been presented in terms of the government being forced to step in to rem- edy an old-fashioned, conservative institution which had failed to reform itself.2 Any changes which took place before the Royal Commission of 1850 have been treated as comparatively superficial and as having left the most important institutional and ideological issues such as religious tests and close fellowships unaddressed. Those reforms which were introduced by Oxford’s governing body, the Hebdomadal Board, have been seen as half-hearted responses to pressure exerted from outside by Benthamite, Whig and non-conformist critics or, from the mid 1840s onwards, by a relatively small number of internal reformers such as Benjamin Jowett and Henry Halford Vaughan.3 1 For reform in eighteenth-century Oxford, see V.H.H. Green, “Reformers and Reform in the University” in L.S. Sutherland and L.G. Mitchell (eds.), The History of the University of Oxford