the entire power of this nomination and confirmation devolved upon them. The election was then biennial, and fometimes annual; which continued till the time that John Ruffel, bifhop of Lincoln, was chofen for life.-The duty annexed to the office is, to licence all books printed at the Ciaren don prefs; to licence taverns, alehouses, coachmen, carriers, and to receive the rents due to the univerfity, unless otherwife fpecially appointed to be received; to take care that fermons, lectures, difputations, and other exercises, be performed; to fuperintend the police of the place, and, in a word, to govern the univerfity according to her laws, cuftoms, privileges, and statutes, and not at his own will and pleasure.

Such is the history of this office, as handed down to us by the Oxford records; and fuch were the duties of the office; but the revolutions of time have left little more than the name. The chancellor is now, properly speaking, more an ornament to the univerfity, than a person of any utility; and the advantage he derives from the office, is to him merely ornamental. It is, indeed, the higheft poffible dignity that can be conferred upon any man; but it is not attended with the fmalleft emolument or patronage. The bufinefs of the office, which was formerly executed by the chancellor in perfon, is now entirely delegated to his deputy, the vice chancellor, affifted by the pro vices, and other officers. The chancellor himself never vifits the university after his admiffion, nor does the univerfity with to fee him in any character but that of a private gentleman. The expence of receiving him in his official character is very great, and is entirely defrayed by the univerfity, which is, at prefent, poor.

Some may ftartle at this affertion, having heard much of the rich endowments of our univerfities; but, on enquiry, they will find it to be fact. Individual colleges, compofing the univerfity, may be, and many of

but the uni

them are, very rich; verfity funds are low. The reason is, that all thofe valuable bequelts and donations, which have been made by munificent noblemen and prelates, have been made to the respective colleges, to which the donors belonged, while the funds of the univerfity have received very few gifts of this kind. The univerfity is a great corporation; and each college is a little corporation within it, independent of its neighbour; like the several states of America, who have yet a conftitution in common. This matter may be explained, likewife, by comparing the univerfity to the city of London. It is well known that many of the livery companies may be exceedingly rich. while the city itself is poor; and the reafon is the fame both here, and at Oxford.

The chancellor, therefore, never vifits the univerfity after the ceremony of his admiffion, but in a private character, unlefs, perhaps, a royal visitation were to take place. He would then attend in state, with the other great perfonages. But this cuftom has long been difufed.

It refts entirely with the convocation, whom they shall elect to this high office. That there is no particular defcription of perfons who are deemed exclufively fit for it, will appear from perufing the lift of chancellors for a few centuries back. Thofe of the prefent century, for example, have been,

1700. James, duke of Ormond. 1716. Charles, earl of Arran. 1759. John, earl of Westmorland. 1762. George, earl of Litchfield. 1772. Frederick, lord North. 1792. William, duke of Portland. The election of the duke of Portland was confidered as a deviation from the cuftom of electing men in power; but there has not, in fact, been any fuch cuftom. It is generally expected, indeed, that the nobleman chofen, fhould have been a benefactor to the university, or that he will be one.

At

At the election in Auguft laft, a nobleman high in office was propofed privately, but he declining it, it was generally understood that the minifterial favour inclined toward the duke of Portland; and the duke of Beaufort gave up the canvafs, after a feeble it uggle. The former was confequently elected without oppofi

SIR,

AL

tion, was fworn into the office Bulftrode, in the month of Novem laft, and immediately chofe Dr. Wi warden of Wadham, to be vice-cha cellor. The latter office continu four years. The perfon holding muft be in holy orders, and the he of fome college.

LETTER I.

LTHOUGH it be undeniable, that a tafte for reading ufeful and inftructive books has of late become more general than ever, yet it is fome diminution of the pleasure we reap from this confideration, that a tafte for reading the most fuperficial novels is likewife on the increafe. By novels, I do not mean fuch productions as Richardfon, Fielding, Smollet, and one or two others of later date have given to the world, but that collection of trash inceffantly poured out from our profeffed manufactories, where fresh novels are advertised for in quantities! To produce fuch a number as the prefs every winter teems with, the principles of mechanics feem to have been reforted to, and a certain quantity of paper is filled up with as much eafe, as a labourer will plough a certain number of acres, or a painter cover a certain number of fquare feet; with this difference, indeed, that the ground must be well opened, and the paint fubftantially laid on; confiderations which never enter into the heads of our manufacturers of novels, to whom quantity and expedition are the only objects.

From the workman-like facility, with which modern novels are compofed, and from their increafing number, it is not, perhaps, too ridiculous to fuppofe that, in a cafe where genius is fo little confulted, the operation might be performed by a machine. In our days, labour has been

O.

wonderfully abridged by the inven tions of an Arkwright; and wher the demand for novels is fo great, a to oblige certain bookfellers to adver tife for them by wholefale, it is no unreasonable to foresee the time wher fome ingenious gentleman will apply for a patent, entitling him and his heirs to the exclufive advantages arif ing from a Machine for making Novels, which will fave the future labours of industry, and furnish the public with an article equally good, and executed in a tenth part of the time.'-Thefe Spinning Jennies of Sentiment,' would at firit, perhaps, meet with the fame oppofition from the labouring manufacturers as followed fir Richard Arkwright's machine, and which will follow every invention that feems to throw labourers out of their bread; but, in time, the world would be reconciled to it, and the lovers of novels, I am certain, would lofe nothing.

The materials of which modern novels are compofed, are extremely fimple.-A young lady falls in love with fome gentleman, who is difagreeable to her parents; for this latter circumftance is indifpenfable. To thefe, muft be added a lord, or a colonel, who is on the watch to ravish, or run away with her, just as it may happen-and a high-fpirited brother, who is to refent this difgrace to his family, while the lover is to confider it as a felonious injury done to himfelf.-Not that the brother and the lover are to act in unifon, for that might tend to bring

matters

and aim at novelty of incident; and fad is the havock they make with the ways of providence and the works of men. For while they profess to exhibit human life and manners, they are not permitted to make use of any miraculous agents, as the romancewriters of former times could. The writers of romance, when they found their hero, or themfelves (which is precifely the fame thing) in a di lemma, could, with great propriety, change a prifon in the twinkling of an eye into a park, or a fuit of armour into a ghoft; they could alfo raife forms, or giants, employ dwarfs, fairies and necromancers, and were, indeed, fo omnipotent over earth and air, that they could never experience a fituation from which it was impoffible to be extricated.

matters to a conclufion too foon. The brother, who knows nothing of his fifter's amour, is to bring down from the univerfity fome fir Edward, or fir George, a charming young baronet, juft come of age, who, of courfe, falls in love with the lady. The mother is to be fecretly on the fide of the daughter, and the father, confequently, to be left in a minority, but with power fufficient to fruftrate their plans, at least for three whole volumes, and a part of the fourth. The brother, who must not be unemployed, is in love with his fifter's companion, a very beautiful orphan, very fentimental, but remarkably poor, who turns out, however, at laft, to be the daughter of jomebody. To thefe may be added, a maiden aunt, very much add cted to religion and brandy, and who having no fport of her own, contrives to spoil that of every other body. An old fteward, a park, a fifh-pond, fome poft-chaifes, fwords and blunderbuffes, a few intercepted letters, and a fummer-houfe at the bottom of the garden-thefe ingredients, mixed together fecundam artem, that is, precifely as they have been mixed in a hundred novels before, form one of thofe ftrange productions which are reprefented by the manufacturer, as An interesting work, full of fentiment, pathos, and fublimity;' an opinion which paffes current at all circulating libraries and boarding fchools. The very strong resemblance there is between one novel and another, is a circumftance which has induced fufpicious and curious people to think, that there is already in existence fuch á machine as I have hinted at above. But the refemblance they bear to each other, may be accounted for in another and more probable way, from the poverty of invention peculiar to the tribe of modern novel-writers, and the opinion they feem to entertain, that the nearer they approach to one another, the nearer they approach to perfection. Dreadful are their ftruggle, indeed, when they quit this polygraphic manner of writing,

But far different is the cafe with our modern novelifts, who, though they affume the power of life and death, have nothing to effect thefe purpofès with but vulgar agents, fuch as the falling of a horfe, a fhipwreck, a boat or a coach overturned, a duel, or perhaps a high fever. Thefe are known to be common incidents, and that they do happen in real life, may be proved by the cafualty-lifts of every newfpaper. But that which is common foon becomes uninterefting. Moft people, when they hear of a fcull being fractured, will know that there are no great hopes of a perfect cure; and as to a fhipwreck, though very often not fatal to the paffengers, yet one of two things muft happen, they are either faved or drowned. There is no variety of incident in what occurs fo often on the Scilly rocks, or in the Yarmouth roads. Far be it from me, however, to fay, that our modern novelifts do not deal in the marvellous, although they be restrained from employing the affiftance of magicians and giants. On the contrary, their fingular merit is, that they crowd together three or four natural incidents in fuch a manner as to form a complete miracle; and this is a piece of ingenuity of which it would

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be

be uncharitable to deny them the fole merit. For example; a chaife is overturned, and a beautiful young lady is very much bruised; the first perfon who comes to her affiftance, is the very perfon of all others whom the wifhed to fee, namely her lover, whom fhe believed to be in Ireland or Scotland, Bengal or Jamaica; the houfe to which he is taken happens to be her uncle's, whom she had not feen for many years, and certainly did not wish to fee on this occafion; but at the fame time he does not know her, nor the him; the phyfician, who attends her, is fo intimate with her father, that he becomes a mediator, and a reconciliation and a marriage follow as eafily as caufe and effect. Each of thefe, when taken by itself, is no more than happens every day; but, when strung together, they form one of the most miraculous approaches to novelty, which is to be found in any production of Leadenhall or Grubftreet.

It appears to be the fcheme of modern novelifts that, in order to furprife, every thing fhall happen which is leaft expected, and that which feems juft at hand, fhall not take place at all. The hint was probably taken from the practice of Sancho's phyfician, who, when a favourite dish was placed before the governor, ordered it out of his fight before he could touch it. The purpose of these disappointments, however, is not fo much to furprise the reader, as to confound and perplex the perfonages concerned in the fable. The reader, nineteen cafes out of twenty, is let into the whole fecret in the first three chapters, and the confequence of this has been, that the first and last volume of every novel are read with equal information. Thofe learned meffieurs, the reviewers, frequently inform us that they have faved a great deal of time fince they came to the knowledge of this circumftance. And it would be equally ferviceable to readers in general, were it not certain, that it is in human nature to forget difappointments, and

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to permit the triumph of hope over experience.

Hitherto, perhaps, it may be fuppofed, that i have treated this fubject with too much levity. The queftion, however, whether novels have not a bad tendency, is a ferious one; and though it is not my intention, in the prefent letter, to enter at large upon it, yet I hope to offer fome arguments which may have their effect, upon thofe at least whofe business it is to direct young people in their courfe of reading.

We may always learn a great deal of the tendency of a book, by ob. ferving the character of those who take delight in reading it; and thẹ obfervation of this fact will furnith us with one argument, at least, if there were no other, against the reading of novels.. If we examine who they are to whom novels afford the greatest pleafure, and the moft conftant gratification, we fhall find that they may be divided into three claffes; the idle, the illiterate, and the young. The idle refort to them as a means of killing that fmall portion of time, which is neceffarily faved from the attack of public amufements, and hecaufe they are a fubftitute for that fpecies of converfation, which feeds the difeafed appetite for fcandal and anecdote. To perfons of this difpofition, it may be agreeable to hear of the follies and mifcarriages even of fictitious characters. The illiterate

prefer them, because they require no effort of the mind, and recall no rememberance of early neglect. The young fall in with them by accident, or by the imprudence of the tutors or parents; and their minds are foon alienated from the love of those better books which contain folid argument, detail useful experience, and convey real inftruction.

If these are the only perfons (and I believe it will be difficult to find a fourth class) to whom modern novels are acceptable, we may, without scruple, fay, that their tendency is unfavourable, becaufe no man will long

indulge

indulge in any kind of reading, which does not either convert him from his former ways of thinking, or confirm him in his prefent practices. So much may be faid of the tendency of novels, reafoning a pricri, namely, that they gratify idleness, promote ignorance, and debilitate the youthful vigour of the mind. fruits ye fhall know them.'-With

By their

refpect to their more immediate tendency on the principles of human action, on filial duty, in particular, and their falie reprefentations of life and manners; thefe propofe as the fubject of a fecond letter, thould the prefent meet with your approbation. I am, fir, yours, &c.

LUCIUS.

WA

AR creates a ferocity of manners. It holds out fuch objects of glory and ambition, as the moft unpolished minds may seize with little difficulty, and thus perverts our ufeful paffions by ennobling our vices, and every where fubftituting force in the place of juftice.

The firft ftep toward accomplishing the happiness of mankind, fhould be to lengthen the duration of peace, and leffen the frequency of war.

Contemporary hiftorians often throw darkness on the period of their narrations. So different are the recitals of Herodotus and Xenophon, that every competent reader, obferving, on the one hand, fuch fabulous puerilities, and on the other, a moral treatise, 'thrown into scenes of action, feems, as it were, reduced to a kind of choice between the Orlando of Ariofto and the Telemachus of Fenelon.

The luxury of ignorance is, of all other luxuries, the most detrimental, because equally incapable of exciting induftry, and producing one agreeable enjoyment.

The lefs inftructed the people are, the more the imagination is liable to be poetical; and, probably, a multitude of barbarous nations have only wanted a fine language, and more celebrity, to have been capable of tranfmitting to us poetical compotitions, like thofe of the Greeks; witnefs the poems in the Erfe language, thofe of the Scandinavians, &c.

Let the philofophical literati folve

this problem. Why do the poems in the Erie language breathe the nobleft and fublim. It fentiments; the fentiments of love, glory, honour, a veneration of ancestry, patriotism, &c. whereas the fentiments fcattered up and down the Iliad are base and vile: fuch, for inftance, are the defire of plunder, the low ambition of enjoying the best share at a feaft, the exasperated violence of paffion, transporting itself into acts of barbarous and cowardly revenge, &c.?

All the governments of antiquity, except the great ancient monarchies, of the origin of which we are ignorant, owe their birth to a town, or a city. A little reflection would convince us, that it could not have been otherwife. In fact, men were not known under the name of a people, but when they equally enjoyed the fame laws, adhered to general customs, and felt thofe mutual dependencies, which united them, and, as it were, attested their identity. Mankind flood in no need of laws and conventions, except when great numbers were affembled in a Imall space.

Knowledge is, in our days, become fo diffufive, that authors can fcarcely make any other pretenfions to a fuperiority over their readers, except thofe pretenfions which may have arifen from the labour of having me ditated, longer than they, upon the fubjects concerning which they may have written."

Men have generally difpayed the

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virtues