Item 28 - Letter from Edward Hawkins

Oriel College - Further to the Royal Commission on the English Universities, 'I heard on good authority that Lord Palmerston meant, if other business would allow him, to take the University-question out of Mr Christie's hands, and act seriously upon it. But I should doubt whether the ministers have time for it now'. EH thinks such a Commission 'will not, perhaps, be friendly; but we had better not appear uneasy under the notion of a Commission. - I do indeed fear a commission not from the faults of the Universities, but from the troublesome business in which it would engage us, distracting us from our present employments; and from its being very likely to be composed of persons who will not know our faults, or their remedies, so well as we do ourselves'. Like WW, EH does 'not pretend to know the law of the subject; but I scarcely imagine that a Royal Commission to visit the Universities would be invalid without our assent. I thought the Sovereign was the acknowledged visitor of the Universities, except in Ecclesiastical matters'.