Item 46 - Letter from Edward Hawkins

2 pp

Oriel College - What is WW 'doing about the University Commission. For it may be very desirable that we should act in concert'. The Oxford Commission have sent letters to each Head of House and each Professor with a request for information. They have also given the letter to each Visitor to the Colleges to cast their influence and induce the Colleges to send information: 'Some Professors have at once signified their readiness to give every information. Some, and the V.C. and most Heads of Houses, I imagine, have only acknowledged the letters. We shall, I believe, consult Counsel upon the legality etc of the Commission itself'. EH understands that Cambridge took legal advice even before the Commission had formed: 'I think when I had last the pleasure of seeing [you] we were agreed in condemning the Commission, but thought that if it issued, we had better make the best of our circumstances, and give information'. However, 'Gladstone's lately published speech has much shaken me, and made me doubt whether it is not our duty to resist the Commission on public grounds'.