XVII.] MY PREDECESSORS. Afterwards I lectured on texts rather more freely; latterly, as my classes regularly diminished, I took up more out-of-theway subjects, and very nearly succeeded in getting rid of my classes altogether ; in the end I have reverted to my first plan. Well, perhaps I never was fit for the place ; anyhow, on the now stereotyped plan of the Professoriate, it is as well that I should go. I am told that the great historical works of the great foreign professors have been accomplished by men who have done much elementary lecturing and much informal instruction. That is true, but it is to be remembered that the great German professors have the power and the right to direct the studies of their pupils, classes and individuals, to the specialised and differentiated details of their own subject, not merely to general class examinations in which all the candidates are expected to show the same sort of knowledge derived from the same sort of books. What I wanted from the Commission was not less work but more liberty; what I succeeded in getting was,a little more elasticity of tether. But I will not grumble any more : it is over; both the evidence, voluminous and appreciative, the formal audience, so redolent of sympathy and profound attention on the part of the Commissioners, the lively meetings of council and committee, and the truly charming debates of the professors and tutors : let them have the light that never was on sea or land, in the sweetness of memory,—a consecration, a professor's dream ; at all events we have a system of faculties, informal instruction, and a visitatorial board. But let us go on to more serious things than these. I have spent nearly eighteen very happy years in Oxford : holding the office for a longer period than any of my predecessors except Spence, who was professor for twenty-six years, Nowell, who was professor for thirty years, and Dr. Nares, who occupied the chair for twenty-eight years. The principal event that touches.the constitutional position of the Pro