TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9860, 9 March 1896, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

OxroKD has again found Women's itself unable to overcome the

Degrees prejudices of the past, and it At Oxford, haa again, therefore, refused

the petition of those who asked that women might be admitted to the B. A. degree. At the beginning of the year there really appeared to be Botne chance of this much desired privilege being granted. The memorial to the Hebdomadal Conncil of the University, asking that some scheme embodying the request might be submitted to the University,. was, on January 11th, reported to have been signed by nearly 150 resident M.A.'s, including the Master of Balliol, Professors Wallace, Dicey, Max Muller, many heads of houses, professors, lecturers, and some of the Oxford clergy. Several of the strongest supporters of the movement were members of the Counoil, and therefore unable to sign the memorial, bat it is evident, from the number of the majority, 70, by which the proposal was defeated, that the Council acceded to the request and submitted a scheme to the Congregation of the University, by which it was thrown out. While the preparations for the attack on Oxford were being made, a similar attempt was being made with respect to Cambridge. Some 400 members of the Senate, being of opinion that the time had arrived for reopening the question of admitting women to degrees in the University, memorialised the Counoil of the Senate, asking them to appoint a syndicate to consider on what, conditions, and with what restrictions, if any, women should be so admitted. A circular accompanying this memorial set forth, among other things, that for nearly fifteen years the University had formally admitted the students of Girton and Newnham to its honours examination, and had practically co-operated in their instruction by extending to them educational facilities. "The prosperous growth of the two Colleges during this period, and the honours obtained by thsir students in the examinations, afford evidence of the advantage which the higher education of women haa derived from the aid thus rendered by the University. At the present time, eight of the ten Universities of Great Britain, viz., the University of London, the Victoria University, the new University of Wales, the four Scottish Universities, and the University of Durham, admitted women to degrees. The result was that the women to whom Cambridge now awards only certificates, were beginning to feel keenly the inferiority of their position in this respect, aa compared with that of women who passed the examinations of these other Universities. It was further pointed out that there was a possibility of Oxford granting the privileges which were now being asked of Cambridge, and thus allowing the latter University to be the last to grant women the traditional and customary recognition of academic education. Whab the result of this appeal to Cambridge may be we have not yet heard, buc nothing ia more certain than that '< some day, probably in the near futnre, success will attend the movement for the | admission of women to degrees in both the I great English Universities.

At the heigh, of the ex. H.MaS. citeraent occasioned by the London, fitting out ef the new Flying Squadron a correspondent of a London daily paper made an excellent suggestion, by acting on. which the City of London would not only give * magnificent proof of its loyalty but would set a noble example to the rest of the country. «' What an opportunity," h. wrote, "for the city Companies to preseot an irooei-d or two fast crui_et» to fcbe nmvf ! We have no ship bearing the onoe famous name * City

of London' in our fleet. What worthier use for tho wealth which depends for its security on the navy than such an addition to its fighting strength ?" More than this, it was pointed out that the city would only be doing again what it had done before, for 230 years ego, in a simitar time of national emergency, the navy received the addition of a man-of-war subscribed for by the loyal city of London, It seems that

just when the war with the Dutch was about to break out a warship named tho London blew up at the Nore. Within a week of the catastrophe, as runs a chronicle of that time, the King at Whitehall had received from the Lord Mayor and Alder-

men an offer " to build him a ship instead of the London," adding that *• it is to be called the Loyal Loudon. They meanwhile undertake to support three ships in the fieet at their own charge." The buildiug of the Loyal London was at once begun at Deptford. The subscriptions from the Corporation, the city companies and private citizens reached the sum of £16,272 out of the £18,555 required, and tho balance tho city borrowed on mortgage. The vessel was completed in June, 1666. She was an 80 gun three-decker, and, having joined

the fleet at the Nore, she was appointed flagship to the Admiral of the Blue squadron. It seems to have been the general opinion that the city had done the

thing handsomely. •• The whole fleet," says a newsletter preserved among the State papers, "cousidars her as good a man-of-war as any in the world." Dryden, in his poetical chronicles of the year, apsaks of "The goodly Loudon iv her gallant

trim." Six weeks later the London did good service in a sea fight, and later on, when cruisiug alono in the Channel, she

fought two French vessels single-handed "and did not como off worst." S-d to relate, however, her career, which began so well, cime to an untimely and ignominious end in the following year, when she was burned lying at her moorings off Chatham by the Dutch iv their raid up the Medway. Including this Loyal London, there have been seven men-of-war in the British Navy bearing the namo of the great metropolis. From first to lust they took an active pirb in fifteen battles, and have been connected with some of the most famous heroes of British naval history. The lißt extends from 1652 to 18S4, when the last of the name, which had done service in the Crimean war, "ceased to exist " (whatever that may mean) at Zanzibar. The city and the city companies were probably never more wealthy than they are at present, and though £18,000 odd would not now go far towards paying for a man-of-war, that sum was, perhaps, as much to the city of London in 1666 as the cost of a modern warship—say some three-quarters of a million—would be to it to-day. The time, also, is most fitting for such a gift, which would create a great impression outside Great Britain, and would, perhaps, stimulate other cities and towns to combiue and follow suit.

As an English paper sugVery gests, it is probably because Primitive "we are all evolutionists nowMan. a-days" that the recent discovery of a new "missing link" has given rise to very little commotion. It appears that quite lately the fosßil remains of a complete skeleton were exhibited before the Anthropological Society in London. They had beeu discovered in an ancient riverbed in Java by Dr. Dubois, who was conducting some investigations for the Dutch Government. Sceptics for years demanded from Darwin a " missing link " !n proof of his assertion that men and apes are descended from a common stock, and Lyell, at that time, stated as his opinion that important' evidence would some day be found in the Pliocene deposits in Borneo. This discovery was made in Pliocene deposits ia Java. But to scientists it is the immense antiquity ot the remains and their apparently mixed human and Bimian character which is most interesting. Hitherto no humau remains have been discovered which are anything like so ancient. Up to tjie present probably the oldest remains were those known as the Neanderthal, which are undoubtedly very ancient and of very low type. But the lateßt discovery is of a creature which, it is supposed, predeceased these others by many ages. The skull of the skeleton discovered by Dr. Dubois is that of a creature of so low a brain capacity tha> it is hard for scientists to determine whether it is man or ape. lb is pictured with deep set eyes glowing from under a projecting pent roof of eye sockets, low, retreating forehead, and flattened crown. Yet the thigh bone shows none of the weak-kneed shamble of its presumed early ancestors ; it undoubtedly, we are told, walked about " erect and tall," grasping one of the rude but sharp pieces of flint that were found buried with it. The teeth, too, though gorilla-like in size and strength, are still distinctly human. Very great difficulty exists in deciding how to classify these strange remains, for whilst they mark an extraordinarily low type of brain capacity, the balance of opinion is that the fossils are those of some very primitive savage. Lord Salisbury has described the doctrine of evolution as " comfortable." Some one flippantly suggests that the most comforting thought about this ancient inhabitant of Java is that there are no longer any of Lis type roaming about the earth to-day.