to go on for another year, i.e., till the end of 1881, and is doing its work slowly and steadily. The general principles have been settled, and the only changes likely to be made in its report by Parliament are that the headships will be made non-clerical, and the clerical restrictions abolished with regard to all fellowships, save one or two in each college. The appointment of Lord Selborne to the Lord Chancellorship, which every one regards as certain, will probably give the chairmanship of the Commission to Lord Redesdale; while for the vacant commissionership, the name of the Master of Balliol is freely mentioned. But of course it must be some while before the new Government will have time to attend to such comparatively trifling matters, and meanwhile we must wait and hope that the interests of learning and research will not be altogether sacrificed to examinations,-or Balliol.

Nothing daunted with their failure last term, the promoters of the scheme for degrees in Natural Science have already prepared a new statute, which is certainly in some ways a decided improvement on its ill-fated predecessor, but at the same time emphasises some of the worst faults of the other scheme. According to the proposed statute, the students in the faculty of Natural Science are to be a race apart, a peculiar people, with their own studies, their own examinations, and their own examiners. These latter, by the way, will have to be Admirable Crichtons as they are to examine in all manner of subjects-Latin and Greek, French and German, Mathematics and Science. But the creation of an entirely new faculty is felt to be a serious matter, and one important question to be answered is, Whether natural science deserves to be placed in this exceptional position, and to have privileges accorded to it (if privileges they be) which are not given to other branches of study. I must own that on the main point of Greek or no Greek, I think Professor Odling has propounded a dilemma not easy to be escaped from. His position is simply this-either a knowledge of Greek is a necessary part of a liberal education, or it is not. If it is, why induce and encourage students of natural science to dispense with it? If not, why insist on students of law, history, &c., wasting time over it? The preliminary skirmish comes on next Tuesday, but the battle will not be fought out till the end of term.

We have had two rather remarkable public lectures this term from Professor Stubbs, on the Characteristics of Medieval and Modern History. Commencing with the defence of the former as of greater educational value than the latter, he proceeded to divide the history of modern Europe into three epochs: the first from the tenth to the end of the fifteenth century had, as its great characteristic, respect of right and lawall the great wars of this epoch were struggles of opposing rights; while in the second period, which extended to the French Revolution, right had given way to power and force; and the age we live in is one of ideas and sentiments which have taken the form of belief in the rights of nationalities. These points he elaborated and illustrated in the course of a brilliant sketch of the European state-system, and the moral he deduced was, that at the present day the statesmen and the nations, which recognise the power of the idea of nationality, are the only ones likely to be successful.

Professor Earle has given a lecture on the Faery Queen, and next week Mr. Sayce is to tell us something of his pet people the Hittites and their influence on Greece. Besides these, Mr. Westmacott is continuing his

admirable lectures on Elocution; and later on we are to be favoured with discourses from two Scotch professors, Professor Lewis Campbell taking the Oresteia, and Professor Jebb the Edipus, as their subjects. So we are not likely to perish for want of mental food.

UNIVERSITY OF COIMBRA,

April, 1880.

In my last letter I mentioned that many were the professors who greatly distinguished themselves at the epoch of the last removal to, and permanent installation of, our University in Coimbra. Among the theologians I need but to mention Dr. Affonso do Prado, who later on became rector of the University; Dr. Francisco de Masson, who had graduated in Alcalá, and became professor of the Portuguese University before its last transference; Mestre Fr. João Pedro, of the Order of Preachers; Martin de Ledesma; Antonio de Fonseca, Doctor in Divinity of the University of Paris; as also Marcos Romeiro and Payo Rodrigo de Villarinho, who came from the latter University during the rectorship of Diogo de Murça.

In the Faculty of Canon Law flourished the licentiate Francisco Coelho, magistrate in Lisbon. He was succeeded by the renowned Dr. Martinho de Aspilcueta, who was also known by the appellation of the Navarrene; he who so greatly added to the renown of the University with his vast knowledge. This celebrated professor was at the time teaching in the University of Salamanca, but, as D. João III. greatly desired that he should come to honour the Portuguese University with his science, he enlisted the influence of the Emperor Charles V. to induce him to come, at the same time making him such advantageous proposals that he at length decided to accept the offer. In this same faculty also flourished Dr. Luiz de Alarção, Manuel de Andrade, Bartolomeu Filippe, and João Peruchi Morgoveja, from Salamanca.

In the Faculty of Laws we find the following: Dr. Gonçalo Vaz Pinto, who for some thirty years had already distinguished himself in our University whilst in Lisbon; Dr. Lopo da Costa, who was succeeded by Manuel da Costa, he who was surnamed the Subtle by reason of his great talents, and both he and Antonio Soares came from Salamanca ; Gonçalo Rodrigues de Sancta Cruz, a Castilian; Fabio Arcas Armanio, from Rome; Arcanio Escoto; Ayres Pinhel, from Salamanca, and others. At this epoch there existed in Coimbra eighteen Professors of Laws.

When the University opened its doors there was but one Professor in Medicine, Dr. Henrique de Cuellar; but later on he was assisted by Thomas Rodrigues da Veiga, Antonio Barbosa, Luiz Nunes, Francisco Franco, from Valencia, Affonso Rodrigues Guevara, and the talented Rodrigo Reynoso, who among these brilliant geniuses shone above them, and became justly celebrated from his great learning.

The Chair of Mathematics was from the first filled by the renowned Pedro Nunes, of whom I spoke in a former letter, and who continued to occupy it during the reign of D. Sebastian.

"As regards the teaching of the arts, and of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages," says Senhor Dr. Motta Veiga, in his "Esboço

Historico-Litterario da Faculdade de Theologia," "special notice should be taken of some of the foreign professors who came to fill the respective chairs, such as Nicoláo Grouchio, Fabricio, Rozetto, George Buchanan (Scotchman), and his brother Arlando Patrick, and the Frenchmen, Elias and Jaques. To this list we must subjoin the names of some of the Portuguese who had acquired fame and renown outside the mother country: André de Gouveia, João da Costa, Diogo de Teive, Antonio Mendes, João Fernandes, André de Rezende, Ignacio de Moraes, and Melchior Belliago."

Without at once proceeding to effect any essential reform in the statutes given by the King, and which, as I said before, were the same statutes that had been drawn up during the reign of D. Manuel, the University necessarily introduced some modifications and alterations as regarded the increase in the number of chairs, and also no doubt in the methods of teaching as well as in the scholastic customs and usages. Ever since the period when the general studies were first established, and in conformity with the bull of Pope Nicholas IV., degrees were conferred in the Sees of Lisbon or Coimbra by their respective prelates, or their vicars, and on pontifical authority; these prelates being nominated Chancellors or Vice-Chancellors, all notable acts were bound to take place in their presence and within their respective Sees, or else in the houses of the Chapter.

But after the change of the University to Coimbra, the King issued a charter dated 28th November, 1537, empowering the rector, D. Agostinho Ribeiro to act as Chancellor, and to bestow the degrees of licentiate, and of doctor of laws and medicine on his own authority, and that degrees in canon law and theology should be withheld until permission came from Rome given under Papal authority, which permission was readily granted by Pope Paul III. in a bull dated 12th February, 1539. Little time, however, elapsed before modifications on this point, which in those days was considered of importance, took place.

By Royal Letters of 15th December, 1539, and of 29th December, 1540, the title of Chancellor was bestowed upon the Prior and General of Sancta Cruz and to all his successors in authority, and power was vested in them for conferring the degrees of licentiate and doctor in laws, medicine, and arts. Degrees in canons and theology were to be conferred on papal authority, enjoining moreover that all private examinations and degrees conferred should take place in the said monastery. The latter part of this order suffered some alteration in the year 1544, when the rector, being then Diogo de Murça, had all the faculties united together in the royal courts. However, the Priors of Sancta Cruz always retained their rank and title of Chancellors of the University until the suppression of the religious orders in 1834.

By this act of conferring the distinctive title of Chancellor upon the Priors of Sancta Cruz, the King D. João III. wished to show the high esteem in which he held that monastery where such lofty studies had always been cultivated, and which had served as a basis in the regeneration of the University.

Not only, as we said before, did the colleges affiliated to that monastery serve in the beginning to accommodate an important part of the general studies, but, after all the faculties had become established within the royal courts, it was in them that the commencement was laid of the organisation of the College of Arts which was destined for prosecuting

the study of the classical languages and of the Humanities, these constituting an indispensable preparation for entering into the superior courses of the faculties. In this way did the King, in a positive and clear manner, strive to advance secondary instruction as a preparation for superior culture.

In the "Memorias da Universidade de Coimbra," Rector Figueiroa, speaking of this College of Arts, says: "The King D. João III. gave the rules by which this new college was to be governed, releasing it completely from the jurisdiction of the Rector and of the University; and these commands, no doubt, must have been sent to the University itself. Yet they are not to be found in the archives; but, by other existing documents, it is proved that the first rector of this College of Arts was André de Gouveia, Doctor in Theology, who, jointly with his brothers Marçal and Antonio Gouveia, the King had sent to Paris to prosecute their studies under the clever instruction of their uncle, Dr. Diogo de Gouveia, who was the rector or principal of the college of Santa Barbara of the University of Paris. A great eulogium is passed upon him by Nicolas Antonio in his 'Bibliotheca,' as well as upon Antonio Gouveia, well known in this University from the talented works he published."

But it was not for a great length of time that the College of Arts remained exempt from the jurisdiction of the Rector and Council of the University, because, in November, 1549, the King issued a new regulation to the college authorities, placing it under the inspection and superior authority of the University. Hence it remained annexed, or, in a certain manner incorporated with it, until 1555, when, although this college flourished in a brilliant manner, owing to the great competency of its masters, the King instituted a new government, which had the effect of destroying the former work done, and from that time dates the decadence of our University.

I must not pass over in silence the important fact of the organisation of the royal colleges of Saints Peter and Paul, whose origin dates from this epoch, and which, so to say, completed the University, these colleges being established for the reception of doctors to qualify them for magisterial posts. These colleges were endowed with goodly rents, the inmates lived in community, and enjoyed every advantage for study. Both these colleges proved excellent cradles of learning, and produced great professors and cultured men, who became illustrious, not only in the actual service of the University, but attained eminent positions in the Church and in the State.

And, on a par with these royal and secular colleges, various religious orders established other colleges for youths who purposed to follow the scientific studies in the University. The military orders of Christ, of d'Aviz, and of St. James, also possessed later on colleges of similar nature, and these subsisted until the extinction of all the religious communities in Portugal.

The first eighteen years which elapsed after the last transference of the Portuguese University to Coimbra, notwithstanding the fluctuations of ideas and plans and the incoherent providences of the Sovereign reformer, were years of constant progress; so favourable were the conditions of the epoch, and such was the vigorous impulse which this assemblage of renowned and wise professors exercised in influencing the culture of the sciences, and in rendering our University brilliant.

The fame of the regenerated University extended to all parts of the globe, attracting so great an influx of students and enlightened men, that the day actually dawned when space and time were insufficient to satisfy the enthusiastic desires of those who came hurrying to drink in the lessons of its wise masters, and of the latter to manifest to them in full the talents and gifts with which they were dowered.

Besides the staff of professors receiving remuneration for teaching the ordinary courses, the statutes permitted the doctors to hold extraordinary courses similar to those which in the German Universities were held by the Privat-docenten, but so large was the number of students attending these courses, that the council was unable any longer to find room or assign hours in which all should read, " from which circumstance," says Figueiroa, "many murmured, and such was the fervour with which they applied themselves to study, that the King D. João, on being apprised of what passed, wishful that no time should be lost, ordered that during the months set apart for the vacations, the schools should be kept open, creating for this object two extra chairs in each faculty, each professor to receive an additional stipend for teaching during the vacations."

From this vast influx of men who were preparing themselves for professorships, resulted that many were invited by other Universities to fill their professorial chairs. And it is a certain fact that many went from Coimbra to Salamanca, Paris, Rome, Louvain, Pisa, Bolonha, Ferrara, Turin, Montpellier, Alcalá, and others; and the list of those who did so, a rather extensive one, may be found in the third volume of the "Anno Historico" of Padre Mestre Francisco de Sancta Maria.

All things favoured the University during the first years of its translation to Coimbra.

The King continued to manifest interest in, and in reality was truly solicitous to favour the studies, not forgetting to increase also the rents, of the University, obtaining for it the annexation of many churches, and concessions of dignities and rich ecclesiastical benefices, with which to reward the more worthy professors.

And the King wished still further to show the interest and high esteem in which he held the University by honouring it with a personal visit. This visit took place in November, 1550, when he went expressly for the purpose, accompanied by his son, Prince D. João, the Queen D. Catharina, and her sister, the Infanta D. Maria, both these ladies being very enlightened and of lofty cultured minds, due to a singularly brilliant literary education. Figueiroa narrates in detail the ceremonial which was observed by the University when receiving the visit of the King, who spent several days assisting at the different acts, hearing the lectures of the professors, and in every way manifesting a great interest in the good order of the studies, and in the prosperity of an academy which gratefully considered him its regenerator, or better said, its true founder, so great was the distance which existed between the general studies of Lisbon and the new University of Coimbra, placed as it was now in the centre of the most illustrious ones of that epoch.

But I regret to say that the time was not far distant when the fate of the University was to succumb into a long period of decadence. However, before I commence to proceed in this sad relation, I will, in my next letter, give you some account of the state of scientific and literary instruction in Portugal during the reign of D. João III,