The examinations are conducted and the de grees granted by the university, not by the col leges. The examinations for the degree of B. A. are three in number. The first, responsions. collo quially 'smalls,' is now• in practice usually taken at or before matriculation. The second, modera tions ('mods'), occurs after one or two years, ac cording to whether the candidate seeks honors in it or not ; and to•o years later conies the final examination, or 'greats.' The degree of M. A. requires no further examination, but may be taken by any B. A. of twenty-seven terms stand ing (about seven years) from matriculation. In law, theology, science, music, letters, and medi cine, there are various complicated requirements, including an examination or its equivalent, for the bachelor's and doctor's degrees, except in the rare cases where they are honorary. Until recent years Oxford maintained rather strictly the tradi tional ideal of a classical education, contrasted with Cambridge, which has always excelled more in mathematical and scientific lines; but a strong tendency has been shown of late, and deeply de plored by the more conservative, to reduce the quantity of Latin and Greek required to a mini mum. In moderations and finals, each 'school' or department is divided into a pass and an honor school, differing in the amount and quality of the work and the difficulty of the examinations. The degree attained is the same in each case; but in the honor schools lists of the men, divided into four classes (three in moderations), have been published since the establishment of this system in 1801.
The internal organization of each college con sists of a head (variously called warden, pro vost, principal, president, or master), and of a number of fellows and tutors—the tutorial office being sometimes combined with a fellowship and sometimes separate from it. The officer charged with the internal discipline is known as the dean, except at Christ Church, where the dean is head both of the college and of the cathedral of the diocese of Oxford, which is combined with it. All these are known collectively and colloquially as `the Dons.' To each undergraduate on his matric ulation is assigned a particular tutor, who is supposed to take a close personal interest in him, in fact to stand in loco parentis during his resi dence; a man's own tutor, however, need not have anything directly to do with his studies. unless he happens to take up the branch in which the tutor gives instruction. Formal teaching is chiefly by means of lectures, which are supplied usually by the college or by combinations of col leges. The exception is the lectures of the pro fessors, who are university functionaries and whose lectures are public. At these lectures, of which two, three, or four may be attended in a morning, the undergraduate is supposed to take full notes to which he may refer afterwards. Ex
cept an occasional request to construe a passage of a Latin o• Greek author in a man's first year. there is scarcely any approach to what are known in America as recitations. The instruction given in the lectures is supplemented by individual in struction given by the tutors of the college, espe cially by means of essays, which the student writes on his subject and the tutor corrects. Be yond this. a man is supposed to 'read' for some hours each day, at his own discretion. This free dom is a characteristic feature of the Oxford and Cambridge system. It is tempered by a college examination known as 'collections' at the end of each term; this has no effect on the obtaining of a degree, but is intended simply to give the college authorities an idea of how a man's work is progressing.
The afternoon is devoted by most undergradu ates to athletic exercise of one sort or another, interest in which forms a normal part of the life.
Distinctions won in this way—the right to wear the 'blue,' the university color which denotes that the wearer has represented the university in cricket, football, rowing, ete.—are as eagerly cov eted as a 'double first' in the schools. In the evening the whole college assembles in the hall for dinner, the dons sitting at the 'high table' on a sort of dais. Breakfast and lunch are taken in a man's own sitting-room. The evening is spent as he pleases, except that if he is residing in college he is absolutely required to be within the college gates before midnight. if he does not intend to 'read,' he will pass the evening in vis iting or entertaining his friends, or in attending the meetings of the innumerable societies which exist, devoted to every conceivable interest, lit erary, scientific, musical, or purely social. Of these the most famous is the Union Society, which combines all the conveniences of a club with the holding of regular debates in which ninny of the most famous public orators of Eng land, from Mr. Gladstone and Lord Salisbury down, have received their first training. 111 fact, it may be considered one of the essential charac teristics of English university life that there is no strict line of demareathm drawn between it and the after career of the student. The elas ticity of the system adapts it to the requirements of very varied types of men; and the undergradu ate who expects to enter political life or to be come a mere country gentleman may profit by the discipline of life and the atmosphere of general culture, while a man who seeks for the attain ment of advanced scholarship can easily get all the help be needs. The existence side by side of the pass and honor schools constitutes a distinct disavowal of the system of Procrustes.