are rarely discourteous, it was feared by some that they were imperfectly informed as to where Leyden was and what Leyden had done. And yet Leyden is certainly the most celebrated and the most meritorious university in Europe. There is no other centre of education which has so often been the home of the first man of his day. From the days of Scaliger and Boerhaave down to the present day, when Leyden can boast of the best Greek scholar in Europe, this has frequently been the case. If English universities could forget this, or if they were ignorant of it, so much the worse for their own reputation.

very eloquent, to judge from the sonorous strings of great names with which it abounded, but the details, though the general argument was in the main obvious, were high Dutch to almost all the foreigners. Owing to this obstacle there was, it must be confessed, some relief felt when the great congregation began to surge and scatter, pouring out of the doors into the clear, frosty sunlight. The picturesque old town was all hung with streaming banners, and great barges were coming up the canals laden to the water's edge with rich exotic plants and hothouse flowers, with which the lower windows of every street were to be richly But it has since transpired that Oxford set out. Foreign flags marked the houses was guilty of no intentional discourtesy. where the professors were entertaining The Academy deserves the credit of the representatives of the respective naeliciting the fact, that the vice-chancel- tions; and already groups of strangers, lor was ill when the invitation arrived, learned-looking men in spectacles and and that it was in consequence. mislaid. careless dress, might be seen wandering It is understood that he has now formally to and fro, and making their first survey expressed the regrets of Oxford to the of the town. senate of Leyden. The incident suggests but one remark. If the courtesy of Oxford depends so completely on the health of the vice-chancellor, it is hoped that in future a sound and vigorous constitution will be made a necessary qualification for that august office.

But after a five o'clock dinner (the usual hour in Holland), all the learned world was assembled at the first state reception given by the burgomaster. Here indeed was a scene such as will not again be witnessed for many a day. Orientalists, hellenists, latinists, historians, philosophers, physiologists, jurists, - all men of mark in the world—were all introducing and being introduced, all discussing and responding, all jabbering in a number of languages, so that, as was profanely remarked, but for the absence of one most important personage, it seemed a veritable Day of Pentecost. Unfortunately the fashion of making speeches seems universal in Holland, and accordingly much hindrance was offered to conversation by the general compliments which polite guests and gracious hosts lavished upon each other. The pleasantest discourse was certainly that of Ernest Renan, who spoke with great frankness and feeling of the miseries of France, and excited general admiration by his elegant style and his vivacious action. But still every moment lost from conversation that evening was well-nigh irreparable. There were the great critical scholars, Cobet, Madvig, Pluygers, and Boot the real successors of Porson and Bentley in Europe; the historians, Dozy and Ernst Curtius; the orientalists, Nöldeke, Kern, Veth, De Goeje, Vullers, Renan; the theologians, Scholten, Kuenen, Kahnis, Biedermann; the antiquarians, Stark and G. Perrot; the phys

The visitors were invited to arrive before Sunday, 7th February, when the fes-theologians tivities were opened by a sermon in the great church. This sermon was not in a dead language, as was stated in the Athenæum, but in Dutch. The service resembled that of the Scotch Church, in its gauntness and want of elegant ritual. The preacher obtained for himself pauses in the discourse by giving out hymns, which were sung by two thousand voices in long-drawn and solemn unison; but so slow withal that the melody was well nigh lost. What made the effect most curious to a foreigner was that most men had their hats on during the sermon, and that several deacons were all the while going round with long landing-nets of black velvet, and fishing for alms among the people. These inexorable deacons, not satisfied with one requisition, returned twice to the charge; and the reckless stranger, who, in imitation of the widow in the gospel, had cast in his two mites together, began to discover that in Holland alms are paid in instalments, and that had she been a Dutchwoman she would have made two bites of the cherry, and applied each mite separately to satisfy the demands of a new collector. The sermon was doubtless

iologists, Milne-Edwards and Donders; cigars for their friends. They do not the jurists, Jhering and Nypels-and give their enemies the satisfaction of these are selected almost at random from hacking their faces. Their conduct all among the two hundred that thronged through the feast, as stewards, as spectathe room. Happily there were several tors, as audiences, was most exemplary. such receptions, so that in spite of the At the solemn giving of degrees there speeches, there was a chance of hearing was no approach to the disgraceful some fragments of talk from the lips of scenes which have often been the opthese giants. So the time ran on till probrium of Oxford and Dublin. They midnight, when the guests who were not were hospitable, generous, enthusiastic; fatigued adjourned to the students' club and always gentlemen. There are now -entitled the Minerva - there to enjoy nearly eight hundred of them, residing cigars and champagne,* and more for four years at least. They pay from speeches. But here the speeches were 10l. to 20%. in fees, and if not preparing a more remarkable feature. After an el- for any special profession, consider law egant Latin welcome by M. Kappeyne, the the best general training. Thus about president, speeches were made in Latin, two-thirds of them appear to be law-stuDutch, French, English, and German, dents. They use the term philosophers all of which were thoroughly appreciated for natural philosophers, of whom there and enjoyed by some five hundred stu- are a good many, particularly attached to dents who thronged the room. the views of Mr. Darwin. These alone escape the inestimable advantage of the classical lectures of Cobet and Pluygers, which all the rest attend. A few statistics such as these are worth mentioning by way of parenthesis, though this paper is not on the university, but on the festival. Yet the English reader, who is usually perfectly ignorant of all foreign institutions, and to whom it is perhaps new that Cobet is professor of Greek at Leyden, may enjoy even these elementary notions about the famous Lugdunum Batavorum.

It was a sight to astonish any foreigner; and the members of British universities might well feel ashamed when they compared the high culture and large accomplishments of the Leyden students with those of their own alumni. Imagine speeches in five languages addressed to our students! Imagine them making speeches in Latin or in German! When we perceive the admiration felt in England for Oxford and Cambridge; when we perceive the tacit assumption of superiority among many members of these wealthy institutions, we are often de- To follow out the various entertainceived into thinking them leaders of ments in their exact order would be mothought in Europe. It is a painful ques-notonous, and would involve much repetion, but one which was forced upon all the tition. It must therefore suffice to say great visitors to this inter-university cel- something on the separate heads of dinebration - What are the English_univer- ner-parties, orations, and of general consities doing for the thought of Europe?versation. The deputations were invited Who among their scholars is a real leader to two state dinners: one given by the of men?

But this is disagreeable digression. It should be noted concerning the students that, as their culture is superior to that of English and Irish students, so their habits and ways seemed not inferior to the average Oxford or Cambridge men. The Dutch are not the least like the average German student - untidy, poor, and duelling; and even where the German students are gentlemanly and refined, as many are at Göttingen, there always remains the barbarism of the duel. The Dutch are far above this level. They have private means. They are even accused of extravagance. They live in handsome lodgings, with good appointments. They have good wine and good

*Not pipes and beer, as the Times imagined.

university, in a large town-hall, the other by Prince Frederick, the king's uncle, at his palace, entitled the "Huis de Pauw" (Domus Pavonum). In addition to these entertainments there were a concert and an opera given by the citizens, a second evening (or rather morning) with the students at their Concordia, an evening reception by the curators, and an afternoon reception by the king and queen, who came to Leyden specially to honour the university and its guests. This interest shown by the royal family for a purely academic meeting was not the least remarkable feature, or the least contrasted with the habits of other courts. The appointments were in all cases very splendid. The banquet of the prince was equal in every respect to those given in our own country by princes and great

noblemen. The menu was, however, de-, even granting this, the outspoken boldcidedly longer, though its French was ness of the address was freely criticised not more perfect than what we see on by the Dutch themselves. But still the our fashionable tables. There was the most orthodox thing done at the festival same wonderful variety of wines, of was to give Professor Jowett a theologwhich the Dutch, however, partake hon-ical degree; and they evidently guarded estly, thus disproving our idle fears that themselves against the suspicion of any a mixture will prove headachy. But the such weakness by associating with him most marked difference in both dinners Mr. Martineau and M. Athanase Cofrom ours was this: that, owing to the querel ! great profusion and length of the courses, The second state speech was a very as well as the intense fever for making elegant address to the assembled depuspeeches, the toasts began when dinner ties in the senate-house, made by the was about half over, and thus it required secretary, Professor de Vries, in Latin. all the ability of the officers in waiting at The scene was, perhaps, the most strikPrince Frederick's to keep silence among ing during the week. In this famous the attendants. At the public dinner in small room, which has been so often Leyden this was not accomplished, and praised and cited, were assembled the so the speeches were accompanied with most various collection of learned men a clatter of plates and knives, and an the world has seen together for many a occasional jingle of glasses. But so many day, while the walls were equally crowded were the speeches, and so many the oc- with the long series of splendid professcasions for delivering them, that even the ors that had lived and taught in Leyden. orators bore the interruption most good-Such an occasion might well inspire the humouredly; and many a sly guest made orator, who spoke with unusual fire. it an excuse for continuing an interesting The answers of the deputies were very conversation he had begun with some poor and brief in comparison; but it must remarkable neighbour. If the cooking be said in justice to them, that they differed at all from the best French were intentionally brief, owing to presmethod, it was in the greater richness of the condiments, and in the more complete disguising of nature under the cloak of art.

sure of business and want of time. The third oration was that of the new rector, Professor Buys, at the conferring of the honorary degrees. But this speech being Of course, the proper place to hear the made in Dutch, and without a translation, oratorical power of the Hollanders was was hardly appreciable at first hearing not at dinner, where the strangers were without a thorough knowledge of the very prominent, but at the solemn meet- language. Its irony was subtle, and its ings of the university, at the first of which style very elegant; indeed, it was dethe outgoing rector, Professor Heynsius,clared by the nation to be the speech made an oration in Dutch, of which a of the festival; but its very excellence French version was considerately circu- made it too hard for outsiders to underlated among the strangers when they took stand until they read it. their places in the church. Despite the The general impression made by Dutch arctic cold of the building which was all eloquence, as compared with that of the the more bitterly felt as the strangers other nations was this: that while decidwere in state dress, the oration was heardedly pleasanter than German, which is with great attention, and its vigour and harsh in conversation, and still harsher boldness greatly praised. It seemed very in public speaking, it was not so pleasant odd to foreigners to hear from the pulpit as French, especially those delicate of a church an attack on theology of the French causeries, which made M. Renan most vehement kind. “L'ancien ménage and M. Gaston Paris such favourites la tolère encore," said the orator, mais whenever they rose. As compared with le sort qui l'attend ne semble pas douteux English speakers, the chief difference dès qu'un nouveau ménage remplacera seemed to be the prevalence of the habit celui qui a fait son temps. Le grand of learning off by heart -a babit almost principe de la séparation de l'Eglise et de universal in Dutch sermons, and obvious Etat exige sa chute avec une inexorable enough all through the festival orations, rigueur. Nous ne le regrettons pas- as well in the highest and most venerable personne d'entre nous." As is well authorities, as in the young and nervous known, the theological school of Leyden, student. This practice must have its the school of Scholten and Kuenen, is effect upon the speaker, and must necesvery advanced and sceptical indeed, yet sarily impair the freshness and grace of

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his delivery. If it were not impertinent | duty of purifying our Greek texts; and and ungrateful to requite such hospitality so it happens that the lesser lights in by advice, the Irish spectator were dis- Leyden have done and are doing more to posed to impart the time-honoured and amend our classics than all the stars of masterly advice of the elder Cato Rem the British universities together. This tene, verba sequentur. great hellenist professes to know no Latin, and yet to hear him speak in Latin is a perfectly new sensation. No one could borrow a speech from him without instant detection. There is a Ciceronian flavour about it, which even at Leyden, the home of Latin speeches, is quite unapproachable. And yet he is evidently thinking in Latin, and forming his sentences as he proceeds. Even Madvig shrank from replying to his eloquence, and confessed that he had here met his master.

FOUR SONNETS ON A PHILISTINE THEME. The eye less bright, and chill with silver