MEMORANDUM OF THE TRUSTEES ON THE RHODES SCHOLARSHIPS IN THE UNITED STATES

THE Trustees of the Will of the late Mr. Cecil Rhodes have issued the following Memorandum for the information of College authorities and intending Candidates for Scholarships in the United States:—

The next Qualifying Examination for Scholars in the United States under the Rhodes Bequest will be held the I7th and 18th of January, 1907; the selection of Scholars will be completed before the end of March, and the elected Scholars will begin residence at Oxford in October of that year.

Scholarships will also be open in I908; in I9I0 and I9II; in I9I3 and I9I4; and so on, omitting every third year.

The Scholarships are of the value of 300 pounds a year, and are tenable for three years.

The examination will be held in each Stfate and Territory to which Scholarships are assigned, at centers to be fixed by the local Committee of Selection. This Committee will appoint suitable persons to supervise the examination, and will arrange for its impartial conduct. It should be clearly understood that this examination is not competitive, but simply qualifying, and is merely intended to give assurance that every elected Scholar is up to the standard of the first examination (Responsions) which the University demands of all Candidates for the R. A. degree.

The Rhodes Scholars will be selected from Candidates who have successfully passed this qualifying examination. One Scholar will be chosen for each State and Territory to which Scholarships are assigned.

Candidates must be unmarried, and must be citizens of the United States. Candidates are eligible who have passed their nineteenth birthday, but have not passed their twenty-fifth birthday on October Ist of the year in which they are elected.

It has been decided that all Scholars shall have reached, before going into residence, at least the end of their Sophomore or second year work at some recognized degree-granting University or College of the United States.

An exception to this rule is made in the case of the .St ate of Massachusetts, where, at the request of the Committee of Selection, authority is given to appoint from the Secondary Schools.

Candidates may elect whether they will apply for the Scholarship of the State or Territory in which they have acquired any large part of their educational qualification, or for that of the State or Territory in which they have their ordinary private domicile, home or residence. They may pass the Qualifying Examination at any centre, but they must be prepared to present themselves before election to the Committee in the State or Territory they select.

No Candidate may compete in more than one State or Territory either in the same year or in successive years.

For the Responsions Examination of I905, Candidates were examined in the following subjects:—

I. Arithmetic—the whole.

2. Either, The Elements of Algebra, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Greatest Common Measure, Least Common Multiple, Fractions, Extraction of Square Root, Simple Equations containing one or two unknown quantities, and problems producing such equations;

Or, The Elements of Geometry.

Elementary questions, including propositions enunciated by Euclid, and easy deductions therefrom, will be set on the subject matter contained in the following portions of Euclid's Elements, viz

Book I. The whole, excluding propositions 7, 16, 17, 21.

Book II. The whole, excluding proposition 8.

Book III. The whole, excluding propositions, 2, 4-Io, 13, 23, 24, 26-29.

Any method of proof will be accepted which shows clearness and accuracy in geometrical reasoning.

So far as possible, Candidates should aim at making the proof of any proposition complete in itself.

In the case of propositions 1-7, 9, 10, of Book 11, algebraical proofs will be allowed.

3. Greek and Latin Grammar.

4. Translation from English into Latin.

5. One Greek and one Latin book.

Any of the following portions of the undermentioned authors will be accepted as a "book":

Demosthenes: De Corona.

Euripides (any two of the following Plays): Hecuba, Medea, Alcestis, Bacchae.

Homer: (I) Iliad, I-5 or 2-6; or (2) Odyssey, I-5 or 2-6.

Plato: Apology and Crito.

Sophocles: Antigone and Ajax.

Xenophon: Anabasis, I-4' or 2-5.

Caesar: De Bello Gallico, I-4.

Cicero: (I) Philippics I, 2; or (2) In Catilinam 1-3, and In Verrem Actio I; or (3) pro Mujrena and pro Lege Manilia; or (4) de Senectute and de Amicitia.

Horace: (I) Odes I-4; or (2) Satires; or {3) Epistles.

Livy: Books 5 and 6.

Virgil: (I) the Bucolics, with Books I-3 of the ; or (2) the Georgics; or (3) the Books I-5 or 2-6.

Slight changes are made by Oxford University from year to year in the Books required for Responsions, but the basis of the Examination remains the same.

Sets of the Responsions Examination Papers for past years can be ordered from Oxford University Press, 9I Fifth Avenue, New York.

The Texts used in setting the Examination Papers are those of the series of Oxford Classical Texts, so far as these have been published by the Oxford University Press.

At the request of the Trustees, the University of Oxford named in the years 1904 and 1905 a board of examiners to prepare examination papers covering this range of study, and to report upon the replies given. It is proposed, with the approval of the University, to adopt the same methods of procedure in I907. The papers will be forwarded in sealed parcels to the Chairman of the Committee of' Selection. Within these parcels will be enclosed sealed envelopes containing the examination papers. These envelopes shall only be opened by the supervising examiner at the time and place of the examination. Printed time tables will be supplied. As the papers contain the full text of all classical passages used in examination, no text books will be required by Candidates. Arrangements will be made to suppy stationery to Candidates at the place of examination.

The replies made by Candidates will be collected at the close of each examination and forwarded to Oxford.

The University of Oxford has hitherto accepted in lieu of Responsions the Certificates of its examiners that Students have passed this examination, so that all Scholars elected are excused from that test when they come into residence at Oxford. As a certificate of exemption from Responsions holds good permanently, persons who have passed in previous years, if otherwise eligible, need not take the examination a second time in order to become qualified as Candidates.

As soon as the report of the examiners has been received, the Chairman of the Committee of Selection in each State will be furnished with a list of the Candidates who have passed and are therefore eligible for election.

The Committee of Selection will then proceed to choose the Scholar for the year.

In accordance with the wish of Mr. Rhodes, the Trustees desire that "in the election of a student to a Scholarship, regard shall be had to (i) his literary and scholastic attainments, (ii) his fondness for and success in manly outdoor sports, such as cricket, football, and the like, (iii) his qualities of manhood, truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship, and (iv) his exhibition during school-days of moral force of character, and of instincts to lead and to take an interest in his schoolmates." Mr. Rhodes suggested that (ii) and (iii) should be decided in any School or College by the votes of fellow-students, and (iv) by the Head of the School or College.

Where circumstances render it impracticable to carry out the letter of these suggestions as to the method of selection, the Trustees hope that every effort will be made to give effect to their spirit, but desire it to be understood that the final decision must rest with the Committee of Selection.

To aid in making a choice each qualified Candidate should be required to furnish to the Chairman of the Committee of Selection—

a. A Certificate of age.

b. A full statement of his educational career at School and College; his record in athletics, and such testimonials from his masters at School and his professors at College, in reference to the qualities indicated by Mr. Rhodes, as will assist the judgment of the Committee of Selection.

c. In cases where more than one Candidate from a single College or University has qualified, the College or University should be required to select (in accordance with the views of Mr. Rhodes) its chosen representative to go before the Committee of Selection for final choice, and a Certificate that he has been so chosen shall be sent to the Chairman of the Committee of Selection.

Each Candidate should personally present himself to the Committee of Selection before a final decision is made unless specially excused by the Committee itself, in which case a statement of the reasons should be sent to the Trustees.

If a careful comparison of these records and personal interviews with the Candidates do not furnish sufficient grounds for making a decision, the Committee of Selection is free to apply to the Candidates, or to any selected number of them, such further intellectual or other tests as they may consider necessary.

The Chairman of the Committee of Selection should at once notify to the Trustees and to Mr. F. J. Wylie, The Rhodes Trust, Oxford, the name of the elected Scholar, and should forward to the latter all the records, credentials and testimonials relating to the Scholar on which the election was made. These papers should be transmitted immediately, as they are used in consulting College authorities in regard to the admission of Scholars. It has been the experience of the past two years that Scholars have frequently been unable to gain . admission to any of the Colleges of their preference owing to remissness in forwarding to Mr. Wylie the necessary information.

The Scholarship will be paid in four quarterly instalments; the first on beginning residence at Oxford, and thereafter terminally on the Certificate of his College that the work and conduct of a Scholar have been satisfactory. Without such a Certificate the Scholarship lapses. A Scholarship which lapses either from the failure of a Student to secure this College Certificate, from resignation, from marriage, or from any other cause, will not be filled up till the year in which it would naturally expire. This provision is made in order not to interfere with the rotation of succeeding Scholars.

The following "Instructions," issued to Scholars elected for the year I905, indicate the course of procedure by which a Scholar is entered at Oxford.:—

I.—In order to be admitted to the University of Oxford, it is necessary to be first accepted as a member of one of the Colleges which compose the University.

Election to a Rhodes Scholarship does not of itself admit to a College. Every College has its own standard for ad- mission, for Rhodes Scholars as for all other applicants; and accepts or rejects at its own discretion. Moreover, the number of Rhodes Scholars which any one College will admit is strictly limited. Few Colleges will admit more than five in any one year; and in the majority of cases four is the maximum. From the different candidates for admission a College will select those whose records suggest that they are most likely to do credit to the College to which they may belong. It is therefore essential that, in applying for admission to a College, a Scholar should submit the fullest possible evidence as to his personal character and Academic record.

2.—The procedure for a Scholar-elect should be as follows:

(I) Immediately on receiving notice of his election he should write to the Oxford Secretary to the Rhodes Trustees, Mr. F. J. Wylie, The Rhodes Trust, Oxford, stating in order the Colleges which he prefers.

(2) He should satisfy himself that the credentials which he submitted to the Committee of Selection have been forwarded by the Chairman to Mr. Wylie.

(3) He should himself forward to Mr. Wylie any portion of the following information which may not have been included in the documents submitted to the Committee of Selection:—

(a) A Certificate of age; (b) Testimonials as to character; (c) Certified evidence as to the Courses of Study pursued by the Scholar at his University, and as to the gradings attained to by him in those Courses;

This evidence should be signed by the Registrar, or other responsible official, of his University; (d) A Catalogue of his University; (e) Evidence as to the general tastes and pursuits of the Scholar outside his Academic Course; (f) Information as to the intentions of the Scholar in regard to the line of study he proposes to follow at Oxford.

It is also desirable that the Scholar should state to what religious denomination he belongs.

All this material must reach Mr. Wylie by the beginning of the Summer Term—that is, by the end of April at the latest.

3, — When Mr. Wylie has the necessary information in his hands he will attempt to secure for each Scholar admission to the college of his preference. That will not be always possible. When a Scholar fails to gain admission to the College which stands first on his list of preferences, Mr. Wylie will enter into negotiation with the College second on that list, and so on.

Where he is specially requested to do so, Mr. Wylie is prepared to select a College for a Scholar, but it is greatly to be preferred that each Scholar should, so far as possible, choose for himself.

4.—Information about the various Colleges is to be found in the early chapters of the "Students' Handbook to Oxford." This book can be obtained at the Oxford University Press, 9I Fifth Avenue, New York. Scholars-elect are recommended to get it.

5.— A study of Chapter III. of the above mentioned book will afford a rough, though only a rough, idea of the cost of life at Oxford, and in particular of the expenses which an Undergraduate has to meet on coming for the first time into residence.

6.—The Scholarship will be paid quarterly. The first payment (75 pounds) will be made in the course of the first week of the Michaelmas Term. No request for any earlier payment can be considered.

The sum of 300 pounds is no more than is necessary to cover the expenses of the year, including vacations as well as term. A scholar must not therefore count on his Scholarship leaving any margin— least of all in his first year, in which, owing to unavoidable initial payments," expenses are heaviest. Experience suggests that a Scholar should start his Oxford career' free from financial embarrassment.

8.— When a Scholar has been once accepted by a College he should conduct all further correspondence as to residence, studies, etc., directly with the College in question. He should, however, keep Mr. Wylie informed of his movements, and in particular of the date at which he proposes to come into residence. Michaelmas Term begins normally in the second week of October. Some Colleges assemble on the Thursday, others on the Friday, in that week. A Scholar must in any case arrive in Oxford not later than the day on which his College assembles; and it will in most cases be better that he should come a few days earlier.

9.— lt is presumed that a Scholar will reside in College, except in cases in which the College is unable to offer him rooms. It is the custom at Oxford for an Undergraduate to reside in College for at least two years, unless special circumstances make this undesirable.

There are now in residence at Oxford under the Rhodes Bequest I6I Scholars drawn from the different countries for which Scholarships are provided. Seventy-one come from the British Colonies; seventy-nine from the United States, and eleven from Germany.

Candidates are subjected to examination tests which ensure their acceptance at Oxford, but the final selection of Scholars is in all cases left to local Committees of Selection, guided in their choice by the suggestions made in the Will of Mr. Rhodes.

The Scholars are distributed among twenty of the Oxford Colleges. Seventeen are in residence at Balliol, thirteen each at Christ Church and Worcester, eleven each at Oriel and St. John's College, ten at New College, nine each at Brasenosse, Exeter, Queen's and Trinity, eight each at Hertford and Pembroke, seven at Magdalen, six each at Lincoln, Merton and Wadham, five at University, two at Keble, and one each at Corpus and St. Edmund's Hall.

The distribution of the Scholars depends partly upon their own choice, and partly on their merits as judged by the College authorities. Each selected Scholar sends in to the Trust a list of Colleges at which he wishes to enter in the order of his preference. The authorities of each College then select from the applicants for admission those whose scholastic record and credentials seem to them most satisfactory.

The work of-the Scholars, selected by themselves in consultation with their College tutors, is distributed very widely over the different courses of study organized in the University. Those who are reading in the Honour Schools for the B.A. degree are as follows:

Literae Humaniores 23 Modern History I8 Jurisprudence 27 Natural Science ( Geology, Chemistry, Physiology and Physics) I6 English Literature I2 Theology 8 Mathematics 4 Modern Languages 2 Reading for a Pass degree I

In courses more specialized or advanced than those for the B. A. degree there are reading:—

For the B. C.L. degree I4 For the B. Sc. " 3 For the B. Litt. " 9 For Medicine 4 For Diploma in Economics 8 Forestry 2

Five States of the American Union failed to furnish a qualified candidate in 1904, and eight in I905.

In several States the competition was very slight, and scarcely sufficient to justify the award of so valuable a Scholarship.

The German Scholars for the most part remain in residence only two years, the conditions of German Military service and the requirements of their own Universities interfering with the three years' course at Oxford.

Many of the Scholars have availed themselves of the opportunity to acquire command of the French and German languages by spending their vacations on the Continent, where the expense of living is not great.

The election of Scholars is to be completed and the names of successful competitors notified to the Trust before the I5th of April. Steps will then be taken by the Representative of the Trust at Oxford to distribute the men among the various Colleges. Elected Scholars enter into residence at Oxford in October, 1907.

TOMB OF COLONEL WILLIAM LECGE.

COLONEL WILLIAM LEGGE