His was the best good thing of the night's talk, and the thing that
was remembered. He excited himself a good deal over Rectorial
Elections. The duties of the Lord Rector and the mode of his
election have varied frequently in near five hundred years. In
Murray's day, as in my own, the students elected their own Rector,
and before Lord Bute's energetic reign, the Rector had little to do,
but to make a speech, and give a prize. I vaguely remember
proposing the author of Tom Brown long ago: he was not, however, in
the running.
Politics often inspire the electors; occasionally (I have heard)
grave seniors use their influence, mainly for reasons of academic
policy.
In December 1887 Murray writes about an election in which Mr. Lowell
was a candidate. `A pitiful protest was entered by an' (epithets
followed by a proper name) `against Lowell, on the score of his
being an alien. Mallock, as you learn, was withdrawn, for which I
am truly thankful.' Unlucky Mr. Mallock! `Lowell polled 100 and
Gibson 92 . . . The intrigues and corruption appear to be almost
worthy of an American Presidential election.
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