the first tutor who had ever offered
himself to a ward for election. The townsfolk, between whom and the
University there had generally been little love, the former thinking
themselves looked down upon by the latter, warmly appreciated his
action in coming out of his seclusion to help them, and his influence
in the Council contributed to secure some useful reforms, among
others, the establishment of a "grammar" or secondary school for the
city.

One of the last things he wrote was a short pamphlet on freedom of
contract, intended to justify the interference with bargains between
landlord and tenant which was proposed by Mr. Gladstone's Irish Land
Bill of 1881. It is a vigorous piece of reasoning, which may still be
read with interest in respect of its application of philosophical
principles to a political controversy. Had he desired it he might have
gone to the House of Commons as member for the city of Oxford. But he
had found in the Council a field for local public work, and apart from
his constitutional indolence and his declining health, he had
concluded that his first duty lay in expounding his philosophical
system.

Green will be long remembered in the English Universities as the
strongest force in the sphere of ethical philosophy that they have
seen in the second half of the nineteenth century, and remembered also
as a singular instance of a metaphysician with a bent towards politics
and practical life, no less than as a thinker far removed from
orthodoxy who exerted over orthodox Christians a potent and inspiring
religious influence.

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[18] As I have referred to the American Civil War, it is worth adding
that there were no places in England where the varying fortunes
of that tremendous struggle were followed with a more intense
interest than in Oxford and Cambridge, and none in which so
large a proportion of the educated class sympathised with the
cause of the North. Mr. Goldwin Smith led the section which
took that view, and which included three-fourths of the best
talent in Oxford. Among the younger men Green was the most
conspicuous for his ardour on behalf of the principles of human
equality and freedom. He followed and watched every move in the
military game. No Massachusetts Abolitionist welcomed the fall
of Vicksburg with a keener joy. He used to say that the whole
future of humanity was involved in the trium