t
the same time its reputation for efficiency was very high. This was due
to the policy of Dr. William Samuel Powell, Master from 1765 to 1775. He
introduced various administrative changes on the financial side of
College management, and also started annual examinations in the College,
then a novelty in the University. These examinations were not very
severe, and to the somewhat overtaxed undergraduate of the present day
might seem almost trivial. They were not competitive, there was no order
of merit, but no one seems to have been exempt; their object was simply
to test the knowledge of the students. The success of the plan attracted
much attention; it was proposed to institute similar examinations for
the University at large, but Powell opposed this on the ground that
candidates ought to be examined by those who taught them. From this date
it would appear that Fellow Commoners, at St. John's at least, began to
take degrees in the University.

During Powell's mastership an observatory was established on the top of
the western gateway of the Second Court, and regular astronomical
observations taken. Two sets of observations there made by Fellows of
the College have been published; one set made by William Ludlam in 1767
and 1768, the other by Thomas Catton between 1796 and 1826, the latter
being published by the Royal Astronomical Society in 1854.

We find members of the College taking part in all the movements of the
time. In the rebellion of 1745, James Dawson, a captain in the
Manchester Regiment, was taken prisoner at Carlisle, and executed in
July 1746 on Kennington Common; while Robert Ganton, afterwards a
clergyman, was excused one term's residence in the University, during
which, as one of "his majesty's Royal Hunters," he was fighting the
rebels.

Charles Churchill, satirist, was for a short time a member of the
College in 1748. William Wordsworth, afterwards Poet Laureate, entered
the College as a sizar, and was admitted a foundress' scholar 6th
November 1787. Many adopted military careers; of these we may mention
George, first Marquis Townshend, who joined the College in 1741,
afterwards entered the army, and was present at Fontenoy and Culloden;
he went with Wolfe to Canada, and took over the command when Wolfe fell.
Daniel Hoghton entered in 1787, he also became a soldier, and was one of
Wellington's men in the Peninsular War; he was killed at the battle of
Albuera, being then a major-general.

Of anoth