ation of their predecessors, with the benefit
also of newer lights, as was to be proved by the names and
appearances of many of them in English history to the end of the
century. Even Clarendon admits as much. It was a wonder to him to
find, in the subsequent days of his own Chancellorship of the
University of Oxford, that the "several tyrannical governments
mutually succeeding each other" through so many previous years had
not so affected the place but that it still "yielded a harvest of
extraordinary good and sound knowledge in all parts of learning." He
attributed this to the inherent virtues of the academic soil itself,
which could choke bad seeds, cherish the good, and even defy
barrenness by finding its own seeds; but it may be more reasonable to
suppose that the superintendence of the Universities under the
"tyrannical governments," and especially under Cromwell's as the
latest of them, had not been barbaric.--The University Commissioners,
it may be added, had authority to inspect Westminster School, Eton,
Winchester, and Merchant Taylors'. But, indeed, there seems hardly to
have been a foundation for learning anywhere in England that was not,
in one way or another, brought under Cromwell's eye. In his inquiries
after moneys that might still be recoverable out of the wreck of the
old ecclesiastical revenues one can see that, next to the increase
and better sustenance of his Established Ministry, additions to the
endowed scholastic machinery of the country were always in his mind.
It is clear indeed that one of those characteristics of conservatism
by which Cromwell intended that his government should be
distinguished from the preceding Governments of the Revolution was
greater care of the surviving educational institutions of England and
Wales, with the resuscitation of some that had fallen into decay. The
money-difficulties were great, and less could be accomplished than he
desired; but, apart from what may have been done for the refreshment
of the older foundations, it is memorable that Cromwell was able to
give effect to at least one very considerable design of English
University extension. A College in Durham, expressly for the benefit
of the North of England, with a Provostship, four Professorships, and
tutorships and fellowships to match, was one of the creations of the
Protectorate.[1]

[Footnote 1: Wood's Fasti Oxon. from 1654 onwards; Orme's Life of
John Owen, 175-187; Clarendon, 623; Godwin, IV. 102-10