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DISPUTE OVER THE POWER TO APPOINT A HEAD MASTER.

The students and graduaates of Eton, the great English preparatory school, are much perplexed over the interference of the Crown in the appointment of a gentleman to succeed the late Dr. Goodford, as head master of Eton. This being the first vacancy since the constitution of the governing body, the new provost will be nominated by the Crewn, a right which has always been hotly contested by the fellows in former days, as they asserted that it was a usurpation. The right of electing a provost was undoubtedly vested in the fellows by the statutes; in practice, however, they usually elected a Crown nominee. When Dr. Goodford was elected in 1862, in succession to Dr. Hawtrey, the first favorite for the post was Rey. Edward Coleridge, a fellow, who was so confident of his success that he boasted on the morining of the election that he had his appointment in his pocket in the shape of a pressing letter from the Duke of Newcastle, representing the Government of the day. Two hours later came Osborne "requiring" the fellows to "elect and chosse" Dr. Goodford. The new provost must be a graduate of Oxford or Cambridge, of the degree of M. A., Thirty-five years old, and not necessarily in orders. The appointment is worth L2000 a year, with a residence.

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