[Sidenote: The student body.] It is somewhat misleading to characterize Oxford and Cambridge as ‘rich men’s Universities’. The phrase is probably more appropriate to them than it is to any other English-speaking educational institutions; yet ‘wealth’ is not the key to entrance or to success in Oxford. So far as technical restrictions are concerned, the University is open ‘without respect of birth, age, or creed to all persons who satisfy the appointed officers that they are likely to derive educational advantage from its membership’.[45] In practice a considerable amount of ready cash is necessary for every one who wishes to enjoy the advantages of Oxford College life.[46] The sons of aristocratic and of well-to-do families in England, if destined for University careers, are nearly all sent to Oxford or to Cambridge, and the student bodies are recruited largely from these sources. It is asserted that Oxford draws a large proportion of its students from some twenty ‘Public Schools’. The boys who go through these ‘Schools’ have had most of their education away from home since their ninth or tenth years. The cost of living in an English ‘Public School’ is as great as, or greater than, that of educating a boy in an American Private Preparatory School or ‘Military Academy’. Men who have been in these Schools usually come up to Oxford with a generous allowance. But there are also in Oxford a large number of men whose means are comparatively limited. There is no such thing as ‘working one’s way’ in Oxford, and practically the only way in which one’s allowance may be supplemented is through the winning of a scholarship. The type of student who under Western conditions in America not infrequently ‘starts his College career on nothing and graduates with a bank account’ is impossible in Oxford. Again, while it is true that many men in Oxford consider themselves ‘absolutely poor’ on a sum which will keep a man in most Universities altogether comfortably, yet for all purposes of comparison there is an inconsiderable proportion of poor men in the University. Oxford life _is_ expensive—in many respects it _seems too_ expensive. A high minimum allowance[46] is necessary to the student, just as some knowledge of Latin and Greek is necessary for passing Responsions; but it is as misleading to characterize the whole institution as a ‘rich man’s University’ as it would be to say the whole student body is composed of scholars. [Sidenote: Democratic character.]