(2) I deem it desirable that foreigners, otherwise eligible, should not be disqualified from receiving invitations to lecture merely because they may not be able to do so in English. And, in order to meet such cases, I suggest that the translated addresses should be delivered before the University by some competent reader (to be selected by the Vice-Chancellor) in the presence of their authors. (3) I further suggest that the same method of delivery should be adopted in cases where age or infirmity would render the voice of the lecturer inaudible, or indistinct, to any portion of his audience. And I hope that neither age nor infirmity, any more than inability to speak the English language, will be deemed a hindrance to the issuing of invitations to the men of high distinction in their several departments. For, on the one hand, in order to have attained such distinction, it must often happen that such men will have attained old age, while, on the other hand, it is of more importance that they should be represented in these decennial volumes than that men of less eminence should be chosen in view of their superiority as lecturers. G. J. ROMANES. To the great satisfaction of the whole University, Mr. Gladstone most generously consented to give the first lecture, which consent he signified in the following letter: Grand Hotel. Biarritz: December 18, 1891. Dear Mr. Romanes,--Until I received your kind letter I reposed undoubtingly in the belief that the Vice-Chancellor had accepted my answer as the answer which best met the case.[94] I thought and think it right, for no one knows my poverty except myself. But Oxford is Oxford, and I think that if she desired me to climb up the spire of Salisbury, I should attempt it, or play the _Græculus esuriens_ in any manner she desired. Your letter opens to me unexpectedly the fact that there is a desire, and that the proposal was not simply a courtesy. I therefore thankfully and respectfully accept; secretly relying a good deal, as I own, on the fact that there is (if I recollect the V.C.'s letter rightly) a good deal of time before me, and that the chances of intermediate reflection may bring up something to the surface which is not now there, for I own my perplexity continues as to the chance of making any presentation not wholly worthless. But enough of this: and let me thank you very much for the interest you, who have so high a title, have personally taken in bringing me to the front. We are much delighted with this place; more eminently, I think, a sea place than any other I happen to know. I am sure, let me add, that you will make my apologies to the Vice-Chancellor; for I am sensible that the altered reply may seem less than respectful to the resident Head of the University. Believe me, most faithfully yours, W. E. GLADSTONE.