_Honorary Degrees_ (Vol. viii., pp. 8. 86.).--The short note of C. does
not elucidate--if, indeed, it touches upon--the matter propounded. It
was stated, whether correctly I know not, that honorary doctors created
by _diploma_ (reference being made to the Duke of Cambridge, and one or
two other royal personages) would have the _distinctive_ privilege of
voting in Convocation. It then occurred to me that Johnson--whose Oxford
dignity was conferred in 1776, by special requisition of the Chancellor,
Lord North (his M.A. degree had been, I judge, likewise by _diploma_)--is
not mentioned by Boswell or Croker, as having on any occasion exercised
the right referred to. Did he possess that right? and, if so, was it ever
exercised? The frequency of his visits to Oxford, and the alleged rigid
adherence to academical costume, make the question one of some interest:
besides, in regard to a person so entirely _sui generis_, and upon whose
character and career so much minuteness of biographical detail has been
bestowed, it is not a little remarkable how many points are almost barren
of illustration.