What is clear from the foregoing chapter is that the top personages, the parliamentary politicians, the few senior officials, and no small proportion of the examiners, were almost all so closely associated with either the Senate, or with the Annual Committee of Convocation, or with both, that the collective behaviour of the two bodies really embraced most of the contributions made by those special, small groups to the political life of the University community. And the Senate, whose formal membership remained unchanged throughout at thirty eight, and the Committee, whose formal size increased over the years from thirty-two to about fifty-six, were organically related.

The Convocation Senators, whether Convocation-nominated or Crownchosen, were, after 1862, always members of both the Senate and the Annual Committee. This meant that dual membership grew from eleven in 1872 to twenty-three in 1900 – i.e., from roughly a quarter of each body in 1872, to a little over 60 per cent of the Senate and 40 per cent of the Standing Committee, at the end of the century. Many of those London graduates who became, by virtue of their Senate membership, ex officio members of the Annual Committee, had previously been elected members of that Committee. And, as would be expected, membership of the Annual Committee from 1858 included many men who had been active in the Graduates’ Committee during the previous decade. As we have seen, forty-seven out of 119 Fellows were also members of the Annual Committee, reflecting both the early decision of Convocation to make any member who was appointed to the Senate an ex officio member of the Committee, and the willingness of Governments to appoint to the Senate an increasing number of London graduates.

The combined membership of the Senate and the Annual Committee of Convocation between 1858 and 1900 was 293. Of that total, 174 sat only on the Committee and were elected by the London-based members who regularly attended Convocation’s annual meetings. In addition to the 293, there were about seventy-five members of Convocation who tried, but never succeeded by elective means, to enter either the Senate or the Annual Committee. But they tried, and should be included in any estimate of those who constituted the seriously competitive pool of people who took the leading parts in the politics of the University.