A short-lived periodical, founded by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, which ran from January until December 1856. In some ways a successor to the Pre-Raphaelite Germ, the Oxford and Cambridge Magazine expressed the views of a 'brotherhood' of undergraduates at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Following similar aims for social regeneration as The Apostles, (whose influence can also be traced in the aims of the Athenaeum), the group were particularly inspired by the moral purpose of Carlyle (1795-1881), Ruskin and Tennyson, and saw themselves as crusaders against materialism. Although the first issue was praised by both Tennyson and Ruskin, Ruskin's doubts that the venture would succeed were confirmed when it folded after the December 1856 issue. (See Houghton, Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals.)
Having reviewed Modern Painters III in April 1856, Morris and Burne-Jones came to Ruskin 's defence in the Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, June 1856, following a critical attack by the Edinburgh Review and the Quarterly Review. Other reviews sympathetic to Ruskin included the British Quarterly Review, April 1856, the Westminster Review, April 1856, the American Putnam's Monthly Magazine, May 1856, the Eclectic Review, June 1856, Fraser's Magazine, June 1856, and the National Review, July 1856. Many of these periodicals were those representing the interests of religious dissent.