literary lives, respectively of Dante Alighieri (published 1891), and Goethe (published 1892). By this time he had met and befriended Oscar Wilde, a friendship that lasted until Wilde's scandal and imprisonment in 1895, when Browning contributed to the fund set up by Wilde's friends to help pay his debts. Browning was acquainted through meetings or correspondence with leading literary figures such as Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Algernon Swinburne, and the unrelated Robert Browning. According to the critic Noel Annan, writing in 1983, Oscar Browning introduced himself presumptuously to the Poet Laureate with the words "Hello, Tennyson, I'm Browning", and received the reply "No, you're not". In 1881 Browning became treasurer of the Cambridge Union, a post he held for 21 years. In 1887 he became president of Footlights, serving until 1895. He also founded the Cambridge University Liberal Club in 1886, becoming its first Treasurer, and staying in post for a decade. During that time, he hosted a whole range of society events at his rooms in King's, from committee meetings and sherry parties to the larger "At Home" evenings which offered a rare chance for men and women in Cambridge to socialise together. By 1888 he was sufficiently well known to be the subject of a caricature by W.B. Hayes ("Hay"), as one of the "Men of the Day", in the society magazine Vanity Fair. In 1886 Browning entered active politics as a Gladstonian Liberal; in that year's general election, as the Liberal Party's candidate in the South London constituency of Norwood, where he was heavily defeated. He fought two further elections, in 1892 at East Worcestershire and in 1895 at Liverpool West Derby, in each case losing by large majorities. Day Training College Inception The Education Act, 1880 introduced compulsory education for children aged between five and ten. This greatly increased the demand for teachers, and created a need for a better trained and more attractive teaching profession. Among the initiatives designed to meet this need was a government Code of Regulation issued in 1890, which led to the establishment of university-based day training colleges. On 12 March 1891 Browning and his colleague Henry Sidgwick presented the Cambridge University Senate with a proposal to establish in Cambridge a Day Training College for elementary school teachers. The proposal received a "Grace" (provisional acceptance) from the Senate, on the basis of which Browning applied to the government's Education Department for approval