Reasons for University Reform.

417

academical course; and the Professors were degraded and their courses rendered nominal. Every attempt to remove these usurpations was crushed by the Board of Heads, who had no inclination to overthrow their own monopoly by submitting remedial measures to the academical legislature. Then came the natural concomitants of such a system,-a want of zeal and earnestness in curbing the extravagances of youth, often a decided preference for such students as could afford a large expenditure, and a growing necessity for the grievous and burdensome extra of private tuition, the inadequacy of the regular Tutorial instruction of the college compelling students to supply the defect by the expensive and unauthorized aid of the Private Tutor.

Moreover, if the Universities were unwilling to carry out the course prescribed to them by their constitutions, much less would they listen to suggestions of improvement made by the expanding intelligence and altered circumstances of the nation. New classes had risen to wealth and importance, who were shut out from the Universities by the absence of all specific instruction adapted to their peculiar wants. They were seeking in other schools an education which necessarily engendered sentiments of antagonism, not seldom of direct hostility, to Oxford and Cambridge. The stationary numbers of the academical students, contrasted with the wonderful expansion of England's wealth and population, significantly proclaimed how much of the new life blood of the nation was alien to the Universities: the power and influence of the England of the future were rapidly passing into the hands of those who knew nothing of Oxford and Cambridge. Even those classes which had been educated at the Universities for generations were now eager for an enlargement of their studies: they felt that the progress of society required that the foremost youth of England should be something more than mere classical scholars or pure mathematicians; whilst the amount of attainments required at the age of twenty-two from the large body of pass-men was a disgrace to the educational condition of a great people of the 19th century. An efficient instrument for wiping away this discredit had been frequently pressed upon the Universities by many of its best friends, who had advocated the institution of a general examination of all Undergraduates at entrance, a measure already adopted with marked success in the best colleges, and calculated to exercise a most powerful and beneficial influence on all the classical schools of the country. But the authorities of the University were alarmed by the risk of diminished numbers: they shrunk, too, from applying an unwelcome pressure to the ill-trained expectants of family-livings; and so refused to adopt a measure by which the University and the education of the country would VOL. XXII. NO, XLIV.

2 D

have been equal gainers. On the other hand, the Tutorial machinery did not readily accommodate itself to the introduction of new studies. It was alone the imminent peril of reform by external authority which extorted from the academical government the creation of additional schools in history and the physical and moral sciences. Besides all this, it was obvious that the national feeling was daily becoming more alive to the impolicy and injustice of excluding Dissenters from the Universities. Their numbers were growing in the state; their weight in Parliament manifestly increasing; so much so, that Mr. Heywood obtained the large number of 106 names of members of the House of Commons to a memorial which prayed Lord John Russell to free the admission to the Universities from all religious tests. On the other hand, Oxford shewed no symptom of relaxing a single link of its connexion with the Church of England; and the necessity for the interposition of Parliament gathered strength from the conflict of feeling.

But those who cherished the noblest conceptions of the peculiar services which the old Universities could render to English civilisation in modern times--who were most eager to preserve and enlarge their influence as a counterpoise to the ideas and tendencies generated by the material developments of our agethese true sons of Oxford and Cambridge beheld with grief the existence of deeper defects which were steadily lowering them in public estimation, and pined for a reform that should do something more than sweep away superficial faults and anomalies. They lamented that Oxford was degenerating more and more into a mere school, and that the Tutorial system thought only of examinations and honours, and forgot all the higher functions of a University. It was the calling of a University to be a sanctuary for learning as well as a school for youth-to be the depository of studies for which the distractions of common life left no inclination or leisure-to be the guardian of those elements of man's spiritual and intellectual nature, which constituted his higher being and the essence of a true civilisation. Here the nation was to look for that knowledge and culture which should regulate and refine the tone of its literatureguide the principles of its statesmen-purify and elevate its moral conscience--expound and defend its religion. ought to be found the supreme authorities in all the great departments of literature and science-the champions of England's intellectual fame-the pioneers of her literary progress-the bulwarks of her faith against the assaults of an unbelieving philosophy and a rationalizing scepticism. Such is the ideal of Oxford's greatness as conceived by her best friends: What was the reality she presented? For the power and authority of pro

Here

De pendence of Oxford on Germany.

419

found learning she substituted the virtues of a schoolmaster; instead of the wisdom and knowledge which could direct the course of the intellectual movement of the world, she boasted of the number of young men who had passed brilliant examinations. Some remains of literary eminence still lingered among new times and new races; but they only rendered the decay of learning more apparent, and testified to the changed qualities of the incoming generations.

Nor does Oxford seem to be aware how calamitous, even for the interests of education alone, is the absence of authoritative learning. Young men of energy and talent are quick to distinguish between the retailers of knowledge at secondhand, and the real leaders of science. The latter class command their reverence and determine their views; and if these masters of thought do not exist at Oxford, the allegiance of her students will be transferred to London and to foreigners. Oxford prides herself in training the young in sound religion and useful learning; yet by neglecting to cherish within her own bosom authorities confessedly pre-eminent, she practically surrenders her pupils to a teaching of which she does not determine the spirit, and to influences which lead to results which she avowedly but fruitlessly condemns. She is compelled to allow London and Germany to form the minds and principles of her students, though London instils in them admiration for democracy, and Germany inoculates them with the poison of scepticism. It is no light matter for England that the ardent minds of her noblest youths should plunge into the exciting studies of theology, philosophy, and history, and not have near them a single theologian, historian, or philosopher, to whose counsels they can listen with the deference due to acknowledged greatness. If Oxford does not lead in philosophy and theology, she must follow. If the University does not herself sustain an independent and progressive pursuit of knowledge, she must submit to the ignominy and the loss of letting her pupils derive their conclusions and their views from extraneous but authoritative sources. The protestations of age and station will be levelled in vain against the invasion of books of deep research, however one-sided or perverted their principles may be; this will be no more heeded than the commands of Canute by the advancing tide. So notorious is the fallen state of Oxford becoming, that when Mr. Horsman, in a speech distinguished alike by extent and solidity of information, and statesmanlike ability to grasp the manifold bearings of the subject, displayed to the House of Commons a picture of the inroad of German influence and literature into Oxford, the filial piety of Mr. Gladstone, unable to deny the truth of the representation, could only

supply the sorry comfort, that we are a practical people, and that our glory is not to be sought in the region of science and literature.

Si Pergama dextra

Defendi possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent.

Mr. Gladstone is the last man to be ignorant of what Englishmen have been and have done in every department of human thought; is he content that this generation should lower their pretensions below the standard of their forefathers? And if he is not ambitious of intellectual greatness for his country, is he insensible to the danger of foreign influence? Is he satisfied that England henceforward should follow the guidance of minds formed under influences very dissonant from her own? Germany has reconstructed ancient history by the powerful machinery of a renovated criticism: does Mr. Gladstone think that the practical talent of England, unaided by learned research, will overthrow the rationalistic remodelling of that sacred narrative which is the basis of the Christian faith? Does he suppose that English parents have learnt without alarm, that in an age of active inquiry, and in a University incessantly agitated by theological discussion, their sons are attracted by elaborate scholarship, profound philology, and unwearied diligence, to seek interpretations of the Sacred Volume from commentators, who treat it as replete with the ordinary failings of human composition, and who reject the authenticity of many parts of the Canon, and the inspired authority of all? Does he believe that they are greatly consoled by his assurance that England produces able statesmen, wonderful engineers, practical merchants, and intelligent artisans? Can he doubt the existence of an indignant sorrow that Oxford provides no antidote; that she possesses no men competent to refute the Germans, much less to present counter-attractions to draw away English youths from such dangers?

The wish to remedy this disastrous decay of learning has all along been one of the most animating motives of the ablest University reformers. It was not difficult to discover the cause of the malady; and an effectual remedy was at hand. That cause is the excess of Tutorism; and the remedy is the introduction of a modified Professoriate. Oxford is the victim of the utilitarian tendencies which she is so fond of denouncing. She saw the increasing estimation in which a good Degree was held; and she was contented with satisfying this educational want of the public. She sank without compunction into a public school. Yet even as a mere public school, Oxford suffers some important disadvantages. It is a school administered by a peculiar race of schoolmasters. They are unmarried men ; a fact productive of

Oxford a mere Public School.

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many consequences. They are necessarily young men; for their office constituting no profession, they are ever seeking to exchange it for other occupations. Hence they are not even the best schoolmasters which the University might command; for the ablest of her sons readily obtain large incomes and permanent posts in the masterships of other schools. So unfortunate is the University, that she cannot retain within her walls those of her members who have the most eminent gifts of teaching; and to such as she does keep she holds out no inducement to improve themselves as schoolmasters, or to devote themselves to a single learned study. The Tutor is engaged in little more than imparting to nen somewhat younger than himself those attainments which he acquired in preparing for the Bachelor's degree. No definite study is proceeded with; there is no demand made on the Tutor by his position in the University or the country to increase his learning or ripen his knowledge. Hence the marvellous spectacle of a great University of a nation pre-eminent for practical talent allowing its public teaching to sink so low, as that Theology, Philosophy, History, and Philology, should be often taught by the same man; hence the mischievous anomaly, that a boy in progressing from school to college, passes from a superior to an inferior instructor. The activity with which this schoolmastering process is carried on absorbs all the energy of the University. There is no leisure for meditation; no call for the higher instruction of Professors; they are suffered to wither away into insignificance. Neither are the highest academical dignities applied to their natural use, of encouraging men of the most promising talent to residence and industry. Headships are not the rewards of learning; the possession of learning is generally no recommendation for obtaining them; they are bestowed commonly from motives which have nothing to do with the welfare of the University. The whole force of Oxford, its life and energy, are concentrated in preparing Undergraduates for the Bachelor's degree. When a young man has entered into manhood through the portal of a high Degree, he is provided with no subsequent career by the University; he is abandoned to the attractions which entice him away from her society, or he is harnessed into the objectless and unimproving drudgery of a Tutorship. Thus neither age nor station in Oxford imply any literary or scientific eminence; and thus the principles and knowledge which regulate the intellectual life of the students are sought from men and books that are strangers to the University.

Such are the fruits of the collegiate monopoly; of that monopoly which extinguished the University, placed supreme power in the hands of College-heads, made admission to a college the