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 L I E) RARY 
 
 OF THE 
 U N 1 V LR5ITY 
 Of ILLl NOIS
 
 ON TEACHING UNIVERSITIES 
 
 AND 
 
 EXAMINING BOARDS. 
 
 By LYON PLATFAIE, 
 
 MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT FOR TUE UNIVERSITIES OF EDINBURGH AND ST. ANDREWS. 
 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 WITH REFERENCE TO IRISH UNIVERSITY EDUCATION. 
 
 DUBLIN: 
 
 HODGES, FOSTER AND CO. 
 EDINBURGH: EDMONSTON AND DOUGLAS, 
 
 18 73.
 
 DUBLIN : PRINTED BY R. CHAI'MAN,
 
 ON TEACHING UNIVERSITIES 
 AND EXAMINING BOARDS. 
 
 The subject of this address has recently received a large 
 amount of attention, on account of the able speech of the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, delivered at Halifax. Mr. 
 Lowe represents a university of a peculiar character, 
 unlike all other Universities since the time when the con- 
 ventual institutions of Charlemagne and King Alfred 
 crystallized into an academic form. The University of 
 London is a mere Examining Board, — one, it is true, of high 
 character, but having none of the traditions or habits of any 
 other European Universities. It is, as I will show hereafter, 
 far more related to the Examining Boards of China than to 
 any European model. Captivated with the spirit of the 
 University which he represents, Mr. Lowe has announced 
 startling views as to the position which the State should 
 take in relation to the Universities of the kingdom. You 
 are no doubt aware that a statesman in a position of respon- 
 sibility, is inclined to speak like a Delphic oracle, and so we 
 are never sure what interpretation to put upon words which 
 often cover an unavowed or mere tentative purpose. But I 
 happen to know, from an active correspondence which Mr. 
 Lowe's speech has brought upon me from the Irish and 
 Scotch Universities, that they, at least, have come to a single 
 interpretation of his meaning. They conceive that the 
 immediate, though not the expressed, purpose of his speech, 
 was to prepare the public mind for the conversion of the 
 teaching Universities of Ireland into a joint Examining 
 
 A 2
 
 4 ON TEACHING UNIVERSITIES 
 
 Board like that of London ; and that, as a later operation, 
 the four Scotch Universities would be requested to execute 
 upon themselves the Japanese operation of the " Happy 
 Despatch " in a like manner. Mr. Lowe's general thesis is 
 this — that it is not the duty of the State to assist higher 
 educational institutions, though it is the duty of the State to 
 control and regulate the examinations in them. His words 
 are : — " What the State ought to have to do with the Uni- 
 versities is to decide of what the curriculum should consist, 
 or list of subjects on which the examination should be held." 
 He defines a University as follows: "What I mean by a 
 University is an Examining Board;" and of these Boards 
 lie would found two or three, perhaps only one, like the 
 University of France, for he says " the fewer the better." 
 Mr. Lowe lauds the University of London as the type of all 
 that is excellent, and compares with it, to their disadvantage, 
 the other Universities of the kingdom. Any opinions 
 coming from a man of such distinction and political power 
 as Mr. Lowe demand careful attention, and more especially 
 when we connect them with opinions which Mr. Gladstone 
 has expressed in relation to the Scotch Universities, and is 
 supposed to have shadowed out as principles for the recon- 
 struction of the Irish Universities. But if a University of 
 Edinburgh and a University of Dublin, as mere Examining 
 Boards, swallow up the graduating powers of the Scotch 
 and Irish Universities, the inexorable logic of events must 
 compel the University of London to swallow, although the 
 pills are larger, the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and 
 Durham. 
 
 If the Chancellor of the Exchequer really intended to 
 throw down the gauntlet on such an important issue, I am 
 a small knight, and of low renown, to take up the gage of 
 such a doughty champion ; but I Avould be unworthy of the 
 confidence bestowed upon me by two Scotch Universities if 
 
 UIUC '
 
 AND EXAMINING BOARDS. 5 
 
 I refused to consider the question in relation to its public 
 j)olicy. I therefore propose to show to you that there 
 is already ample experience to guide our policy in this 
 matter, and the result of it has been, that wherever a 
 State has destroyed the separate autonomy of Universities 
 by establishing common Examining Boards, disastrous effects 
 on the national character and national intellect have ensued ; 
 and further, that in the single case in which an Examining 
 University — that of London — has been established as supple- 
 mentary to other Universities, the effect upon the higher 
 education of the people has been singularly small. But I 
 must begin by denying altogether Mr. Lowe's definition that 
 " a University is an Examining Board." There is nothing 
 in history to justify this definition, except the single instance 
 of the University of London, founded thirty-three years 
 since. 
 
 From the very earliest days the teaching and examining 
 functions of Universities have been united. The first time 
 j)erhaps that the term " University," in relation to a seat of 
 learning, appeared in an official document, was in 1209, 
 when Pope Innocent iii. included the whole corporation of 
 Teachers and Students " Doctorihus et universis scholaribus 
 Parisiensihus . . . universitatem vestram rogamus,'' etc. ; 
 and the style taken by that University in 1221 was, " We, 
 the University of the Masters and Scholars of Paris." 
 Before that period degrees were given, and their organization 
 was even regulated by a Papal Bull. I need not remind 
 you that all European Universities, except the University of 
 London, are founded on separate or mixed types of the 
 ancient Universities of Paris and Bologna. If Students and 
 Teachers v/ere essential, in their corporate capacity, to a 
 graduating system in Paris, you may be sure they were so 
 in all other Universities; for Paris was a " Universitas 
 Magistrorum,'" which retained the chief power in the hands
 
 6 ON TEACHING UNIVERSITIES 
 
 of the Teachers ; while Bologna was a Universitas Schola- 
 rium, and gave the preponderance of power to the Students. 
 We all know that the term " graduates " originally meant 
 gradation in the office of qualified teachers ; for all University 
 graduates had not only the power but were under an obligation 
 to teach. So essentially was the union between teaching 
 and graduation deemed a part of University existence, that 
 when Universities began to split up into Colleges, the separate 
 Colleges were not unfrequently empowered to grant degrees, 
 though the superiority of the University, as a whole, was 
 recognized by the visitorial powers of the Rector. Thus the 
 College of Sorbonne became practically the faculty of Theo- 
 logy, and granted degrees with the consent of the Chancellor 
 of Notre Dame. The other professional Colleges in Paris 
 united into faculties, and their Deans granted degrees in like 
 manner. As it was in Paris so was it in Bologna. From and 
 after 1362, there were actually four degree-conferring Uni- 
 versities in Bologna ; two for law, one for Medicine and Phi- 
 losophy, and one for Theology — the degrees being conferred 
 by the Regent Doctors, that is, by the Professors in each. In 
 our own country, in 1468, Pope Paul ii. granted to the Col- 
 lege of St. Salvador in St. Andrews the full power of granting 
 degrees ; and his successor Paul iii., in the folloAving century, 
 gave the same power to St. Mary's College. In Aberdeen 
 the case became more marked, for two Colleges became two 
 distinct Universities in the same town, and have only been 
 united in our own day. It was somewhat different in the 
 English Universities, where the Colleges gradually usurped 
 the principal teaching functions from regent graduates of 
 the University. But these duties have been preserved in 
 theory, though relinguished in practice, by the Professors, 
 who are the representatives of the old regent graduates. 
 Within the last few years the original practice is beginning to 
 reassert itself, for the Professors of the Natural and Medical
 
 AND EXAMINING BOARDS. 7 
 
 sciences, with their assistants, do the whole work of teaching. 
 In Scotland, the teachers carried within the walls of the 
 College the graduating powers of the University; for the 
 Colleges, which were rather homes and refuges for Profes- 
 sors than for students, became the University; while in 
 England, the Colleges, arising out of students' halls, carried 
 away the teaching functions of the University, although 
 they were unable, or too careless, to carry the graduating 
 power along with them. The German and Italian Univer- 
 sities are similar to those in Scotland, and have preserved 
 unimpaired the original and intimate union between the 
 teaching and graduating powers. 
 
 France has completely separated these two functions, and 
 its University forms an excellent study for those who would 
 advocate a state interference with University examinations. 
 I have alluded to the early history of the University of 
 Paris, when its teaching and examining functions were 
 united, and for nearh^ six hundred years it produced men 
 of intellect and men of action, who made France the wonder 
 and admiration of nations. The provinces of France imi- 
 tated the University of Paris, and, before the great Revo- 
 lution, twenty-three Universities, each with a separate 
 autonomy, were spread over the kingdom, adding largely 
 to its intellectual productiveness. But these provincial 
 Universities were destroyed by the great Revolution. 
 Napoleon i. reconstituted the University of Paris in 1808, 
 by making it the single University for France. He did 
 this with the power of a military despot, and with the 
 professional instincts of a drill-sergeant. The University of 
 France now became the department of State Instruction, 
 and included every kind of education. Primary, Secondary, 
 and Collegiate. The State in France now received, in its 
 highest form, that function Avliich Mr. Lowe has announced 
 to be the duty of the State, the dictation of the curriculum
 
 8 ON TEACHING UNIVERSITIES 
 
 and the examination of scholars. It carried on this double 
 function for more than sixty years, and thus has had a more 
 prolonged trial than French institutions of any kind usually 
 enjoy ; but the result has been, in the opinion of the most 
 eminent Frenchmen, that its operation, more than any other 
 cause, has led to the humiliation of France as a nation. 
 Recent events have strengthened the conviction which De 
 Tocqueville expressed twenty years ago, that there is a 
 continually increasing poverty of eminent men in France. 
 I shall cite the evidence only of men of the highest 
 eminence, Members of the Institute, or Professors in the 
 University itself. Their opinions may be taken as answers 
 to the question which forms the title of Pasteur's pamphlet : 
 " Pourquoi la France n'a j)as trouve dliommes supe'rieurs 
 au moment du peril?" That is a grave question for 
 France, and its best sons are trying to answer it; but it is 
 melancholy to see the assaults that they are obliged to 
 make on a University wdiich, in its days of independence, 
 used to be hailed as " the fountain of knowledge," the 
 " tree of life," and the " candlestick of the Lord," — terms 
 which were accorded by the enthusiastic admiration of all 
 countries. First let Pasteur, whose eminence I need not 
 advert to in an academic assembly, answer for himself: — 
 " While Germany was multiplying its Universities, and 
 establishing among them a most salutary emulation; while 
 it was surrounding their masters and doctors with honour 
 and consideration; while it was creating vast laboratories 
 furnished with the best instruments, France, enervated by 
 revolutions, always occupied with sterile aims at a better 
 form of government, gave only a heedless attention to its 
 establishments of higher education." The unanimity is 
 surprising with which eminent men ascribe the intellectual 
 paralysis of the nation to the centralization of administration 
 and examination by the University of France. Claire
 
 AND EXAMINING BOARDS. 9 
 
 Deville says, — " The success of Germany is due to the 
 liberal organization of the German Universities. It is 
 Science that has vanquished us." Dumas, one of the most 
 eminent men in France, formerly a Minister, and for years 
 actively engaged as one of the eight Inspectors of Superior 
 Instruction in the University, gives his testimony as follows: 
 " If the causes of our marasmus appear complex and mani- 
 fold, they are still reducible to one principle, administrative 
 centralization, which applied to the University has enervated 
 superior instruction." He proceeds to show that munici- 
 palities and provinces lose all interest in their colleges and 
 schools when these are deprived of their powers of self- 
 government, and when their instruction and their examina- 
 tions are regulated from a centre, and he contrasts the 
 French system with that of other countries. " In Switzer- 
 land," says Dumas, " in Sweden, Germany, England, and 
 the United States, numerous Universities, diverse in their 
 origin and tendencies, each having their own budget and 
 management, which they direct for the best interests of 
 their students, prosper, on account of their separate life and 
 autonomy, offering to us a spectacle full of interest." 
 Dumas then indicates what is necessary for the restoration 
 of France to her position among nations : " Restore to our 
 Universities, under the surveillance of the State, when 
 connected with State grants, the independence which they 
 enjoyed before the Revolution. The great men of those 
 times are glorious historical witnesses of the vigour of the 
 studies, and of the discipline effected by the liberty of edu- 
 cation enjoyed by our fathers. ... I plead for the 
 autonomy and liberty of our Universities." Quatrefages, 
 General Morin, and others, express themselves in nearly 
 similar terms. Lorain, Professor in the Faculty of Medi- 
 cine, gives testimony if possible still more emphatic: "The 
 University of Paris now influences higher education only
 
 10 ON TEACHING UNIVERSITIES 
 
 tlirougli the faculties of Law and Medicine, for though the 
 schools of literature and pure science have still their Pro- 
 fessors, they have no longer pupils." He tells us that a 
 central University, professing to direct ever^'thing, really 
 directs nothing, but it trammels all efforts in the provinces. 
 " Originality in the provinces is destroyed by this unity." 
 After quoting the opinions of the Commissioners of 1870, as 
 to the M^ant of unity of degrees in France, notwithstanding 
 the unity of examination, he sums up the demands of re- 
 formers in the following words : — " What we demand is not 
 new; it is simply the return to the ancient system, to the 
 tradition of the ancient Universities. We demand the 
 destruction of the University of France, and the creation 
 of separate Universities. That is our programme." I have 
 hitherto quoted the opinions of men of science, but I might 
 add to them those of a long list of politicians and men of 
 literature, from Talleyrand, Turgot, De Tocqueville, Provost 
 Paradol, down to the present day; but to economize time I 
 must content myself with two more quotations. In a letter 
 to myself, Michel Chevalier, after stating that the liberal- 
 ization of the University frequently engaged the attention 
 of the Senate during the last Empire, sums up his opinions 
 of the necessary reforms as follows: — "Much more of auto- 
 nomy in our faculties than they have at present, even for 
 those which are supported by the State ; a large vote for 
 their maintenance in the budget; liberty for individuals and 
 associations to found rival faculties ; reservation to the State, 
 under equitable guarantees, of the right of granting degrees 
 as long as there are degrees." And finally, I quote the 
 words of Renan : — " The system of examinations and compe- 
 titions, on the great scale, is illustrated in China, where it 
 has produced a general and incurable senility. In France 
 we have already gone far in the same direction, and that is 
 not one of the least causes of our abasement. The i:)altry
 
 AND EXAMINING BOARDS. 11 
 
 faculties created by the first Empire in no way replace the 
 great and beautiful system of rival Universities, with their 
 separate autonomies — a system which all Europe borrowed 
 from France, and which all countries but France have 
 preserved. We must create in the provinces five or six 
 Universities, each independent of the other." I have 
 already quoted too much; but you will deem it to be 
 very surprising that the system which has so much injured 
 France in the past is to benefit England in the future. 
 France has not failed because she was deficient either in 
 institutions, teachers, or pupils. Of all three she is far 
 richer than this country. Her Lycees were full, and the 
 number of their pupils has been eulogized by Matthew 
 Arnold. Her higher institutions were numerous — eight 
 schools of Law, five of Medicine, eight for Science, and six 
 for Arts. But they were separate schools, such as Mr. Lowe 
 hopes to see arise by private efforts; they were not, with 
 the single exception of Strasburg, united faculties working 
 together; they had no University organization, none of the 
 activity of little intellectual republics ; nothing to nourish or 
 stimulate the independent growth of intellect throughout 
 the nation. An empire of thirty-eight millions of people 
 had only one University, situated in the capital, and that 
 one subject to the State. It thought that intellect might be 
 fostered by special schools acting as organs to one great 
 nervous centre; but the organs have not fulfilled their 
 functions, and the nervous centre itself has consequently 
 dwindled away. 
 
 The mode of granting degrees in Belgium is instructive 
 and peculiar, and as it is trieimially reported upon by the 
 Minister of the Interior, its results can be fully studied. To 
 that Minister, and to my friend Senator Fortemps, I am 
 much indebted for full information on the system. The 
 17th Article of the Belgian Constitution declares education
 
 12 ON TEACHING UNIVERSITIES 
 
 to bo free, and, in tlie spirit of that declaration, the mode of 
 granting degrees has been adapted to schools of all kinds. 
 But difficulties have been experienced in the practical 
 working of the measure, and consequently the laws relating 
 to it are frequently altered. The substantial law, now in 
 operation, is that of 10th June, 1857, as amended in 1861 
 and 1865. To understand its operation, I must remind you 
 that Belgium possesses two State Universities, those of 
 Ghent and Liege, and two " free " Universities, maintained 
 by communal grants and private endowments, at Brussels 
 and Louvain, At all the four Universities there were 1,898 
 students in the year 1869-70- The University system is 
 therefore developed to about the same extent as in Ireland, 
 both being Roman Catholic countries. In Belgium there 
 was in 1872 one student to 2,600 of the population; in 
 Ireland 1 to 2,700. In granting degrees the Universities 
 are divided into two groups, so that one state and one free 
 University are in each. A combined jury is formed for the 
 group, by the nomination of an equal number of Professors 
 from each of the two Universities, and a President is 
 appointed by the State, selected on account of his high and 
 independent position. The candidates for degrees must 
 first establish, to the satisfaction of the jury, that they have 
 passed through a well-ordered curriculum of study, and 
 their certificates must prove ^^ que la freqiientatioii des 
 cours universitaires fid assidue . . . et fructeuse.' 
 Theoretically, a candidate may present himself without such 
 certificates, if he have studied privately, but then he must 
 go through a severe preliminary examination, in order to 
 show that he has studied systematically and efficiently; 
 practically, no private candidates do go before the Academic 
 juries. For private students the Central jury of Brussels 
 was organized. That jury also consists of Professors, but 
 half of them are from the Universities and half from private
 
 AND EXAMINING BOARDS. 13 
 
 institutions, the President being a man of position. The 
 candidates must first prove by certificates that they have 
 gone through a regular curriculum of study, or submit to 
 the examination already referred to. Previously to 1867, 
 this jury had numerous candidates, and the supposition was 
 that they represented private instruction; but suspicions 
 having arisen on this point, it was determined, on the 
 recommendation of a Commission, that the Central jury 
 should hold its examinations before those of the Academic 
 juries, the former practice having been to hold them after. 
 This change was made at the beginning of 1867, and it 
 produced a startling result. The candidates for degrees 
 now disappeared, as the Minister of the Interior says, 
 " comme jiar Venchantementy The fact was, as the Admi- 
 nistration had for some time suspected, that the Central j ury 
 was a mere refuge for the rejected candidates of the Uni- 
 versities.* Since 1867 the report states that not a single 
 candidate has come before the Central jury, either for Law, 
 or Medicine, and very few for Science or Philosophy, 
 In fact, no longer is any attempt made to have examina- 
 tions at the Central jury in any faculty except Arts or 
 Science. In the last report published in 1872, the three 
 years ending 1870 are included. As a result of all the 
 examinations, 2,701 candidates passed; 287 "with great 
 distinction," and 752 " with distinction ; " but, in the Central 
 jury for free Study, only 61 candidates passed, none with 
 great distinction, and only 10 with distinction. The Central 
 examining system, then, apart from regular University 
 training, has practically failed. As the Central jury was 
 
 * This is such an important experience that I quote the words of the 
 Minister of the Interior: "La mesure mit en pleine lumi^re . . . que 
 les rucipiendaires formes par des etudes privces faisaient completement defaut 
 au jury central, pour le droit et pom- la mc'deciue par exemple, et, que des 
 inscriptions n'y avaient etc prises que par les eleves des quatre universite's 
 qui vieunent d'etre qualific's."
 
 14 ON TE ACHING UNIVERSITIES 
 
 chiefly the resort of " plucked " students, the result is not 
 surprising that, in the triennial report, the figures show the 
 rejection of 60 per cent, of its candidates, while only 32 
 per cent, were refused by the Academic juries. I have tried 
 to push the question home, by inquiring of the Belgian 
 authorities what proportion of privately instructed candi- 
 dates were successful in obtaining degrees, in comparison 
 with University-trained students, but the only reply that 
 I have obtained is — "Ze nombre de ceux qui n'ont fve- 
 quente aucune UniversiU est trop minime pour quhine 
 statistique en fasse mention.''^ It will thus be seen that 
 the Belgian system is perfectly conclusive as to efficient 
 graduation being only comj^atible with a well-ordered cur- 
 riculum of study. A system founded expressly with the 
 view of giving the freest opening to private institutions and 
 home studies, has been, in spite of itself, forced more and 
 more into an academic channel, and is now as completely 
 University in its character as the method of graduation 
 followed by the Queen's University in Ireland. It is true 
 that an unacademic door still remains open for candidates, 
 but as they have nearly ceased to enter it, the State may 
 soon be tired of continuing an invitation which the people 
 will not accept. No wonder that Guizot's Commission of 
 1870, in reporting of the past experience, said — " le systeme 
 Beige na pas donne de hons resultats ; " nor that the dis- 
 tinguished Belgian politician Laveleye thus writes of it: — 
 " The rivalry of these four institutions ought to have pro- 
 duced an intellectual life and activity of a kind most profit- 
 able to the progress of knowledge. That happy result has 
 not been attained, because they adopted a detestable system 
 of examination for conferring degrees. Diplomas are granted 
 by mixed juries composed, in equal proportions, of Profes- 
 sors of one state and one free University. The candidates
 
 AND EXAMINING BOARDS. 15 
 
 are questioned by these Professors under the control of Pro- 
 fessors from a rival University. Hence it results, to begin 
 with, that the students content themselves with learning 
 their note-books off by heart ; next, that the Professors, thus 
 controlled by their colleagues, have to conform to a uniform 
 programme, and, thus by degrees, routine stifles initiative 
 and the genuine spirit of research." 
 
 We now come to the London University. If it were 
 necessary, I could say much in its favour as a useful and 
 faithful Examining Board, supplementary to the other 
 Universities of the country. But it has been put forward 
 as a type for the reconstruction and concentration of other 
 Universities; and in that point of view I have a right to 
 show that its past history entirely fails to give us confidence. 
 As an educational machine it is singularly unproductive in 
 comparison with existing Universities. Understand the 
 limit of my indictment in this respect. I do not deny that 
 its lower matriculation examination is successful; for it is 
 good in itself, though too extensive in the demands of sub- 
 jects ; but still it is not beyond adequate preparation, and 
 the proof of this is, that both candidates and undergraduates 
 increase. Like the Abiturienten Examen of Germany, it 
 has a useful influence on the schools of the country. Never- 
 theless, such an examination is the lowest function of a 
 University. The main function of a normal University is 
 to promote the study of higher education in a systematic 
 and regular way, and only to use degrees as a support to its 
 curriculum. 
 
 The London University prescribes no curriculum, except 
 in medicine, and has no teaching functions, so it depends 
 upon degrees as its only educational power. It is a Univer- 
 sity of modern foundation, and hence it would be unfair to 
 test its achievements in its early years ; I therefore leave the
 
 16 ON TEACHING UNIVERSITIES 
 
 period from 1838 to 1860 without a close examination, and 
 will chiefly rely on the ten siibsequent years. The following- 
 points will be considered as fair tests of work : — 
 
 1. Is the educational influence of the University of London 
 
 extending as shown by an increase in the number of 
 its degrees? 
 
 2. Is the proportion of degrees to matriculated students 
 
 increasino; or diminishino; ? 
 
 3. Does the number of its degrees stand favourably with 
 
 that of other Universities in the United Kingdom ? 
 It is only by distinct answers to such questions as these that 
 we can find out whether a mere Examining University, 
 dissociated from teaching functions, is capable of exerting an 
 important, though indirect, influence on the higher education 
 of a kingdom. It is usual to look at the degrees of Arts, — 
 representing, as they do, general culture in a University, — as 
 an index of its effect on higher education. 1 take the three 
 last quinquennial periods of the London University in illus- 
 tration. In the five years ending 1860, there is an annual 
 average of 63 Bachelors of Arts; in the five years ending 
 1865, the average is 60 ; and in the last period, ending 1870, 
 the average is 65. About 10 of these go up annually to the 
 higher degree of M.A. This, then, represents the outcome 
 and Avant of progression of the London University on the 
 general higher culture of the United Kingdom and of the 
 British Colonies, including India; for the charter of 1849 
 added these to its province. It is a marked feature in the 
 University of London, that its influence in all forms of 
 higher education now appears to be practically stationary. 
 There is no substantial increase in any one class of its degrees, 
 cither in Arts, in Science, in law, or in Medicine.^ This is 
 
 ' In the two quinquennial periods ending 18G5 and 1870, the number of 
 graduates, including higher degrees, Avas respectively — for Arts, 69 and 75 ; 
 for Science, 12 and 12 ; for Law, 13 and 10 ; for Medicine, 32 and 33.
 
 AND EXAMINING BOARDS. 17 
 
 the more remarkable, when we recollect the large increase in 
 its matriculated students, who have risen from 265 in 1861 
 to 420 in 1870. Both the experience of the Dublin and 
 London University is against any large expectation of effi- 
 cient Arts training except in organized colleges having a 
 distinct University aim and feeling. Trinity College has 
 external students enrolled for degree examinations, but, 
 according to Prof. Andrews, less than 30 per cent, of them 
 actually go up for degrees, and not one of them, in the years 
 which he investigated, took a first class at the degree exam- 
 ination. In the London University, exhibitions and gold 
 medals are given at graduation, and these represent the first 
 class of the Dublin and other Universities. Since its found- 
 ation, 44 of these have been given in Mathematics and 
 Natural Philosophy, of which 38 were taken by Oxford and 
 Cambridge, or by University College men, leaving only six 
 for less collegiate institutions. In the same period 25 exhi- 
 bitions and medals were given for Classics, of which 22 were 
 taken by students of Oxford, Cambridge, University Col- 
 lege, or King's College, leaving only three for private insti- 
 lutions. The latter were however more successful in Moral 
 Philosophy, Logic, and the cognate subjects, for out of 32 
 exhibitions and medals, the private institutions carried off 17. 
 If the influence of the University of London on higher 
 education be progressive, a larger crop of students should, as 
 in all healthy Universities, produce a larger crop of degrees; 
 but this is not the case with that Examining Board, for its old 
 and new degrees now remain stationary, though its enrolled 
 students increase. From 1838 to 1862, four matriculated 
 students produced a new graduate in Arts ; for the last five 
 years nearly six students are required for that purpose. Nor 
 can it be said that increased severity of examination explains 
 the anomaly, because, during those five years (the only period 
 comparable among its years on account of the institution of 
 
 B
 
 18 ON TEACHING UNIVERSITIES 
 
 new degrees), the number of candidates is as stationary as 
 that of its degrees.* If the standard of degrees be increased, 
 so must the corresponding standard of matriculation; for 
 whereas six candidates previously to 1862 produced five 
 matriculated students, it now requires ten to pass the same 
 number ; yet, with these presumably more highly qualified 
 students augmenting in number, the degrees are stagnant. 
 The fact that a smaller proportion of candidates than for- 
 merly passes the matriculation examination has another 
 important signification. If a mere Examining Board suflfice 
 to direct the course of superior education in a country, the 
 London University has now had time enough to exercise its 
 influence on the schools which attach themselves to it; yet 
 we find that they have not responded to the demands for 
 higher qualifications ; because, though they have sent numer- 
 ous candidates, these are in a worse state of preparation than 
 formerly, as indicated by their increased proportion of failures. 
 Thus, though matriculation candidates are more numerous, 
 the candidates for degrees do not augment, nor do the 
 graduates substantially increase in number. But one thing 
 does increase in a notable degree, and that is the ages of the 
 graduates. If we take the three decennial periods of the 
 operation of the University, this will be apparent : in the 
 first periods, the average age of Art graduates was less than 
 twenty-two; in the second it was twenty- two and a half; 
 and in the third it was close on twenty-five years. At this 
 rate of increase, the time may come when the University of 
 London will have to rule, as the Emperor of China has done 
 in regard to its great Chinese prototype, that if a candidate 
 
 • From 1866 to 1870 inclusive, the candidates at all degree Examinations 
 are 615, 610, 649, 620, 631 ; while the degrees are 158, 131, 127, 128, 181. 
 This period of five years is large in its Arts candidates as compared with 
 the preceding five years, 200 as against 158, yet the degrees are only 65 as 
 against 60.
 
 AND EXAMINING BOARDS. 19 
 
 regularly attend all examinations, though without success, 
 till he is eighty years of age, he then becomes a graduate de 
 jure. The increase of age is not a good sign. It shows that 
 instead of being for the many, the ambition of the University 
 of London is to become a fancy and a select University for 
 the few. This is the reason why the influence of that Uni- 
 versity, apart from its matriculation, is so singularly small 
 in comparison with the area which it professes to cover. For 
 the last ten years the average number of all its graduates, 
 scholastic, scientific, legal, and medical, i»130 ; while the Arts 
 degrees alone in the two Irish Universities amount to 338 ; 
 and yet the proposal has been made to reconstruct them on 
 the type of the University of London, which would be to 
 replace an excellent productive machine by a singularly un- 
 productive one — a strange phenomenon in the history of 
 human progress ! 
 
 The stereotyped answers to all such comparisons are well 
 known. Look to the wide extent of subjects and the diffi- 
 culty of attainment of the London degrees in comparison 
 with those of other Universities ! But I refuse to admit 
 either of these reasons, presuming them to be true, as a 
 justification for the small productiveness of a State-sup- 
 ported institution. I admit 'that a wide extent of subjects, 
 when offered for selection, is a merit; but when it is 
 demanded from each individual, according to the London 
 practice, then it is not so fitted for mental training as the 
 less ambitious plan of the older Universities. Any one 
 University may easily raise a fancy standard, and, supported 
 by public funds in the shape of scholarships, exhibitions, and 
 gold medals, make its graduates double-buttoned instead of 
 single-buttoned mandarins, and yet fail in its national 
 purpose. For the object of a University is not merely to 
 have an honour list, but also to promote efficient study 
 among many, as proved by their attaining degrees on fair 
 
 b2
 
 20 ON TEACHING UNIVERSITIES 
 
 and reasonable, though adequate conditions. Unless it does 
 that, the general higher education of the country is sacri- 
 ficed to the glory of a few select graduates.* The London 
 University is fast drifting into this position. Originally it 
 had a useful, well-defined, and carefully-considered position, 
 which it has abandoned in successive charters, and the 
 limitation of its effect on education is, as I think, much due 
 to this abandonment. Now, it has separated itself from all 
 other Universities, and has no academic traditions to cling 
 to, except those in China. 
 
 There, Examining Boards are constituted, on a like prin- 
 ciple, by the State ; and the graduates form the aristocracy 
 and bureaucracy of the Empire. Doubtless that system has 
 had an important influence in preserving China, in its inte- 
 grity, outside the rest of the world, but also in holding it back 
 centuries behind the age. The object of the Examining 
 Boards of China is to suppress the liberties and development 
 of the people by educating them only in ancient traditions 
 and in abject reverence to the ruling powers. It does not do 
 for State purposes that the people should have other sages 
 than Confucius and Mencius, so the five classics confine their 
 knowledge and repress all freedom of thought. China has 
 not often had such an enlightened Emperor as the great 
 Taitsou, who knew how important it was to found and endow 
 teaching Colleges, but it has had many Chancellors of the 
 Exchequer who have repressed Government aid to Colleges 
 as being dangerous in promoting the growth of individual 
 and intellectual liberty, and who have substituted for them 
 
 • This effect is seen in operation at University College, which is the chief 
 preparer for medical degrees. Its first-year medical students average about 
 90, and its fourth-year about 40. Yet, even of those completing their 
 medical studies, only an average of 4|, or about one-ninth, proceed with 
 their degrees at the University of London, the rest contenting themselves 
 with the license of the College of Surgeons or Apothecaries' Company.
 
 AND EXAMINING BOARDS. 21 
 
 the cramping unity of Examining Boards. The origin of the 
 Chinese system is lost in antiquity; but we ought not to 
 forget that, the Byzantine Empire had an organised Exa- 
 mining System of much the same character. The graduated 
 schools of the Roman type soon lost their vitality in the 
 Empii'e of the East; and education, fostered through Exa- 
 mination, on a system nearly as organised as that of China, 
 struggled with difficulty to keep the Empire imbued with 
 classical lore. Even women, as instanced in the cases of 
 the Empress Theodosia and the Princess Anna Comnena, 
 graduated in the trivlum and quadrivium. But intellects, 
 so fostered, languished and ultimately died of inanition. 
 Voltaire has described the result with fierce invective ; but 
 judgment may be given in the calmer words of Gibbon, 
 who says, " their languid souls seemed alike incapable of 
 thought or action. In the revolution of ten centuries, not a 
 single discovery was made to exalt the dignity or promote 
 the happiness of mankind." 
 
 I do not accuse the London University, in its present 
 form and with its existing limitations, of producing a 
 Chinese unity of education. On the contrary, its existence, 
 as a supplement to other Universities, adds to the variety. 
 In fact, one of the leading objections which schools urge 
 against this system is, that its degrees have not unity within 
 themselves ; that, having no curriculum to guide it, and no 
 teaching functions, its standards are ever varying; that its 
 examinations " are in the air,'^ and can only be caught by 
 a flying leap. When the University of London was first 
 founded, the two great English Universities had a narrow 
 and monotonous uniformity of examination, and the diver- 
 sity thus introduced was important. But when the system 
 of the London University is proposed, not as an addition to, 
 but as a substitute for, the varying systems of other Univer- 
 sities, educationalists may well be amazed. The recent
 
 22 ON TEACHING UNIVERSITIES 
 
 discourses of Dollinger have shown how precious in the 
 eyes of Germans are the independence and varieties of their 
 Universities. These have produced the vigour and breadth 
 of German thought. Though the German Universities are 
 supported by the State, they are invariably left in indepen- 
 dence, variety both in studies and in examinations being 
 encouraged ; the State never attempts to obtain an intellec- 
 tual unity, which would be as hideous in mental develop- 
 ment as it would be in animal organization. The importance 
 which the North German Confederation attaches to variety 
 of teaching and examination in the Universities, is well 
 shown by the system of ^' Staats Examen" for medical 
 practitioners. All of them must pass that, as well as the 
 degree examination, before they are allowed to practise. 
 Previously to 1862, the State Examination was held at 
 Berlin or other centres of administration, so that it was 
 quite disconnected with the Universities. But this was 
 found so damaging to medical education, that the system 
 has been decentralized, and it is now carried out at the 
 separate Universities by an Examining Board, partly 
 composed of Professors and partly of qualified medical 
 practitioners, the President being an outsider nominated by 
 the Government. The examinations of this Board, though 
 supplementary to the degree examination, are still pervaded 
 by University influences, which prevent the stereotyping 
 character of a central examining system. The importance 
 of this University connection is obvious. A State profes- 
 sional Examination must always aim at a minimum, not a 
 Tnaximum of knowledge. If the State imitated the Univer- 
 sity of London, for instance, in demanding a high standard 
 of requirements, it might, like it, get some thirty highly 
 qualified practitioners, but it would leave the ranks of the 
 profession empty. And, if this Examining Board were alto- 
 gether external to the Universities, as formerly was the case
 
 AND EXAMINING BOARDS. 23 
 
 in Germany, it creates an overpowering incentive to work 
 only to the minimum and to neglect higher qualifications. 
 Infinitely worse would it be, if this "one portal" system 
 of admission to professions were accessible before instead 
 of after University graduation. In Germany the State Exa- 
 mination has always been supplementary to, not a substitute 
 for, University graduation. 
 
 The old Universities of Italy, as long as they were objects 
 of interest and pride to the municipalities, and while their 
 Examinations were independent of Church and State, were 
 famous and productive; but when Popes, Kings, Grand 
 Dukes, and little Dukes tried to reconcile them to a Church 
 standard, by producing unity from diversity, they tumbled 
 into decrepitude. 
 
 Want of unity in degrees may indicate different levels of 
 qualifications, which public opinion would soon correct if 
 they fell too low ; but it produces a variety in intellectual 
 attainments and modes of thought which are infinitely pre- 
 ferable to a stereotyped system of examination, like that of 
 the Chinese, or even that of the London University, if it 
 were made a type for State adoption. Provincial Univer- 
 sities should be centres of intelligence, each a sun warming 
 and illuminating the region around, not a moon casting its 
 sickly and cold beams as a mere reflection from a distant 
 central luminary. A free country like England will not 
 tolerate State unity in education any more than it has 
 tolerated it in any region of her politics. She has long 
 struggled for individuality in her liberties. A one monar- 
 chial Government, a one Church, a one system of Colonial 
 government, a one classical system of education, have all 
 yielded to diversity; but we are now told that the State 
 ought to bring back Universities to a unity. The genius of 
 a free people will prevent it. As despotism consists in 
 forcing one will and opinion upon others, no doubt that
 
 24 ON- TEACHING UNIVERSITIES 
 
 principle could easily and insensibly be introduced into the 
 Universities, our manufactories of thinkers, by a State 
 uniformity of examination ; nothing more easy than to pull 
 men through holes of the same size, after the fashion of 
 manufacturing wires. Our diversity of education does a 
 good deal for us even in trade. England and Germany, 
 with their free Universities and diverse thinkers, do much 
 in the spread of free thought. We export annually 
 £650,000 worth of books from this country, and import 
 only £118,000 worth to supply our deficiencies in originality. 
 Cast all our intellects into one mould, or into three moulds, 
 one for each part of the kingdom, and see how long the 
 originality will last. France has managed to do this, and 
 has no many-sidedness in the characters of her people to 
 break up the revolutionary waves produced by the impulse 
 of a class. A man does not live alone for the State; he 
 lives also for himself, and the more complete is his indivi- 
 duality, the better citizen is he likely to become. The 
 French Revolution did not understand this, and raised a 
 Spartan view of the State as the idol for universal worship. 
 Since then, that unhappy country has been visited by many 
 troubles, in punishment for ignoring the fact that each one 
 of its people had an intellect and a soul to develop according 
 to his own individuality, and not according to a State 
 pattern, approved and sealed by a Government authority. 
 The French nation began by worshipping a Greek idol, and 
 have finished by bowing the knee to the Chinese god who 
 presides over common examinations. 
 
 In England, as yet, we have too much variety of character 
 and thought to be subject to revolutionary danger, but our 
 statesmen may manage to change all this. The University 
 of London, though only one of the Universities in the 
 kingdom, has already done much to make mental philosophy 
 run in a single channel, because the examinations are not
 
 AND EXAMINING BOARDS. 25 
 
 local but universal in their range. No Committee or Senate 
 is stronger than the strongest man in it; and the London 
 University had a very strong senator in the late Mr. Grote, 
 who gave to it and to the country the most loyal service. 
 He was much interested in, and deeply impressed with, the 
 truth of one particular school of thought, of which my 
 friend Bain, the former Examiner, is an eminent Professor; 
 and that system has struck its roots deep into those schools 
 which connect themselves with the University. Examiners 
 may be and now are changed, but the Senate which appoints 
 them does not vary except by the death of its members, and 
 then is apt to continue its traditions. The evil of sameness 
 attaches both to localized and general Universities; but it is 
 reduced to a minimum in the former, because the students 
 circulate and may vary the character of instruction, while in 
 a general Examininij Board it rises to a maximum. Even 
 as regards the physical and natural sciences, the evil has 
 been keenly felt in France. It is far more important, how- 
 ever, in the case of the mental sciences, for they form the 
 moulds into which the opinions of our students are cast. If 
 a general Examining University were made a substitute for, 
 instead of a supplement to, other Universities, that influence 
 would be intolerable. Watt, when asked what he sold, told 
 the King that he sold power ; he never sold so much as the 
 Examiner in Mental Philosophy for the University of 
 London has through his books. The creation and distribu- 
 tion of intellectual power are, it is true, the great objects of 
 higher academic training; and none, in my own humble 
 judgment, is of better quality than that which has emanated 
 from my professorial colleague and friend in Aberdeen; 
 but the system under which he has spread it, does not 
 necessarily provide for power of a good quality, but only 
 for that which suits the taste of one or two men; and yet it 
 is general, not local, in its application. One great evil of
 
 26 Oir TEACHING UNIVERSITIES 
 
 University education, and still more of University examina- 
 tion, is to create faithful disciples rather than independent 
 thinkers. The diversity of teaching in different Universities 
 tends to mitigate this evil, but the uniformity of a common 
 system of examination vastly augments it. When the 
 Government takes graduation in hand, and stamps our 
 intellects, as it does its sovereigns, with one uniform die, the 
 power at its disposal will be immense, but, as in France, the 
 intellects will in time be crushed under the stroke, and then 
 "vvill not be worth the coining. 
 
 It is now necessary to point out why it is desirable to keep 
 together the teaching and examining functions of Universities 
 as of old, and how it is that examinations alone fail to pro- 
 duce a large educational, though, as I have just shown, they 
 do produce a directive effect. A combined University, when 
 well conducted, aims and succeeds at producing an educated 
 man ; an Examining Board can only be assured that it has 
 produced a crammed man. It is the curriculum of the 
 University, not the examination, which educates the man. 
 Laboulaye, a member of Guizot's Commission of 1870, who 
 visited foreign Universities with the view of reforming the 
 University of France, points out how little examination by 
 itself has an educational power. In Austria there are 
 perpetual examinations, but Laboulaye says, " Austria, the 
 very country of examinations, is precisely that where the 
 students do not work." I agree with my friend Professor 
 Kelland that crammincr is not an unmitioiated evil, and I 
 defended it in the House as beino; a reaction ai^ainst the 
 slow teaching of our classical public schools. It is quite 
 true that crammed food is assimilated in part, though not in 
 the whole, and that it changes in the process ; for Epictetus 
 was right when he pointed out, though sheep eat grass, it is 
 wool not grass that grows on their backs. When j'ou cram 
 a goose, the food is converted into diseased liver, which is
 
 AND EXAMINING BOARDS. 2? 
 
 not good for the goose, though it may be for those who live 
 upon it in the form of Strasburg pies. It is obvious that 
 subjects enjoined by an examination, without any co-ordina- 
 tion through a curriculum, are Hkely to be introduced by 
 cram. For the Examining Board looks only to knowledge, 
 however acquired, as the result; but the real University 
 looks upon it less in that light, and more as a manifestation 
 of the student's successful attention to a prescribed course 
 of study organized for and necessary to his mental disci- 
 pline and development. In view to this end, the course of 
 instruction is varied, and gradually is strengthened according 
 to the natural evolution of the mental faculties. Strong 
 food like oatmeal is good for Scotchmen and Scotch stu- 
 dents, but it is not adapted for babes; and baby-farmers 
 have learned this, for it is the chief means they use for 
 slauffhterino; the children committed to them, with the view 
 of being put out of the world in the most innocent manner. 
 Like the judicious feeding of the young, the mode of 
 getting and keeping true knowledge is by a process of 
 natural sequence and development; its indiscriminate ac- 
 quirement is cram. Isolated facts and truths acquired by 
 rote or by cram, unconnected and arranged by educational 
 processes, are like useful objects thrown into a lumber press, 
 forgotten when required, or not to hand when remembered. 
 It is clear that you raise the tendency to cram, when you 
 separate the tests of knowledge from the processes of 
 acquiring it. You see that, though in a mitigated form, in 
 Cambridge. There you have seventeen Colleges, with an 
 outside University examination. The consequence is that 
 intellectual training has passed away from the Professors; 
 wdiile preparations for degrees, which is its substitute, is 
 undertaken by private " coaches," who drive their pupils, 
 not on the high-road of learning, but by those short cuts 
 which lead to the Examiner's little paddock; for their art
 
 28 ON TEACHING UNIVERSITIES 
 
 consists in knowing what "is likely to be set," not in 
 inspiring a love of knowledge for its own sake. Colleges 
 ought not to be separate from, but should be integral parts 
 of a University, and then they will be, what Pattison wishes 
 to see them become, healthy organs of a common organiza- 
 tion. When examinations are used as a test of acquired 
 information, instead of as an evidence of a course of mental 
 training, a good memory will always have an advantage 
 over a thoughtful and trained intellect with less retentive 
 power as to existing knowledge. The Chinese are forced to 
 acknowledge that this is a result of their separate examining 
 systems, and they honestly give large credit to it, as when 
 they force every candidate to write out from memory the 
 whole of the sacred Edict of the Emperor Kanglii. But 
 such a feat of memory is as useless as that of Xerxes when 
 he learned by heart the names of a hundred thousand 
 soldiers. Pascal has told us that Epictetus and Montaigne 
 should always be read as correctives of each other, so, as I 
 have already quoted the Phrygian philosopher, I may remind 
 you of an opposite saying of the old French essayist, " S(^a 
 voir 'par coeur ruest pas sgavoiry It is true that memory 
 is essential in education, as it is in cram, but, in the first 
 case, it is only one of several intellectual faculties which are 
 simultaneously developed, while, in the second, it is chiefly 
 relied on to obtain a result that, at the best, is only a sham 
 representation of undeveloped faculties. The one method 
 resembles that of the prudent trainer for a boat-race, when 
 he carefully trains all parts of the body, and not merely 
 those which are to be brought into play in the race; the 
 other is the system of the unskilful trainer who presses the 
 muscles into over action, and damages the heart for life. 
 
 A University, fulfilling its purpose to the nation, is, or 
 ought to be, something far higher and far more useful than 
 even a combined teachinn; and deo-ree-conferrinfj institution.
 
 AKD EXAMINING BOARDS. 29 
 
 It ought to be one of tlie great intellectual treasuries of the 
 nation, ahvays stored to the full witli the richest learning ; it 
 ought, through its educative functions, to be the distributor 
 of that wealth to those who can use it well ; and it ought in 
 itself to be productive and creative of new treasures of 
 science and literature by the researches of ^its Professors. 
 None of our Universities in the United Kingdom are, to the 
 full extent, what they might and should be in these three 
 points ; many in Germany have become so during the last 
 half-century. Their union is perfectly compatible with 
 teaching. " The greatest advances," says John Stuart Mill, 
 " which have been made in the various sciences, both moral 
 and physical, have originated with those who were public 
 teachers of them ; from Plato and Aristotle, to the great 
 names of the Scotch, French, and German Universities." 
 As a general rule, the best investigators have been the best 
 teachers, and the reason is given by Goethe: — 
 
 We7' in der Weltgeshiclite lebt — 
 
 Wer in die Zeiten scliaut, und streht, 
 
 Nur der ist iverth, zu sprechen mid zu dichten. 
 
 A smaller conception than I have given is unworthy of a 
 University in the present age. It is this conception that 
 has made Germany great in the last half-century ; it is the 
 want of that conception which has made France little. You 
 may have Teaching Institutions, Technical Schools, Exa- 
 mining Boards, and Institutes for the advance of Science 
 and Literature, but not one of these forms a University. 
 Only when they are united by a common organization, mu- 
 tually supporting each other, each efficient organs of a com- 
 mon body, that the idea of a University is complete, or the 
 possibility of large results attainable. 
 
 The great objection, in the mind of Mr. Lowe and others, 
 to the present union of Tuition and Examination is, that the 
 Professors have a preponderating influence in the appraise-
 
 30 ON TEACHING UNIVERSITIES 
 
 ment of the results of their own labours. He would not 
 even have the Examiners selected from the genus teacher, 
 for he states, " I do not presume to say that the very same 
 men examine students wdio have had the teaching of those 
 students, but they are men of the same class, of the same 
 esprit de corpsy He alludes, in that passage, to Oxford 
 and Cambridge, but he would still more condemn the 
 Scotch system, in which the actual Professors, associated 
 with extra-academical assessors, are the Examiners. I do 
 not say that we do not need reform in Scotland in this 
 respect, for I think the proportion of the latter to the 
 former is still too small; and most willingly would we 
 increase them, but we possess no further funds for their 
 payment. Still, in principle, I think the combination of 
 professorial and extra-academical Examiners is a most ex- 
 cellent system. It is essential to the diversity of University 
 teaching and University degrees; and 1 have already shown 
 of what national importance that is. I do not believe that 
 it leads to any favouritism or lightness in examinations ; at 
 least, during ten years' experience as an Examiner, I never 
 met a single case in which the extra-academical assessors 
 have complained of the leniency of the examinations, 
 although I have seen instances, both with myself and others, 
 where they have remonstrated with us for our severity. 
 This naturally arises from the circumstance that the profes- 
 sorial Examiner is always fresh in the whole subjects of his 
 course, while the outside Examiner, if not himself a teacher, 
 can only possess a general acquaintance with them. I do not 
 think Mr, Lowe can have meant, what his reported words 
 imply, that teachers, as a class, should not be Examiners, or 
 I would lay down the contrary pro2:)osition with great breadth, 
 that no one but teachers can be good Examiners. Even in 
 the Abiturienten Examen of Germany, the questions are 
 selected by the Board from those sent in by teachers of the
 
 AND EXAMINING BOARDS. 31 
 
 schools for approval. In the University of London the 
 Examiners are chiefly teachers ; in its prototype, the Chinese 
 Examining Board, the College Professors are associated 
 with the Examining Madarins; in the Belgian graduation 
 system, University Professors examine University students, 
 and, associated with private professors, form the Central 
 Examining Board for private students. In the Queen's 
 University in Ireland, the Professors are the Examiners, 
 and, in the Medical degrees, are associated with extra- 
 academical Examiners. In the German Universities, and in 
 fact nearly all over Europe, the same conditions of ex- 
 amination prevail. All that I think Mr. Lowe can have 
 meant is, that teachers should not examine their own pupils, 
 and I would assent to this view if it were limited to the 
 proposition that they should not do so without the presence 
 and assistance of extra-academical Examiners. I would be 
 inclined to go further, and open the oral examinations to 
 the public, to give the most ample evidence of their fairness 
 and impartiality. If the views I have put before you of the 
 national importance of keeping up complete diversity among 
 our Universities be true, it would be far better for the 
 interests of education to abolish degrees altogether, than to 
 blow them like a pint bottle in a mould into a single shape 
 through a common examination. But diversity in graduation 
 is impossible, unless the teachers, who produce variety by 
 their peculiarities of thought, can impress it on the degree 
 as well as on the teaching.* 
 
 Far be it from me to say that our Scotch Universities do 
 
 * It is to me no demerit that the University of London employs teachers 
 as examiners. From 1861 to 1871 inclusive, there have been 47 medical 
 examiners, of whom 39, or 83 per cent., were teachers in medical schools — 
 34 examiners, or 72 per cent., being from schools in London, which give 
 more than four-fifths of the candidates. So tliat actually these London 
 examiners are teachers examining their own pupils. In my eyes this is no 
 evil, but stones should not be cast out of a glass-house.
 
 32 ON TEACHING UNIVERSITIES 
 
 not require improvements, or that they fear the touch of the 
 prudent reformer. In my own day, twice have they been 
 the subject of inquiry by Royal Commissions, and have 
 accepted the reforms urged upon them without hesitation, 
 and with gratitude. But these reforms have been in conso- 
 nance with their national character, and had for their purpose 
 development, and not revolution. The Act of Parliament 
 that gave power to the Royal Commission which reported in 
 1863, enjoined the Commissioners to enquire as to the expe- 
 diency of converting the four Universities of Scotland into 
 Colleges, and of joining their Examining powers into one 
 common Examining Board. The deliverance of the Royal 
 Commission was as follows: — " .... It is impossible for 
 us to report that such a measure would be practicable, 
 and our own deliberations have led us to the conclusion 
 that it would not be expedient. After the most careful 
 consideration, we are unable to see that any important 
 corresponding advantage is likely to be derived from so 
 serious a step as is implied in reducing the ancient Univer- 
 sities of Scotland from the position of Universities, and 
 converting them into Colleges of a new National University." 
 This, I think, you will now admit, w^as a wise report. Im- 
 prove our Universities as you like — let the full light of day 
 into all their proceedings — but do not lightly alter the 
 fundamental constitution of those Universities which have 
 done so much to stamp the national character of Scotland, 
 and which have added so largely to the material prosperity 
 of the whole kingdom. 
 
 The immediate object of Mr. Lowe's speech, as I believe, 
 is Ireland, not Scotland. The Irish Roman Catholics claim 
 increased facilities for University instruction. If it were 
 the habit of the Irish poorer classes to frequent Universities, 
 the numbers of them actually in collegiate attendance would 
 be unsatisfactory. But this is a peculiarity of Scotland, *nd
 
 AND EXAMIXINi} BOARDS. 
 
 33 
 
 is not found either in England or Ireland. At Trinity Col- 
 lege, for instance, out of 1,390 students who matriculated in 
 the five years ending 1872, there were only 37 " tradesmen 
 and artizans," or little more than 2^ per cent. As is well 
 known, the bulk of University students, in these two coun- 
 tries, come from landowners, professional men, and wealthy 
 merchants and manufacturers ; and comparatively few come 
 from the lower portion of the middle classes.* In the fol- 
 lowing Irish return of the two former classes, the Roman 
 Catholic priests are excluded, because they have no families 
 to send to Universities, and the religious profession of 
 merchants and manufacturers is unknown to me. 
 
 Landowners having more than 1 00 acres 
 
 Protestants. 
 10,000 
 
 Roman 
 Catholics 
 
 2,500 
 
 Barristers and Attorneys 
 
 1,750 
 
 890 
 
 Physicians and Surgeons 
 
 1,597 
 
 751 
 
 Apothecaries 
 
 Clergy .... 
 
 Other learned occupations 
 
 209 
 3,264 
 
 70S 
 
 210 
 358 
 
 
 17,528 
 
 4,709 
 
 The proportion of the main bulk of the University sending 
 classes in Ireland is therefore, as regards religions, nearly 
 four Protestants to one Roman Catholic ; and as the students 
 in actual attendance at the Colleges are about 1,200 Protest- 
 ants to 300 Roman Catholics, the result is what might have 
 
 * In the five years ending 1872 there were 1,390 matriculated students at 
 Trinity College, the occupations of tlieir fathers being as follows :-^ 
 
 Gentlemen .... 
 Professional Classes . 
 Merchants and Manufacturers 
 Stipendiary Magistrates and Civil Service 
 Farmers , . , . 
 
 Agents and Overseers . . 
 
 Tradesmen and Artizans 
 Miscellaneous and unreturned 
 
 
 . 280 
 
 
 . 643 
 
 
 . 169 
 
 
 • 55 
 
 
 . 70 
 
 
 . 31 
 
 
 . 37 
 
 
 . 105 
 
 1,390
 
 34 ON TEACHING UNIVERSITIES 
 
 been anticipated.* With these facts before us, ought we 
 to revolutionise the University system of Ireland, which is 
 now producing excellent results, to gratify a doubtful 
 demand? Is there any evidence whatever that, in the 
 present condition of Ireland, a large accession of lay Roman 
 Catholic students will be gained by the Universities? If 
 there be such a demand, why do they not go to the Roman 
 Catholic University? That has already received the sanc- 
 tion of the Pope, and, therefore, in the eyes of the Church, 
 is as much a University as if it had a Royal Charter. But 
 students go to its halls in remarkably scanty numbers. I 
 do not deny that there are upwards of a thousand young 
 men in Ireland training for the Roman Catholic priesthood, 
 to whom it would be desirable to extend the benefits of a 
 liberal education. But as long as their Church refuses for 
 them a mixed education, and keeps them apart, as a principle 
 of their training, it is impossible to reconcile a free teaching 
 University system with their wants. In the future, an 
 increased lay demand may be beyond the capabilities of the 
 existing University system in Ireland ; but of that the signs 
 are not apparent. Reforms in the Irish Universities require 
 mature consideration, for, in their present state, they are 
 active both in teaching and graduation. In Oxford and 
 Cambridge one graduate is found annually to every five 
 students in attendance ; in the Scotch Universities one to 
 every seven; in the Irish Universities one to every three 
 and a half; and in the London University, if we take four 
 years of matriculation as representing the students, one to 
 every eleven. The Irish Universities, therefore, stand highest 
 in relation to graduation. In their influence on the general 
 
 * This proportion is only approximately true for all students, but it is 
 strictly true as i-cgards \aj students. The lay students attending Trinity 
 College and the Queen's Colleges amount to 1360, of whom 1091 are Protest- 
 ants and 2(59 Koman Catholics. Besides these, there are 240 Episcopalians 
 and 63 Presbyterians preparing for the ministry.
 
 AND EXAMINING BOARDS. 35 
 
 population, they stand in an intermediate position to England 
 and Scotland: for Scotland has one student to 860 of the 
 population, Ireland one to 2,700, and England one to 4,020. 
 
 I have now finished, and I hope I have given good reasons 
 for my belief that nothing would be more injurious to higher 
 education than limiting the diversities of Universities by the 
 uniform action of Examining Boards established under the 
 authority of the State. Far better would it be to use that 
 power to suppress altogether the system of conferring recog- 
 nised degrees. Such an exercise of power would still leave 
 unfettered the individual development of intellectual thought. 
 The imposition of uniform examinations, in every case where 
 it has been tried, has not only restricted intellectual liberty, 
 but ultimately has produced a mental paralysis in the nation 
 which had adopted it. 
 
 It has been necessary for me to enter into much illustra- 
 tion and proof of the ruinous effects which follow the de- 
 struction of the autonomy of separate Universities, by 
 schemes of common examinations, and I have not had time 
 to follow Mr. Lowe into his view that as " teaching is a 
 trade, it should be arranged as a trade," and consequently, 
 that Government should have nothing to do with the support 
 of that teaching, at least in regard to higher instruction. No 
 doubt he could quote high authority in his support, for Adam 
 Smith, Dunoyer, Herbert Spencer, and others, have argued 
 in the same sense. But there are great thinkers who have 
 maintained, with much vigour, the contrary conclusion, by 
 showing that it is the duty of the State to foster those higher 
 studies for which there is not a sufficient demand on the part 
 of those occupied with the affairs of life. Sanscrit and 
 Quaternions may not be in such demand as potatoes and 
 cabbages, but their study may nevertheless be important for 
 the advancement of learning. And when we find that wise 
 men, like Bacon, Hobbes, Berkeley, Locke, Kant, and Mill,
 
 86 ON TEACHINGIUNIVERSITIES. 
 
 take an opposite view of the duties of the State, we may 
 feel sure that ,^the question will not be hastily decided. 
 Adam Smith was Avise when he pointed out that excessive 
 endowments are dangerous to the activity of Universities, but 
 Plato was wiser when he saw that two causes, instead of one 
 cause, are in operation in all .such cases. You recollect his 
 illustration of the potter in ,the fourth Book of the Republic. 
 When the potter becomes too wealthy, he is apt to be indolent 
 •and cfireless, and then he deteriorates in his art. But a potter, 
 on the other hand, may be too poor to buy proper tools or 
 instruments, and in that case he not only does his work 
 badly, but he is sure not to teach his sons and apprentices 
 equally well with the potter who is well provided with the 
 implements of his craft. If the first condition form the 
 reason why the great English Universities have not done 
 work equal to their resources, the second is undoubtedly the 
 explanation why the Scotch Universities are not so produc- 
 tive as they desire to be-
 
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