was given in the present century at the time of the successful labours of Kemble; and then he showed what plentiful fruit had followed, and is sure to follow in future, the application of the method of comparative philology. By this time much has been done in tracing consonantal changes, but there yet remain to be made out the very much more important vowel changes. In the course of the lecture he broke a lance in the cause of the phonetic innovators, rather going out of his way to say some far from complimentary things about the antagonists of that cause. The present writer must admit that he was dismayed indeed to find that phoneticism had met with so distinguished a champion.

The term has begun with fair weather. Football is already started in good earnest; yet one still sees the lawn-tennis nets stretched in Trinity paddock. At Girton too, as a passer-by on the Huntingdonroad may observe, lawn tennis is actively going on. The new buildings at Girton are being pressed forward, and there seems to be a very fair prospect of its becoming more and more generally recognised in England as an admirable place for the completion of the education of gentle

women.

The musical world is delighted that Herr Franke has promised to reside part of the week in Cambridge, and to give lessons in the playing of the instrument of which he is so great a master.

On Thursday, I cannot doubt, the very Conservative gallery will make the Senate House ring with applause as the Public Orator leads up the Home Secretary to the Vice-Chancellor. It will be irritating if, after all,

the troublesome Ameer keeps Mr. Cross in town.

TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN,

Oct. 24, 1878.

an

MICHAELMAS term has begun, and our October entrance has been the largest recorded for more than thirty years. This is a remarkable state of things, in the midst of all our rumours of wars, and of all our grumbling about middle-class destitution. It seems that the Irish gentry maintain their confidence in the National University as entrance to professional life, and that they do not look to the army as they once did as a peculiarly desirable provision for their sons. At the same time it can hardly be doubted that, if it became necessary to increase the strength of the army, a very considerable number of young men would be drawn away from the Universities, and more perhaps from Dublin than elsewhere. This, however, does not seem now so likely as it did some months ago, and if the increase in the number of matriculations has any special significance, it is that Ireland has been less affected by the existing depression of business than might have been expected.

It is an amusing enough feature of the older universities that no matter in what department of literature, art, or science a man may become distinguished, the only academic compliment that can be conferred on him is to make him a Doctor of Laws. Poet or painter,

chemist or naturalist, it is all one. Even an eminent military commander is made an LL.D. honoris causa by any university that can catch him. Princes of the blood royal have a natural right to the doctorate just as the Stoic Doctor was sutor bonus et rex; but there is nothing in the nature of things in themselves that should entitle Mr. Huxley to a degree which in its origin was meant for a licence to practise civil and canon law. Nevertheless, Mr. Huxley, together with eleven other leading members of the British Association, was admitted to the degree of LL.D. at a special convocation on the 20th of August last. I mention Mr. Huxley in particular, because the Regius Professor of Law, who ex officio presented the candidates, introduced him in these terms: "Hominem vere physicum; hominem facundum, lepidum, venustum eundem autem nihil (philosophia modo sua lucem proferat) reformidantem-ne illud quidem Ennianum

Simia quam similis, turpissima bestia, vobis!"

This is extremely apt and neat; but Dr. Webb, always felicitous, may be said to have surpassed himself in the quotations with which he introduced his candidate Doctors of Laws on this occasion. Thus of Mr. H. J. S. Smith (alluding to his Double First) he said :

"Palmam et in litteris et in mathematica reportavit-herois instar apud Maronem

Duplices tendens ad sidera palmas.”

Again, in presenting Professor Janssen, of Paris, alluding to his spectrum analysis of the sun :

Ergo vivida vis animi pervicit, et extra

Processit longe flammantia monia mundi—

Professor Williamson, distinguished for his researches in molecular physics, might thank Dr. Webb for a motto,

"Mens agitat molem."

Nor must I omit to notice his eulogium of Sir Wyville Thomson, which was perhaps the best of all

"Præsento vobis Wyville Carolum Thomson, equitem auratum, Historiæ Naturalis Professorem eruditum et eloquentem domi: speculatorem foris acrem, omnivagum, indefessum: Neptuni denique Provocatorem" (Challenger) "qui quum in eo certamine maris ima petiisset fit tandem redux spoliis pariter ac laude onustus

Merses profundo pulchrior evenit."

The Commission on the promotion of Fellows seems to have come to nothing. At least no attempt has yet been made to carry out the sug. gestions the Commissioners made in their report. Those suggestions, as I pointed out in a former letter, were of the very feeblest character; but, feeble as they were, it might have been better to carry them out than to do nothing, that is, supposing it to be decided that no more thorough scheme should be adopted. As it is, the stagnation in promotion is made more annoying to the sufferers by the fact that it has undergone an abortive discussion. But, indeed, the educational schemes set on foot under Government patronage seem all destined to die in their birth. Everyone was jubilant over the Intermediate Education Bill; and now that the bill has become law, and the Com

mission has been appointed, things have come to a standstill, and no action is being taken. In the meantime pamphleteers and writers to the newspapers are not idle. The press teems with discussions as to the way in which the Act ought to be carried out. Should there be a prescribed course of study in which the candidates are to be examined? This is the question most hotly debated. The Warden of Saint Columba's (Mr. Rice) is the earnest champion of an untrammelled examination. His argument is, that knowledge can be fairly tested only by absolutely excluding the possibility of cram. A defined course, he says, inevitably offers an advantage to the cramming teacher, who will make his boys know, not languages, but books. Mr. Hime, the Principal of Foyle College, has taken up the cudgels in reply. In effect he says that knowledge of books, in the case of the classics, is knowledge of languages, and that an examination in a definite course can be so managed that cram shall find no place in it. Whichever be the opinion ultimately adopted, it is clear that nearly everything will depend upon the examiners. These functionaries must never be allowed to lose sight of the fact that the intermediate examinations are for schoolboys, and that no schoolboy can be expected to be a finished scholar. Examinations in classical literature, unrestricted by an assigned course, are obviously right in the case of a candidate for a University degree, a fellowship, or the Indian Civil Service. But after all, when we talk of an assigned course or an unlimited course, we should bear in mind that classical literature is contained within not very wide limits. The Greek authors between Homer and Aristotle, and the Latin authors between Plautus and Tacitus, would constitute a very fair Corpus Classicorum. An examiner who should habitually travel outside these limits would be fairly suspected of wanting to puzzle his pupils rather than to test them; and a student who should have read the course in question, or any considerable portion of it, would be a scholar of no mean merit. A candidate for one of the higher honours I mentioned might fairly be expected to answer papers selected from such a course, without reference to his own private reading. But no such feat could be demanded of a mere schoolboy. The most that can be expected is that he shall have read a comparatively limited number of works of such authors as may be suited to his capacity, and shall have studied them so as to give him a substantial knowledge of the languages. The skill of the examiner will be shown in adapting his examinations to the capacities and the probable reading of each class of boys. A discreet and scholarly examiner will do this, however wide the limits from which he is allowed to select; a bad examiner will not be hindered from making blunders, however much he may be tied up in respect of his course. Still it is only fair to admit that there are other means of avoiding the danger of cramming, even if a prescribed course of books be adopted. Composition is the most obvious of these, for a boy who can turn out a fair translation into Latin or Greek prose (to say nothing of verse) can hardly be a mere product of the crammer's art. Again, in examinations like the Indian Civil Service, candidates are often asked what books they have read, and are specially examined in them. This would indicate, I think, a solution of the problem. The commissioners of Intermediate Education might prescribe a course, such as the average schoolboy was reasonably likely to read, and might at the same time intimate that marks would be given for papers taken

from books outside of the course, and that special attention would be shown to composition.

I seem to be turning my University letter into a discourse on intermediate examinations. My excuse is, that the term is yet young, and no incident has occurred worth recording.

UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW,

Oct. 25, 1878.

WE are at the end of the Long Vacation. Few of the undergraduates ever seem to be sorry at its ending, although at its beginning all are sufficiently, and some exuberantly, glad. Various proposals have from time to time been made for a redivision of the academical year; but, not to speak of what is due to the professors, the general circumstances of Scottish students render any change difficult and, as regards consequences, problematical. Besides, while the existing arrangement entails some serious disadvantages, it must be said that it brings with it certain important compensations to the better class of students-to that class which, after all, includes the great majority. Leisure and idleness are not necessarily convertible terms, and, as a matter of fact, there are few men in any of our northern Universities who waste the recess except such as think fit equally to waste the session.

The winter course lasts for six months without a break save of ten days or so at Christmas. But in the Faculties of Law and Medicine there is also a three months' summer session, and during that period tutorial classes are formed and carried on for the benefit of junior students in the several departments of Arts. A considerable number of graduates hold their scholarships on condition of conducting such tutorial classes if required by the Senate to do so.

In

To its other functions the University has lately added the conduct of local examinations. This is only the second year in which these examinations have been held, and the result is regarded as encouraging. Fully two hundred candidates, mostly ladies, presented themselves, and, on the whole, the examiners appear to have been well satisfied, though there is nothing in their report to warrant that female self-conceit, which is alleged (with what truth it is discreet not to determine here) to have tainted the atmosphere of Glasgow drawing-rooms in recent seasons since the inception of the scheme for the higher education of women. reference to this scheme it is easy to be cynical, especially since there is no common test by examination or otherwise of the good derived from attendance at lectures, and since the jargon of a subject can so readily be acquired in absence of real knowledge; but it would be sweepingly unfair to suppose that, of the hundreds who listen to prelections on formal logic, physiology, geology, astronomy, and whatever else of abstruse science has an authorised expounder, there are not many who profit substantially. At least, it is not to be doubted that there are many who try to profit. Unfortunately, however, success is not always directly proportional to zeal, and there is reason to fear that present agencies, even if

they do not foster dilettantism, are hardly adequate for the education of women according to a University standard.

The erection of the Common Hall has been begun. The munificent gift of the Marquess of Bute will be like Solomon's Temple in at least one respect no sound of hammer or axe or any tool of iron will be heard in the building of it. The hewing of the stones is to be done at such a distance from the class rooms as to cause no disturbance of academical work. It is a blessing that this is possible, for men now entering on their first session will have graduated before the hall is finished. The cost to the Marquess will be about £50,000, and of the additional £25,000 required for the substructure and approaches the sum of £14,000 has been raised by local subscription since last half-yearly meeting of the General Council. The Council is to meet next week, when the report of the Royal Commissioners on the Scottish Universities is to be discussed. It is safe to predict that some of the most important proposals contained in the report, and notably those bearing on graduation in arts, will call forth determined opposition. The influence of Mr. Huxley's views in moulding the recommendations of the commissioners is too obvious to leave room for hope that the report will secure anything like general approval. However much we may be disposed to concede the claims of physical science to be admitted to an honourable place amongst University studies, we are not willing to subordinate all else to empirical knowledge of nature. But I shall defer any further reference to this matter till after the Council has pronounced its opinion on this and the other main questions raised by the report.

UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE,

August, 1878.

SIR, Observing that you are placing yourself in communication with the Universities of the Colonies, with the view of laying something of their life before your readers, I beg to forward you the following facts in reference to the most important University of the Southern Hemisphere, the University of Melbourne.

An Act to incorporate and endow the University of Melbourne received the Royal assent on the 22nd day of January, 1853. By this Act the University was empowered to confer, after examination, the several degrees of B.A., M.A., M.B., M.D., LL.B., LL.D., as well as degrees in music; and at a subsequent date, viz., 7th April, 1876, an Act was passed enabling the University to confer the degrees of Bachelor and Master of Surgery. Royal letters patent were issued by Her Majesty the Queen, on the 14th March, 1859, directing that all degrees conferred by the University of Melbourne, "shall be recognised as Academic distinctions and rewards of merit, and be entitled to rank, precedence, and consideration in our United Kingdom, and in our Colonies and possessions, and throughout the world, as fully as if the said degrees had been granted by any University of our said United Kingdom." Soon after Her Majesty's assent had been given to the Act of incorporation, a suitable building was erected on a block of land about one and