Provincial Colleges and Universities.

Oxford and Cambridge.

Royal Commissions.

The first movement towards the creation of a provincial University was made by the Dean and Chapter of Durham, who obtained a charter, and opened their buildings in 1833. Victoria University received its charter in 1880, but its component colleges the Owens College, Manchester, and the Yorkshire College, Leeds-had already been in existence for some time. Liverpool University College got its charter of incorporation in 1881. Birmingham, Bristol, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield, had all established local colleges before the period closed.

The changes which have taken place at Oxford and Cambridge during the present century have tended, by the abolition of divers monopolies, to admit a greater number of persons to those benefits which the Universities bestow upon education; by the elaboration of a system of examinations, to provide tests of qualification; and by changes in internal administration, to increase the influence of the Universities upon education and learning. At the beginning of the century the excellence of a student's merits were tested at Cambridge only in one way, by the Mathematical Tripos; not till 1824 was the first Classical Tripos held, and to that examination until 1850 none were admitted who had not gained honours in the Mathematical Tripos. At Oxford there had been no examination for degrees till the beginning of the century, when classical and mathematical honours lists began. Until 1850 no other radical change was effected at either University. There had been an attempt in 1834 to secure for Dissenters admission to the degrees of Cambridge, but the Bill was thrown out in the Lords. In 1838 Whewell became professor of Moral Philosophy at Cambridge, and it was largely through his influence that a wider range of studies began to be regarded as proper to the University. As a consequence of this movement, two new triposes were held for the first time in 1851, in Natural Science and in Moral Philosophy, with Law and History. At Oxford, in 1850, there was a reorganisation of examinations, resulting in a system not different in essentials from that now established.

These changes came from the Universities themselves, unassisted by pressure from without. Although at Cambridge Dean Peacock's" Observations on the Statutes of the University" had excited some enthusiasm, the need of a change in the constitution of the Universities was felt rather by the educated

classes as a whole than by the resident members of the Universities. It was generally thought that the number of persons admitted to share in the benefits of the Universities was unduly small; and even at Cambridge, where there had been some increase in the number of students, the increase was not proportionate to the growth of the population. In 1850 a memorial was signed by some Oxford and Cambridge graduates and some members of the Royal Society, which set forth "that

the present system of the English Universities had not advanced, and was not calculated to advance the interests of religious and useful learning to an extent commensurate with the great resources and high position of those bodies," and pointed to the need of changes in their constitution. This was sent to the First Lord of the Treasury, and a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into the state, discipline, studies and revenues of the University and Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge in 1852. At Oxford the inquiry was met with violent hostility; it was pronounced illegal and unconstitutional, the Commissioners' letters were not answered, and Fellows were

told that they would violate their oaths taken on election if they provided materials for the inquiry. The Commissioners had to turn to the British Museum for copies of college statutes. Their verdict was that University teaching was nearly extinct, and that professorial lectures had suffered something more than what the friends of the existing system called "a temporary interruption." The Hebdomadal Board, with which rested the sole power of initiation in legis

lative affairs, was described as "an organised torpor." It consisted of the heads of colleges and the proctors. Congregation, consisting of resident Masters of Arts, had merely formal functions and no power of debate; Convocation might debate only in Latin, which very few members could speak. By the Act of 1854 and subsequent ordinances the representation on the Hebdomadal Board of Professors and resident Masters of Arts was secured, Congregation was allowed to discuss questions of academic policy, the test oath was removed from matriculation and the B.A., but was kept for the M.A. degree; the opening of private halls was allowed, local preferences and other restrictions on competition for endowments were removed, but the restriction of Fellowships to clergymen was to be annulled only when three-fourths of the Fellows were found to be already in

orders. Oxford had hitherto been drawing about 300 students a year, of whom the larger number were destined for holy Before long the matriculation doubled.

orders.

Photo: Gillman & Co., Oxford.

At Cambridge the chief suggestions of the Commissioners, embodied as the New Statutes, 1858, led to very similar changes. In ten years' time a fresh movement for reform was started. The Essays on a Liberal Education" (1867) explained the views of the reforming party. Mark Pattison's "Suggestions on Academic Organisation" (1868) raised similar questions in

Oxford. In 1871 the Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge, drafted of their own initiative a new code of statutes. In the next year a second Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into the revenues and property of both Universities. By the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge Act, 1877, two Executive Commissions were appointed to revise college statutes. In 1882 the work was finished; the principles involved in celibate, clerical, and lite fellowships were given up; the college system of teaching, by which each college provided, as far as possible, its own teachers, to the neglect of University and inter-collegiate teaching, was discouraged; the financial relations of colleges to the University were revised, so that the colleges were made to contribute to University funds. By these means, and by the admission of women students to college lectures and University examinations, the character of academic life was greatly changed within a short period. The creation of sectarian colleges (Keble, founded in 1870, being one of the largest) has opened new opportunities for the development of ecclesiastical influence.

ARTHUR

GRIF

FITHS.

Prison

Discipline, 1846-1885.

Convict
Labour.

THE cessation of transportation, even in a modified form, imposed a serious obligation upon prison administrators (p. 316). In the early 'fifties they were faced with the necessity for finding an outlet for the convicts, hitherto so comfortably disposed of, now constantly accumulating on our hands at home. Hence the form of punishment known as penal servitude. Great public works were started and carried through. These are to be seen now, mostly completed, at Portland, in the breakwater and the vast fortifications on the Verne; at Portsmouth and Chatham, in the development of the dockyards and the large basins constructed there, capable of holding half our fleet; at Borstal, in the chain of forts protecting the Medway; at Dartmoor, where great areas of good land have been reclaimed from the barren wastes. The system first invented is practically that still in force. It is possibly irksome to all those who go through it, but the main idea of crime to be expiated cannot be forgotten; yet pains are taken that the moral and material well-being of the convict is not neglected.