REFORM YOUR UNIVERSITY SYSTEM. 411 



first place let us ask, what is a University ? A University is a national 

 establishment for education : a school where all the arts and faculties 

 are taught and studied founded and privileged by the state for the ad- 

 vantage of the nation, and, as such, all subjects of the state ought to 

 have an equal participation in the privileges and advantages thus 

 bestowed. 



In considering this subject, we must be careful to draw the proper 

 distinction between the University and the Colleges : and a greater dis- 

 tinction cannot possibly exist. The former, as we have said, was founded 

 by the state, for the purposes of education ; the latter took their origin 

 and endowments from the private munificence of certain individuals, for 

 the purposes of habitation and maintenance ; and are regulated and 

 governed each according to the will of its founder. It was very long 

 after the foundation of the University that colleges began to exist ; nor 

 did they exist, at once, in their present form. The students experi- 

 enced great difficulty in obtaining lodgings ; and many were obliged, on 

 account of the high price demanded, to leave the University altogether.* 

 This induced persons, who were anxious for the welfare of the Univer- 

 sity, to bequeath their houses as places of residence for the students : 

 these went by the name of hostels, and may be considered as the origin 

 of colleges ; to these hostels were sometimes attached small endowments 

 for the maintenance of the poorer and more deserving of the students 

 hence the origin of scholarships and fellowships. Over all these the 

 University was paramount ; and all were subservient to public utility, 

 and the interests of science. Thus should it be at the present day ; 

 and thus it might be consistently with the welfare and security of the 

 colleges as distinct and independent foundations. But thus it is not. 

 The colleges have usurped the functions and privileges of the Univer- 

 sity ; and have substituted, in their stead, a system subservient only to 

 the spirit of their own peculiar establishments. Every one who is 

 admitted to any degree in the University of Cambridge is required to 

 subscribe the thirty-nine articles ; or to declare that he is bond fide a 

 member of the Church of England. He must do this, or be prepared 

 to forego all the advantages which the degree in question may possibly 

 produce him in after life. Now, if each and all of the colleges were to 

 exact this test from those persons who are admitted to the enjoyment 

 of their emoluments, on the ground that those emoluments required the 

 performance of the duties of the established church, or that this was 

 in accordance with the wills of their respective founders, we should not 

 be disposed to dispute the justice of such a course. But all degrees are 

 conferred by the University : the University is not an exclusively 

 ecclesiastical establishment ; but an establishment founded by the state, 

 for the purposes of national education in all and every of the liberal arts 

 and sciences ; and all subjects of the state have an equal right to parti- 

 cipate in the advantages of its studies, and the honours of its degrees. 

 For the clear understanding of this subject we cannot too often repeat 

 that the Universities are not mere seminaries for the established church : 

 it is true that the colleges are principally ecclesiastical establishments. 



See Fuller's History of the University of Cambridge. 



