648 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to classes of the community against which they had formerly been 

 closed. But meanwhile the growing desire for higher education— a 

 result of the gradual improvement in elementary and secondary train- 

 ing — was creating new institutions of various kinds. The earliest of 

 these arose while access to Oxford and Cambridge was still restricted. 

 The University of Durham was established in 1833. In 1836 the Uni- 

 versity of London, as an examining and degree-giving body, received 

 its first charter. A series of important colleges, giving education of 

 a university type, arose in the greater towns of England and Wales. 

 The next step was the formation of federal universities. The Victoria 

 University, in which the Colleges of Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds 

 were associated, received its charter in 1880. The Colleges of Aberyst- 

 wyth, Bangor and Cardiff were federated in the University of Wales, 

 which dates from 1893. The latest development has been the institu- 

 tion of the great urban universities. The foundation of the University 

 of Birmingham hastened an event which other causes had already pre- 

 pared. The federal Victoria University has been replaced by three 

 independent universities, those of Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds. 

 Lastly, a charter has recently been granted to the University of Shef- 

 field. Then the University of London has been reconstituted; it is 

 no longer only an examining board; it is also a teaching university, 

 comprising a number of recognized schools in and around London. 

 Thus in England and Wales there are now no fewer than ten teaching 

 universities. Among the newer institutions there are some varieties 

 of type. But, so far as the new universities in great cities are con- 

 cerned, it may be said that they are predominantly scientific, and also 

 that they devote special attention to the needs of practical life, profes- 

 sional, industrial and commercial; while at the same time they desire 

 to maintain a high standard of general education. It may be observed 

 that in some points these universities have taken hints from the four 

 ancient universities of Scotland — which themselves have lately under- 

 gone a process of temperate reform. The Scottish universities are 

 accessible to every class of the community; and the success with which 

 they have helped to mold the intellectual life of a people traditionally 

 zealous for education renders their example instructive for the younger 

 institutions. With reference to the provision made by the newer uni- 

 versities for studies bearing on practical life, it should be remarked 

 that much has been done in the same direction by the two older uni- 

 versities also. At Cambridge, for example, degrees can be taken in 

 economics and associated branches of political science; in mechanism 

 and applied mechanics, and in agricultural sciences. It certainly can 

 not now be said that the old universities neglect studies which are of 

 direct utility, though they rightly insist that the basis and method of 

 such studies shall be liberal. 



