372 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



abilities of the teachers ? Have they directed the course of 

 education towards objects more useful both to the individual 

 and the public than those to which it would naturally have gone 

 of its own accord ? " 



The answer of the twentieth century to these inquiries is, 

 that whatever may have been the correct historical reply, we 

 believe that all these results can be obtained concurrently with 

 the use of endowments by means of a system of governing 

 public educational institutions which unites the representation 

 of public and expert opinion by a method which he did not even 

 discuss. It must, therefore, either not have occurred to him as 

 a feasible plan, or he must have condemned it by means of the 

 general proposition that authorities can provide teaching but 

 cannot ensure its quality. 



Taking, however, the system of government of modern 

 Universities as an established fact, and admitting that Adam 

 Smith's objections or possible objections have been overruled 

 and his ideals abandoned, a series of interesting questions 

 remains as to what principles should guide these relatively 

 new University authorities in the exercise of their powers. 



By their endowments and subventions they have in part 

 relieved the teacher of the direct economic incitement to dili- 

 gence. By their control over the courses of study which lead 

 to a degree, they have in part deprived the student of freedom 

 of choice as to what he shall study. How are the evils which 

 might attend this relaxation and this restriction to be minimised? 



As regards the first, Adam Smith would, no doubt, have 

 been in favour of paying the teacher as much as possible by a 

 share of the fees, and as little as possible by endowment ; but 

 this leads to a difficulty with regard to courses of study for the 

 degrees. The number of students who attend a professor's class 

 must depend not only on his ability and energy, but on the 

 place which his subject takes in the authorised curricula. It 

 may be desirable that a great University should possess a 

 Professor of Assyriology, but it would be absurd to blame the 

 poor man if he could not make a decent living by his fees. 

 On the contrary, he would be regarded as an ornament to the 

 University if he could succeed in securing a small class of 

 earnest post-graduate students. It would be equally absurd to 

 attempt to support him by forcing students to study his subject 

 as a necessary preliminary to a degree. Without, therefore, 



