THE GROWTH OF AN UNIVERSITY. 4I3 



Professor John McKay, first and only Professor of History, is 

 one of the most whole-hearted supporters of the University. 

 Though himself an Oxford man, loved and admired alike by 

 colleagues and students, he is one of our most valuable elements. 

 When some years ago the Record Office desired the best paleo- 

 grapher that could be found to decipher historical documents in 

 the Vatican Library, it was one of his pupils, Mr. Twemlow, 

 who was selected, and he in his turn now holds a lectureship 

 founded " in honour of the attainment of the holder^" a phrase 

 frequently met with in a record of the Chairs and lectureships 

 of Liverpool University. 



In 1903 the Victoria University split up, Manchester, always 

 the centre, retaining the title, and still giving Victoria University 

 degrees ; University College became the Liverpool University, 

 the Yorkshire College, Leeds, becoming the Leeds University, 

 an honour Leeds most reluctantly accepted. 



The effect was immediate. I was present at the first degree- 

 giving in 1904; the largest hall in the town, St. George's Hall, 

 was filled. The Lord Mayor attended in state and offered ;£io,ooo 

 a year from the City Council ; the Mayor of Birkenhead, the town 

 across the Mersey, offered ;£i,ooo, and the Mayor of Bootle £500 

 a year. Her late Majesty, Queen Victoria, as Duchess of Lan- 

 caster, divided ;£io,ooo between Liverpool and Manchester, "which 

 at Liverpool was supplemented by the Earl of Derby to form a 

 Chair of Jurisprudence. I believe Manchester and Leeds also 

 rose to the occasion. At the same time four new Chairs were 

 endowed with the usual ;^io,ooo by private citizens, the civic 

 spirit was roused, and the town felt and recognised that it 

 honoured itself in honouring the University. Are not all Univer- 

 sities outside the New World connected with a town? Oxford, St. 

 Andrews, Paris and Bologna, Lcyden and Heidelberg, Barcelona 

 and Alexandria, and should not the proposed South African 

 University be definitely associated with the Mother City of South 

 Africa ? 



Since 1904 the progress of Liverpool has been amazing. Last 

 July over 200 students took their degrees. Among them one saw 

 with interest men of alien race and colour, Chinese. Japanese, 

 Indian and Egvptian, attracted of course to mechanics, phvsics 

 and engineering, where, as Marquis Tseng truly said Europe is 

 o-reatly in advance of the East, he added equally trulv. But in 

 Agriculture, first and greatest of sciences, Europe is 300 years 

 behind China." In South Africa, where so much depends upon 

 ag-riculture, we mav perhaps do away with that reproach. 



Among the newest developments are the School of Architecture 

 and the School of Archeology and Anthropology ; not what one 

 would have anticipated. The School of Architecture has recently 

 been housed in a beautiful Queen Anne building, formerly the 

 Blue Coat School, and students come to it from all over the 

 world, including South Africa and Manchester. One needs per- 

 haps to be a Lancastrian to appreciate the force of the latter 

 tribute to Professor Reilly ; with it is associated the department 

 of Civic Design, including Hygiene, and together they publish 



