O PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



method, but for a steady flow of fresh contributions to the 

 stock of human knowledge. That this last is a legitimate ex- 

 pectation is now the received opinion throughout the whole 

 civilized world. In accepting it, too, we have but returned to 

 the original conception of a University — a conception that, in 

 the course of a long period of years, had gradually come to be 

 forgotten in English-speaking countries. The evil results of 

 this period of somnolence at length became so striking, not to 

 say alarming, that in May of 1870 a Royal Commission was 

 appointed in England to make inquiry into the whole matter. 

 It may safely be said that no stronger Commission ever sat 

 on a cognate subject, and that its long series of reports are 

 models of clear statement and wise counsel, which even to-day 

 it would be difficult to improve upon. " We have no doubt," 

 one weighty report says, " that for a professor the duty of 

 teaching is indispensable, but we agree that original research 

 is a no less important part of his functions. The object of a 

 University is to promote and to maintain learning and science, 

 and scientific teaching of the highest kind can only be success- 

 fully carried on by persons who are themselves engaged in 

 original research. If once a teacher ceases to be a learner it 

 is difficult for him to maintain any freshness in the subject 

 which he has to teach ; and nothing is so likely to awaken the 

 love of scientific enquiry in the mind of the student as the 

 example of a teacher who shows his value for knowledge by 

 making the advancement of it the principal business of his 

 life." How far the great English Universities then fell short 

 of the ideal here indicated may be gathered from the writings 

 of the time. On the monstrously-developed examination-sys- 

 tem much of the blame had of course to be thrown. When it 

 was asked what the Universities did with their endowments and 

 equipment, a voice from Cambridge said " they perform the 

 functions for too many of their students, of first-grade schools 

 merely, and that in a manner about which opinions are divided; 

 and superadded to these is an enormous examining engine, on- 

 the most approved Chinese model, always at work." Another 

 writer advised that in order to be honest the University ought 

 10 put up a large brass plate with the inscription " Examina- 

 tions held here." And there were endless other well-deserved' 

 sarcasms from those who knew the facts best. Of the agita- 

 tion, the inquiry, and the plain speaking much good came, and 

 the English Universities of to-day show in consequence a very 

 different character and spirit. The difference may not be all 

 that earnest reformers still desire, but who in South Africa can 

 with any conscience throw a stone at the offenders ? Even so 

 late as 1901, when numerous reforms had been effected in 

 England, a great educationist and chemist, in drawing attention 

 to the function performed by Universities on the continent of 

 Europe, wound up with the passionate cry " Their universi- 

 ties have always been schools of research, of inquiry: unless 

 and until ours become such, and our youth are trained to 

 advance, there can be no hope for us. God help us to make 

 the change before it is too late! " If this be the prayer con- 



