185i6.] The London Universiti/. Ij.) 



such assistance would be found abundantly in every considerable town 

 in England. 



The universities, indeed, are said to lament the neglect of study, and 

 attributing all as they do to the want of adequate authority, have ap- 

 plied to the legislature for an extension of power. They are altogether 

 wrong. Their lamentations are misplaced, and there is no want of 

 power. The neglect of study is their own fault ; they either do not 

 find sufficient material, or do not encourage the use of it. Tiiey re- 

 quire no additional power ; for they have already the irresponsible righ 

 of expulsion for disobedience of orders. No, the evil originates in their 

 vanity and their avarice. Their pride is gratified by the sons of the 

 great being, even thus — such is the fact — nominally placed under their 

 guidance, and their cupidity by the gain being proportionate to their 

 numbers. 



We have granted, that where young men of large fortunes, or large 

 expectations are assembled together, and left to themselves, extrava- 

 gance, profligacy, rioting, &c. will inevitably follow. But the fault, we 

 repeat, is with the universities themselves. Let them insist on a course 

 of study, suited to the varying inclinations, if possible, to the powers, 

 the views and destinies of the students ; let this course be a severe one, 

 and severely enforced ; let it be such as will occupy them. This alone 

 will check, or rather will put a stop to the career of profligacy : want 

 of occupation is at the root of it. 



Let none sleep out of college, or neglect attendance on lectures ; let 

 the gates be closed early, and no strangers admitted after ; let cooks be 

 dismissed, and gyps and servants excluded, when the gates are closed ; 

 and if these laws, strict though they be, be not obeyed, rusticate, or at 

 once expel. The place is a place of education, be it remembered. But 

 then it will be said, young men of the age at which they now come to 

 the university, and prematured, too, as young men are now-a-days, 

 will not submit to such restrictions. Then, we say again, dismiss them. 

 But then the universities will be empty. They will not. You have the 

 exclusive privilege of providing for the church, and you have yourselves 

 valuable appointments, that will together always fill your colleges re- 

 spectably. But, then, there will be no place for noble and wealthy 

 families to finish the education of their sons, if we leave them thus 

 destitute. It is because you do not educate them, but suffer them to 

 set you and )^our regulations and your studies at nought, that brings 

 about the deplorable, but single alternative of educate or expel. Let 

 the wealthy and the noble take care of themselves. But, again, if so 

 desperate a remedy be applied, we bruig back the university to — what ? 

 The days of their glory, when they were scenes of calm study, and 

 unambitious pursuits — when the world and its ostentation and passion 

 for display were excluded — when learning and acquirement were the 

 sources of distinction — when rank and fortune were held in subordinate 

 estimation — and men studied from the love of knowledge, and a desire 

 to extend the bounds of it. 



But we are forgetting the London University — the subject we set out 

 with contemplating. The miserable declension of those elder seats of 

 learning, turned us irresistibly from our main object. We remember 

 one of them in its better, not in its best days ; and as our remembrances 

 rose full and gloomy, we felt our youthful affections oo strongly re- 



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