Viil UNIVERSITIES : ACTUAL AND IDEAL 203 



wages for his work, and that he may go and eam 

 the rest. 



When I think of the host of pleasant, moneyed, 

 well-bred young gentlemen, who do a little learning 

 and much boating by Cam and Isis, the vision is a 

 pleasant one ; and, as a patriot, I rejoice that the 

 youth of the upper and richer classes of the nation 

 receive a wholesome and a manly training, however 

 small may be the modicum of knowledge they 

 gather, in the intervals of this, their serious busi- 

 ness. I admit, to the full, the social and political 

 value of that training. But, when I proceed to 

 consider that these young men may be said to 

 represent the great bulk of what the Colleges 

 have to show for their enormous wealth, plus, at 

 least, a hundred and fifty pounds a year apiece 

 which each undergraduate costs his parents or 

 guardians, I feel inclined to ask, whether the rate- 

 in-aid of the education of the wealthy and 

 professional classes, thus levied on the resources 

 of the community, is not, after all, a little heavy ? 

 And, still further, I am tempted to inquire what 

 has become of the indigent scholars, the sons 

 of the masses of the people whose daily 

 labour just suffices to meet their daily wants, for 

 whose benefit these rich foundations were largely, 

 if not mainly, instituted ? It seems as if Pharaoh's 

 dream had been rigorously carried out, and that 

 even the fat scholar has eaten the lean one. And 

 when I turn from this picture to the no less real 



