258 ADDRESS ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION ix 



they can attract. In this way you provide against 

 the danger, patent elsewhere, of finding attempts 

 at improvement obstructed by vested interests; 

 and, in the department of medical education 

 especially, you are free of the temptation to set 

 loose upon the world men utterly incompetent to 

 perform the serious and responsible duties of 

 their profession. 



It is a delicate matter for a stranger to the 

 practical working of your institutions, like myself, 

 to pretend to give an opinion as to the organisation 

 of your governing power. I can conceive nothing 

 better than that it should remain as it is, if you can 

 secure a succession of wise, liberal, honest, and con- 

 scientious men to fill the vacancies that occur 

 among you. I do not greatly believe in the efficacy 

 of any kind of machinery for securing such a 

 result ; but I would venture to suggest that the 

 exclusive adoption of the method of co-optation for 

 filling the vacancies which must occur in your 

 body, appears to me to be somewhat like a tempt- 

 ing of Providence. Doubtless there are grave 

 practical objections to the appointment of persons 

 outside of your body and not directly interested 

 in the welfare of the university ; but might it not 

 be well if there were an understanding that your 

 academic staff should be officially represented on 

 the board, perhaps even the heads of one or two 

 independent learned bodies, so that academic 

 opinion and the views of the outside world might 



