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NATURE 



\ytdy 20, 1876 



Before proceeding to prove this, let us make a {^^ft 

 remarks upon the general system of examination, A 

 great deal has been said and written against this system, 

 as if examinations in themselves were rather to be avoided 

 than otherwise. This, however, is surely a mistake. The 

 University of London does not, in our opinion, err in 

 respect of its examinations being excessive, but rather in 

 respect of its examinations being incomplete. A properly 

 conducted examination system tests the power of the 

 pupil for p7-odticing his knowledge when occasion re- 

 quires. If it be the case that the Jesuits excel in this art, 

 so much the more credit to them, for the art of producing 

 one's knowledge is something desirable, which ought 

 certainly to be taught. 



Now the fault we have to find with the University of 

 London is that, at least in its junior examinations, it does 

 not test the excellence of the manner in which a candidate 

 produces his knowledge, and can hardly be expected to do 

 so. The London examination is not led up to by previous 

 class examinations, in which the knowledge-producing 

 power of the various pupils is carefully tested and com- 

 mented on. If the candidate passes in, let us say, the ma- 

 triculation examination, he may get credit for the quantity 

 of his knowledge, but none for the excellence of his method 

 of producing it. If he fails to pass from want of this facility, 

 nothing is said — he is simply told that his knowledge has 

 proved insufficient. If his power of producing knowledge 

 is to be rectified, it must be done at his college, and under 

 the eye of his teacher, but if he has no college and no 

 teacher, it will not be done at all. And yet the University 

 of London, from its privilege of granting degrees, has very 

 great power over the various provincial colleges, and not 

 only tells them by means of its calendar what things they 

 must teach, but also the manner in which these things are 

 to be taught. True freedom of teaching is incompatible 

 with this system, and unquestionably the teaching that 

 would pay best in an institution absolutely bound to the 

 University of London would be of a style prejudicial to all 

 originality. Indeed it would be a mistake for such institu- 

 tions to have at the head of their departments teachers 

 of originality and power of research. Teaching of the 

 kind to suit this system is incompatible with research. 



But if the University of London be deficient in this 

 respect, it is even more so in the other functions of a 

 University. It can hardly be said to take any account of 

 the moral, the social, or the physical training of its alumni. 

 In fine it has the paramount power of granting degrees, 

 but without any corresponding responsibility, for it leaves 

 the most important parts of its graduate education to be 

 done by other institutions, or even not to be done at all. 



In this article we have endeavoured to show that an 

 extension of the system of the present Universities is in- 

 adequate to the educational wants of the country. In a 

 future article we shall discuss in what way these wants 

 may, in our opinion, be most properly remedied. 



THE DUTCH IN THE ARCTIC SEAS 

 The Dutch in the Arctic Seas. By Samuel Richard van 

 Campen. Two vols. With Illustrations, Maps, and 

 Appendix. Vol. I. — A Dutch Arctic Expedition and 

 Route. (London : Triibner and Co., 1876.) 



MR. VAN CAMPEN is a native of the United States, 

 evidently of Dutch descent, and is enthusiastic on 

 behalf of the past and future glory of his native country. 



The two volumes, of which the first has just been pub- 

 lished, have been written for the express purpose of 

 inducing the Hollanders to reassume their place in the 

 field of Arctic exploration, which as a nation they have 

 deserted since the last voyage of the famous Barents, now 

 nearly 300 years ago. The prominent position which the 

 Netherlanders once held as navigators and discoverers all 

 the world over, is well known, and as seamen they still 

 occupy as good a position as ever. Their addition to the 

 list of, happily increasing, Arctic explorers would certainly 

 be an acquisition ; and we are glad to see that a move- 

 ment has been commenced by the Dutch Society for the 

 Promotion of Industry to induce the Government to enter 

 into this matter in friendly rivalry and co-operation 

 with other civilised countries. We hope the Society, 

 backed by the arguments urged in Mr. van Campen's 

 work, will be successful in their endeavours. 



The work referred to — including the volume which is 

 published and the one to come — is the expansion of two 

 articles in the Transatlantic Magazine. The author 

 endeavours to rouse the spirit of Hollanders by insisting 

 on the glories which their nation achieved in the past, by 

 pointing out how much yet remains to be done ere the 

 Arctic problem be solved, by showing them what other 

 nations are doing, and by pointing out that the Spitz- 

 bergen-Novaya-Zemlya route belongs to them by in- 

 heritance. Mr. van Campen rather boldly, but no doubt 

 with considerable justice, compares the Dutch in the 

 earlier days of their history to the Phoenicians, who in 

 the pursuit of trade penetrated into the most distant parts 

 of the earth, making many discoveries of which the record 

 is lost. He brings our own country to the front as 

 the " grand exemplar " in the matter of Arctic explora- 

 tion, and shows that the motives which now actuate nations 

 in the pursuit of this field of enterprise are nobler than 

 those which led in the old days to the quest for a north- 

 west or north-east passage. Mr. van Campen is strongly 

 of opinion that the Dutch in these old days made many 

 discoveries which have dropped out of sight, and that not 

 improbably even the Franz- Josef Land of the Payer- 

 Weyprecht Expedition was long ago discovered and some 

 of its points named by the Dutch whalers who used to 

 frequent these seas in great numbers. Dr. Petermann 

 seems also to be of this opinion ; and we are sure if the 

 Dutch can make good their claim to any discoveries which 

 have been renamed, everyone will rejoice to reimpose the 

 old Dutch names. 



Mr. van Campen urges many arguments in favour of 

 Arctic Exploration, and especially in favour of its resump- 

 tion by the Dutch. These arguments we need not recount 

 here, as all our readers have been made familiar with 

 them in connection with the expedition, which may by 

 this time have found the secret of the Pole. The author 

 devotes considerable space to a discussion, or rather a 

 comparison of opinions, as to the nature of the unexplored 

 region round the Pole. The map prefixed to this volume 

 shows Dr. Petermann's continuation of Greenland right 

 across to Kellet Land, somewhat N.W. from Behring 

 Strait. We fear few geographers will agree with this 

 conjectural Polar continent of Petermann ; all that we 

 know points to the likelihood of the undiscovered region 

 being broken up into an archipelago. Mr. van Campen also 

 devotes considerable space to the question of an open Polar 



