266 



NATURE 



[yuly 27, 1876 



London, being a good and desirable thing of which we 

 cannot have enough, should split itself up into two parts 

 — a southern and a northern one — a province of Canter- 

 bury and a province of York, and that the various pro- 

 vincial colleges in the north should form members of the 

 great University representing the northern province. 



Our reply to this proposal is that believing the Uni- 

 versity of London to represent an incomplete system we 

 are unwilling to contemplate its universal extension 

 whether this be brought about by the process of absorp- 

 tion or by that of fission. 



It is alleged by some who favour this system of grouping 

 colleges together into one University, that a healthy 

 principle of competition is introduced into the teaching 

 departments of the various colleges, and they quote in 

 favour of their views the success of the University of 

 Cambridge in producing eminent mathematicians by this 

 system. We shall here confine ourselves to showing that 

 this supposed analogy is delusive. What the various 

 colleges do, and do extremely well, is to impart a moral 

 and social training to their pupils ; but it is well known 

 that in Cambridge the real rivalry as regards mathematical 

 honours is not between the various colleges, but between 

 the various private tutors. The chances are in favour of 

 a certain tutor turning out the next senior wrangler, and 

 accordingly the inmates of the various colleges rush off 

 to this tutor in the hope of gaining the great prize. What 

 this system demonstrates is rather the necessity of a 

 thorough system of tutors in addition to that of profes- 

 sors, in order to secure the high proficiency of a few in 

 any department. 



Thus by a species of exhaustion, and by discussing the 

 various alternatives suggested, we come to see that we 

 must look to the various individual provincial colleges 

 to become the future Universities of our country ; and 

 tha only question that remains is whether Owens College 

 be yet rips for the change. Let us present the claims of 

 this College to our readers in the language of the pamphlet 

 already alluded to : — 



" It remains to inquire whether Owens College may be 

 fairly considered equal to the assumption of such a posi- 

 tion, and whether the present period is a suitable one in 

 its history for the College to advance such a claim. The 

 history of the College may in any case be said to have 

 prepared it for a University future. Owens College was 

 founded to provide instruction * in such branches of 

 learning and science as were then and might be there- 

 after usually taught in the English Universities,' and it 

 has uniformly sought to pursue a course and maintain a 

 character consistent with this intention on the part of its 

 founder. The support given to it in the district has 

 indisputably been largely given as to an institution 

 desiring to hold an academical level ... As to curricula 

 and branches of teaching, the Senate, while unwilling to 

 enter into details, have no hesitation in asserting their 

 opinion that Owens College may, taken as a whole, fairly 

 challenge comparison with any academical institutions 

 of this and with some of other countries. We have here 

 a ready-formed and — in essentials — complete University 

 organisation as regards the Faculties of Arts, Science, 

 and Medicine, together with a newly-formed School of 

 Law. . . , The Faculty of Divinity is indeed absent ; 

 but apart from the reasons which, in Owens College as 

 well as elsewhere, have caused its absence, it may be 

 worth observing that the conception of a University by 

 no means involves the necessity that it should possess 

 chairs and grant degrees in all the faculties. This posi- 



tion it would be easy to prove from the history of several 

 Universities of European fame." 



This is an era of great educational activity ; attempts 

 are being made to reform our great English institutions, 

 and a Commission is at present engaged in discussing 

 the future of the Scotch Universities. 



We are convinced that an enlightened government will 

 best complete its efforts in this direction by giving a 

 University Charter to Owens College, not, however, as a 

 last and crowning concession, but rather as the first of 

 a series of concessions, all of which, let us hope, will, 

 when the time is ripe for them, be frankly and graciously 

 made. Let there be no disguising the fact that Owens 

 College is but the eldest of a large and rapidly increasing 

 family, others of whom may, we hope, in the course of 

 time, make their appearance before the state. It may, 

 however, be twenty or thirty years hence before any of 

 the recently established institutions is sufficiently ripe to 

 receive the crowning honour of a University Charter. At 

 present no other college can hope to present similar 

 claims representing something like 500 day students, 800 

 evening students, and a very large amount of voluntary 

 endowment. This is in truth the work of a generation. 



We do not think it probable that any opposition to this 

 movement will arise on the part of the two great English 

 Universities. Their office is rather to lend their distin- 

 guished graduates as teaqhers in these new institutions, 

 and by dint of their own practice and their great influence 

 to see that moral, social, and even physical training are 

 encouraged, as well as training in its merely intellectual 

 aspect. And while they themselves may in the future be 

 probably induced to give a greater prominence to the 

 professorial element than they have yet done, they may in 

 their turn induce the other Universities to encourage the 

 tutorial element to a greater extent. In fine, these two 

 old Universities will, whatever happens, always retain a 

 powerful voice in the educational councils of the nation. 



Nor must it be supposed that we advocate the doing 

 away with the University of London, for whatever be the 

 plan adopted there will always be colleges which not 

 having attained to the rank of Universities, must look to 

 that institution as their degree-giving body. 



But the function of such an institution is to redress a 

 hardship in the case of pupils rather than to cause and 

 perpetuate a hardship on the part of teachers. The Uni- 

 versity of London will be heartily welcomed as a channel 

 for imparting a degree that could not othewise be procured, 

 but it ought not to be tolerated as a Procrustean bed for 

 the education of the country. In fine, it was founded as 

 the most available means of redressing a grievance, and 

 for this very reason it is necessarily incomplete. 



So long as we continue to progress — so long as colleges 

 multiply and are not yet able to grant degrees, — so long 

 must we retain an institution similar to the present Uni- 

 versity of London. 



AGRICULTURAL WEATHER-WARNINGS IN 

 FRANCE 



AN important step has been taken by Le Verrler in the 

 application of meteorology to practical matters by 

 the inauguration of a system of weather-warnings spe- 

 cially designed for the benefit of agriculturists. The 



