NATURE 



[Nov. I, 1888 



for the dwelling-place of the Professors of his College ; 

 and here the first Gresham Professors did reside, and not 

 merely give instruction to the citizens of London by 

 means of lectures, but — what was far more important — 

 carried on their studies and researches. Here the Royal 

 Society met in its early days, and here, in fact, were the 

 head-quarters of learning and science in London. 



It is clear enough that what Gresham intended to 

 found, and what actually was constituted by his trustees 

 in the year 1596, was an institution similar to the Pro- 

 fessorial Universities of Scotland and Germany of the 

 present day. He distinctly founded seven Professorships — 

 viz. of Physic, Law, Rhetoric, Geometry, Music, Astro- 

 nomy, and Divinity — and ordered that the proceeds of the 

 rents derived from the shops and houses around the 

 Royal Exchange which were his property should be used 

 in paying each of these Professors ^50 a year— no small 

 sum at that time, since the yearly value of Gresham 

 House itself and the gardens attaching to it was, at the 

 date of Lady Anne Gresham's death, in 1596, estimated 

 at only ^67 ! 



In view of these facts, it is idle to pretend that the 

 Lecture Society has any similarity to the institution de- 

 signed by Gresham. Whatever good Mr. Goschen's 

 Lecture Society is doing, it is not doing the work which 

 Gresham intended his College to perform, although Mr. 

 Goschen tells us that he thinks that it is. 



To subsidize a series of innumerable short courses of 

 lectures by innumerable young men of small experience 

 is a totally different thing from housing and providing 

 for life seven chosen teachers— the best, the most 

 skilled, the most original in discovery, the most masterly 

 in discourse, worthy to represent science and learning in 

 this great city of London. 



By the former course you may diffuse a little knowledge 

 amongst a great many people who will not themselves 

 pay for the pleasure thus presented to them. This is Mr. 

 Goschen's plan. By the second you hold before younger 

 men a prize to stimulate their endeavours ; to the matured 

 and chosen teacher you give the leisure and security 

 necessary for research— that is, for the making of new 

 knowledge ; to the citizens of London you assure the 

 presence in their midst, and the continual teaching, of the 

 ablest discoverers and philosophers. That is Gresham's 

 plan. 



It may be, and, indeed, has been, argued that it is 

 impossible to carry out Gresham's plan, and that the 

 best thing to do with whatever can be got together of his 

 trust funds is to administer it on the principle of qy-pres, 

 and, accordingly, to let Mr. Goschen's Society have it. 



To this we reply that Mr. Goschen's Society has no 

 ■claim whatever upon this principle, since there are 

 institutions in London — namely, University and King's 

 Colleges — which come near to realizing Gresham's inten- 

 tions, and if endowed by his funds would actually reahze 

 them, whilst Mr. Goschen's Society is as different from 

 Gresham's College as a picnic is from a military expedi- 

 tion. A very objectionable use is made of the word 

 •' University" in the endeavour to gain support for the 

 Lecture Society. It is spoken of as a " Society for the 

 Extension of University Teaching," and more briefly as 

 "University Extension." The implication is that the 

 teaching is such as is given at Universities, and it is an 



entirely false implication. The teaching given at Uni- 

 versities depends for its character on two chief factors— 

 firstly, the selection and consequent ability of the teacher ; 

 and secondly, the continuous and entire devotion of the 

 student's time to the training and instruction provided for 

 him. In both these factors the Lecture Society differs 

 toto ccelo from even the most eccentric University, and 

 has no claim to employ that much misused term. Yet it 

 is by taking advantage of the misconception created by 

 its use in connection with the Lecture Society that a 

 claim has been made for this Society both to take part in 

 the organization of a new University of London and to 

 benefit by Gresham's trust, which it is rightly alleged was 

 intended for the introduction into London of University 

 teaching. 



If the present representatives of Gresham's trustees — 

 the Corporation of London and the Mercers' Company — 

 would simply carry out the provisions of his will as 

 nearly as possible— much as they were carried out in the 

 year 1596 — all would be well, and the contentions of rival 

 claimants to a share of the pickings still to be got from 

 the bones of Gresham College would be silenced. 



The original Gresham College began well enough, and 

 caused the greatest satisfaction to the citizens of London. 

 The lectures were largely attended, the Professors were 

 men of great distinction, and a long and useful career was 

 foreseen for the College. A similar institution — the Col- 

 lege de France — was founded in Paris by the French 

 King about the same time. The College de France 

 exists to this day, and is one of the most effective and 

 valuable institutions in the world for the production of 

 new knowledge. 



Our London College perished simply and solely through 

 deliberate jobbery and corruption. The trustees pur- 

 posely neglected their trust ; incompetent persons were 

 appointed by them to the Professorships ; they themselves 

 stole the land round about Gresham House, and excused 

 the Professors from lecturing in order to avoid prosecution 

 by the Professors for arrears of salary. In the beginning 

 of the eighteenth century Gresham College was an object 

 of contempt and derision to the citizens of London. The 

 trustees had ruthlessly and systematically plundered the 

 trust- funds and prostituted the Professorships, so that no 

 one raised even a feeble protest when the work of perfidy 

 was consummated, and Gresham House was pulled down, 

 the site handed over to the Excise Office, and the worship- 

 ful trustees were spared all responsibility as to their 

 dealings with property worth some millions at the present 

 day, in consideration of a payment of ^500 a year. 



There are those who maintain that, were Gresham Col- 

 lege reconstituted at the present day. it would have the same 

 fate. We are not disposed to believe this. It was, no 

 doubt, a mistake on Gresham's part to place such absolute 

 confidence as he did in the Corporation of London and the 

 Mercers' Company. We have invented, since Gresham's 

 time, methods for keeping a check on erratic trustees ; 

 but what is of far greater importance is, that at the pre- 

 sent time there is a real and earnest desire on the part of 

 the great City Companies to do service to the State and 

 honour to themselves by employing the funds in their 

 possession for the good of the community. It is not 

 improbable that— were a scheme for the establishment 

 of a thoroughgoing Professorial University in London 



