vii WORK AT MANCHESTER 177 



of England was one the value of which was then hardly 

 appreciated by many of those whom such a foundation 

 would benefit. It was said that it was not clear how 

 the establishment of such an institution would affect the 

 great middle classes of the community. It is true that 

 everyone was sufficiently well aware of the importance 

 of the spread of primary education, and even of the 

 necessity for a higher training, especially in those 

 branches of science which have a direct bearing on our 

 staple trades and manufactures ; but how the establish- 

 ment of a new national degree-giving Universicy 

 could touch the masses of our northern population was 

 not so evident. And yet, if the proposal had anything 

 of life in it, if it had any raison d'etre at all, it could 

 only be in so far as it supplied a want keenly felt by 

 the workers in these great hives of industry. It must 

 be the "University of the Busy," as distinguished from 

 the old Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which 

 are still and will probably remain the " Universities of 

 the Wealthy." 



Though the idea of a University was a new one to 

 the bulk of the population of Lancashire, it was neither 

 a new nor a strange one to the sons of the Scotch pea- 

 sants or the sons of the shopkeepers or farmers in or near 

 Glasgow or Aberdeen. We had only to look at Scotland 

 to find the boon of a popular University life and culture 

 properly appreciated. Did anyone doubt the blessings 

 which the Scottish Universities have, for many genera- 

 tions, conferred upon the middle and poorer classes of 

 their country ? Let such a one learn how the poor 

 students in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen work 

 in a garret and live on oatmeal porridge during 

 the winter months, attending the University classes, to 

 go back again to the plough or to the counter in the 

 summer to enable them to attend next winter session. 



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