xiv UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 353 



It had been the lot of our Chancellor or Vice- 

 Chancellor for many years past to speak with hope 

 deferred of a great teaching University in and for the 

 metropolis. Athough the reconstitution and re- 

 organisation had not been completed, it is chiefly the 

 teachers, the schools, and even the Senate of the 

 University, who will be to blame if a great centre of 

 learning and research does not grow up in London. 



And although the old work of the University will 

 be continued in the future as it has been in the past, it 

 is clear that if we are to meet successfully the constant 

 changes of thought and manner of life to which a highly 

 organised society is increasingly liable, the University 

 must not be content with acting as an examining body, 

 or with giving instruction or testing attainment, however 

 high, but must make real contribution to knowledge, 

 for this, in some form or other, is a guarantee of the 

 stability of that society. Unless the University of 

 London is known as a centre from which almost daily 

 additions to our understanding of the world of thought 

 and matter emanate, it will not have justified its 

 existence. 



If this be our policy, the University will in course 

 of years become an Imperial University in an alto- 

 gether new and fuller sense, and the reputation that it 

 will win for itself in the world of thought will bring it 

 those more solid rewards without the aid of which its 

 successful working will be seriously endangered. 



In February, 1902, I offered to present the Uni- 

 versity with a Mace for use on ceremonial occasions, 

 the design for which I had had specially prepared. 

 This proposal was accepted by the Senate, and it was 

 resolved that the Mace be borne by a Graduate on 

 ceremonial occasions before the Chancellor or Vice- 

 Chancellor, and that it lie on the table during the 



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