NA TV RE 



[December 8, 1892 



Prof. Huxley himself describes his scheme as of a 

 tentative character, but whatever plan be finally adopted 

 it is desirable that the real aims and objects of the Asso- 

 ciation shall be fully understood. 



It is desired that there shall be one University in 

 London which shall be a central authority to organize 

 and improve higher education. 



No reasonable person has ever supposed that the 

 existing University of London was to be destroyed as a 

 sort of peace-offering to its critics, or that existing 

 colleges were to be ignored or dragooned into self- 

 effacement. What is desired is that the Senate of the 

 existing University should be reconstituted by the ad- 

 dition of professors teaching under the control of the 

 University and by a reduction in the number of its lay 

 members, if, with the new additions, it would otherwise 

 be of unwieldy size. 



It is desired that a share in the benefits to be obtained 

 from the University should be given to any college only 

 in so far as it is willing to put into the hands of the Uni- 

 versity the appointment and control of those of its chairs 

 which might be recognized by the University. It is 

 hoped that the advantages which would accrue from this 

 partial fusion would be so great as to lead to the gradual 

 voluntary " absorption " of the colleges. To make this 

 desirable end attainable it is necessary that the College 

 Councils should not be represented, as such, on the 

 Governing Body of the University, but no objection 

 would, we believe, be felt to temporary arrangements 

 which might facilitate the inauguration of the new state 

 of things. 



The sooner it is clearly understood that the Association 

 is the result of the labours and the exponent of the 

 views of the " practical men " who are, according to Prof. 

 Huxley, to be found in the professorial ranks, the better 

 it will be for the Association and for London. Prof. 

 Pearson's withdrawal from the secretaryship appears, 

 under all the circumstances, to afford a sufficient 

 guarantee of this. 



IN SAVAGE ISLES AND SETTLED LANDS. 

 In Savage Isles and Settled Lands : Malaysia, Austral- 

 asia, and Poly7tesia, 1888-1891. By B. F. S. Baden- 

 Powell, Lieut. Scots Guards, F.R.G.S. (London : 

 Richard Bentley and Son, 1892.) 

 'T^HIS book contains the impressions of Lieut. Baden. 

 Powell during a journey round the world of over 

 three years' duration ; jottings limited chiefly to his own 

 personal doings and observations. The journey was evi- 

 dently a leisurely peregrination with many divergences to 

 places of interest off his direct route out to Brisbane in 

 Queensland, whither he was bound to assume ofificial 

 duty on the staff of the governor of that colony, and an 

 equally unhurried saunter home again through the Pacific 

 and America. The author does not propose to look 

 at things with scientific eyes, and it is possible here and 

 there throughout the book to detect that he has no pro- 

 found acquaintance with the ologies. Consequently his 

 book does not fall to be rigidly criticized in these pages. 

 His eyes, however, if not scientific, were kept at all events 

 very wide open, and what came under his own observation 



is clearly and accurately described in a chatty and 

 pleasant style and with a good deal of quiet humour. It 

 is easy to see that the "tramp" enjoyed his trip, and 

 the reader, drawn on by his cicerone's mood, accompanies 

 him through savage isles and settled lands with equal 

 satisfaction. Lieut. Baden- Powell started off through the 

 European continent via Cologne and Vienna to Rustchuk, 

 thence across Bulgaria, through which " a railway journey 

 is not very interesting." Nevertheless, " little picturesque 

 villages are seen nestling in the valleys, and distant 

 glimpses of the Balkans gained." Beyond Shumla we 

 get through the mountains and "pass through miles of 

 swamp, the railway almost level with the water, and reeds 

 growing up all around, in some places so high as to cut 

 out all view from the carriage windows. Passing along 

 the edges of large lakes, the train starts up thousands of 

 wild fowl, which fly around till the air is quite darkened 

 by them, and on we go, mile after mile, with more and 

 more duck rising from the water," evidently a sportsman's 

 paradise. Thence our guide conducts us to Constan- 

 tinople and on to Egypt, and though he takes us by well- 

 trodden paths and tells us little that is new or wonderful, 

 he enUvens the way with a constant flow of time-beguil- 

 ing talk and anecdote. From Egypt Mr. Baden-Powell 

 sets out for southern Australia, but he wanders as usual 

 off his main road for some weeks into Ceylon and 

 India to luxuriate amid their tropic scenery and 

 ancient monuments. Of the three southern colonies 

 of the Australias traversed on his way to Queens- 

 land he gives us a few brief notes. Of the latter 

 colony, where he spent some years in the enjoyable 

 and not very arduous duties of A.D.C. to Sir Anthony 

 Musgrave and Sir Henry Norman, he has a great deal 

 that is interesting to tell. He visited much of the country, 

 and saw something of its aboriginal as well as of its 

 adopted natives, and found interest and amusement in 

 both. At a vice-regal ball at Hughenden, a town 240 

 miles inland, he finds himself a fellow-guest with the 

 butler of the hotel he was staying at, and his host's house- 

 maid, " who was quite the belle of the ball, and who, 

 when supper was served, turned waitress again. Such is 

 society in a Bush town." " It was in this district," he 

 continues, " that I first set eyes on some real wild blacks. 

 The aboriginals of Australia are an extraordinary people. 

 To look at they are quite unlike any other human beings 

 I ever saw. A thick tangled mass of black hair crowns 

 their heads ; their features are of the coarsest ; very large 

 broad and flattened noses ; small, sharp, bead-like eyes 

 and heavy eyebrows. They generally have a coarse 

 tangled bit of beard ; skin very dark and limbs extra- 

 ordinarily attenuated like mere bones. But they always 

 carry themselves very erect. . . . They wander about 

 stark naked over the less settled districts, and live entirely 

 on what they can pick up. ... If not the lowest type of 

 humanity they would be hard to beat. They show but 

 few signs of human instinct, and in their ways seem to 

 be really more like beasts." Mr. Baden- Powell thus 

 summarizes his opinions on Australia as a field for 

 emigration (and those who know the Australasian colonies 

 will recognize their truth) : " The labouring man will find 

 it a paradise ; the professional man will find his profession 

 overstocked ; and the man with money to invest will 

 probably be ruined. . . . My personal advice to would- 



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