March i, 1894] 



NATURE 



407 



delegate the government of institutions founded by the 

 University to committees like the Kew Committee of the 

 Royal Society, and, subject always to the approval of the 

 Privy Council, there seems no reason why, if the number 

 of independent Teaching Colleges were diminished, the 

 places of their representatives should not be occupied by 

 experts chosen from among the members of such 

 Committees. • 



Among the Institutions which the Commissioners 

 think should be at once admitted in whole or in part as 

 Schools of the University, those which would be chiefly 

 concerned with the Faculties of Arts and Science are the 

 following : 



University College. 

 King's College. 



The Royal College of Science. 

 The City and Guilds of London Institute. 

 Bedford College. 

 And six Theological Colleges. 



The University is to be able to appoint Professors and 

 to found Teaching Institutions of its own, and it is also to 

 have the power "to allocate funds for the enlargement 

 and assistance of the teaching staff of recognised institu- 

 tions, the extension of their buildings, the improvement 

 of their equipment for teaching and research, and the 

 endowment of University Professors, Readers, Lecturers, 

 Demonstrators, or assistants, or for other purposes in 

 connection with such institutions." It is to be "under- 

 stood that in these cases the University will impose such 

 terms and conditions as will secure to it a reasonable and 

 proper amount of control over the educational resources 

 thus provided, and will have the power of determining 

 the duties of the University Chairs which it establishes or 

 subsidises in any institution, and of regulating the fees 

 payable for attendance on the lectures." " But," the 

 Commissioners continue, "we do not think it necessary 

 to lay down any rules which would fetter the discretion 

 of the University in this matter. We take it for granted 

 that it will be the endeavour of the University and of the 

 institutions to organise a homogeneous system of Uni- 

 versity education, to utilise, to combine, and to economise 

 ■existing resources to their fullest extent, and to supple- 

 ment them in such a mode as will best serve the progress 

 of knowledge." 



In spite of this optimistic view of the future, it may be 

 feared that the financial relations between the Colleges and 

 the University will be difficult to adjust. Indeed, there 

 are several points on which the Government will have to 

 decide before putting the scheme into operation. 



The University will have to be endowed by State or 

 Municipal funds, if it is to be able either to subsidise or 

 to add to the number of Colleges. If no such funds are 

 provided, the state of things contemplated in the Revised 

 Scheme will, in effect, be realised. The Colleges will be 

 pecuniarily independent of the University, and since the 

 University is to have no power of control except in re- 

 turn for subsidies, it will only be able to influence the 

 " Schools '' indirectly by visitation and by prescribing 

 courses of study for the Degrees. 



The Commissioners, however, evidently contemplate 



the large endowment of the University by the State. In 



this case it may have a more important part to play ; 



but unless the control it claims in return for subsidies is 



NO. 1270, VOL. 49] 



sufficiently great to act as a deterrent, there will certainly 

 be an undignified scramble for funds among the Colleges. 

 It will be a miserable ending to the long controversy if the 

 University is to be merely the guardian of a Government 

 Grant fund, doling out one paltry sum here to build a 

 second-rate laboratory, and forth^vith bound to match it 

 by another grant there, just to show that, like Justice, it is 

 blind. 



If the University establishes on a German scale a 

 laboratory of its own, chiefly intended for post-graduate 

 study, there will be an outcry against divorcing teaching 

 from research. If it selects one existing Institution as 

 that with which the laboratory is to be connected, it will 

 be held to be neutralising the public- spirited efforts of 

 the promoters of the others. If it tries to level up all 

 round, it will achieve nothing really great. We do not 

 say that such results must necessarily follow from the 

 realisation of the scheme of the Commissioners, but the 

 Commissioners themselves appear to have thought that 

 the only way out of the difficulty was to appeal to the 

 good feeling and good sense of all concerned. It is 

 evident that the future of the University largely depends 

 upon whether their appeal is successful, and upon the 

 action of the Statutory Commissioners when appointed. 



It might be possible to establish " spheres of influence " 

 in the territory of Knowledge as well as in the Dark 

 Continent. But whatever device be adopted, it cannot be 

 made too clear that the Commissioners leave to the 

 Statutory Commission and to the University itself the 

 solution of the most difficult problems connected with its 

 establishment. The character of the University will 

 largely depend upon its relations with the Colleges, and. 

 their relations have yet to be defined. 



We do not point to this " lacuna" in a spirit of adverse 

 criticism. As nothing is known about the funds and 

 resources the University will possess, it would probably 

 have been useless for the Commissioners to have made 

 detailed suggestions. But it is all-important that those 

 who have most knowledge and experience in educational 

 matters should agree upon some scheme more subtle 

 than the suggestion that Colleges, like savages, should 

 adhere to the good old rule — 



" That he should take who has the power, 

 And he should keep who can." 



The relations of the Colleges and of the Teachers toahe 

 University are so intertwined that it is difficult to separate 

 them. In what has been said, however, stress has chiefly 

 been laid upon the former. We now turn to the position 

 of the Teachers in the University. 



The Association Scheme insisted that every Professor 

 of the University should be " appointed and paid by the 

 University." The Commissioners state that this " re- 

 stricts within a narrower area than any other scheme 

 which has been proposed to us the class of teachers who 

 are permitted to share in the Government of the 

 University." It is doubtful whether this was the intention 

 of those who framed the Association Scheme. They un- 

 doubtedly desired that the University should be a 

 Teaching University, and not merely a body with funds 

 to be exploited by Teaching Colleges. Their proposal, 

 therefore, was that all Professors teaching in the name 

 and on behalf of the University should be directly 

 responsible to it, and should therefore be paid by the 



