July i6, 1903] 



NATURE 



251 



(i) There must be no thought of attempting uni- 

 formity of regulation — each university must decide for 

 itself how it should treat post-graduate students from 

 other universities. 



(2) The question at issue was, for practical purposes, 

 to be limited in the first instance to the consideration 

 -of post-graduate facilities. In this connection it was 

 shown by Sir Henry Roscoe that the scholarship 

 system of the Commissioners of the 1851 Exhibition 

 had proved itself to be a great success, and Prof. 

 Ewing showed that the Cambridge " research tripos " 

 liad also succeeded beyond all expectation. 



Cambridge appears to be the only university which, 

 so far, has provided satisfactory machinery for post- 

 graduate students of other universities, and one of the 

 ■objects of the conference was to induce other universi- 

 ties to show themselves as liberal as Cambridge in 

 this respect. 



(3) It appeared that more scholarships on the lines | 

 •of the Commissioners of the 185 1 Exhibition were 

 needed, and could be worthily allotted. 



(4) The magnificent hospitality of the University of 

 France and of the universities of Germany at present 

 -attract a large number of British students. It was 

 felt that, though this might be regretted on senti- 

 mental grounds, the only legitimate manner of dealing 

 with it was to provide within the King's dominions 

 at least as great freedom and facility for study as 

 could be obtained abroad. 



It was abundantly clear that the delegates, as a 

 whole, were extremely viell informed on educational 

 subjects. For instance, it was practically taken for 

 granted by all the speakers that there can be no serious 

 education which does not embrace a certain amount of 

 research work ; the only speaker who did not appear 

 to endorse this view being Prof. Mahatfy, of Dublin, 

 who was witty on the subject in the well-known mid- 

 Victorian manner. Since Germany has given to our 

 disadvantage a definite experimental proof of the 

 success of research as an instrument of education, the 

 delegates probably felt that the matter had gone 

 beyond the range of academic discussion. 



It was also interesting to note that the principle of 

 "" examination by the teacher " appeared to be fully 

 admitted on all hands. 



The afternoon session was devoted to a quite similar 

 discussion on a motion for the appointment of a stand- 

 ing committee. The committee so proposed did not 

 explain in any way what steps it intended to take, nor 

 did any speaker ask it to do so, or make any very 

 distinct suggestion as to its duties, so that future de- 

 velopments must depend entirely on personal initiative 

 within the committee. It would have been better, 

 probably, had the committee been less reticent. 



On the whole the conference must be regarded as 

 having met with a quite unanticipated measure of 

 success. There was an enthusiasm and go about it 

 throughout which was most stimulating, and of the 

 best possible augury for the future of English-speak- 

 ing university education. If secondary education 

 could be brought up to a corresponding standard, we 

 should be much better off than we are. 



The proceedings culminated in a huge dinner of 

 about 500 people at the Hotel Cecil on the evening 

 of July 10, with Mr. Balfour in the chair, and at his 

 best in proposing the toast of the evening afterwards. 



The conference was excellently managed through- 

 out, and it is fair to say that a good deal of the success 

 attained must be attributed to the exertions of the 

 honorary secretary, Mr. Kinloch Cooke. A conference 

 for which no precedent exists requires, in the words 

 of Lord Palmerston, "a lot of bottle-holding," and 

 Mr. Kinloch Cooke appeared to be equal to all the 

 demands made upon him. R, T. 



NO. 1759, VOL. 68] 



Mr. Balfour on Academic and Scientific 

 Education. 



We reprint from the Times of July 1 1 the report of the 

 speech made by Mr. Balfour in proposing the toast of 

 the evening, "The Universities of the King's Over-Sea 

 Dominions " at the AUied Colonial Universities' dinner 

 on Friday last : — 



We are here, if I may venture to say so, a remarkable 

 gathering in the individual capacity of the members who 

 compose it. But I think we are still more remarkable 

 taken in connection with the central idea which has brought 

 us together. ' It is not merely, or simply, or chiefly that 

 there are in this room the representatives of scholarship 

 and science, of all the great spheres of activity in which 

 modern thought is indulging itself. It is that we are here 

 representing what will turn out to be, I believe, a great 

 alliance of the greatest educational instruments in the 

 Empire — an alliance of all the universities that, in an in- 

 creasing measure, are feeling their responsibilities, not 

 merely for training the youth which is destined to carry on 

 all the traditions of the British Empire, but also to further 

 those great interests of knowledge, scientific research, and 

 culture without which no Empire, however materially 

 magnificent, can really say that it is doing its share in the 

 progress of the world. I think that we who in this room 

 belong to the old country, and who were educated in the 

 older universities of England, of Scotland, or of Ireland, 

 have great reason to be proud of those who may be de- 

 scribed as our educational children — I mean the universities 

 of the other portions of the Empire. 



We boast of community of blood, of language, of law, of 

 literature ; but surely we may also boast, and with not 

 less reason, that the ideals of education which are working 

 a great work in the old country are now doing their work 

 among its younger children, and are carrying on in all 

 the self-governing nations of the Empire work like that 

 which they perform in the parent country. Now, my lords 

 and gentlemen, I have mentioned two subjects already in 

 the few sentences I have uttered which, each separately, 

 has been exercising the minds, at all events, of people on. 

 this side of the Atlantic — the ideals of education and the 

 ideals of Empire. We have been quarrelling — it would, 

 perhaps, not be too much to say we are still quarrelling^ 

 over both. I ask you to consider them in conjunction, but 

 I hope that the two elements brought into this chemical 

 composition will prove less explosive than they do in their 

 separate and individual character. At all events, I am 

 certain that nothing I shall say will hurt the sentiments 

 even of the most ardent opponents of the Education Act 

 passed through Parliament last year, or will in the smallest 

 degree anticipate that interesting discussion upon tariff re- 

 form with which it is promised us that the autumn is to 

 be occupied. I mean to talk of education, and I mean to 

 talk of Empire ; but I hope and believe I shall tread upon 

 nobody's toes, and that is partly because I think I am 

 justified in treating very lightly on an occasion like this 

 that part of the great educational problem which touches 

 upon secondary education. I confess that, as far as I am 

 concerned, I have never been able to make a theory satis- 

 factory to myself as to what is or is not the best kind 

 of education to be given in those great public schools which 

 are the glory of our country, and which, in their collective 

 effect upon British character, I think cannot be overrated, 

 but which are subjected, and perhaps rightly subjected, to 

 a great deal of criticism as to that portion of their efforts 

 which is engaged on the scholastic and technical side of 

 education. 



I cannot profess myself to be satisfied with the old 

 classical ideal of secondary education ; and yet I am not 

 satisfied — perhaps I ought to put it more strongly and say 

 I am still less satisfied — with any substitute I have seen for 

 it. I have heard the old system defended on the ground 

 that the great classical languages contain masterpieces 

 of human imagination which have never been surpassed ; 

 and, of course, that is true. But I do not think we can 

 defend classical education in the great public and secondary 

 schools on that ground alone. You have only got, after 

 all, to make a simple statistical calculation, which perhaps 

 we cannot put down in figures, but which every man with 



