120 SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY 



these the following introductory remarks may be quoted 

 here : 



" The last 10 or 15 years have witnessed great changes in the 

 attitude of the English people towards education. Elementary 

 education has been made first compulsory, then free ; the 

 endowments and efficiency of grammar schools have been sub- 

 jected to close scrutiny ; it has been decided that a sum of no 

 less than 538,600 shall be yearly spent on technical instruction 

 in England alone ; local University colleges have sprung up 

 in almost all the large cities of the kingdom ; three of these 

 Owens College (of older foundation), University College, 

 Liverpool, and the Yorkshire College of Science, Leeds have 

 acquired status as the Victoria University ; a sum of 15,000 

 a year is granted by Government for the partial maintenance 

 of the metropolitan and local colleges, with prospect of material 

 increase at no distant date ; a Royal Commission has recently 

 issued recommendations involving a radical change in the con- 

 stitution of the Scottish Universities ; and lastly, and latest in 

 order of events, a scheme has been approved by the Privy Coun- 

 cil for the establishment of a Teaching University in London. 

 The ' Gresham Charter,' however, having failed to command 

 the concurrence of the House of Commons, a New Royal Com- 

 mission is at present deliberating on the best means of uniting 

 under one head the institutions in London which give education 

 of University standard. 



In other European countries there is at present no such educa- 

 tional turmoil. The systems of primary and secondary education 

 have long ago been elaborated ; and the Universities pursue the 

 smooth paths of increasing knowledge by research and by the 

 training of students. 



Recent correspondence and articles which have appeared in 

 the public Press show that there are in England many concep- 

 tions of what a University should be. Many of the writers 

 appear to consider a college as necessarily a hall of residence, 



