Yin UNIVERSITIES: ACTUAL AND IDEAL 203 



wages for his work, and that he may go and earn 

 the rest. 



When I think of the host of pleasant, moneyed, 

 well-bred young gentlemen, who do a little learning 

 and much boating by Cam and Isis, the vision is a 

 pleasant one ; and, as a patriot, I rejoice that the 

 youth of the upper and richer classes of the nation 

 receive a wholesome and a manly training, however 

 small may be the modicum of knowledge they 

 gather, in the intervals of this, their serious busi- 

 ness. I admit, to the full, the social and political 

 value of that training. But, when I proceed to 

 consider that these young men may be said to 

 represent the great bulk of what the Colleges 

 have to show for their enormous wealth, plus, at 

 least, a hundred and fifty pounds a year apiece 

 which each undergraduate costs his parents or 

 guardians, I feel inclined to ask, whether the rate- 

 in-aid of the education of the wealthy and 

 professional classes, thus levied on the resources 

 of the community, is not, after all, a little heavy ? 

 And, still further, I am tempted to inquire what 

 has become of the indigent scholars, the sons 

 of ' the masses of the people whose daily 

 labour just suffices to meet their daily wants, for 

 whose benefit these rich foundations were largely, 

 if not mainly, instituted ? It seems as if Pharaoh's 

 dream had been rigorously carried out, and that 

 even the fat scholar has eaten the lean one. And 

 when I turn from this picture to the no less real 



