26 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 



1828. while living at home seemed more desirable. A few of 

 the most liberal thinkers of the time gave their best help 

 to the completion of the design, but the large body of 

 men who had been trained under University discipline 

 held aloof from an institution from which religious tests 

 were excluded, and which might at some time compete 

 with the two Universities, bound up as they were by old 

 usage with the interests of the Established Church, whose 

 foundations were laid in the time of a church older still. 



Thus, with the exception of the few enlightened 

 scholars who generally held out a hand to their less 

 Founders of fortunate brethren, the founders of the London Uni- 

 University. versity were either liberal politicians, not always familiar 

 with the details of academical discipline, or mercantile 

 men, who, with the best possible intentions, had no ex- 

 perience of the best way of securing concord and due 

 balance in the relations of governing body, teacher, and 

 pupil. 



The Deed of Settlement of the London University 

 bears date 1826. The Institution was a proprietary one, 

 the funds being raised partly by shares, partly by sub- 

 Constitu- scriptions. The management was vested in a council of 

 twenty-four gentlemen chosen from among the proprie- 

 tors, and a general meeting of proprietors formed the 

 highest court of appeal. The Professors were elected by 

 the Council; and a Warden, who was to be the medium of 

 communication between the Council and Professors, and 

 superintendent of the household department, was ap- 

 pointed. The duties of the Professors were confined to 

 their class-rooms, in which, as it afterwards appeared, 

 they were not absolute. 



It would have been well for the infant institution if a 

 piece of advice given by Mr. De Morgan long after, and 

 in a different connection, 1 could have been acted on at 

 this time. ' Never begin,' he said, ' by drawing up con- 



1 On the establishment of the Ladies' College, Bedford Square. 



