BETTER TO COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL. 35 



only be wrong inasmuch as there will be no ambiguity at all in 1831. 

 the case. 



With the public the situation will be altogether as bad. 

 Wherever the Professor goes, he will meet no one in a similar 

 situation to his own that is, no one who has put his character 

 and prospects into the hands of a number of private individuals. 

 The clergyman, the lawyer, the physician, the tutor or Professor 

 in the ancient Universities, will all look down upon him, for they 

 are all secured in the possession of their characters. Nothing but 

 the public voice, or the law of the land, can touch them, and a 

 security as good must be given to the Professor of the London 

 University before he can pretend to mix in their society as their 

 equal. 



If these were the sentiments of one individual only, they 

 would merit little attention ; but if they be the opinions of a 

 majority of the present Professors, or even of a large minority, 

 the committee may be sure that they are prevalent among the 

 class of men from which the University ought to expect to draw 

 its Professors. The sense of the Professors on this subject can be 

 readily ascertained, and the committee will incur a heavy moral 

 responsibility should they, without the most attentive examina- 

 tion, propose a change which may place the Professors, present 

 or future, in the situation I have described. For mark the con- 

 sequences. If I am right, every man who has the feelings of a 

 gentleman will abandon the University in disgust ; the same 

 feeling will prevent any person of considerable attainments from 

 offering himself for the vacant chairs ; and the University, in the 

 general school at least, will sink into the most paltry of all estab- 

 lishments for education, if, indeed, it long continue to exist. I 

 am not mentioning my own opinions alone ; such deductions are 

 very common at present. I hardly meet one of my friends who 

 does not seriously advise me to resign my situation on these very 

 grounds. 



The committee has done me the honour to ask my opinion 

 as to the principles to be laid down for the future regulation of 

 the Professorships. I will state, in few words, my own convic- 

 tions on the subject. 



The University will never be other than divided against itself 

 as long as the principle of expediency is recognised in the dis- 

 missal of Professors. There will always be some one who, in 

 the opinion of some of his colleagues, is doing injury to the 

 school by his manner of teaching ; and there will always be 



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