90 



ATA TURE 



[May 



1 901 



has sent me a letter to read to you from which you will see the 

 deep interest he continues to take in all our affairs. It will be 

 no small pleasure to him to think that, in his absence, we have 

 as our guest his old colleague and friend. Lord Rosebery. 



" It has been the lot of our Chancellor for many years past to 

 speak with hope deferred of the creation of a great teaching 

 University in and for the metropolis. This year, if it is not 

 exactly in my power to say that the reconstitution and re- 

 organisation have been completed, yet this one can say, that it 

 will be chiefly ourselves whom we shall have to blame — I mean 

 the teachers, the schools, and even the senate of this University 

 — if a great centre of learning and research does not grow up in 

 London. 



" For although, ladies and gentlemen, the old work of the 

 University will be continued in the future as it has been in the 

 past — even. I may hope, with increased prosperity — although 

 the examination of all candidates, no matter what their origin or 

 their means of knowledge, will continue with that absolute fair- 

 ness and impartiality upon which the University has built up so 

 great a reputation, yet we must not deceive ourselves. The 

 most perfect examinational system conceivable can only, to 

 quote the words of the reply from the throne, add to the 

 ' higher instruction ' of a nation. But this is not enough. If 

 we are to meet successfully the constant changes of thought and 

 manner ot life to which a highly organised society is increasingly 

 liable, our Universities must not be content with giving in- 

 struction or testing attainment, however high, but must make 

 real contribution to the knowledge which alone in some form or 

 other will be a guarantee of the stability of that society. Unless 

 the University of London is known as a centre from which 

 almost daily additions to our understanding of the world of 

 thought and matter emanate, we shall not have justified our 

 existence. 



" But, ladies and gentlemen, how is this end to be attained ? 

 Such results cannot come from a few weeks' work, or without 

 the expenditure of much energy and money. In the first in- 

 stance it should be our object to reduce to a minimum the 

 wastage of our forces by overlapping and friction between the 

 various elements of the University already existing. The need 

 for concentration in preliminary medical studies is one of the 

 most urgent of these early steps, not merely — not even chiefly — 

 because it is a waste to have the work in these junior depart- 

 ments spread over London with frequently inefficient or dupli- 

 cated equipment, but largely because ihe relief that would come 

 to the medical schools by concentrating these studies in two or 

 three central institutions would place at the disposal of the 

 authorities opportunities and space badly needed for conducting 

 research in pathology, bacteriology and the other higher branches 

 of medical and surgical science. 



" Such a concentration, as has been suggested in the case of 

 the Medical Faculty, will doubtless lead to difficult problems 

 which will require, and, I am sure, will receive, the whole- 

 hearted cooperation of the various schools and teaching institu- 

 tions of the University for their successful solution. 



" It v;ill not be necessary, I hope, to remind you that it will be 

 ultimately impossible for each school of the University to fulfil 

 within its four walls all the functions that belong to a university 

 such as we conceive it to be at the present day. There are parts 

 of London in which certain kinds of study can be much more 

 profitably pursued than in others. It would be foolish, for 

 instance, to attempt to centralise the study of ancient literature 

 and archaeology in Surrey or even in South Kensington, whereas 

 we have materials around us here without parallel for the study 

 of natural history, or of the history of modern art, to say nothing 

 of pure and applied science. As opportunity arises for the better 

 equipment of this or that branch of learning, it should be our 

 aim to inquire in what part of London this equipment can be 

 placed so as best to make use of facilities already existing and so 

 as best to attract the largest possible number of good students. 

 If this be our policy, our University will in course of years be- 

 come an Imperial University in an altogether new and fuller 

 sense, and the reputation that it will win for itself in the 

 world of thought will bring it those more solid rewards with- 

 out the aid of which its successful working will be seriously 

 endangered. 



" But without the schools of the University we can do nothing, 

 and I venture to take this, the first, opportunity of calling upon 

 them here — to-day — to take their share in this movement and 

 to believe that the best hope of success for each member 



of the body corporate will be found in the prosperity of the 

 whole." 



Lord Rosebery said, in the course of his remarks, " In my 

 judgment the struggle of this coming century will not be 

 so much one of brute force as of trained intelligence. In 

 the diplomacy of the world, in the markets of the world, 

 in your arrangements of legislation and of government, 

 it will be intelligence that will win. There was a time, I 

 do not doubt, not so long ago, when the nations of the world 

 were satisfied with a very moderate degree of instruction 

 and intelligence. The schoolmaster, we are told, was abroad — 

 I think it was said by Lord Brougham and probably in this 

 University — and he has been so much abroad that no nations are 

 satisfied with the standard of education that prevailed 25 years 

 ago. Every nation demands a more keen and more trained and, 

 if I may use the adjective, a more versatile intelligence than 

 that which was adequate for the business methods of the Empire 

 in former days. In other words, we have to meet much keener 

 competition in every department of life. I hope, though per- 

 haps not with much confidence, that all our educational institu- 

 tions in this country are recognising that fact, or are about to, 

 and are preparing to furbish u]) their somewhat antiquated 

 methods in some cases to meet the demands of modern civilisa- 

 tion and modern competition. That is what this University has 

 done, and is doing ; and that is why I am so happy to be here 

 to-day and to give my modest and unasked for benediction to 

 these proceedings." 



Sir Michael Foster held that there must be in London a 

 University devoted, not only to the spreading of knowledge, but 

 also to the making of knowledge. 



Lord Reay said that London could offer facilities for research 

 in every domain second to none in the civilised world. They 

 might look forward to an increasing njimber of students from 

 every part of the Empire to make use of those resources. 

 Modern requirements were constantly growing, and they could 

 not cope with the demands made on them without the e.xercise 

 of public spirit which was so brilliant in the United States of 

 America. 



T 



NO. 1647, VOL. 64] 



THE' LANGUAGE AND ORIGIN OF THE 

 BAS(2UES. 



HE Basques or Euskaldunak (i.e. "the Men"), as they 

 call themselves, are a most remarkable people who have 

 long been an interesting problem to ethnologists. The most 

 anomalous point about the Basques is their language, which is as 

 typically agglutinative as any Asiatic or American tongue. 

 Ripley, in his fine book "The Races of Europe," points out that 

 the verb habitually includes all pronouns, adverbs and other 

 allied parts of speech ; as an example of the appalling com- 

 plexity possible as a result, Blade gives fifty forms in the third 

 person singular of the present indicative of the regular verb " to 

 give " alone. Another often quoted example of the effect of 

 such agglutination occurs in a reputed Basque word meaning 

 " the lower field of the high hill of Azpicuelta," which runs, 



Azpilaiclagaraycosaroyareiiberecolarrea. 



No wonder that the French peasants state that the devil 

 studied the Basque language for seven years and learned 

 only two words. Like many other undeveloped languages, 

 the principle of abstraction or generalisation is but slightly 

 developed ; for example, as there is no general word for 

 " sister" the Basques have to say " sister of the man " or " sister 

 of the woman," &c. Owing to their isolation on both flanks of 

 the Pyrenees, many primitive institutions persist among the 

 Basques. In some places the eldest daughter takes precedence 

 over all the sons in inheritance, which may be a relic of a former 

 matriarchal family ; communal ownership within the family is 

 frequently practised. The remarkable custom now known as the 

 couvade, in which the father takes to his bed on the birth of a 

 child, was attributed to these people byStrabo, and it is believed 

 by some not to have completely died out at the present day, 

 though there is great difficulty in proving its existence, as G. 

 Buschan points out in Globus (V,A.. Ixxix. p. 117). H. Schuchardt 

 has recently {Globus, Bd. Ixxix. p. 20S) expressed his wonder 

 that this statement has again been dragged from the realm of 



