them, so to speak, from beggary for the time being, it is pos- 
ible then, by a well-adjusted system, to keep their minds open 
‘to original research. But we know that funds must be found 
for it. A man cannot prosecute research unless he has got 
‘something to find him bread for the passing moment. Although 
he thought we should be entirely wanting in our duties if we 
laid aside the examination system, which has rescued the uni- 
versities from the slough of idleness in which they were eighty 
or ninety years ago, yet, he said, we neglect our duty even more 
by neglecting the encouragement of men who have the capacity 
for original investigation and research. Again, a man who has 
not some notion of what original research means, is not fit to be 
. teacher at all. He would go even further, and say, if a man has 
the gift of original research, even if he entirely lack the power 
of communicating, and, what is another thing, the taste for com- 
-municating knowledge, he ought to have a place found for him. 
A man of that kind is like a light shining all around ; setting 
by his example and his work a higher tone to society, a man 
who has the power of going into some new sphere, so that he 
“may say to those whom he is teaching :—We are the first who ever 
burst into that silent sea. 
Dr. Carpenter then spoke of the different system pursued by 
the German universities to that which prevails in our own. 
_ Dr. Burdon Sanderson continued on the desirableness of fos- 
tering at the universities a class of what in Germany is called 
the Gelehrter, that is, said Dr. Sanderson, a man who not only 
_ possesses as adequate a knowledge as other men do of subjects 
in general, but has made a perfect study of some particular 
- subject. The speaker then dwelt on the study of physical 
science, and of physiology in particular, as it should be con- 
ceived at an university. 
__ The resolution ‘‘ That to have a class of men whose lives are 
_ devoted to research is a national object ” was then carried. 
Sir Benjamin Brodie said that he had the strongest opinion 
_ that when the report of Mr. Gladstone’s commission is published, 
and the true revenues of the colleges of Oxford are made known 
to the House of Commoas and the world, the greatest surprise, 
d he might also say, the greatest indignation will prevail. He 
admitted fully that a great amount of good educational work is 
done by the Universities, but certainly thought that the work is 
totally disproportionate in every way to the machinery which 
exists for its performance, and it is idle and useless to say that 
‘we want an expensive collegiate system—a system of colleges 
“manipulating actual revenues of thousands of pounds a year for 
the purpose of educating, however admirably, 2,000 students 
who, we may also say, absolutely pay for their education besides. 
‘When those statements are made, as they will be made, as to 
_ the property of the Universities and the Colleges, there will be 
_ the greatest danger that we may have a reform which perhaps none 
_of us wish for—a reform which may be no improvement at all, 
_ but which may simply consist in the alienation from the purposes 
_ of knowledge of these great funds. Now with regard to the pro- 
motion of knowledge in various branches, this great object was 
entirely lost sight of by the Executive Commission in 1854. He 
believed that most persons in Oxford who are interested in real 
education, are not very well satisfied with the fruits of this Com- 
mission. The few things that they did in regard to the promo- 
tion of knowledge were done partly with that view, and partly 
“under the pretext of reviving old foundations, such as the Lin- 
pean professorship at Merton College, and four professorships at 
Magdalen College, and two or three other small institutions 
which the University had long ago buried under ground. The 
‘Commission dug these up, and therefore so far did something for 
the promotion of science. And indeed it is impossible, unless 
you absolutely destroy Oxford and Cambridge, to get rid of 
every record of the idea that those universities are founded for 
‘the promotion, and not solely for the diffusion, of knowledge ; 
for that idea really runs through the whole university system. 
The great libraries of Oxford and Cambridge, and also the great 
collegiate foundations, bear witness to it. Now we wish to take 
up this thread where our predecessors dropped it, namely, this 
‘idea that the universities are institutions, not only for diffusing 
knowledge and education, but for absolutely promoting know- 
ledge and investigation. However, a much more important ob- 
ject than that is the real welfare of the nation, as that welfare of 
‘the nation may be promoted by the growth of science and know- 
ledge. With regard to scientific research, men are really hin- 
_ dered from investigation on all sides from the want of means of 
subsistence, and means of work. Certain aids are afforded to 
the investigators of science by existing institutions, by the Learned 
NATURE 
ini ‘ 
73 
Societies of England and the Continent ; and we have also 
two or three national institutions which certainly on such an oc- 
casion as the present ought by no means to be forgotten, because 
we shall be told that this is not an object for the nation to care 
for. One of those institutions is the British Museum, which 
really exists solely for the purpose of preserving knowledge. 
Another institution is the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. We 
have again private foundations: the Meteorological Observatory 
at Kew ; the Radcliffe Observatory at Oxford, and the like. All 
those institutions are founded, not in the least with regard to 
education alone, but for the purpose of promoting the growth of 
knowledge. He thought it really very little use for us to be too 
indefinite ; and that, if we wish to produce any result, we must 
have some definite plan and programme. His own idea was tha 
it would be very desirable to found in the universities of Oxfordt 
and Cambridge certain specific institutions for the promulgation 
of scientific research ; using the termscientific research in its widest 
sense, and include in it all knowledge which is capable of being 
made the subject of research ; but certainly specific institutions 
should be founded for this object. It will not do to trust these 
great institutions to the growth of mere ordinary professorships, 
but he would certainly like to see certain specific institutions de- 
voted to this object, which should represent the various great de- 
partments of human knowledge. Those institutions to be con- 
nected with professors specially selected for the objects which 
they have to fulfil, and where the professors would be provided 
with assistance and apparatus, and every means and appliance 
which could really be valuable and useful to them for the pur- 
poses of research ; and he did not think that much less, or any- 
thing less, than this, would fulfil the object which we desire. 
The Chairman moved, as the next resolution, ‘*That it is 
desirable, in the interest of national progress and education, that 
professorships and special institutions shall be founded in the 
universities for the promotion of scientific research.” 
Professor Seeley spoke on the question of prize fellowships. 
He said the speeches to which he had had the pleasure of 
listening had brought the question of University Reform to a 
focus. He anticipated that this meeting, particularly if the 
movement were followed out further, would convey to the 
English mind an idea which it had perhaps no very great natural 
capacity for conceiving. The preceding speakers, said the 
Professor, have introduced to the Englishman to-night a charac- 
ter for whom we have found it difficult to find a name, because 
there is no name for him in the English language, and we have 
been obliged to call him in the German Gelehrter, and in French 
we call him a savant, but there is no English name for him. 
He is a person who is engaged in mature study, and who lives 
by his study; and we have made it plain that our object in 
University Reform is one definite thing ; and that is to find for 
this person at the same time as we find him a name, a career. 
But we shall be met by an assertion that he already has a career 
in England, and he has also a name—that he is, in fact, the 
Fellow of a College. He wished to say a word or two first 
about this Fellow of a College, and about certain popular 
reasons for which it is supposed to be desirable always to have 
such persons. If you were to ask most English people about 
the English universities, they would say that the most glorious 
feature about them is just this—that a young man may go up, 
from any part of the country, without a penny in his pocket, and 
may get 300/. a-year given him for life ; and to take away that, 
is simply to take away the scholastic glory of England, and 
whatever makes its universities superior to the beggarly univer- 
sities of the Continent. To give a young man 300/. a-year, they 
think, is a thing which explains itself; but if you come to 
examine their meaning, you will hardly question that they are 
looking at the matter as a question of charity ; that they want 
the young man to receive so much to do him good, and to give 
him a start in life. 
He would, however, remark that he thought the objects of 
charity should be those who stand in need of it, and are not 
likely to be able to help themselves. But we carefully select 
young men in the vigour of life ; and, not only that, but young 
men who have shown themselves to be possessed of more than 
ordinary abilities, that is to say, just the very young men who 
can get on in life without any such help. He recommended, if 
these institutions are retained, simply on the ground of charity, 
that these fellowships should be given to men carefully selected, 
whose abilities are less than those of others. Again, it is said, 
how excellent a thing it is that a young man going to the bar, in 
his first year of brieflessness, should have his fellowship to fall 
