98 
furtherance of knowledge, but simply as a superior kind 
of Grammar School. Of the University, as thus under- 
stood, pecuniary prizes were to be the motive power, and 
competitive examination the regulating principle. The 
resources of the colleges were dealt with from this point 
‘of view. Numerous scholarships were founded for the 
support of students, on a scale so extensive, that, as has 
been computed, one-third of the students of Oxford are 
thus subsidised during their University career. The 
remainder and greater part of the endowments was nearly 
all devoted to fellowships, varying in value from 200/. to 
300/, ayear ; on these two objects it is estimated that at 
least 120,000/. is annually expended by the colleges of 
Oxford. 
The fellowship which they thus created is indeed a 
unique and singular institution. It is a life-estate con- 
ferred by a corporate body, without exacting in return 
any services whatever from its possessor, either to the 
college or to the community at large; and the chief 
result of the labours of the Executive Commission, whose 
business it was to reform the University, was the establish- 
ment of this gigantic system of sinecure pensions, conferred 
upon young men in the prime and vigour of life, as the 
reward of having passed a successful examination. When 
the ordinances framed by the Commissioners come fully 
into operation, there will be, in Oxford alone, about 300 
sinecure fellowships. 
In the arrangements of the Commissioners the most 
contemptuous disregard was manifested for the interests 
of science and learning. A few professorships of ancient 
date founded by men of a very different stamp, which 
the colleges had suppressed, were revived, but no real or 
adequate provision was made even for the maintenance 
of lecturers and professors necessary to carry on the 
education of the place, and out of these vast funds, not 
a sixpence was devoted to the advancement of knowledge 
or the promotion of scientific or literary research, or 
to the support of museums and laboratories. 
These arrangements were not based upon any very 
high estimate of human motives and desires, and it 
would have been surprising indeed if an ideal University, 
devoted to the interests of learning, knowledge, and truth, 
shouid have sprung from such ashes, As a matter of fact, 
complaints are heard on all sides of the futility of this 
system, and the necessity of a redistribution of the college 
endowments is widely felt. In this movement the Govern- 
ment have taken the initiative by the appointment of a 
Royal Commission to inquire into the revenues of the Uni- 
versities and Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. These 
revenues have never as yet been fully disclosed, but we 
may anticipate that a good deal of surprise and even in- 
dignation will be felt when the amplitude of these re. 
sources is contrasted with the inadequate results attained 
by them. Another contingency will then arise, to be de- 
precated by every lover of knowledge, the possible aliena- 
tion and dissipation of the noble inheritance of science 
and learning which has been so inappropriately employed. 
It was in connection with these questions and with the 
view of considering the best application, in the interests of 
mature study and scientific research, of the endowments 
of the Universities and Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge 
that the public meeting was held at the Freemasons’ 
- Tavern on November 16, of which the report appeared in 
NATURE 
I 
Le ee ee ee ee 
eS a a i a a a Eee 
| Dec. 12, 1872 
this journal on November 28. The spirit and purpose of 
those present at this meeting will be best understood from 
the resolutions passed by it. These resolutions were :— 
1. That to have a class of men whose lives are devoted 
to research is a national object. 
2, That it is desirable, in the interest of national pro- 
gress and education, that professorships and special 
institutions shall be founded in the Universities for the 
promotion of scientific research, 
3. That the present mode of awarding fellowships as 
prizes has been found unsuccessful as a means of pro- 
moting mature study and original research, and that it 
is desirable that it should be discontinued. 
4. That a sufficient and properly organised body, of 
resident teachers of various grades should be provided 
from the Fellowship Fund. 
The Society for the Organisation of Academical Study, 
founded at this meeting, is constituted by no means in 
the exclusive interests of the natural sciences, but for the 
sake of the totality of knowledge. The apprehensions 
which are felt in regard to the condition of research 
in the physical sciences, are similarly and equally 
felt in other departments of knowledge, and the 
objects of this Society are such as to secure the good-will 
and adhesion of every genuine student.. Much con- 
sideration will be necessary to devise really practical 
arrangements, by which such ideas may be carried out. 
On this point the evidence of those distinguished persons 7 
who have been examined before the Science Commission P: 
will be of the greatest value ; but it is to be hoped that all 
those who are familiar mae the requirements of the 
several departments of Science will turn their serious 
attention to the subject, and give to the Society the benefit — 
of their co-operation and advice, with the view of here- 
after laying before the Government an adequate and 
practical scheme for the re-constitution of the Colleges 
and Universities, not simply as educational bodies, but 
as national foundations for the preservation and extension ~ 
of knowledge. B. C. BRODIE 
’ 
THE METEOROLOGY OF THE FUTURE . 
{* would be a curious inquiry which we commend to 
those learned in statistics, to determine how. m a 
millions of observations have been made in the British 
Isles on dry and wet bulb thermometers, on barometers, 
and on other meteorological instruments. It would be a 
still more curious inquiry, seeing that the infinite industry 
displayed in these observations shows that the importance 
of the study of Meteorology is universally conceded, to — 
determine why it is that meteorologists, state-endowed 
and otherwise, have, as a rule, been content to grope their . 
way in the dark, and not only not seek to find, but per- — 
sistently refuse the clue, which, if followed, would bring 
them into the light of day. When some one some cen- 
turies hence—thank heavens, we have always that to look 
to in all branches of research—comes to consider the work 
done by meteorologists during the present century, he 
will, unless he be some patient German Dryasdust deter- 
mined to examine all minutes of Boards of Visitors, all 
Kew Committee Records, and the like, give up the task 
in the most utter despair, and on the whole perhaps er 
is-the best thing that could happen. 
