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THURSDAY, MAY 8, 1873 
A VOICE FROM CAMBRIDGE 
T is known to all the world that science is all but dead 
in England. By science, of course, we mean that 
searching after new knowledge which is its own reward, 
a thing about as different as a thing can be from that 
other kind of science, which is now not only fashionable, 
but splendidly lucrative—that “science” which Mr. 
Gladstone and Mr. Lowe always appeal to with so much 
pride at the annual dinner of the Civil Engineers—and 
that other “science” prepared for Jury consumption and 
the like. : 
It is also known that science is perhaps deadest of all 
at our Universities. Let any one compare Cambridge, for 
instance, with any German university ; nay, with even some 
provincial offshoots of the University in France. In the one 
case he will find a wealth of things that are not scientific, 
_ and not a laboratory to work in ; in the other he will find 
science taking its proper place in the university teaching, 
and, in three cases out of four, men working in various 
properly appointed laboratories, which mea are known 
by their works all over the world. 
This, then, is the present position of Cambridge after a 
long self-administration of the enormous funds which 
have been so long accumulating there for the advance- 
ment of learning. Cambridge no longer holds the place 
which is hers by right in the van of English science, her 
workers are few, and to those few she is careful to afford 
no opportunity of work, such as it is the pride of scho- 
lastic bodies in other countries to provide for the men 
who bring the only lasting honour to a university. 
We have in what has gone before instanced Cambridge 
specially, as we have to refer to a step which has been 
recently taken there ; but if the state of things is to be 
condemned at Cambridge, it must be admitted that it is 
only too recently that an attempt has been made to 
correct, in one direction, a similar state of things at Oxford. 
What then do the Universities do? They perform the 
functions, for too many of their students, of first-grade 
schools merely, and that ina manner about which opinions 
are divided; and superadded to these is an enormous 
examining engine, on the most approved Chinese model, 
always at work, and then there are fellowships. 
Now the readers of NATURE do not need to be in- 
formed that at the present moment there are two Royal 
Commissions inquiring into matters connected with the 
Universities, and that not long ago, at a meeting at 
the Freemasons’ Tavern, the actual absence of mature 
study and research at the Universities, the lack of oppor- 
tunities and buildings for scientific puposes, the apothe- 
osis of the examining system, and the wanton waste of 
funds in fellowships, were unhesitatingly condemned by 
some of the most distinguished men in the country, 
many of them residents in the Universities. 
Within the last week a memorial has been presented to 
‘the Prime Minister by persons engaged in University 
education at Cambridge, which on one of the points 
above referred to contains a most important expression 
of opinion ; but we had better give the memorial zz ex- 
fenso :— 
No. 184—VOoL, VIII. 
Perey, arts. \ 
Zp 
NATURE 
21 
[Memorial.] 
“We, the undersigned, being resident Fellows of Col- 
leges and other resident members of the University of 
Cambridge engaged in educational work or holding offices 
in the University or the Colleges, thinking it of the 
greatest importance that the Universities should retain the 
position which they occupy as the centres of the highest 
education, are of opinion that the following reforms would 
increase the educational efficiency of the University, and 
at the same time promote the advancement of science and 
learning. 
“1. No Fellowship should be tenable for life, except 
only when the original tenure is extended in considera- 
tion of services readered to education, learning, or science, 
actively and directly, in connection with the University or 
the Colleges. 
“2. A permanent professional career should be as far as 
possible secured to resident educators and students, 
whether married or not. 
“3. Provision should be made for the association of the 
Colleges, or of some of them, for educational Purposes, so 
as to secure more efficient teaching, and to allow to the 
teachers more leisure for private study. 
“5. The pecuniary and other relations existing between 
the University and Colleges should b2 revised, and, if 
necessary, a representative Board of University Finance 
should be organised. 
“Weare of opinion that a scheme may be framed which 
shall deal with these questions in such a manner as to 
promote simultaneously the interests of education and of 
learning, and that any scheme by which those interests 
should be dissociated would be injurious to both.” 
This memorial reflects great credit upon the two ot 
of seventeen heads of Colleges, and the majority of 
Professors, Tutors, Assistant-Tutors, and Scholars who 
have signed it. The only wonder is that some action 
to remedy a state of things which has been considered 
a scandal by many, both in and out of the University, 
who have had the best opportunity of studying it, 
should not have been taken before. But we think 
the memorial fails in one point, and we believe that 
Mr. Gladstone has hit the blot, for his carefully worded 
reply reads to us most ominous, “The time has 
scarcely arrived for bringing into a working shape 
proposals for extending and invigorating the action 
of the Universities and Colleges in connection with th> 
more effective application of their great endowments.” 
We see in the memorial too much reference to teaching, 
and too little to the advancement of learning. 
Surely if the funds accumulated at our great Universi- 
ties are to be merely applied to teaching purposes, the 
Government has the best possible argument for instantly 
requiring a very large proportion of the “great endow- - 
ments ” to be handed over, in order to endow other teach- 
ing bodies at present crippled for want of funds, and to 
create other teaching centres where now no teachin ig 
exists. 
Might not the memorialists have taken a higher line, in 
which they would have been supported by all the culture 
of the country ?. Might they not have pointed out that the 
universities were once the seats of learning, and that the 
fact that they are now merely seats of teaching has arisen 
from a misapplication of the “great endowments” to 
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