596 REPORT— 1901. 



awe and respect wbicli is felt for tlie supernatural, is reported in the columns 

 of the daily papers to have said at one of the most important educational 

 gatherings of this first year of the new century: — 'You, Mr. Vice-Chancellor, 

 spoke of the stigma that would rest on the University if it did not annually 

 produce some work of original research. I, from another point of view, am 

 contented if you do nothing of the kind, I am satisfied to think that in a 

 large and increasing degree you will train men and women fit for the manifold 

 requirements of this Empire.' This statesman, who it is not surprising to find was 

 educated at Eton and O-icford, is thus of the opinion to-day, unless, indeed, his 

 views have changed in the interim, that it is possible to train men and women fit 

 for the manifold requirements of this Empire without bringing, at any rate, some 

 of them into contact with the living spirit of research — that spirit which, operating 

 through the ages, has enabled man to transform the wilderness in which he was 

 placed by his Creator into the garden of material and intellectual enjoyments in 

 which that statesman was himself born. 



I woidd ask you to contrast with the views of the distinguished alumnus of 

 Eton and Oxford the utterance of another statesman who, unhampered by such 

 educational antecedents, has formvilated the following ideal for the guidance of 

 that university which he has himself created : — 



' The third feature to which I should call attention, and which, I am inclined 

 to say, is of all the most important, is that a university should be a place where 

 knowledge is increased, and where the limits of learning are extended. Original 

 research, the addition of something to the total sum of human knowledge, must 

 always be an e.ssential part of our proposals.' 



Lastly, we have to consider whether this university work, in which we hope 

 for such great developments in the twentieth century, is still to be carried on by 

 what is virtually private enterprise and private endowment, or whether it is to be 

 provided for by taxation. 



If the reforms and developments which are being preached from so many 

 platforms are to be really carried out, if even our higher scientific training alone is 

 to be brought into line with that which is provided in many other countries, it is 

 indubitable that expenditure will have to be enormously increased. Now, 

 profoundly as we all admire the enlightened public spirit of the men and women 

 who have in the past endeavoured out of their private resources to help forward 

 the great movement of higher education, it is, I believe, the firm conviction 

 of all who have any real knowledge of what this higher education means, 

 and a clear conception of what must be done in order to put it on a proper 

 footing in this country, that on private benefaction alone this work cannot be 

 accomplished. But even if private endowment could raise this great edifice 

 in our midst, it is obvious that we should have to wait indefinitely for its 

 realisation. Voluntary contributions cannot be made to come at the bidding of 

 those who stand in need, nor directed into the channels where they will produce 

 the most good ; they have to be patiently waited for, with the result that valuable 

 time is lost and opportunities pass by never to return. Private benefaction, 

 moreover, is almost always retrospective: a hospital is not founded by the chari- 

 table until the sick are dying unattended ; almshouses and orphanages are not 

 thought of until the widow and the fatherless are either starving in the streets 

 or begging on the doorstep. What we so forcibly recognise in this matter, 

 however, is that we have not only to make up for leeway in the past, but that we 

 must now exercise prevision to prevent similar disastrous lapses in the future. 

 The state of aflairs to which we have been reduced must not be allowed to occur 

 again ; the warnings of those possessing special knowledge in these matters must 

 not be disregarded in the future as they have been in the past, for it is no 

 exaggeration that the whole of the learned societies and academic bodies of this 

 country put together have at present a smaller corporate share of political 

 influence than a Temperance League or a Trades Union. To what has this state of 

 things reduced us ? The humiliating spectacle of ' the greatest empire the world 

 has ever seen ' at the beginning of the twentieth century without a teaching 



