July 29, 19C9J 



NA TURE 



eccentricity of an elliptic orbit, and that in the case 

 of Jupiter's satellites the outer orbits are highly 

 eccentric, and the inner orbits nearly circular. It may 

 be mentioned that Mercury is an exception to his rule. 

 Suppose that Laplace had not thought of the possi- 

 bility ot capture. Then Laplace would have been as 

 much entitled to say detachment was the true explana- 

 tion, because no other was possible, as Dr. See is now 

 entitled to say that capture sur\-ives as the only 

 possible explanation. Laplace, of course, would not 

 have reasoned in this way. His theor\- explains many 

 features of the solar system, in fact so many that 

 when new discoveries showed that his theory was 

 incomplete, there has been a nearly universal reluct- 

 ance to sav that it was altogether wrong. We do not 

 see that Dr. See's hypothesis explains anything. 

 Why, for instance, on the hypothesis of capture are 

 the vast majoritv of orbits near the plane of the 

 ecliptic and their motion direct? 



STAIE AID FOR UNIVERSITY EDUCATION."^ 



THE grant in aid of university colleges originated 

 in the demand for advanced education in 1889 

 arising from the university extension movement, and 

 was intended to help university colleges in providing 

 suitable courses. In twenty years conditions have 

 changed, and some of the university colleges have 

 become universities, but they are still claimants for 

 the aid. The members of the University Colleges .Ad- 

 visory Committee had a difficult task before them, and 

 they submitted a report dated July 24, 1908. On this 

 a Treasury minute, June 3, 1909, has been founded 

 which lavs down the conditions for participation in 

 the grant. The conditions are summarised thus : — 



(1) .Any institution to secure a share of the grant must 

 be prepared to afford satisfactory instruction of university 

 standard, which should normally include English, classics, 

 French, German, history, philosophy, mathematics, physics, 

 chemistry, biology. 



(2) The courses of instruction must be attended by a 

 reasonable number of students capable of profiting by the 

 education afforded. 



(3) The buildings and initial equipment must be adequate 

 for the courses established. 



(4) The aggregate income of the institution, whether 

 derived from grants or otherwise, must be sufficient to 

 maintain all the departments in a state of efficiency, and to 

 provide a superannuation scheme. 



(5) The grants should be confined to institutions serving 

 great centres of population, and no new institution should 

 be admitted unless it serves a district not already 

 adequately provided with instruction of a university 

 standard. 



(6) Due regard must be paid, not only to the standard 

 and the efficiency of the teaching, but also to the spirit 

 animating the institution and its influence as an intellectual 

 centre. 



These are the conditions, and it must be agreed that 

 they appear very just, except number five, concerning 

 the admission of new institutions to the privileges, as 

 there may be two or more institutions in a great 

 centre which afford equal or identical advantages, one, 

 however, receiving the grant to the exclusion of the 

 other. This is the case in London, where there are 

 two large institutions fulfilling the conditions, but ex- 

 cluded because certain other colleges are sharing 

 already in the grant. Both Birkbeck College and East 

 London College more than satisfy all the conditions, 

 and there are several other institutions and poly- 

 technics which fulfil, or come very near to fulfilling, the 

 qualifications. 



It will naturally be asked why the grant in aid is to 

 be limited to certain favoured institutions in some 



A Universitv Colleges Great Britain). Grant in Aid. Parliamentary 

 Paper 182. (London : Wyman and Sons.) Price ihd, 



NO. 2074, ^'OL. Si] 



centres, and the answer must lie in the miserable in- 

 adequacy of the grant. The advisory committee had 

 before them, not the difficulty of the standard of the 

 colleges, but how to make quite too small a meal 

 satisfy the demands of a large, hungry, and rapidly 

 increasing family. In domestic affairs the difficulty 

 has to be met by the father increasing the family 

 allowance, and it would be more logical for Parliament 

 to increase the allowance. The solution of allowing 

 part of the family to starve is indefensible. We have 

 alluded to the condition of affairs in London particu- 

 larly because London has come off worse in amount 

 than any other city in proportion to its population. 

 London, too, has suffered from want of civic spirit. 

 In the lesser cities strong civic spirit pushes their 

 claims on Parliamentary notice. 



It must be noted that the advisory committee is fully 

 alive to the fact that many of the universities and uni- 

 versity colleges are drawing grants from several 

 sources, i.e. Board of Education, Board of Agricul- 

 ture, Parliamentary grants, and local rates, and there 

 is danger of their being paid twice over for the same 

 work ; but the advisory committee does not suggest 

 at present any w'ay out of this difficulty other than 

 getting a return made to them from each of the 

 granting authorities. 



It has been suggested before that all higher institu- 

 tions should receive their grants from one authority, 

 which should be able to take a survey of the whole 

 kingdom. At present many higher institutions have 

 to depend largely on the local education authority, 

 which secures neither breadth of treatment nor suffi- 

 cient continuity. The institutions find that there are 

 fat and lean years, and it is not likely that the best 

 educational results will be obtained when there is so 

 much uncertainty. In an article which appeared re- 

 cently in this journal it was suggested that the control 

 of the higher technical institutions throughout the 

 country should be under a central authority, for pros- 

 perity in trade is a national affair, and not local. The 

 same view must be taken in regard to the university 

 colleges and universities. They should be as free from 

 local restraint as possible. This is foreshadowed in 

 the report in the following words : — 



We trust, however, that it may be found possible to 

 regard such a scheme as being merely transitional, and to 

 replace it in the near future by one on the more simple 

 lines we have indicated. ... a scheme that would com- 

 prise in a single vote the whole aid granted by Parliament 

 to universities and university colleges for education of 

 university character and standard. The coordination of 

 the institutions which provide higher education in the 

 country in accordance with the principles of administration 

 embodied in the Education .Act, 1902, is proceeding apace, 

 and the universities and university colleges have taken the 

 initiative in connecting themselves with the local education 

 authorities most closely related to them by locality and 

 communications. Universities, however, are non-local as 

 well as local institutions, and it is of importance that this 

 two-fold aspect should be appreciated by the central 

 administration, which has to dispense the State subvention 

 for higher education by way of grants to this or that 

 locality, and which must at the same time pay due regard 

 to the interests and necessities of the country as a whole. 



NOTES. 

 The present summer promises to be one of the colde.st 

 on record, but for rainfall it is likely to be several inches 

 short of the measurement in 1003, when at Greenwich 

 the total fall for the three months, June to August, was 

 i6-i6 inches. So far, the highest temperature at Green- 

 wich since the commencement of June is 77-7°, on July 18, 

 whilst at the observing station of the Meteorological 

 Office, in St. James's Park, the highest temperature is 



