U REPORT— 1903. 



was born. But the science which these young gentlemen neglect, with 

 the full approval of their teachers, on their way through the school and 

 the University to politics, the Civil Service, or the management of com- 

 mercial concerns, is now one of the great necessities of a nation ; and our 

 Universities must become as much the insurers of the future progress 

 as battleships are the insurers of the present power of States. In other 

 words, University competition between States is now as potent as compe- 

 tition in building battleships ; and it is on this ground that our University 

 conditions become of the highest national concern, and therefore have to be 

 referred to here, and all the more because our industries are not alone in 

 question. 



Why loe have not more Universities. 



Chief among the causes which have brought us to the terrible condition 

 of inferiority as compared with other nations in which we find ourselves 

 are our carelessness in tlie matter of education and our false notions of 

 the limitations of State functions in relation to the conditions of modern 

 civilisation. 



Time was when the Navy was largely a matter of private and local 

 effort. William the Conqueror gave privileges to the Cinque Ports on the 

 condition that they furnished fifty-two ships when wanted. In the time 

 of Edward Til., of 730 sail engaged in the siege of Calais 70-5 were 

 ' people's ships.' All this has passed away ; for our first line of defence 

 we no longer depend on private and local effort. 



Time was when not a penny was spent by the State on elementary 

 education. Again, we no longer depend upon private and local effort. 

 The Navy and primary education are now recognised as properly calling 

 upon the public for the necessary financial support. But when we pass 

 from primary to University education, instead of State endowment we find 

 State neglect ; we are in a region where it is nobody's business to see that 

 anything is done. 



We in Great Britain have thirteen Universities competing with 134 

 State and privately endowed in the United States and twenty-two State- 

 endowed in Germany. I leave other countries out of consideration for lack 

 of time, and I omit all reference to higher institutions for technical training, 

 of which Germany alone possesses nine of University rank, because they 

 are less important ; they instruct rather than educate, and our want is 

 education. The German State gives to one University more than 

 the British Government allows to all the Universities and University 

 Colleges in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales put together. These 

 are the conditions which regulate the production of brain-power in the 

 United States, Germany, and Britain respectively, and the excuse of the 

 Government is that this is a matter for private effort. Do not our 

 Ministers of State know that other civilised countries grant efiicient State 

 aid, and, further, that private effort has provided in Great Britain less 

 than 10 per cent, of the sum thus furnished in the United States in 



