ADDRESS. 15 



addition to State aid 1 Are they content that we should go under in 

 the great struggle of the modern world because the Ministries of other 

 States are wiser, and because the individual citizens of another country 

 are more generous, than our own ? 



If we grant that there was some excuse for the State's neglect so long 

 as the higher teaching dealt only with words, and books alone had to be 

 provided (for the streets of London and Paris have been used as class- 

 rooms at a pinch), it must not be forgotten that during the last hundred 

 years not only has knowledge been enormously increased, but things have 

 replaced words, and fully equipped laboratories must take the place of 

 books and class-rooms if University training worthy of the name is to be 

 provided. There is much more difference in size and kind between an old 

 and a new University than there is between the old caravel and a modem 

 battleship, and the endowments must follow suit. 



What are the facts relating to private endowment in this country ? 

 In spite of the munificence displayed by a small number of individuals in 

 some localities, the truth must be spoken. In depending in our country 

 upon this form of endowment we are trusting to a broken reed. If we 

 take the twelve English University Colleges, the forerunners of Universities 

 unless we are to perish from lack of knowledge, we find that private effort 

 during sixty years has found less than 4,000,000^. ; that is, 2,000,000^. for 

 buildings, and 40,000/, a year income. This gives us an average of 

 166,000/. for buildings, and 3,300/. for yearly income. 



What is the scale of private effort we have to compete with in regard 

 to the American Universities ? 



In the United States, during the last few years, Universities and 

 colleges have received more than 40,000,000/. from this source alone ; 

 private effort supplied nearly 7,000,000/. in the years 1898-1900. 



Next consider the amount of State aid to Universities afforded in 

 Germany. The buildings of the new University of Strassburg have 

 already cost nearly a million ; that is, about as much as has yet been found 

 by private effort for buildings in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, 

 Bristol, Newcastle, and Sheffield. The Government annual endowment 

 of the same German University is more than 49,000/. 



This is what private endowment does for us in England, against State 

 endowment in Germany. 



But the State does really concede the principle ; its present contribu- 

 tion to our Universities and colleges amounts to 155,600/. a year. No 

 capital sum, however, is taken for buildings. The State endowment of 

 the University of Berlin in 1891-92 amounted to 168,777/. 



When, then, we consider the large endowments of University educa- 

 tion both in the United States and Germany, it is obvious that State aid 

 only can make any valid competition possible with either. The more we 

 study the facts, the more statistics are gone into, the more do we find 

 that we, to a large extent, lack both of the sources of endowment upon 

 one or other, or both, of which other nations depend. We are between 



