TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 715 
often made that an attempt to arrive at an approximation to the facts should be 
of interest. The heads of all colleges at Oxford and Cambridge were asked to give 
an estimate of the proportion of their scholars during the last ten years who 
could have afforded to reside at the university without the aid of their émoluments. 
Acknowledgment is gratefully made of the kindness of these gentlemen and of 
the tutors of colleges in compiling the statistics which it is now possible to bring 
before the Section. The estimates show that at Cambridge 17 per cent. of scholars 
could have resided at the university without their scholarships, while at Oxford 
the proportion is only 6 per cent. But even in many of these few cases it was 
very largely the opinion of my correspondents that the money given in scholarships 
was not misused. The head of the college at Oxford which had apparently the 
largest percentage of wealthy scholars pointed out that they weve largely sons of 
professional men whose incomes are uncertain. In these cases if the father 
happens to die during his son’s university career there is no possibility of the 
boy’s education being completed without external aid. Many have pointed out 
the difficulty in dealing with the figures supplied by parents with the object of 
proving poverty. Others consider that if scholarships were made purely 
eleemosynary the status of scholars would immediately fall, and a condition of 
things spring up which exists, to their great detriment, in some of the American 
universities, It must be remembered that the social life of the older universities 
is one of the most important things to a youth, and anything which would tend 
to diminish its educational value is much to be deprecated. Considering the 
disadvantages which the new scheme presents, I would advocate two alternatives. 
First, let there be a voluntary relinquishment of the emoluments of a scholarship 
by a wealthy parent, the other privileges of the scholar being retained. It would 
soon become a point of honour for a wealthy man to refuse to accept money 
which would be so useful to poor men, Second, let a former scholar who has 
attained in later life to a position of comparative opulence pay back his scholar- 
ships in some way or other for the help of other poor scholars. With regard to 
the first of these proposals I may point out that it is occasionally carried into effect. 
At one Oxford college six out of twelve wealthy scholars have during the last ten 
years refused the emoluments of their scholarships, and isolated instances have 
occurred at other colleges, With regard to the second proposal, cwm veniret ad 
pinguiorem fortunam (when a man has attained to fatter fortune), as the St. 
Andrews statute has it, he should pay back the money which was the foundation 
of his fortune. This also is done, and perhaps more often than is known. 
Occasionally the whole sum is paid back to a college, but more frequently the 
former scholar, out of the not very fat fortune of a schoolmaster or college tutor, 
pays the sum back in helping poor scholars at the university. 
Hither of these systems of relieving college funds would, if backed by the 
force of public opinion, relieve an amount of hardship and poverty which is 
scarcely realised by any who have not been either poor scholars themselves or 
been brought’ into intimate contact with them. The cost of living varies 
very greatly at different colleges. It is possible to live with economy at many 
colleges on 120/. a year. Two of my own pupils at Christ Church have managed 
with self-denial to limit their expenses to 110/. a year. Since an open scholarship 
is 80/. a year, and school-leaving exhibitions may give a man another 20J. a year, 
it is not difficult to see that the very poor man has still need of assistance. Most 
colleges have an exhibition fund from which grants are privately made to the 
ee students, and anyone who is willing to pay back his scholarship by the 
elp of which, it may be, he has attained a good position, could hardly do better 
than contribute the money to such a fund. 
7. The Scholarship System at a Residential University. 
By Professor H. A. Miers, W.A., D.Sc. F.R.S. 
At a residential university like Oxford two main objects are to be secured by 
the scholarship system: (1) the opportunity for poor lads of marked ability to get 
