ADDRESS. Ixxxiii 



of a measure -vrhich would render their teaching ineffective, and would at the 

 same time dry up the springs of intellectual growth, they ought to admit 

 freely to university positions men of high repute from other universities, and 

 even without academic qualifications. An honorary degree does not neces- 

 sarily imply a university education ; but if it have any meaning at all, it 

 implies that he who has obtained it is at least on a level with the ordinary 

 graduate, and should be eligible to university positions of the highest trust. 



Not less important would it be for the encouragement of learning 

 tkroughout the country that the English Universities, remembering that 

 they were founded for the same objects, and derive their authority from a 

 common source, should be j^repared to recognize the ancient universities of 

 Scotland as freely as they have always recognized the Elizabethan University 

 of Dublin. Such a measure would invigorate the whole university system 

 of the country more than any other I can think of. It would lead to 

 the strengthening of the literary element in the northern, and of the 

 practical element in the southern universities, and it would bring the highest 

 teaching of the country everywhere more fully into harmony with the 

 requirements of the times in which we live. As an indirect result, it could 

 not fail to give a powerful impulse to literary pursuits as well as to scientific 

 investigations. Professors would be promoted from smaller positions in 

 one university to higher positions in another, after they had given proofs 

 of industry and ability ; and stagnation, hurtful alike to professorial and 

 professional life, would be effectually prevented. If this union were estab- 

 lished among the old universities, and if at the same time a new univer- 

 sity (as I myself ten years ago earnestly proposed) were founded on sound 

 principles amidst the great populations of Lancashire and Yorkshire, the 

 university system of the country would gradually receive a large and useful 

 extension, and, without losing any of its present valuable characteristics, 

 would become more intimately related than hitherto with those great indus- 

 tries upon which mainly depend the strength and wealth of the nation. 



It may perhaps appear to many a paradoxical assertion to maintain that 

 the industries of the country should look to the calm and serene regions 

 of Oxford and Cambridge for help in the troublous times of which we 

 have now a sharp and severe note of warning. But I have not spoken 

 on light grounds, nor without due consideration. If Great Britain is to 

 retain the commanding position she has so long occupied in skilled manu- 

 facture, the easy ways which (owing partly to the high qualities of her 

 people, partly to the advantages of her insular position and mineral wealth) 

 have sufficed for the past, will not be found to suffice for the future. 

 The highest training which can be brought to bear on practical science 

 will be imperatively required ; and it will be a fatal policy if that training 

 is to be sought for in foreign lands, because it cannot be obtained at home. 

 The country which depends unduly on the stranger for the education of 



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