738 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION L. 
scathed, from the cramping effects of departmental control. The situation, 
however, is not free from danger. It is necessary that these Universities should 
be State-aided. It is also evident that, if we are to hold our own in competition 
with other nations, State assistance must be increased. ‘There is danger, there- 
fore, that the blight of uniformity and official control may descend upon them. 
The danger is not immediate, but it is nevertheless real. To some of us an 
ominous sign was the transference of the dispensation of the University grants 
from the Treasury to the Board of Education. It is true that we have evidence 
that no desire for undue control is manifest at the present time, and it is an 
encouraging sign that the Minister of Education, in a recent dispute connected 
with one of our youngest Universities, intimated that he considered it beyond his 
province to interfere with its proceedings. : 
In this connection Mr. Austen Chamberlain has given me permission to read 
the following extract from a letter which I recently received from him :— 
‘I am in complete agreement with you as to the importance of preserving to 
the Universities the greatest possible freedom and liberty. For this very reason I 
was at first strongly opposed to transferring the administration of the Treasury 
Grants to the Board of Education; but I found that, for one reason and 
another, a considerable portion of their receipts were already received from the 
latter Board, and it was represented to me that this involved unnecessary com- 
plication and overlapping, and that the Universities were likely to receive more 
generous consideration if the whole of the Grants were placed in the hands of 
a single Authority. At the same time I was assured that the Board of Educa- 
tion had no desire to claim a control different in character or extent from that 
which the Treasury had previously exercised. On receiving these assurances I 
withdrew my opposition to the transfer and sent word to the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer that I no longer held him bound by an undertaking which he had 
given me in the House of Commons that the transfer should not take place.’ 
Another encouraging sign is the personnel of the Advisory Committee which 
the Board has established to guide it in matters connected with the University 
Grants. We cannot, however, be certain that such wise views will always 
prevail, and I have already dwelt on the inevitable tendency of any department 
of State to influence and control the policy of all Bodies receiving assistance 
from the Treasury 
The freedom of the Universities is one of the highest educational assets of 
this country, and it is to the advantage of the community as a whole that each 
University should be left unfettered to develop its energies, promote research and 
advance learning in the manner best suited to its environment. It is conceivable 
that it might be better for our Universities to struggle on in comparative poverty 
rather than yield to the temptation of affluence coupled with State control. 
The State is at present devoting some 180,000/. to the support of University 
education in England and Wales. If, in addition, we include such institutions 
as the National Physical Laboratory and the grant of 4,000/. to the Royal 
Society, we may say that this country is expending about 200,000/. per annum 
on the highest education and the promotion of research, a total but slightly 
exceeding that devoted to one of the Universities of Germany. Comment 
appears needless. 
When we reflect on the magnitude of the results which would inevitably 
follow an adequate encouragement of research, the irony of the position becomes 
more evident. It was stated on authority that Pasteur during his lifetime 
saved for his country the whole cost of the Franco-Prussian War. It is com- 
puted that nearly one and three-quarter millions of our population are to-day 
dependent for their living upon industries connected with the mechanical 
generation of electricity—a population which may be said, without undue use 
of imagery, to be living on the brain of Faraday. We possess mathematicians 
who, granted encouragement, opportunity, and time, could establish the laws of 
stability of aeroplanes. Suppose we spent some millions in discovering the man 
and enabling him to complete his task; the result might be an addition to our 
security greater than that of a fleet of super-Dreadnoughts. Unfortunately, 
there are no votes to be gained by the advocacy of opportunities for research ! 
Associations such as ours should spare no effort to bring home to the minds 
of the people the truth of the statement that the prosperity of this kingdom is 
dependent on its industries, and that those industries are founded on Applied 
Science. 
