394 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. Xo. 456. 



time to higher education, that we have to 

 look to continue the position which we now 

 occupy as, at all events, one of the greatest 

 ■nations on the face of the earth. And, 

 feeling as I do on these subjects, you will 

 not be surprised if I say that I think the 

 time is coming when Governments will give 

 more attention to this matter, and perhaps 

 find a little more money to forward its 

 interests" {Tvmes, November 6, 1902). 



Our conception of a university has 

 changed. University education is no 

 longer regarded as the luxury of the rich 

 which concerns only those who can afford 

 to pay heavily for it. The Prime Minister 

 in a recent speech, while properly pointing 

 out that the collective efSeet of our public 

 and secondary schools vipon British char- 

 acter can not be overrated, frankly ac- 

 knowledged that the boys of seventeen or 

 eighteen who have to be educated in them 

 'do not care a farthing about the world 

 they live in except in so far as it concerns 

 the cricket-field or the football-field or the 

 river. ' On this ground they are not to be 

 taught science, and hence, when they pro- 

 ceed to the university, their curriculum is 

 limited to subjects which were better 

 taught before the modern world existed, or 

 even Galileo 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 uni- 

 versity to politics, the Civil Service, or the 

 management of commercial 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 battle- 

 ships are the insurers of the present power 

 of States. In other words, university 

 competition between States is now as potent 

 as competition in building battleships, and 

 it is on this ground that our university con- 

 ditions become of the highest national con- 

 cern and, therefore, have to be referred to 



here, and all the more because our indus- 

 tries are not alone in question. 



AVHY WE HAVE NOT MORE UNIVERSITIES. 



Chief among the causes which have 

 brought us to the terrible condition of in- 

 feriority as compared with other nations in 

 which we find oiirselves are our careless- 

 ness in the matter of education and our 

 false notions of the limitations of State 

 functions in relation to the conditions of 

 modern civilization. 



Time was when the Navy was largely a 

 matter of private and local effort. Wil- 

 liam the Conqueror gave privileges to the 

 Cinque Ports on the condition that they 

 furnished fifty-two ships when wanted. In 

 the time of Edward III., of 730 sail en- 

 gaged in the siege of Calais, 705 were 'peo- 

 ple'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 recognized as properly calling upon 

 the public for the necessary financial sup- 

 port. But when we pass from primary to 

 university education, instead of State en- 

 dowTiient 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 uni- 

 versities competing with 134 State and pri- 

 vately 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 train- 

 ing, of which Germany alone possesses nine 

 of university rank, because they are less im- 

 portant ; 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 



