i84 CAMBRIDGE 



The new edition of the ' Endowments of the Uni- 

 versity of Cambridge ' suggests other, though kindred, 

 reflections. The book has for its basis a series of 

 documents, beginning with the year 1293, and ending 

 with the year 1904. The learned Registrary has 

 prefaced the account of each bequest with an explana- 

 tion, and, by his discriminating comment, has invested 

 his material with something of that charm which 

 characterizes all his work. In one aspect his book 

 serves, and is intended to serve, as a history of the 

 progress of education in Cambridge ; and the large 

 amount of new matter which has been incorporated 

 since the previous edition of the 'Endowments' in 

 1876 is, in this aspect, highly satisfactory. Yet, though 

 it is a mistake to suppose that the flow of benefactions 

 to the ancient Universities has entirely ceased, the 

 fact remains that Cambridge has twice appealed — once 

 in 1898, and once again in the spring of 1904 — for help, 

 without which she cannot meet her national responsi- 

 bilities. Oxford has at last been constrained to confess 

 that she is in a similar, if not yet so dire, a strait ; and it 

 is easy to understand the effort which it has cost her, as 

 well as her sister University, to sue in forma pauperis. 



In truth, the neglect, almost absolute, of Oxford and 

 Cambridge, while the new Universities are finding 

 generous benefactors, either leads to the conclusion 

 that the old Universities are condemned and found 

 wanting, or has its origin in a profound misconception of 

 their efforts and resources. It may be urged that neither 

 alternative is true ; that the needs of the new Univer- 

 sities are more urgent, and that the needs of Oxford 

 and Cambridge will in turn receive attention. But a 

 delay of a few years may in these days involve damage 

 which will not be repaired for more than one genera- 

 tion. Of Cambridge, at any rate, it is asserted that she 

 is at the end of her means, that in the last forty years 

 she has, in her efforts at development, strained her 



