ENDOWMENT ABROAD 185 



resources to the utmost, and that without assistance, 

 which, to be effectual, must be both prompt and 

 generous, no further advance is possible. Science 

 has emptied the University chest, yet, as the late 

 master of Trinity Hall said, 'Science is still hungry 

 and aggressive.' As the result of her straitened 

 resources Cambridge can no longer satisfy the just 

 demands either of science or of letters. When we 

 compare this state of things with that in Germany, 

 where the University of Berlin enjoys a State endow- 

 ment of ^170,000 per annum, or in the United States, 

 whose Universities have received from private bene- 

 factors alone ;£"42,ooo,ooo sterling in the last thirty 

 years, apart from large funds provided by the State, 

 we are forced to recognize that much yet remains to 

 be done in England. 



It is not difficult to suggest some reasons for the 

 comparative neglect of the older Universities in the 

 matter of benefactions. In the first place, neither of 

 them can appeal to local patriotism ; and an appeal on 

 the wider ground of national efficiency is not so easily 

 nor so effectively pushed home. Next, it is hard to 

 imagine that a University whose colleges enjoy a 

 corporate income of something like ;£"300,ooo a year 

 can be in serious want of funds. Moreover, if this 

 deficiency really exists, it is generally regarded as the 

 result of the squandering of revenue on an extravagant 

 system of 'prize fellowships' — that is, fellowships 

 given as the reward merely for a high place in ex- 

 amination, and held by barristers, doctors, and civil 

 servants, professors and lecturers in other Universities, 

 and even successful men of business — persons who 

 do not contribute in any way to the efficiency of the 

 University as a teaching or as an investigating body. 



We propose briefly to examine the University 

 balance-sheet, the college system, and the question of 



