326 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xviii 



has made all the dry bones rattle. It is coming on for discus- 

 sion in the Senate, and I shall be coming to you to have my 

 wounds dressed after the fight. Don't know the day yet. 



This allusion to the place of Art in the University refers 

 to the proposed reorganisation of the London University. 



Since the year 1887 the question of establishing a 

 Teaching University for London had become more and 

 more pressing. London contained many isolated teaching 

 bodies of various kinds — University College, King's Col- 

 lege, the Royal College of Science, the Medical Schools, 

 Bedford College, and so forth, while the London University 

 was only an examining body. Clearly these scattered bodies 

 needed organising ; the educational forces of the metropolis 

 were disintegrated ; much teaching — and this was especially 

 true of the medical schools — that could have been better 

 done and better paid in a single institution, was split up 

 among several, none of which, perhaps, could offer suffi- 

 cient inducement to keep the best men permanently. 



The most burning question was, whether these bodies 

 should be united into a new university, with power to 

 grant degrees of its own, or should combine with the exist- 

 ing University of London, so that the latter would become 

 a teaching as well as an examining body. And if so, there 

 was the additional question as to the form which this com- 

 bination should take — whether federation, for example, or 

 absorption. 



The whole question had been referred to a Royal Com- 

 mission by the Government of Lord Salisbury. The results 

 were seen in the charter for a Gresham University, embody- 

 ing the former alternative, and in the introduction into Par- 

 liament of a Bill to carry this scheme into effect. But this 

 action had only been promoted by some of the bodies in- 

 terested, and was strongly opposed by other bodies, as well 

 as by many teachers who were interested in university re- 

 form. 



Thus at the end of February, Huxley was invited, as a 

 Governor of University College, to sign a protest against the 

 provisions of the Charter for a Teaching University then 

 before Parliament, especially in so far as it was proposed 



