MASON COLLEGE, BIRMINGHAM. 
3 
scheme strikingly like to that which is now in existence, but 
which unfortunately came to nought. It serves to show how upon 
one thing another hangs, that the suggestion has been made that 
this scheme of Mr. Sewell’s was prompted by the initiation of Owens 
College, Manchester, in 1846, by a legacy from the benefactor 
whose name it bears ; and it would be of the highest interest to 
find that the enormous modern amplification and strengthening of 
our ancient seats of learning, which the “ Extension ” movement 
has brought about, were tied up with the foundation of the college 
which serves as a home for the youngest addition to the over-short 
list of English Universities. 
The University Extension Scheme of Mason College is no 
hurried conception. So long ago as the spring of 1886 the then 
chairman (Professor Bridge) of the Academic Board, as the Senate 
in its earliest days was called, and the writer of this notice, 
attended, as delegates, a conference upon University Extension in 
the Senate House at Cambridge, at which, in response to what 
appeared to be, and was really intended as, a challenge from Pro¬ 
fessor Stuart, I expressed my belief that, if it were feasible, the 
Mason College would be prepared to take its share in this branch 
of educational work. On our return, we presented to the Academic 
Board a Report containing a series of recommendations which 
cover the identical ground of the existing scheme, with certain 
amplifications which there can hardly be a doubt will, sooner or 
later, be likewise in operation. Briefly put, the proposals were :— 
(1) The establishment, in conjunction with Cambridge, of a 
system of University Extension Lectures in the Midlands; 
(2) The organisation of whatever evening teaching was 
carried on in the College upon University Extension lines ; and 
(8) The supplementing of the then existing teaching of the 
College by courses of “ Extension ” lectures on subjects which, like 
philosophy, political economy, history, &c., were as yet (and still) 
unprovided with chairs, and in that way building up a demand 
which might lead to the establishment of new professorships. 
It is interesting to note that Professor Stuart and the present Lord 
Bishop of Durham (Dr. Westcott)—the latter an old pupil of King 
January, 1893. 
