A PROPOSED MIDLAND UNIVERSITY. 
67 
hibernation, so, even in the zone of frosts, some evergreen 
plants are mixed with the predominating deciduous flora ; 
such species having perhaps been evolved in more moderate 
climatal conditions, but with organs and tissues so far 
differing from the majority as to be able to withstand some 
greater amount of seasonal variation. 
A PROPOSED MIDLAND UNIVERSITY. 
The English people are in the main so fully convinced that 
we have Universities galore, that the news that a movement 
has been seriously set on foot to further the foundation of a 
University for the Midland districts of England will probably 
come to most in the sense of a distinct shock. Why we think 
our supply of Universities should suffice fully for our needs, it is 
difficult to say. Seeing that Germany, with its unrivalled 
system of national education, has twenty-one such institutions, 
with over 22,000 students and nearly 2,000 professors and 
lecturers; seeing that Scotland, with its three and three- 
quarter millions of inhabitants (less than the population of 
London!, has four Universities, with over 7,000 students, we 
can only conclude that if the English supply is sufficient for 
the English needs, it can only be because the English needs 
for University training are themselves small. But is this so? 
Have we not scattered over the length and breadth of the 
land local University and other Colleges, in which distinctly 
University training of a systematic kind is imparted to 
students counted by the thousand ? And is not each of these 
a standing proof that there is a need in England for 
University training, and therefore there is a need, which the 
existing institutions do not fully supply, for English 
Universities ? Perhaps it may be said that there is here a 
confusion of argument; that the grand upheaval of University 
Colleges which the last dozen years has seen is evidence of 
the need of University teaching, but no evidence of the need 
of University examination. This can bardly be ; for in our 
methods of teaching the examination is an essential part, and 
every College recognises this in its own line of conduct, and 
every College gives, as the result of examination, certificates 
which only in degree differ from the examination certificate 
given by a University. The whole question, then, hinges on 
the power, not to examine, but to give some special distinction, 
as the result of examination, in the form of certain represen¬ 
tative initial letters, B.A., M.A., and the like. 
