144 Observations on the English Universities. [Sept. ] 
practice is still kept up, and all tile 
lectures are delivered in Latin, even 
these on the nationai'Dutch literature. 
This language too may there, offener 
than elsewhere, be heard out of the 
lecture room. We have heard it more 
pleasantly, we presume, than accu¬ 
rately, said of Ruhnkenius, the last mo¬ 
dern scholar, to whose name the vener¬ 
able ius is permanently attached, that 
Latin was the only language he was able 
to speak. He was a native of Pomera¬ 
nia, and as such the German was his 
vernacular tongue. That he had lost 
in his long residence in Holland, with¬ 
out having had occasion to acquire the 
Dutch, as the whole business of his 
calling was discharged- in Latin. A 
little bad French he had picked up for 
society, but Latin was his mother 
tongue. We happened to be present in 
the study of his late lamented succes¬ 
sor, the illustrious Wyttenback, at an 
interview between natives of America, 
England, Holland, and Greece, where 
the conversation was of necessity con¬ 
ducted in Latin, as the only common 
tongue. The Latin language was per¬ 
haps used for the last time, as a verna¬ 
cular language, by the Hungarian diet. 
In 1S05 it was abolished as the language 
of this diet, and the native Hungarian 
substituted. This took place in con¬ 
sequence of the efforts made by the Aus¬ 
trian government from the time of 
Joseph II. to force the German lan¬ 
guage upon the Hungarians, with the 
design of eradicating their own. This 
of course had the effect of making their 
own doubly precious in their eyes, and 
so much has it since been cultivated, 
that it has quite driven out the German 
and Latin from the schools and the 
diet ; so that now the Hungarian peo¬ 
ple enjoy the great privilege of speak¬ 
ing, under the appellation of Magyar, 
a language wholly unique, associated 
neither with the Roman, Celtic, Teu¬ 
tonic, or Sclavonian stock, and of 
course the least likely to be learned 
by a foreigner, of any tongue in Eu¬ 
rope. Such as it is, they pursue it 
themselves with singular zeal, and not 
a national press in Europe is more pro¬ 
lific of original works, as well as trans¬ 
lations, than that of Pesth, the Hun¬ 
garian capital. 
It has appeared to us, if with a limit¬ 
ed acquaintance we have a right to judge 
of the subject, that too much attainable 
good is sacrificed, at the English uni¬ 
versities, by adherence to ancient pre¬ 
scriptions. We know not where else 
in the world so munificent a patronage 
of learning exists as the endowment of 
the fellowships at Oxford and Cam¬ 
bridge. It is said that the revenues of 
the richest fellowships are £800 a year, 
a salary as high, or higher, than that of 
the governor or chief justice of Massa¬ 
chusetts. The number of fellowships 
so rich as this may not he large, but the 
whole annual amount appropriated in 
this way to the support of men of learn¬ 
ing, at the universities, is Avell known 
to be great; great even with the less 
frugal English notions of an appoint¬ 
ment. And yet the manner in which 
these livings are attained, and the 
tenure by which they are held, prevent 
them, we apprehend, from rendering 
half the good to the cause of learning, 
of which under a different administra¬ 
tion they might be made productive. 
Some fellowships indeed are open to all 
the world, as those of Trinity College, 
Cambridge: others are limited to cer- 
tain districts of counties, others to sin¬ 
gle counties, to single parishes, to sin¬ 
gleschools. At Oxford, the Magdalen 
fellowships are said to he the best. Of 
these, five belong to the diocese of Win¬ 
chester, seven to the county of Lincoln, 
four to Oxford, three to Berks, &c. At 
new college, Oxford, the fellows must 
he elected from Winchester school; 
and at King’s College, Cambridge, from 
Eton school. This holds of scholarships, 
another class of establishments similar 
in nature, though subordinate in rank, 
to fellowships, and which should be 
considered as a part of the system, in¬ 
asmuch as the fellows, if we are not 
misinformed, are chosen from among 
the scholars. 
We suppose that when these estab¬ 
lishments were originallv founded, the 
_ • at • 
literary and clerical profession, for 
these were then identical, could not 
support itself: and it was necessary 
that permanent provision should he 
made for those, who were to teach and 
preach, as there is now adays for those 
who fight. The colleges were founded, 
to afford such provision for the training 
and supporting of the clergy. Places 
of general education, we suppose, they 
were not: for there was nobody, at the 
period of the establishment of the more 
ancieutof them, to be educated. It is 
only an improvement, forced upon them 
by the progress of society, that other 
scholars, besides the stipendiaries on the 
foundations, have been received at them 
to be educated. Now that the wealth 
acquired by the commercial and agri¬ 
cultural 
