The Press. — London, England, 1854-07-08 00:00:00

628 singular proof of combination among workmen of all trades which the strike afforded. The struggle has been longer than any which preceded it, and could only he ended by a combination of masters equally unprecedented in extent. REPORTS TO THE BOARD OF HEALTH. Two reports are before us addressed to, and published by, the Board of Health, from the inspector ap pointed to examine into the state of Falmouth and Devonport. They are drawn out inconsiderable detail and penned in a style much too discursive. In the Fal mouth report we have, among other matter, the history of the town, meteorology and geology of the district, climate of Cornwall, remarks on allotment gardens, some general observations on the distribu tion of charity, and an essay on the kind of orna ment most suitable to the laying out of burial grounds ! That on Devenport is less objectionable ; but an inspector, however convinced of the sound ness of his observations, has no right to print them at the public expense in the form of an official docu ment. The account given of the sanitary condition of both these towns is deplorable. Mr. RAwmwsow has succeeded in convincing the inhabitants that much of the disease they endure is preventible—that filth and fever go together—and that, as sickness seizes most frequently and most severely on the able bodied labourer, thus throwing his family on the union for support, the suffering of the individual is equalled by the pecuniary loss to the community. MIDDLE-CLASS EDUCATION. LORD EBRINOTON is again before the public as author of a plan of what he calls " middle.class education," which for its novelty at least deserves attention. His pamphlet is reprinted from the Society of Arts' weekly journal, where it first appeared. He argues that while no effort has been left untried to educate the children of labourers, and even of paupers, the class next above this in the scale—too proud to ac cept Government assistance, too poor to pay for really valuable teaching—is in danger of sinking lower and lower. The deficiency cannot be supplied by elee mosynary institutions ; nor can our universities, even if " poor scholars" were again to frequent them, meet the local requirement. Lord EBRINOTON suggests the establishment in each county town of local ex aminations, conducted by competent persons, who should have the power of conferring" degrees "—that is, of pronouncing authoritatively on the claims of candidates—prizes and scholarships to be founded in connection therewith, if money could be obtained for the purpose, either from individuals or from the pro ceeds of fees. The subjects of examination to be simple and practical, such as might befit an English man of the middle class, unable to devote, as the rich are supposed to do, many years to the process of instruction. Lord ERRINOTON conceives that the value of a " degree " of this kind, as a testimonial, would compensate both the trouble of preparation and the slight expense of fees. We are not sanguine of his success, but the idea is ingenious, and deserves better than to be rejected without trial. General Baraguay d'Hilliers has been appointed to command the French corps d'arwthe about to be sent into the Baltic. It is believed in Paris that these troops will form only a portion of the force by which Russia is threatened in that quarter, and that the French troops will be joined not only by an English expeditionary corps, but by a Swedish army : " The Bulletin lee Lois contains a decree announcing that an extraordinary credit of 82,250,000 f. is opened from the budget of NU to the Minister of War, to provide thr the most urgent expenses resulting from the augmentation of the army, and the formation of the army of the Nast. In that sum the pay and food of troops is set down for 20 millions; clothes, equipment, and camp-furniture, for ff millions; general remount, 8 millions; transports, 71 millions ; artillery and engineers, each 1 million ; horse furniture, 21 millions 1 and forage, :) millions." Fourteen neutral vessels lying in Riga have despatched a deputation to Admiral Napier to beg permission to pass out of the harbour. The depu tation is in Dantzic, awaiting Sir Charles's reply to their request by the weekly mail. A despatch from Turin of the 6th states that dis turbances had broken out at Piacenza on account of the high price of corn. Numerous arrests have, how ever, been made, and the imeutes are now suppressed. The King of Portugal and his brother, the Duke of Oporto, arrived at Brussels on Tuesday evening. His Majesty was received by the Duke de Brabant, the Count de Flandre, and by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and escorted to the Palace by a detachment of cavalry. THE PRESS. cuttings in zuliamtnt. OXFORD UNIVERSITY BILL. The second reading of this bill was moved in the Peers on Thursday by Viscount CANNING, who in a speech of great length described the character and purport of the measure, detailing the process by which the bill had been elaborated out of the recom mendations of the Oxford inquiry commissioners, and then tracing the course and changes which the plan of university reform had undergone in the other branch of the Legislature. The noble viscount then contended that the bill in its present shape presented an acceptable medium between an enacting and a permissive measure. It asserted the right of Par liament to deal with the system of university management, but left all details to be decided by the governing body created within the university itself. Alluding to and defending other provisions contained in the bill, Vicount Canning eulogised especially the proposal for establishing private halls. These, he said, would tend to lessen the expense attending a university education, and, by creating a wholesome degree of competition with the colleges, would im prove the quality of the instruction off ered to the students. Anticipating some opposition on the point, he declared that this was a feature in the bill which the Government would not consent to surrender. The Earl of DERBY congratulated their lordships that at length, on the 6th of July, one of the many important measures which had been introduced elsewhere had become an exception to the general rule of rejection or abandonment. Even this bill, he observed, bad undergone continual metamorphoses, and passed through five editions, in each of which some objectionable ingredients had disappeared. With all these amendments, however, he still found it difficult to waive the scruples which he entertained against the very principle of the bill. Parliament had never interfered before with the internal con stitution of either of the two universities, and not only did he consider the present attempt at inter ference illegal, but believed that the Commission of Inquiry on whose report it originated was equally indefensible. Denying the charge that the uni versity had shown any negligence of its duties, or any reluctance to adopt improvements, Lord Derby declared that, even if the Legislature felt called upon to interpose, an enabling bill would have been suf ficient for all necessary purposes. He then analysed with much minuteness the provisions of the present bill, urging many objections to the or ganisation of the new governing body, the con stitution of the " Congregation," and the extreme powers to be assigned to the commissioners, On this latter subject he enforced his objections with much emphasis:— " The observation which I made upon the danger of the precedent set by this bill, though that precedent may not be followed by any immediate evil, applies with the greatest possible force to that which is a prominent feature of the measure, viz., the appointment of the commissioners who are to govern the university. I cannot but feel that this first interference by Parliament, and this first appoint ment of commissioners to superintend the legislation and conduct of the university, is a measure of very dangerous precedent, leading to future intervention by Parliament in a most mischievous manner in the affairs of the univer sity, destructive of that independent character which the university has hitherto always enjoyed, and which I, for one, desire it may ever continue to enjoy; and it is no answer to me to say that, however objectionable the issue of such a commission may be. and however exorbitant the powers proposed to be entrusted to them, yet the commis sioners themselves are men of unblemished honour, of great ability, great integrity, and men to whom may be safely confided functions of this nature. It may be so, and I know it is so in the present instance ; but what security shall we have that in future there will always be a Govern • ment professing equal friendliness with the present towards the university, or that we shall always have com missioners who will exercise their powers in the same wise and moderate manner as I am sure the proposed com missioners will do? The adoption of such a commission by parliamentary authority, then, is, in my opinion, a most fatal blow and a dangerous precedent, whatever the imme diate result may be to the future independent action of the university." Acknowledging, however, that the whole bill was based upon the powers to be given to these commis sioners, and observing that no distinct expression of dissent to their appointment had come from the university itself, Lord Derby reluctantly abstained from opposing this part of the bill, contenting him self with the endeavour, when in committee, to obtain some further restraints upon the power to be placed in their hands. On another point, the estab!ishment of "private halls," the noble earl pointed out many serious evils and hazard that must arise from the scheme. This step was defended principally on the plea of cheap ness. It was said that students could obtain the ad vantage of a university education with less expense at these private halls than in the colleges. He con sidered this plan founded on an exaggerated repre sentation SATIJP.PAT I "My noble Mend very greatly exaggerated the neces sary or even the probable expenses of a great numberof young men at the university—l mean those expensesths are strictly chargeable to the university and the colleges, and not those which the greater wealth of the parents, and perhaps the folly and imprudence of the young men them selves, lead some of the students into. These latter are not to be taken into account in striking the average expense of an education at the university. Now, without going so far as the case of the servitors of Christ Church (among whom there have been men who have attained high honours ), and whose board and education cost very little over a guinea per week, I am quite sure that many and many a young man passes through the university, and attains its highest honours, whose expenses and subscrip tions of all kinds, for a university education, do not exceed from 1001. to 1201. a year—(Hear, hrar)—and I am satis fied that I am speaking much within the bounds when I say that the average expenditure of young men for this purpose, which my noble friend estimates at 8001., cer tainly does not reach beyond one-half the amount he has stated. (Hear, hear.)" The education, moreover, that could be obtained at a private hall must be necessarily inferior to that offered under the present system. But besides the negative disadvantages there were worse evils to apprehend:— " Not only will these halls not give a good or an econo mical classical and scientific education, but they will alto gether subvert and destroy the discipline of the university. (Hear.) You withdraw a certain number of the young men from the control of the university and college authori ties, and thus establish a distinction between them and the other members of the university, which in itself is highly mischievous • but which also , by their relaxation from the bonds of dis cipline, will render the members of the other colleges dissatisfied with their severe restraint, and thereby interpose a most serious obstacle to the effective manage ment of the university itself What, therefore, exoept it be to encourage what is called free trade in education, can be the possible use of authorising masters of arts to set up private halls, and withdrawing the students from all college discipline and control ? This is a most dangerous principle, and it will become infinitely more so if you adopt the clauses abolishing the necessity for taking any oath on matriculation, or admission to a bachelor's degree. These two changes must materially affect the working of each other. if these private halls are to be exempted alto gether from the discipline of the colleges, and the obliga tions of the university, and, above all, from the obligatiorls which practically enforce education upon the principles of the Church of England, they may become the nurseries of sectarianism. If any master of arts who may have fallen away from the Church of England, and who in Oxford, I am afraid, would find too many nearly akin to his views, may by this bill set up a hall in the centre of the univer • sity, and if all the various dissenting bodies may do so likewise in the university, in order to the propagation of their own peculiar opinions, you will introduce an element of discord and confusion that must prove absolutely de structive of the well-working of the university." Passing on to the subject of university oaths, Lord Derby said:- 1 " I have always held that the imposition upon a young man of seventeen or eighteen of the obligation to subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles on his first entrance to the university is, not as bearing on the dissenters simply, but on the members of the Church of England, to• say tie least of it, a most injudicious proceeding. (Hear.) I go farther, and say it is trifling with a very serious matter, and I believe no injury can result to the university, but the contrary, from young men whose parents may be or have been dissenters not having the doors of the univer sity shut in their faces at their first entrance, provided they are willing to become members of the colleges, at tend their services, and submit to their rules and obliga tions. But in saying this I wish not to be misunderstood . object to the placing of a preliminary bar to admission to the university, either in the way of serious-minded youths of the Church of England or among the Dissenters, which it is felt that subscription to the Thirty-nine Arti cles interposes. But if I thought the effect of this or the succeeding clause was in the slightest degree to dissociate the university and the colleges from their close and in timate connection with the Church of England, if I thought the least pretext could be set up on the part of the dissenters that for the purpose -of accommodating their views the principles and practices of the univer sity were to be altered, I then should look on this (pet tion in a very different light ; and as I am desirous of removing the bar to their admission, so I am equally sincerely, cordially, and determinedly opposed to the severance of the intimate and close connection be tween the University and the Established Church. I never will sacrifice the inestimable advantage of having the two Universities of Oxford and Cambridge as nurseries for the Church of England, and fur the raising up of men who, on comparatively easy terms, have the means of as sociating with persons of all ranks and degrees of life, and who subsequently go forth to discharge all those sacred duties which they have first been taught by the faithful training in the universities, and where the connections that they have formed will be a source of gratification to them through life. Therefore I desire to hear from the Government, before we proceed to decide upon the second clause. a distinct declaration that, in their judgment, .no such consequence follows, or is intended by them, as that, in the admission of the dissenters, a claim is sanctioned on their part to the alteration of the systo-rn and teaching of the university. I hope we shall have a satisfactory ex planation from the Government on all these subjects; and on that explanation may depend the vote which I shall give, certainly with regard to the second, and perhaps even with regard to the first, of these clauses. But this I say, that these clauses assume avery different abstracter if this I