The Press. — London, England, 1853-09-03 00:00:00

412 UNIVERSITY REFORM.—CAMBRIDGE. TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." August 31, 1853. Sir,—There are many points in the letter of your correspondent of last week on the subject of Univer city Reform in which I, for one, cannot agree. The main points discussed are the length and continuity of residence at the university, and the period of life at which Ruch residence should take place. Your correspondent, if 1 understand him aright, would wish the residence of a student at the university to commence in ordinary cases at 17 years of ago or thereabouts, and to terminate at 19 or 20. It appears to me that the arguments by which your correspondent endeavours to support his propo sition are entirely inconclusive, and in Rome instance not grounded on actual facts. I was myself in former days a fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. WWI resident as a private tutor for some few years after taking my degree, and since that time I have been employed in private tuition in the country, and as the head master of an endowed grammar school, so that I have at least had opportunities of knowing something concerning the subjects to which your correspondent alludes. He says that boys intended for the university ruerally leave school at 16&, or thereabouts. In this 1 differ from him entirely. I think that upon inquiry be will find that about two thirds of those who come into residence at the university, at the age of 19, have come directly from aehool; and that, of the remaining third, at least one halt have been regularly preparing for residence with some private tutor. Ido not mean to assert that so large a pro portion have been really working, but that they have been outwardly adopting means to prepare themselves for the end which they have in view; and their work for the last. two or three years will, in the majority of cases, have been more steady than it was for two years preceding the ago of 17, when your correspon dent would wish that they should commence their university course. The fact of the case, therefore, seems to me to be, that the university does now what he proposes that it should, namely, continue educa tion from the point where school-teaching leaves it, with this difference, that it takes it up at a higher point. Then as to those who wish to give their sons an academical education, but who are deterred from so doing by the lateness of the time at which they would, in ordinary cases, have completed their uni versity course, I know nothing which prevents such persons from doing now what your correspondent would wish to induce all to do, namely, send their sons to the university at an earlier age. If they do not intend to compete for honours, they may easily obtain an ordinary degree ; but,if they should be of a more ambitious turn, it would surely be far more rea sonable that they themselves should sacrifice one or two years of the duties of after life, than that the standard of university requirement for honours should be materially lowered to suit their particular owe. If they entered upon university life at 17 or there abouts, they would thus, on the commissioners' plan, have completed their course by 20 years of age. And in discussing this subject it ought never to be for gotten that the age at which university studies are now generally pursued is peculiarly well adapted to the case of that large body of the students who are designed for the ministry of the Church. Again, 1 do not think that any of that feeling of distaste for study, and anxiety to be free from educa tional discipline, which your correspondent pictures to himself as seiziug upon young men at the age of 21, actually exists. All those to whom he alludes as having commenced real life,—the naval lieutenant, the soldier, the attache, the clerk, or junior partner in some mercantile concern,—are surely quite as amena ble to anthority immediately above them as the young student of the university himself. 'Than, again, as to the m a jority not designing to read 14 bantam:, T think that your correspondent is much mistaken. The honour lists are now almost as large as the poll; and any one at all acquainted with university affairs must know how many young men (some from one cause, and some from mealier) abandon the pursuit of honours in the course of their university career. I should say that about four out of every five freshmen intend to attempt something more than a mere pass degree. And of these few men who come up to the university simply intending; to take a pass degree, 1. think it will be found that the majority consist of those who came from an ire • pression (and 1 think a just one) subsisting in the minds of those who send them, that in a university course there are advantages to be gained besides those which are directly connected with the studies of the place. The profit to be derived from extensive association with other young men of similar age and station is by no means slight. Narrow prejudices are removed—a general enlargement of ideas is produced —new interests, unconnected with the immediate lo• cality of home, spring up in the mind—and those rough corners and angles of character which every man in early life more or less brings with him into society are smoothed down and removed. The place itself, too, is full of associations with the past that it would be strange, indeed, if a young man THE PRESS. eonld spend there three years or more of his life, in its most impressible stage, without drawing front that residence much profit that is not immediately connected with his study and his books. Then, again, as to the poll examination being a slight ono : it is so from the necessity of the ease. Any examination, whether professional or otherwise, which every man, in any institution whatever, is re quired to pass, must be of a comparatively low character. And if this be so, as I readily allow, surely in the case of those students destined for commercial life (of whom I have before spoken) the mere attainment of this "outward and material sign of academical proficiency," as your correspondent terms it, can be no very great object ; so that, if their parents should be unwilling to send them at an early age to mix with those older than themselves, they might well be contented, as things now stand, to send them up at the usual age to go through such portions of the university course as their time will permit, and then devote themselves, without a degree, to their more immediate duties in life. f your correspondent imagines that, consistently with a materially •shortened course, the same profi ciency may be arrived at which is now attained by the higher men in classical and mathematical honours, I think that here again he is entirely mistaken. The vacations with such men are, I am sure, by no means wasted periods of time. On the contrary, there are no portions of their university life more rigidly turned to account; and the comparatively short times of rest which really reading men now enjoy are no longer than necessary for the preserva tion of health, and of intellectual as well as bodily vigour. By taking two years from such men's period of study, the loss, in point of proficiency, would be great indeed, and the character of the university (even if the number of candidates for honours should be increased thereby—which I very much doubt) would, in my opinion, be lowered instead of raised. There is one more point to which your correspon dent alludes—that of the various expenditure of those whose means materially (lifter. Unquestionably this ix a source of some difficulty ; but I think that the difficulty would be rather increased than diminished by dealing with the same men at an earlier period of life, unless the whole management of the university were changed, which I do not see that your correspondent anywhere proposes. Surely a man of limited means, from nineteen to twenty-two years of age, is less likely to be led away by the example of richer com panions than the youth of from seventeen to nineteen or twenty. Upon the whole, then, 1 am much better satisfied that these points in the university should remain as they are, or at least that they should be subjected only to the slight change which the commissioners propose, rather than to the great and sweeping alterations which your correspondent seems to desire to see carried into effect. I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient servant, AN M.A. OF ST. JOHN'S. NATIONAL EDUCATION IN IRELAND. TO THE EDITon OF "THE PHESS." Sir,—lt is not often that I have the misfortune to differ with the views expressed in your paper, but I cannot regard the above scheme in quite the same light as you appear to do. As a theory it may have much to recommend it; but, if success is in any measure to decide the merits of a system, the merits of this cannot, 1 fear, be regarded as proved to our entire► satisfaction. Ido not believe that any blame attaches to I.crd I►erby, as he could not, of course, `al expected to foresee all the circumstances that have combined to mar his plan. And, indeed, if I mistake not, during his too brief tenure of office, he expressed a feeling of disappointment at the little favour which it experienced at the hands of many of the most excellent and active clergymen of the Irish Church ; and intimated a desire to see some modifi cations adopted which might tend to induce them to alter their opinion of the plan. It may or may not be sneeessful as a scheme for educating the Roman Catholics, and is no doubt the best that their " gentle priesthood" would approve ; but what are its merits as a system of mixed educa tion ? The most impudent Papist could not, with any plausibility, assert that the ratio of his coreli g. *sts to the Protestants exceeds that. of three to one. lint let us look at the commissioners' statistics, as printed in your last paper. The number of Roman Catholic children in the schools is stated to be 414,717, while Protestants, including Presbyterians, only number 611,301; or the ratio is above six to one. And, if we exclude the Presbyterians, we find that only '24,618 other Protestant children attend the schools, and this number has to include those of the national Church and of other bodies of Protestants; so that the proportion of these to the Roman Catholics is only one to seventeen. 1 cannot but hope, there fore, that the plan may be made more is t letablo to the members of that issuer► a•f the Church ►with which the one in England is united, and this will, I trust, soon fall to the lot of Lord Derby, or of some of his adherents, to accomplish. I am, sir, your obedient servant, CANTABIUGIENSIS. SATURDAY, THE CHINESE REVOLUTION. BARELY six months have• elapsed since the English public first became aware that the rebellion in China was a serious matter. A few rumours of trouble and conflict had, indeed, previously from time to time reached the ears of the " outer barbarians." Chiefly through the highly refractive medium of proclamations in the Pekin Gazette, our merchants in Canton or Shanghae learnt that in certain remote provinces of the Celestial Empire things were not altogether going on as they should do. At first the rising disturbances were treated in the contemptuous style with which a metropolitan newspaper would mere lion, by way of hint to the police, that a gang of burglars was infesting some distant county. Gradually the symptoms grew more alarming. The felons became in turn " insurgents" and "rebels." The Pekin manifestoes assumed a more emphatic tone. Provincial mandarins were successively degraded and disgraced, avowedly for the ill-success of their endeavours to stop the conflagration. Every new despatch showed that the rebellion was as- Slnnmg e mare formidable aspect ; that the rebel army was expanding in numbers, improving in discipline, and, by a esentinued series of SUCCeSS, increasing in audacity. Town after town was taken, and province after province occupied by the insurgent forces. But the worst feature attending the insurrection was this—that its leaders never stopped to consolidate their conquests. Cities were abandoned almost as 1441011 as captured; and the districts overrun were quitted without scruple, not even soldiers enough being left in them to retain a semblance of military possession. 'Throughout their career the rebels behaved like men whose final object was still far remote—who were gradually and with fixed determination winning their way to a distant goal. That goal, we have lung since felt assured, is l'ekin. Meantime the tokens of distress and fright iu that capital have become more urgent. New governors and larger supplies of money were for some time periodically sent down to the disturbed districts. Then the exhaustion of the imperial exchequer, and the per plexity of the imperial mind, were displayed in successive appeals to the loyalty, the hopes, or the fears of the people, rued in desperate shifts to raise supplies. The property of discomfited generals and unlucky mandarins was confis cated with unsparing rigour. Court favours and official places were sold to the highest bidders. His Celestial Majesty invoked the sympathy and contributions of his subjects in a style of eloquent pathos. The troubles of his empire, lee said, allowed him no repose at night, and took from him all appetite for food in the day. From a new proclamation just received by the last overland mail we learn that the Emperor, " with feelings of the most bitter distrees, makes his second requisition for contribte tions, because he has no resource left, and trusts that the people will take it into consideration." To us in England, so rapid has been the march of events and the traumnission of intelligence, the whole course and result of the rebellion is already mapped out. We know it all—beginning, middle, and end—even though the end "is not yet." In fact we have a " theory " for it, by which we can account in the neatest possible manner for the origin of the revolt; men expluitt the influences which have rendered it successful; and can prophesy with as much assurance as if we already saw it the final triumph which is to exterminate the Altuitchou oppressoni of China, and place a civilised country and Christianised people under the restored and paternal rule of the Ming dynasty. For this theory—of whose foundation in fact we confess ourselves utterly nimble to pronounce an opinion—we are indebted chiefly to the curious volume published lately in Paris by MM. Callon and Yvan. Briefly summarised, the narra tive of the rebellion furnishedby these worthy missionaries runs as follows :—The revolt commenced some time in IS: 10, arising in the first instance out of the antagonism of races. Subjugated mid crushed to the earth through so many generations, the ancient Chinese had never become lost amid their Tartar conquerors. Their race was always distinct, and the spirit of discontent, if not of insurrection, was always alive among them. Such a spirit always blazes up soonest and most fiercely in mountain districts. A poor soil, roving tendencies, and hardy habitudes, render the uwuntaineer the most sturdy to assert his individual independence, and the most formidable foe to the op pressor. It was accordingly in the sterile mountain region of Kouang-si that the revolt find broke out. The stubborn race who inhabited that region, called the Miatetzes, had never been thoroughly reduced to servitude, and some ill judged and weak attempt to coerce them appears to have given the first impulse to their insurrection. Finding fit leaders, encouraged by early successes, and allured by am bition, which would seem, from all we elm learn, to have aimed even from the beginning at the loftiest prize, the insurgents gradually extended their sphere of operations. At the commencement their progress was slow. Many months were passed in fighting their way over the frontier ofiliouang-siand in obtaining full possession of the atlja-