The Express.
London, England, 1852-09-01 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 1,

That report, and the evidence whi• A accompanied it,
showed moat clearly that the preser ALI nimsity warn.
meet and administration is an rndcubted usurpation, ,
and in opposition to all the pemeiples which presided
at the foundation not only ' .if the University, but of
the Colleges. It showed t' cat the University of Ox-
ford was originally like 11%1 the older universities of
Western Europe, an amerssation of teachers united only
by mutual interest i—t, mt it chose its own legislative
body and executive °Seers, its constitution being
essentially dernnenit.M. The report further showed,
that when the U, Jiversity had acquired such dis-
tinction, as a pia, ,e of education, as to make the pox-
ticipation in its advantages a matter of great desire,
benevolent per mos founded " houses of charity" where
poor persons might reside while studying at the
University town. That the lodgers in these "hews
of charity" were bound by statutes, which their ne-
meses self swear to observe, to a life of poverty and
study, and to the performance of religious ceremonies
which cannot now be performed. That a rigid rule
of life was laid down. Further it was shown. that
the value of the property left to these " hewn of
charity" inerea.sing, the influence of the toasts foe
the time being increased also, and to such st=
that they were enabled to exclude all other
but themselves—in fact to absorb the university. The
poor " houses of charity" have become rich
sharing amongst them about 130,000 f. a year
from real property, and an enormous sass derived
from students fees. They allow no ors is wee to
the University unless as a member of a map, and
thus convert a great national institution into a private
establishment, managed for the benefit of a clique.
Of course similar evidence will bo brought for-
ward against Cambridge. That university also will
be proved to have fallen into the hands of the
tenants of the ancient "houses of charity." It will
be shown that democratical institutions have been re-
volutionised into oligarchical,—that large funds have

been grossly misapiilied,—and, in short, that Cam-
bridge has not been •ery far behind Oxford in the
work of destruction.

All this evidence, it is clear, we might well spare ;
and the same might be said of the inferences to be
founded on them, as Mr. STANLEY'S report contains
nearly all that can be said upon the subject.
In the meantime there is something left for the Com-
missioners to do which might well make their labours
u valuable to the nation as those of the Ox-
ford Commission. Although a little is said
in the report of the latter body about the
extension of the studies of the University, the
question could not begone into fully. Now—reform
every thing else in the Universities and leave the
cumeulum of studies alone, and you will have done
but little towards nationalising the institution. The
nation will never be brought into sympathy with
the Universities until the education there becomes
national. The great learned men in England at the
' present day are not those who have edited Greek
plays, or written Latin verse; they arc those whose
studies have resulted in flinging tubular bridges
over straits, in bringing one portion of the island
into closer connection with another part by
means of railways,—in transmitting messages
with the speed of lightning,—in multiply-
ing our resources to an incalculable extent be
means of machinery. Ask any of the foremost
men in the country what is included in the necessary
education of a distinguished Englishman of the pre-
sent day, and he will give you a long list of subjects
any one of which will require deep study and toil to
master. But observe, not one of these will the Uni-
versities
of oxford or Cambridge recognise. Out of
the vast ocean of human knowledge as it is known
at the present day, our Universities are content
with surveying one or two bays and inlets, smiling
contemptuously at the labours of the daring
navigators who have laid open to us the road to
immeasurable treasures. The Universities do
not expand with the national mind. They have
confined themselves to the recognition of excellence
in two or three branches of study, ce
, and treat the rest
of the large map of human science as if it were non-
existent. Now, we have a right to expect more
from a University than this. If it is a national in-
stitution, it shouldrecognise excellence in every de.
partment in which inte tual eminence can mani-
fest itself. Tho honours and rewards of the
Universities, as national institutions, should be
bestowed upon all those who are pre-eminent in
intellectual achievements in any of those divi-
sions of science which modern discoveries have
brought to light, and upon which the prospe-
rity and the civi lisation of the world depend. There is no
reason why, up to a certain point, the Universities
should not be prepared to instruct the youth of the
country in the whole eneyclopiedia of science, ab-
stract and industrial. It this were the case, the
students and professors of all branches of learning
scientific and practical, would be brought into close
communion. The result would be something like an
intellectual republic. There would be no aristocracy
of the professors of one or two branches of learn-
ing. The spinner of Latin verses would be
forced to recognise that his achievements were
neither in kind nor degree superior to those of
the man who had thoroughly mastered the know-
ledge of the principles of mechanical science. The
skilful analyst would no longer arrogate to himself
a university degree, to the exclusion of the discoverer
of a new motive power. The possessors of intel-
lectual might would be all brought closer together,
however their
_pursuits might diverge, and the Uni-
versities would be elevated into the position they
ought to occupy u interpreters, and in some sense
directors, of the national mind.

silence the subversion of all that it esteems, 'would
have hewn deemed preposterous in the most insane of
the Roman emperors. '
The article of tho Pays is u follows:
There ezists, then, a country in eivilised Europe in
which the liberty of the writer goes the length of defama-
tion. There exists • press which, in plum of preaching up
emceed and peace, performs the office of offering insults
and calumnies—whieh, in place of appeasing expiring
hatred, studies each day to irritate and envenom it. Yes,
that country exists, and is called England, and that
mess exists, and in London. A matter still more
grave is, that it is a serious journal, the admitted
organ of certain political parties, the Tunes, which has lo
sines adopted this system of abase, perfidiously calculated,
and audaciously written. It is only a few days back that
the Moraliser moldered it necessary to protest, in the name
of France and of her government, against the malevolent
imputations of the British print. And yesterday we find
lo the columns of the Times fresh insults, not only against
the man whom popular suffrage has proclaimed bead of the
state, but against the whole nation. The French magi*.
truly, according to the English libcllist, is a collection of
prevaricating judges, sold by perjury to every goverment.
The army, which has saved European eivilissuon from bar-
barism, a body of disorderly pretorians; the senate, that
immovable guardian of the constitutional compact, a troop
of mercenaries, without character and without power; the
Legislative Body, that direct cmuution of the national
sovereignty, a power witheut authority and without in-
fluence ; the people, in fine, the people, which is the soul of
all these social forces, which has exercised its sovereign
power on three different occasions, by the vote of the con-
stitetion, the election of its legislators, and that of its local
representatives, the French people is a living ruin, from
which the breath of political life has departed, and which '
rolls on to death down the fatal descent of decadence, is •
degenerate nation, which io its degradation only asks from
the government amusements, reviews, and public files,
panful el circenses. What, in truth, is the object of these
reiterated insults ? Dues the shade of Pitt agitate the
nightly thoughts of the English pamphletten, and cry to
them, Hatred to France ? Is London about to became •
second time the centre in which the most insensate in-
trigues will be concocted against our country ? Will the
British press again distribute through the world
those odious pamphlets which filly years ago disseminated
between France and England so much national indiges-
tion? To see the persistence of these outrages and calum-
nies, one would imagine that a mot rfordre is acted on to
excite against France the arms of hatred and vengeance.
The French government is so high placed, that it can des-
pise these insults and calumnies, and content itself in the
serenity of its dignity with re-establiehiug the truth which
has been so impudently violated. And, besides, we com-
prehend that when one is supported by the suffrages of a
whole nation, ens may disdain the powerless bloom
which are given in a foreign country by a vulgar
and anonymous hand. But, if there is not hero
the principle of • diplomatic difficulty, there is at
least for us who see the majesty of our country insulted
b • British libellant, • sentiment of national susceptibility
which arises and festers in our heart. The French people
has suffered, and will never suffer other nations to
intervene in its internal affair+, either by their sovereigns,
or ministers, or journals. It intends to be respected as a
people merits which has always marched at the head of
civilisation, and which now again has just saved the world
from anarchy. It insults no one, and will not allow itself
to be Insulted. And when, by the calm of its pacific mani-
festatioos' it has just given so marked an example of its
respect for authority—when, in dissipating in the political
horiun the revolutionary clouds which darkened it, it
has ensured the repose and the future peace of Europe,
is it wise or proper or prudent to witted that ea-
Venal sentiment which for thirty years has had so much dif-
ficulty in restraining itatlf. What! the French press has
fur the last thirty years been making unheard of efforts to
draw closer the bonds of union and friendship which ought
to unite France and England. It preaches up without
ceasing the oblivirot of the old hatred which eaisted ; it
praises the English people, and speaks of their affection for
trance; it accomplishes, in a word, the mission of those
we.l inclined men who desire to consolidate universal peace
by mutual sympathy, and by the fraternity of nations.
And to that work of concord and magnanimity the English
preen responds by insults and calumnies, borrowed from
the gazetteers of the times of the masulate and the em-
pire. But we do not render the English people, and still
less its government, responsible for the insults of a press de-
voted to coteries and directed by badly.disguiied passions.
This ablative language, we are certain, excites as much in-
dtgoation on the other side of the channel as amoogit us.
May there not be at the bottom of all these incomprehen-
sible attacks some personal ambition, which it is sought to
satisfy by throwing the germs of hostility between France
and England ? There ere men whom the passion of power
often urges to the most deplorable attempts, and who would
not hesitate to trouble for that object the repose of societies.
The wisdom of the French and British governments, the
interests which unite them, the sympathies which exist be-
tween them, will know how to halo these disloyal ma-
noeuvres, and cause them, if they exist, to end in a ridiculous
failure.

M. Oirardin has replied to-day with becoming
indignation to the stale and absurd assumption of
M. tinnier de Cassanac, that, but for the coup
oracle of December, France would have been the prey
of pillagers and murderers. The ditor of the Preset
points to the rank and merits of the men who have
been expelled by the government. But it is needle=
to repeat his arguments here, as everyone knows
that M. Oranier's bugbear is a mere invention to pen
the people in the imperial fold out of terror for ima-
ginary wolves. What is more to the purpose is the
emphatic form of the denial. M. Girardin says at
the close of each triumphant refutation," Sir, you are
• liar," "You are a liar and a slanderer"—language
which, according
.to French usage, can only be an-
swered by an invitation to appeal from the pen to
the sword or pistol. Oirardin, since his fatal
rencontre with Carrel, has, I believe, been
converted from duelling. Grapier has no alter-
native bat to challenge his adversary ; but it does not
seem probable that his challenge will be deemed
more respectable by the editor of the Press* than it
was by. M. Creton, who refused either to fight or to
apologise, after having called M. Granier in the
Assembly a miserable pamphleteer.
M. Fleury, the President's aide-de-camp, has set
out upon the line of journey to be performed by the
Prince between the 15th September and the 16th
October. He is charged with the duty of making
every arrangement about relays of poet-horses where
noosssary, &c., &c. The President's train is to con-
sist of 12 carriages.
It is said that Cavaignac will not stand again at
the Paris elections. It seems pretty certain that his
having refused the oath would be sufficient pretext
for the government to declare him incapable of
coming forward.
The Liberte, of Arras, is about to receive a warning.
The ifoxiiewr contains a decree approving the
Imes made to the state by the eity of Paris of the
large spars la dm Champs Spies for the construc-
tion of an seise issased ts serve for national
exhibitions, yids awe= Land civil and military
fetes, and er the ssawildsa by wide the Naar
of the Interriw ban swessied the ssostesstiss of the
edifies te XII. Alain and Company. Thus the anal
mistime is given te the 1101:6011 of a Crystel Pelage
in Peek Maths decree prescribes regulations for
the 111•11111111 sfeliambers of commerce, declares that
fiver, Wise aged at least thirty, and having been
in bedew st hest lee yeses, and that retired traders
and menelhetatere duly domiciled shall be eligible ;
and directs that the mew &when shall be elected
within six months.

By another decree the export duty now payable
open "duvet" of cashmirs is suppressed.
The Moniteur also contains a report of the minister
of marine, submitting to the approbation of the Pre-
sident a new set of regulations of the internal ser-
vice on board vessels of war. The object stated by
the report is to produce in all the details of the
service that unity of which the code Napoleon
set an example in legislation. The present
regulations comprising 1,584 articles, prepared by a
board of °Moors, and approved of by the council of
the admiralty, are then completion of the
new orders of August 15th. otwithstanding the
positive rules there laid down with regard to many
details of the service, an officer transferred from one
squadron to another, from a distant station for in-
stance to the active division in the Mediterranean,
is still exposed to find on board his new ship a differ-
ent mode of carrying on the service to that which he
had previously been accustomed. All these
inequalities are to disappear, so that any
commander may at any moment, ho able at
a glance to check the slightest departure from a
universal rule. One of the now articles relates to
preparation for combat, another to the arming of
boats, and another on measures to bo taken against
boarding. A solitary exception to the general rule of
unity is, that the minister has not thought fit to
adopt a sort of tariff of punishments, temporarily in
use in the fleet, whereby an officer was compelled to
inflict upon men of different characters and conduct
precisely the same punishment for the same offence.
The articles of the new code have been sanctioned
by decree of the Prince President, dated the 38th,
and are to be published in the Bulletin des Lois.

A telegraphic despatch has been received an-
nouncing the death of General Blangini, who com-
manded at Orleans.

The prefect of the Vosges, revoking his decree
which fixed tho municipal elections of Epinal for the
28th of August, has postponed them indefinitely,
upon tho ground that intrigues have been secretly
carried on of a nature to hinder the free expression,
of the wiahes of the electors, and that proceedings

against the authors of these intrigues have been
instituted. I lately mentioned an instance of a com-
mune having so &r mistaken the spirit of existing
institutions as to get up a serious opposition to the
government eandideles for the municipal council.
The eppmitioo was esecessful at the poll, but the
prefeet immediately dissolved the elected coun-
cil and isatelled hie own twos by way of vindi-
oat2gthe isibpeadeace of the sommune. At Epinal,
iit ihreeems that the eleationm would turn out
unfavourably, they are postponed until a sufficient
example' made of the opposition leaders, shall explain
to the inhabitants the tree nature of universal suf-
frage. Generally speaking, however, this is perfectly
understood already. With few exceptions, the polls
for the municipal councils aro as thinly attended as
were those for the councils-general and councils of
arrondissement. One remarkable instance to the
contrary is paraded in the Nonacid,- to-day, with a
view, probably, to prove both the enthusiasm of the
electors and the freedom of the suffrage. The men
employed in the arsenal of Toulon met on the 21st
and 22nd, to proceed to the election of municipal
councillors. All the men present voted, and the pro-
ceedings pawd off with the greatest order. Of 2,611
registered electors, 2,427 voted for the government
candidates.

M. Cuabianca, the ex-minister of state, arrived at
Avignon on Thursday, on his way to Corsica, to pre-
side at the sittings of the council-general. Ho is,
according to the 31enwrild de Yawluse, charged
with an important mission, having fur its object to
introduce various ameliorations in the material con-
iition of Corsica.

It is reported at tho Bourse that a clue has been
obtained to the discovery of the authors of tho for-
geries of the Bordeaux and Cetto scrim It is said
that the forgeries have been committed at Bordeaux,
and that the manufacturer of the forged paper is in
custody. New declarations of the false scrip arc re-
ceived daily. They amount already to upwards of
200,000 fr.
. . . _

Much curiosity is excited by a new sort of oblong
balloon, which is to go up from the Hippodrome to-
day.
At the Bourse the Four-and-aaalf per Cents. fell
30e., closing at 104.75; the Threes fell 60c., and
closed at 75.H0. The Dieppe and Fecamp Railway
fell 7.50; Paris and Lyons, 3.73; Sceaux rose 23;
Bordeaux and Tcstc, 10 ; Avignon and Marseilles,
8.75; St. Germain, 7.30; Montereau and Troyes, 5;
Rouen, 2.50.