The Express.
London, England, 1868-04-13 00:00:00

WHAT IS A TINIPERSITY t

SUPPOSE the collages, the fellowships, sad
scholarships, and the examinations were abolished,
how would Oxford and Cambridge be affected by
the change F In the estimation of many people
such a measure would be much the same thing as
the abolition of the Universities themselves.
In Professor SEELZY'S opinion, "so far
" from being equivalent to the abolition of
" them it would materially increase their
efficiency." This is not a mere paradox
put forward as a text for clever ward-play ; it is the
deliberate judgment of a man well qualified to
to form a judgment upon the subject. In his
" Plea for More Universities," published in the
first number of the Leaden Student, Professor
SEELEY gives his reasons for thinking that the
English Universities assign a too exclusive place to
examining students and preparing them for being
examined. " The true University has the educe,-
" tion of youth only as one of its functions ;
" its first object is the advancement of science
" and learning. Wherever this latter object is
thoroughly carried out abundant opportunities
will present themselves for the pursuit of the
former, and "a seat of learning without students
"is an extravagant waste of power." But with
us the error is, for the most part, on the opposite
side. "The undergraduate class, being once
" admitted, become the most important class.
" The ~avant, leave their studies and
" their books to dance attendance on
" their pupils." Professor SEELEY wishes to
see this evil corrected by the establishment of uni-
versities which shall be bodies of learned men
primarily engaged in pursuing their own investiga-
tions, not hat, lycies aiming chiefly at stimulating
the will, or aiding the capacity, of a superior class
of schoolboys. In such a University students would
be most welcome guests. Its libraries and museums
would beopentothem ; itsprofessors wouldexpound
their several sciences in public lectures ; in short,
every facility would be given to those who wished
to learn, although the University, as such, would
not undertake the " rousing of indolent minds to
" exertion, or the laborious infusion of a little
" knowledge into slow understandings." In the
practical part of Professor SEELEY'S article there
seems, we confess, a certain amount of inconsis-
tency. He pleads, if we understand him rightly,
for an almost indefinite multiplication of univer-
sities, since he would raise to this level every
important literary and scientific institution in the
Kingdom—using those words in the very largest
sense. And yet he ends his article with an argu-
ment in favour of incorporating into the single
University of London all the learned societies of
the metropolis, all the great hospitals, the British
Museum, and the Royal Academy. The latter
proposal is well worth consideration ; the former,
unless very strictly limited to one or two cases of
which the circumstances are analogous to those of
London, would, we fear, involve only the further
degradation of the title which it is Professor
SEELEY'S wish to see restored to its primary and
more honourable meaning.

THE succession of Lord CRANDORNE to the Mar-
quisate of Salisbury may prove a very serious blow
to Mr. DISRAELI s supremacy over his party. A
Conservative minister cannot afford to leave the
Lords out of his account. They are the
natural bulwarks of the Conservative cause ; and a
Tory Government which found itself in a minority
in the Upper Horse would stand condemned in the
eyes of its supporters. Mr. Duractzu is probably
not popular with the Peers ; and he will for the
future have to hold his own among them by
means of an incapable like Lord Macrae:mu RY, or •
noises home like Lord CAIRNS, against a statesman
who combines with the inheritance of a great name
and the purest Conservative traditions, remarkable
powers both of debate and administration. If the
House of Lords seta any value on high personal
character and unblemished consistency of political
conduct, they are likely some day to ask themselves
whether the new Lord SALISBURY is not their true,
representative. It is unfortunate for Mr. DIARAELI •
that the branch of the legislature in which'
his influence is weakest should now oonta;n two'
men who have preferred honour to place, and
chosen to abandon 'their party when their party
abandoned its principles. The permanence of
moral aberrations can never be safely reckoned on ;
and if the Conservatives should ever again indulge
in the luxury of a conscience, they may be glad to
take as their leader • man who has thought it
worth while to keep one, even at the cost of money
and position.

Is the portion of the solar eclipse of August
next which crosses the peninsula of India, the
duration of total darkness will be 5 minutes and
13 to 55 seconds. The authorities at Calcutta
are beginning already to receive communications
on the subject, and are particularly desirous of