The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-28 00:00:00

EDUCATION IN SCOTLALND.

Lord KINNAIRD gave notice of his intention, am►
an early day, to move an address to her Majesty, pray-
ing for the issuing of a commission to inquire into the
state of education in Scotland.
Their lordships then adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS—(YESTERDAY.)
OXFORD UNIVERSITY BILL.
Mr. HORSMAN thought the Government had
introduced this bill at the right time, and
had framed it in a right spirit ; and he was
therefore rather surprised that it should have received
so much opposition. At the same time, he did not think
the subject was sufficiently understood to admit of its
being dealt with in a committee of the whole house; it could
be much better disposed of in a select committee. It
was not a mere question of detail that had to be con-
sidered, but it was the whole question of Univer-
sity reform, and he felt the subject was not yet
sufficiently ventilated to render it prudent for them to
frame the provisions of the bill in a committee of the
whole house. He compared the condition of the Ger-
man and the English universities, showing the inferiority
of the latter as regarded various branches of learning,
and observing that there was no modern theology in the
English universities, which were dependent for theology
on the Germans, although many of the doctrines of the
latter were repugnant to English views. And this state
of things he considered the bill was not calculated to
correct.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER—I, together
with many who sit around me, have listened with great
interest to the speech of the hon. member who has just
sat down, but at the same time I have not been successful
in gathering his intention as to this bill. I will say a few
words, before I refer to the motion before the house, on
the general tenour of the speech of the hon. member. I
sympathise very much with his views as to the functions
of the universities, and the duties incumbent on them un-
der the circumstances of the time, and the dangers to which
they and truth are exposed under those circumstances ; but,
though I sympathise with him in regard to these particu-
lars, and though I am disposed to go some way with him in
his lamentations as to the deficient state of the university,
in regard particularly to theological learning, yet I must
confess, and he will forgive me for so, saying that I think
that his speech was pervaded by a tone of exaggeration.
I confess that, both as to the dangers and the means of
meeting them, although there is mach of truth in what
has fallen from the lion. member, yet I think the state of
the case is far from being so bad as he has represented.
I confess I do not think, although there are many sad and
ominous signs in the state of the times, yet I do not think
that Christianity is about to be exiled from the continent
of Europe and to come a suppliant to our shores. I
do not think either that we are so wholly deficient in the
means of defending our faith, for it would not be difficult
to refer to the names of many leading divines connected
with both Universities, who have given forth works of
very considerable importance, and wich are quoted with
honour in this aud other countries, and their authors are
well worthy of taking rank either with the great theolo-
gians England has produced in former times, or with the
eminent men of other countries distinguished in this ereat
branch of learning. (Cheers.) I grant, however,Dthat
there is in our universities a defect in this respect, and
that for several generations the benefits derived from them
have been small in proportion to those which under better
legislative regulations they might have yielded. Let me
point out one great error into which the hon. member
has, I believe, unconsciously fallen. He has spoken of
the duty of the University as connected with the produc-
tion of learned works ; but let him not ascribe to the
University the shortcomings in this respect, as it belongs
rather to the genius of the nation, to the active and prac-
tical character of its people, and to the disposition shown
by all men in early life to hurry into the discharge of
active duties. It is owing to the immense efforts
which they have been making, and to the progress
which they have achieved in all departments of human
action which are furthest apart from speculative
thought. (Cheers.) This much, I consider, ought to be
stated on behalf of the universities. The hon. gentle-
man has said that the tutors were to be regarded, in the
present condition of things, as the bane of the university.
Here, I think, he has spoken altogether in error. It was
true, as be had stated, they were not to look to tutors
generally for profound research or an extended range of
learning. This, no doubt, is so, but it is a condition which
attaches itself to the nature of their duties ; but are they
for this to be called the bane of the university ? [Mr.
HoustuaT.—l said the tutorial system.] Is, then, the tu-
torial system to be called the bane of the university ? That
system discharges, in part, at least, a great work. The
greater portion of the minds of England are formed at the
university. I grant that much more ought to be, and I
hope will be so ; but the work to which the tutors are de-
voted is to tho forming of certain habits of mind and char-
acter, and I do not think that it can be said that in this
they have been unsuccessful. The hon. member has spoken
of the learning of the Germans, and I can but echo what he
has stated. I have often felt ashamed to think that by far
the most considerable and interesting work iu the univer-
sities is by a foreigner. I refer to that by Huber, which is
such as to make it a ,treasure to all interested in the uni-
versities. Ho has his feelings as a German, and is not
blind to the defects of the university, nor does he attempt-to
conceal them, but he says that it has discharged a great and
essential part in unison with the national character of the
nation, by training that class best qualified to guide the
future destinies of this country. The course taken in this
debate has been of a twofold character. One hon. member
has entered at large into the case of the universities, and
has not directed his remarks to the terms of the present
motion, while on the other hand an hon. member has made
a speech with a direct bearingon themotion. I would state,
however, in passing, that in one portion of the speech of the
hon. member for Stroud a question was put, to which I
think it my duty to give an answer, and which I consider it
easy to answer in a way which will be satisfactory both to
the hon. member and the house. The hon. member, after
stating the want of theological and other learning in
the universities, asks in what way this bill proposes to
remedy this defect ? If there were no provisions in this bill
which tended to remedy the defects complained of, I
should have been sorry to have been a party to sub-
mitting it to the house. I feel, however, in answer to
the hon. member, inclined to invert his question, and ask
what provision in the bill does not tend to remedy these
defects? (Hear.) And this is effected by the provisions of
the bill, by infusing a spirit of freedom into the universi-
ties, and by releasing its Government from the fetters which
have lain on it; it is not easy to describe this by reference
to any particular parts of the bill, but such is its general
tendency. (Hear, hear.) The bill also is full of specific
provisions of the strongest and most direct character. At
present a large portion of the endowments of Oxford are
held by persons chosen to enjoy them, not for any great pro-
ficiency in learning, but on account of the circumstance
that they were born in some particular spot or related to
some particular person. As a general rule, by this bill such
endowments are to be converted into prizes, to bo bestowed
on account of merit ; and 1 am sure the lion. member will
willingly admit that such provisions have a tendency to
remedy defects. The hon. member, again, complains of
there being no provisions to remedy the professorial sys-
tem. The hon. member has an adequate, I may say, a
sublime, idea of the ditties of the professor who sits aloft
and directs, through his instruments, the education of the
country ; and this bill contemplates to extend this system
and to increase the duties and emoluments of the pro-
fessor, and I am certain that the hon. member will
admit this will have a tendency to remedy defects com-
plained of. But the bill does not stop there, for its pro-
visions go still further, by providing that fellowships and
emoluments at colleges shall only be held on the condition
of active duty or study. 1 think, therefore, that the last
objection which can be seriously made to the bill is, that
it has no tendency to remedy the defects as to learning,
especially as to theological learning. The house has also
to consider the question involved in the vote, which it has
to give on the motion before the house, and, 1 think the
member for North Lancashire must more fully understand
the effect of his motion than he did on entering the house
this evening, as he has had the advantage of listening to
the speech in which his motion was seconded by the mem-
ber for North Warwickshire ; and from that speech he must
have perceived the tendency of his motion. The hon. mem-
ber for North Lancashire has long made conscientious and
energetic efforts in behalf of the attainment of the ben.-
fits to be derived from the national institutions of edu-
cation ; but he will begin to question whether he
has not made a move in another direction, when he is not
only supported, but cheered, by the member for North
Warwickshire. (Hear.) This motion in effect—and lam
far from saying that such was intended by the hon. mem-
ber who roved it—but, in effect, the motion is to get rid
of the measure. (Hear, hear.) Let us have no mistake as
to this ; and I do not apprehend that there can be much,
for the evidence as to such being the effect of the motion is
contained in the speech of the hon. member for North
Warwickshire, and such evidence is unimpeachable as far
as it goes. (Hear, and a laugh.) It is complained, and I
believe justly, that we shall lie under great inconvenience
when we go into committee, because so few of the mem-
bers are conversant with the institutions of the university
or the provisions of this bill. I do not, host-ever,
see
how the proposal to refer the bill to a committee of
15 gentlemen up stairs is to have any powerful tendency
to remove the evil as to the want of general knowlec ge c:of
the bill and the universities among the members of the
house. I look at the question with reference to the state
of the bill altogether. This is a bill containing 58 cl auses;
many of these clauses branch out into a variety of
_particu-
lars and call into existence other powers to be placed in the
Bands of the universities, colleges, and commissioners,
under which a vast number of processes of what I may
term sub-legislation will go. The history of thhe ileh pecollegesriod
extends over a period of 600 years, during
wa
number of institutions have grown up, no two of
which are precisely alike, and the forms of their
statutes are complicated ; added to this, there are
a number of institutions extraneous to the univer-
sity, with their separate constitutions and the innu-
merable schemes for their interest which have been de-
vised for them through 20 generations either by the bene-
volence or caprice of individuals—every one of these will be
referred to the committee, and there is not a school in the
country interested to the amount of 101. a-year in any of
these exhibitions which would not come before the com-
mittee. I could not, were I the hon. member's most bitter
enemy, condemn him to a severer punishment than that of
cxelucting the committee which he has so rashly invoked.
I, together with my noble friend, have had some cape"