The Sun.
London, England, 1848-11-09 00:00:00

The recent changes in the educatioual institutions at
Cambridge entail contingencies of such great and ge-
neral importance to the nation at large, and are at the
same time so little likely to be clearly apprehended by
persons unacquainted with academical forms, that we
shall be probably doing our readers an opportune piece
of service by stating some of the main points involved in
the discussions, and some of the chief results anticipated
from the late decision. Our limits will preclude us from
more than a simple proposition of the questions at issue,
but we may, perhaps, while qualifying certain precipi-
tate assumptions, remove a few of the apprehensions
which sincere friends of the University have been com-
pelled to express. Most disputes about the academical
system will be found to have turned upon a fundamental
difference respecting the functions it was required to
discharge. It was argued on one side, that the true
duties of the University were, not to instruct a student
in all sciences, but to qualify him for any; that the
art it should teach was the art of acquiring arts, and
that the true end of the whole system was attained if
the graduate was found competent, on quitting the
University, to betake himself with well-trained abili-
ties to the peculiar 'study of his choice. The aim was
to make, not a full mind, but a strong one; to commu-
nicate, not information, but the power of properly col-
lecting it; and to turn out, not lawyers, or statesmen, or
engineers, or chemists, but men who could enter upon
any one of these professions with advantages beyond
their fellows. To the testimonies in favour of this
system, which were all, ged to be offered by the actual
results of its operation, was added the reasonable argu-
ment that the length o the academical course (which
opinions were tending rather to curtail than to extend)
was obviously inad* quate to permit even a cursory so-
quainance with one-half of the useful sciences, and that
it was therefore expedient to select for the staple of
study that branch of learning which, in its various bear-
ings, might seem to promise best. To these.representa-
tions it was replied, that such a system circumscribed the
University to the functions of a school, that Cambridge
and Oxford were thus fulfilling no conditions of education
beyond Eton and Rugby, and that it such was to be the
practice, some new institution should be founded to as-
sume with respect to our present Universities that posi-
tion which those Universities formerly occupied with
respect to schools. It was urged that the whole period
of life which could be devoted to learning was thus
monopolized by preparations for it, which were only
just then completed when the opportunity was gone fur
employing them, and that the great object of what was
confessedly a finishing school was confined to qualifying
the student to proceed to another which did not exist.
As regarded the appeal to experience, issue was
promptly joined on the point. It was alleged, that even
in the profession peculiarly alluded to the results were
at least equivocal, and that so many distinguished uni-
versity men did not become distinguished lawyers, whi e
so many distinguished lawyers had never beendistin-
guished university men, that it was impossible to connect
success in one line with success in the other. As to the
ether conspicuous callings of life, it was boldly affirmed
that the shortcomings of Oxford and Cambridge were
manifest, that the want of proficients in the neglected
sciences was actually every day experienced, to the no
small discredit and detriment of the nation, and that, for
such adepts as did contribute their service to the com-
mon stock, the country was in no proportionate
degree indebted to the two great seminaries of educa-
tion. After this came another point. Presuming the
first stated conclusion to be correct, that a good educa-
tion should be concerned with only one branch of learn-
ing, the question arose what this was to be; and it was
complained of as a signal hardship that one of the studies
selected lor such exclusive preferment—that of the dead
languages— should be precisely that which was
unserviceable for any purpose except the tem-
porary purpose of training. Why not select a
science which would serve both as a mean and as an
end? Why nut, at any rate, if languages were the best
vehicle of instruction, select such as were spoken at the
' present day, in place of those which must be disused as
soon as they were acquired? On this favourable field
the battle has been fought out more than once, and to
the advantage, it must be confessed, of what perhaps ap-
pears the weaker side—that of the dead languages. But
this fact supplies no argument to the opponents of the
recent changes, as we shall presently see. At this mo-
ment the general course of study in the Uni-
versity of Cambridge is practically confined to
classics and mathematics, for the admixture ef
the theological element is too recent to be
yet effective. At the option ef the student he may take
an " ordinary degree" after a moderate examination,
involving necessarily both these subjects, or a degree
in " honours," which implies a severe and protracted ex-
amination only in one of them, unless he be strong
enough ..tto grapple gratuitously with both. To the
gainers of these " honours" the emoluments of the
University are rigidly and most impartially confined.
riPke reforms recently adopted provide for the "
triposes," or classes for establish-
ment
' •he other for the natural1.7 hsconieonucress,,onine
for the moral, mtwoor:: • leded those studies of law,
which denominations are inus-.. rrthy, chymistry,
hiktblj puutikial edoopott npral '.`thesis
botany; geoltigy, fid se tbEetli 11641 ha" Ti- Pe
ignored. The advocates of the e di+ Eth9iii et
t;me and toil of the aiddefits thy he W f egg
btadieg With greiit betiegt to the tiagon. at !ire. Theft
adversaries apprehend filthier their will o.tnA, e
dieelde
superficially, and so be worse than itelellst of spa
utteeyd actually take teaxkaect
i
i
hi
they will fail to supply any
the
h sec i e npcoes t oann d dt heeardt° l a nnigUnagPet
einvger,thiet
suchmeannseroef, thraoiwn
mind as we have described above.
should be obsireed that, actdrditiO to the true Cambridge
theory, thtse thottei ichtsa lite furnished by mathematics
alone. The dead langiitigeal eon tit this hbttri hOld.hb
place beyond what it is hoped May be efefailidll* taken
by the sciences Newly recogniied. Their admission WO
thb Coda° Of studs' was only iecured, within these last
file-afitt-it4Senly ibOst gttenuous opßhsition,
and by a compromise stilt iieffieti4a4it in tConslauoits
shame. The men ef he classical tripos, the men
moral 3,;,„;,-„Is trips, and the men of the natural sciences
tripos, will be all alike dissentersse n
from
hard
omthewoorldds mathe-
maticaltheaeh establishment, and can use
other. But there is a clear argument to be drawn
from the results of the first innovation. No person
conversant with the matter will venture to assert
that -ithe majority of the classical men have de-
rived aoy perceptible bias or character whatever
from the obnoxious mathematical ordeal to which
they were subjected. We will not ask what they may
hare lost, but will content ourselves with asserting that
in the vast majority of those cases where the test was
unwillingly taken, there is no appreciable difference be-
tween the present formation of these men's minds and
that which would have ensued had no such toll been
levied on their time for the protection of others.
Either, therefore, the classical men of the University
are incompetent representatives of its educational powers,
or the original theory is proved unsound. Mathematics
do not supply the only means of mental training. One
substitute has already been found, and why not another?
J t may very probably turn out that a kind of compromise
is practicable betweea the opposing systems. The