The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-20 00:00:00

SPIRI P OF- THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.--Two schemes of University Extension,
essentially different in their principle and aims, have
been referred, with others, to a Committee of the
Hebdomadal Council at Oxford. The one contem-
plates the revival of an order of poor, or " privi-
leged," students within the University, and provides
for its introduction under such regulations as may
best disguise its eleemosynary character. The other,
accepting the broad conditions and appreciating the
practical demands of modern society, professes to
meet the latter by an adaptation of the university
system to the former. Both deserve attention, not
only because they represent almost contrary views
of the functions committed to our universities, but
also because a comparison of them brings out some
of the real difficulties which lie in the path of uni-
versity reformers. Of these difficulties the greatest
is that of retaining all the valuable elements of uni-
versity education while it is brought within the reach
of a much larger class. We have discussed on a re-
cent occasion the expediency of founding a new col-
lege, chiefly designed for clerical students, upon
principles of strict economy, as well as various pro-
jects for utilising the endowinen ts of existing colleges
and for permitting young men to become members
of the university without belonging to any college or
hall. The plans now to be considered have some
features in common with these, as well as with each
other, but they involve respectively several important
questions peculiar to themselves. The more conser-
vative of the two schemes is contained in the report
of Sub-Committee IL, the chairman of which was
the Provost of Worcester. It is embodied in seven
recommendations, the substance of :which, however,
is to be found in the first, second, and fourth. The
first recommendation is, that colleges " be invited"
to establish exhibitions " for the assistance of such
persons as cannot support, unaided, the expenses of
a university education." The second is that the
Hebdomadal Council be moved to procure, if pos-
sible, from the university a grant of £20,000 for the
purpose of assisting colleges to found these exhibi-
tions. The fourth is that such exhibitions be confined
to " persons absolutely incapable, without aid, of
supporting themselves at the university." The other
recommendations are mainly directed to secure a pro-
per appropriation of the university grant, and to pre-
vent the benefit of it being enjoyed by students who
shall be guilty of extravagance, or shall have failed
more than once to pass any examination. Those
who are familiar with academical controversies will
at once recognise in this proposal an admission of the
claims, so often preferred and so often disallowed, on
behalf of " poor students." The sub-committee, in-
deed, do not scruple to allege that students of this
class "had much once in the University, and now
have next to nothing." Theyare described as "young
men whose services the Church and the country can
ill afford to lose," but who are shut out of the pro-
fessions for which they have a vocation by the lack
of means to go through a university career. We
shall probably not be wrong in construing these
expressions, coupled with others which occur
in a document quoted by the Sub-Committee with
approbation, as an appeal to a theory avowed by
many —that it is the supreme duty of the Univer-
sity to supply the Church with learned ministers.
Now, this is a theory which few enlightened laymen,
and no enlightened statesman, can adopt. The
supreme duty of a University is to conduct and
superintend the higher education of the country, and
by this standard all proposed reforms must be tested.
It is a very fair subject for argument whether " the
foundation of Exhibitions to be conferred, not upon
grounds of literary merit, but of poverty, character,
and economical habits," is or is not likely to promote
the interests of education or of the University ;
whether it is likely to promote those of the Estab-
lished Church is a consideration which, in this con-
nexion, we must decline to entertain. The Univer-
sity Commissioners, as is generally known, strongly
condemned the policy. of attracting poor scholars to
the University " merely because they were poor."
They believed that if all the scholarships and fellow-
ships at Oxford were thrown open, and no longer
awarded exclusively to proficiency m classics, poor
scholars of real intellectual merit would receive more
effectual encourageinent than by any multiplication
of servitorships or bible clerkships. It was doubt-
less in deference to their authority that a previous
resolution for the application of £20,000 in the very
way suggested by the sub-committee was rescinded
by the old Hebdomadal Board in 1853. Experience
has, upon the whole, justified the expectations of
the commissioners. Open scholarships are mostly
won by youths whose parents would otherwise have
considerable difficulty in giving them a university
education ; and fellowships are almost always won
by graduates who have held scholarships. What
remains is to reduce the necessary expenses of living
in college to a minimum, to borrow and improve,
if necessary, the Cambridge system of lodging-
houses, and to make arrangements for the reception
of students who may be members of no college or
hall. If any college should think fit to go further,
and to offer prizes for bona fide competition among
men of limited means, no reasonable objection
could be made to it, but we must deprecate the in-
stitution of " Exhibitions for privileged students,"
whosequalification is to be poverty, and whose ability
—untested by examination, so far as appears—pro-
mises " an honourable and useful rather than a bril-
liant future career." At all events, if the experi-
ment is to be tried, let it be tried by private muni-
ficence, and let not funds urgently needed for the
development of University as distinct from College
education be diverted to so partial an object. The
opposite scheme, advocate 1 in the Report of Sub-
Committee VI., is that of " extension by affiliation."
It rests on the conviction that in other professions
besides the clerical there exists an increasing de-
mand for liberal education and academical degrees.
Phis demand, however, is checked by a great variety
of motives, among which the most powerful is the
objection, on grounds of expense and otherwise, to a
residence of three or four years at Oxford or Cam-
bridge between the ranges of 18 and 22. There is
good reason to believe that well or ill-founded ob

jections of this kind do operate to separate the great
industrial classes from the old Universities, while,
on the other hand, the University of London is ac-
quiring a well-earned influence by granting degrees
upon examination alone. The report before us re-
commends a compromise between the system pur-
sued by the University of London and the pre-
sent requirements of residence at Oxford. Its
authors would allow chartered Colleges in Eng-
land, Wales, or the Channel Islands to become
affiliated to the University of Oxford, subject to
curtain guarantees for their due administration
and the quality of their teaching. The students
on the books of such Colleges would according to this
plan, be permitted to keep terms there for two years
after their matriculation at Oxford, and it is explained
that terms might be kept by regular attendance at the
lectures of the college. In othetwords, a youth might
live with his parents at Liverpool or Birmingham fol-
lowing up his academical studies at the Collegiate In-
stitution or the Queen's College, passing his two first
Oxford examinations, and competing for University
prizes up to the end of his second year. This dispen-
sation from residence would then cease, and he
would be required to complete his course and qua-
lify himself for the B.A. degree within the Univer-
sity, under the same regulations as other undergra-
duates. He would thus be enabled to profit by the
superintendence and examination system of the
University, without being removed from the re-
straints and influences of home, and it is hoped
that he would afterwards gain benefit from a short
experience of University life. " The expense to
parents would be greatly reduced if their sons, for
the first two years, attended a college in their own
town; and the dangers of residence at Oxford would
be greatly reduced also, not only in point of dura-
tion, but because the students when they came here
would be of riper age, and would have given some
proof of regularity and industry during the two
years passed in study at the affiliated college." For
the details of this plan, which may obviously be
carried out without expense, and with little disturb-
ance of existing machinery, we must refer our
readers to the report itself. Exception may of
course be taken to it as an unworthy. concession to
the utilitarian spirit which refuses to postpone the
prospects of money-making for the sake of a Uni-
versity training. It may be said, and with some
truth, that, parents who affect to despise college
education, and send their sons into offices or count-
ing-houses at the earliest possible age, are not likely
to accept the terms offered, or will still grudge every
hour subtracted from apprenticeship to business. It
may be so, nor are we prepared to maintain that it
is desirable for the University to risk its dignity or
prestige by embarking in any Quixotic enterprise
for the enlightenment of the nation. It is easy,
however, to ascertain beforehand what degree of
support a measure of this nature would meet among
the classes most interested in it, and the success of a
like movement for the improvement of middle-class
schools is, at least, a favourable omen.
POST.—We have at length received the text of
Mr. Seward's instructions to Mr. Campbell, the
newly-accredited Minister to the Mexican Republic.
They are curious and even instructive, as serving to
illustrate the accuracy of the view taken by the Em-
peror of the French when he first placed the Arch-
duke Maximilian on the throne, namely, the necessity
of foreign intervention to good government. On that
point France and .the United States appear to be
agreed. Mr. Seward gives us to understand that the
United States Government are quite ready to go the
length of instituting what, if not a protectorate in its
technical signification, will at any rate be as effectual
as a protectorate. "On the other hand," says Mr.
Seward, " it may possibly happen that the President
of the Republic of Mexico may desire the good offices of
the United State or even some effective proceeding

on our part, to favour and adVanee the paelficatlea
of a country so long distracted by foreign, combined
with civil war, and thus gain time for the re-estab-
lishment of national authority upon principles con-
sistent with a republican and domestic system of
government." Scarcely any declaration could be
more clear and strong tiran this. What Mr. Seward
' anticipates that the Mexican President may require,
and what he gives us to understand that the United
States are equally ready to afford, is "An effective
proceeding. That this must be takon to mean an
appeal to armed force for the support of authority
requires. no deduction on our part ; for Mr. Seward,
himself goes on to speak of the disposition which
might be made of the naval and land forces of the
United States, which would be useful in a restora-
tion of law and order. It is of no practical use to
consider now, whether as intervention of some kind,
is admitted on both sides to be necessary, it Nom"
not have been as well for the Americans to have
left it to the French. That is a co.isideration that
is no longer a practical one. The French are about
to quit the country ; and, unless the Americans
were willing to intervene, the Mexicans worn",
henceforth be left to themselves. Mr. Seward
points out, in another part of his instructions
to Mr. Campbell,. that, it is impossible that other
claimants for power may arise in Mexico besides
President Juarez, if the latter is &pendent solely
on the fidelity of his own forces. It is of the
utmost importance that something like order ana•
authority shall be observed in the country, what-
ever the source of the authority may be. A Govern-
merit outwardly conforming to the national desires
of the Mexicans, and intrinsically fair and PA
may,, if supported by American arms for some
years, at length take rest in the heart of the
country. The want of some principle of moral
authority, of some guarantee for order and
stability, has been the curse of the Mexicans for
a whole generation. The Emperor of the French
i
endeavoured to diminish the evil ; and the Unite" -
States now virtually acknowledge that this was a
praiseworthy effort. The Mexican nation, however,
appear to be animated by views much more repub-
lican than monarchical • and there is, therefore,'
reason to hope that an 'American intervention in
behalf of a native Republic will be well received by
them. While, however, the United States Govern-
ment thus puts forward its readiness to support
President Juarez as ruler of Mexico, it emphall'
tally repudiates the story which has gone abroad:
that it is about to acquire any of the provinces 01
Mexico as the price of its support. " What the
Government of the United States," Mr. Seward
observes, " desire in regard to the future of Mexico
is not the conquest of Mexico or any part of it,
or the aggrandisement of the United States by
purchase of land or dominion." That would cer"
taiuly have been a, very impolitic course for the
Americarns to pursue. Indeed, they may
fairly anticipate that the whole country
may some day fall either to themselves
or to the emigrants of their own nation, who evince
an unmistakeable tendency to colonise the wb°l?
Atlantic coast down to what is called Centre;
America, where the latitude and the climate would
prevent them front migrating further south. Fe.'
the present, however, as has been seen, the Amer'.
cans restrict themselves to the assumption of a pro-
tectorate over the native Republican Government.
While they do this, we are glad to perceive that
Mr. Seward inculcates the duty upon all faithful
allies of the French nation to abstain " from ob-
structing or embarrassing the departure of the
French," and, as we stated a few days ago, thereni
was reason to believe that the mission of General
Sherman and Mr. Campbell to Vera Cruz had 114,
for its origin certain arrangements to be made with
a view of preventing the harassing of the retreat'
ing French legions by the Republican trooe
This appears to be the substance of the
instructions which Mr. Campbell has receive"'
He is to be considered accredited to rfe;
trident Juarez, and to him alone ; and w"a
he is charged to bring about is the restoration of
that chief's authority. Mr. Seward's despatef,
serves at the same time to explain and clear up t%
supplementary mission of General Sherman. "Is
appears that he is to have the control of such forces
as may be required for the maintenance of a firm
native Government in Mexico. Every arranAge;
ment, at the same time, appears to have been mad
not to interfere with the French forces. As this
change is now fixed, the sooner it takes place the
better. An interregnum, or a long re-arrangerue_a
of the domestic government, would be much to lie
regretted. It is therefore satisfactory to learn that
the French transports are on the verge of leaving
Europe for Mexico to bring b;,3k the troops ; andl
would almost seem, from Mr. Seward's despatch,
that as soon as the tricolour is hauled down the stars
and stripes may be expected to replace them.