The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-12 00:00:00

UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE,'

THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.i
The annual meeting of the University of London
for the presentation of degrees took place, yester7
day, at Burlington E.,use,
The chair was taken at two o'clock by Earl Gran-
ville, the Chan-6eHof of the University. The noble
earl was supported upon the occasion by the follow-
ing members
_of the senate :—Sir J. G. Lefevre, the
vice-chancellor.; Lord'Overstone, Lord Wodehouse,
Sir J. Grahath,, Sir Edward Ryan, and Mr. Grote ;
and there were, at the same time, present among
the general company, Lord Wensleydale, Colonel
M Sykes, r. Briscoe, Mr. Rowland Hill, and a con-
siderable number of professors and gentlemen dis-
tinguished in science: . -
Dr. CARPENTER, the Registrar of, the University,"
opened the business of the day, by reading a report
which contained a statement of the number of can- :
didates who had been admitted- as graduates and
under-graduates in the course o f the JaSt academical
year. •

The CHANCELLOR (Earl Granville) then rose,
and proceeded to address the meeting. He was
surrounded by many Men who were much better
acquainted than he was himself with both the past
and the present history of that university, and
who held views far more clear than his' own with
respect to the duties of such an institution. That
institution had been founded in the year 1833, in
opposition to the opinion of the Government of the
day, in consequence of an address from the House
of Commons to the Crown, praying that a univer-
sity might be established in this country in which
persons who were prevented by their religious
opinions from participating in all the advantages
of the sister establishments of Oxford and of Cam-
bridge might receive educational' degrees.. The
University of London was accordingly instituted,
with a promise from the Crown that it should in all
respects be treated in the same manner as our two
ancient seats of learning. (Hear, hear.) The
sphere of their labours became gradually extended,
and many of their graduates had by their subse-
quent careers reflected the highest honour on the
new institution. As regarded mathematics it was
hardly necessary for him to remind the meeting of
the names of Routh, Slesser, of Savage, and of
Brown, and of the places they had obtained either
as senior wranglers, or as second wranglers at Cam-
bridge. (Hear, hear.) In the medical profession
their success had been if possible still more marked.
He believed it was now generally acknowledged
that the University of London was the best school
of medicine in this country, and that it was equal,
if not superior, to any other school in the world.
(Hear, hear.) Their medical students enjoyed the
important advantage of a connection with the great
hospitals of this city, and that advantage, he was
happy to be able to add, would soon be increased
by the adoption of an arrangement under which the
practical portion of their medical examinations
would henceforward be conducted in those hospitali.
The principal topics of his address last year had
reference, as far as he remembered, to the changes
that had been made among them by the charter
which they had a short time previously received.
Two of those changes were of special importance.
The first was that which threw open their exami-
nations to all persons without requiring that they
should have been educated in the affiliated
colleges. He was well aware that that was
a step which had not at the time been univer-
sally approved of, and which did not perhaps
even yet meet with unanimous approval ; and in
reference to such a subject there was of course much
to be said upon both sides. It had been stated that
the new arrangement would hold out an encourage.
ment to what was known as " cramming ;" and in
order to meet that objection the senate had multi-
plied the examinations, while they had endeavoured
to prevent any excessive expense arising from that
practice, by providing for the holding of local
examinations. The other great change introduced
by their charter was one to which no objection
whatever was likely to' be made by any person
whom he had the honour of addressing. It was the
incorporation of their institution, and giving it the
same status as the two other universities of the
country by the establishment of- a convocation.
(Hear, hear.) That was a measure which he had
himself heartily hailed, and from which he antici-
pated great advantages. It was quite true that the
first meeting of the convocation had been a some-
what stormy one—(hear, hear, and a laugh)—and
it was also true that one of the earliest results of
the action, not of convocation itself, but of some of
its members, was to produce that very unpleasant
event to a senate, a lawsuit. (Hear, hear.) But
of the first of those circumstances at all events he
saw no reason to complain. If convocation had
held its first meeting in perfect calmness and
solemnity, he should have been afraid either that
that state of universal quietude would be followed
by some really dangerous storm, or else that their
proceedings would always be marked with an
apathy and an indifference which he should regard
as one of the most fatal of all conceivable evils. He
believed that the agitation which had taken place
was only the fermentation of a generous liquor,
which would one day grow into sound, full-
flavoured wine. (Hear, hear.) With regard to
the more serious difference which had arisen amono-
them, he believed it had already dwindled into
something very like an amicable lawsuit; and he
was glad to know that it would, at all events, lead
to this valuable result, that it would induce both
the senate and the convocation to be cautious
not to overstep the limits of strict legality. He
had no doubt himself as to the result of that
lawsuit, and he had no excuse to make
with 'respect to the appointment in which
it had originated. He believed that Dr.
Storrar had already shown himself a most useful
member of their medical council—(hear, hear)—and
that that gentleman, acting in conjunction with Sir
I. Clark, the Crown nominee, who happened to be
also a member of the senate, would afford the most
valuable aid in improving the medical branch of
their institution. The senate, in taking it upon
themselves to make that appointment, had merely
discharged a duty which they believed legally
devolved upon them. Since their meeting of last
year they had experienced the great loss of the life
and services of Mr. Henry Warburton, one of the
early founders, and one of the most devoted sup-
porters of the university. (Cheers.) He did not
wish to allude, in the language of eulogy, to the
men 1).l whom the losses they had sustained had
bsen filled up, as many of them were present. But
he could not abstain from referring to one appoint-
ment, which, as he believed, did great honour to a
Secretary of State professing different political
opinions from those which he held—he meant Mr.
Walpole, who had placed in their senate Lord
Wodehouse, a nobleman who had formerly been
dis'inguished at one of the sister universities, and
who had since won high honour in the fields of
diplomacy and statesmanship; and he had further
to offer his best acknowledgments to the same right
hon. gentleman for having secured to them the
zealous and valuable services of Professor Hosking.
(Hear, hear.) He also felt most anxious to state
that the two gentlemen who had been selected from
convocation had given their collea7ues the most
useful information with respect to the feelings of the
graduates of the university, and upon every possible
occasion had shown at once the greatest firmness,
and the utmost spirit of conciliation in asserting
their opinions. One of the principal subjects which
had during the past year occupied the attention of
the senate was the question of conferring degrees.
That institution did not possess the vast resources
of the older universities, but it enjoyed over them
this advantage, that it was less fettered by ancient
forms and by the obligations inherited from past
ages. The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge
had been established about the period of the
revival of learning in Europe, and their system
of education had been universally recognised at the
time as the only system that could possibly be
adopted. The senate of the University of London,
acting on the principle laid down by the distin-
guished men by whom their institution had been
founded, had resolved to make utility the end of all
their operations ; and in carrying out that view
they did not think it right that they should at-
tempt to train the youth of this country upon any
precise and unalterable system. He remembered
having heard Baron Marochetti, the eminent
sculptor, say that in this country was to be found
every type of physical beauty ; and he (Earl Gran-
ville) believed it was equally undeniable that, while
we were no doubt marked by certain strong national
characteristics, every type of mind existed in this
kingdom in a greater or less proportion. But the
best mode of directing the development of that
variety of national endowments was to make the
system of education as comprehensive as possible.
That was the principle by which the senate of the
University of London proposed to regulate their
course of proceeding. They gave what they be-
lieved to be a due place to mental and moral philo-
sophy ; and they had at the same time resolved to
make the knowledge of the English language a
subject of special examination, and to encourage
as much as possible the study of that tongue in
which Shakspere and Bacon, and Milton and
Fox. wrote and spoke,

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