The Sun.
London, England, 1850-06-03 00:00:00

UNIVERSITY REFORM.

TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
Grafcon-street, May 24.
My dear Duke,—l have read with much interest your
correspondence relating to the proposed University Com-
mission. This interest is owing partly to the coarse of
inquiry in which I was for so many years engaged in
bf,th Houses of Parliament, and as head of a Commission
of Inquiry, portly to the accidental circumstance 01 being
myself the head of a college which possesses very con-
siderable endowments.

I have studied with great attention the two protests of
Oxford and Cambridge, and I agree in general with the
reasoning of both those admirable papers. My opinion
is very decidedly adverse to any inquiry of the kind in
contemplation; and I felt so strongly the inexpediency
of such a proceeding, that I supported the exemption of
the universities and colleges from the jurisdiction of the
Commissioners appointed first by the 58 George III.,"e.
91, and afterwards by the 59 George 111., c. 81. When
I was a minister of the Crown in 1831 and the Commis-
sion was renewed, the exemption of institutions having
special visitors was removed, but the universities and
colleges were still exempted (1 and 2 William IV., c. 34).
There appear to me even stronger reasons against a
commission without power to compel attendance and
answers of witnesses and production of documents, than
against a commission armed by Parliament with such
powers. The commission acting by voluntary deposi-
tions can have no effisacy; it can only rely on such in-
formation as private interest, or personal prejudice—or,
peradventure, spleen—may induce persons to give. It
cannot avoid doing injustice to parties accused, because
those must remain unheard unless they choose to submit
themselves and undergo a fail examination; so that
parties will be placed in the predicament of either being
compelled to give evidence respecting themselves and
their concerns or being condemned unheard; and this,
under commissioners professing only to exercise a
voluntary jurisdiction. Moreover, parties so situated
may in many eases be unable to make t`.►e statements
anti disclosures necessary for their defence; because the
commission can give no protestian to them in telling
that which it cannot compel then to tell, and which,
nevertheless, it may be their duty not to tell. I need
hardly aid that it seems somewhat inconsistent with:the
dignity of the Crown to issue a commission to which no
one person in the world needs pay the least attention.
I cannot but fear the inevitable tendency of this com-
mission to obstruct all the good work of improvement
now going on sately because voluntarily, and steadily
because uninterruptedly, in both our Universities. The
subj,ct is a delicate one, and I am very far from saying
that much useful addition has not recently been made
to the course of studies pursued in both. Yet lam apt
to believe that great caution is also required in meddling
with a long established course of study. Thus, at Cam-
bridge, it seems of incalculable use to teach the severer
sciences, I mean the mathematics, in all their branches,
both for their own sake, and also as the best mode of
disciplining the mind to reasoning and to habits of close
attention, of all others the most difficult to acquire a►
well as the most valuable when possessed. Tnat this
most wholesome discipline has none of the tendency,
sometimes ascribed to it by ignorant and unreflecting
persons, of unfitting persons for the pursuits of active
life, is plain from daily experience of its prac-
lical results. I have seldom known our bench
without several judges who had taken the
highest mathematical honours ; at this time there
are three Puisne Judges and two chiefs who
were senior wranglers, beside three others
who took high mathematical honours. I earnestly hope
that nothing will be attempted that can so far interfere
with these pursuits, and disperse (as it were) the
studious youth's attention by carrying it over a variety
of less strict and severe, and for that reason less for-
bidding, studies; and I own that I have seen with some
alarm a tendency of late to import from foreign countries
more easy and popular branches of education, and other
methods than those for which Cambridge has long been
renowned.

With respect to London College I speak without any
authority from our Council, at the same time I should
as a lawyer positively object to any such inquiry being
instituted; and I should resist to the uttermost all inter-
ference with our course of study, or our discipline, or
our bye-laws, which we make, and validly make, by
virtue of our charter, our only lawful visitor being the
Court of King's Bench. I also considi r that our dis-
posal of our funds, which are chiefly by endowments, is
beyond the power of any Crown Commission, or of the
Crown itself; it can only be interfered with by an Act
of Parliament, and even such interference would be an
act of force, lawful indeed, but still force.
I need not remind your Grace that in all I have said
upon the proposed intermeddling with our Universities
and colleges I have had in view the peculiar circum-
stances of those illustrious bodies, and that to them my
observations are strictly confined. The foundations,
however, of the inferior schools and other bodies which
owe their existence to the bounty, sometimes of Sove-
reigns. sometimes of pious and benevolent individuals,
stand in another predicament. The entire difference of
these foundations in all material respects renders my re-
marks totally inapplicable to their case. Among many
other diversities, I need only mention the kind of per-
sons in whom the trusts have in so many cases come to
be vested. I may also note the undeniable fact that
without legislative aid, the most desirable, I may say
the most necessary steps cannot be taken fur enabling
trustees and governors and visitors to make a rational
application of the funds vested in them ; and
that in many instances interested motives bad a
bias which prevents duties of importance from
being discharged under cover of restraint and in-
capacities, while in others those duties are
neglected without even that pretence. If. indeed, it
should appear that enabling statutes are required for the
universities and colleges—to statutes only arming them
with powers which they do not now possess, or remov-
ing restraints under which they now labour, no one
could raise the least objection, provided always that no
needless infraction of the wills of founders and benefac-
tors is autborised.

I must before closing this letter advert to one circum-
stance, carefully to be Itept in view, more especially in
dealing with the case of such institution i as the one I
have the honour of presiding over. Much, in the case
of these bodies, of necessity, depends on voluntary as-
sistance of benevolent public spirited individuals. We
have received from one 25,0001., from another a larger
sum. Nay, but yesterday, when a meeting was holehm
to promote a subcription in aid of our hospital(rendered
needful by the prevalence of the disease which
afflicted London last autumn) one most bene-
volent and most generous person, a r, v.
clergyman of our Established Church, gave us a
munificent donation of one thousand pounds. All those
parties have a full confidence in the persons who manage
our concerns; I have not the least right to suppose that
this confidence would be extended to persons no longer
independent, but subject to foreign meddling and control.
I am myself individually a trustee for considerable sums,
amounting, I beliele, to above 5,0004, seat by a gene-