The Sun.
London, England, 1827-09-06 00:00:00

BY THE COUNCIL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
LONDON, EXPLANATORY OF THE NATURE
AND OBJECT OF THE INSTITUTION.

1. OF THE NECESSITY WHICH EXISTED FOR THE FOUNDA-

TION OF ANOTHER UNIVERSITY IN ENGLAND.
It has long been a subject of regret, that a
very large proportion of the youth of England,
whose future professional occupations are such
as ti render an University education most desir-
able, have, owing to various causes, been deprived
of that most important benefit. Oxford is, by
its statutes, accessible to those only who belong
to the Established Church ; and although Cam-
bridge has so far relaxed the strictness of its rules
that Dissenters, while deprived of the privilege
of obtaining Degrees, may still receive their edu-
cation there, that University is, practically,
scarcely less exclusive than Oxford on the score
of religion. Another, and a very serious cause
of exclusion, is the very great expence incurred
at those Universities; an evil, it is true, not

arising from University fees or the payments for
instruction—for these are extremely moderate—
but partly from College charges, and still more
from expensive habits of living among the under-
graduates, which have been increasing year after
year, which the authorities in both places have
hitherto been unable to check, and which are in
some respects the unavoidable consequence of
the youth living separate from their parents. Al-
though the regulations of the Universities do not
lead to or warrant such an expellee, the fashion
of the place has fixed the scale of living ; and
while many parents are thus put to very great in-
convenience, others find it impossible to give
their sons the advantage of an University educa-
tion. But were the obstacles on the score of
religion and of expence entirely removed, it
would be impossible for the existing establish-
ments to receive all the applications for admis-
sion ; for even now, both Universities are over-
crowded ; and in the case of the Colleges of

highest reputation at Oxford, application— must
be made some years before a young an is ready
to enter, in order to secure his admission.

When it is wonsidered, therefore, how great
must be the number and the opulence of those
who do not belong to the Established Church;
and how large a portion of the people of Eng-
land consists of persons in easy yet moderate cir-
cumstances, there cannot be a doubt that the
best interests of the country urgently demand the
establishment of an institution, where an en-

lightened education may be obtained at a reason•
able charge, and where persons of every reli.
gious persuasion may be freely admitted.

It is also to be remembered, that a profes-
sional course of study in law or medicine does
not avowedly rank among the leading objects of
education at Oxford and Cambridge ; and in-
dependently of that circumstance, there are local
advantages in the metropolis, for connecting the
theoretical with the practical parts of these
branches of knowledge, which cannot be equally
enjoyed in any provincial situation. The con-
sequence of this is, that only very limited pro-
portion of the members of those learned profes-
' sions in England, especially of the medical, re-
ceive even their general education at an Uni-
versity.

It has been stated that about 100 hundred
only of all. the Physicians now practising in Eng-
land have been educated at Oxford and Cam-
bridge, while there are more than 300 licentiates
of the Colleges of Physicians, besides as many
hundreds of country practitioners, who have
never been candidates for the privilege of the li-
centiate. There are now 6,000 members of the
College of Surgeons, not six of whom, it has
been stated, have graduated at our Universities.
In the higher branch of the law, a very con-
siderable proportion have graduated at Oxfbrd
and Cambridge ; but among those who belong
to that most important branch of the profession,
the attornies, of whom there are not less than
8,000 in England, it is believed that scarcely
one in a thousand has had the benefit of an uni-
versity education. There is another description
of persons to whom it is surely desirable to give
all the advantages of a liberal education—the
gentlemen who hold places in the offices of Go-
vernment, but who are also unable to avail them-
selves of the opportunities which Oxford and
Cambridge afford for that purpose, because they
usually enter such offices at or below the age of
the youngest under-graduates of those Uni-
versities.
If the great changes which have taken place in
England since the foundation of the Universities
of Oxford and Cambridge, with respect to po-
pulation, wealth, and, above all, the general dif-
fusion of education, have rendered the establish-
ment of another University a matter of urgent
necessity, London appears to be the situation
where it can be most advantageously placed. It
is, indeed, a matter of surprise, that a city which
hsshtaiost
existed so long without such an in-
stitution. been so populous and renowned,
there are in London not less than five thousand
ftloion. According to the most accurate data,
should have
young men; from the age of sixteen to twenty-
ono, the children of persons who can easily de-
fray the expence of an education conducted as
it is proposed to be in this University. The
capital is the resort of the most celebrated per-
sons of every description ; and among others, of.
those most eminent in the cultivation of the arts,
the sciences, and letters, Thus the greatest
genius and skill become available to the purposes
of education in all the branches of knowledge.
The capital is the most convenient situation for
all those young men who would he sent from the
provinces for education, on account of the greater
probability of their finding connexions interested
in their welfare, and greater facilitities for adopt-
ing a style of living suited to their circum-
stances. An University so established is also
very likely to form a great attraction to young
men in the Colonies, and in those foreign coun-
tries where science and learning are still under
trammels from political causes. At the desire
of some persons high in authority in one of the
liberated Governments of South America, in-
quiry has been made whether an arrangement
could be entered into for the reception of about
a hundred young men at the Universityof Lon-
don fro:n that country ; and that such an arrange-
ment is practicable there can be no doubt. Were
those who are to be the future legislators, gover-
nors, leading men in the various classes of
society of those countries, educated under the
liberal and enlightened system of England, and