The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-28 00:00:00

%Man Ailit

LONDON, FRIDAY. NOVEMBER.2B, 1845.

The Morning Herald of yesterday has indulged in
much flippant criticism on a recent speech of Mr.
CHRISTIE'S about Oxford and Cambridge. It has had,
however, the candour to extract what Mr. CHRISTIE
said, and the public are thus able to judge between his
statement of facts and the reply. The universities will
have no reason to thank their champion for publishing
Mr. CHRISTIE'S statement any more than for the
defence.

At a meeting for the opening of some new British
and Foreign Schools in the Kent-road, at which Mr.
HAWES (in the absence of Lord JOHN RUSSELL) pre-
sided, and where Mr. WYSE, Mr. CHRISTIE, and other
friends of liberal education attended, Mr. CHRISTIE took
occasion to refer to the Universities of Oxford and Cam-
bridge, which, our readers are aware, he has more than
once brought before Parliament. We will follow the
example of the Herald, and extract his remarks, think •
ing it important that the facts which he stated should be
circulated :

" There were many subjects less connected with each other
than the condition of schools such as that which they had
met to open, and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
—(Hear, hear.) The great difficillty in all efforts for im-
Movement of education was the want of good schoolmasters.
uch had been done in this respect of late years by the
excellent training schools—those el the British and Foreign
School Society and the Battersea Training School, in praise
of which too much could not be said. But Oxford and
Cambridge might do a great deal to elevate the school-
master, and they not only did nothing, but worse than
nothing. I-Ic (Mr. Christie) wanted to know what was
done in all the colleges with the improved rents of estates
left fur scholarships and exhibitions. In many colleges, poor
scholars, struggling with great difficulty against the ex-
pen.ws of college life, in order to obtain the advantage of a
degree, received only the small stipends fixed some centuries
ago, when money went a very great deal further than now,
while the greatly increased rents of the estates were divided
among idle and luxurious fellows. The just improvelinnt of
the value of these scholarships would give the means of
encouraging many young men who might afterwards de-
vote themselves to the honourable and responsible calling of
a schoolmaster.—(Hear, hear.) No one would say that even
the teacher of a village school would not be a better school-
master for having received a superior education ; and
the humblest schoolmaster and the humblest school would
benefit. by such an elevation. If the universities did their
duty they might do much for the advantage of the school-
master's profession.—(Hear, hear.) The universities and the
church, which were so closely connected, had managed to
monopolise, often indeed in violation of founders' statutes,
the masterships of grammar-schools, many of which
were very richly endowed. In many instances masters
of grammar-schools were required to be graduates and
clergymen of the Church of England, when the founder
had made no such restriction, or even when he had
expressly declared that the schoolmaster should not be a
clergyman.—(llear, hear.) This state of things had contri-
buted to lower the schoolmaster's profession. The school-
master derived his social importance from being a clergy-
man—and clergymen were not the best schoolmasters.—
(Hear, hear, and laughter.) They were apt to regard their
school duties as subordinate to their clerical profession ;
and they hoped to remain schoolmasters only until they got
some good Church preferment —(Hear, hear, and a laugh.)
Thus the schools suffered, and the schoolmasterss pro-
fession *as lowered. There were many endowed schools of
which colleges in the universities were trustees. These, by
the influence of the colleges, had been excepted from pre-
vious commissions of inquiry. Many of them he be-
lieved had gone to decay, and the endowments merged in
the college revenues. One of his objects was to diminish
college expenses, and open wide the doors of the universities
to poor nien's sons—to the sons of tradesmen—(Hear, hear)—
and to those designed for schoolmasters; for why should
not the Tiiversities educate the schoolmasters as well as
statesmen? And he wished above all, in furtherance of the
great principles of relieioue liberty, which owed much to
the British and Foreign sSocietv to open wide the doors of
those universities to the members of all religious creeds.—
(Cheers. )
If colleges have fulfilled their duties as trustees,
why should they fear inquiry? A proposal to inquire
does not necessarily imply censure. Some schools are
well-managed, some are ill-
managed. Inquiry causes
improvement where there has been neglect or miscon
duct, but where there has not, it leads to honourable
mention, and gives the public the benefit of a good ex-
ample. Why, then, should the schools, of which
colleges in the universities are the trustees, have been
exempted from the inquiries of the Charity Commis-
sioners? - - -

As to the masterships of endowed sch3ols, Mr.
CHRISTIE might have added that a great injustice is
done to the Dissenters, in restricting them to gra-
duates of the universities and clergymen. The
Morning Herald cries " cock-a hoop," and says
every schoolmaster of eminence has been educated
at one or other of the universities. Mr. CHRISTIE does
not say otherwise ; but he complains that laymen and
Dissenters are excluded from situations of emolument to
which they are as much entitled as Oxford or Cam-
bridge clergymen ; and for which we agree with him iu
thinking that ca,teris paribus laymen are better fitted
than elergymen. There is no hope of improving the
status of the schoolmaster, unless the schoolmaster is
allowed to rest his claims to social position and respect
on the dignity of his own functions, and relieved of the
embarrassing aid of the Church. The connexion between
the universities and the Church has injured both. The
Church has miaowed the aims of our national universities
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