The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-10-20
THE NOVEMBER MAGAZINES.
..THE GAIANY.nt

''THB GALAXY."'
From an excellent article by Justin McCar-
thy on the English universities we quote as
follows
The English University system, as the last !
few generations have known it, is, or was, |
something peculiar to England. No other |
country know of ever had anything like it; |
/ may safely venture to say that no country
will ever again have anything like it. 1t bears
no resemblance, except in the mere fact of |
its being an educational system, to the Uni
versity scheme as it exists in France, in Ger
many OF in America; nay, it is utterly unlike
the University system of Scotland. 1t affected,
to an almost inconceivable degree, the social
and even the political life of England 1t
moulded the thoughts, the habits, the man
ners. the very external appearance of whole
masses of Englishmen.
Perhaps it is not too much to say that be-
tween the University man and the man who
had never been to one of the universities
there has existed q difference which never
could be effaeed in lifetime, and which any
observer of ordinary penetration could detect
almost at glance. The results of the Uni
versity system penetrated aud permeated
English literature. The University man was
distinct figure, belonged to a distinct genus
which could not be mistaken. One University
man might he very unlike another, to be
sure: but still both were distinctly University
men, by virtue of the common possession of
attributes distinguishing both from other
classes of men, Just as O black horse and
white horse, however unlike each other, are
both Enthusiastically horses, and can never be
confounded with dogs. The difference be-
tween a French military officer and peJtIR;
between student of Heidelberg and Philis-
ter; between a sailor and a marine; between a
Turk and a Greek an English Episcopal cer-
gyman and an Irish Catholic priest, is not
obi hat
which distinguishes the English University
men from all other Englishmen.
The tendency of the system was emphati-
<cally and even extravagantly aristocratic. Its
peculiarly was that it gave its training, and
its advantages and disadvantages, to privi-
legged GLASS. Until within few years. all
.sect.<f the one established by law were
- nexcluded from its benefits. I'm
later period all classes below
ed iSe upper middle were
its doors. Oxford
ito all ranks of Eng
Gdon Tavern, to cite
Illustration, is open to every
MNprovided he happens to have money
ough to pay a pretty heavy score. All
Ii 7Lnglishmen of what is called social position,
and who followed the teachings of the State
M Church were University men. All who de-
n sired to be thought persons of social posi-
lion, or whose parents had such an ambi-
il tion for them, got their education at one
or other of the great universities. When the
system had reached its height, say any time
before the last twenty and within the last fifty
wears, it might be said with almost literal
truth that no Dissenter, no Roman Catholic,
and no man of the poorer classes, had any
thing to do with either of the two great uni
versities which were supposed to be national.
AS matter of course, such institutions were
aristocratic and conservative in every sense.
C.. Sou. 4rN,>, enid hn inf nf thn no
ton they generally Jagged far behind it, and
were often found in direct opposition to it.
They stood like barriers and dams to keep
=. back the influx of new ideas. The students
at the great schools of Paris, or any of the
German universities, are almost invariably
sympathetic, even to extravaganza, with
the principles of popular liberty. An Oxford
undergraduate is almost certain to be bigo-
ted and unreasoning devotee of political des-
potism 1t would hardly be too much to say
that the study of modern history was long
ignored by the universities indeed the philo-
sophical study of any history at either uni
versity has, until quite lately, found no en-
couragement Only the other day, SO to
speak, was political economy recognized as a
science worthy to occupy the attention of the
two learned academies. Even the classical
scholarship, the one special pride and boast
y of the system, was hardly ever robust and
profound. The most devoted son of the
Alma Mater would hardly say that himself
aud his fellows had done anything to promote
the study and the knowledge of Greek and
Roman history and literature fit to compare
for moment with what German erudtion
and labor had done and were doing.
The English universities represent society,
not the people. Indeed, they are social
rather than educational institutions. There
is certainly nothing in the way of
actual instruction to be got in either
of the two great universities which
could not he had just as well outside theil
walls A youth can learn more and better ir
Scotch or German university than he coult
by private instruction; but l do not suppose
that anybody will assert that this holds goot
of Oxford and Cambridge. Consid ering how
deeply and widely the whole tone of Englisl
society is affected by these institutions, it i
surprising how little the intellectual greatnes
of England at the present moment owes t.
them. Neither Oxford nor Cambridge hat
ANYTHING to do with the training of StuaI
Mill, of George Grote, of Robert Browning
of Charles Dickens, of John Bright, of Dis
raeli, of Thomas Carlyle Very few, indeed
of the great scientific men of the presen
generation were Alumni of Oxford OF Can
bridge. The Saturday Rec}eio not long sine
commented on the fact that even in theolog
the most richly endowed of all the specie
faculties at both universities, and which
indeed. would seem to be the one great raise
detre of the Oxford system, at least-there
very little to show as the result of Universit
training. Law and medicine have long sine
forsalen both universities, and never, in a
LII. H. ,r.1 al, 1ho,