The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-07

Unenn. ODSerVe now CLOSELY tne leaders among
them confne themselves to that main issue;
with what modest dignity they appear in pub
lie; how they ignore personal notoriety how
weighty are their arguments; how temperate,
gracious, and Just their words. 1t is only
Englishwomen who are performing unseemly
can-cans before the astounded public: the
Tarantula has never reached these shores.
A SUGGESTION TO OUR COLLEGES.
From che N. Y. SUM-
At the commencement of Columbia College
in this city last week, the degree of Engineer
of Mines was conferred upon eight graduates
of the School of Mines connected with that
institution. The standard of scholarship at
this school is not surpassed, and probably not
equalled, by that at any other professional
school in the country; hence the diploma,
being difficult to obtain, is proportionately
valued, and is in reality worth something as
an evidence of professional attainment. The
successful establishment of this, the first in
stitution of its kind in the United States, and
the maintenance of SO high character of
scholarship, are interesting facts in them
selves, and furnish suggestive commentaries
on the administration of many of our colleges
and professional schools.
The School of Mines, by the employment
of the best professors and instructors, by
procuring the best aids of instruction in its
museum and cabinets, and by the expendi-
ture of no small sums of money for these and
other purposes, has placed itself at the head
of the mining schools in the country The
number of students in attendance during the
past year has been about eighty The course
of study and the degree of excellence de-
manded in it are such that only good engi-
neers can graduate; in fact, the difficulties of
graduation are such that large proportion of
those who enter the school never complete
the course. There can scarcely be better
evidence than this of the thoroughness and
extent of the knowledge required of the stu
dents who obtain the diploma.
Now there are hundreds of small colleges
throughout the country which in wealth,
popularity, attendance, and extent of infiu-
ence can never equal Harvard Yale, and per-
haps the half dozen other institutions which
are destined to grow up into great universi-
ties and centres of literature and learning.
These smaller colleges, by adhering to a
standard of scholarship somewhat inferior to
that of their greater sisters, and lacking for
the most part that academic influence which
makes itself so much felt at Cambridge and
New Haven, creep along in their existence
without doing half the good within their
power. Let them raise the standard of re-
quired scholastic attainment until it shall be
proportionately as high as that at the School
of Mines, or even higher. The number of
students may tnuS De IOf Time diminished,
but not permanently; and endowed institu-
tions will not suffer much from such cause.
What is lost in attendance will be made up
in scholarship and the reputation which the
college will gain for it. At the great English
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the
smaller colleges sustain themselves against
their greater rivals by such method as we
have suggested; and it is surprising how
many of the university henors are annually
carried off by the men of the smaller colleges
We are fully convinced that the colleges
throughout the land could take no other step
SO advantageous to the cause of higher educa-
ton as for each and every one of them to
adopt standard of scholarship as high, a
course of study as difficult and requirements
for admission as extensive as those at Har-
ward or Yale. The diplomas which they
annually bestow would then be as honorable
to the recipients as were those bestowed by
the School of Mines last week.
UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE IN FRANCE.
From the NJ Y. Times.
writer in the Opinion Nati0tGle gives an
interesting account of an election of Coun-
cillor General at which he had assisted, in
one of the rural cantons of France. When
it is remembered that two-thirds of the en-
tire number of French voters belong to the
peasantry, and that the future history of the
Second Empire, and through it of Europe
generally, must depend upon the mode in
which thew eYerciSa tha DrerOpativaS of citi-