The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-08-22
OF OXFORD
WHAT THIS OLD sEAT Of LEARN
INC IS LIKE.

ted states. tho British Colonies and
Germany Makes This Article Timely
Cecil Rhodes bold Dlan-proyided
or in his will. as recently chronicled
ITO send each year 10 oxford Univer-
lily number of select students from
ne United States, the British colon
ef and Germany. with a scholarship
provision of $500 each for expenses
his larreaching benevolcuce has nat
ually called forth much discussion;
and The occasion is ripe for asking
what one of these scholarships az illus
trious Oxford Is TO mean.
First then, the details as to how
the candidates are to be chosen, what
s TO be required Of them, etc.-all
this is still undetermined. The mat
ter will be worked out with delibera-
ton by boards Of administrators yet
10 be chosen. Rhodes never concerned
himself with ways; all ne did was to
supply the means of doing things
His scholarship endowment plan in
wolves many difficulties in practice and
i will take time to assimilate
scheme Of procedure.
The University Of Oxford differs
from any educational institution in
this country. It is not a single. com
pact university, like Harvard or Yale,
but a collection of independent col
leges under a form of confederacy
somewhat analogous to that by which
the various states of the Union are
bound. It is a sort of pluribus anum.
But in Oxford the power and influence
of the colleges predominant over the
university.
Cambridge University, in England,
is the only other school that is like
Oxford. The other English universe
ties and the German and French uni
versities are more like ours, though
there are of course radical differences
between such institutions in the differ
emit countries.
1t would take years of residence at
the university to understand the pecu-
liar relations which exist at oxford.
The institution is the growth of six
or eight centuries of time, and its his
tory is as complicated as that of
nation. Yet a little inquiry will show
us its distinctive characteristics-lit-
tie understood as they generally are
by the average American.
Oxford University was not turned
out virtually complete at one opera
ton like Stanford From the earliest
times the place was a seat of learning.
There was a nunnery there as early
as the eighth century, and Pope Mar
tin II in 802 spoke of the town as an
educational center. Vacarius lectured
there in Latin, on law, in 1149. There
were by that time a number of mon
asteries and other religious houses
there, to some of which schools were
attached, where students were bred
up for the church.
In course of time the teachers of
the various schools came to meet to-
gether in a sort of institute" to dis
cuss methods and adopt general rules.
From this association, distinct from
and of higher authority than any par
ticular school, the University of Ok
ford sprang. The word university"
(universitas) was first applied in a
statute of King John, in 1901.
Walter de Merton, in 1854 first gave
the institution the character it was
destined to develop. He founded Mer-
ton college; and from time to time
during 400 years other similar colleges
were founded until there were 81 in
all. These exist today, and beside
them there are some collateral schools
also, sustaining special relations to
the university.
The original purpose in founding the
separate colleges was to give The
friends and townspeople of the found
er a place to live and study together
The various colleges are by no means
uniform. Each has its own character
1t own customs and rules, its own sup
porters.
Originally the students lived where
they pleased in the town of Oxford
but under the college system the!
were required to take up their resi-
dence in the college buildings callec
inns, hotels or halls-s somewhat a
our college fraternities have their owl
quarters where they lived in common
the meals and the rooms beini
called commons"
Out of the college funds certain
sums were laid aside to pay for tn
support of a limited number of poor
er undergraduate students, and thes
provisions were called scholarships