THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY COUNCIL ELECTION. TEE new system of government
in the University of Cambridge was inaugurated on the 7th instant, by the first election of mem- bers of the Council which, according to the provisions of the act of last session, is henceforth to fulfil the combined functions of the Heads of Colleges and the Caput-Senatus, in the nomination to University offices and the introduction of legislative proposals to the Senate. The public is sufficiently interested in the manage- ment of the Universities to justify us in pointing out the tenden- cies of the resident members of the Cambridge Senate, as indi- cated by the selection of representatives then made, and the prospect thereby afforded of the future course of educational pro- gress in that seat of learning and science. There are four points of view from which the new Council will naturally be regarded, and ought to be regarded, as those by which the votes of electors were mainly determined. The po- litical differences of Conservative and Liberal had considerable influence ; the ecclesiastical and theological differences of High, Low, and Broad Church, were very noticeable to observers on the spot, though in the total result a stranger might not count them for much ; capacity for University business entered much more into the estimate of the electors than is usual in the parallel case of electing Members of Parliament ; and the desire of se- lecting persons who were known to the world, and would represent the University worthily before the nation, was a con- spicuous and avowed motive with many. The reason why ordi- nary political differences entered so largely into the consideration of the voters is, that the new Council will have to cooperate with or to oppose the Commissioners appointed by Parliament, in the discussion of changes in parts of the University system, on which men's minds are supposed to be divided very much in proportion to their ordinary political views. A preference for the Profes- sorial method of instruction, a desire to give the University some- thing of its old predominance over the Colleges, a wish to extend the circle of University studies, and especially the conviction of the-necessity of increasing the lay element in the University,—all these tendencies are supposed, rightly or wrongly, to adhere to the Liberal party in politics; and those who object to them sup- pose, rightly or wrongly, that they will best serve the end they have in view by voting for decided Conservatives on the Council. The other elements which we have mentioned as deciding mainly the votes of the electors need no comment : the last two are per- fectly natural to any body electing. representatives ; and when it is remembered that the large majority of resident members of the Cambridge Senate consists of clergymen, the second requires no explanation or apology. Beyond, and modifying these four classes of motives, we must allow a very appreciable scope to the influence of simple personal popularity, if indeed the good man- ners, the good temper, and the social tact on which popularity depends in a society where everybody knows everybody, are not rather to be accounted as a considerable element in the capacity for conducting University business.
These being the motives which might have been expected to in- fluence, and which did actually influence the electors, the result is one at which no person who knows the University of Cambridge can upon the whole be disappointed. The Council is decidedly Conservative, decidedly clerical without any remarkable pre- ponderance of this or that shade of theological or ecclesiastical opinion, efficient for the business which will come before it, and containing some names which are eminent for science and learning. It is by the last point that persons who do not know Cambridge
will of course judge ; and such persons will probably be surprised at finding only three names on the Council which he will recog- nize as those of celebrated men. Unfortunately, it is only under the exceptional circumstances that a man eminent for any parti- cular branch of learning or science can obtain a Professorship or Mastership of a College, or that he does not wish to marry and can obtain a Lay-Fellowship, that he is likely to remain at Cam- bridge as his settled home. The consequence is, that at any parti- cular time there in not any great choice of eminent men among the residents. Even among the Professors, some of the most eminent are not resident at Cambridge, finding there neither sufficient em- ployment nor sufficient income. Two of the most distinguished have recently given up residing, to take posts of active labour and enlarged influence in London. This accounts for the fact that of sixteen members of the Council only three can be said -to have a national and still less an European reputation. On the other hand, as a set-off against this, no one who does know Carobri would hesitate for a moment in pronouncing the Council highly respectable in point of talent and knowledge, however he might regret that particular persons are omitted, who would have given it additional efficiency and lustre.
The fact most to be regretted in the composition of the Council, by persons who think with us upon University -matters, is the very decided preponderance of the clerical element. There are only two laymen among the whole sixteen elected ; and of the four Professors there are not only two belonging to the faculty of Di- vinity, but these two, men of comparatively little note, were elected for four years, while Professor Sedgwiek, one of the most eminent and popular men in the University, and Professor Grote, a man distinguished for the largeness and accuracy of his learn- ing, were only elected for two years. No fact connected with the election tells so strongly for the clerical feeling which modified the result as this preference given to the two Divinity Professors. We wish rather than hope that the fears of vigorous secularizing operations on the part of the Commissioners—to which we have a right to attribute this clerical partisanship, because the party which styles itself Conservative at Cambridge expressly alleged these fears as a strong ground for the choice of the candidates they recommended in a published circular—may be realized. It cannot, however, in fairness be denied, that the composition of the Council really represents the opinions of the resident members of the Senate ; and that may be taken to be decidedly against any measures which -tend to loosen the connexion between the Church and the University, always subject to the qualification that there is a respectable minority of the contrary opinion.
As to purely educational progress in the University, improve- ment in the quality and quantity of instruction given, and espe- cially as to a raising of the standard of the ordinary degree, our- knowledge of the many difficulties inherent in the subject, and of the many and serious doubts entertained by honest, earnest, and capable men, whether such improvement and elevation are possible, would make us slow to encourage any enthusiastic expectations, and slow to lay the responsibility of their failure upon the compo- sition of the new Council. The only direct influence of the Council in this matter is, that it will henceforth render available the average good sense and talent of the University in adapting the machinery to present needs ; reforms that the majority of the University would sanction will not heneeforward be obstructed by an oligarchy. But democracies are not in all cases more eager for real improvements than oligarchies, and a clerical demos has a peculiar tendency to -oppose whatever threatens its own profes- sional supremacy. On the whole, we have no doubt of the new Cambridge Council doing its ordinary work well, but, we cannot regard it as an instrument of an educational millennium.
e
Previous page
