Wednesday last was the public day on which the University
of London confers its Degrees, and owing to the absence of the -Chancellor, Earl Granville, in consequence of the death of his infant daughter, the Vice-Chancellor, Sir John Lubbock, distri- buted the honours and certificates, and delivered the address,—an unusually good one, polished, thoughtful, and dignified. After 'congratulating the University on the issue of the long struggle as to women's degrees, in the grant of a new Charter which enables -the University to confer all its diplomas and distinctions equally on men and women, Sir John Lubbock dwelt with much force on the inadequacy of the present education, for boys no less than girls, and 'pointed out how much there is—in England—of over-playas well as 'of over-work. He insisted on the necessity of providing alternative disciplines for minds fitted for different spheres of study, and showed how the University is gradually adopting this principle, by 'introducing options between several distinct studies in its exami- nations for the higher degrees. He pointed out with great brevity and great distinctness how all the various sciences are so inter- twined that it is almost impossible to determine which of them lave the closest affinities with each other,—whether, for instance, chemistry is more closely connected with physics or with astronomy, since on the one hand chemistry is based on physics, and on the other, by the aid of spectrum analysis, it might be said ' to have cast a light even on the Sun." The interweaving of the sciences being so close, it became necessary to leave to the student to select for himself in the last stage of his education -the group of sciences which best suited him, and the University were now engaged in considering how far the same principle should be applied to degrees in Arts. Mr. Lowe followed Sir John Lubbock, in a jocose speech about the " Jingo party," which -was rather adapted for after-dinner purposes than a University audience at mid-day. Mr. Lowe's speeches to his constituents bave a dash in them of grateful though unmistakable contempt.
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