RIVAL COLLEGES.
THE success of the Queen's Colleges in Ireland, limited as it has been'by'the difficulties that surround those institutions, has even been the , more distinct for the fiery ordeal through which it has passed, and appears to have resulted in establishing the class of in- stitutions upon an independent footing. In this respect the Queen's Colleges appear to us to stand distinguished from any other institution of the kind ; and the effect of that distinction ought not to be logisight of in considering the further development of educa- tion in England. At present, it is true, we are chiefly concerned in that which is the proper preliminary of education—elementary instruction. But the very development of elementary instruction would inevitably give rise to a demand for higher instruction of the collegiate order, if there were not already various formal and specific demands of that kind. The President of the Queen's College at Cork describes the general character of the education, by its results, as being a course to form young gentlemen in mo- ral conduct and good sentiments, and in the knowledge of such scientific and practical subjects as shall fit them to fall in with the spirit of the age, and to work out the material civilization and in- dustrial developments of their own country. This is really going straight at the direct want of Ireland. National education has done much to supply the bulk of the population with elementary knowledge, and to increase the general efficiency of the popular mind for the humbler pursuits of life. They have a better start- ing-point. But, according to Sir Robert Kane's explanation of the Queen's Colleges, they are specially intended to train the youth in the higher pursuits of knowledge, which shall enable them to con- duct the 'scientific direction of Irish industry and Irish agriculture.
Nowctalthough Ireland has felt such wants more than England, the same wants are felt also in our own country, and will be felt in a higher degree exactly in proportion as the experience advances and weer ideas extend to our progress. It is evident that if the working classes generally be educated,—if in agricultnre not only the labourers, but farmers, are inspired with what we may not too grandiloquently- oall scientific ideas,—both the ground and the matterenpon whieh faience works will be expanded and elevated, and there will be a proportionate demand for scientific men with higher capacity. In other words, the popular education for prac- tical purposes of industry and agriculture, which is still a pros- pectite,derocuid-for us, will 'no sooner be realized, than it will createmideinand,iantioipated in Ireland by these institutions, for collegiateltraining-of scientific and professional men. But to re-
co' guise this demand, is to place the new collegiate institutions of the age on a solid and independent footing.
In this respect, we see the Irish Colleges-stand remarkably dis- tinguished from collegiate institutions in our own Country, ancient or modern—even more distinct in principle than in some instances of practice. A great demand has been made for throwing open the two "ancient seats of learning," and some concession of reform may be anticipated. But it is not to be expected that the two ancient seats of learning will be opened in such a manner as shall make them convenient for all classes of the population, or shall make them schools for training professional men in sufficient num- bers and readiness to supply all wants. It is probable, with their preoccupations by the highest class, with the encumbrance of their ancient traditions, and with the difficulty of effecting any com- plete change even if it were desirable, that these ancient seats of learning will retain to a great extent the character which they have borne through so long a period of our history. University College in London was established partly to supply the want of Oxford and Cambridge for numbers of the middle class ; partly to open collegiate education without religious tests ; and partly, no doubt, to set up a competition which should antagonize those ancient institutions and put them to shame before the enlightened spirit of the day. While we recognize the decided success of University Col- lege in proportion to the means which have been thrown into it— while we admit that much has been done for opinion by the innovating and competing of that institution—it must be affirmed that the most successful portion of University College lies in the practical education which it affords to young men seeking the professions. In like manner, King's College, established to coun- terbalance latitudinarian University College, has certainly made no happy result of the controversial part of the institution, while it has been eminently successful in giving a good education to its juniors, and in supplying a sound professional education, especially in the medical department. It is the practical parts of "London University" which are the most solidly successful. The more recent establishment at Durham has been founded on the ancient models. Instead of seeking to adapt itself to the necessities of the day, it sprung at its very birth into the abuses and mismanagement which distinguished the older institutions. Still revelling in the sub- tilties of ohrphilosophies, and rejecting the experiment and in- duction of more accurate systems—still preferring Aristotle to modern science—still offering no scope for the development of practical intellect in this nineteenth century—the Uni- versity of Durham exhibits the fatal influences of the ecclesiastical atmosphere in which it breathes ; and in the twentieth year of its existence, it is already as much the object of a reform cry as if it had lived for twenty centuries.
The Queen's Colleges of Ireland have neither imitated our an- cient seats of learning nor opposed them, neither copied their ex- clusive religious tests nor antagonized them ; but have established a totally independent institution, which does not gainsay the dig- nity or utility of the ancient seats, but establishes the machinery for a modern want which those ancient seats are as little able to gainsay on their side.
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