THE UNIVERSITIES.
Oxford, 20th August 1849. Sea—I agree so thoroughly with the general spirit of your remarks, both in your paper of last Saturday and on a fanner occasion, on the Oxford credit sys- tem, that perhaps I may be allowed, as one who has been for the last six years a constant resident in Oxford, to denier to one or two of the opinions which you express. You seem to intimate that "the studious" are either kept away from Oxford, or obliged by the genius loci to run into debt. 1 can assure you from my own experience, that a reading man may support himself as an under-graduate on a moderate income, without incurring any debts which may not be at once paid, and at the same time enjoy what he and those whose tastes agree with his would consider good society. I sin far from saying that college expenses are made as light as they might be for this class of men by the authorities; or that the men themselves sufficiently regard in their private expenditure not only their family circumstances, which may or may not admit of such habits as it is usual to in- dulge, (I mean, of course, party-giving and a moderate allowance of riding and boating,) but their position as educated men, who are bound to show that they consider education the thing most valuable. Still, as I suppose we are speaking with reference to the standard of ordinary morality, and condemning deviations from that, not from any more exalted rule, I should assert that Oxford life is still very possible for those who really wish to study, without the necessity of plunging into any extravagance or submitting to anything which might lead to embarrassment in after years. That Oxford is not, in the sense in which it ought to be, the place for students, I readily admit ; that instant and sweeping reforms are needed in order to make it such, I do not deny; but to suppose that the atmosphere is one in which students, as such, cannot thrive, would be a great mistake, and, like all exaggerations of the kind, likely to damage the cause of improvement. Again, you speak of the case of a young man becoming the member of an ob- jectionable club with a view to putting it down, and say that it is odd that the authorities who approved of his conduct did not think of sparing him the duty. I do not say that such an omission was right; but surely it proceeded on a very intelligible and commonly received notion, that where a change can be effected from within it is better not to interfere from without. A schoolmaster may stop many things which the head or tutor of a college may think it best to leave to the good sense and good feeling of the men themselves. As you remark lower down, the real evil is in society, which tolerates and encourages many things of which these tastes are only the natural developments under the particular circumstances— the form which the Oxford species of the social epidemic takes. A college officer may fairly think that it is in vain to attempt the forcible suppression of what will be sure to grow up in one shape or another. He may have a keen sense of the nuisance, in its essence as well as in its academical accidents; but be will know that if he took the part against it which he would wish, the political drift f his conduct would be at once seen, and he would be thought little better than
a Chartist; and so he will naturally heenteirioseer ereekanais Mired Ili possible. Doubtless there are cases whieboeallfor directinterferenbet wish to have it acknowledged that there is a trath OM the otheraldtevireulsshiesat may possibly have bad its influence in the assealleaeaaa, a,•.:sew a( The question which, as it seems to me, requires to be asked, is--Feruisffat purpose do the Universities exist? is it to diffuse moral and intelleetural culture, or is it to qualify young men entering on the world as it is? in other'worile, fire they meant to correct, or simply to represent the tendencies-al votieitY ? srfih7ss would seem to be difficulties in the way of either supposition., To-admit latter, would be at once to indorse the present acknowledged evils of University life, and utterly to destroy the notion of teaching, except the_very vague sense in which people are taught by experience; will le tbe former apparently runs counter to the truth contained in those modern views which represent institutions as valueless unless they arise from within a society, and point out tkespirit age as our best practical guide. It may be said that the dilemma deer not really exist, as the spirit of the age is not actually followed: were it allowed to have influence, the exclusiveness of Oxford establishmentarianism would be destroyed, and a healthy liberal action introduced. I might reply, that the fact of exclusive- ness still existing is a proof that society is really in as favour; as it can be nothing else but a lingering attachment to the present state of things on the part of these without which keeps up the University in its present state. But I would rather take a more certain ground, and assert that even when exclusiveness is done.awae with, (a consummation to which I for my part should not object,) English society is likely to remain substantially the same, and the tastes which the mass of under-graduates derive from their elders as discreditable, as ever. Thus the question of the line to be adopted by an university will still he a pressing one. I, for one, confess, that I should be glad to see the University so far throw itself against the tendencies of society as to assert that education is its main object; and that all those who come to it for any other purpose may expect to be got rid of as soon as they are felt to be in the way. Such nuisances as col- leges whose boast it is to receive noblemen as noblemen, should be at once swept away, whatever the loss of fees occasioned, and whatever the consequences of the breach with the higher classes. Bat I am aware that I cannot expect many to agree with me in recommending a course like this. College governors will al- ways be deterred by theprospect of seeing their rooms empty: without incurring the charge of cupidity, (and I should be sorry to say that I think the working members of Oxford overpaid,) they may reasonably feel that the test of their sue- cess is to a certain extent the number of alumni whom they are able to attract. I see that the Globe, in a recent article, maintains that the way to cure Oxford evils is by promoting real intellectual life in the place. Cordially as I should sympathize with any such movement, and great as I think the good which it might possibly effect by interesting some who now, from circumstances rather than from any fault of their own, are left to worse pursuits, I do not see how it could thoroughly succeed unless those who further it are determined to show that they are in earnest, by systematically discouraging the opposite tendency. Yet there can be no doubt that they would thus be placing themselves to a certain ex.. tent in collision with society. The fact is, that society does not set its highest value on "studious" men; men, that is, whose chief recommendations are men- talc-unless, indeed, like Thaler, they have proved that they can make money by their wisdom: fathers do not approve of them as husbands for their daughters; constituencies, even if the property qualification were removed, would not send them as their representatives to Parliament: and thus it is vain to expect that they should carry everything before them in a body which has to keep terms with society, and professes to prepare its members for what they will meet with in more advanced life. Considering the standard to which it has to conform, I be- lieve Oxford is much less infected by the social evils of which one is most ready to complain, than would at first sight be expected.
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