TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE OXFORD REFORM BILL IN COM1fITTRE. AMONG the many serious evils which have been entailed by the backwardness of the governing bodies in our Universities to check corruptions by timely changes, and to graft on to the old system such additions as the peculiar wants and increasing knowledge of each age suggested, not the least is the necessity that now at last the discussion and decision of the changes required should be dele- gated to an assembly so unfit for the task as the House of Com- mons. Every question is liable to be discussed there under the most direct influence of party politics; and, in respect to proposals emanating from a Government, while its opponents seek to damage it by criticism of its measures, its friends are apt to overlook de- feats from an equally natural and a more justifiable anxiety for its credit. Then, again, the discussion of minute details affecting the daily operation of a great educational institution like Oxford de- mands a thorough comprehension of the varied aims and indirect influences of such institutions, and a practical experience of their working that it would be highly Utopian to expect in the ordinary Members of the House of Commons, and difficult to obtain even in the selectest of Committees. Through these hands, however, the bill must pass ; and we do not see how, when the Government had determined to deal with the question at all, it could have dealt with it otherwise than minutely and in detail.. Had the University alone been in need of reform, a single clause changing its form of government would have sufficed ; but each College is a separate constitution, with the disposal, under peculiar regulations, of those great prizes which, we are told, form the main stimulus to promote learning among the students ; and, unless general rules were laid down by which the distribution of these great prizes should for the future be conducted with higher aims and more purely as encouragement to study than before, we might wait for an indefinite period, however the constitution of the University were reformed, for the nobler fruits of an entirely regenerate sys- tem, adapted to the wants and the intelligence of the present, while reposing on foundations strengthened by the experience and sacred by the affectionate remembrance of the past. These considerations justify to our minds the minuteness of the Oxford Reform Bill, with its fifty-five clauses : unfortunately, the necessity of the intervention of the House of Commons does not furnish the Members with experience. Under these circumstances, we may congratulate the Committee on the very ample discussion the main principles of the Oxford bill have undergone in the press, both before and since its promul- gation, by men evidently acquainted practically with the system on which the proposed changes are to operate. The Times and the Morning Chronicle have done excellent service in this way ; and he must be a dull man who cannot, with the reports of the Com- missioners and the aid of the newspapers, make out with tolerable clearness both the defects of the present Oxford system and the bearing of the proposed changes. It is besides matter of thank- fulness, that, in addition to Lord John Russell's large views of education and unfeigned interest in his subject, the Committee will have the benefit of Mr. Gladstone's practical knowledge of Oxford, in his double capacity of Member for the University and one distinguished for early eminence in the studies of the place, and of his great power of mastering detail and presenting it in debate so as to arrest the attention and interest of his hearers and fix it in their memories. It would be impossible for the bill to be in better hands than in those of Lord John and Mr. Gladstone, and impossible for any question to have received more ample dis- cussion and illustration by the press. Want ofpractioal expe- rience, though it cannot be fully compensated, will hardly serve the House of Commons as excuse for ignorance of the details of our University system, or for coming to blundering decisions on the measure before it. There will be less chance of either result, if those who are conscious that they know nothing accurately about the matter will submit to the process which the Romans politely designated by the phrase " favere linguis." It will be difficult enough to get through the fifty-five clauses with the dis- cussion some of them need, if those alone take part in the debate who can really enlighten the Committee by their knowledge of English or Foreign Universities, and who have a decent acquaint- ance with those branches of literature and science which form or ought to form the objects of study at our Universities. Our limited space prevents us from anticipating the functions of the Committee by an examination of the bill clause by clause, though there are numerous clauses of which we should feel in- clined to say that they have neither provided exactly the rule most desirable, nor are phrased in language most clear, precise, and intelligible. With respect to the mode selected for meeting a presumed demand for University extension, it must be admitted that it has the advantage of regulating the supply by the demand, by throwing upon private enterprise under proper restrictions the accommodation and direction of the new students. We entertain the strongest conviction that the expenses of students in private Halls, under the superintendence of really first-rate men, will far exceed those of students in Colleges. Nor do we conceive that wise parents will prefer the more rigid and schoolboy discipline of such Halls, except for peculiar cases of mental and moral infirmity, for which perhaps Universities are not intended or applicable, to that transition discipline between the strict rule of a school and the legal and social responsibility of manhood, which is one of the best characteristics of College life, and which, in spite of lament-
able exceptions, has succeeded in training an average upper and professional class to which neither Europe nor America can show a paralleL But the experiment has been so loudly called for, and its results can at worst be but fruitless, that Government has done the wisest thing in choosing the least expensive, the least perma- nent, the most pliable and adaptive mode of the experiment. We do hope, however, that no College will be induced or encouraged to waste its revenues in building affiliated Halls for an anticipated increase of students, till the unquestionable success of private Halls have proved that the present limited accommodation and free Collegiate system at Oxford are the real obstacles to a larger number of students presenting themselves. We do not in the least doubt that many would be glad to avail themselves of the advantages of Oxford who are at present restrained from so doing. What we doubt is, whether a more rigid discipline—a semi-collegiate life without its freedom and lessons of self-control—would attract them, or remove their present objections. Correlative to University extension is the provision of increased means of University teaching. The principle laid down by the Government Bill, that, subject to the decisions of a Commission to be appointed with temporary powers, Colleges having more than twenty Fellowships may be called on to contribute not more than one-fifth of their income to the maintenance of University Professors and Sub-Professors, loses much of its apparent violence and harshness, when it is remembered that it is exactly those Colleges at Oxford which are the richest and have the largest number of Fellowships that have done least of late years for the promotion of learning, and have taken the least part in the work of education. While Balliol and University, with about twelve Fellowships each, carry of a large proportion of first-classes and other University honours, the magnificent foundations of Christ- church with its hundred studentships, of Magdalene, All Souls, Corpus Christi, and New College, are doing little for the main- tenance of learned men, leas for the education of students. At Cambridge, a provision that should mulct Trinity and St. john's, and leave the smaller Colleges in possession of their revenue un- disturbed, would injuriously affect exactly those foundations which provide the greatest number of students with the highest advan- tages. At Oxford, the reverse rule applies; the richer the Col- lege, and the larger its foundation, the less it does for learning or for education. Nor, considering the names of the Commissioners to be appointed under the act, does it seem likely that a passion for " confiscating " College property, as the appropriation of a cer- tain portion of income to the payment of Professor-Fellows is called by its opponents, will prevail in the minds of men like the Earl of Ellesmere, the Bishop of Ripon, and Judge Coleridge, in favour of any Professorships except such as are obviously needed, or at a cost to the College that would impair its permanent efficiency, even if the latter danger were not prevented by the limits of the act. At the same time, we think it would be highly injudicious to endow any new Professorship se richly as to make its income, apart from class-fees, an object of attraction to an inactive or retiring man of letters. In spite of Professor Vaughan's eloquent defence of Professors without definite teach- ing duties, we would make every Professor, not constantly lec- ture professorially, but constantly superintend and direct the studies of a class. The Fellowships, and not the Professorships, are in a certain proportion for the maintenance of students without definite teaching duties. If they are unfortunately saddled with the condition of celibacy, it merely amounts to this, that a poor man cannot in England marry and enjoy domestic life unless he directly benefit society by his labours in some mode which society can sensibly appreciate. Whatever other regulations the Com- missioners appointed under the act may institute with respect to new Professorships and Sub-Professorships, we hope they will take especial care to affix such constant duties to these offices as shall effectually prevent them from starting into existence as full-grown sinecures. We know that the fear of having their property made merely a source of income for literary gentlemen with no duties, and of no service to the community, has hitherto operated to ag- gravate the sense of annoyance with which Colleges, must naturally view any forcible alienation of what they have hitherto enjoyed, subject to no inquisition or responsibility but that of conforming to their statutes as construed by their Visitor. And, clever as Professor Vaughan's pamphlet is, its bold defence of a richly- endowed Professoriate with little or no eontrol to insure the per- formance of corresponding duties, has done not a little to exasperate the feeling. We should be glad to see inserted in the act a clause which should secure the Colleges against such misappropriation of their revenues in the first instance, and which should reserve to them a power of reclaiming the income appropriated to the payment of University teachers, in ease such teachers failed, as in so many notorious cases both at Oxford and Cambridge, to perform their duties, or in ease their duties were found by experience to be of no service to the students. Between five and six hundred Fellow- ships, any one of which may be held for life on a c..ertifiaate of study, are enough in the shape of sinecure maintenance for learned men who do not choose or are unable to impart their knowledge, and so make it a serviceable agent in our national education.
On these two heads of University extension, and provision out of College property for increased University instruction, the bill seems to us to lay down wholesome regulations, or to institute the machinery by which they may hereafter be put in operation. With respect to the proposed government of the University, we might have slight objections to urge, but that we apprehend most points to which our objections apply are oversights, and not deliberate in-
tentions of the Government. The points to which we allude are, that far too much power is given to the Heads of Houses in the Hebdomadal Council, and that important classes are excluded from Congregation, which elects the Council and discusses its mea- sures with power of proposing amendments. We do not imagine i that it was intended that more than seven Heads besides the two Vice-Chancellors should be at the same time members of the Coun- cil yet as the Heads are many of them Professors, and all members of Convocation, they may be returned to the Council under these titles ; and in fact, though such an event is not likely, the present Hebdomadal Board might, provided it included a sufficient number of Professors, be returned under the provisions of the act to serve for the new Hebdomadal Council. When it is remembered how powerful the Master of a College is by his prerogative over the com- fort and fortunes of all the Fellows of his College, and that the major- ity of Congregation will consist of Fellows of Colleges, the danger in- dicated will not appear chimerical. Of course, it is to be met by a provision that the Professors and general members of Convocation returned to serve on the Hebdomadal Council shall not be Heads of Houses. With respect to the second point, the clause providing for the constitution of Congregation excludes from that body classes of persons whom it cannot have been the intention of the framers of the bill to exclude in comparison with others whom their bill admits. Then, of all the Fellows of Colleges engaged the tuition and general administration of the College, it exoludes Assistant Tutors or Lecturers, and Bursars ; though the former class are, quite as much as the Tutor technically so called, the in- structors of the students, and the latter is the person who manages the College property, and is therefore a most important person to give his opinion on any legislative proposal that may abet or be affected by College property. The bill, at the same time, makes all those Fellows who are resident on a " certificate of study " members of Congregation. Thus its effect is to exclude from Con- gregation the majority of College Fellows actively engaged in the education of the students, and to include all who are resident with no duties. We cannot bring ourselves to suppose that this ab- surdity was intentional : if it was, we hope the House of Com- mons will correct that intention.
We cannot attribute to oversight the strange proposal to give the appointment of two members of the Hebdomadal Council to the Chancellor : that is a folly, but a deliberate and methodic folly. Apart from the formal objection that the Vice-Chancellor sits there as the representative of and substitute for the Chancel- lor, this latter functionary is a simply decorative head of the academie corporation, and is in practice a great nobleman, who has no special aptitude for University government either by expe- rience or genius. His selection is grounded on totally different qualifications, generally on the identity of his politics with those of the majority of members of Convocation. For purely academic purposes, such as fall within the scope of the Hebdomadal Council, he is a cipher, more or less creditable to the University as the temper of the times may be at the period of his election. We see no plausible reason for giving him these two appointments ; we cannot even conjecture the probable motive, unless it be to coun- terbalance a presumed tendency to too rapid movement in the new Board,—a presumption ludicrous enough to those who know practically the men of whom it and Congregation are to be com- posed. This point we recommend to the best attention of Univer- sity Reformers.
We must defer till next week the important topics of Scholar- ships and Fellowships : in the mean time we are glad to perceive by the Amended Bill, that the term for non-resident Fellows, preparing for the bar and medicine and orders, has been raised from five to eight years. But we are much mistaken as to the consensus of disapproval that.has been elicited by the provisions of the bill generally on the tenure of Fellowships, if the Govern- ment do not find themselves compelled to make much larger con- cessions in the same direction.
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