28 JANUARY 1888, Page 2

We see with much amazement and regret that many of

the teachers at the University of Cambridge are disposed to refuse women the degrees of that University, and, as we infer, even to regret as a mistake the course which has been pursued in admitting them to certificates of having passed the various honour examinations of that University. This is not explicitly said, but it is the logical inference to be deduced from the asser- tion of one of the memorials just now in circulation, that women ought to have a separate and independent University to themselves, with a separate degree founded on a curriculum specially chosen for women. This is the view taken by the St. Andrews University ; but we rejoice to see Professor Knight, of St. Andrews, while speaking well of the adaptation of their L.L.A. diploma for women, maintaining that the ordinary degrees of the different Scotch Universities ought also to be thrown open to women, so as to give them their choice between the various distinctions, and the opportunity, if they wish it, or, as it might often happen, even need it, of measuring them- selves by the intellectual standards of the other sex. We should not at all object to the University of Cambridge establishing, if it thought fit, a new diploma for women, one specially adapted, as its authorities might consider it, to average women's wants ; but we do not think that that course would be at all satisfactory, unless at the same time all women who preferred it were admitted to the degrees now conferred upon men.