Nottingham laid the first stone of a block of educational
build- ings on Thursday, Lord Carnarvon and Mr. Gladstone both- taking part in the ceremonial. The buildings are to be called "University College, Nottingham," and to be devoted to the use of the Cambridge University Extension lecturers, to a free library, and other purposes of a like nature. Lord Carnarvon in his speech pointed out that there is no real opposition between, Trade and Learning, the greatest reputations of the middle-ages,- for instance, in the Italian republics—having been founded on both great commercial enterprises and great knowledge. That is true, but we doubt whether it is true that the subordinate places in commerce can be well filled by men who have sharpened their intellectual appetite very early in life. It is one thing to. be a merchant or a banker, or to pursue any business involving largo intellectual interests concurrently with large literary labours, and quite another, with these latter interests predominating, to- devote yourself to the mechanism of trade, to add up figures, copy letters, and register the plans of others. We believe that in our zeal for the higher education we ought not to forget that one of its effects certainly is to make the purely technical and subordinate parts of business extremely irksome to those who can never hope to reach any higher walk in commercial life than that of a punctual and faithful clerk.
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