Dr. Appleton, the strenuous critic of Owens College, Man- chester,
and the most active antagonist of the scheme for raising Owens College to the rank of a University, writes to Thursday's Times to denounce that project, chiefly on the ground that the character and intellect of a young man cannot be properly "matured," as University culture should mature it, in the thick of the eager and somewhat narrow practical interests of a manufac- turing world. In short, the utilitarian high-pressure of the place is, he holds, essentially prejudicial to the ascendancy of purely intellectual standards of thought, suehassinva University the same thing the young to respect and to apply. But be said quite as truly of Glasgow, if not of Leipzio or Berlin. Of course, there is something in the objection,—though there is more, we think in tho objection that Owens College scarcely contains within iteelf a sufficient variety of teachers on each subject to give its examinations a thoroughly catholic stamp,—but after all, such a question is relative question,—not whether a particular institution is perfect for its proposed purpose, but whether it is sufficiently good to raise the standard of culture, rather than to lower it, if the Government accede to its request. And that is by no means an easy question to answer.
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