[To TIM EDITOR OP TDB "SPECTATOR. " ] Sin,—An earneht appeal has
been made to the public by Lord Rosebery and the other officials of the University of London to avert a disaster to the advancement of women which would be brought about should the Bedford College for Women fail to receive the help of which it is in need.
This College, founded in 1849, has throughout its course pro- vided for women the higher education which in its early years it
was so difficult for them to procure. Laboratories were added in 1861, and since degrees at the University of London were opened to women in 1879 it has prepared students for those degrees in over-increasing numbers. Now it is a constituent College of tho University, and the only exclusively women's College so recog- nised, and the only one in receipt of a Parliamentary grant.
The College work includes :—(1) Courses in arts and science for degrees of the University of London (B.A., B.Sc., MA.,
Inter. M.B.) ; (2) College courses—general or special—for those who are desirous of having the benefit of a broad and systematic education, whilst not preparing for degree examinations ; (3) a training department for secondary teachers ; (4) a scientific hygiene course to prepare women for factory, sanitary, and health inspectors, hygiene lecturers, philanthropic and social work, &c. ; (6) a course of applied hygiene for school teachers ; (6) an art school. During the present session two hundred and ninety-four students, including ten foreign and three Colonial, have been attending these courses, and of these a hundred and seventy-three are reading for degrees. About forty reside in the College.
Tho social side of the College is equally important, providing boating, hockey, lawn-tennis, swimming, gymnastic, and fencing clubs. Besides these, there are architectural, classical, natural science, musical, debating, and other societies among the students. The whole of this work is threatened with ruin unless sufficient funds are collected to rebuild the College in the near future.
The lease of the buildings, which in themselves are too cramped for the present development of the work, expires, the one part in 1909 and the rest in 1928, and it cannot be renewed, as the landlord declines to sell the freehold. A sufficiently large freehold site can be obtained not far from another University building, and it is calculated that for £160,000 the site can be purchased, and buildings of sufficient size for the needs of the College can be erected, including accommodation for five hundred students. There will still remain the question of endowment, without which no institution for higher education can be carried on, the fees which the students, either men or women, can afford
to pay being insufficient for the purpose. It is calculated that
£100,000 will be required for this endowment; but the more pressing and immediate need is for site and building. Ten thousand pounds has been promised by Lady Tate for a library, and any donor could have his or hor name associated with a particular part of the building by defraying its cost.
Many endowments in the past intended for the benefit of men and women alike have been diverted for the use of men alone, owing to the former apathy prevailing on the subject of women's education. Now that women have awakened to the need there is to make up for the long neglect of past ages, it is hoped that
their appeal will meet with a generous response from all who desire that they shall share in the wider field, both of thought and action, open to those whose faculties are trained in such a College as this.
Donations may be sent either to Major Darwin, hon. treasurer of the College, or to Miss Henrietta Busk, hon. secretary, at the College, Baker Street, W.
[We cannot, as a rale, print_ appeals for funds in our correspondence columns, but Bedford College has done, and is doing, such excellent work that we must make an exception in its case. We sincerely trust that the money required will be forthcoming, and without undue delay.—ED. Spectator.]
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