The prospect of a new University for the North, to
be called "the Victoria University," and to include especially Lancashire and Yorkshire, of which Owens College, Manchester, would be the kernel at the first start, seems to be improving, if we may judge by the reception of the deputation to the Duke of Rich- mond and Gordon, on Thursday. We have never felt the jealousy of this scheme which some of our contemporaries have expressed, rcognising, as we do, that up to a certain point competition be- tween Universities of different types of local genius is good, and not prejudicial, and that there is a genuine demand in the great manufacturing centres of the North for some such local institution, born, as it were, of their own special aspirations. We should hope, however, that the new University—which is to rest on Collegiate training, as distinguished from the mere principle of Examination—will not attempt to reach beyond the already sufficiently wide sphere of these two great counties, or the extension of the federal principle may endanger the principle of Collegiate action, which is at the very bottom of the movement. The actual teachers cannot really co-operate in control, if they be spread over too wide a surface, and. if also they include too many divergencies of purpose.
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