OWENS COLLEGE.
The Owens College, Manchester. By P. J. Hartog. (Cornish. 12s. 6d. net.)—The history of English education during the past• century has been marked by nothing more striking than the fertile development of University Colleges. A hundred years ago Oxford and Cambridge were the only Universities in Eng- land, and they were hedged round by all kinds of restrictions which kept away all but Churchmen in theory, and all but the sons of the well-to-do in practice. Several attempts had been. made to upset their monopoly without success. As long ago as 1640 it was endeavoured to found a Northern University. Man- chester was suggested for its habitat, but the jealousy of York prevented that. It was established at Durham, but only lasted a few years. In 1828 and 1829 the first steps were taken in London to establish Colleges for those who could not sign the tests or afford the expenses of the older Universities. Meantime the toiling millions of the North were feeling more and more keenly the need for Colleges more in touch with the require- ments of a manufacturing class than Oxford or Cambridge. In Manchester especially there had been several sporadic attempts to provide the higher and technical education which was wanted. Finally, the munificence of John Owens, a Manchester cotton- spinner, led to the foundation in 1851 of the College which bears his name, from which the Victoria University directly, and in- directly the numerous University Colleges now active, and the new Universities to which in turn some of them have given rise, may be said to have sprung. Owens, whose chief motive was the desire to establish a College free of the religious tests which he hated, left almost .2100,000 for the purpose. This was wisely spent on men rather than on buildings. The present stately pile of Owens College, with its excellent laboratories, library, and museum, was the outcome of further generosity on the part of private persons. Mr. Hartog rightly says that the circumstances in which Owens College grew up give it a claim to be the first of a numerous and important class. "The whole previous history of higher education in Manchester, the co- operation of George Faulkner, the Churchman and Tory, in its establishment, and the help given by all parties in maintaining and enlarging its existence, show clearly that Owens, unlike the London Colleges, is really the creation of a city, conscious, like the mediteval cities of Italy, of its own individuality, and desiring University teaching and University life of the highest kind to form part of the city life." In this respect, the present activity of Owens College, as described in Mr. Hartog's handsome volume, is a work which the citizens of Manchester, who will soon be engaged in celebrating the jubilee of their pioneer College, may justly regard as not the least showy feather in their civic cap.
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