THE WORKING MEN'S COLLEGE. [To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR. "]
Sin,—At a meeting held on Thursday, December 6th, at the Working Men's College, Great Ormond Street, by persons deeply interested in the welfare of the institution, it was resolved to appeal to the public for subscriptions to the amount of at least £5,000. This sum is necessary for the needful repair and extension of the College buildings, and generally for placing the equipment and maintenance of the College on the footing demanded by modern standards of education. The appeal had already been brought to the atten- tion of many friends of the Working Men's College, and has both before and since the meeting of the 6th inst. met with a generous response from many individuals. Will you allow
me to state some of the reasons why, even at a time like the present, when so many demands are made upon the benevo• lence or generosity of the public, the appeal on behalf of the Working Men's College deserves support ?-
(1) The College was founded by F. D. Maurice and his friends in order to provide for working men in London a course of liberal and collegiate education, and thus give them not only the educational training, but also some of the social education, which persons belonging to the richer classes gain from years spent at our Universities. The attachment of the students to the Working Men's College, exhibited in many cases by their lifelong connec- tion with it, and their active participation in the teaching given there gratuitously by volunteers, proves that the idea of raising up a generous collegiate feeling among working men was sound and has borne good fruit.
(2) The College appeals for public aid, not because it has failed, but because it has succeeded. It was the earliest institution of its kind, and by its existence has done much to excite that demand among working men for a really superior and liberal kind of education which has raised our standard of educational efficiency and has necessarily increased the expensiveness of education.
The College, though requiring endowments for its efficiency, has always largely relied, as it always will rely, on the principle of self help. Teaching has been there given to a great extent by unpaid volunteers, consisting either of members of our Universities, or of men who have as students received their education in the College itself.
(4) The College, in providing for working men a liberal and literary education, has attempted to carry out, and it is hoped does carry out, the ideas of Maurice, Kingsley, and Tom Hughes, and generally of the eminent men who either actually founded the College or aided it during its early years. To promote its efficiency is surely to raise the best of monuments to the memory of its founders.
—I am, Sir,. &c., A. V. DICEY,
Principal of Working Men's College.
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