Birmingham is going to have a University of its own,
the idea being that there is a class of able young men in the town who would profit by University education if they could obtain it, while still residing in their homes. They cannot afford to go to Oxford, and local Colleges cannot give a degree. The notion, it is said, fascinates the Birmingham magnates, and the necessary funds will speedily be raised. We have no objection to offer except this, that a student born in Birmingham, bred in Birmingham, educated in a Birmingham school,and receiving a degree from a Birmingham University, might emerge, in spite of much knowledge, a rather narrow man. The collision of students of widely different circumstances and experiences seems essential to perfect University training. Still, the Birmingham plan is the old plan, and a worthy University always acts as a magnet, drawing in scholars from everywhere with a strangely powerful force. We only hope that the Birmingham founders will not think that the best instruction is instruction in applied mechanics, and will remember that they have to develop mind as well as ingenuity. Scotland was saved from that blunder by its metaphysical turn, and by a traditional reverence for the older, and, as people say now, useless, learning. Metaphysics are not popular in the Midlands, and we fear dynamics will be considered much more cultivating than Greek.
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