At a meeting held at Devonshire House on Tuesday, with
the Duke of Devonshire in the chair, it was decided to establish a Cambridge University Association, with a view to enlarging the resources of the University for educational work and for the advancement of knowledge. The Dnke of Devonshire, in opening the proceedings, pointed out the con- stantly increasing discrepancy between the needs and the resources of the University. Its revenues were at the best stationary, and in some instances diminishing. Cambridge was deficient in buildings, and crippled for lack of the necessary educational staff, the work of the University being actually carried on by some of its most distinguished graduates either gratuitously or at a perfectly inadequate remuneration. Matters, in short, had reached such a pass that without fresh resources the University, instead of assisting to raise the culture of the nation higher and higher, "must be destined to sink into a condition of drowsy and impotent routine." Discussing the relative advantages of State aid and private munificence, the Duke expressed the hope that the University would not think it necessary to appeal to Parliament until they were thoroughly satisfied that the springs of private liberality which had created those institutions had run dry. The s❑m required he estimated at £200,000 at least for new buildings, £2,000 a year for their up-keep, and £100,000 to provise for the new teaching staff, or in round numbers £500 000. Towards this sum the Duke of Devonshire and the Rothschild firm have each contributed £10,000, and the Drapers' Company have promised £800 a year for ten years in support of a Professorship of Agriculture. The splendid example of the Chancellor will, we have little doubt, provoke imitation, for munificence is infectious, but an even more conspicuous instance of the filial devotion of Cambridge men to their alma mater is found in the statement of Dr. Hill that of the £10.000 collected by minor benefactions since the beginning of last year, fully one-half had been contributed by the teachers themselves.
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