"Tbe spectator, Bay 4tb, 1850
The announcement of a University Commission has taken all by surprise. . . . The greatest grievance of- the present system [of teaching] is that the fellowships involve no obligations to Instruct or even to reside. The fellowships ought all to be tutor- ships, half the number and double the value, that they might tempt young ambition to stay there till it grew too old to go anywhere else. The Fellows should be chosen not from the Scholars or even the members of each College, but from the University at large ; not merely " classics " or " mathe- maticians " should be selected, but- proficients in all the ()fogies and all the ographies Each Fellow should then give instruction in his own branch to all corners, for a stated and moderate fee ; - so that the amount of his income, beyond the fixed dividend, -- might depend on the number of his pupils—that is, on the success of his teaching. Thus emulation would aid in keeping the teachers, as well as the taught, up to their wont.
Whether matrimony should be permitted to a Resident Fellow, as an additional bait, we doubt much. Colleges are built quite on the presumption of the celibacy of their inmates ; there is no provision for wife, child, or nursery-maid. There " would be much unseemliness as well as inconvenience attendant
I'd' on turning our cloisters into a rabbit-warren.
Previous page
