On the Nationalisation of the Old English Universities

TH E NATIONALIZATION OF THE OLD ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES LEWIS CAMPBELL, MA.LLD. /.» l.ibris K . DGDEN THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES J HALL & SON, Be> • ON THE NATIONALISATION OF THE OLD ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES ON THE NATIONALISATION OF THE OLD ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES BY LEWIS CAMPBELL, M.A., LL.D. EMERITUS PKOFESSOK OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS HONORARY FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL 1901 LK TO CHARLES SAVILE ROUNDELL My dear Roundell, You have truly spoken of the Act, which forms the central subject of this book, as " a little measure that may boast great things." To you, more than to anyone now living, the success of that measure was due ; and without your help its progress could not here have been set forth. To you, therefore, as of right, the following pages are in- scribed. Yours very sincerely, LEWIS CAMPBELL PREFACE IN preparing the first volume of the Life of Benjamin fowett, I had access to documents which threw unexpected light on certain movements, especially in connexion with Oxford University- Reform. I was thus enabled to meet the desire of friends, by writing an article on " Some Liberal Move- ments of the Last Half-century," which appeared in the Fortnightly Review for March, 1900. And I was encouraged by the reception which that article met with, to expand the substance of it into a small book. Hence the present work. I have extended my reading on the subject, and have had recourse to all sources of information which I found available. My special thanks are due to Messrs. Chapman and Hall, for their permission to use the article in question ; to Mr. C. S. Roundell, without whose help and counsel I could have done but little ; to Viscount Goschen, for access to valuable correspondence ; and to Mr. Hagbert Wright and his subordinates at the London Library, for special assistance in research. I have also to thank Mr. Goldwin Smith, the Right Hon. W. E. H. Lecky, and the Hon. the Warden of Merton, for the x PREFACE permission which they readily accorded me to quote rather extensively from their writings. In compiling the chapter on University Extension I have received material assistance from the Lord Bishop of Hereford, from Mr. James Stuart, Lord Rector of St. Andrews University; from Mr. Michael E. Sadler and' Miss Emily Davies ; and in speaking of the Nonconformist Colleges, from Dr. Fairbairn, Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford. The Master and Fellows of Balliol College and the executors of the late Master have kindly allowed me to make use of a valuable memorandum on University Reform which was drawn up by Pro- fessor Jowett in 1874. LEWIS CAMPBELL Sant' Andrea, Alassio, Italy, March, 1901 CONTENTS CHAPTER I. page i Introductory . CHAPTER II. Beginnings of Free Inquiry . 15 CHAPTER III. Early Attempts at Legislation . 34 CHAPTER IV. Free Inquiry at Oxford and Cambridge . • • 53 CHAPTER V. University Reform, 1846-1856 . 72 CHAPTER VI. Liberal Theology . ... 96 CHAPTER VII. Attempts at Legislation . 126 CHAPTER VIII. University Tests Act of 1871 . 152 CHAPTER IX. Memorandum by Professor Jowett, 1874 . 176 xii CONTENTS CHAPTER X. page Abolition of Remaining Clerical Restrictions . 209 CHAPTER XL University Extension : Higher Education of Women 220 CHAPTER XII. Denominational Colleges . ... 239 CHAPTER XIII. Prospice . ... 253 Appendix . ... 273 Index . ... 295 ON THE NATIONALISATION OF THE OLD ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY UNIVERSITY life in England has been so continuous and its constituents in successive generations have passed so rapidly—the chain, even when not broken, has had so many separate links, that most persons are unconscious of the extent of change which has come over it in a century or even steps of progress or in sixty years ; and the several decline by which the alteration has been effected are still more apt to be forgotten. Looked at super- ficially, perhaps, the mode of living that prevails among young men is not so very different in the beginning of the twentieth century from what it was restrictions, in the middle of the nineteenth ; but the which at that former time still hampered the useful- ness of the Universities, and limited what effect they had to a small minority of the nation, were real and grave; and their gradual removal has been brought 2 NATIONALISATION OF UNIVERSITIES about through a long course of persistent and public- spirited endeavour. The economical conditions which debarred so many from availing themselves of the advantages then existing, can only be alluded to here in passing. It cannot be said that they have even yet been com- pletely overcome. The removal of religious dis- abilities and artificial clerical restrictions is the chief point to which I now desire to direct attention. For about two hundred years from the passing of the Act of Uniformity, no one could graduate at Cambridge or be admitted to matriculation at Oxford without professing adherence to the Church of England or subscribing to the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion. And the difference between the two ancient Universities in this respect was felt to be reside more apparent than real ; for no one could in either University without belonging to a college, and constant attendance on the chapel services was a part of the college discipline enforced no less strictly at Cambridge than at Oxford. Moreover, in both Universities, emoluments, academical and collegiate, and all University and college offices were absolutely confined to members of the Church of England. In the earlier years of the century, while conscientious Nonconformists still formed an in- considerable minority, such limitations were com- monly regarded as inevitable or as matters of course, and the adherence alike of undergraduates and graduates to the National Church appeared to have little more than a formal significance. Agitations for the abolition of subscription had occasionally INTRODUCTORY 3 been rife amongst the thoughtful clergy of former days, as on the part of so-called Arians in the reign of Queen Anne, or of Latitudinarians in the time of Fox and Pitt. But these exceptional and abortive attempts had passed out of memory long before 1830. The social phenomena of communities into which young men are gathered for educational purposes must after all present many common features in different ages and under different conditions. There will be more or less of serious study, more or less of recreation rational or irrational, of discipline wise or unwise, of submissiveness or insubordination. There will be debates and discussions reflecting the political or theological aspect of the time—even outbreaks of physical violence, as in the Middle Ages. There will also occur the occasional emergence of remarkable men, whether as teachers or students ; such as the Cambridge Platonists in one age or the Oxford Tractarians in another. Individuals of genius, such as Milton or Gray, the Wesleys, Arthur Clough, or William Morris, will gather about them little coteries of their intimate friends. Traditions held with more or less of obstinacy will be crossed from time to time by movements either revolutionary or reactionary. If we could throw ourselves back into the life of Christ Church at the beginning of the century, when Canning and Peel, Gladstone and Charles Wordsworth were undergraduates there, or into the life of Corpus in the days of Thomas Arnold and Mr. Justice Coleridge, or if we could realise the 4 NATIONALISATION OF UNIVERSITIES condition of Cambridge as Bishop Marsh and Charles Simeon severally knew it, the resemblance to what came later and is more familiar would perhaps strike us not less forcibly than the many differences. This aspect of the subject has been finely expressed by Cardinal Newman in one of his discourses before what professed to be a Catholic University for Ireland, although it had the sanction only of the Vatican without a charter from the nation. This takes nothing, however, from the significance of the passage. Dr. Newman was arguing in favour of the Collegiate System, against the notion of a University as a mere examining board. " When a multitude of young men, keen, open- hearted, sympathetic, and observant, as young men are, come together and freely mix with each other, they are sure to learn from one another, even if there be no one to teach them ; the conversation of all is a series of lectures to each, and they gain for themselves new ideas and views, fresh matter of thought, and distinct principles for judging and acting, day by day. An infant has to learn the meaning of the information which its senses convey to it, and this seems to be its employment. It fancies all that the eye presents to it to be close to it, till it actually learns the contrary, and thus by prac- tice does it ascertain the relations and uses of those first demands of knowledge which are necessary for its animal existence. A parallel teaching is necessary for our social being, and it is secured by a large school or college ; and this effect may be fairly called in its own department an enlargement of mind. It is seeing the world on a small field with little trouble ; for the pupils or students come from very INTRODUCTORY 5 different places, and with widely different notions, and there is much to generalise, much to adjust, much to eliminate, there are inter-relations to be defined, and conventional rules to be established, in the process, by which the whole assemblage is moulded together, and gains one tone and one character." To a casual observer the most striking change which of late years has taken place either in Oxford or Cambridge has been occasioned by the marriage of Fellows, the results of which are pathetically regretted by the Warden of Merton in his interesting reminiscences ; another striking development has been the organisation amongst the undergraduates of cricket, boating, and other athletic exercises, in which some of the junior Fellows also take part.

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