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III. HIGHER EDUCATION.

A., England.

1. OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE.

IN the year 1800 the form of higher education in England and Wales was confined almost exclusively to the two ancient universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and even their direct influence extended little beyond the Church of England. At Oxford a Dissenter was not suffered to matriculate at all or to enjoy the instruction or any other privilege either of University, College or Hall'. At Cambridge he might become a student, but could obtain no degree, hold no office, receive no emolument, and take no part in the government of the University or of any foundation 2.

In spite of the penal laws against Nonconformist and Catholic schoolmasters and tutors3, they seem to have given

1

Report of Royal Commission on Oxford, 1852, p. 54.

2 Report of Royal Commission on Cambridge, 1852, pp. 38, 43. 3 The clauses of the Act of Uniformity against Nonconforming schoolmasters and tutors (13 & 14 Car. II, c. 4, ss. 8, 11), though mitigated by the Toleration Act (1 W. & M. c. 18) and by 19 Geo. III, c. 44, were not definitely removed from the Statute-book till 1865 (28 & 29 Vict. c. 122, s. 15), but George II expressed his disapproval of the attack on Dr. Philip Doddridge in 1734 (Dictionary of National Biography), and no more prosecutions seem to have taken place. The Schism Act, passed in 1714 (12 Anne, stat. 2, c. 7), was repealed five years later (5 Geo. I, c. 4). The Five Mile Act and the Conventicle Act were only formally repealed in 1812.

Numerous small Nonconformist Academies, for laymen as well as for ministry students, existed during the course of the eighteenth century, though Homerton and Hoxton were exceptional in having any long continuous life (D. Bogue and J. Bennett, History of Dissenters: London, 1808-12, 4 vols., ii. 34, iii. 282, iv. 261, 262; Hansard, T. S., xxv. 643). Manchester College was founded at Manchester in 1786. Having no endowments, most of them rose and fell with individual teachers.

In the case of the Catholics, an Act of 1699 (11 & 12 Will. III, c. 4)

instruction in England and Wales without much interruption during the greater part of the eighteenth century, but their schools, being only on sufferance, never attained any great importance, and except in principle counted for little in the intellectual history of the time.

The advantages offered by Oxford and Cambridge were, however, disproportionate to the favours they had received. The curriculum at either university was narrow, and was neglected with impunity, and distinctions were awarded under the most arbitrary rules, when they were not a matter of pure favouritism. Residence for four academic years was the one real qualification for a degree'. Cambridge held an honour examination in mathematics only, and until 1797 the proctors exercised the privilege of inserting names into the honour list at will. Oxford, until 1802, granted its degrees on the formal report of three unpaid examiners, Masters of Arts appointed for three days without regard to their qualifications 3.

Fellowships and scholarships were in most cases restricted to certain localities, certain families, or certain schools 1. There was no power in most cases to vary these restrictions, and the utmost to be hoped was that there might be an

inflicted perpetual imprisonment on papist schoolmasters or tutors. Relief was granted in 1791 (31 Geo. III, c. 32), and in 1795 Stonyhurst was founded. But Catholics seem to have had no difficulty in obtaining education in England during the eighteenth century (Lecky, History of England, i. 309). Even after the abolition of Tests in 1871, a Catholic embargo remained on the English Universities, and was only removed by a decision of the Pope in 1895 (Tablet, April 27, 1895).

The proposal to recognize St. Edmund's House (an establishment for Roman Catholics at Cambridge) as a public hostel was rejected on May 12, 1898, by 462 votes to 218. A private Hall for Catholics was opened at Oxford in 1896, under the usual regulations, without remark, and probably no opposition would be raised to a similar course at Cambridge.

1 This minimum had dwindled at Cambridge to three years and a term, and in 1858 was reduced to three years. In 1859 the Oxford necessary residence was changed from four academical years to three. 2 J. B. Mullinger, ' History of the University of Cambridge,' Epochs of Church History, p. 178: Longmans, 1888.

3 1852 Report of Royal Commission in Oxford, p. 60.

+ Oxford Report, 1852, pp. 149, 174; Cambridge Report, pp. 157, 185.

honest selection of the best capacity within the required limits, instead of a nomination which each fellow exercised in turn, and regarded as his right and his private property 1. Fellows in nearly all cases were obliged to take Orders in the Church of England, and were in all cases forbidden to marry 2. Every student for centuries past, before he could become a member of either University, had been obliged to attach himself to some College or Hall, and in the case of Oxford must take up his residence within its walls. The Colleges had eight or nine times as much property as their University, and most of the University professorships were but poorly paid in comparison with College offices. It is not surprising that the Colleges had overshadowed the Universities, and the professorial system had been almost entirely superseded in the instruction of undergraduates by the College tutors; but these in turn, especially at Cambridge, had been largely supplemented by private 'coaches'.'

The constitution of both Universities seemed to have been devised to prevent any attempts at change. All initiative in Cambridge rested with the Caput Senatus, consisting of the Vice-Chancellor and of five members elected from fifteen persons nominated by the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors the veto of one member of this body was sufficient to put a stop to any measure 5. At Oxford the analogous Hebdomadal Board consisted solely of the Heads of Houses and the two Proctors; and the Vice-Chancellor singly and the Proctors jointly had a similar power of veto. Convocation, the general body of Oxford graduates, corre

1 Oxford Report, p. 168.

2 Oxford Report, pp. 163, 164; Cambridge Report, p. 171.

3 Oxford Report, p. 93; Cambridge Report, p. 70.

'The cessation of professorial teaching is designated by the Hebdomadal Board as a "6 temporary interruption," but it is an interruption which, so far as we can ascertain, has been the rule and not the exception for at least a century and a half' (1852 Oxford Report, p. 93).

5 Cambridge Report, p. 13.

6 The Vice-Chancellor is appointed from among the Heads of Houses only, and was thus already a member of the Board.

sponding to the Cambridge Senate, could only accept or reject without amendment any proposal sent to them, and their debates were still conducted in Latin. Congregation, the intermediate body of regent masters, had lost all but its formal existence 1. Oxford was governed by the Laudian Statutes accepted in 1636, which had been so little modified that in 1850 it was contended that only the Crown and University in conjunction could alter them2. The Cambridge Code had been given by Queen Elizabeth in 1570. The Colleges at both Universities were governed nominally by the original founders' statutes or revised and adapted versions of these, for which at Cambridge, in two or three instances, the sanction of the Crown had been obtained, but which in most cases were quite without legal authority. Modification was thus for the most part impossible without the intervention of Parliament, and neither the Crown nor the Houses of Parliament interfered before the middle of the century.

In the meantime such reforms as were practicable had already begun from within, and there was in either University a considerable party which ardently desired improveAt Oxford, in the end of the eighteenth century, Dr. Cyril Jackson, the Dean of Christ Church, had instituted examinations within his own College 5. In 1795 Oriel had begun to elect to its fellowships from outside solely on the results of its own examinations: in 1829 the Master and Fellows of Balliol began to elect scholars after examination, and in 1834 obtained such sanction as the Visitor could give to this change in their statutes7. The most

1 Oxford Report, pp. 10, 11.

2 Ibid. pp. 3-5. Some of the Statutes, of course, were of much more remote date. Every one taking his M.A. degree had until 1827 to swear that he would neither give nor attend lectures at Stamford-non leges nec audies Stanfordiae-a relic of the secession to that town in 1334-five centuries before (A. Clark, The Colleges of Oxford, p. 254: Methuen, 1891).

3 Cambridge Correspondence, 1852, p. 2.

1 Oxford Report, p. 148; Cambridge Report, p. 150.

5 A. Clark, The Colleges of Oxford, p. 316: Methuen, 1891.

6 Ibid. p. 122.

7 Ibid. p. 56; 1852 Report, pp. 152, 189, 190.

R

brilliant success attended these reforms, and encouraged similar measures elsewhere.

Cambridge, it must be said once for all, had not sunk into so deep a lethargy as Oxford: there were fewer restrictions in fellowships and scholarships, and fewer abuses in filling them'. Its defect was narrowness rather than indifference. In 1772 the Master of St. John's established examinations in his college. In 1838 Dr. Whewell, the Master of Trinity, revived the lectures of Moral Philosophy"; in 1844 Trinity obtained new Statutes, and was followed by St. John's in 1849*.

Nevertheless, in spite of the higher intellectual life, and the great names which Cambridge could show: in spite of the greater openness of the endowments, and the tolerance to Dissenters, there was no great increase in the numbers resorting to the Whig University. In 1800 matriculations were twice as numerous at Oxford, and the nation at large seems to have been quite indifferent to the apparent intellectual superiority of her rival.

Even the absence of examinations will not account for this preference, for after 1800, when the requirements of Oxford had become at least as severe as those of Cambridge, the majority in matriculations remained with the elder University until two-thirds of the century were passed.

In 1800 a University Statute was passed at Oxford by which a genuine examination for the B.A. degree was established in 1802, and a small honours list published with names in order of merit. In 1807 Literae Humaniores and Mathematics were separated, and two classes of honours in alphabetical order were created for either 'school.' Improvements were continually made, until in 1830 Honour Schools were separated from Pass Schools, and leave was given to illustrate ancient by modern authors.

3 Ibid. p. 194.

+ Ibid. p. 198. instituted, but never

1 Report, p. 156; Oxford Evidence, p. 36. 2 Mullinger, p. 182. 5 An examination for the M.A. degree was also became more than formal, and was discontinued in 1807 (1852 Report,

p. 83).

6 Ibid. p. 61.

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