If we would compete on equal terms with Germany, we must, as she has done, found universities, as many as possible, whose work shall be the increase of knowledge by discovery, by training to discover, and by spreading scientific method among the intelligent population of the land. Of the few universities we have, many are hampered, especially in their scientific departments, by lack of funds. In London, the capital of the empire and the richest city in the world, there is no university at all except on paper, and most of our great manufacturing towns are content with a mechanics' institute.

The absolute lethargy of the public on the subject of higher education is shown by the case of Birmingham, where even the great influence of Mr. Chamberlain has failed to raise more than 400,000. for a university. If the manufacturers of Birmingham once realised the importance to them and to the whole country of such a university, there could be no difficulty in multiplying this sum five times. In fact the general attitude of the public towards universities is that they are more or less of luxuries, to diffuse a smattering of general culture and to give a tone to, or label with a degree, a favoured few of our countrymen, and it has no conception that our very existence as a nation is bound up with this question of universities. The Government show, too, that they are not in advance of public opinion by voting less than 100,000l. a year for the whole of university teaching in the British Isles. At the same time, the Government spends 50,000,000l. a year on the maintenance of the Army and Navy, an expenditure which we have been told time after time is to be looked upon in the nature of an insurance. What should we think of any firm that spent half its income on fire insurance, and nothing at all on the development of its business?

Of course, in former days, when our consciences were easier, or other Powers weaker, the Army and Navy could be regarded as means of extending our business and possessions, and were so used, though righteous horror would be excited nowadays at the bare suggestion of such a method for increasing our wealth.

The struggle of the twentieth century will be, not for lands, but for control over the forces of nature. Here, at any rate, Liberalism and Imperialism could join hands in fighting the spirit of reaction and Conservatism, and the lethargic self-satisfaction which bids fair to sink our empire to a second or third place among the nations.

But the question is vital to every inhabitant of these islands. Already in America public opinion has awakened to the enormous importance of the development of universities for the practical success of the nation; and its millionaires vie with one another in founding magnificent universities equipped in all points for their work, where picked men may extend ever wider their knowledge of natural phenomena, and where armies of young men may be trained in scientific method before being turned out into the workshop and

factory. Recognising, however, that the intellect must be allowed to develop in all directions, there is in these universities no restriction of the work to science or to subjects which are evidently utilitarian. Literature and art are as richly provided for as the sciences, in order that the nation may attain a full and complete intellectual development and be fitted to contend for the first place among the nations of the earth.

As a measure of imperial insurance, we have committed the conduct of our affairs to a Conservative Government, and therefore to one which by its traditions is unlikely on its own initiative to do anything for higher education. But in this country private enterprise has always shown the way to the Government: our rich men have evidenced their regard for their country's welfare by contributing largely in various ways to the cost of the war in South Africa. Will they not take up this greater work—not of insurance, but of development of the country by training its brain-power-the founding of universities in close connection with our great industrial centres and the equipment of the nation for the war of the twentieth century?

II. AN IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY FOR LONDON

One of the most striking examples of our country's indifference in matters of higher education is the fact that London, the capital of the empire and the centre of its mental activities in science, literature, and industrial development, has no university worthy of the name. Seventy years ago a body of men interested in education, and perceiving the poverty of London in this respect, founded at their own cost a University of London which should be open to all comers and all denominations. Objections, however, were raised to allowing this institution (now known as University College) to grant degrees, and after the foundation of King's College as a Church of England institution, both bodies consented to the foundation of a purely examining body, which took on the title of University of London, and which has stood in the way of the advancement of education in London ever since.

The new

This obstacle has now, however, been removed. statutes for the university drawn up by the Statutory Commissioners, and approved by her late Majesty in June 1900, have so modified the constitution of the university that, without undue distortion of its statutes, it might be made to gather up the disconnected attempts at higher education which are being made in London by various bodies, and to develop out of them a university that should have some influence on the intellectual growth of the country, and be worthy of the capital of the empire.

But statutes cannot make a university, nor can we, by a combination of the inadequate teaching resources of London, make them adequate for the needs of this city. When the German Government

took possession of Strasburg, they took over at the same time its ancient university, already provided with institutes for the teaching of the various branches of knowledge. Since that time they have spent on the university buildings a capital sum of 700,000l., in addition to a yearly grant for expenses of 47,000l. And this is for a university whose total number of students averages just over 1,000. In the case of other universities of more continuous development, it is not so easy to arrive at the amount of the capital sum spent on their buildings. It is instructive, however, to note the value placed by the State on the training of these universities, as represented by the annual grant from State or Imperial funds. Berlin, with 4,000 to 5,000 matriculated students, and 4,000 to 5,000 other students, has a yearly grant of 120,000l. Vienna, with 5,000 to 6,000 students, receives 100,000l.; Heidelberg, with 1,200 students, 37,000. Berne, in Switzerland, with 800 students, obtains a yearly grant of 24,000l. Thus the yearly grant made by these various governments towards the expenses of educating each student varies from 20l. to 50l. To this sum we must add the small amounts paid by each student as fees-about 10l. to 20l. a year-as well as small sums accruing from invested property.

These figures enable us to form some idea of the resources that must be at the disposal of the new University of London if it is to compete on equal grounds with the similar institutions on the Continent. With 10,000 students it would need an annual income of at least 400,000l., altogether apart from the capital sum necessary to build and equip the university institutes. But if the university is to play a part in the economic development of the country and to attract to itself this number of students, it will be impossible to raise the whole of this sum by students' fees. If each student has to pay 30l. to 50l. a year for his education, apart altogether from his living expenses, university training will be limited, as at present, to a select few. In order that the university may each year turn out an army of trained experts to take part in the industrial warfare of the present time, a portion at any rate of these expenses must be met by means of endowments or grants from the State or public bodies, so as to reduce the yearly cost of education to between 101. and 201. Moreover, it is to be hoped that numbers of scholarships and bursaries may be established, enabling the picked students of the polytechnics and technical institutes to give up wage-earning for a time and devote three or four years to a thorough study of some science in the university. We should, in fact, besides Huxley's ladder from the board school to the university, provide another for those poorer students whose superior mental endowments are first displayed when they are brought into contact with practical science.

The establishment of a University of London along these lines would therefore involve a capital expenditure of between three and

four millions and an annual endowment in some shape or other of 200,000l., which would be irrespective of some 200,000l. from students' fees. It is not, however, necessary, nor would it be advisable, to start a university on this great scale. The important matter at present is to provide a university adequate for the needs of the students whom we might expect to present themselves at once, being careful at the same time to establish it in such a way that it would admit of expansion in accordance with the growth of the demand for its training-a demand that will be governed by the increased success of our manufactures when directed by men trained in scientific method.

A university, founded now, would probably have to provide instruction for about 3,000 students. In making this provision, it would be possible for the university in many cases to obtain possession of and utilise existing endowments and buildings. Indeed, as long ago as 1885 Professor Karl Pearson indicated the means by which this might be accomplished. He suggested that the two bodies of university rank in London, viz. University and King's Colleges, should hand themselves over to the university. This latter body would thus possess two nuclei, from which might grow out university institutes, carrying on teaching and research in the various faculties of arts, science, engineering and medicine, and co-ordinated and directed by the central university. In Professor Pearson's scheme, the largest and most compact faculty in London, i.e. the medical, is hardly taken into account. If, however, the university possessed teaching institutes in two or more parts of London, and were possessed of sufficient funds to develop these institutes, it would be easy to concentrate in them all the scientific part of the medical curriculum at present taught with indifferent success and much waste of time and material in all the eleven hospital schools of London. These schools could then turn their whole attention to the development of our knowledge and treatment of disease. No other city in the world presents such opportunities as London for the study of disease, and in no civilised town are the opportunities so neglected. The necessity of teaching the purely scientific subjects of the medical curriculum, such as chemistry, physics, physiology, and anatomy, imposed on the schools by the absence of central university institutes where these subjects could be properly studied, cripples the schools and the development of their proper work, involving, as it does, a large expenditure on the equipment and upkeep of laboratories and the absorption of the best energies of their younger men in cramming students for the qualifying examinations, to the exclusion of research into the causation and treatment of disease. Moreover, this expenditure of time and energy, owing to its wasteful diffusion, is unproductive of good results, and fails to attain efficiency of teaching in these subjects.

Let us see what changes would be involved by the abolition

of the two colleges and the establishment in their place of two branches of the university. In the first place, it would be necessary that the transference of lands and endowments should be complete. The university should have an absolutely free hand to increase the number of teachers, to appoint new professors or confirm former ones, or to pension off those of the existing staff whom it regarded as unfit. In neither of the two colleges is the present accommodation sufficient for the greater requirements of a university, and both have certain encumbrances. The expenditure, however, that would be necessary to fit them for the purposes of the university would be extremely small compared with that necessary for buying land and building a new institute. Thus, at University College, an expenditure of 160,000l. would be sufficient to free the whole buildings for university purposes, and to provide the increased accommodation in the scientific departments which would be immediately necessary. This expenditure would place at the disposal of the university an institute with endowments, freehold lands and buildings of the value of three-quarters of a million, with a space of 1 acres freehold for future development.

A somewhat less expenditure would place the buildings of King's College at the disposal of the university. The transference would, however, naturally destroy the Church of England character of this teaching centre; and it is not known whether the authorities of King's College would consent to the change, though there is no doubt that it would be in the best interests of higher education in London.

These two institutes would, however, barely suffice for the present needs of London; and it seems imperative that, while the chance is yet open, the university should take advantage of the open space adjoining its examination rooms and offices at South Kensington to establish here a third institute, teaching in several if not in all faculties of knowledge. There are, moreover, in the neighbourhood of the university two well-equipped institutes, the City Guilds' Central Institute for Technical Education and Engineering, and the Royal College of Science, for which the Government is now erecting new and ample buildings. The university would have to consider seriously whether it could not also absorb these institutes. There seems to be no reason why their administration should not be handed over to the university, which would act, so to speak, as trustees for the Government and for the City Guilds, care being taken that the express purposes for which these buildings were erected and endowed should not be allowed to suffer under the altered management. Such an absorption would seem to be advisable in consequence of the fact that a large amount of work of university character, the preparation of students for degrees and the carrying on of research work, is already undertaken in these institutes, which should, therefore, not be left