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May 11, 1850.] ®f}e 3l£a&|>n 155
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. i RANDOM STATISTICS. ' ee We are about...
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THE BOOT OP THE MATTER. In acknowledging...
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dfyttit Cmraril.
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, , ] 1 There is no learned man but will...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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University Reform. The Commission Of Inq...
ceivable . " Ce n'est que le premier pas qui coute . " The want being felt , the remedy being called for , both having received a definite acknowledgment , — the satisfaction of the one , the application of the other , must soon follow . It is essential , however , to form a definite idea of what is now offered the Universities . It is a Commission of Inquiry , carefully to be distinguished from one with powers to legislate or interfere in their internal administration . For all parties it is desirable to collect information ; for none more so than for that which in a friendly spirit wishes to reform the Universities . Facts are what is wanted . Answers to questions such as these , —What is the constitution of the University ? xi its i nat is
And the safe basis of acknowledged fact will be laid for all those to go on who , like ourselves , do not limit their views in University Reform to mere details ; to the cutting down of expenses and the remedy of plain abuses—desirable as these objects are;—but who would fain see a reform worthy of the name , the complete limit of which is distant , but the main feature of which may be stated briefly to consist in placing the ? e wealthy and ancient institutions in harmony with the others in the midst of which they exist ; leaving them all the good they have , but making them what they can scarcely be said to be now—centres from which should radiate forth an education really worthy of England .
v * uv are xtjveuues vv laugrrc "Cliere i What is the relation between the several collegiate bodies and the University ? These and all the numberless minor questions into which these branch out , if properly answered , would remove a very large amount of misapprehension , and would furnish a secure basis for future improvement . There need then be no vague terror felt at such a commission , such as seems to have struck the soidisant friends of the University in Parliament . There is no need to evoke any spirit of captious legal resistance . All that the Universities need ask , is that the spirit which animates the commission should be friendly , its members personally not 1 * A- j 1 " J _ {* j T 1 rw « ODnoxious to oi meir i '
me majority memoers . lne next point is : What will be its powers ? A Royal Commission would surely have ample powers to examine into the state of the Universities as such , as distinct that is , from the several collegiate bodies . Its jurisdiction also would be complete where the Crown is visitor . The case of the several colleges which are not royal foundations , or not under the Crown as visitor , is different . But , as far as Oxford is concerned , they have become so bound up with the University by the Caroline statutes that they can hardly set themselves against all inquiry . Had they stood by themselves , governing themselves , adjuncts of the University , but claiming no nearer connection with it , furnishing lodgings for its students with by-laws of their own , they might have quietly looked on whilst the University at their side was being examined , and claimed total exemption themselves from the process . But in their present intimate connection , — when only in thought can they be distinguished , — when they form an aggregate coextensive with the University , that to belong to one you must belong to the other , —they can hardly separate their cause as parts from the whole which they combine to form . Their position has been one which they have cheerfully accepted ; it has given them great powers , an exclusive monopoly of the University ; it would seem but fair that they should submit to the question , —How have these powers been exercised ? How has that monopoly worked ? More important still than the powers of the Commission itself is the question : In what spirit will the Universities meet it ? This is for the future to answer . At present , we can only hope that their spirit will correspond to that in which it appears to be issued . For in the manner in which it is done , there is nothing to irritate the most sensitive . Of course the fact of an inquiry presupposes some need ; but no defender of the Universities can deny that such exists , not even Mr . Gonlburn himself in his hot zeal . It is clear to every person of reflection that at some time the inquiry must take place , and the reform which both the Universities have set on foot be carried through . The evils that exist in them are often exaggerated ; often traced to their wrong source ; many passed over altogether . The same is the case with their good points in which they suffer so grievously from for their friends . Inaccurate ideas of their revenues prevail , partly from studious concealment , partly from unfriendly exaggeration . In such an atmosphere of error , the abuse lives and flourishes ; the correction is difficult ; real good is impeded , for that likes the open light , It has been well said by M . Guizot , that publicity is one of the essential principles of our present civilization . No places would improve more from its introduction than our Universities . This ventilation , this publicity , is the one sole direct effect we look for from the Commission . I'i'oin this wti anticipate all others . The facts once Htnted and easily accessible in the hands of all t leu * members , the Universities and the Colleges ctiiinot continue as they are . It is said that in practice , we a ; 'c a logical people ; certainly we are " » f * o in theory . Bui ., granting the former state- nii . 'nt , there are parts of the University system which will necessarily undergo some modification .
May 11, 1850.] ®F}E 3l£A&|>N 155
May 11 , 1850 . ] ® f } e 3 l £ a &|> n 155
. I Random Statistics. ' Ee We Are About...
RANDOM STATISTICS . ee We are about to offer a short—a very shortarticle , which will never be answered , " said the Standard , the other day : we are about to offer a reply to this article of the Standard , and we feel tolerably certain that the Standard will not dare to notice our reply . The " short article " of our contemporary is for the purpose of showing among other things , that , ; under Protection , the Government could spend £ 150 , 000 , 000 per annum for several years successively ^ and that this enormous expenditure , instead of causing distress , produced " unexampled prosperity . " The following is the passage in which this astounding statement is made : — " The following extract from Mr . Porter ' s tables will set forth , the data upon which we proceed : — 1810 expenditure .. £ 126 , 470 , 963 quarter of wheat 103 s . ; 1811 „ 133 , 777 . 921 ,, 92 s . 1812 „ 148 , 590 , 265 „ 122 s . 1813 „ 176 , 346 , 023 „ 106 s . 1814 „ 164 , 068 . 770 „ 72 s . 1815 „ 170 , 143 , 016 „ 63 s . £ 919 , 397 , 958 " These are the figures , and we challenge the Times and the Examiner to dispute them or the inferences that we draw from them . " Now , first of all as to the so-called extract from Mr . Porter ' s tables . On turning to his Progress of the Nation , we find the following table of the total amount of money expended in each year from 1810 to 1815 : — 1810 .. £ 7 < :, 865 , 548 1811 .. 83 , 73 . r j , s 2 g 3 1 WI 2 .. 88 , 7 / i 7 , ; i 24 1813 .. 10 . ' j , 94 . < , 727 IS 14 .. Ki 6 , H : i 2 .:. ' 6 O 1815 .. 92 . V 80 . 180
I j I | These are the figures given by Mr . Porter . The discrepancy between them and the table quoted by the Standard is so very startling that we have a right to call upon our accomplished contemporary— who complains so frequently of " garbled statis- tics "—to explain how so monstrous a blunder has been committed . As for the " unexampled prosperity" of the six years , from 1810 to 1815 , granting that it may have been so as regards landlords and all who were living upon the reckless Government expenditure , the people generally were not in a prosperous condition . What other evidence do we require on this head , than the simple fact that the poor-rates rose from £ 5 , 348 , 000 in 1803 , to £ 8 , 640 , 000 in 1813 . This did not look as if the working class were in a very prosperous condition ; and as for the middle class , Tooke , in his History of Prices states , that " the number of bankruptcies in 1810 , 1811 , and 1812 was 7042 , a number unparalleled before or since . " But the sole measure of prosperity admitted by the Standard is taken from the weekly averages . In 1812 the price of wheat was at one time 24 s . a bushel—four times what it is at present—and , therefore , our contemporary yearns for a return of that golden age , which could be so easily restored if Sir Charles Wood consented to borrow a leaf from the men who managed our affairs in J 810-15 . He seems to have hit upon the same remedy for financial distress as the one lately propounded by an ingenious French gentleman , now residing in London , who insists that all the Governments in Europe might get rid of all their monetary di / fi- culties at once by . simply borrowing as much money as will pay off all their present debts . The only practical objection to this scheme is the neces- sity of raising funds to pay the interest of the ! money thus borrowed ; but our clever French financier can see no force at all in that objection . j Ask him how he would pay the interest every year , ! and he answers with easy indifference— " Oh ! by i loans—more loans ! "
The Boot Op The Matter. In Acknowledging...
THE BOOT OP THE MATTER . In acknowledging our reply to its article on our advocacy of the people ' s cause , the Glasgow Citizen puts in this dignified plea , which we willingly quote as a set-off against the passage formerly quoted by us : — " The Leader thinks that we speak in fear of the people : but in this he wrongs us . We do not fear the people ; we only fear injustice . The real ltrign of Terror is the reign of wrong and untruth ; and to us it does seem a fearful thing to see the best minds of a nation banded together to sanctify wrong ; and , in their passionate zeal for the elevation of a depressed class , setting at naught the economic laws that govern society . IPe honour the noble aims and generous impulses of these men , and in their efforts to root out the old bigotries and lo \ v ~ thoughted cares that are eating into the soul of the nation , none bid them Godspeed more heartily than we ; but , in the matters now commented on , we deem their teaching hurtful to the State , and specially hurtful to that class to whose fancied interests they are prepared to sacrifice the State . "
Having allowed the Glasgow Citizen to vindicate himself , we will now show our respect for the intelligence and earnestness with which he labours , by quoting a passage from the same article , to which the Leader gives its heartiest assent , and which we may fitly call the " root of the matter " : — " In politics , as in education , if we would speak with power , we must speak to the divine in man ; for thus only cun we ge ' t at those deep , everlasting instincts , which , though undeveloped in the young and dormant in the rude , are ever ready to give response to those who trustfully appeal to them . The only influence that can command the lasting : obedience of man is the stern idea of Duty , exhibited in all the austere grandeur of its divine nature . All our * terrene affections' are more or less selfish and inconstant ; if you trust to them , they will fail you at your utmost need . "
Dfyttit Cmraril.
dfyttit Cmraril .
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, , ] 1 There Is No Learned Man But Will...
, ] 1 There is no learned man but will confess he hath much profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him . to rend , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for his adversary to write . —Milton .
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^ 1 \ ' | : ; : j * ^ ^ c r i 'v * *' J v » . g k I „ « WHAT IS OUR RELIGION ? Harwich , April 30 , 18 . >() . Sir , —My letter on the Right of Subsistence ; out of the Soil has created a storm . I cannot say the answers have much edified me , —but they have shown me how deep an interest thinking men of the working classes take in social subjects , nnd thereby proved to me what a boon your paper will become . To reply to my antagonists would occupy more time than I have at present at command . I wi * h , therefore , to raise another question instead . You pride yourself on your boldness ; will you print this ? In various parts of the Leader you lay great stress on Religion . You call it the " want of the day . " You speak of the New Reformation as the great movement to be fostered . Even in Mr . Ltwes ' s Romance I seu the same stress laid upon Religion . But I should like to know what you and Mr . Lewes mean by Religion . You say that it no longer influences public action ; he says that Religion is an instinct , a spontaneous product of the human soul . I assent to both propositions ; but with a difference . I say it has ceased to influence public life because it is dead . We have outgrown it . The proof of its decease is in that very absence of influence which , you deplore . When it was living it animated nations ; now the dead carcase only furnishes a subject for sects to wrangle over . 33 ut how do I reconcile Mr . Lewcs's position with my own ? I accord him the * ' instinct , " but I call it the Appetite for the Marvellous . George Combe will give him the exact measurement of the organ . It is small in me , I suppose , for I really do not hunger much for marvels . . Large or small , there is food enough for the nation without referring to religious dogmas . The instinct granted , however , what can be made of it ? How can the nation agrees upon the various dogmas which the instinct will leap at ? If my faith is as warrantable as yours , and they differ , how shall wo agree ? Mr . Lewes tolls me that ' ? every man who attuins to a clear recognition of tho Godhead is inspired ;"* no I suppose we are till to sot up as prophets forthwith , and , as ' every man who thinks is a sect in himself—no two ¦ genuine creeds can be alike . " I should be glad to know how wo arc to be united under one creed . Indeed , I . should bo glnd to see you , nnd all those . Mr . ThnmstH ih ltere uttrihiititi ^ to Mr . J . imvok an opinion uttcniil by Kriiiigipdlo , a oluir . 'ietor in the Jlpfrrentici'sliij ^ of Lif e , with whodi ! views the author nowhere * identifies hiiusoJl ' , —l £ u .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 11, 1850, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11051850/page/11/
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