Morality not secured by Residence within College walls.

On this point the evidence of Mr. Wall is of great weight.* "It will be said, of course, that the admission of "a number of unattached members would destroy the disci"pline and corrupt the morals of the present Students. "..... I wish I could say that immorality had yet to be "introduced among our Students. I believe that there “would be much less cause to fear the Students who would "come here on the scheme proposed, than to fear for them; "because I think it highly improbable that those Students "would be any but poor men who had to make their way up "in the world; or at least, men who came to work. The "rich, or those who came for pleasure or fashion, would "still as now go to the Colleges. And, if the new Students "were of this working class, they would act as a stimulus "to others, not to say in the way of example, but in the "more forcible way of bearing off University honours, "College Fellowships, &c. . . . . . . I must, on the other "hand, observe, that there are disadvantages and tempta"tions attending a residence in College which would not "belong to a residence in private lodgings. A life in

66

College is certainly not necessarily a moral or a studious

one. The very congregation of numbers-the facilities of "stepping from room to room and of making up pleasure "parties have their evils. One or two bad men may, and "often do, work immense mischief in a College. Many a "youth who comes up well disposed is ruined by bad "society in his College- society which he was not likely to "have known had he been in private lodgings." Mr. Pattison also speaks very strongly on this point: †—“ The "habits and manners, which gave the conventual system its good effects, being changed, we must not think any virtue "resides in its mere forms. If little or nothing of moral "influence is obtained by intramural residence, neither is

66

Evidence, pp. 147, 148.

+ Ibid.,

P. 43.

66

"the College gate any mechanical security against dissolute "habits. The three great temptations of the place I suppose to be fornication, wine, and cards and betting. "Without exaggerating the turpitude of the first-named vice, yet every one who is aware of the amount of moral “and intellectual prostration traceable to it here, must wish "that every protection against temptation should be afforded "to the weak and unsteady. It may be left to any one to "estimate what amount of such protection is given by the

necessity of being within doors by midnight. Though "here, again, the departure which modern habits have "rendered necessary from the. rule which is still on the "Statute book, will exemplify what has been said of the "actual obsoleteness of the domestic system."

When speaking of the scandal brought upon the University by the cases of debt which have appeared before the Courts and the public, we intimated an opinion that the young men who flagrantly transgress the bounds of moral rectitude in this respect are but a small minority, and that many are even frugal and self-denying. This applies, in a great degree, to the general conduct of the Students. Sprung from the most virtuous classes of society, and often coming from clerical homes, they are, to a considerable extent, under the influence of the principles in which they have been reared. Many may be deterred from vicious practices mainly by fear of detection and its consequences; yet we are convinced that, even if all restraints were removed, a large proportion of the Students would live virtuously.

But this is not the real question here at issue. The question is, not whether there is more or less immorality at Oxford, but whether residence within College walls is the means by which the morality of the place, be its tone high or low, is kept in its present condition. If, as is the opinion of those whose words we have just quoted, great and general immorality prevails in despite of College discipline, it will hardly be supposed that danger is to be apprehended from

the class of Students which we propose to admit. If, as we believe, the majority of young men at present live honestly and soberly, though they have abundant opportunity and time for the practice of vice, the University need not be afraid to try the experiment of admitting young men, who, though they would in some respects have more liberty, would have much less means at their command for indulging in vicious practices.

Whatever degree of licence now prevails, we think that the really poor Scholars would not be in much danger. They would not have credit at command; they would be exposed to fewer temptations, and would be less likely to give way to them. We have already had occasion to observe how greatly the extravagance and vice of the Students depend on their idleness and means of indulgence. There is every reason to hope, on the other hand, that poverty, and the guarantee implied in poverty that such Students would come to the University only for the sake of study, would act as a direct hindrance to vice, and as an inducement to good conduct.

It must be added, that objectors to this plan assume that Students of this class are to be subject to no control at all. This is a misapprehension of the plan which we propose. We think that a system of University regulations should be established to meet their case. In the first place, it is material to observe that the proposed permission to live in private houses would not be granted without restriction. With regard to the wealthier Students, who were not Members of Colleges or Halls, we have already indicated that the superintendence under which we propose that they should live would be not less, but more, effective than that which is provided under the present system. Such young men would be boarded in the houses of Professors, or live with Private Tutors who would be responsible for their behaviour. With regard to the poorer Students, with whom we are here more immediately concerned, we propose that the University should provide securities for their good

66

UNIVERSITY REGULATIONS.

231

conduct. Permission to live independently in lodgings would only be granted on special application to the Vice-Chancellor. Lodging-houses would be licensed by his authority, under strict regulations. Any violation of these would lead to an immediate withdrawal of the licence. "The discipline of the Colleges," says Professor Vaughan,* "is mainly preserved through the reports of the porter and "College servants, and the same system might be carried "out in its most important features with respect to lodging"houses. They should be periodically licensed by the University, which should receive also from them con"stant reports of the habits of their inmates. Discommu"nion and discontinuance of the licence should follow any "neglect of this duty, or any kind of collusion with dis

66

orderly students, an evil not much to be apprehended in a "town, the lodgings in which would be filled with Uni"versity men, and must depend upon University patronage. "In this way the habits of Students might be ascertained as "accurately as those of Collegians are now; and rebuke or punishment be administered as regularly."

66

But, secondly, these Students should be kept, as we indicated, “under due superintendence." Besides the control exercised over the lodging-house keepers by the University, it must be remembered that such Students would be as much amenable to University Discipline as any others in the place; and that in this respect their situation would be very different from that of Medical and Law Students in London. The temptations in the streets of Oxford are at least less common than in cities where no such discipline exists, and at all events these Students need not be exposed to such temptations more than the Members of Colleges. The Pro-Proctors might, as is the case from time to time at present, be increased in number. But besides these means of control, we recommend that such lodging-houses should be placed under the special superintendence of University

Evidence, p. 83.

officers to be constituted Tutors or Guardians of the University Students.

Their stipend might be made up by a small annual payment from each of their wards, or, if the University should have the means, supplied by the University itself. Their duty would be, so far as the case permitted, to acquaint themselves with the character and circumstances of these Students, and to take all means in their power for exercising over them a due moral and religious superintendence.

The University would easily arrange a system according to which such superintendence could be beneficially exercised; and it would not be difficult to find Fellows of Colleges who would take a lively interest in such an occupation.

But we need not confine our proofs of the safety of this plan to antecedent probabilities. It has been extensively tried in other parts of Your Majesty's dominions, and tried without the securities which we propose.

Many Theological Students reside in Edinburgh, many in Glasgow, many in Dublin, without such safeguards.

At Cambridge some of those young men, whose habits are most laborious and whose conduct is most exemplary, prefer lodgings to rooms in College, because they can there read with less interruption; and a large proportion of the Students are compelled to live in the town whether they like it

or not.

For the general results of this experience we may fairly appeal to the lives of the clergy educated at Cambridge or Dublin, or at the Scottish Universities.

We have stated that many of those who have laid evidence before us look with suspicion on this mode of University extension, but we believe that, on a fuller examination of the subject, alarm will disappear.

Perhaps the truest calculation would be, that this class of Students, quiet in their habits, inexpensive, and dispersed through the city, would produce no sudden or violent change, and that an efficient extension of the University