III.-Application of the College Revenues to Stimulate and Reward those who have not yet entered the University.

III. Hitherto we have spoken only or chiefly of the changes to be made in the Revenues of Colleges, so far as regards Students who have completed their course of Academic study. The recommendations which we have laid before Your Majesty would, we believe, effectually convert them into stimulants and rewards for the Students who have already become members of the University, and thus give greatly increased effect to its system of instruction. But we must not forget that the University is nearly as deeply interested in the excellence of the Schools throughout the country as in the excellence of the Colleges of Oxford, and that the endowments of Colleges may be used to mould and incite the Schools by encouragements in the form of Scholarships, as completely as the system and the character of the Colleges would be influenced if such measures as we have hitherto recommended should be carried into effect.

Increase in the Number and Value of Scholarships.

We have shown that the original object of Foundations was to support poor Students in their education at the University. These Students in the older Colleges entirely, and in all the Colleges to a great extent, consisted of the Fellows. But in more recent times, to these older Scholars or Fellows was added a class of younger Students, to whom the name of Scholar has since been exclusively applied, and who are now the chief representatives of the body of learners for which the College endowments were originally given. These Scholarships, whether part of the first Foundation, or endowed by subsequent benefactions, have not, generally

speaking, increased in value in the same ratio as Fellowships in the same College.

We are of opinion that it is a matter of the highest importance that Scholarships should be augmented where they are of inconsiderable value, and that they should also be greatly increased in number.*

This would be really to act in accordance with the spirit of Collegiate Foundations, so far as it can be done in our times. It would be impracticable, as we have said more than once, to give a University education to poor persons who are not qualified to receive it. It would be an evil to do so in the present day, even if it were practicable. We have no wish to see in the Colleges an appendage of members on an inferior footing, such as we have spoken of as existing in them formerly. What the State and the Church require, as we have observed, is not poor men, but good and able men, whether poor or rich. The great resources of the Colleges render it easy for them to bring to the University those who are best fitted for a learned profession from almost every class in the country; and to enable many to live there as all Students receiving a liberal education should be supported. These resources would thus promote what were the paramount objects of Founders, or, at least, what were the paramount objects of the State in permitting the Founders to create perpetuities, namely, the advancement of the higher branches of religious and secular knowledge. Fellowships are now for the most part obtained when men have ceased to be Students, and on the eve of leaving the University. A considerable part of the Revenues of Colleges may thus be devoted to the endowment of open Scholarships, so that in the great Schools, which now discharge a large share of the duties formerly devolving on the University, the beneficial effects may be produced, which may be expected in the University itself if all Students of real diligence and fair abilities shall be enabled to compete successfully for open Fellowships.

*See Evidence of Mr. Jowett, p. 36.

COLLEGE REVENUES:

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Advantages of open Scholarships generally.

To the efficiency of the Colleges, open Scholarships to supply good Learners are as essential as open Fellowships to supply good Teachers. Where there are no youths of superior ability in a College, the standard of excellence is low, the Tutors are easily satisfied, and the Students in general are not incited to exert their full powers. The presence of such young men in the lecture-room forces the Tutor and the Pupils to aim high, and a noble emulation is awakened. Nor is it less valuable in the private intercourse of the Students. Some judgment of the influence of open Scholarships on the utility and honour of a College may be formed from the amount of University distinctions obtained by the several Colleges. It will be found that they much more nearly correspond to the number of the open Scholarships offered to Undergraduates than to the other merits and advantages of the respective societies. The comparison which we have already made between Balliol and Christchurch, in speaking generally of the advantages of open Foundations, referred in fact as much to Scholarships as to that of Fellowships. Similar comparisons might be made, with the same result, between other societies. It is also a striking fact, that the five Halls which have no Scholars, but only a few Exhibitioners, though they educate between them two hundred and ten Undergraduates, that is, about one-sixth of the whole number in the University, have obtained together only six First Classes in Literæ Humaniores, and three First Classes in Mathematics during the last ten years; and some of these Honours, perhaps most of them, were obtained by young men who had been dismissed from their Colleges.

If the University shall be enabled to afford rewards of this kind to the youth of the empire generally, there is little doubt but that it will collect a large assemblage of young men, in spite of the severity of any Examinations which it may impose at Matriculation or at later periods, and though

of

no material diminution should be effected in the expense the education which it offers. Should the Scholarship be rendered so valuable as to defray nearly one-half of the annual expenses of a frugal person, very few young men of merit will be kept back by poverty from obtaining an Academical Education. To gain this end, we propose that the tenure of all Scholarships and (where practicable) of Exhibitions shall be limited to five years, which is a longer period than is now necessary for a complete education at Oxford; that there shall be no restriction as to birthplace or parentage, but that, with regard to age, nineteen shall be the limit, after which no one shall be allowed to present himself for a Scholarship; that the Foundations of New College, Christchurch, and St. John's shall be modified, as we are about to propose; and that some Fellowships in Colleges not sufficiently provided with Scholars shall be suppressed to endow Scholarships. By these simple changes we calculate that nearly five hundred Scholarships, of the value of fifty pounds a year or more, besides rooms, might be provided, of which at least one hundred would become vacant annually.

Exceptions in Favour of Schools connected with Colleges.

We have before stated our opinion that some exceptions to the general principle of setting aside all restrictions might with advantage be made in favour of Schools connected with Colleges.*

The Colleges subject to this connexion are:-Balliol College, which receives two Scholars and two Fellows from Tiverton School; New College, which is almost one Foundation with Winchester College; Christchurch, to which, in consequence of an order made by Queen Elizabeth, St. Peter's College at Westminster is privileged to send forty

*We must here state that Mr. Liddell, as an interested party, absented himself from the Board while the proposals on the subject of Schools were under discussion.

CLOSE FELLOWSHIPS.

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Students; St. John's, which is in intimate union with Merchant Taylors' School and other Schools; Pembroke College, to many of whose Scholarships and Fellowships persons educated in Abingdon School have a preference; and Worcester College, which elects its Scholars from certain Schools in Worcestershire.

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It is justly observed by Mr. Jowett,* that "restrictions to particular Schools are, in some respects, more injurious "than the local ones. It is an objection that may be urged "against all close Fellowships that, while they are not "rewards for previous efforts, they afford a provision to the "owner of them-just sufficient to prevent his exerting "himself to gain anything more. Fellowships confined to

"Schools tend to cause the additional evil of a narrow circle "of society. At the age of seventeen or eighteen a boy "comes up to New College or St. John's, is welcomed "among his old schoolfellows, and lives almost isolated "from the rest of the University. It inevitably follows that "his school-life reproduces itself at College. Parents often repeat that the election of their children at New College "is a doubtful good to them. Notwithstanding these evils, "few persons would be willing to give up the associations. "of William of Wykeham, or the glories of King's College, Cambridge."

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46

Case of New College and St. John's College not to be confounded.

But we must observe that between New College and St. John's there are great differences. The Fellows of St. John's are not all from Merchant Taylors' School; and, inasmuch as Commoners are admitted at that College, the Fellows have the opportunity of associating with a considerable number of young men brought up under different circumstances. New College has admitted hitherto only a few Gentleman-commoners besides the members of its

* Evidence, p. 35.

H