MR. GRANT DUFFThe University of London, whose claims I have been asked to lay before the House this evening, stands in a totally different relation 1210 to the Government of this country from that of the great majority of our educational institutions. It is almost a department of the Government. Its Chancellor, and three-fourths of its Senate, are directly nominated by the Crown; the regulations made by the Senate must obtain the sanction of the Home Secretary before they can become operative, and its accounts are regularly passed by the Audit Office, like those of any other branch of the public service, By its connection with the Government, it is obviously cut off from any resources which are open to other institutions, and it is not unreasonable that, since it suffers the drawbacks, it should also claim the compensating advantages of its semi-dependent position. There was a time when its name was a watchword of party, but that stage of its history has long passed by, and one would no more expect now-a-days to hear of any party opposition to its pretensions than to those of the Board of Customs. Indeed, I shall be perfectly satisfied if the right hon. Gentleman the First Commissioner of Works tells us this evening that the present Government is prepared to do as much for the University as I have reason to believe the Government of Lord Derby was prepared to do when it was last in power. In order that I may make quite clear the exact relations of the University of London to the Legislature of the country, I may be allowed, in two or three sentences, to recall its history to the minds of hon. Members. In the year 1825, a number of gentlemen, dissatisfied with the attitude which the old universities assumed towards their dissenting fellow-countrymen, united together and raised a fund of about £160,000, which was chiefly spent in erecting a large building in Gower Street. The idea of those gentlemen was to call into existence an institution which should mutatis mutandis resemble one of our Scotch universities. In due time they applied for a charter, and the question whether a charter should or should not he granted to them was, from 1830 to 1835, matter of constant and somewhat acrimonious dispute. At length, on the 25th of March, 1835, the House of Commons, by a very large majority, resolved to address the Crown to give them a charter. To that address a gracious answer was returned, and the question was considered settled. Meanwhile, however, the Liberal Government, which succeeded the shortlived administration of Sir Robert Peel, 1211 saw their way to doing more to meet the views of the persons who had erected the building in Gower Street than those persons had originally ventured to hope, and determined to create an institution of wider scope and higher pretensions, for which they borrowed the name of the University of London, while the institution in Gower Street retired into the background, and continued its useful labours under the name of University College. The University of London, as constituted by its charter in the last reign, and as re-constituted by two charters in the present reign, is an examining body, which confers degrees, honours, and prizes upon those who satisfy the requirements of its examiners, but which undertakes only to test the results of instruction, not to give instruction itself. It will be obvious, therefore, that when it asks for a building it does not contemplate so large an expenditure as would he necessary if, in addition to the facilities which it desires for examining candidates, it also asked for lecture rooms, professors' houses, and all the other apparatus of teaching. The correspondence of the authorities of the new University with the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Spring Rice, led them to believe that the Government would, at no distant date, provide them with a suitable building, and they immediately entered upon the discharge of their duties, occupying for that purpose some rooms at Somerset House. That was the day of small things, and the accommodation was sufficient for the moderate scale of their first operations. In a few years, however, even that limited accommodation was curtailed, for some of their rooms had to be given up to the School of Design. From that day to this, for something like twenty years, the University has been wandering from one public building to another, indebted for the use of a hall now to the Royal Society, now to University College, and now to King's College, and carrying on its examinations as it best could, sometimes at Exeter Hall, sometimes in the Thatched House Tavern, and sometimes, strange to say, even in Willis' Rooms, where the solution of mathematical problems has before now been agreeably diversified by the rehearsals for a concert going on within earshot. At the present moment things are indeed altered, but not much mended. The University is now located in a corner of Burlington House, but the accommodation which it finds there is not nearly sufficient, and at any moment it is 1212 liable to be turned out, and again sent forth as a wanderer on the face of the earth. The rulers of the University supplement their wretched accommodation by all kinds of devices; for example, they use for their matriculation examination a shed which has been erected by the Volunteers in Burlington Gardens. Do what they will, however, the constantly increasing number of candidates who present themselves for examination threatens ere long to be too much for them, and to set their devices at defiance; for, whereas in the year 1838 they had only twenty-three candidates to examine, they had in the year 1863 no less than 1,020. It cannot be said this is a creditable state of things, and the senate has been for many years entreating successive Governments to do something for it, nor has any Government, so far as I am aware, failed to admit that its case calls for serious attention. The demands of the University authorities are not excessive. They want what is necessary to transact their business, and nothing more. For this purpose it is calculated that they must have a series of examination rooms, capable of accommodating not less than 400 candidates. They must have a collection of typical specimens, from which the numerous objects which are placed before the candidates in their scientific examinations may be selected. They must have a respectable library for examination purposes—they must have a hall in which convocation may meet from time to time to perform its necessary duties; and they must have proper accommodation for the senate—these are the essential features of the building that ought to be provided. That building ought to be central, because many of the members of the senate are men in public or professional life, with very little leisure, and on whose time it is not desirable to make greater calls than is absolutely necessary. Taking its stand as it does, upon its usefulness, the University is content to say little about its right to have a building which shall not only be suitable but dignified. It is confident that it may safely leave the House and the Government to take care that no injustice is done to it in this particular. All that it wishes is that Parliament should be correctly informed as to its present position—a position of which it may well be proud—as the following facts will show:—the University of London numbered about 1,600 graduates. Its senate consists for the most part of very 1213 distinguished men. The Lord President of the Council is its Chancellor, and one of the greatest of English historians (Mr. Grote) its Vice Chancellor. Its matriculation examination corresponds to examinations passed at Oxford and Cambridge after several forms of residence. Its ordinary B.A. degree implies very much greater mental cultivation than is necessarily implied by a simple B.A. at the older universities, and its examinations for honours take also a very respectable rank. Its examiners are men of the greatest eminence. It gives degrees in every faculty except theology. Its medical degrees are very highly considered; and it confers several degrees which are not conferred at Oxford; and Cambridge. Such is the degree of M.S., Master in Surgery, and such is the new degree which it has just created, that of Doctor in Letters—one calculated, I cannot help thinking, to meet a want, and to be of great use. An institution which has done so much in about thirty years, may well claim to shed some honour upon the Government and the Parliament which has fostered it, and from which Government and Parliament it receives only the modest allowance of about £5,500 a year. And remember that this sum of £5,500 a year is not given to enable the University of London to compete with other institutions; nay, the University of London is little more than a channel by which the sum of £5,500 a year is distributed to English, Scotch, Irish, and I Colonial Institutions, whose students may desire to have the results of their education tested by a perfectly impartial tribunal. It I has no local connection with the metropolis. University College and King's College have no closer relations to it than Galway or Aberdeen, and a student at Galway or Aberdeen has now no privileges in connection with it over a student who, without going to any school or university, may have prepared himself for its examinations in the remotest of our colonies. It would be a mistake to describe it even as a national institution. It is an Imperial institution, taking no heed of birth-place, of creed, or of colour, but absolutely open to every subject of Her Majesty who chooses to offer himself for examination, and to pay a trifling fee. An institution which does so much for the State, and receives so little from it, may well ask to meet with some consideration; and, after wandering in the wilderness for a whole generation, to be at length placed in a building which it 1214 may call its own. Its authorities do not doubt that, if they once had such a building, they would be able enormously to extend the area of their exertions, and that whereas now more than a thousand candidates present themselves for examination in a year, they may have before another period of thirty years has passed away, as many as 3,000 students from all parts of the Empire coming to have the results of many different systems of education tested at this great central institution, or arranging, as has been done lately in the case of the Mauritius, to have themselves examined under the authority of the University of London, in the places where they reside. Till the University of London has such a building as I suggest, it will never have a fair opportunity of putting itself before the public; and if there were any way of testing the truth of what I say, I would be content to stake my whole case in favour of its having a building upon the assertion that at least a third of the Members of the existing House of Commons have either no definite idea as to what the University of London is, or else identify it with that exceedingly respectable institution in Gower street, to which I have already referred. If this he true, or if it at all approaches to being true, it will be generally admitted that a commodious, central, and dignified building for the reception of the University would be its best advertisement, and on the ground of mere utility I am content to rest its claims, hoping that the right hon. Gentleman may consent to do justice to them, and thereby gain credit for the administration of which he forms a part.
MR. COWPERsaid, his hon. Friend had not at all over-stated the claims of the London University to the favour and support of that House. He fully concurred in what the hon. Gentleman had said of the great usefulness of the University and the great benefits it had conferred upon the education of the country. Any one who knew anything of the subject must be aware that the examinations provided by the University had been a great means of improving the education which was given in a large number of the educational institutions both in this country and in the colonies. The degrees given by the University were held in high esteem, more especially those in the branches of medical and physical science. There was no question, therefore, that the London University ought to receive all the support 1215 and encouragement in its useful labours that could be fairly and properly given by the Government and the House. He thought it was unfortunate when the charter was granted thirty years ago, that no permanent provision was made for its accommodation. It was for many years lodged in a very imperfect and inconvenient manner; but since then the University, having had the use of a portion of Burlington House, the complaints previously made of want of space had not been repeated until lately. The space it then had had now become inadequate for its purpose, and the subject of providing additional accommodation had been under the consideration of the Government for some time past. It was the wish of those who represented the University that it should remain where it now was, and it was generally agreed that Burlington House was as convenient a place as any that could be found for the purpose. Fortunately, too, there was then a considerable space unappropriated which might very well be devoted to this purpose. There were two ways in which the accommodation might be provided, and the choice between those alternatives had probably been the reason why a more early decision had not been come to on the subject. On the one hand the University might remain in the apartments, and halls, and rooms which were at present appropriated to it, and such additions made to the premises as might be necessary for its work. It would not be difficult to add one or two examination halls and some other rooms to the present building. On the other band, some of the friends of the University maintained that what was required was a new, distinct, and separate building, which might be known by all the world as a building to which the name of "The London University" was attached, and they thought that such a building would, as his hon. Friend said, act as an advertisement, and would make known to all passers by that the London University was a tangible and visible institution. He thought there was considerable doubt whether the expenditure required for the erection of a really handsome, imposing, and dignified building, especially appropriate for the purposes of a University, would be commensurate with the advantages to be thereby attained, and whether, after all, the London University was not mainly known by its actual educational work in connection with educational institutions. 1216 These were matters that required great consideration, and in regard to which so rapid a decision could not be come to as if the claims of the institution were of a more restricted character. He could, however, assure his hon. Friend that the matter had not been lost sight of by the Government. There was every disposition to provide the University with suitable and adequate accommodation for carrying on the valuable work in which it was engaged. At present, probably, the addition of one examination hall and a waiting room for candidates was all that was absolutely necessary; but he admitted that if the matter was to be dealt with they must not be content to look at the immediate wants of the University, but must remember that it was a growing institution. The number of persons who were anxious to take degrees were always increasing, and he was glad to see that the Council of the University were always ready to extend their operations whenever they found that any branches of scientific knowledge required that more attention should be paid to them, and that greater facilities should be afforded for their cultivation.