LORD BROUGHAMrose to ask his noble Friend the Lord President of the Council whether he had any objection to lay upon the table a copy of the Commission which had been issued or was about to be issued for the purpose of inquiring into the state of the universities? After furnishing the House with a narration of the course, which he had pursued when engaged in his inquiries into the state of the charities provided for the promotion of education, and after showing that he had always exempted the universities from those inquiries, he proceeded to maintain that the course which the Government was now prepared to pursue was not a fit course to pursue with regard to the universities either as proprietary bodies—and both the universities were proprietary bodies—or as superintendents of the discipline observed in those illustrious seats of education. It was a course which he was certain would not be efficacious for its own object. In all his Bills on education and charities, he had carefully exempted the 1160 universities from their operation. He did not wish to exempt the universities from inquiry now; but he would have it respectfully suggested to those learned bodies that they should submit to be examined in private. He could state to his noble Friend in private sufficient reasons for pursuing such a course; but he would rather decline stating those reasons publicly. He thought that Her Majesty's Ministers would do well to take this point into consideration before they finally resolved on the issue of a Royal Commission.
§ The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNEwas understood to say that no such Commission as that of which his noble Friend appeared apprehensive had yet been issued. The terms of such a Commission, the powers to be given to it, and the members who were to form it, would all require consideration; and when all those points were settled, they should be immediately submitted to the knowledge of Parliament.
LORD BROUGHAMobserved, that as far as he could learn, the Commission would only have power to receive voluntary statements, and would not be empowered to compel answers to the inquiries which it might be induced to institute. All who were inclined to attack the universities, would give voluntary evidence; and how were the universities to defend themselves from charges so brought against them, and of which, till the charges were published, they would have no information?
§ LORD MONTEAGLEsaid, that those whose province it was to defend the universities, ought to bring before Parliament that evidence which they had in their possession, and which was most essential to the proper consideration of this question. As to Cambridge, he was quite certain that the authorities of that most illustrious university would be ready to produce evidence as to the improvements recently introduced into its course of education—and very creditable those improvements were to those who had suggested and carried them into execution. Those who represented the improvements recently made at Cambridge, felt that such evidence would be a very essential document to lay before Parliament. After complimenting Lord Brougham for his great exertions in the cause of education and charity, he expressed a hope that in the progress of the Bill which must be brought into Parliament on the subject. Parliament would not only ascertain the extent of the evil to be remedied, but also the efficacy of the remedy to 1161 be applied to it. He would undertake to say, from his own knowledge of the improvements made in the system of education at Cambridge, that the cause of academical reform had never made more satisfactory progress than it had in that university in the course of the last three or four years. It was a question, therefore, which required serious deliberation, whether the issue of this Commission would promote or retard sound knowledge in the universities.
§ Subject dropped.