ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES.

The following synopsis of a lecture delivered by James Bryce before the students of Johns Hopkins University, is altogether the best account of England's universities we have ever seen. Its interest will be ample excuse for our devoting so much space to it.

"England now has five universities; formerly there were only two. Scotland has four, two having been united. Oxford and Cambridge have existed for many centuries as fully appointed universities. The University of London is not properly a university, but merely an examining body for granting degrees, and it does that kind of work thoroughly. The University of Durham is new and not yet prominent. The new university at Manchester is the outgrowth of Owens College and was originally endowed, like the Johns Hopkins, by a private founder, afterwards by subscriptions. It has become known chiefly by its work in natural science but desires to encourage humanistic studies equally. We anticipate a great future for it. None of the English or Scotch universities are denominational; none have now (since 1871) religious tests, except that the established church in both England and Scotland has possession of the theological faculties. English universities are self-governed, except London and Manchester, which are controlled respectively by a senate (named by the Crown) and by a board of trustees. The constitutions of Oxford and Cambridge are very complicated and are understood by nobody outside the universities and by few inside. Ancient usage, modern acts of parliament, and their own legislation have all gone to the making of them. These university governments have two modern assemblies, called in Oxford "Convocation" (made up of alumni having degrees) and "Congregation" (made up of graduates resident in the university town). These latter appoint the university council, and all university statutes must pass through the three bodies.

In the matter of teaching, the Scotch universities are much like American colleges. The methods are catechetical; teaching is regarded as more important than examinations; prizes are in vogue and exercise great influence. In Scotland, prizes are usually awarded by vote of the students. Practically the system works better than would awards by the professors. Prizes generally go where they belong. The Scotch universities are cheap, because the fees are low and the students live where they please. Their conspicuous and distinctive merit lies in the great stimulative power of their teaching. In England there is, with less of this stimulus, perhaps more of finished scholarship and greater opportunities for an enjoyable social life. There are three sets of teachers in the English universities: (1) the professors, who have hitherto taken a part in the teaching more dignified than practically important, except in natural science, where they have had nearly all the work to do; (2) the tutors and lecturers, who bear the burden of practical work and give their instruction in connection with some college independent of the university proper; (3) private tutors, or "coaches," from whom forty years ago came nearly all the instruction at English universities, who are now much less active, because both university professors and college teachers have become far more efficient than they were then. In England, examinations have become the main thing and practically control the teaching, although the true view of them would rather be that they should exist as a test of teaching. The examinations, though very old, had become purely formal in the last century: their present importance is comparatively recent. In the Cambridge Triposes, students have heretofore (for a change is now being made) been arranged according to merit. At Oxford the arrangement has been into classes according to merit, the successful men being arranged alphabetically in each class, so that it is not known, unless the examiners give private information, where a man really stands in the class he has reached. Students are the more ambitious to reach as high a class as possible, because fellowships and success, in such a profession as schoolmastering, depend, to a considerable extent, upon such rank.

"The fellowships yield from $750 to $1,000 a year. Most of them are at Oxford awarded for proficiency in the same studies as are required at the examinations in the various schools of the university. There is hence difficulty in England in causing students to follow any lecture course or branches of liberal culture which do not count towards their examinations in the schools, or towards a fellowship. Among the practical university problems of the day are: (1) the reduction of expenses for students. The necessary cost at an English university is from $600 to $1,000 a year. (2) The creation of a more complete system of preparation for the leading professions. Something has been done towards the promotion of training for clergymen and for lawyers. Oxford and Cambridge have deficient facilities for medical training, because the towns are too small to support great hospitals. Natural science is now everywhere encouraged. (3) Ampler provision is required for teaching in a great number of more recondite subjects, and encouragement should be given to men, who do not intend to pass through the whole university course, to come and attend lectures in these subjects. (4) Something should be done to enable the university to help original research, and to increase the number of residents who devote themselves to the pursuit of learning. At present large funds are wasted in what are called "prize-fellowships." Unfortunately the land revenues of the colleges have suffered from the competition of Western America, and money is wanting to carry out some of the most desirable improvements. Broadly considered, the advantages of English university education may be said to consist in the combination of college and university life. The Scotch universities afford efficient class teaching; the German universities give the fullest instruction by professional lectures; the English universities excel in social advantages and in opportunities for forming valuable friendships. The excessive development of their examination system has certainly injured their teaching; but it has been improving in compass as well as in earnestness, and seems likely to improve still further."