College Fellowships.

The settlement of annuities upon college graduates to encourage and aid postgraduate study in special branches, is a system first introduced by Oxford and Cambridge. The various colleges of which Oxford is composed, possess about three hundred fellowships, which are held for various lengths of time, some of them for life; but marriage, ecclesiastical advancement, or accession to a certain amount of property, compel the holder to surrender his fellowship. The fellow is elected after a severe competitive examination, and is hampered by very few conditions in the enjoyment of his income, and is at liberty to pursue almost any course of study. In some extreme cases, unfortunately, he simply receives his money very regularly, and does little to improve his scholarship or to advance learning and culture. The fellows of a college form its governing body, corresponding somewhat to our overseers.

The incomes of Oxford fellowships' very from L125, the average being about L100. The total annual income of the university is about L250,000; more than any other university in the world receives, and of this large sum more than one-third is expended in fellowships every year. Cambridge, being a smaller university, cannot make so large an appropriation, but is very generous.

The German universities have no system of fellowships. This seems at first strange, but a reason for the absence of this system, which has proved so beneficial in England, may be found in the excellence of the universities themselves. It is thought, perhaps, that there is little need for a student to go outside of a German university. In fact, holders of English and American fellowships generally go to a German university to continue their study.

The advantages for post-graduate study offered by American colleges, are very few compared with those presented by English universities. It is to be regretted that such is the case, for the fellowship system in American colleges would be, in the opinion of high authorities in educational matters, a very efficient aid to advanced scholarship and to science. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, and the Johns Hopkins University, are the principal literary institutions of this country which offer fellowships. Yale has seven fellowships, varying in value from forty-six dollars to six hundred; two are of the larger amount. The prosecution of a non-professional course of study in New Haven, under the direction of the faculty, is the general condition of holding them. By a "non-professional course," law, medicine and theology are debarred. Princeton, about five years ago, had six fellowships, and was expecting to add more. This has been done, but the exact number and value of the fellowships we do not know. These fellowships are held for a year, and the income of three is six hundred dollars each, and of the rest, three hundred dollars each. President McCosh secured the introduction of fellowships at Princeton.

Harvard has eleven fellowships of a larger value than most of those in American colleges. Two have an annual income of about six hundred dollars, four of five hundred, and four of eight hundred dollars each. The latter are called "traveling fellowships," and their holders generally prosecute their chosen study in Germany. These fellowships may be held for many years. One of these fellowships was founded in 1871 by George Bancroft, the historian. About 65 years ago Edward Everett suggested to President Kirkland that it would be well to send a young Harvard graduate to Germany to study. President Kirkland approved, and chose Bancroft, then eighteen years of age. He went to the university of Gottingen, the first American student who ever studied in Germany by the assistance of this college. It is interesting to notice that the great historian, the first holder of anything like a fellowship in America, was the founder of the most valuable fellowship in American colleges. He must have had a deep appreciation of the advantages which a fellowship confers.

The Johns Hopkins University of Baltimore heads the list of American colleges, however, in generous provisions for advanced study. This young, but rich and prosperous institution, with an endowment of three and a half millions, provides twenty fellowships, each yielding an annual income of five hundred dollars. They are bestowed upon advanced scholars from any place. The chief condition is that the holder shall have a decided liking for some special department of knowledge, in addition to a liberal education and good character. At the first assignment of fellowships in 1876, there were one hundred and forty-two applicants, representing forty-six colleges. The fellowships are in some cases renewable to the same holders. The progress of the fellow is tested from time to time by the writing of a thesis, or the delivery of a lecture. The system has been attended in its workings by great success, and the great encouragement to original thought and investigation, has produced results very gratifying both to the holders, and the givers of the fellowships.