CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY REGARDING MILITARY EFFICIENCY.

A movement that may culminate in putting the united influence of the great universities of England behind the military education of the young men of the kingdom has just had its inception at Cambridge University, where twelve prominent professors have joined in a proposal that no undergraduate shall receive a degree until he has at least attained efficiency as a member of the Officers' Training Corps or Territorial Force. Sixty-three members of the university senate, the governing body, have approved the idea and have arranged to confer with Oxford with a view to obtaining its co-operation. Going still further, the promoters of this plan hope to see the idea broadened until the civil service and the municipal railway are included in the scheme, by making promotion dependent upon military efficiency. Several factors have contributed to the launching of this proposal, the principal ones being the German war excitement, Lord Roberts' campaign in favor of universal military service, and the nationwide discussion of the value of the consolidated territorial force of Lord Haldane, former Secretary of State for War, which was aimed to establish a great force of citizen soldiers. With such powerful forces working for the military education of the graduates of the two great British institutions of learning there is little doubt that the pleadings of Lord Roberts would receive wider attention, great as has been the consideration already given to them. Whether this project means that the two universities will add to their educational equipment facilities by which military education can be taught, or whether they will expect the undergraduate to acquire his knowledge of the military through the regular means provided by the government in its militia system, is not stated in the outlines of the scheme which have come over the Atlantic cable. If the plan goes into operation it may awaken similar military interest in the curricula of the larger American universities such as Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Princeton, which now are without the services of Regular Army instructors. The only large Eastern university to avail itself of the services of an officer of the Army at present is Cornell, where Lieut, H.T. Bull, 13th United States Cavalry, is instructor. However, this poor showing should not be taken to mean that military training has not presented itself favorably to the heads of our largest educational institutions. Only the other day President Lowell, of Harvard, brought forward a plan for having the collegians spend their summer vacations on battleships for the purpose of learning about naval life, and while the practical quality of this suggestion is not sufficiently marked to bring general commendation still it shows that the head of Harvard is oriented in the right direction. President Hadley, of Yale, has testified to the value of military training to the youth of Germany.