influence. We should recollect that we have in our hands, mediately and immediately, no small proportion of the education of the British empire; and that if mere paper examinations by themselves be a very poor and insufficient mode of conducting this education, the University ought not to countenance and practise that mode alone. It is rather her business to discover and establish that combination of oral with paper examinations, and of lectures with both, which are best suited to carry on the work of a Liberal Education, so far as the University is concerned; and by her own practice, to exhibit a model of an educational system which, under due modifications, may be followed in other places with safety and advantage.

256 Having explained the arrangements which would, as I conceive, help to remedy the defects of our Mathematical Education, so far as they exist, I shall proceed to consider measures which have for their object another important point; the combination of Classical and Mathematical Education.

The Chancellor's Medals, given to the best proficients in Classical learning among the commencing Bachelors, are restricted to those who have obtained Senior Optimes at least. This limitation manifestly implies that it was considered desirable that Classical should be combined with Mathematical proficiency. That the Mathematical student should be acquainted with Classics was not, at that time, provided by any University regulation; being assumed, as I conceive, to be sufficiently secured by the general course of School and College education. Afterwards, in 1822, the University passed Laws establishing a Classical Tripos; that is, three Classes of Honours, to be conferred, for Classical merit, upon those who, on taking their Bachelor of Art's Degree, were found to excel in Classical Literature. In this Law, the course of the provisions respecting the Classical Medals was so far

followed, that no persons were admitted as competitors who had not obtained Junior Optimes at least. The University, in this year, likewise required that those who did not obtain Mathematical Honours should, on taking their degree, undergo an Examination in the Iliad and the Eneid; and that all persons should, in their second year of residence, pass a Previous Examination in certain classical subjects selected for the purpose.

257 This Previous Examination was, I believe, assented to by many members of the Senate, on the ground, that it would secure a certain degree of attention to Classical Studies in the first year and a half of the residence of pupils at the University; and would remedy deficiencies in the system of those Colleges which did not, by their internal administration, provide for this amount of scholarship in their students. But this Law did not extend in its requisitions, and has not extended in practice, to any proficiency beyond that which all students ought to possess on leaving School, and entering the University.

This Examination has, I believe, in a great measure answered its purpose, with regard to those who come to College ill-instructed in Classical learning; but it has given a great check to all good schemes of College Education, and to all larger and more progressive plans of University Education. It has also interfered, it would seem, with spontaneous study in other branches of knowledge. It was remarked that on the institution of this Previous Examination, the lecture-rooms of some of the Professors, which used to be filled with voluntary students, (those of Modern History and Chemistry, for instance,) were immediately thinned. Still, the establishment of this Examination was a step to which the University was naturally led, in its wish to remove evils at the time loudly complained of. But it appears to be at present well worth considering, whe

ther our Education would not be improved by placing the Previous Examination at the commencement of the Student's residence, and giving a progressive character, both to the College and the University studies of his academical career (187).

258 If such an Examination were placed at the beginning of the pupil's residence, it might be made to answer the valuable purpose of securing the means of a progressive education by a system of which Schoolteaching, College-teaching, and University Examinations, should form coherent and successive parts. The University may very reasonably require to be satisfied that the pupil brings from School, or from other Teaching, a correct and familiar acquaintance with Latin, and a power of construing ordinary Greek: and along with this, as I have also said, a familiar acquaintance with Arithmetical working. When students possess such a knowledge as this, College Lectures and Examinations, may, by a proper selection of Classical Subjects, as well as of Mathematical, (to which the Progressive Sciences ought also to be added,) be made to carry on a system of Education, which, at the end of three years and a half, shall leave all the students with their minds more cultivated, more expanded, and more instructed, than they were when they entered upon their residence. But if there are many of the students who do not, on commencing their residence, possess the above described amount of knowledge, their labours, and those of their tutors, must be employed, in a great measure, in repairing the defects of their School education, and all attempts at a good combined education at College, will be interrupted and frustrated. If the University were to institute such an Initial Examination as I have suggested, the Colleges, having to deal with better and more consistent materials, would be encouraged to improve their systems of instruction. Moreover if there be anything with which the Uni

versity has reason to be dissatisfied, in the state of instruction in which pupils are sent to College by Grammar Schools and early teachers; such an Examination, steadily enforced, offers an effectual means of producing the requisite improvement: for it cannot be supposed that the Schools would long be content to turn out their scholars in a state of instruction in which they should be rejected by the University.

259 The Examination for Classical Honours, the Classical Tripos, as it is termed, must also be the subject of some remarks here. For reasons already stated (162, &c.), it seems desirable that a portion of this examination should be vivá voce. Such an examination, to be effectual, must occupy a considerable time. But we should, no doubt, if the University were to order such an examination to take place, find able and zealous Examiners to conduct it, as our friends at Oxford do.

260 It may be a question whether our system, of comprizing in the Examinations for Classical Honours the whole body of the best Greek and Latin authors, or the Oxford system, of examining in a few selected works, is likely to make the better scholars. Perhaps, ours tends to make the candidates better acquainted with the Languages; theirs, with the Books. A general examination in the whole body of Greek and Latin literature appears, in the idea, better suited for a final examination. But an examination in defined authors, long prepared for, will be likely to make the candidate better versed in those Authors, with reference to their general matter and objects, as well as their more remarkable passages.

261 I will remark on another point;-the provision in our laws that no person shall be a candidate for a place on the Classical Tripos who is not already placed on the Mathematical Tripos. This rule appears to put an inequality between the two lines of study;

for we do not, necessarily, make Classical honours requisite in order to Mathematical. But this apparent inequality of encouragement is really quite necessary, as a means of restoring the balance between the two lines of study which is commonly so utterly deranged in our Classical Schools. In those, the student, if he have tolerable talent and industry, acquires a knowledge of Greek and Latin Literature, which enables him to pursue it with ease and pleasure; while of Mathematics, he generally acquires only enough to learn to dislike the study, without deriving from his acquirements any help to his future progress. If, therefore, there were a road to Classical Honours at the University for those whose mathematical attainments were very slight, it may be expected that this would be the path generally taken by the more gifted and ambitious of the scholars from our Classical Schools. Hence, in this case, Mathematical Studies would be comparatively neglected among us; and the general proportions of the elements of our Education would be destroyed. It is, in fact, an intellectual benefit to the candidate for Classical Honours, to require of him a knowledge of the parts of Mathematics to which we give our honours. If he cannot, or will not, master these, either he has no power or no disposition to think steadily on any but his favourite subjects. His reason is not cultivated in any proportion to his literary enthusiasm. The University does well, not to encourage students to make such a frame of intellect their model of excellence.

262 If it be said that the mathematical attainments by which our lower mathematical honours are reached, are of such a nature as not really to cultivate the reason, or to imply any valuable instruction; that is certainly a very strong ground for improving the character of that portion of our Mathematical system. Accordingly, I have attempted to shew how such an improvement may be effected, by separating the ex