making part of the examination for the Lower Honours; and the publication (I do not mean the printing, but the public exposition) of some of the best answers. I think that these measures would tend to limit the practice of reading with Private Tutors, so far as it is desirable that the practice should be limited. I think too that the same measures would, as I have already attempted to show, tend to restore to our educational system some of its beneficial influences which have of late been impaired. [268] In thus urging that a greater publicity should be given to our examinations, I shall not, I trust, be by any person so entirely misunderstood, as to be supposed to imply that there is in them at present any want of fairness and impartiality. I can repeat with pleasure what I formerly said. "The University of Cambridge is proud, and with much justice, of the acknowledged purity of her examinations. They are free from all taint of sinister practices; above partiality and the suspicion of partiality." The change which I suggest, is recommended as a matter, not of justice, but of improved polity;-not as an improvement in the administration, but in the system. And in this view, I believe such changes would produce the beneficial effects I pointed to; and among the rest would remove, if not the dependance upon Private Tutors, at least that blind and universal dependance which impairs the value of our University Education. 269 I have intimated that the University has already legislated with a view to the suppression of evils produced by Private Tuition. At one time, this appears to have been done on the ground of its being necessary that the examinations should be above suspicion. The fact of Moderators examining their own pupils, might readily give rise to partiality, real or *University Education, p. 56. supposed. The first Grace on this subject, so far as I am aware, is the following; and its penalties are directed against Tutors who, when they are about to be Moderators, take Private Pupils who are about to be candidates. 1777. Jun. 21. "Cum Academiæ maximè intersit in examinationibus publicis Sophistarum æqui justique rationem tum haberi diligentissimê, tum habitam liquido patere; "Placeat vobis Ne cui unquam qui hisce examinationibus præfuerit post diem primum sequentis Termini, in Tutelam suam privatam liceat ad docendum recipere Juvenem ullum, qui proximis sit Comitiis Gradum Baccalaurei in Artibus suscepturus; Quod si quis contra hoc Decretum peccaverit ab officio suo prorsus amoveatur." 270 Notwithstanding this Grace, it would appear that the practice gained ground in the University; for the next Grace speaks of it as almost universal among the Sophs. 1781. Jan. 25. "Cum mos nuper in Academiâ invaluerit ut unusquisque fere Sophistarum aliquem sibi auxilii causâ inter studia quæ ad Gradum Baccalaureatûs in Artibus spectant sub privati Tutoris nomine asciscat, non sine Academiæ Infamiâ et gravissimis eorum expensis qui summo labore suo et curâ studiosos alunt: "Placeat vobis ut si quis in posterum Scholaris intra biennium gradum suscepturus, inter studia quæ ad Gradum Baccalaureatûs in Artibus spectant prosequenda, cujuslibet usus fuerit auxilio intra Academiam directè vel indirectè, stipendio aut mercede conducti, sive privati Tutoris, seu alio quocunque sub nomine hujusmodi, omnem sibi aditum ad senioritatem baccalaureis reservatam præclusum intelligat.” 271 This latter Grace, was, I believe, for a time effectual; inasmuch as it expressed the opinion of the governing part of the University; and placed a person who was a candidate for honours after having read with a Private Tutor during any part of the last two years, in the condition of a competitor who takes a forbidden advantage. But in order to make this legis lation entirely and permanently effective, it would have been proper that the Moderators, before assigning to any candidate an honour, should require a certificate that he had not offended against the Grace. Such a certificate might be given by a Prælector of each College, "to the best of his belief," and signed by the Head of the College; and such would, as I conceive, have been a mode of carrying into effect the above Law, conformable to the practice of the University in analogous cases. 272 The practice of reading with Private Tutors continued to prevail, and the objections to it also continued to be entertained, though not perhaps to the same extent. I conceive that, in the period of which I now speak, the objections were, the tendency to destroy independent study and intellectual vigour; for the prohibition is no longer directed against Tutors examining their own pupils. The time at the end of the student's career during which reading with a Private Tutor was prohibited, was gradually diminished. By a Grace, 1807, April 9, it was reduced to a year and a half: by another Grace, 1815, July 3, to one year. 273 The last Grace upon this subject is, I believe, the following: 1824. Maii 19. "Cum gratia à vobis Jan. 25, 1781 concessa sit, 'Ut si quis in posterum scholaris, &c.' (as above) et gratia à vobis 9 Apr. 1807 concessa sit, Ut spatium biennii in gratiâ Jan. 25, 1781 concessâ definitum ad spatium unius anni et semissis reducatur :' "Placeat vobis ut gratiæ duæ prædictæ abrogentur: atque ut si quis in posterum scholaris intra sex menses ex Calendarii computo ad respondendum quæstioni admittendus, inter studia quæ ad Gradum Baccalaureatûs in Artibus spectant prosequenda, cujuslibet usus fuerit auxilio, intra Academiam, directè vel indirectè, sive Privati Tutoris seu alio quocunque sub nomine hujusmodi, omnem sibi aditum ad senioritatem Baccalaureis reservatam præclusum intelligat." 274 This Grace is, as I conceive, still in force. . Perhaps the omission of the Grace of 1815, in the notice of those rescinded, shows how little these Graces had really been habitually referred to in University proceedings: and as I have said, the course which was pointed out by the analogy of our practice, as the proper mode of carrying the Law into effect, was not taken. But the Law, as it now stands unrepealed, is, as seems to me, a very judicious Law. It tends to prevent the dependance upon Private Tutors, and the absence of independent thought, from continuing to the end of the student's career; and provides an interval, during which he is expected to digest and assimilate the materials which he has acquired during his previous course of study. I should conceive Moderators and Examiners to be following the course which the Law of the University prescribes, if they were to require from every candidate for honours, a certificate that "in pursuing the studies which belong to the degree of Bachelor of Arts, he has not, within the University, used the assistance of any one, directly or indirectly, either as Private Tutor or in any like capacity." By whom this certificate should be given, whether by the candidate himself, or by the officers of his College, is a matter to be determined by the Governors of the University. 275 The Grace of 1824 is, in one respect, more sweeping than the previous ones, inasmuch as it omits the condition "stipendio aut mercede conducti," which they had contained. Perhaps it was conceived that with this clause, the law might be too easily evaded; for the gratuitous Private Tuition of the last six months might easily come to be considered a customary appendage to the previous stipendiary Tuition of one or two years. The Grace appears at first sight too sweeping to be practically acted upon; as the words "cujuslibet usus fuerit auxilio," appear to prohibit the assistance of Public as well as of Private Tutors; but I conceive that not only does the general scheme of the constitution of the University and of its Colleges exclude this application, but that the words which follow, "sive Privati Tutoris seu alio quodcumque sub nomine hujusmodi," sufficiently indicate the class of assistance which is prohibited by this Grace. 276 This Grace is, as I have said, still in force. Yet its existence is, I believe, not generally known in the University; and it has certainly been, of late years, habitually disregarded. The same is the case, as we have already seen, with the Grace of directing that the Polloi should be arranged in four alphabetical classes. Perhaps we may be allowed to say, that these facts suggest the propriety of some course being adopted in the administration of the University, by which the Laws passed for its direction shall be kept permanently before the notice of its members. 277 If the prohibition of Private Tutors within the University during the student's last six months were carried into effect; if the University Examinations were rendered public, as to the performances of the candidates, and were made to include a considerable portion of viva voce examination; I believe that we might look for a material improvement in the general condition of the University, and in the effect of our Education. The College Examinations could then be more nearly assimilated to the University Examinations. This result, which all members of the Univerversity, probably, will think a desirable one, would be much facilitated by the authorized adoption of Standard Works or Standard Syllabuses, both of the lower, and of the higher subjects; and by enforcing the often expressed desire of the University, that a knowledge of the lower subjects shall be a necessary condition of obtaining honours in the higher ones. The subjects of |