342 It is obvious that this question of the improvement of the value of the Law Degree, and of the increase of its estimation in the eyes of the University is clearly connected with other points here discussed; namely, with the Moral Sciences Tripos, and with the introduction of a philosophical or substantial Element into the Classical Tripos. For the extended circle of subjects of which we have spoken as the proper Examination for the Law Degree, agrees very nearly with the circle of subjects for the Moral Sciences Tripos. And since the philosophical part of the Classical Tripos Examination, which we have suggested as desirable, includes Morality, Law and Polity as treated by Classical writers, it would also take in some of the subjects of the Law Degree; for instance, the moral reasons of laws, and the illustration of the Classics by means of the Roman Law. At least these three parts of the University System (the Moral Sciences Tripos, the Civil Law Examination, and the Substantial Classical Examination) would have so close a bearing upon each other, that it would be very desirable that the University should habitually consider them as connected in their substance, and should make its arrangements with that view.

343 Perhaps this might be done by establishing a Board of Moral Studies (or a Board of Law Studies, if that term were preferred) somewhat resembling the Board of Mathematical Studies lately established. Such a Board might consist of all the Professors who are Examiners for the Moral Sciences Tripos, and of the persons, not Professors, who have been Examiners either for the Moral Sciences Tripos or (supposing the above suggestions adopted) for the Law Degree, for the last two or three years. Such a Board might select and appoint, every year, certain books as the special subjects of Examination for the Law Degree, as certain Boards now select the subjects for the Voluntary Theo

logical Examination, the Previous Examination, and the changeable Classical subjects of the B.A. Examination.

As I have already said, in suggesting a Board of Classical Studies, I believe such an introduction of special books as subjects of study, in addition to the general matter of the subject, to be a very beneficial arrangement. To select certain portions of Grotius, for instance, or of Niebuhr, or of Blackstone, would enable the Examiner to make the Examination in certain definite points more extensive and searching than could otherwise be done, and would test the amount of skill and vigour with which the Candidate could direct his studies to certain predetermined points. I do not think any measure would do so much as this, to connect, with a Law Degree, an exact knowledge of some of the capital works on the subject, and thus, to make the preparation for such a Degree something more than a conventional accumulation of technical propositions.

344 Such a Board of Moral Studies would not have any direct control over the Classical Tripos Studies; but its selection of books, and any notifications which it might have to make, would of course have their influence upon Classical scholars, both those who took the line of Law, and those who aimed at the Moral Sciences Tripos: and this influence would, it may be supposed, extend soon to the substantial part of the Classical Tripos Examination, (of course through the Board of Classical Studies, if such a Board were established). The Board of Moral Studies, would probably include in its list of Law Examination subjects such works as Plato's Laws, Aristotle's Polity. Cicero's Laws, Cicero's Republic, Niebuhr's Rome, and the like; and these would also certainly (as I have said) form prominent parts of the substantial Classical Tripos Examination. And thus, the Faculty of Laws and the Classical Tripos would really be con

nected; and would be connected by the element which they have in common as parts of a really Liberal Education; the element which does not belong either to the mere schoolboy, or the mere jurist, but to the worthy recipient of University Honours.

345 I formerly stated (281) that if such a new Tripos as I there described were instituted, Prizes, analogous to the Medals and other Prizes now given to the greatest Mathematical and Classical proficiency, might be expected to be offered to the University. This has already been verified, so far as Moral Philosophy is concerned; and probably this kind of encouragement will be hereafter given to other subjects. And when persons who have obtained such distinctions as these come before the Electors for Fellowships, the honours thus won will not fail to operate in their favour; and thus the Moral Sciences, (and in like manner the Natural Sciences,) will be established in the University, and the cultivation of them maintained, by the same means as those by which Mathematical and Classical Studies have been so long upheld in prosperity.

SECT. 4. The Natural Sciences Tripos.

346 The Natural Sciences included in this title are the following: Human and Comparative Anatomy, Physiology, Chemistry, Botany, Geology, and Mineralogy excluding the Mathematical part of Crystallography. The Examiners are the Professors of Physic, Anatomy, Chemistry, Botany, Geology, Mineralogy, with an additional Examiner appointed by the Senate, as in the Moral Sciences Tripos. The Examination takes place a little after the Examination for the B.A. Degree.

347 It is evident that to frame such an Examination of four days, including in due proportions all the

above subjects, and to compare the aggregate merits of candidates, taking all the subjects together, must be difficult: more difficult, perhaps, than in the case of the Moral Sciences. There can be no doubt, however, that the Examiners may, by conference among themselves, make arrangements which may in a great degree overcome this difficulty. And such an attempt to combine the various Natural Sciences into one system will not be without its value for the study of the Sciences themselves.

348 Each Science in this list is capable of being pursued so as to occupy a life, and therefore cannot be exhausted in a few hours of Examination. And in particular, Anatomy is so much a science of detail, that it may at first seem impossible that such a brief Examination in that subject should be of any value. But this objection is greatly removed by considering that the Sciences are here to be taken in connection : that Human and Comparative Anatomy go together, the one being used to illustrate the other:-and that Comparative Anatomy is to be considered mainly in connection with Geology. Such considerations as these may be used to limit and fix the Examinations which would be conducted in these subjects; and probably will be so applied by the Professors in their Examinations and in their Lectures.

349 There is another difficulty belonging to these Sciences as Subjects of Examination; namely, this; that the Examiners, in order to be really decisive of the knowledge of the competitors, must be answered, not by means of words merely, but by a reference to specimens and experiments. A knowledge of Botany is shown, among other ways, by naming species presented, and practically exhibiting their structure; a knowledge of Geology, by referring given specimens to their place in the series of strata, in virtue, for instance, of the organic fossils which they contain, or of other

characters; a knowledge of Chemistry, by determining the elements of a substance by means of actual tests or analysis: and the same in other sciences. This is, no doubt, a difficulty: but it has been overcome, both in the Examinations which form part of a professional (for instance, a medical) education, and in the general educational systems of other places; overcome at least so far, as to make these Natural Sciences important parts of the education so conducted. I presume therefore that among ourselves, the difficulty may be overcome to at least the same extent.

350 It may appear a defect in the above scheme that Zoology does not enter as one of the Natural Sciences, especially as Botany does: the classification of animals, it may be said, is as instructive and as important as the classification of plants. And no doubt this is a defect in the scheme, considered as a systematic combination of sciences: although to a certain extent, the blank is supplied by Comparative Anatomy. But it is to be recollected that the new scheme of studies was constructed by bringing into a new mode of operation the Professorships already existing in the University; and as we have no Professorship of Zoology, or of any branch of it, that science was necessarily not among those which were named. Nor is the defect a fatal imperfection in our system: for Botany is a good representative of the Classificatory Sciences, which is one view of Zoology; while Comparative Anatomy (and Physiology in some degree) gives the results of another aspect of Zoology. Still, if at any future period there should exist in the University a Professor of Zoology, it would naturally follow that he and his subject ought to enter into the arrangements of the Natural Sciences Tripos.

351 It does not appear necessary at present to propose a Board of Natural Studies, as we proposed a Board of Moral Studies; for there does not exist