at least to the Prince whom I have the honour to serve it has no application. There are few rulers who have more fully recognised the obligations and the responsibilities of Government than has the present Nizam of Hyderabad; and the record of the progress of this State during the past few years would be entirely incomplete without a respectful recognition on our part of the constant and cheerful sacrifice of self by our ruler to those duties which are involved in his exalted position. MOHSIN-UL-MULK (MEHDI ALI). Hyderabad: August 3, 1882. THE UNIVERSITIES IN CONTACT WITH THE PEOPLE. DURING the last fourteen years a remarkable movement in education has, without attracting much public attention, been gradually defining itself. Beginning as a mere experiment on the part of the University of Cambridge, it has lately assumed an importance such as its originators could scarcely have anticipated and such as seems to indicate that a great era in popular education has already commenced. Indeed the effects of this movement promise to extend even further, and will in all probability react on the Universities themselves. And its history is as full of interest as it is full of significance. No one who follows it with attention can, we think, doubt that, loud as may be the popular demand for education on its technical and practical side, there exists among the people generally, deepseated and wide-spread even where its presence may be least suspected, not merely a sense of the value of the higher education, but an eager desire to avail themselves of every opportunity of obtaining access to it; that as these opportunities are multiplied the number of those who will use them will multiply in proportion; that a serious interest in literature, in philosophy, in history, in science will form a new feature in middle and lower middle-class life; that at no very distant date hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of our humblest and poorest citizens will be receiving collaterally with the work of their lives, and at the hands of the same teachers, an education as liberal, as systematic, as thorough as that of their more fortunate fellow-countrymen at Oxford and Cambridge. The origin of the movement was this: Some twenty years ago there existed in several of our large towns what were called Ladies' Educational Associations, which had been formed for the purpose of organising courses of lectures for ladies only. These lectures were as a rule undertaken by graduates of the Universities. They were so successful that free evening courses on the same model were arranged for the benefit of the working classes and of young men engaged in business during the day. The popularity of these was so great that it soon became apparent that the only difficulty in the way of indefinitely extending them was partly the difficulty of finding competent VOL. XXVI.-No. 152. PP lecturers and partly the difficulty of remunerating them for their services, which obviously could not be voluntary. At this point Professor Stuart, of Trinity College, Cambridge, to whose energy and zeal the movement owes more than it owes to any single man, took the matter up. Experience had now shown that the three great sections of the community which had hitherto been either partially or entirely excluded from the benefits of the higher education had distinctly appealed for its extension. Of these one section consisted of ladies and persons of leisure, another section of persons engaged during the day in the various duties of mercantile or professional life, and the third of mechanics and working men. The scheme which at once suggested itself was that a higher fee should be required from those who attended the afternoon lectures, and that the surplus thus obtained should go to make up the deficit caused by the imposition of a much lower fee on the evening audiences. The difficulty of providing adequate remuneration for each lecturer would, it was thought, be met by the co-operation of several towns in the same district and the formation of lecturing circuits. While these questions were in debate an important step had been taken at Nottingham. It was resolved to make a formal appeal to the University of Cambridge for a supply of lecturers and for a definite scheme of higher education. Similar petitions were, about the same time, drawn up and presented by several other provincial towns. The University not unnaturally hesitated before undertaking responsibilities which involved so unprecedented a departure from its traditions. But though it was slow in moving it moved at last; and in 1872 a syndicate was appointed to inquire into the best way of meeting the requests made by the memorialists. It was empowered for a period of two years to try the experiment of instituting lectures and classes in a limited number of populous centres, and of appointing examiners to test the work. The experiment succeeded. The syndicate was made permanent and invested with power to organise and superintend courses of lectures wherever the requisite funds should be guaranteed from local sources. And with the appointment of this syndicate the real history of the movement begins. The method on which the lectures and classes were to be conducted was prescribed by the syndicate. The lecture was to last an hour, and was to deal generally with the subject of which it treated. In the class, which was at first held on a different day, but which was subsequently held either immediately before or immediately after the general lecture, the lecturer was to deal in detail with such portions of his subject as required a more colloquial treatment, and to comment on the papers sent in to him during the preceding week. A full' syllabus of each lecture was to be placed in the hands of every student, and this syllabus was to contain questions, written answers to which the students were to be invited to send in to the lecturer The general success of the lectures and the growing demand for their extension proved conclusively that they were supplying a great national want. Nor was this all. In a large percentage of the students who attended them-and of these students not a few had displayed astonishing ability and energy-they had kindled a desire to pursue systematically and thoroughly the studies which in a few lectures could only be initiated, and to enter on a regular course of higher education. If this was to be made possible, it could only become so by placing the lectures on a permanent basis, and by providing also for continuity of study. What was wanted was the institution of a regular curriculum extending over two or three years. But, as the lectures had virtually to be self-supporting and were consequently dependent, not on those who attended them as mere students anxious to find in them a means of systematic education, but on that large class who, deriving perhaps equal benefit from them, sought in them what London audiences seek in the lectures of the Royal Institution or of the Sunday Society, a hopeless difficulty appeared to present itself. The liberality of a private gentleman led to its solution. In the autumn of 1874 the sum of 10,000%. was offered to the Town Council of Nottingham, if they would erect buildings for the accommodation of the University lecturers to the satisfaction of the University of Cambridge, and dedicate them to the use of such lecturers so long as lecturers authorised by a syndicate, either of Oxford or Cambridge, shall be conducting regular courses of instruction in Nottingham.' The offer was accepted, and the foundation of University College, Nottingham, was the result. Sheffield followed. The noble donation of 20,000l. by Mr. Mark Firth, the president of the local committee at Sheffield, enabled the committee to erect a college, which is now one of the most thriving centres of provincial culture. In the college at Leeds and in the college at Liverpool we have equally striking illustrations of the process by which an organised system of methodical teaching-a permanent local curriculum-develops naturally and directly out of a system of instruction in the first instance almost necessarily occasional, because necessarily dependent on popular support. But instability and casualness in the work of education neither deserve nor are likely to find favour in the eyes of University legislators. And to minimise these elements by endeavouring in every way to secure permanency and continuity of teaching became the anxious care of the syndicate. A curriculum of study extending over three years ought, they thought, to be insisted on. A great step towards this had been attained by the foundation of the local colleges. A further step was now taken by utilising local institutions. At Hull, for example, the lectures and classes became attached to the Royal Institution, and a three-years' curriculum was arranged. For the sum of 330l. per annum the University engaged to keep one of its lecturers resident in the town during the session, to provide in every way for the efficient carrying out of the scheme, and to supply the following teaching: FIRST YEAR. Day Course. 1. History lecture and class. 2. Day class. Advanced class for previous students in astronomy. Evening Course. 3. Geology lecture and class. 4. Evening class. Advanced class for previous students in political economy. 5, 6. Two classes for pupil teachers. SECOND YEAR. Day Course. 1. Science lecture and class. 2. Advanced class for last year's history pupils. Evening Course. 3. History or literature lecture and class. 4. Advanced class for last year's geology pupils. 5, 6. Two classes for pupil teachers or others. THIRD YEAR. Day Course. 1. History or literature lecture and class. 2. Advanced class for last year's science pupils. Evening Course. 3. Science lecture and class. 4. Advanced class for last year's literature pupils. 5, 6. Two classes for pupil teachers or others. |