OXFORD SCHOLARSHIPS AND FELLOWSHIPS.
HAD we been asked to frame provisions under which the stimula- ting power of the fund now devoted to the payment of Scholars and Fellows at Oxford might be applied so as to produce the largest amount of industry among the younger students, the highest at- tainments and the most concentrated energy in the continued pur- suit of knowledge among the graduates, we should unquestionably have been able, after years of deliberation, to devise no means more efficacious than the observance of two simple rules. The one would have enacted, that henceforth no vacancy to any fellowship or scholarship should be filled up except after an examination open to all candidates under certain ages, and not possessed of more than a certain income ; and the second would have simply repealed all existing conditions and restrictions upon the tenure of these emo- luments, with the exception of celibacy and a limitation of the tenure of the scholarships to the period at which the Master's de- gree is usually taken. All the ingenuity in the world would fail in suggesting wiser provisions than these for stimulating school- boys to work hard for the scholarships, which would help them through their Oxford course, and encouraging the ablest of the students to devote themselves to a life of learning, by the certainty of a small but competent income fettered by no conditions what- ever but those of honourable and virtuous conduct. Our guarantee in this case, that the life tenure of the fellowships would not have degenerated into a practical sinecure, would have rested in the habits and tastes formed during the years of preparatory study, in the select character of the Fellows chosen on such an unrestricted system of competition, in the smallness of the income assured them except as the result of further continuous exertion, and in the re- tention of the prohibition to marry. Under this system, as under any other that human skill might devise, the love of ease might here and there tempt some man to sit down contented at five-and- twenty with 2001. a year; but we confidently appeal to experience of English ambition, and to the general standard of what is con- sidered comfortable wealth in this country, whether the cases would be numerous in which men of the highest proved ability and attainments would be content to remain idle bachelors all their lives because by so doing they could secure to themselves 2001. a year. But it is said, that though such a treatment of College emolu- ments would doubtless render them more effective as intellectual prizes, it would divert them from the object of their founders,— which, was, to support learned men in the pursuit of a learning that brought no profit in the world, not to maintain clever young men engaged in the various pursuits of profitable active life ; to congregate learned men of mature age at Oxford, not to diffuse through the kingdom well-educated young barristers, physicians, and clergymen. The object of the founders was the promotion of learning and piety,—an object as desirable in our age as in theirs : the means they took to attain it was to provide a maintenance at Oxford for learned and pious men who were to occupy themselves in study, in religious exercises, and the education of the younger students ; which means it is within our competence to discuss, and to modify to suit the altered wants of our time. Now, our social circumstances have altered in exactly, the points that relate to the restrictions upon the tenure of fellowships. The clergy are not the only votaries of knowledge now ; nor are theology, canon law, and physic, the only branches of learning and science estimated highly among us : there is no local centre of learning and science ; or if there is one in England, London must certainly in many respects be held to be the metropolis of letters as well as of government and business. It seems to us, therefore, that all the original rea- sons for saddling fellowships with the condition of taking orders or proceeding in the faculties of law and physic, and of residence at Oxford, are obsolete ; and with the reasons the conditions ought to cease. We keep the condition of celibacy, not from any prefer. ence for that state, but to secure convenience of life in College, and a succession of vacancies, which must be provided where the funds are small in comparison with the demands upon them. The con- dition of residence is useless in respect of securing a sufficient number of Fellows to carry on the education of the College, be- cause the income derivable from College tuition will always prove sufficient attraction for that purpose ; and, generally, residence in College has so many pleasures and advantages for a Fellow, that these may be safely depended on for securing always within the walls of the Colleges a large proportion of the actual Fellow Our principle is, that there would be sufficient charm in an Ox- ford life, and in the duties and emoluments attached to College tuition, among the class who would obtain fellowships on a system of unrestricted competition,to secure all the objects of the founders of fellowships without the imposition of any restrictions on the tenure of fellowships beyond those of celibacy and the non-posses- sion of more than a certain income. The reason why we object to the restrictions retained or newly imposed by the Oxford Reform Bill is, that they tend either to deter the ablest men from com- peting for them, or force them against their inclinations and capa- cities into particular professions, thereby lessening the value of the fellowships as rewards and stimulants, end depriving the commu- nity of the advantage that arises from leaving men of talent free to follow in life the bent of their natural dispositions, when a vi- gorous and long-continued training has drawn out what was best and corrected the weaknesses and inequalities among their inherent qualities. We furthermore object, that the University of Oxford is hereby still sacrificed for the superfluous purpose of keeping up the Church of England ; whereby the double mischief is effected-, that men of secular tastes and pursuits are diverted from their proper objects to be made reluctant and therefore inefficient cler- gymen, and that learning and science are tainted with all manner of theological whimsies and dogmas. The church, the bar, and physic, are surely professions that need no peculiar protection in this country ; and the first of the three may, so far as Colleges are concerned, surely reckon on a sufficient number of College Fellows, so long as Colleges retain the rich Church preferment of which most of them are in possession.
The Government, however, entertains notions as far as possible almost from these. Allowing close Fellowships to remain, only within much narrowed limits, and under striot conditions of exa- mination-tests, it offers to competition an article greatly reduced in value by restrictions, which, in our opinion, will not only not tend to effect the object aimed at, the residence at Oxford of men devoted more than at present to hard study and assiduous tuition, but will damage the society of the place by reluctant and discon- tented residents, seriously interfere with the tuition of the Col- leges by forcing upon it men who have no taste or vocation for the employment, and present the immoral spectacle of a solemn farce habitually enacted under the name of certificates of study. That, even with these drawbacks, the proposed system will be an im- provement on the one heretofore in practice, we do not deny, though we are by no means confident of the result. But, when the system is to be overhauled by Parliament, we do not see why the work should be half-done, meat inevitably to be done again in twenty years' time,—though, indeed, till religions teats be abolished, and the National Universities made available for the nation, the question of University Reform cannot be considered as even tem- porarily settled.
We have preferred to state our own opinions of what would have been the best course to take with respect to those revenues of Oxford reserved for Scholarships and Fellowships, rather than criticize the Government propositions in detail. It is, perhaps, the last opportunity of touching the question before the decision of the Committee ; and we would urge them to consider, as prac- tical men of the world, acquainted with the motives upon which men ordinarily act, whether the provision of the bill imposing a certain choice of profession upon non-resident Fellows as the con- dition of retaining their fellowships for seven years, is likely to be of any validity in securing a more real study in such profes- sions than would follow from self-interest and natural inclination without any such provision ; and, secondly, whether the provision which imposes upon resident Fellows the condition of certificated study is not certain to induce more habitual practical falsehood and sham, and to turn out a more contemptible farce, than any of the solemn statutes which are at present sworn to and violated every day at Oxford. We shoUld like to know whose particular maggot this is : we are quite sure that if the House of Commons pass it at all, it will be with their tongues in their cheeks, as in fact amounting to a permission to a resident Fellow to amuse himself as he pleases. Extend the permission, and let him do his pleasure where he pleases, and we have nothing to object. If the Oxford Fellow prefer residence in Oxford, of course he will reside without compulsion ; if he prefer study, he will study without compulsion : if he do not like to reside, his residence will be productive of no advantage to himself or others ; and if he do not like to study, he cannot be made to study, though he may be forced to declare himself a student. The test of the scheme is its practicability. Let Government plainly state in de- tail how they intend to ascertain whether a certificated student is really studying. If they will venture to face the House, of Com- mons with any scheme in detail for this object, we will concede that our objections are ignorant and rash. Till then, we pronounce the device unworthy of the good sense of grown men and statesmen. Much of a piece with the wisdom of this provision is the liberality of the permission to retain a fellowship without residence, after fulfilling the conditions of College tuition, &o., for a number of years ; the proceeds of the fellowship being, however, in that case reduced by one-third. When it is remembered that the bill fixes the income of a fellowship, so far as it is found possible to raise it to such a sum, at 2501., and that probably 2001. will be nearer the average, we are sure that the House of Commons will not help highly-salaried and highly-pensioned statesmen to deprive men of letters of one-third of such a paltry income, or, by forcing them under this penalty to reside in a place where the very proposal shows that the Government itself sees no good reason for keeping them, subject them to a restraint which has no object. We do not doubt that the intentions of Government in all these petty pro- visions have been sincere and honest. They are the result of at- tempts to secure by legislation what legislation cannot secure; and a clean sweep of them all is the best remedy, which we do not despair of seeing the House of Commons adopt. Let fellowships
be thrown open to ample competition • let the work of tuition be paid upon something like the soak of Other liberal professions; and the character_ of goo Yellows so chosen, with such emoluments within their reach, will be the best guarantee against sloth and sinecurism ; at least no others will operate except at the cost of having inferior men.
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