-THE MUSINGS WITHOUT METHOD. PRO OXFORD AND THE WORKING CLASS-THE BROAD AVENUE TO SCHOLARSHIP statement of a feeble case that THERE is a mighty perturba tion in the University of Oxford. The more ardent spirits burn with the zeal of reform. to discern a plain meaning They are convinced that the through the mist of rhetoric institution, which they are in which the report is envelbound to defend and uphold, oped, and the difficulty of does not do its duty by the understanding is increased by working man. They have the candid admissions of the discovered that the best and signatories. They confess that easiest passport to Oxford is "every single college in Oxford poverty; and in order that was founded for the purposes the poor man should enjoy the of learning," and at the same would cast down all barriers of the colleges to disregard these privileges now denied him, they time urge that it is the duty of knowledge and expense. They purposes. would admit him within their with Dr Rashdall that in the portals though he knew no old days, as now, "it was only single word of any language than his own vernacular. They students in a University, and would award him scholarships though he had never studied University graduates, who bethe rudiments, a knowledge of longed to the pauper or servi which is rigorously from the merely rich. They acknowledge a very small proportion of the a still smaller proportion of exacted tor class," and insist that the And University is disloyal to its they would do all this that traditions because it does not rich and poor should bow their throw open its doors to any heads to the same law without poor man, intelligent or ignor fear or favour. ant, who demands admission. "who that commonly adopted in this ing classes," they say, Their method of procedure is "To the majority of the workgarrulous age: they have held are in receipt of incomes less a conference, in which an equal number of University gradu- which excludes a student be than £80 per annum, a system ates and working men took cause his parents' means are part. The report which they small appears indistinguishable I have issued, with the title in effect from one which ex Education' (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press), is so bold a are Roman Catholics or Nonconformists." Here is a mani man inequality of means is a necessary part of modern life. Bad or good, it has always prevailed and still prevails. A young of wealth and leisure may purchase education as he purchases boots or hats, and as he helps to fill the coffers of the University, he inflicts no injury on any one. He may be unfit to receive the benefits of education. Idleness or stupidity may prevent him from distinguishing himself in the schools. But the risk is his own or his parents', and it is only envy that can complain. By the working class, which has neither wealth nor leisure, admission is gained to the University by another and a better roadthe road of learning and intelligence. And this road is free to all who are gifted with industry and zeal. "There is no doubt," says our report, "that working-class opinion is inclined to the view that Oxford has been far too much in the past the exclusive possession of the wealthier section of the community, and that it would resent any proposal which did not create a broad avenue along which intelligent workmen could proceed to Oxford." If this be the opinion of the working class, the sooner it is corrected by a few plain facts the better; and as for the "broad avenue,' there is no intelligent boy who may not now proceed along it to the highest honours which the University has to bestow. fest confusion of ideas. An democratic in the highest sense. Of the scholar, rich or poor, it has never been asked how much money is in your pocket, but how much knowledge is in your head. The history of our Universities is the history of talent, not of class. Porson, the son of a parish clerk, found his way through Eton to the professorship of Greek at Cambridge, and since Porson's time the facilities have increased tenfold. The Universities are to-day precisely what the signatories of this report, by urging that they should be, pretend that they are not "the apex of a single educational system, of which the foundation is the primary school." The ladder is complete and efficient, as any one may see who analyses the class-lists. And not only is the ladder far more easily climbed than heretofore, but it is climbed with a dignity and an absence of vulgarity which in the old days were unknown. Time was when the poor man was marked out from his companions, and suffered in his pride at every step towards his degree. The statutes of Balliol, for instance, directed that "each of the Fellows was to have the nomination of one scholar, sufficiently learned in plainsong and grammar, who was to live on the broken meat of the Fellows' table, and to be the servitor of his patron." Long since these dishonouring duties were abolished. The child of the working class does the same work, enjoys the same privileges, and plays the same games as the child of the rich. If he be clever enough to win The truth is, the career of learning has always been open to the talents. It is a career The Failure of University Extension. 135 a scholarship, there is no check paration for a University. It on his ambition; and we cannot is, indeed, a University's combut think that the signatories plete antithesis, and we regret of this report, by setting up a that deans and tutors should fresh opposition between rich thus seek to befog the brain and poor, are guilty of a snob- of the working man, and to bishness of which the Univer- ensnare him along sities have long been innocent. where he would find nothing They would, in fact, restore but ruin and hypocrisy. the grade, if not the name, of servitor. Their purpose, briefly, is to a road The object of the deans and tutors is not learning but "Changes in the politics. admit to the University work- structure of English society," ing men, who have neither the we are told by one of them, knowledge nor the inclination "are throwing more and more for higher studies. They would responsibility on the shoulders invite within their colleges men of with than men who have had no no other qualification opportunity of obtaining the They would not ask them says, is desirable in governors." that they are poor. synoptic mind which, as Plato to pass an entrance examina- This responsibility is a sad tion, because they would pro- truth; it is a still sadder truth ceed, after a long interval that there is nothing which our not taught. This lack of learn- The members of the Labour elementary school, governors, new or old, want where the dead languages are less than a synoptic mind. ing does not dismay them. party are returned to Parliaally that, though the formal pale reflections of Oxford dons, They "wish to state emphatic- ment, not that they may be from an education of the of the working but that they may carry Nor has classes at present stops with thither a knowledge of their the elementary school, the in- class and its needs. formal education obtained by the plan adopted in this report them through discussion in the the smallest chance of producworkshop and at meetings of ing the mind desired by Plato. their societies is in itself an ex Had the signatories been con a University." This, if we may ties, it would have been difficult cellent preparation for study in tent with rhetorical generalisay it without disrespect to the to confute them. Unhappily erudite signatories, is pure non sense. cussion in the workshop is an excellent preparation for life That the informal dis- been induced to sketch certain for their own case, they have argument, are learnt those ex courses of instruction. With a candour which we cannot too University Extension. We all we should be the first to admit. highly commend, they confess There, in the open stress of at the outset the failure of cellent lessons of truth and sin- remember the brave words and cerity which neither Oxford nor braver hopes which heralded Cambridge can teach. But this this mournful system. A new discussion is not a proper pre- heaven and a new earth were to be created by the zealous missionaries of learning. The torch of culture was to be set alight in every humble home. The blessings of Oxford, immensely overrated, were to be carried to all those who could not go and fetch them. And now it is a failure! Indeed, it was bound to be, as all things must fail which masquerade under names too fine for them. It is not systematic enough, we are told; its subjects shift and change too rapidly; it produces not scholars, but smatterers. So another plan must be adopted, which is warranted to have the same result. Briefly stated, the plan is as follows: Certain centres are to be selected, in which for a period of two years lectures and classes will be given; the proficiency of the students will be properly tested at the end of these two years, and those who are thought worthy will be selected to pursue their studies at Oxford. The specimens of these courses, here given, do not inspire us with confidence. By far the most useful is that in Economics, and there is nothing in this course which could not be acquired elsewhere than in Oxford, and by an easier method than a complete interruption of the working man's craft. As for the course in English Literature (1785-1900), it is the crudest form of dilettanteism, which would put the working man at a permanent disadvantage. If in the intervals of his business he chooses to read Keats and Tennyson, that is his own own affair. It is almost incredible that he should be asked to forget his trade, to lose the certainty of hand and eye, for the mere purpose of studying, in the discomfort of a strange college, the works of poets, which can belong to him only if he be drawn to the reading of them by an irresistible sympathy. man who But, however admirable these studies were, the experiment would still be dangerous. All we ask of a good workman, as of a good scholar, is that he should be loyal and honest in his trade. To turn a good stone-mason or an active railway porter into an indifferent critic of poetry is the wickedest waste of time. It is worse than a waste of time: it is a direct incentive to hypocrisy. However, our signatories argue that in their opinion "a throughout life works with his hands needs a general education for precisely the same reason that it is needed by a specialist like a lawyer or a doctor, in order that he may be a good citizen." Even if this were true, it would be irrelevant. No wise man would call in a doctor or consult a lawyer who had spared two or three valuable years from active practice to hear professors chatter of literature. It is the discipline of education which is worth most to the student, and discipline is sternly eliminated from the curricula of these well-intentioned tutors. If they set a man down to fight with Chinese or struggle with Greek, he might win some advantage from the encounter. He will get nothing but evil the result so small, the injustice And for this hazardous ex that we are surprised a single resident in Oxford should be found to support the scheme. periment the working man is to the working man, the UniAnd if an injustice is done to be kidnapped to Oxford versity itself is not spared. when the responsibilities of life The signatories, acknowledging are heavy upon him. He is not that every college in Oxford to be caught too young. These was founded for "the purposes solemn scholars, in discussing of learning," are willing to the difficulties of their project, trample under foot the wishes declare that their victim must of their pious founders. They not only be fed and housed while will kiss the rod of democracy their in residence at Oxford, but sup- in all humility of spirit. They ported "during the period after are prepared to forget their leaving Oxford in which he is duty and to sacrifice likely to be looking for employ- ideals at the first asking of Is it not a reckless, their new rulers- the mob. ment." preposterous comedy! save a The Henceforth education is for working man is to be snatched them a thing "which meets from his business, taught smattering of Shelley and They quote with approval an Dickens, and then thrust back extract from a letter from the upon a harsh, cruel world, with Barry Branch of the Amalno employment, a forgotten gamated Society of Railway name, and nothing to live upon Servants. The Railway Serwith literature and history. ready to accept the gifts of the casual acquaintance vants, at any rate, are not I do for the honest man, whom terms. If they come to Oxford The least the University can University, save on their is to keep him in books and suppliants but as masters, not pitifully misguide, at all, they will come not as natural life. And he is not but of imperious exaction. But the only one who will suffer. "If he is married,"-we quote word the pleasant arrogance of & the needs of the workpeople." it would so the ipsissima verba, own we would not suppress by a family has to be considered." resolution in full : Is not this a gem of humour? is inexpedient for the Working the working man's wife, when relationship with Oxford by Can you not imagine the rage of Classes to cultivate a closer she is told that her husband University Extension Lectures, "his the Barry Branch. Here is its "That it is to desert her for the classic or any other methods, until shades of Oxford, whence he the teachings of the Universiwill return without a job, and a distaste for manual toil? The ties are radically altered, so that a truer view of social displacement is so great and questions may be taught, and |