Page images
PDF
EPUB

leges were provided, not for the poor, but for the noble. Many Colleges, too, which had been originally for the poor, opened their gates to the rich, not as fellows or foundation-students, but as simple lodgers, or what are now called independent members, such as monasteries might have received in a former age. This was especially the case with the College of Navarre at Paris; and the change has continued remarkably impressed upon Oxford and Cambridge even down to this day, with this additional peculiarity, that, while the influence of aristocracy upon those Universities is not less than it was, the influence of other political classes has been introduced into the academic cloisters also. Never has learned institution been more directly political and national than the University of Oxford. Some of its Colleges represent the talent of the nation, others its rank and fashion, others its wealth; others have been the organs of the government of the day; while others, and the majority, represent one or other division, chiefly local, of the country party. That all this has rather destroyed, than subserved, the University itself, which Colleges originally were instituted to complete, I will not take upon myself to deny; but good comes out of many things which are in the way to evil, and this antagonism of the Collegiate to the University principle was not worked out, till Colleges had first rendered signal service to the University, and that, not only by completing it in those points where the University was weak, but even corroborating it in those in which it was strong. The whole nation, brought into the University by means of the Colleges, gave the University itself a vigor and a stability which the abundant influx of foreigners had not been able to secure. As in the twelfth aud thirteenth centuries French, German, and Italian students had flocked to the University of Oxford, and made its name famous in distant lands, so in the fifteenth, all ranks and classes of the nation furnished it with pupils, and what was wanting in their number or variety, compared with the former era, was compensated by their splendor or political importance. At that time nobles moved only in state, and surrounded themselves with retainers and servants, with an ostentation which has now quite gone out of 'fashion. Huber informs us that, before the wars of the Roses, and when the aristocracy were more powerful than the king, each noble family sent up at least one son to Oxford with an ample retinue of followers. Nor were the towns in that age less closely united to the University than the upper classes, by reason of the numerous members of it that belonged to the clerical order, the popular character of that institution, and its intimate connection, as now, with the seat of learning. Thus town and country, high and low, north and south, had a common stake in the academical institutions, and took a personal interest in the academical proceedings. The degree possessed a sort of indeli ble character, which all classes understood; and the people at large were more or less partakers of a cultivation which the aristocracy were beginning to appreciate. And, though railroad traveling certainly did not then exist, communication between the students and their homes occurred with a frequency which could not be when they came from abroad; and Oxford became in a peculiar way a national and political center. Not only in vacations and term. time was there a stated ebbing and flowing of the academical youth, but messengers posted to and fro between Oxford and all parts of the country in all seasons of the year. So intimate was this connection, that Oxford became a sort of selected arena for the conflicts of the various interests of the nation, and

a serious University strife was received far and wide as the presage of civil

war.

Such an united action of the Collegiate and of the National principle, far from being prejudicial, was simply favorable to the principle of a University. It was a later age which sacrificed the University to the College. We must look to the last two or three centuries, if we would witness the ascendancy of the College idea in the English Universities, to the extreme prejudice, not indeed of its own peculiar usefulness (for that it has retained), but of the University itself. Huber, who gives us this account of Oxford, and who is neither Catholic on the one hand, nor innovator on the existing state of things on the other, warming yet saddening at his own picture, ends by observing: "Those days never can return; for the plain reason that then men learned and taught by the living word, but now by the dead paper."

What has been here drawn out from the history of Oxford, admits of ample illustration from the parallel history of Paris. We find Chancellor Gerson on one occasion remonstrating in the name of his University with the French king. "Shall the University, being what she is, shut her eyes and be silent? What would all France say, whose pupulation she is ever exhorting, by means of her members, to patience and good obedience to the king and rulers? Does not she represent the universal realm, nay, the whole world? She is the vigorous seminary of the whole body politic, whence issue men of every kind of excellence. Therefore in behalf of the whole of France, of all states of men, of all her friends, who can not be present here, she ought to expostulate and cry, 'Long live the king.'"

There is one other historical peculiarity attached to Colleges, to which I will briefly allude before concluding. If Colleges with their endowments and local interests, provincial or county, are necessarily, when compared with Universities, of a national character, it follows that the education which they will administer, will also be national, and adapted to all ranks and classes of the community. And if so, then again it follows, that they will be far more given to the study of the Arts than to the learned professions, or to any special class of pursuits at all; and such in matter of fact has ever been the case. They have inherited under changed circumstances the position of the monastic teaching founded by Charlemagne, and have continued its primitive tradition, through, and in spite of, the noble intellectual developments, to which Universities have given occasion. The Historical link between the Monasteries and the Colleges have been the Nations, as some words of Antony à Wood about the latter suggest, and as the very name of "Nation" makes probable; and indeed the Colleges were hardly more than the Nations formally established and endowed, with Provosts and Wardens in the place of Proctors.

Bulus has some remarks on the subject of Colleges, which illustrate the points I have last insisted on, and several others which have previously come before us. He says:

The College system had no slight influence in restoring Latin composition. Indeed Letters were publicly professed in Colleges, and that, not only by persons on the foundation, but by others also who lived within the walls, though external to the body, and who were admitted to the schools of the Masters and to the classes in a fixed order and by regulated steps. On the contrary, we find that all the ancient Colleges were established for the education and instruction of poor scholars, members of the foundation; but in the fifteenth

century other ranks were gradually introduced also. By this means the lecturer was stimulated by the largeness of the classes, and the pupil by emulation, while the opportunities of a truant life were removed. Accordingly laws were frequently promulgated and statutes passed, with a view of bringing the martinets and wandering scholars within the walls of the Colleges. We do not know exactly when this practice began; it is generally thought that the College of Navarre, which was reformed in the year 1464, was the first to open its gates to these public professors of letters. It is certain, that in former ages the teachers of grammar and rhetoric had schools of their own, or hired houses and hostels, where they received pupils; but in this century, teachers of grammar, or of rhetoric, or of philosophy, began to teach within the Colleges.

The influence of the College-of the constant and intimate associate of its membership on the social and political life of the country is immense. When the mind is most impressible, when the affections are warmest, when associa tions are made for life, when the character is most ingenuous and the sentiment of reverence is most powerful, the future landowner, or statesman, or lawyer, or clergyman comes up to a College in the Universities. There he forms friendships, there he spends his happiest days; and, whatever is his career there, brilliant or obscure, virtuous or vicious, in after years, when he looks back on the past, he finds himself bound by ties of gratitude and regret to the memories of his college life. He has received favors from the Fellows, he has dined with the warden or provost; he has unconsciously imbibed to the full the beauty and the music of the place. The routine of duties and observances, the preachings and the examinations and the lectures, the dresses and the ceremonies, the officials whom he feared, the buildings or gardens that he admired, rest upon his mind and his heart, and the shade of the past becomes a sort of shrine to which he makes continual silent offerings of attachment and devotion. It is a second home, not so tender, but more noble and majestic and authoritative. Through his life he more or less keeps up a connection with it and its successive sojourners. He has a brother or intimate friend on the foundation, or he is training up his son to be a member of it. hears that a blow is leveled at the colleges, and that they are in commotionthat his own College, Head, and Fellows, have met together, and put forward a declaration calling on its members to come up and rally around it and defend it, a chord is struck within him, more thrilling than any other; he burns with esprit de corps and generous indignation; and he is driven up to the scene of his early education, under the keenness of his feelings, to vote, to sign, to protest, to do just what he is told to do, from confidence in the truth of the representations made to him, and from sympathy with the appeal. He appears on the scene of action ready for battle on the appointed day, and there he meets others like himself, brought up by the same summons; he gazes on old faces, revives old friendships, awakens old reminiscences, and goes back to the country with the renewed freshness of youth upon him. Thus, wherever you look, to the north or south of England, to the east or west, you find the interest of the colleges dominant; they extend their roots all over the country, and can scarcely be overturned, certainly not suddenly overturned, without a revolution.

When then he

MILITARY AND NAVAL SCHOOLS IN RUSSIA.

MILITARY EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENTS IN 1870.

OWING to the great lack of elementary schools in Russia, and to the fact that the educated middle class forms but a small fraction of the population, it was found necessary to pay great attention to the organization of large military schools for the purpose of educating officers for the army; hence the large number of these establishments in Russia, as compared with other countries.

In 1864 and 1868, the Russian government introduced some very important improvements in the system of military education; the amended system may now fairly be said to answer all ordinary requirements. A strong feeling of duty, a high military spirit, and a healthy patriotism are carefully infused into the pupils; qualities which can not fail, eventually, to be productive of valuable results.

The institutions, as regards the branches of study, are conducted in conjunction with each other and with the ordinary schools. Admission is dependent on a severe preliminary examination, and candidates, if qualified, can be at once admitted into the higher classes.

The classification depends upon the number of marks obtained; the total of each candidate decides the position he will hold in the school, and subsequently, in the army.

A board of military education has been formed by the chief administrative authorities of the military educational establishments, which comprises highly educated officers of superior rank, and also qualified regimental officers. It regulates the instruction and education to be imparted at the schools. The teachers and instructors in each school form an educational board under the presidency of the director, which superintends the method of conducting instruction, and has power to suggest improvements.

A course for the training of instructors is connected with the military college at St. Petersburg, and a special institution has been established at Moscow for the same purpose.

*The Armed Strength of Russia, -translated from Die Wehrkraft Russland (published at Vienna, in 1871, by the Austrian War Department), at the Statistical Department of the War Office. London, 1872.

27

(417)

Candidates for nomination as instructors, who have not passed through either of the above institutions, have to undergo an examination before receiving their appointments.

As a rule in all military educational establishments, the number of pupils in one class is limited to 30; where this number is exceeded, 'parallel classes' have to be formed.

All officers who attend the military schools, either as instructors or students, receive increased pay; by this means the position of teachers and of the more industrious portion of the army is materially improved.

The military educational establishment of Russia may, speaking generally, be divided into four main categories:

(1) Preparatory schools.

(11) Schools for the training of officers.

(1) Training schools for special branches.

(IV.) Schools for the higher professional education of officers.

I. THE PREPARATORY SCHOOLS.

(1) The Elementary Military Schools.

These are ten in number, the course of instruction at each lasting

[blocks in formation]

Of these 2,800, 500 pass out each year.

Sons of all officers and of officials holding officers' rank are admitted between the ages of 12 and 15, on producing satisfactory certificates of instr ction in religion, reading, writing, and arithmetic. The pupils are here prepared for the cadet schools. The expenses of each pupil amount to 257. 16s. per annum.

(2.) The Military Schools.

Of these there are ten in Europe and two in Asia, namely; two at St. Petersburg, two at Moscow, one each at Ural, Poltava, Woronetz, Kiev, Plock, Nishegorod, Orenburg, and Omsk. Each military school has six classes. The number of pupils at each of those in European Russia is 300, (at Kiev 400), at those in Asia 310; the total number amounting to 3,720.

The sons of the privileged classes only are admitted. They must be between the ages of 10 and 14, and must either have passed through one of the elementary schools named above, or undergo an entrance examination.

The object of these schools is to train the pupils for admission to

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »