FROM

THE

MILLENNIAL HARBINGER.

SERIES III.

VOL. V.	B E T H A N Y, JANUARY, 1848.	NO. I.

      My dear Clarinda--WHILE in London, I resolved to make a special visit to Cambridge and Oxford. Indeed, appointments for me to deliver discourses at these great seats of learning had been published before I reached London. But, on learning that it was vacation at both of them, and that Professors and Masters of colleges, as well as Students, were all adrift and dispersed over the kingdom, I preferred to recruit my health by an excursion to France, and withdraw my appointments to lecture at the Universities.--Still I determined to make a call, if not a visit to them, and to survey both the buildings, the libraries, the lecture rooms, and all that appertained to them, hoping to find some of the Professors or Fellows of some of the Colleges on the ground. It is, indeed, but some sixty or seventy miles rail-road from London to Cambridge, and through as beautiful and as highly cultivated a section of England as any one through which I passed.

      On arriving at the University so soon after the inauguration of Prince Albert, the present Chancellor, and after the dispersion of [10] the Masters, Professors, and Students, I found matters somewhat in confusion, yet more than enough to engross my attention during my stay. Every thing that the most liberal endowment and the rich legacies of its friends and patrons could bestow on the buildings, the college grounds, the libraries, and apparatus of the University has been done. The amplitude, neatness, and beauty of the grounds connected with its seventeen colleges; the magnificent public walks, shaded with the most stately and umbrageous elms, amidst green terraces and gently flowing streams of water, skirted with verdant borders and occasional clumps of well assorted shrubbery, lend enchantment to the scenes around the venerable piles of antique buildings which constitute the chief of English Universities. Nothing extrinsic of the institution itself struck me with so much force as the excellent order and style in which the grounds, the trees, the parks, the flowers, and the buildings are kept. I saw not the mark of a knife on tree or shrub, on door, or window, on all the premises of this much frequented and very extensive institution. Not one pane of glass was broken, not one door or window appeared to have been profaned by the unhallowed touch of any insubordinate or reckless knight of the pocket-knife. Certainly, said I to myself, there are no "Yankees" educated at Cambridge.

      These remarks, indeed, are mainly true of all the English and Scotch Colleges and Universities. In their preservation and neatness--in their freedom from outrage and abuse, they are more like private residences of well bred and well educated gentlemen, than public seminaries for young men and boys. But from the grounds and exterior circumstances we must hasten to the interior arrangements of this celebrated institution. But in the first place we shall answer a very frequent and common question--What means THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE? It may be of more use and interest to some of our readers to understand something of its organization and character, than to read any thing we could say of its buildings or of their contents.

      In the first place, then, we shall define the institution from its own authentic documents:--"The University of Cambridge is a society of students in all and every of the liberal arts and sciences, incorporated (43 Elizabeth, c. 29) by the name of The Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University of Cambridge. This commonwealth is the union of seventeen Colleges, or societies devoted to the study of learning and knowledge, and for the better service of the Church and of the State. Each College is a body corporate, bound by its own statutes, but is likewise controlled by the [11] paramount laws of the University. The present University statutes were given by Queen Elizabeth in the 12th year of her reign. Each of the seventeen Colleges furnishes members both for the executive and legislative branches of its government. In this assembly, which holds its meetings in the Senate House, all Masters of Arts, Doctors of Divinity, Law and Physic, may vote, who have their names enrolled on its books a sufficient time. The present eligible voters amount to about 3500.

      The executive officers of the University are a Chancellor, High Steward, Vice-Chancellor, Commissary, Public Orator, Assessors, two Proctors annually elected, Librarian, Registrary, two Taxors, two Scrutators, two Moderators, two Esquire Beadles, the University Printer, Library Keepers, Under Library Keepers, School Keeper, and Marshal.

      There are ten different orders of persons in each of these seventeen colleges:--1. Heads of Colleges generally: these are Doctors of Divinity. There are but three exceptions in the seventeen colleges. In these they may be only Doctors in Civil Law or Physic. The head of King's College is called Provost; the head of Queen's College is called President; the heads of all the others. Masters.

      2. Fellows. These are generally Doctors of Divinity, of Civil Law, or Physic; Bachelors of Divinity; Masters or Bachelors of Arts; Bachelors of Incivil Law or Physic. In all these there are 430 Fellowships.

      3. Noblemen Graduates; Doctors in the several Faculties; Bachelors in Divinity and Masters or Bachelors of Arts, Civil Law, or Physic. For the purpose of being members of the Senate, many of them keep their names on the Boards at the expense of from £ 2 to £ 4 per annum.

      4. Ten Year Men. These are allowed to become Bachelors of Divinity without graduating in the Arts at all, provided their names are kept ten years on the Boards, and that two of these ten years have been spent for the greater part in the University.

      5. Bachelors in the Civil Law and Physic.

      6. Bachelors of Arts, who are in statu pupillari, and pay for tuition, whether resident or not, together with certain other conditions.

      7. Fellow-Commoners, generally younger sons of the Nobility, or young men of fortune, who have the privilege of dining at the Fellows' table, whence the appellation originated.

      8. Scholars--foundation members of their respective colleges, and who enjoy various advantages--having their commons paid for, their chambers rent free, specific stipends, &c. &c. [12]

      9. Pensioners, who form the great body of the students, who pay for their commons, chambers, &c. and who enjoy generally no pecuniary advantages from their respective colleges.

      10. Sizars are generally students of limited means. They usually have their commons free, and receive several emoluments.

      The terms or sessions of the University are three per annum. Commencement Day is always July 1st. The candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts must have resided ten terms, or the major part of such terms. The term in which he enters, and that in which he takes the degree, are both counted in the ten."

      But, strange to tell, "the University confers no degree whatever, unless the candidate has previously subscribed a declaration that he is BONA FIDE A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH OF England, as by law established.

      "In conferring the degree of Doctor of Divinity, it must appear that the candidate had been a Bachelor of Divinity of five years standing, or a Master of Arts of twelve years standing."

      Of the seventeen colleges of the University of Cambridge, that of St. Peter is the oldest. It was founded A. D. 1257; and the most recent is Dunning College, founded September 22, 1800. Of the whole number of colleges, thirteen were founded by the Church of Rome, and but four by the Church of England. Of these, the first in point of age and standing is Trinity College, founded in 1546. I was, therefore, most curious and interested to examine its details. The justly celebrated "Rev. William Whewell, D.D.," appointed in 1841, is Master of this College--the celebrated author of that which I have long regarded as the best of the "Bridgewater Treatises." His argument from general physics, or from cosmical arrangements of the material universe, is the fullest and most convincing argument of the seven treatises in proof of the beings and perfections of God as developed in material nature.

      The Queen, and her illustrious consort, the Prince Regent, sojourned as the guests of Dr. Whewell during the inauguration visit. The Doctor's "grace before meat," written in old Latin and recited at table, which I recollect to have read in the London Times during that grand pageant, did far less honor to his practical theology than did the Bridgewater Treatise to his theoretic.

      The arbors for that grand display and the tents were only being in extremis when I entered Trinity College and its library. In this splendid collection of choice works of many ages, I saw much to interest me had I a year or two to spend in it. But a mere glance of the eye over its extensive shelves and well assorted folios [13] was all that I could allot to it. A peep through Sir Isaac Newton's antique telescope, through which he surveyed the heavens, gave me more pleasure than any thing I saw in Trinity College. To handle, to explore, to peep through this homely telescope, handled and used by him who taught the mechanism of the universe, and who demonstrated its fundamental laws, was the richest feast I enjoyed at Cambridge.

      Next to Trinity College, I was most interested in the gorgeous displays of regal pride in King's Church, the richest edifice of its size in Great Britain. All I can say of it here is, that it is after the architectural style and splendor of what is called Woolsey's Hall, in Hampton Court Palace. I had the curiosity to ascend its long winding stairs, and even to place myself on its loftiest summit--a leaden seat on its comb--that I might survey the whole town of Cambridge and all the surrounding country. I sat there alone for almost half an hour, in contemplation not only of the University in its seventeen colleges, covering so great an area--not merely in surveying the city and its entire environs, but in casting a few thoughts over its connexions with the past and future history of England, and with the world that now is, and that which is to come.

      How circumscribed is human vision, said I to myself, not only as respects the objects of the scenes around me, but an respects those which the mind itself surveys! How indistinct those in the remoter part of the few miles which I now survey, compared with those immediately around this splendid edifice! How little did the Roman Catholic founders of thirteen of these seventeen colleges, with all their church infallibility, imagine, when founding them and lavishing on them their gold and their silver, that these very colleges should be alienated from their church and converted into mighty engines to demolish her ancient infallibility and omnipotency!--Such, however, is the fact. The Papal schools and colleges, abbeys, priories, monasteries, convents, glebes, parsonages, &c. &c., have all been not only escheated from her dominion, but have become battering rams and engines of demolition against her grossest superstitions and most palpable abominations. Still these institutions are so combined with evils to man, are so in league with the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, and the pride of life--so hostile to the letter and the spirit of Bible Christianity, that a man must be as spiritually blind as a bat at noon, if he do not see that the hierarchy which these institutions sustain is as worthy of repudiation and annihilation as that which has been, in its outward and political form, denounced and demolished by him that founded [14] Trinity College,¹--(how ridiculous and blasphemous the name!)--the first of the Protestant series of institutions added to, and allied with the Papal colleges baptized into mere Protestantism or reformed Popery.

      May not the time come, continued I to myself, when these schools, and the languages, sciences, and arts which they teach, will be redeemed from their servility to a corrupt and corrupting hierarchy, which, like an incubus, oppresses the energies of a great and mighty nation, and holds it as much in abeyance to all that is animal and sensual in fallen humanity, as that hierarchy which, some three centuries since, it reprobated, condemned, and almost unanimously!!

      But to return from my musings to the University of Cambridge. From the archives of the University, we learned that the Professors derive their annual salaries from various sources, ancient stipends and modern stipends, paid out of the privy purse, or by government. We could not, however, accurately ascertain the aggregate amount of the salaries from all sources. Compared with American Professors, they are, however, liberally rewarded.

      The matriculation fees of new students are paid on the second day of each term on the registering of their names. The fees are as diverse as the rank of the student. Noblemen pay £16, almost $80; a Fellow-Commoner, £12, more than $50; a Pensioner, £5 10s., or $26; and the very Sizer himself pays £15s., or $6. On these, however, there is a government tax and the fees of registry.

      The tuition is paid quarterly, at the following rates:--A Nobleman pays £ 10; Fellow-Commoner, £5; Pensioner, £2 10; a Sizer, 15 shillings, or $50; $25, $12,50, and $3 per quarter.

      To these are added room rent, attendance, coals, laundress' bills, assessed taxes, and college payments, amounting together to £25; Tuition and these accommodations amount to £35. The cost of boarding for 25 weeks, which is the average time of boarding in college during the three terms per annum, at 16 shillings per week, and the laundress' bill of £5 8s., make the annual expenses at Cambridge over £100, or $500 per annum. This is a fair average of all the seventeen colleges composing the University. Every member of the University pays also six shillings, $1,50, for the annual purchase of books for the public library.

      Degrees are not confined to literary merit. "The University sometimes confers degrees without either examination or residence, [15] on such individuals of mature age as are illustrious--not, indeed, merely on account of birth, but for services rendered the state or to literature." Thus in America the degree of L.L.D. has been conferred on several distinguished statesmen, without any literary merit whatsoever. But so sworn to the English hierarchy is the University, that she confers no honors on any man, no matter how great his merit or learning, unless he be a bona fide member of the Church of England!

      The University of Cambridge, by large and liberal prizes, does much to stimulate ambition and to elicit talent. Prizes on foundations of legacies for the purpose, for the encouragement of literature, free and open to competition for the whole University, amount to upwards of £1,500, or $7,260. Three-fourths of this sum are given for classics and English compositions--the remainder for mathematics. Besides this sum there are some $3,400 per annum given by each of the seventeen colleges. Two thirds of this sum is given for the encouragement of classic literature.

      Connected with, and under the supervision of one of the colleges, is a grammar school, called from its founder, "the Perse Free Grammar School." The age of admission is 10 years. The term of continuance may be to the age of 18 years. The scholars all pay ten shilling entrance and twenty shillings per annum. Other scholars than "free scholars" are now admitted, and scholars educated here for three years are to be admitted (coeteris paribus) before all others to fellowships and scholarships in Caius College.

      I have time and space only to note the public buildings, at which I merely glanced, not having time to visit them in detail. The public buildings are:--The University Library, the University Press, the Fitzwilliam Museum; the donation of Viscount Fitzwilliam, a splendid collection of Books, Paintings, Drawings, and Engravings; besides, for its erection and preservation, the gift of some half million of dollars;--the Mesman Museum, holding 248 Paintings and 33 Drawings and Prints; the Cambridge Observatory, in which are a Transit Instrument, of ten feet focal length by Dollond; a Mural Circle, eight feet diameter, and an Equatorial, of five feet in length; also, a magnificent Telescope, of nearly twelve inches aperture, and twenty feet in length, made in Paris, and presented by the Duke of Northumberland, &c. &c.; the Anatomical Museum, the Geological Museum, and the Mineralogical Museum. To these we may add the Botanic Garden, of some four acres; of each of which I cannot, of course, speak particularly. Such is a meagre outline of this grand national institution. But [16] of its great utility to the cause of humanity and religion, I cannot speak with much confidence and shall therefore say nothing. One thing, the disproportion between the outlay and the revenue of good accruing, is most striking and obvious to the most superficial observer. It is all told when I state that, on descending from the roof of King's Church, and on entering into that room in which worship was performed, all the remainder being unoccupied space, with golden roof and marble floor of some 200 feet long, I found but one hundred and twenty fixed seats, for one hundred and twenty persons only, each having its richly gilded psalter, prayer-book, and candlestick. An organ, a gilded pulpit, and a golden eagle with a Bible on its back, completed its furniture. Here were expended one million of dollars and more for the accommodation of but one hundred and twenty persons; and, from all I could learn, these seats are seldom filled with any kind of worshippers, professional or real. In literature and science we must not think that it is as in religion, a grand display--a gigantic institution, without a corresponding utility.------Affectionately, your father,

[The Millennial Harbinger, Third Series, 5 (January 1848): 10-17.]