Five Years at an English University. By Charles Astor Bristed [pp. 294-311]

Five Years in an English University.
"on the books" at the former, has for some years past
exceeded that at the latter. In 1844 Cambridge had 5974,
Oxford, 5657. The relation in which the University and the
Colleges stand to each other, is somewhat analogous to that
between our general and state governments. Each college is
an incorporated society consisting of its President, or master,
Fellows, and Scholars; having its own buildings, chapel,
library, and other property, entirely under its own control.
The University, again, constitutes a distinct corporation, which
besides various official personages and professors, includes all
graduates of a certain standing, whether resident in Cambridge
or not. The last named are in virtue of their degrees, lifemembers of the Senate, or as the name indicates, the great collective legislature of the University, which assembles annually,
and without whose consent no statute can be enacted, and no
honorary degree can be conferred. Cambridge has twentyfive professors; but they have nothing to do with the work of
teaching beyond the delivery of lectures which the student is
under no obligation to attend. Some of these professorships
have large endowments connected with them, e. g. Lady Margaret's Divinity has about ~2000, Lucasian Mathematics, about
~1500, Modern History ~400, Lowndean Astronomy ~300,
Plumian Astronomy ~250, yet notwithstanding these ample
salaries the incumbents demand two or three guineas per term
from all who wish to avail themselves of their instructions.
A young man going up to Cambridge to complete his education, enters some one of these seventeen colleges, and during
his under-graduateship, while bound to observe all the academic
laws and usages, he is properly speaking a member of the college in which he resides, rather than of the University. At
Oxford the applicant for admission is examined, and about the
same amount of knowledge is demanded, as we require from
those who enter the lower classes in our larger colleges. At
Cambridge no examination is necessary before being admitted
to residence by any of the colleges, with the exception of
Trinity-at least such was the case a few years ago; and even
the Trinity examination is by no means one which our students
would reckon rigid. The studies of the freshmen, or the
students of the first year, are under the immediate supervision
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