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Weston-super-Mare To W. Allingham, Esq. My dear Sir, In the year 1846, as soon as Sir Robert Peel had announced his conversion in the matter of Free Trade in Corn, Mr. John Bright called on me, (I was then living at Manchester) and told me as soon as the subscribers to the Anti Corn Law League were liberated from that task they would erect a great University in Manchester. Of course he could tell no details, but said that purses would be freely opened, and they would desire to gather counsel from all minds which took large views and had studied education professionally; and the reason of his calling on me was, to warn me, that I was one of those to whom they should look to give an elaborate and well reasoned opinion concerning the curriculum of study and other important topics. In consequence I prepared two lectures, in part with the design of delivering them to prepare public opinion, in part to sift and clear my own mind, and analyze all the topics to the bottom. The first lecture I finished in detail: it was on the Political Aspects of Universities. The second lecture was on the Curriculum. In it I designed to maintain, that the Curriculum of Oxford & Cambridge was unsuited to the wants of the present age; that it could not be altered effectually for a very long while; but a new University, if one were determined on, might start afresh with vast advantage, with a wholly new Curriculum; and that hereby more quickly than in any other way the old curriculum in Oxford &c. would be altered. Before I had finished the second lecture a Mr. Owen died, leaving property estimated at above £100,000 for establishing a College at Manchester.[*] At once rich men buttoned up their pockets, and no more was heard of John Bright's Machester University. The trustees of Owen's College asked no public advice, and conformed their college as closely as they could to the old routine. In twenty-five years the pressure of events or of Manchester sentiment has forced them to give more and more weight to modern studies. In consequence my lectures, finished and unfinished, have remained in my closet to this day untouched and useless. Naturally there are allusions to Sir Robert Peel and his recent conversion, and to the want of reform in Oxford and Cambridge; but these are easily omitted. It now occurs to me,—the second lecture being in fact the subject on which I was about to write for you,—or rather containing my subject—(the moral influence of the Greek and Latin classics being a part of it), it occurs to me to consider whether possibly the subject of the first lecture may seem to you to have interest for Fraser. I could make them either separate, or parts of a whole. I am, very sincerely yours,
[*John Owen, railway investor and exporter of cotton and corn, died in 1846, leaving a bequest variously represented at between £96,000 and £97,000 for the purpose of founding a non-sectarian men's college. Owens College obtained a Royal Charter in 1880, then becoming Victoria University of Manchester.—FWNRC.] |