Pearls & Parasites

by Sir A. E. Shipley

On a consideration of the analysis just made, and of the additional facts that the Reserve Fund set aside by the University for building and equipment during the years of her development is now exhausted, and that her borrowing powers have been seriously reduced, it would appear that further progress is almost entirely dependent on an increase of endowment.

A few years ago certain of the University authorities, foreseeing the approach of a financial crisis, put away their pride, and, with the countenance of the chancellor, boldly begged for help. Their appeal resulted in the collection of about £100,000, which has been expended on the erection and equipment of various buildings devoted to science, such as the museum of geology and the botany school, the University itself contributing a large proportion of the expense incurred. In the list of contributors occur the names of no fewer than 500 Cambridge men, past and present, out of a total of 620 names. This number is a sufficient retort to the suggestion which has been made that Cambridge does not help herself. It must be remembered, too, that a sum of about £14,000 a year is contributed by members of the Senate to the funds of the University and of the colleges for the privilege of continued membership, and that these fees are often paid out of very slender incomes on grounds which are, as a rule, purely patriotic.

In enumerating the needs of the various departments it is fitting that the older studies and their modern developments should be first passed in review, for, though in certain respects these studies are well equipped, and though the provision of what is necessary would not be so costly as in the case of science, yet, in the deficiency of income available for development, there is real danger that the humanities may be starved.

Theology is well endowed by the piety of former generations. Yet the present Bishop of Winchester, when Hulsean Professor of Divinity, pleaded for an increased stipend for the professors which would permit them to save enough to retire upon; and, in view of the small sum, £200 a year, which the University is able to pay to its pension fund, such an increase cannot be said to be unreasonable. In law, a new post for the teaching of jurisprudence, or of jurisprudence combined with Roman law, is the chief requirement. The teaching of Latin and Greek is largely and effectively supplemented by the provision made by the colleges, but the demand for a professorship instead of a readership in classical archæology cannot be called extravagant, while it is little short of scandalous that the University possesses no professor, and can make no permanent provision for the study of ancient philosophy.

The teaching of Oriental languages is perhaps more dependent than that of any other subject on the self-sacrificing generosity of the staff. Though but a nominal stipend and a nominal duty attach to his chair, the Lord Almoner’s professor of Arabic voluntarily undertakes a large share of the teaching. The payment of the Talmudic reader, depending mainly on the generosity of a private person, is guaranteed only during the tenure of the present reader. The cost of the colloquial teaching of spoken Arabic, Turkish, and Persian by native instructors is guaranteed, and sometimes in part provided, by the Sir Thomas Adams professor of Arabic. The professor of Chinese has the inadequate stipend of £200; and the professorship terminates with the tenure of the present holder. Apart from the necessity of providing teaching for practical students, the proper care of the Chinese library alone renders the permanence of the professorship a necessity. There is no professorship or readership of Japanese. The stipend of the present lecturer in Persian is inadequate. Egyptology is not provided for, although there is a fine collection of mortuary objects in the Fitzwilliam Museum; and Assyriology, although the professor of Assyriology at King’s College, London, lives in Cambridge, is wholly unrepresented. No provision is made for the teaching of the Iranian dialects. Altogether some £2,000 a year could well be spent in Oriental languages alone.

There is no chair of English literature in the University. The professorship of Anglo-Saxon is a recent endowment. By the exertions of the occupant of that chair a sum of £2,100 has been collected, which yields an endowment of £60 a year for an English lectureship. To this small stipend the University adds £50 a year. It is not surprising that the distinguished student who has so long occupied the post should at last have been attracted to London by a higher stipend.

French and German are represented by two readers, who in the last twenty years have taken a large share in the development of a sound and growing school. In the provision for the teaching of modern languages, Cambridge ought not to be behind the northern Universities; and it is most desirable that professorships should be established in at least French and German. The University is indebted to a private fund for a small endowment for the lectureship in Russian and other Sclavonic tongues. This lectureship should be made permanent; and lectureships should be established in Spanish and Italian.

As in the case of classics and mathematics, the University teaching in history is largely supplemented by the colleges; but the Regius professor pleads for an additional reader and two lecturers. A central building with professors’ rooms and lecture-rooms and accommodation for the professorial library is urgently required.

The newly-established school of economics and politics is in urgent need of three or four lectureships, to which definite duties in research should be attached, in order to extend the present range of economic study, and to bring it close to the great problems of modern industry. While in the Universities of Edinburgh, London, Manchester, Leeds, North and South Wales, and Montreal, political economy is taught by economists trained at Cambridge, their alma mater is starved of the means necessary to produce their successors.

The anthropological collections are, for want of space, in a chaotic state. The University is fortunate in possessing many ardent workers; and its collections are most valuable. The existing museum of archæology and ethnology is, however, quite inadequate for their display, or even for their storage; and a disused warehouse has been hired at Newnham to accommodate the further collections which generous donors continue to present. To such an extent has it been necessary to carry the economy practised in this department that the shelves of the warehouse have been made from old boxes. A site for a new museum has been provided by the University, and plans have been prepared; but without the help of extraneous benefactions it is impossible to build at present. An adequate building would cost perhaps £25,000. The removal of the museum to a new site would set free space greatly needed for other purposes. The Disney professor of archæology and the curator of the archæological museum plead also for the foundation of a chair, or at least a readership, for the comparative study of religions; and, in view of the relations of the Empire to every kind of cult, it is scarcely creditable that neither of the older Universities makes any provision for this study.