The very success of Owens College as an educational agency in the town and district in which it was situated was, for the moment, the cause of opposition to its attempt to obtain for itself university powers. Other towns, conscious of the benefit of such institutions, were seeking to establish colleges of the type of Owens College, and which it was hoped might ultimately develop into universities. Leeds had founded the Yorkshire College in 1874. Originally started as a science college, and with special reference to the educational requirements of the industries of the district, its scope had been rapidly enlarged so as to include arts and languages. It had already established relations with the local medical school, and its development as a college was not very dissimilar from that of Owens prior to the extension movement. At that time it had upwards of four hundred students—registered occasional, medical, and evening—with some eighteen professors, instructors, and assistants, and an income from fees of about £1,500. The governing body of the Yorkshire College, and others interested in its progress, therefore viewed with some apprehension the establishment of a degree-granting body so close to its own area. The majority were not opposed to the creation of another university in the north of England, provided that the interests of their own college were safe-guarded. They desired that the charter of the contemplated university might be so modified as to admit of the inclusion of other institutions of collegiate rank which might be able to fulfil the conditions of incorporation as constituent colleges with a definite share in its government. This, indeed, was actually contemplated by the promoters of the Manchester University, but the terms of incorporation were, in the opinion of Yorkshire, not sufficiently well defined, and there were other conditions which failed to satisfy local aspirations. The friends of the young College were keen and active; the Leeds Press took up their cause, and public opinion in the district set strongly in their favour.
As the action of the neighbouring county was successful in effecting certain fundamental modifications in the Constitution of the proposed new University, it may be desirable to give some account of the origin and growth of the Yorkshire College up to the period with which we are now concerned, and to point out the reasons which seemed to its friends to justify their efforts to safeguard its position in the interests of the higher education of an industrial community hardly less populous than that of Manchester and its immediate vicinity.
CHAPTER IV
THE YORKSHIRE COLLEGE
The Yorkshire College of Science, as it was first styled, had its origin in the general movement towards a fuller recognition of the duty of the community in regard to national education, of which the Education Act of 1870, the Technical Instruction Act of 1889, and the more comprehensive Education Act of 1902 were at once the signs and the practical outcome. The immediate cause of the creation of the College may, however, be said to have been found in the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867. One of the reporters of that exhibition was a well-known Leeds merchant, the late Mr. Thomas Nussey. In a report in vol. iii of the General Reports, Mr. Nussey drew attention to the great advance that had been made since the London Exhibition of 1862 in the quality, style, and cheapness of production of the foreign exhibits. Whilst he was of opinion that Great Britain might still be said to maintain its pre-eminent position in the woollen industry, Leeds and the West Riding generally had failed in many classes to make the best use of their opportunities. He proceeded to point out to what in his judgment the great advance in the character of the continental production was due. He says:
There can be no doubt that the French, Belgian, and Prussian manufacturers are greatly indebted for their progress in this and many other industries to the very superior technical education which their manufacturers and workmen obtain by means of the schools instituted for special instruction, not only in design, but in everything which has any relation to each particular manufacture. Without education we cannot expect to have skilled workmen of the highest class, and to a fair general education must be added a special training under good masters in every branch of trade. The adoption of similar schools in Britain will before long become a necessity, and the sooner they are established the better.
Prompt effect to these opinions was given by two other members of the same family in a pamphlet, published in Leeds, entitled: “A Technical Institution for Leeds and District, proposed by George Henry Nussey and Arthur Nussey. Leeds: Edward Baines and Sons, 1867.” This institution was avowedly designed to serve the interests of the staple industries of the West Riding. Its projectors formulated a scheme of technical education which should in the first place combine the existing School of Art with a School of Weaving and Design, and should afford instruction in mechanical engineering; in the manufacture and dyeing of woollen and worsted goods; in weaving and designing; in the manufacture of linens, and of leather; in mining, metallurgy, and building construction. Two years later they sought to give a practical development of their ideas by establishing “The Leeds Art and Science Institute” in connection with the Science and Art Department, South Kensington. Six teachers and assistants were engaged and the classes were held in the evenings.
Other agencies, however, were at work tending to the same end. There is a small social organization in Leeds which has existed since 1849, known as the Conversation Club, and which, with less ambitious aims, has played much the same part in the intellectual life of the town that the famous Lunar Society did in that of Birmingham. In this club the idea of an Educational Council for Leeds took its rise, and out of this grew the Yorkshire Board of Education, of which Lord Frederick Cavendish, M.P., was President, and Sir Andrew Fairbairn, and Dr. J. D. Heaton, an active member of the Conversation Club and of the Educational Council, were Vice-Presidents.