The Right Honourable Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe P.C., D.C.L., F.R.S. / A Biographical Sketch

by T. E. Thorpe

Unfortunately, the recipient of these letters (and of the degree) was unable to be present. He had just succeeded by effluxion of time to a position formerly held by Roscoe himself in “that great examining University” which had in the past so efficiently tested the educational progress of Owens College, and his official duties kept him in London.

October 22, 1882.

I think in spite of Mrs. A. B. B.Sc. it would be as well if you would come to have the V.U. degree granted. If you do not come, unpleasant remarks may be made as to the cause of your absence.

I never supposed you did care for the degree as a degree: it is simply an enrolment of yourself as a bona-fide member of the University.… My feeling is that all those who have an interest in the University and who have taken active steps in its foundation should not hold aloof on this occasion, but show that they are willing and anxious to support the new University to the best of their power.

You took an active part in modifying the original lines on which we had decided to lay our University, and I think that therefore you are, perhaps, more bound than other people to help now to make it a success on its present footing.…

I am very glad you are coming to open our Chemical Society’s Session here on Friday. I fear I may be away as my Commission [Technical Instruction Commission] meets on Wednesday for some consecutive days. If I can get back I will.

The time, perhaps, has not yet arrived to attempt to assess the effect on the higher education of the country which has followed from the establishment of these modern universities, but that it has already been very great there can be no question. Since they are free, for the most part, from the influence of the schoolmen, and are unhampered by mediæval traditions and the prepossessions of the past, they are the more readily able to shape their course in accordance with the demands of industrial progress and the necessities of modern life. From the circumstance that they are nearly all situated in large towns and in the midst of industrial communities, the study of science is, as a rule, a prominent feature in their scheme of instruction, and accordingly their science faculties are usually strongly developed. A spirit of emulation makes them all active centres of research, especially in physical science and in its technical applications, and their aggregate output of original scientific inquiry is now very considerable, and in extent and quality compares most favourably with that of continental nations. Their influence upon the conduct of those industries which ultimately depend upon science is already very marked, and as the number of scientifically trained men becomes larger, as the result of their instruction, that influence is bound to become still greater. With the diffusion of a knowledge of scientific principles new applications of science to practice will follow, and these in their turn will react upon the instruction in the schools of science. The ultimate effect of all this will be a still clearer recognition by the community that the permanence and eventual success of our manufacturing industries depends upon the intelligent application of science.

We are thus able to perceive how Roscoe’s action in helping on the development of Owens College on modern lines and in raising it eventually to the status of a university has reacted, and is bound still further to react, upon the intellectual and material welfare of this country. It was the great success of the Manchester College as a centre for the diffusion of knowledge in its own district that incited other towns to seek to emulate its example, and when Owens College sought for the position as a university to which she was entitled, the same spirit of emulation quickened the efforts of her friendly rivals to make themselves not less worthy of such a dignity.

Of course it is not claimed for Roscoe that he actually initiated this remarkable movement—a movement which must be regarded as one of the most significant features of our times; he shares the credit with others. But he certainly was one of the mainsprings of it. It may be said the time was ripe for the step. Nevertheless, it is due to him to affirm that he was one of the earliest to perceive that fact, and to take occasion boldly by the hand. If he cannot justly be said to have actually started the action, he was at least one of its most powerful prime movers.