The allusions to Dr. Slop, (Dr. John Stoddart,) and the Constitutional Association, or Bridge Street Gang, have already been explained in reference to A New Vision of Judgment.
(See [page 177].)
The London University.
In 1826 a party who believed that the home and university plan of education which prevails in Scotland, was much better than the college and university education of Oxford or Cambridge, made Lord Brougham and Mr. Charles Knight their spokesmen, and declared they would have a university within reach of their own homes. A joint-stock company was formed, and the place in Gower Street was opened on October 1, 1828, under the name of the “London University.” One very prominent feature in the prospectus was that there should be perfect religious freedom within the university. The scheme met with much opposition and ridicule, Theodore Hook dubbed the place “Stinkomalee,” and R. Harris Barham, the author of the Ingoldsby Legends, satirised it in the following amusing parody:—
Song.[91]
Whene’er, with pitying eye I view,
Each operative sot in town,
I smile to think how wondrous few
Get drunk who study at the U-