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SECT. 7.-OF THE FREE SYSTEM.

By the Free System of Universities, I mean that system in which there is no discipline such as I have described, the students being left to act without control, both as to attendance upon the lectures and other appointments of the College, and as to manners and conduct in general. It is to be observed that this free system is perfectly consistent with examinations and public trials at certain periods; for these processes are so far from implying discipline, that they do not even imply the student's residence in the intervals between the public occasions.

The free system is understood to be the one which prevails in a large portion of the universities out of England. The Germans consider "Academic Freedom" as one of the main principles of their universities; but this has never been the system of English Universities. It is, however, the system towards which we tend by every relaxation in the enforcement of our discipline, and by every resistance to discipline on the part of our students. It may therefore be useful to point out some of its features.

The free University system is founded on the doctrine that there is no University control over the private and social conduct of the student. He is left, like any other citizen, to be guided by his own sense of propriety, and controlled by the law of the land. But it will readily be supposed that a large body of young men, just emerging from boyhood, most of

them belonging to families of some property, and left for the first time in their lives to the unrestrained exercise of their own propensities and judgments, will conduct themselves in a manner very different from the same number of citizens of any other class. Their newly-felt freedom will need to be exhibited in a conspicuous manner; and an opinion of their own superiority, which will naturally arise from sympathy and companionship, will make them despise all who are not of their body. And thus, if by ancient usage the students wear a peculiar dress, their position will generate the turbulence and the pride of the Gown. If they are not so distinguished from their fellowtownsmen, they will soon find means themselves of marking the difference between the Bursch and the Philister.

That a body of young men, who conceive that no right to control them exists, will receive with the utmost indignation all attempts to subject them to any kind of rule, may readily be imagined. They will consider the cause of resistance as the sacred cause of liberty, and will, with the greatest self-complacency, speak of, and behave to those who would impose any restraints upon them, as narrow-minded oppressors. We have examples of such a spirit, in the conduct of the medical students of our own metropolis. Among these persons, we are told*, any attempt made to ascertain the regularity of the student's attendance at the lectures, is held up to scorn

* British Magazine, April, 1837.

as the "lecture-room spy system." But this spirit does not confine itself to resistance to rule; it soon assumes a right to interfere in the appointment of professors and similar matters; or at least to resent, by active proceedings, any such measures, when they do not suit the taste of the students. Thus, there has recently been a tumult on a subject of this kind, in one of the schools of Paris; and it is well known that in Germany, the students have often manifested the offence they have taken on such occasions, by organized migrations, or by putting some particular University under the interdict of the clubs of the young men.

These may appear to be extreme cases, but they serve to show, what that free University system is, which is opposed to the discipline system; and it is useful to recollect, that we cannot recede from the one, without approaching the other. It is easy to conceive many other proceedings, which, without assuming the principles of the free system in their full vigour, are still inconsistent with the condition of persons under discipline. Such are, for example, all acts of a political kind, as meetings or organisations for political purposes, public petitions, or public discussions on the agitated questions of the day, and the like. Under the discipline system, the student cannot act at the University, except in the capacity of a pupil. In like manner, public and tumultuous exhibitions of opinion by the cries of a crowd, (although, in the excitement to which crowds are subject, even members of the governing body may be drawn on to

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join in the shout,) cannot, in any calm view of priety, be reconciled with the pupil's position. Indeed, the exaggerated and insatiable manner in which public applause is given by bodies of students, is of itself an evidence that in such cases, they feel that they are not merely expressing an opinion, but are also gaining a victory over some expected restraint by the mode of expression. It often happens, that meetings under such circumstances inflame themselves by their own tumult, till all order, decorum, and common sense are lost sight of; and the cries that are uttered, and the manner in which they are received, show how decided the tendency of such proceedings is, to make the actors in them lose all regard for good manners, as well as for subordination.

It can hardly be doubted, I think, that the tendency of the free system, if introduced into the English Universities, would be to corrupt the character, and deprave the manners of the students. If they felt themselves out of the reach of control and authoritative monition on points of general conduct and habits, they would feel that the regulation of the fashions, manners, and principles of the academic body was committed to their hands; and they would not fail to devise a system of their own. They would make their own rules of morals, their own codes of honour and honesty; and though I do not doubt that these would bear traces of the general morality, probity, and good sense of the English character, I fear they would be below the discipline standard. The teachers too, among a crowd of imperious, self-willed and self

satisfied young men, who were, by the constitution of the academic body, their equals in all but knowledge, would be held, in the opinion of the young men themselves, to be an inferior class to the students. I do not suppose, that the generous spirit of young Englishmen of the better orders would ever take the tone which is said to prevail among the medical students of London*; of representing the teachers as interested in increasing the burdens of the students, and entertaining no other views toward them, than to rob them of as much money as they can ;-but I do not think that we could have that cordial respect and sincere deference of pupils to tutors, which at present generally prevails in our Colleges, except under a system in which the privilege of remonstrance and admonition which age, experience, and reflection give, was sanctioned and dignified, by being made at the same time a right and a duty.

I conceive, therefore, that any one who seriously wishes the education of our Universities to continue and extend its beneficial influences, cannot hesitate on every occasion which may occur, to lend his best exertions to the preservation of that system of College and University discipline, of which the only ultimate alternative is a system of entire misrule, and the unbounded sway of youthful caprice, extravagance, and turbulence.

British Magazine, as above.

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