Calendar: 1886-1887 Page 100

96 HIGHER EDUCATION OF LADIES male students might be extended to women also and for this purpose they obtained the necessary statutory powers They could not however carry this desire into effect from the existing resources of the College which were already heavily burdened and they accordingly made an appeal for public support This appeal was mainly addressed to English Churchmen on behalf of great Educational Institution of the Church of England which from the beginning has endeavoured to work upon principles as comprehensive as those of the Church itself But as the College opens its doors freely and unconditionally to all and while offering Religious Teaching and Worship as its highest privileges enforces them on none the Council also ventured to appeal to all w7ho care for the advancement of true education and who desire that the new movement for the Higher Education of Women should be so directed as to harmonise with all the best educa- tional associations of the past In order to bring these views to the test of experiment the Council in 1879 authorised the Principal and Staff of King's College to give Lectures to Ladies at Kensington under the management of Committee formed of those who were in- terested in the scheme The result was very promising the entries to those classes having averaged above 500 for several years The appeal of the Council for subscriptions was less successful than they had hoped but in response to their representations the sum of £6 980 was subscribed by those whose names are mentioned in the subjoined list With this sum to start with the Council have within the past year purchased freehold house at 13 Kensington Square and have transferred to it the Lectures and Classes hitherto tern- porarily carried on at Observatory Avenue incorporating them with some alterations into the general system of the College as one of its Departments under the control of the Council full account of the work of the new Department as thus constituted wrill be found in the Calendar of the College for the year 1885-6 In order however to pur- chase the premises in Kensington Square and to equip the Department adequately the Council have had to borrow