Calendar: 1896-1897 Page 637

REPORT xlvii tionft of the Commissioners on the scheme for the Gresham University was introduced last summer by Lord Playfair but it was not pressed forward and had not been read second time when Parliament was dissolved In November last the institutions interested in the proposals of the Com- missioners agreed to ask the Duke of Devonshire to receive Deputation requesting that some such lull might be brought forward by the present Government and the Council as on the cccasion of the previous Deputation to Lord Rosebery thought it right to join in this movexaent though the Scheme is not the cue they would themselves have preferred Their views are best expressed in the following statement which was made to the Duke of Devonshire at the Deputation on the 28th of November by Dr Wace who with Sir William Priestley represented the Council Dr Wace said 11 My Lord Duke -The Council of King's College London have commissioned Sir William Priestley and myself to join in this Deputation although they do not think that the scheme proposed by the last Royal Commission offers the best settlement of this problem and reserve their right to press for material modifications of it before any Statutory Commission that may be appointed But they give their general concurrence to the request of the various inst it 11- tions and interests before you because they are sensible of the paramount necessity of some tolerable settlement of this question being made if the interests of University Teaching and of University institutions in London are not to be irreparably damaged The University Colleges of London in particular and their Medical Schools have been placed for many years at grievous and unjust disadvantage in the prosecution of their work by being debarred from the privileges which are enjoyed not only in the old Universities and in the Universities of Scotland but in the chief Provincial Colleges of England and which have lately been conferred on the University Colleges in Wales In all those instances the Teachers have predominant voice in directing the studies of their Students while 111 London the Teachers are at the mercy of cosmopolitan institution in which they have no real representation The consequence