Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 November 1908 — English University Spirit [ARTICLE]

English University Spirit

Until the middle of the nineteenth century England had only three universities —Oxford, Cambridge and Durham —but the time is soon coming when every large city on John Bull’s island will want a university of its own. London already has one, and so has Birmingham, to say nothing oi those of Manchester and Liverpool Leeds has joined the dance, and *atest Of all, comes Sheffield, which opened Ito university recently, Tb> new buildings have cost $1,000,000. And so things change, even in England, and these rapid transformations are bound to alter the aristocratic character of the English universities. In fact, those institutions seem bound to assmue a most democratic air. No longer is university education to be put on a high shelf where only a few rich young gentlemen at Oxford and Cam bridge can reach it, but, precisely as in America, it will soon be accessible to the sons of the middle classes and the poor, who can still live at home while taking their lectures at the university. —Boston Transcript