may reasonably aspire, of providing the greatest school of medicine in the world.

The advantages which London also offers for the scientific study of Law are unsurpassed, and the Commissioners are fully conscious that in this respect the University of London might, in favourable circumstances, accomplish a great work. In no other capital is there afforded a better opportunity for gaining experience of a large variety of systems of law and of legal procedure. Apart from the other administration of justice in London, the cases submitted to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council embrace the legal relations of Her Majesty's subjects in every part of the British Empire, and illustrate the principles of every known system of law, from the writings of Grotius to the 'Code Napoléon,' and from the statutes in force in the great Australasian colonies to the customs prevailing among Hindoos and Mahommedans. The Commissioners, however, have encountered an obstacle which for the moment renders impossible the establishment of any satisfactory school of Law in London. No such school can be established without the assistance of the Inns of Court, and that assistance the Inns of Court refuse. For what reason they refuse is not apparent. The correspondence which took place with them is annexed to the Report; and from the Commissioners' lucid and courteous letter it is perfectly clear that the extent to which the Inns were asked to assist in the development of the University required on their part no sacrifice of privilege and no expenditure of their great resources. They were asked to allow the Council of Legal Education to be named as a School, and some of the teachers appointed by that Council to be included in the list of recognised teachers of the University. They were informed that if any students in the Inns desired to graduate in the University of London, their course of study would have to be approved by the Senate; but that, as such approval would be given on the advice of a Board of Laws, mainly composed of the teachers appointed by that Council, the Inns themselves would practically have the shaping of the curriculum and the direction of the examinations in their own hands. The Commissioners pointed out that all the other arrangements of the Council, as well as the exclusive right of the Inns to call students to the Bar, would remain untouched; although the hope was expressed that the Inns would ultimately accept the results of University examinations in Law as a sufficient test of legal knowledge apart from professional training. Nay, more; the Commissioners offered to forward a draft of their proposed Statutes for the purpose of inviting such representations as the

Inns might be disposed to offer. To this letter each of the Inns returned an answer couched in the briefest terms, declining to accept the proposals made to them.

It is not easy to assign an adequate reason for this deplorable attitude on the part of societies which occupy so great and so important a position. The contention that the Inns of Court are bodies charged with strictly professional interests does not relieve them from the duty of promoting to the best of their ability a systematic study of the principles which those interests involve. If a similarly restricted view of their public functions had hitherto been taken by the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, medicine and surgery would not now have attained the high place which they hold as branches of scientific study; nor has the manner in which the medical corporations have promoted that scientific study done aught else than enhance the value of medicine and surgery as professional pursuits. The interests of the learned professions are closely connected with those of learning itself. The universities, as is well-known, were originally founded partly as training schools for professional careers. To this day the undergraduate at Oxford or Cambridge is induced to hope that in due course he may be called upon to serve in Church or State. Bodies charged with professional interests ought, therefore, to be the natural allies of the universities. What the Inns contend is, in effect, that they exist solely for the purpose of enabling men called to the Bar to succeed in their profession, or, in other words, to behave in accordance with the traditions of the Bar, and to obtain place and emolument. This is a view of their functions which an enlightened public opinion will scarcely endorse.

The Commissioners' opinion upon the matter is clearly indicated in the following passage in their Report:

We cannot but feel that the reconstitution of the University will be incomplete, unless and until an adequate and effective Faculty of Laws has been established. The venerable antiquity, honourable traditions, and large resources of the Inns of Court, as well as the great reputation of many of their members past and present, point them out as the proper bodies to assist in the formation of such a Faculty for the study of law, professional and non-professional; and we believe that without their co-operation the Faculty cannot be effectively organised. We submit to Your Majesty's gracious consideration whether any further inquiries shall be made or steps be taken to secure such co-operation.'

Her Majesty's advisers will doubtless, at no distant date, seriously consider whether in the public interests such steps not demanded. In 1854 a Royal Commission, under

are

the chairmanship of Vice-Chancellor Page Wood (afterwards Lord Hatherley), was appointed to... report upon the arrangements of the Inns of Court, and also those of the Inns of Chancery, for promoting the study of the Law and Jurisprudence, the revenues properly applicable to that purpose, and the means most likely to secure a systematic and sound education of students of law, and provide satisfactory tests of fitness for admission to the Bar.' In 1855 that Commission reported in favour of constituting a University, consisting of the Chancellor, Barristers-at-law, and Masters of law,' and governed by a Senate of thirty-two members to be elected by the Inns. Something has been done by the Inns since then for improving the education of their own students; but the instruction afforded does not appear even now to go beyond the limits of strictly professional requirements. If the Inns of Court are unwilling or unable to supply instruction in the general principles of Law as the science which regulates the social relations of human beings, the least they ought to do is to assist the universities to discharge that duty, to the advantage of the public, of the universities, and ultimately of the Inns themselves. Nowhere could that assistance be more appropriately rendered than in the University which will now be established in London.

In concluding their Report the Commissioners sagaciously observe that the Statutes and Regulations which they have framed will not do all that is required. They will not create a living organism. For the proper equipment and maintenance of the University of London large funds will be needed. Hitherto, by a provision of the Charter of 1863, the Treasury has made good any deficit and received any surplus which the annual accounts have disclosed. That arrangement will now cease, and henceforth the University must look for support to public and private munificence. Her Majesty's advisers have obtained the sanction of Parliament for a scheme providing the University, free of cost, with a home in South Kensington; and when a favourable opportunity arises they may possibly be induced to contribute an annual subsidy to its maintenance. There is, however, little prospect at present that such a subsidy will be large. No English Government is likely to imitate the prudent generosity of the various States in Germany, which amongst them provide 1,000,000l. every year for the support of their universities; although it is well to remember that, under certain Acts of Parliament, a sum estimated at nearly that amount is annually appropriated out of the resources of local authorities for the needs of various polytechnics and other schools of technical instruction in England and Wales. The

municipal authorities and the great livery companies of the City of London will now have an opportunity of devoting some of the funds at their command to the highest educational purposes under the direct encouragement of the best teachers. The Technical Education Board of the London County Council is generally understood to have made an excellent beginning in this respect, by proposing to allocate the sum of 12,000l. a year, partly for the general work of the University, and partly also for the promotion of technical instruction, the improvement of the training of teachers, and the assistance of the London School of Economics. But there will be abundant scope for a wise outlay of money on the part of private benefactors. Some University Chairs must be founded, to be held either in the University itself or in one of its Schools; and in order to attract the most distinguished men in this country, or from abroad, adequate salaries must be provided. The subjects in which the existing facilities for higher instruction ought to be supplemented are numerous. For instance, in the various branches of chemistry, pure and applied, opportunities of study ought to be given in London to at least as great an extent as they are given at Berlin, or even at Zürich, where for many years there have been seven separate professorships in that science. In physics, too, especially as a subject of post-graduate study and research, there is urgent need for the equipment of a laboratory of the best type under the immediate control of the University itself, which will require such a laboratory for its own purposes, whatever provision may be made for other purposes elsewhere. Nor must the claims of literature, or of history and archæology, be forgotten. London offers unrivalled advantages for their study; but no adequate endowments exist for the founding of great Chairs in these departments of knowledge, or for properly rewarding the exertions of the best scholars. If the labours of Lord Davey's Commission are to produce their full effect, and the University of London is to hold its place amongst the famous universities of the world, the power of the purse must come to its aid.

ART. X.-NORTH-WEST FRONTIER POLICY.

1. Lumsden of the Guides. A Sketch of the Life of LieutenantGeneral Sir Harry Burnett Lumsden, K.C.S.I., C.B. By General Sir Peter Lumsden, G.C.B., C.S.I., and George R. Elsmie, C.S.I. London: John Murray, 1899.

2. The History of Lord Lytton's Indian Administration, 1876 to 1880: compiled from Letters and Official Papers. By Lady Betty Balfour. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1899. 3. The Second Afghan War, 1878-79-80: its Causes, its Conduct, and its Consequences. By Colonel H. B. Hanna. Vol. I. Westminster: Archibald Constable and Co., 1899.

4. Eighteen Years in the Khyber, 1879-98. By Colonel Sir Robert Warburton, K.C.I.E., C.S.I. London: John Murray, 1900.

5. The Making of a Frontier.

Five Years' Experience and Adventures in Gilgit, Hunza, Nagar, Chitral, and the Eastern Hindu-Kush. By Colonel Algernon Durand, C.B., C.I.E. London: John Murray, 1899.

6. Chitral: the Story of a Minor Siege. By Sir George S. Robertson, K.C.S.I. London: Methuen, 1898.

London:

7. The Story of the Malakand Field Force: an Episode of Frontier War. By Winston Spencer Churchill. Longmans, Green, and Co., 1899.

8. Parliamentary Papers (Afghanistan). 1878.

THE

HE crisis through which the British Empire is now passing makes it incumbent on us to consider, while we have yet time, whether we are prepared to meet other and yet more serious eventualities. South Africa and our supremacy there are not everything; there is a still more important Imperial factor to be considered, and that is the defence of the Indian Empire. Already a cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, has been seen on the horizon by the watchers in the East; it behoves us to enquire whether this presages a storm, and whether we are ready to meet it should it burst. For months past it has been known that the Russians were massing troops at Kushk, which is only seventy miles from Herat. The time therefore is opportune to review the policy pursued during the last thirty years by successive Governments with regard to Afghanistan and the tribes on our North-West frontier in India.

Several books have lately been published which throw considerable light on the questions we are about to discuss. The first on our list is the Life of Sir Harry Lumsden, who raised, and brought to that high state of perfection which it has ever Vol. 191.-No. 382.

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