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An Irishman's View of Universities
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2017
Extract
A rumor early in 1799 brought together briefly the lives of Lord Castlereagh (1769–1822) and Dr. George Miller (1764–1848). Lord Castlereagh was then a newly prominent British statesman, later to become eminent as his majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs during the Napoleonic wars; Dr. Miller was a distinguished Irish clergyman, historian, and professor. This relationship, arising from the rumor that the British government would establish a new college at Armagh in northeastern Ireland, produced a remarkable but largely forgotten exposition of the problems of higher education in the late eighteenth century.
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- Copyright © 1963, University of Pittsburgh Press
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1. Whitaker, Joseph, Almanac for the year of our Lord 1960 (London, 1961), 690. “Armagh,” Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eleventh edition) (New York, 1910). By 1817 its population was a mere 6,699. Stewart, James, Historical Memories of the City of Armagh (Murray, 1819), 483.Google Scholar
3. But college teachers still lecture abundantly.Google Scholar
4. A tutor at Trinity College, Dublin, , was usually a fellow also; a tutor undertook the instruction and supervision of an undergraduate student. Cf. entry, “Tutor,” paragraph 4, The Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford, 1933). A fellow was a graduate elected to the governing body of his college.Google Scholar
5. Observe that this is Latin and Greek as grammar rather than as literature. Castlereagh had been made subject to another view. His stepgrandfather, an eminent jurist and statesman, admonished Castlereagh as a seventeen year old boy as follows: “As to Greek and Latin … I imagine you want no tutor. Yet I wish to make a point of studying that branch of literature because, though those languages are dead, you will form a taste for elegant writing from these authors better than from any writing of the moderns. And I would more particularly recommend the Ancients to your persuals as they are the only instructors in the art of speaking as well as composition, the first of which must from your rank be your principal occupation when you make your entrance in the great world as a public character.” Camden to Castlereagh, November, 1786, in Hyde, Montgomery, The Rise of Castlereagh (London, 1933), 49.Google Scholar
6. Miller expected an automatic transfer of learning—we study science to learn to think with precision. Further, an education, in Miller's view, which produces little taste for literature lacks merit.Google Scholar
7. Miller, , as a tutor since 1793 in an Irish school should know; Miller in time wrote on almost everything himself.Google Scholar
8. Modern history was seldom taught in the nineteenth century.Google Scholar
9. Here is the strategy of a good pedagogy.Google Scholar
10. Natural philosophy, even into the nineteenth century, meant the natural sciences. Notice the high and separate place occupied by astronomy, in part, as a reflection of Sir Isaac Newton's influence which was not generally appreciated until the middle of the eighteenth century.Google Scholar
11. Here, clearly is a system of differentiated degrees for four years of college work. Note the respect for science, philosophy, and classical learning.Google Scholar
12. A century before Thorstein Veblen coined the term, vested interests, such interests in universities were known and respected. The reverend doctor's caution came most likely from embarrassment arising from the religion of the proposed college; Miller, Dr. of the Anglican church was submitting suggestions for a proposed Roman Catholic college at a time of severe religious intolerance. Cornwallis to Portland, Private, 18 April 1799. Ross, Charles, Correspondence of Charles, First Marquis Cornwallis, Vol. II (London, 1889), 92.Google Scholar
13. Miller, George to Castlereagh, May, 1799, in Charles Vane, Marquess of Londonderry, Memoirs and Correspondence of Viscount Castlereagh (London, 1848), Vol. II, 302.Google Scholar
14. A postscript to a memoir of the Reverend Dr. Miller is to my knowledge the sole notice of this letter. It reads “Postscript.—Since the foregoing sketch was written, our attention has been drawn by a friend to a very interesting and important letter from Miller, Dr. which has appeared for the first time in the lately published ‘Memoirs and Correspondence of Viscount Castlereagh …”’ Miller, George, History Philosophically Illustrated, From the Fall of the Roman Empire to the French Revolution (London, 1849), Vol. IV.Google Scholar
15. I refer to Sir Alsion, Archibald, Lives of Lord Castlereagh and Sir Charles Stewart, the Second and Third Marquisses of Londonderry … From the Original Papers of the Family (Edinburg and London, 1861), Hassall, Arthur, Viscount Castlereagh (London, 1908), Montgomery Hyde, Harford, The Rise of Castlereagh (London, 1933), Marriott, J. A. R., Castlereagh, The Political Life of Robert, Second Marquis of Londondary (London, 1936), and Kingsley Webster, Charles, The Foreign Policy of Castlereagh, 1812–1815, Britain and the Reconstruction of Europe (London, 1931).Google Scholar