and Durham in 1871 removed the last disability which rested upon nonconformists, with the double advantage of admitting them into the full current of national education and of rendering university life a truer mirror of the life of the nation at large. The greatly increased activities of both universities since 1870 are reflected in the number and variety of "schools" and "triposes" instituted since that date.

The growth of "university colleges" (under this or some similar name), which was remarkable during the period 1872-84, was the result of the development of physical science, of a better appreciation of the dependence of industry upon science and a more widely extended faith in the power conferred by knowledge and intellectual cultivation, added to a growing sense of our national deficiencies in these respects. In some places, these currents of opinion were strengthened or liberalised by "university extension," the movement in favour of which was due, in the first place, to the desire, already described, of making teaching a profession for women. In 1872, James Stuart was invited to give lectures to women on the art of teaching. He preferred, however, to deliver a course on astronomy, which he repeated in several of the great northern cities. These lectures proved the existence of a demand for teaching which Cambridge met in the following year by inaugurating the plan of extra-mural lecturing and tuition, a plan adopted by the London society (instituted in 1876) and by Oxford in 1878. The development of all these new centres of intellectual life led, in due course, to the creation of new universities, none of which is confined to the study of science, applied or pure, while some have already made notable contributions to the advancement of letters in many directions.

Owens college, founded so far back as 1851 in response to demands very like those which had led to the creation of the university of London, was the earliest of the university colleges outside the capital to seek academical independence. In 1880, a royal charter was granted to Victoria university with its seat in Manchester, and Owens college was, at first, its only college. In 1884, it was joined by University college, Liverpool, and, in 1887, by the Yorkshire college, Leeds, as constituted colleges of the university. A university charter having been granted to Mason's college, Birmingham, in 1900, the three colleges of

VOL. XIV-31

Victoria university were by fresh charters created the Victoria university of Manchester (1903), the university of Liverpool (1903) and that of Leeds (1904) respectively. The university of Sheffield was founded in 1905, and that of Bristol in 1909. University college, Dundee, had been affiliated to the university of St. Andrews in 1897; and the Irish university system had been remodelled in 1880 and 1908-9.

The University of London act of 1898 led to the restoration of its teaching function and the possibility of unifying the higher education of the metropolis. It is worth remarking that, of the eleven universities now existing south of Tweed, nine were founded later than the reign of George IV. "I wish we had several more universities," said Seeley, "our material progress has outrun our intellectual." The worship of material success and the indifference to "ideas" with which Mill, Arnold, Pattison, Seeley and others charged the English middle class are, perhaps, not much less prevalent to-day than they were fifty years ago; but the agents for overcoming them and the reasons why they should be overcome have, in the interval, been greatly multiplied.

Wales preceded England in the organisation of secondary education. The Welsh Intermediate Education act of 1889 gave the principality a scheme which filled the gap between public elementary schools and her three colleges, Aberystwyth, Cardiff and Bangor; the system was completed by the incorporation of these colleges as the university of Wales in 1893. English legislation of 1889-90, dealing with technical instruction, brought about a chaos which rendered organisation imperative. The immediate consequence of the acts of parliament was to stimulate the Science and Art department's mischievous system of examination grants, the transformation of all but the strongest grammar schools into schools of science, the entire discouragement of literary instruction and ruinous competition between new and old institutions. The great school boards, assisted by the Education department, had endeavoured to compensate for the lack of secondary education within their areas by the creation of "higher grade schools," which, in some respects, partook of the nature of secondary schools, while, in others, they resembled the higher primary schools of the 1 Essays on a liberal education (1867).

continent. These, also, became competitors, in some places, with the older schools under boards of governors, while they bred confusion in the public mind as to the respective functions of "elementary" and "secondary" instruction. The Bryce commission, appointed in 1894 to review the whole field of secondary instruction, reported in 1896, the chief measures proposed being first, the creation of a Board of Education, under a minister, to absorb the functions of the Education department, the Science and Art department and the educational side of the Charity commission, the new body thus becoming the central authority for elementary, technical and secondary education; second, the institution of a consultative committee of independent persons competent to advise the minister; and the erection in counties and county boroughs of Local Education authorities. In the meantime, "voluntary schools" had fallen into financial distress and denominational education suffered correspondingly. The general policy long before indicated by Matthew Arnold, reiterated by the Bryce commission and emphasised by the condition of the country and the menace of foreign competition was at length embodied in the Board of Education act of 1899 and the Education acts of 1902-3. The English state had, after a century of hesitation, consented to accept full responsibility for national education.

CHAPTER XV

Changes in the Language since
Shakespeare's Time

Na general view of the fortunes of the English language since Shakespeare's time, one of the first things to strike an observer is the world-wide expansion of its use. At the beginning of the seventeenth century it was, with slight exceptions, confined to England. The exceptions were Ireland, where English colonisation had begun in the previous century, and Scotland, where literary English was already influencing the speakers of a tongue descended from the old Northumbrian dialect. Even to-day, English does not completely occupy the whole of the United Kingdom. Celtic exists in Ireland, in Wales and in the Scottish Highlands, while, in the Channel islands, Norman-French has by no means disappeared. Till into the eighteenth century, Cornish survived in Cornwall, and Norse in Orkney and Shetland. Outside the British isles, the language has followed the flag, and is spoken all over the empire -in Canada, in Australia, in New Zealand, in Africa, and in the East and West Indies. Beyond the boundaries of the empire, it possesses a vigorous life and literature among many millions in the United States of North America.'

Since in those regions English was planted at different times and has been subjected to varying influences, the types of language, especially as spoken, differ from standard English

'Attempts have been made to calculate how many persons employ English. Exact figures are not obtainable; but, in round numbers, 120,000,000 may be considered a tolerably safe estimate about double the aggregate of those who speak French, or Italian, or Spanish; and half as many again as speak German, or Russian. It is believed that, in 1600, English was spoken by about 6,000,000, much fewer than then spoke French, or German, or Italian, or Spanish.

and from one another. The vocabulary, in particular, is notably dissimilar. Strange objects, new conditions of life, have either added native words, or caused special adaptations of old words or extensions of meaning. Sometimes, also, as in the United States, the language is splitting into dialects. To discuss all these varieties of English as well as the numerous dialects in Britain, with their chequered history during the last three centuries, would be impossible here, for want of space, if for no other reason. We must, accordingly, restrict ourselves to the standard literary language, which is everywhere practically homogeneous. Its principal changes we shall now consider under the three divisions of pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary.

Pronunciation

A book printed in the early decades of the seventeenth century presents little difficulty in one respect. It can be read without much trouble; for the differences in orthography are trifling, and whole sentences may occur with present-day spelling. But, if a chapter from The Authorised Version or a scene from one of Shakespeare's plays were read to us with the contemporary pronunciation, the ear would be considerably puzzled to recognise certain of the words. For, while the spelling has remained tolerably constant, many of the sounds have changed a great deal.

To begin with the vowels. Middle English ĭ and ě, in wit and men for example, have, as a rule, continued unaltered. Not so the other vowels, whether single or diphthongal. Sometimes, one Middle English sound has, in modern times, split into several, as a in man, was, path. Sometimes different Middle English sounds have converged: name, day, which have now one and the same vowel sound, had distinct sounds (ā, ai) in Middle English. To-day see and sea are indistinguishable in pronunciation. In Middle English, the former had tense ē, the latter slack ē; and their pronunciation was dissimilar till into the eighteenth century. This explains and justifies the rimes in Pope:

But for the wits of either Charles's days,

The mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease;