USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Municipal government history and politics, Vol. V > Part 38
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It may be objected that such a system of instruction would give us doctrinaires. Those who make this objection misread history ; doctrinaires are created where theoretical politics are divorced from vigorous political life, where practical training and theoretical training are not at the same time present to modify each other. The French doctrinaires arose at a time when there was political discussion among a small knot of scholars, but no practical political life in the nation at large ; the same thing was true until recently in Germany, and it has been true in Italy from the days of Machiavelli to the days of Cavour ; it is true to-day in Russia ; hence Nihilism, with all its miseries ; but we look in vain for any perceptible influ- ence of doctrinairism in England ; there, political theory has never run away with leaders; it has been constantly modified by political practice. Edmund Burke was a close student of principles and theories, but who that has read his speech on American conciliation does not see that he justly claims to be a more practical statesman than any of his compeers, who trusted merely to instinct and what is called sound sense ? Had Thomas Jefferson remained in France, he would doubt- less have been a doctrinaire; as it was, we have in him a wonderful union of theoretical and practical training-Rous- seau modified by the Virginia house of burgesses. The strength of the great men who gave this Republic its political foundation lay in the fact that no practical men ever studied theory and principles more thoroughly than they ; Jefferson, Hamilton, John Adams, Jay, were close students of political principles and political history ; Franklin and Washington, acute students of contemporary political history.
Besides this, the doctrinaires are by no means all on the theoretical side; there are not a few on the practical side. Our American life furnishes constant examples of this doc- trinairism of practical men, quite as absurd as anything put forth by men of theory.
Moreover, in the system of instruction proposed, I would take effective means of preventing pedantry and doctrinairism
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by bringing in a constant circulation of healthful political thought from the outside. Much instruction should be given by lecturers holding their positions for short terms; these lecturers should be chosen, so far as possible, from men who take part in public life or business affairs practically, while not giving up the study of principles. The example cited in the first part of this report from European institutions will show that this plan is by no means impracticable.
Such will doubtless be the main objections to the plan pro- posed ; they have been made in opposition to the same system in other countries, but the result has refuted them. As to the influence of a better system on this country, we should doubt- less find it exercised first through the press. For the past ten years there has been a striking tendency observable among our most active young men toward the profession of journal- ism. The difference of feeling regarding such a career between the great body of students to-day and those of twenty years since is one of the curious things in the history of thought in this country.
The press would doubtless reveal the influence of this new education in quick, compact, thorough discussion of important subjects ; it is not too much to hope that there would be much less declamation, defamation, and sensation writing, and much more vigorous reasoning.
We should doubtless next see this influence in the lower strata of public life. The young man who, on arriving from college and from his professional course, could supply really · valuable information and make a straightforward argument upon living political and social questions in his town-meeting or board of supervisors, would take the first step in an honor- able career. The character of our people is especially favor- able to this; no people in the world so quickly recognize a man who can stimulate valuable thought; no country is so open to the influence of facts cogently presented. Even if men thus trained arrive sometimes at wrong conclusions, as doubtless they would, the habit of discussing questions with a
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more thorough knowledge and with closer reasoning could not fail to be of vast use; it would be found that political science, like other sciences, may be made to progress almost as muchı by mistaken reasoning, if it only be real, as by correct reason- ing. Quesnay, Turgot, and the French physiocrats, by their errors as well as by their truths, stimulated Adam Smith, Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, and the English economists, and these in their turn, by their half truths as well as truths, stim- ulated List, Carey, Roscher, Wells, and the German and the American economists ; the only thing that permanently hin- ders the growth of any science is dogmatism-the substitution of inherited opinions for thought, of accustomed inferences for real observation. Real thinking, however wrong some of its conclusions may have been temporarily, has always helped mankind in the long run.
Next, we should doubtless see the influence of such courses of instruction upon the legislative bodies of all grades ; even our strong untutored men-men who rise by virtue of rough, uncultured native force and will-power-would feel strongly the influence of this instruction, even though they never came under it directly ; better observations, better modes of think- ing, better ideas would become common property ; they would become an element in the political atmosphere, and the rude statesman of the future could not but feel its influence ; thereby would he be stimulated to think more and orate less.
Nor should we forget the influence of such instruction upon the universities themselves ; it would make them far greater powers in the formation of public opinion, therefore of far greater importance in public estimation. The present state of things is certainly not very encouraging to university officers ; they know too well that their graduates have not taken that place in the conduct of public affairs which their education would seem to warrant; young men who have received so much greater advantages than others should, one would think, exercise much greater influence.
Unfortunately, statistics carefully collected show that the
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relative number of college graduates in the executive and legislative positions of the country has been diminishing for many years. The main reason for this, is probably, that the majority of college students, under the present system, while obtaining their education, have been separated from the cur- rent of practical politics, and have not secured, to compensate for this separation, any education in theoretical politics ; during four years in college, as well as four or five years' preparation for college, they have been studying matters often useful for culture, often important for discipline; but all this, so far as public influence is concerned, leaves them fre- quently at the first public meeting they attend, or the first public body in which they sit, inferior to many who have never enjoyed their advantages.
We have heard much of our educated men keeping aloof from politics ; the examples of the older nations would lead us to believe that were scholarly young men trained steadily in political questions from the outset, they would enter public life at such an advantage that this charge would be brought to naught.
The good results of such courses as are now proposed would doubtless be speedily seen then, not only in the nation at large, but in the universities adopting them ; such institutions could hardly fail to find their numbers increased ; many young men, who do not go to college now, but who on leaving preparatory schools enter at once upon professional study, would think it worth their while to take a course embracing studies for which they have a taste, and fitting themselves for duties for which they have an ambition.
From every point of view, then, in the interest of individual students, many of whom would find scope for their powers, which they do not find in the existing courses, in the interests of the universities themselves, which might attract to their halls numbers of energetic young men, who now stand aloof from them ; and above all, in the interest of State and national legislation-the example of our sister nations in establishing such courses is one which merits our close attention.
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In looking over the whole field of education in the light of our own experience and that of other nations, I see no better object for the earnest efforts of those called upon to administer our greater institutions for advanced education. I am well aware that few, if any, have means enough, even for the present courses ; it is then a case for the exercise of American munificence ; here there is reason to hope for much. In the Old World, with its systems of primogeniture and its means of entailing fortunes, men of great wealth can found families and hand their property down to remote generations. So it is not in our own land; the great fortune of the first generation rarely lasts farther than the third. While, then, some reason exists there for hoarding enormous sums for heirs, here there is none, and to this fact are doubtless due many acts of munificence which have honored the American name, and blessed the country. Let us hope that it will not be the ambition of our wealthy men to become the fatty tumors of society-abnormal growths-accumulating fortunes which are at best, only to be reabsorbed into the ordinary business chan- nels ; but that they will see the duty and the honor lying before them ; that in making provision for the higher educa- tion of their fellow-citizens, and especially in those branches which insure better government and a higher type of citizen- ship, they will rear to themselves monuments more lasting than statues of bronze or obelisks of granite ; on such imper- ishable monuments already stand the names of Harvard, Yale, Smithson, Peabody, Cooper, Packer, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Vassar, Sage, Wells, McGraw, Sibley, and their noble com- peers. Let us hope that worthy successors of these may arise to provide, upon the foundations already laid by our stronger universities and colleges, means for an instruction worthy of our land, in history, political and social science, and general jurisprudence-in all that directly fits and strengthens men to advance the nation by taking part in public affairs.
MODERN HISTORY AT OXFORD.
The following chapter, by Mr. W. J. Ashley, M. A., Fel- low and Tutor of Lincoln College at Oxford, written for that interesting and instructive volume on "Oxford : Its Life and Schools,"1 edited by A. M. M. Stedman, M. A., of Wadham College, assisted by members of the University of Oxford, is reprinted in this connection for the sake of showing the present status of history and political science in that institution. The chapter admirably complements the earlier notes and obser- vations of Professor Paul Fredericq, of the University of Ghent, upon the Study of History in England and Scotland, recently published as No. 10, of our Fifth Series.
" The Honour School of Modern History has itself a history which covers some four-and-thirty years. A School of 'Law and Modern History' was one of the results of that reforming movement which led to the first University Commission. For twenty years these subjects were yoked together, until in 1872 two independent Schools were established ; while the present regulations came into force as lately as 1886. In spite of
' Oxford : Its Life and Schools. London: George Bell and Sons, York Street, Covent Garden, 1887. This convenient and readable book of 359 pages will prove serviceable to students of English educational history. The work contains a brief historical sketch of the University of Oxford and of its various colleges. Student expenses at Oxford ; its social, intellectual, and religious life ; its system of examinations; its pass schools and various departments of study are all concisely described. There are also interesting accounts of Women's Education at Oxford and of the novel system of Uni- versity Extension, recently mentioned in the Studies, No. 11, Fifth Series.
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many difficulties, to which it were not surprising had the School succumbed, it has steadily grown in importance. The work has become more thorough, the teaching better organ- ized, the examination standard higher ; and now the study of Modern History excites so keen an interest and gives an intel- lectual stimulus to so many that it must be reckoned one of the most powerful forces in Oxford life.
" Before speaking of the considerations which may lead a man to choose this particular School, let us see what work it sets before him. In the first place, he is required to study the outlines of the whole of English History, both political and constitutional ; then, secondly, he is to give special attention to a 'Period' of both English and Foreign History,-thus, should he select the Period of Foreign History from 1414 to 1610, he must take the Period of English History from 1399 to 1603. He will, in addition, be examined in Political Science, and in Economic History and Theory. And, finally, those who aim at a good class are required to offer also a Special Subject, with certain specified 'original authorities.'
"Now the first and most difficult point to be settled by the man who begins to read Modern History is, which Period he shall 'take.' The Periods are, roughly, as follows : (1) from the fifth to the eleventh century; (2) the ninth to the thir- teenth ; (3) the thirteenth to the fifteenth ; (4) the fifteenth and sixteenth ; (5) the seventeenth; (6) the eighteenth ; (7) from the middle of last century to the middle of this. The selec- tion will of course be determined largely by individual pref- erences ; one man may wish to examine mediæval society, another the great changes accompanying the Renaissance and Reformation, while a third may be more interested in the politics of the age immediately preceding our own : but with most the choice will be also influenced by regard to the Special Subjects. Of these six are mentioned in the regulations, viz., Hildebrand, the first three Crusades, Italy (1492-1513), the Great Rebellion (1638-1649), the French Revolution (1789- 1795), and India (1773-1805); and although Candidates are
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permitted to offer other subjects, after giving due notice and obtaining the approval of the Board of Faculty, the fact that only in these six are they likely to obtain assistance from tutors and lectures is practically sure to restrict them to those suggested. It will clearly be wise to choose such a Period and such a Special Subject that the latter may fall within the former. With some men it will be the General Period that will determine the Special Subject, but with most the reverse will be the case. Let us assume, then, that the first point to be decided is, which Special Subject to study. Each has its own interest and attraction. The first will give some insight into the character and work of the medieval Church, and its relations to the Empire and the secular power; the second shows Christendom and Mahometanism in conflict ; the third, the Renaissance and the death of the Italian Republics ; the fourth, the struggle between Charles and the English Parlia- ment ; the fifth, the overthrow of the ancien régime in France ; the sixth, the creation of our Indian Empire. In the first and the second, again, the original authorities with which the student will have to deal are in Latin, those for the third in French and Italian, for the fifth in French only, and for the fourth and sixth in English only.
" One more alternative is presented. A candidate, instead of choosing a historical Special Subject, may offer himself to be examined in the History of the Law of Real Property, and in this case he will not be influenced by his Special Subject in the choice of a Period. 'Real Property ' has the advantage of lying in a comparatively narrow compass; and this may induce those to take it up who shrink from handling the masses of original authorities which the other special subjects put before them. Men interested in modern land-questions may feel themselves drawn to the 'Real Property ' as likely to be of practical value; while those who intend to become barristers or solicitors may see in it a convenient introduction to their more strictly professional studies. On the other hand the subject is very technical, and but loosely connected with
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the other work of the School ; and it certainly seems unwise for a man who has gained a general knowledge of a Period not to try to add to it that insight into character, that training of judgment and sympathy to which the detailed study of a historical Special Subject may help him.
" We will suppose then that, having considered the relation of Special Subject to General Period, a man has made up his mind which Subject and Period he will take. And matters have not been unduly anticipated, in thus first directing atten- tion to the General Period and the Foreign History ; for, although tutorial help on the Foreign History is usually de- ferred until the third term or even the second year of reading, it is necessary to attend lectures upon it from the first, if the ground is to be covered in the time. Supposing a man to know something of general English History, and to have two years before him, he may do well to assign his time thus,- the first long vacation and the two following terms to English Constitutional and Political History ; the next term, long vacation, and another term, to the General Period, English and Foreign, a term to the Special Subject, and the last term to Political Science and Economic History.
" English Constitutional History is the backbone of the School : around it may be grouped all that it is really neces- sary to know of what is oddly called 'Political' History ; and it gives a strength and dignity to the School which it might otherwise lack. But Constitutional History means the study of Stubbs and Hallam,-books which appal the beginner, and of which the former will, not improbably, somewhat bewilder him. The student, when he plunges into it, seems to enter a forest of gesiths and gemots, of assizes and justiciars, of tenths and fifteenths, where the paths all run into another, and lead nowhither. And, therefore, it may be found more profit- able for him, before attacking his Stubbs and Hallam, to go through a little preliminary course of reading; so that when he comes to the greater works he may understand what sort of questions he has to deal with, what are the points at issue,
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' what it is all driving at.' Let him therefore commence with Professor Freeman's 'Growth of the English Constitution ; ' then let him look at the working of our political institutions to-day, as explained, for instance, in the chapters on the Cabi- net and the House of Commons in Bagehot's 'English Con- stitution,' and in the first two lectures of Professor Dicey's ' Law of the Constitution.' Then, turning back, let him care- fully analyse the 'Introduction' to Stubbs' 'Select Charters,' where every word is worthy of letters of gold. And now he will be in a fit state to open the Bishop of Chester's great work, with some confidence in his power to see the significance of its statements and generalizations.
"It would be impossible here to go through the list of General Periods and Special Subjects, and give suggestions on each of them. But something perhaps may be said of what is meant by Political Science and Economic History. The Political Science paper differs from the rest, in that it is not set upon a certain limited subject-matter, though, indeed, defi- nite books are mentioned. It is expected that, whatever Period a man studies, his work will make him think of the . political principles for which men then strove, and their rela- tion to the principles of to-day, of the strength and action of political forces then and now ; and that he will come to the reading of the prescribed books with some knowledge of the significance of the subjects of which they treat.
"The authors chosen are Aristotle, Hobbes, Maine, and Bluntschli, and it may be well to explain why these have been selected. Aristotle's 'Politics' is by far the most im- portant of all writings on Political Philosophy. It is the first systematic treatise dealing with the great questions of social organization, and it has permanently affected the lan- guage of political theory. But it is of special value to the student of History. For it gives the theory of the ancient state, and by the very contrasts which it suggests, above all by its limitations and omissions, helps us to see wherein the mediaval and modern world alike differ from the ancient.
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"Yet the medieval world has this in common with the ancient, that in both the interests of the individual were held to be subordinate to the interests of the State. But in the sixteenth century another conception of the State began to influence men, one which regarded individuals as having cer- tain rights independent of any social union, and as having created the State for certain limited objects. This theory that the State originated in, or rested on, a contract between indi- viduals, underlay, in the shape given to it by Locke, the Whig doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty; and, as taught by Rousseau, was held to justify the claim to rebellion as a right. But it was Hobbes who first consistently and powerfully worked out the theory; and it can be all the more calmly considered on its own merits when it is presented by Hobbes as a support to authority, and not as a weapon against it.
" Maine's ' Ancient Law' is also in its measure a typical and representative work ; for it marks the beginning in England of the application of the 'historical method' to political and social institutions. The history of the growth of an institu- tion does not always explain its value ; but it may at any rate show that many an idea which we are accustomed to regard as necessary and self-explanatory, is itself the result of a long development. And, finally, the student is directed to Bluntschli's 'Theory of the State,' as a useful book of reference ; .
" Men are, however, usually more afraid of the Political Economy paper than of that on Political Science. The regu- lations set forth that they ' will be examined in Mill's Politi- cal Economy,' and ' will also be required to show an adequate knowledge of Economic History.' But if they plunge into Mill they find the greater part of his book extremely difficult, and, what is more important, out of relation to the rest of their reading. Besides, they can scarcely fail to learn that Mill's conclusions have been largely modified by subsequent economists, and they will naturally ask, whether they are expected to follow the discussions through the writings of
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Jevons and Cairnes and Sidgwick. On the other hand, Eco- nomic History is by itself a wide subject, and a subject for which there are no good text-books. The fact is that a great change is coming over the character of economic teaching in England, and the regulations of the History School are prob- ably only transitional. For the present most investigators of Economic History would agree in thus defining their attitude toward orthodox Economics : they do not deny that the teach- ing of Ricardo and Mill is a logical construction upon given assumptions, nor that these assumptions are in a large measure true of certain important sides of modern industrial life, but they assert that these assumptions were certainly not at all true until very recent times. And, therefore, they urge, the so-called 'principles' of Political Economy are, at any rate, not universally true for all times and places, and, in conse- quence, contribute scarcely at all to the understanding of the economic life of the past. For this it is necessary to study economic institutions in the light of the ideas of the time, and to examine those ideas, not in relation to modern conditions which did not then exist, but in relation to the conditions amid which they rose. What, therefore, is desired in the History School is probably this, that men should gain some sort of acquaintance with the chief features of the develop- ment of English Industry, Agriculture and Commerce, and with the ideas influencing and underlying it; and therefore, that they should also know the chief doctrines of modern economists, without which the social history of the last hun- dred years is scarcely intelligible. But it is to Economic History rather than to modern Theory that attention is chiefly to be directed. The following reading may be suggested,
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