Political Science Of The State

SUBJECT-MATTER OF LAW AND ADMINISTRATION. 409
promises can remove. But the practical difficulties are
equally great. They arise from the causes which tend to
disturb the stability of state institutions of higher learning
—causes from which state prisons or deaf and dumb asylums
are safe, such as the perverse notions of men of crochets,
the misplaced economy of legislators and the intrigues of
parties. But the directors of higher institutions of learning
to a degree change with the changes of politics. Some pro-
fessor has given offence by his freedom in expressing his
opinions on public measures, and is made an object of attack.
Some politician thinks that learned education ought to pay
for itself without receiving aid from the public. There is no
certainty that the university will survive a half-century. The
medical faculties are convulsed by having a homoeopathic
professor forced upon them by the legislature. Next there
is an attempt to open the course to women as well as men.
Then the legislature refuses to make appropriations for the
most necessary apparatus. Then the colleges in the state
complain, it may be, that the low price of education at the
university is driving them out of the field. These difficulties
would be felt anywhere, and not least if the national legislature
undertook to create a great university at the seat of govern-
ment.
From all this it would appear that universities supported
by the state cannot have complete faculties, nor be sure of a
healthy, undisturbed existence. On the other hand, universi-
ties and colleges under the management of persons acting
under a private charter cannot only be provided with all the
faculties, but are free from the instabilities to which state insti-
tutions are generally subject. If they are controlled by boards
consisting in whole or in part of men belonging to a Christian
denomination, it is for the interest of all that the religious
views of students and of their parents should be respected,
nor can there be found throughout the United States, as I
believe, anyplace of higher learning where a proselyting spirit
animates teachers or guardians. These colleges are indeed
far too numerous ; they are poorly endowed for the most part