UNIVERSITY EDUCATION FOR WOMEN IN ENGLAND. 859 
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Going back now to the beginning of Newnham College, the lectures established by 
the North of England Council for the Higher Education of Women led to a demand for 
3 university examination of a higher grade than the senior local, and in 1868 the 
examination for women over eighteen, afterward called the higher local, was established 
by the University of Cambridge. Miss Davies and the Girton committee opposed this 
as antagonistic to their main principle—identity of educational tests for men and 
women. Miss Clough, Mr. Sidgwick, and the other promoters of Newnham supported 
it as meeting a present need. Lectures for women ¢n Cambridge, much on the same 
plan as those organized in Liverpool and other northern towns by Miss Clough and 
Mrs. Butler, were projected in 1869, and actually begun in 1870. Mr. Henry Sidgwick 
was the originating mind of the whole scheme. 
I hope I may be pardoned a feeling of satisfaction in recalling the fact that the first 
meeting in Cambridge to discuss this plan was held at my house in December, 1869, and 
that the first document in the books containing the history of Newnham is the notice 
convening this meeting. The necessity of seeking the line of least resistance is 
apparent throughout this little document. The economy of having lectures for women 
delivered in Cambridge by lecturers already engaged in lecturing on the same subject 
in their respective colleges is pointed out. There was, perhaps, another kind of economy 
in this method of stating our case. The circular also mentions that though the imme- 
diate object of the lectures would be to afford means of higher education to women 
residing in Cambridge, yet if women from a distance, not having friends in Cambridge, 
‘should come here for the purpose of attending the lectures,” it would be necessary to 
provide ¢ some lodging or hall” for them. The word ¢‘ hall” was the only vestige of 
intrepidity in the circular. But I ask those who would point the finger of scorn at us 
to remember that if we had said we wished fo establish a college for women in Cam- 
bridge we might as well have said that we wished to establish a college for women in 
Saturn. It was an absolute necessity to proceed with great caution. We made a good 
deal of use of the fact that the university had established an examination for women 
over eighteen, and that the lectures for women in Cambridge were designed with a 
view of providing the education which that examination has been instituted to test. 
We asked no recognition from the university further than what had already been 
given. 
The whole machinery of the lectures was voluntary; several of the most distinguished 
professors had for many years past allowed the presence of ladies at their lectures. And 
many of these, besides some of the leading college lecturers, gave their support to ¢ the 
lectures for women.” Our first list of friends contains the names of Professors Adams, 
Cayley, and Maurice, besides those of Messrs. W. C. Clark, Clifford, Jebb, Marshall, 
Skeat, and Todhunter ; and the first series of lectures was delivered by men many of 
whom had even then gained a world-wide reputation in their respective subjects. How 
much the whole movement owes to those men who befriended us at the very beginning 
of our efforts, I hope none of us will ever forget. In the Michaelmas term, 1870, Mr. 
John Stuart Mill and his stepdaughter, Miss Taylor, gave us a scholarship of £40 for 
wo years. The same year Mr. A. J. Balfour gave us £20 toward a fund for a similar 
purpose. The numbers attending the lectures made satisfactory progress, and the con- 
tingency, which had been foreseen from the beginning, became a reality. Women from 
3 distance, not having friends in Cambridge, desired to reside in the town for the 
purpose of attending the lectures ; and in 1871 Miss Clough was invited by the com- 
mittee to come to Cambridge and open a house for these women students, of whom 
at first there were five only. This was the beginning of what is now Newnham 
College. 
+ This examination was open to men in 1873, but very few men avail themselves of it.