The peculiar distinction of an English University, its subdivision into Colleges, possesses at least one prominent advantage; that by connecting each student closely with a fraction of the vast number around him it offers means for encouraging sociality and good feeling, scarcely to be expected under any other system. Perhaps the most striking instance of the close tie which connects members of the same College is exhibited on the morning on which the results of the Examination for Honors is published. The interest excited by the question “how many wranglers have we?” is not confined to Undergraduates. Fellows and Tutors crowd to the Senate-house and even dignified D.D.s take care to secure the earliest intelligence. And the form in which the question above is put, is no small proof of the close identification of interest between members of the same College.

It would be strange were it otherwise under the Cambridge system. At this period especially young men are social creatures, and throughout the day those who belong to the same College are constantly thrown together. They meet in the same Chapel, attend the same Lectures, and above all take the principal meal of the day together. Nor will it be considered that we have assigned to the last circumstance too high a place in promoting social feeling, when we remember the results expected from the practice among the nations of antiquity.