Whatever they meant, Lord Salisbury had this justification for his deduction, that on page 200 of the first volume of the Report, on which a synopsis of Property, Income and Expenditure is set forth, is included the number of Undergraduates paying tuition fees.
Perhaps never did any warning so soon receive its justification, as that put out by a number of the Bursars of different colleges, soon after the Commissioners' Report appeared, as to the danger of drawing any inference from the figures published by the Commissioners. Perhaps never were inferences so erroneous drawn from misunderstood figures as those drawn by our noble Chancellor from this misleading synopsis.
According to his own account he has added the gross external and the gross internal income of the colleges together, thrown in the tuition fund (already in some cases partly accounted for under one or other of the former heads,) deducted money borrowed and money received on behalf of the University, and divided the difference by the number of Undergraduates paying tuition fees, and thence estimated the comparative cost at which education is provided in the several colleges.
The results, of course, are sufficiently amusing. He only gives those which would not startle people outside. He would have passed the bounds of credibility if he had informed us that the same arithmetical principles would have made the educational cost of each of the Bible Clerks all All Souls amount to more than £4,500 a-year.
With such figures before us, we may well echo his assertion, it would be impossible to avoid dealing with the question.
