Practically, it was not a matter of much consequence, as dissenters were ...

Practically, it was not a matter of much consequence, as dissenters were not, as a rule, of the class who Oxford and Cambridge served, and a new private venture called the London University was already at their disposal.

It was strongly radical in origin and affinity, it was entirely secular, and its curriculum was very much wider than that of the old Universities. The foundation of the University of London marks the entry of new idea; the conception of a University as training for specific profession, for medicine, law, engineering, or teaching, was in England a novelty to which the examples of Germany and Scotland both contributed.

But as a seat of instruction University College rose at once to the first rank, and there are few pictures of the young Victorian mind so attractive as the webpages in which Hutton set down his memories of Long and de Morgan, and their brother sophists, and of his walks with Bagehot up and down Regent Street in search of Oxford Street and truth.