MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY. This nniversity, officially styled the Victoria Univer sity of Manchester, has grown out of the Owens College, which was founded under the will of John Owens, a Manchester merchant who died in 1846, leaving f96,654 for the foun dation of a college which should be free from religious tests. It was opened on 12 March 1851 in a house in Quay street, formerly the residence of Richard Cobden, with a staff of five professors and two teachers. It was orig inally governed by trustees under the founder's will, hut by acts of Parliament, passed in 1870 and 1871, a new governing body was formed. The first principal was Mr. A. J. Scott, who resigned in 1857, and was followed by Dr. J. G. Greenwood, who held the office for 32 years. In 1889 Dr. A. W. Ward was appointed, at the end of 1897 he was succeeded by Dr. (now Sir Alfred) Hopkinson, Prof. F. E. Weiss in 1913 and Sir Henry A. Miers in 1915.
About 1870 a movement was started to pro vide a new site and buildings for the college and a fund of about #100,000 was raised. The new college in Oxford road, built from the de signs of Mr. Alfred Waterhouse, was opened in 1873. Many subsequent additions have been made, including the medical school, the Beyer laboratories (natural history), the museum, the Whitworth engineering laboratory, the Schor lemmer laboratory (organic chemistry), the Christie Library, the physical laboratory, the Schunck chemical laboratory, the Whitworth Hall, the new engineering department, the John Morley chemical laboratories and the bacterio logical laboratory in connection with the de partment of public health.
In 1872 the Manchester Royal School of Medicine was amalgamated with the college and has become a most important department, being now one of the greatest medical schools in the country. Frequent extensions have been made.
The library contains about 143,723 volumes and includes the entire collections of Dr. R. C. Christie, Dr. E. A. Freeman, Prof. Milnes Mar shall and other eminent scholars. The library building was erected by the munificence of Dr. Christie, who had been professor of history in the college.
The museum building was erected in 1884— 88. It originated in the gift of the collections of the Manchester Natural History Society and the Manchester Geological Society, together with the proceeds of the sale of their museum building. It is one of the completest and best arranged natural history museums in Great Britain. It is open free to the public and its management is vested in a committee of rep resentatives of the city council and of the sub scribers as well as of the university.
There are five halls of residence, three for men and two for women, for the benefit of stu dents living at a distance from Manchester.
By the generosity of benefactors the stu dents are provided with a gymnasium and a spacious athletic ground.
A striking instance of the popularity of the college was shown in 1902, when its jubilee was commemorated, by the raising of a fund of f102,500, out of which the debts of the col lege were paid and the general endowment in creased.
The idea of elevating the college to the rank of a university was first broached in 1875 by Professors Greenwood, Morgan, Roscoe and Ward, hut when memorials for a charter were in 1877 presented to the Privy Council, opposi tion was made by the Yorkshire College, Leeds, and by other bodies in order to prevent a uni versity charter being conferred on Owens Col lege alone. It was finally agreed that the new university should bear the title of the Victoria University, and that while Owens College should be the first college of the university, yet provision should be made for the admission from time to time of other colleges. The royal charter creating the university was granted on 20 April 1880. University College, Liverpool, was admitted as the second college on 5 Nov. 1884, and the Yorkshire College as the third college on 3 Oct. 1887. It provided that the university should have its seat in Manchester and that the meetings of the university court and council and of the convocation should be held in that city. A subsequent charter, dated 20 March 1883, gave power to confer degrees in medicine and surgery.