The movement for the diffusion of education among the people had been making steady progress during the reign of William the Fourth, and some of the most distinct and lasting memorials of that movement have come to be associated with the history of the reign. One of these was the granting of a charter for the establishment of a great university which was to bear the name of the capital, and was to confer its degrees, its honors, and its offices without any conditions as to the religious profession of those whom it educated, and whom it taught and qualified by appointment to conduct the education of others. The old Universities of Oxford and Cambridge were then directly associated with the State Church, and only gave the stamp of their approval and the right to teach to those who professed the religion established by law. There had been growing up, for some time, a feeling in the community that there was need for a system of university teaching which should be open alike to the members of all creeds and denominations, and even to those who did not profess to subscribe to the doctrines of any particular creed, or to enroll themselves in the ranks of any particular denomination. The institutions which are now known as University College, London, and the University of London are among the most remarkable growths of this movement. After years of effort the charters for these institutions were granted by King William in 1836, and it is needless to say that University College has played a great part in the spreading of education among the middle and poorer classes throughout the country. Henry Brougham was one of the most active promoters of the effort to bring the higher education and {262} its honors within the reach of all classes and creeds, and his name will always be distinctly associated with the rapid progress made in the spread of knowledge during the earlier part of the nineteenth century. Brougham was one of the founders and promoters of the "Penny Cyclopaedia for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge," which delighted some of our grandfathers, amazed and bewildered others, and filled yet others with a holy horror at the daring effort to upset all the wholesome distinctions of ranks and classes by cramming the lower orders with an amount of knowledge wholly unsuited to their subordinate condition, and unfitting them for the proper discharge of the duties associated with that station in life to which it had pleased Providence to call them.