Bute's keen and practical interest in educational matters, and especially in the promotion of higher studies throughout the country, had naturally brought him into relation, at different times of his life, with several of the national universities. With Oxford, since his student days there at the most memorable crisis in his life, he had little subsequent connection. He refers occasionally in his letters to the disadvantage which he had suffered from having been prevented by circumstances from taking his degree; and Oxford never saw fit to honour him, {184} or herself, by conferring on him an honorary degree in recognition of his services to learning and scholarship. He never, however, lost his interest in his original _Alma Mater_; and nothing gave him greater pleasure, during the closing years of his life, than the news of the removal of the restrictions which had hitherto prevented Roman Catholic students from frequenting the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. A friend, head of one of the Oxford Halls, was visiting him in London some time subsequently, and informed him that there were already, in consequence of this change of policy, more than seventy Catholic undergraduates in residence at that university. Bute, who was at that time quite an invalid, raised himself on his couch, and said with the quiet emphasis with which he always spoke when strongly moved: "I wish there were seven hundred." He only visited Oxford once or twice after his marriage, but his continued affection for it was evinced in many ways; and the Catholic church and mission there, as in so many places, benefited by his munificence.[4] The establishment of a University College at Cardiff was to Bute naturally a matter of great interest, of which he gave many practical proofs. He accepted the presidency of the institution in 1890, when he contributed generously to the foundation of a chair of engineering; and six years later he gave a special donation of £10,000 to the funds. Besides his inaugural address, he gave another, in 1891, to the pupils of the science and art schools. His many gifts to the college included a complete {185} set of the valuable _Acta Sanctorum_ of the Bollandists; and he was particularly gratified by the very appreciative acknowledgment of this present which he received from the librarian. Bute proposed Mr. Gladstone as the first Chancellor of the University of Wales. Although profoundly opposed to some of the political views of that statesman, he had an admiration for his character and attainments; and he looked on it as a special honour, some years later, to receive the Honorary Doctorate of St. Andrews on the same occasion as the veteran Liberal leader. [Sidenote: 1892, Honorary Doctorates]