Oxford is unique among Universities. Only Cambridge approximates to it in character and in system. No other English or Continental University is like these two. It is from its manner of life and from its environment that Oxford has acquired and maintained its individuality. The University has a history which by tradition antedates the Conquest; it has grown with England; its rights, its charters, its laws have undergone the vicissitudes of centuries and have developed in the same process of evolution with the charters and laws and Constitution of England. The Colleges have been intimately associated with the great events, constitutional, political, religious, and social, which have made English history; and the University has fought for and won its rights side by side with other English institutions. [Sidenote: National position.] As it exists to-day the University is ‘sovereign’ within its own borders, subject to the National Government only in regard to those greater obligations, such as an individual State in the United States owes to the National Government. Oxford and Cambridge are not National or State Universities in the sense in which that term is applied to many Continental and American Universities. The English Government makes _no appropriation_ for their support. And yet they are—and they only—in character the great national Universities of England. [Sidenote: The University a federation.] Visitors from abroad come to Oxford, are shown about through College after College, and after many expressions of surprise and delight exclaim, ‘Yes, yes; excellent, excellent, but where is the University?’ They are looking for the ‘main building’, the ‘administration building’, something concrete which they may call the University—and they do not find it. The University is a federation—an academic United States, made up of twenty-two ‘societies’—the Colleges—each of which has its separate corporate existence. [Sidenote: Revenues.] The University is dependent for its running expenses on its endowments, fees, and the _pro rata_ contributions from each of the Colleges. The Colleges are also supported by their endowments, which, usually in land, are considerable and yet decidedly variable, and also by College fees as paid by undergraduates. The University is not as rich in income as credited, and its yearly revenues are really insufficient for the enormous work which it undertakes.[44] [Sidenote: Expense.] There are a number of reasons why the cost of living at Oxford is high. The University, as explained, consists of a large number of separate establishments—the Colleges. Students are ‘up’ but one half of the year, and yet the College ‘establishment’ must be maintained the year round. A large number of servants are necessary to the system, which in respect to style of living and service resembles hotel life. The standard of maintenance and service demanded by the students themselves is not conducive to economy.