A letter to the citizens of Aberdeen, on the improvement of their academical institutions / [John Stuart Blackie].

  • John Stuart Blackie
Date:
1846
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the citizens of Aberdeen, on the improvement of their academical institutions / [John Stuart Blackie]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    measures; and of one thing I am sure, classes of double the num ei will likely contain double the amount of talent, and create a double amount of enthusiasm. My learned col¬ league Dr. Brown, once told me, that the largest Greek ass he ever had in Marischal College was the best. So va- nous are the aspects of things apparently the most simple. And now, Fellow-citizens, my task, for the present, is done. I have not spoken about everything that stands com¬ mented on in the bulky records of our two barren Commis¬ sions ; but I have spoken about many things, and these the most urgent, the most important, and the most intimately inter¬ woven. Shortly summed up, the principal matters to which I have successively directed your attention, and in the shape of direct public duty obligatory upon you, are the following :— I*—£)° all that you can now unremittingly to raise the status of the Schoolmaster. II. —Build a new Grammar School. III. —Raise the salaries of the Rector and the other Teachers, and modify and extend the sphere of instruction, according to the best and most recent pedagogic experience of England, Germany, and Holland; of Edinburgh, Ayr, In¬ verness, and Glasgow. IV. —Present a petition to the Universities, requesting them to alter, modify, and extend the Bursary Test.* V. —Present a petition to Parliament, requesting them to take into immediate consideration the state of the Scottish Universities, as represented in the University Commission re¬ ports, and to take effectual measures for the union of the Universities, the elevation and extension of the Curricu¬ lum, for the regulation of the Burse funds, the establishing of Scholarships, the due remuneration of the Professors, and other matters. * I forgot to state above that there is a measure at present before the Senatus for modifying the Bursary Test; but as it proceeds on the principle of making the slightest possible change on existing arrangements (see p, 47, note), its result of course will be the slightest possible improvement. As an omen, how’ever, of a more perfect work to come, and as a symptom ot mo¬ tion in the right direction, I give it a most hearty welcome. It consists merely in adding to the present version exercise a piece of Latin, to be done into idiomatic English, the evvovs to be counted in alt coses in both eocevcises. This last proviso is important to be noted, as the translation from Latin into English at present practised in King’s College is, according to my informa¬ tion then only taken into account when two versions are equal. Of course its influence in modifying the version monopoly, and in cultivating the Eng¬ lish style of the competitor, is almost nothing.
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