Reform of the University of Glasgow : considered with reference to the published report of the Royal Commissioners of Visitation appointed by Sir Robert Peel, and to the evidence and documents contained in their unpublished appendix, embracing the whole of Mr Oswald's bill for the regulation of that university, compared, clause by clause, with the constitution proposed by those commissioners / by a graduate of the University.

Date:: 1835

Credit: Reform of the University of Glasgow : considered with reference to the published report of the Royal Commissioners of Visitation appointed by Sir Robert Peel, and to the evidence and documents contained in their unpublished appendix, embracing the whole of Mr Oswald's bill for the regulation of that university, compared, clause by clause, with the constitution proposed by those commissioners / by a graduate of the University. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

10/40 page 10

$other sums just given, to be truly of this description, still it might have occurred to this “lion the way of lavish public expenditure that not one penny of such sums should have been la out without leave first asked and obtained of the visitors to whom alone belongs the disposal the surplus funds for the pious aind necessary uses of the College. But to dwell upon iten- is waste of time after the explicit statement of the ComTnissioners, as already quoted- “ the duty of Visitors has never been performed in the way or to the extent pointed out i \ the statutes; the Pruicipal and Professors have assumed powers in direct opposition to tr regidations of these statutes, even after their construction had been settled by a Court Law ; there is no practical check on their expenditure or on their administration or disposi of the Surplus Revenue of the College; and the Visitors, at least for a great length of tim- have not exercised or even been made acquainted with the powers they possessed, or with tl' nature of the duties intrusted to themf is* By Section 60 of Mr Oswald’s Bill, the existing salaries and fees of the present Profef sors are reserved to them, unaltered, during their lives. Nevertheless, a vexatious questio might arise as to their right in future augmentations, were the funds in a state promising speedy augmentation from the surplus revenue. Apart from any legal right, it would b ^ hard to disappoint the expectations of the Professors. Fortunately, however, all discussio « upon this topic is rendered superfluous by the following very explicit statement from th ‘ parties chiefly interested : ' “ As for the future augmentations of salary, the Professors of the College are too we! acquainted with their own affairs to anticipate the possibility of accomplishing such an objec- in the lifetime of the youngest member of their body. They know that by the fall in th * price of grain, the augmentation of Ministers’ stipends, and other circumstances over whicl' ^ they have no control, the chief source of their revenue has been and must be still farthec “ diminished. They are aware of the precarious tenure, by which they hold another const, derable proportion of their income. They calculate on soon encountering a large expend! ture for objects, the fulfilment of which cannot be much longer deferred, and they feel toe sensibly the diminution which their capital has sustained by the ample scale on which thej) “ have endeavoured to provide accommodation for several of the Regius Professors (especialh v the Professor of Chemistry), to delude themselves with the idle prospect of ever having. “ funds to apply for purposes of individual advantage.’ * Proposed Constitution of the New Supreme Court, or Governing Body, within the University. But, admitting that a governing body is required for the University, a very difficult ques- tion remains—What should be its constitution ? Now, this is a question requiring more candour and prudent consideration, than a question involving individual not less than public interests can be expected to obtain. A great variety of qualifications are desirable in the members of such a body. Not only knowledge in the general branches of literature and science, but knowledge also in the principal branches of theological and medical study, should be possessed by such a body, and, as a 'Frust vested with extensive property, know-- ledge of business is also a desirable qualification. To expect that all these qi^lifications should concentrate in each member composing the body, were unreasonable. It is enough that the qualifications wanted by one may be made up by those possessed by another. Accordingly, it is easy for an uncandid person to object to any constitution, by selecting the possible or probable, weak points of each member, and holding up these defects as the qualifications of the body, which indeed are by this device kept out of view altogether. Ihe Royal Commissioner.s- appear to have felt the difficulty of suggesting a proper governing body ; and that they were not much bound up in any particular plan of their own, is to be inferred from the circum- stance that the courts they propose for the several Universities differ materially from each other in the constitution, though not in the powers. One part of the University Court, com- mon to all their plans, has, I think, been very generally objected to—the appointment, as ] V oKt;..... .< n................. «..•.< • tbey ineaut the lir/oi mthun.$

Licence and re-use

Contents