The grievance of the university tests as applied to professors of physical science in the colleges of Scotland : a letter, addressed to The Right Honourable Spencer H. Walpole, Secretary of State for the Home Department / by George Wilson.

Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The grievance of the university tests as applied to professors of physical science in the colleges of Scotland : a letter, addressed to The Right Honourable Spencer H. Walpole, Secretary of State for the Home Department / by George Wilson. 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.

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    occupant of the principalship, Dr Lee,—who for the last sixty years have presided over the deliberations of the Edinburgh University Senate,—knew too well that the Tests must be given entire, without limitation, modification, or commentary, to apply them to those who could not conscientiously take them in the same spirit. It is true that when a professor-elect goes before the Presbytery of his bounds to comply with the Tests, he need not do more than sign his name to a particular document. He may disown or deny its requirements up to the moment of signature, and from the moment thereafter. The Presbytery cannot enforce obedience to the law which it administers. But even if this mockery of an ecclesiastical court be practised, it does not make the signature of the prescribed document less a reality. The party who attaches his signature, binds himself to perform certain engagements, and cannot hold himself guiltless because he is not called to task as a law-breaker. I have been asked, “ Why make so much work about signing your name at the bottom of a sheet of paper?” Unfortunately this sheet of paper has certain very grave and significant words on it, which, though not absolutely identical as employed by each Presbytery, are substantially the same, being taken from the Act of Security. They therefore run, more or less exactly, thus (see page 9): “I acknowledge, profess, and subscribe the Confession of Faith, as the confession of my faith; and that I will practise and conform myself to the worship presently in use in this Church [of Scotland], and submit myself to the government and discipline thereof, and never endeavour, directly or indirectly, the prejudice or subversion of the same.” If the signature of such a declaration lays no obligation on him who subscribes it, what subscription does? It is needless, surely, to reply. Some inconsiderate spectators of the proceedings of a Presbytery with a professor-elect, have spoken as if “ the out- witting,” as they have called it, of the Presbytery, by a professor assumed to have no intention of practically obeying the Tests, amounted to an assertion and vindication of his independence. It is plain, however, that lie who refuses to be bound by his own promise, or oath, outwits only himself.