III. SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION.

The four Universities by which Superior Instruction is dispensed are organized as follows:

The Scottish Universities, instead of being made up of several colleges, all forming one university, consist of several distinct Faculties independent of each other, in which there are professors appointed to teach the different subjects which go to constitute the Faculty. Thus there is a Faculty of theology, another of medicine, another of law, and another of arts. These are quite distinct from each other, and manage their own internal arrangements, subject to the revision of the Senatus Academicus and the University Court. In like manner each professor in each Faculty manages his own class or classes independently of the other members of his Faculty, but subject to certain general rules applicable to the Faculty to which he belongs. He divides the students who

attend his lectures into two or three classes, and delivers his two lectures or his three lectures cach day in his class-room, and there the relation between professor and student ceases, and they have nothing more to do with each other until they meet again at the next lecture hour.

The student does not live in college, or hall subject to university supervision, as in Oxford and Cambridge. He has his own lodgings in the town, is his own master in all matters, and the university takes no cognizance of his existence beyond its walls. There is no matriculation examination, and no necessity to follow any particular course of study. A fixed attendance at the lectures of certain professors, and a certificate from them to the effect that the student has attended their classes, is necessary for graduation; but beyond this there is absolute freedom of choice to the students to come at any age, to stay any length of time, to work or not to work, to belong to any religious denomination or no denomination. In short there is no interference of any kind with the students' lives. They pay their annual fees, and conduct themselves with propriety, within the university precincts, and beyond that they are perfectly independent of the university. Throughout the country we found indications of a desire to modify in some degree this freedom of action on the part of the universities and the students attending, and to introduce restrictions with regard to the age at which the students should be admitted, and with regard to the amount of knowledge which they should possess before admission.

There is great dissatisfaction existing among the teachers of the Burgh and Middle-class schools, occasioned by the conviction on their minds that the universities are interfering with their work. They consider that the classical and mathematical professors "poached" upon the schools by allowing students to attend their classes while still of school age, and by drilling these students in Greek and Latin grammer, or in the elements of Euclid and algebra, when they ought to have learned those things at school. This is no new subject of contention between the schools and the universities. As early as 1656 the masters of the Edinburgh High School complained bitterly of the interference of the Greek and Latin classes at the university with the school, and it was agreed by the Town-Council that "two of their number should wait upon the

College of Justice to acquaint them that it has been moved to abolish the humanity class in the University, as prejudical not only to the Grammar School, but to the College itself, and proposing that the salary of the professor should be employed some other way for advancing learning." The College of Justice, without hesitation, refused to listen to such a recommendation. In 1772, the other side of the question was raised, and a remonstrance was laid before the patrons of the High School by the principal and professors of the university against the introduction of Greek into the school for the first time, on the ground that by this innovation an encroachment was made on the province of the university.

Some of the professors in the different universities take the same view upon the subject as the teachers, and hold that some alteration should be made in the ordinances of the universities by which a line might be drawn between university work and school work. Among them Professor Blackie, of Edinburgh University, holds:

The University should begin where the Burgh school ends; and transition from the one to the other should take place, as in Prussia, only on a regular certificate of fitness. The want of this graduated system is one of the greatest evils in the present upper education of Scotland.

Professor Campbell, of St. Andrews, writes:

The Burgh Schools should be the natural feeders of the Universities; and a certificate of having passed the final examination at the Burgh school in English, arithmetic, Euclid, and Latin and Greek, might perhaps be a fitting substitute for a University matriculation examination.

Professor Geddes, of Aberdeen, considers—

That it would be desirable to introduce something of the nature of the Abiturienten-Examen, as practiced in the Gymnasia of Germany, whereby the rector of a Burgh school, in conjunction with one of the inspectors, should have the power of awarding, upon a well understood programme, certificates of fitness to proceed to the University, which certificates should entitle the students possessing them to the position of public students, and therefore capable of becoming candidates for the degree in Arts. The effect of such an arrangement would be, that the school standard would be raised by the best possible means; that it would be the interest of the schools, as it is in Germany, to retain their pupils as long a time as possible, in order to mature and perfect their attainments, and that the schools would be placed in a highly honorable position with reference to the University. What facilities should be given to students other than those from Burgh schools to attain the same position, so as to be distinct from private students, who should have no right or claim to the degree, is another matter, but I have no doubt that such facilities could easily be devised. When a system of so-called "certificates of maturity" is devised under proper checks, and on a fair programme of scholarship, there will be no difficulty in reducing the curriculum of the university to a three years' course, compensation being of course given to those chairs that would be affected by such an arrangement.

On the other hand, Professor Sellar, of Edinburgh, is opposed to any more stringent examination than that allowed by the 14th ordinance of the University Commissioners. By this ordinance, it is enjoined, that students entering the university, may, by passing a satisfactory examination, dispense with attendance in the junior classes, and by this means they may complete their curriculum in three winter sessions instead of

four. His objection to an entrance examination comes to this. If such an examination be a bona fide stringent examination, a number of young men above eighteen years of age, who now come to the universities from Normal schools and remote country districts would be excluded, and if it were not a stringent examination, sharp boys of fourteen or fifteen years of age from a good school would easily pass it. In answer to the question bearing on this point he says:—

I do not see that the Burgh schools can be placed in any direct relation to the Universities. At present the Universities draw less than half of their numbers from the Burgh schools and other Public schools, such as the Edinburgh Academy, the Dollar Institution, the Madras College at St. Andrews, etc. They draw also a considerable portion, especially in the junior classes, from the parish schools and other primary schools in the country districts. But indirectly, the Burgh schools and the Universities may do much to assist one another. The Universities may look to the Burgh schools, when reformed and reorganized, to send up a class of students better trained than the majority of those who come from other places of education; and the introduction of even a small number of such students would have a most beneficial influence in raising the standard of attainment among the mass. Again, the prospect of attaining bursaries and other university distinctions might be expected to act as a great stimulus both to teachers and scholars, and success in these competitions to raise the reputation of the best schools, and thereby improve the positon of the teachers. It is to be regretted that in the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow there are, at present, very few bursaries awarded according to merit. The competition for open bursaries at Aberdeen and St. Andrews has an excellent influence on the schools in connection with those Universities. The ordinance of the University Commissioners, in accordance with which students entering the University may, on passing a satisfactory examination dispense with attendance on the junior Latin, Greek and Mathematical classes and thereby complete their curriculum in two years and a half, is also calculated to benefit the Burgh schools. In the University of Edinburgh, a considerable number "avail themselves of this privilege; and a much larger number may be expected to do so, both in the Edinburgh and the other Universities, when the schools are put on a better footing. It aught to become the general rule for students who have attended a Burgh school for five or six years, to be able to enter at once the senior classes in Latin, Greek and mathematics, and to finish their University course in two years and a half; and parents who have the opportunity of sending their sons to a good school, may be expected to see the advantage of keeping them a year or two longer there than they do at present. The Universities should, I think, annually publish a list of the successful candidates in this examination, adding the names of the schools at which they have been educated. It is sometimes proposed, with a view of doing more justice to the Public schools that the junior classes in the University should be abolished, or that all students on entering the University should pass a matriculation examination. It is urged that these junior classes maintain themselves by "poaching on the schools." A more exact knowledge of the composition of these classes would very much modify these statements. The large majority attending these classes would get no University education at all if they were abolished. As a proof of this, it may be mentioned that the average age of the students attending the Junior Humanity Class in the University of Edinburgh during the present session is between nineteen and twenty,-nearer twenty than nineteen. Out of the whole number of one hundred and sixty attending the class ninety-nine are above the age of eighteen. It certainly is not desirable that they should continue at school, or go to a Burgh school for the first time, at that age. Many of them have taught themselves, or received their education in remote country districts. A considerable number of men of real ability come from the Normal schools, where they have had no opportunity of making much progress in Latin and Greek. Many of these would be deterred from coming to the University by the prospect of an entrance examination, in which, if they failed,

they would probably have to abandon all thoughts of preparing themselves for a University career, being too old to enter a good school, and too poor to employ a private tutor. If the standard of the examination were fixed so as not to exclude or deter the self-taught, or those coming from remote country districts, it would not be too high to exclude a moderately sharp boy of fourteen or fifteen from the Edinburgh High School or New Academy. Many of the poorer students from the Parish schools or Normal schools, who enter the junior classes at a comparatively late period in life, make great progress, and in their second year hold their own against the best students of the senior class. The highest honors in my senior classes, both in St. Andrews and Edinburgh, have often been carried off by young men of energy and ability, who had entered the junior class with few previous advantages, and who had by industry in their first session and first summer vacation, qualified themselves to compete successfully with scholars from the first schools in Scotland. The Burgh schools should aim at preparing their pupils for entering the senior classes in Latin, Greek, and mathematics. To those who pass this entrance examination, the University course is much simplified. They can, without any strain upon them, but, with moderate industry, during their three sessions and two summers, obtain the degree of M. A., in two years and a-half. For parents who can send their sons to a good Burgh school, this is the object to aim at. With the improvement of the Burgh schools, the junior classes in the Universities may be expected to fall off considerably in numbers; but they should continue to exist open to all who, in spite of early disadvantages, wish to raise themselves in mental cultivation, or social position through the means of a University education.

We have returns from eight hundred and eighty two students in the Latin, Greek, and mathematical classes in the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and St. Andrews, and of the junior Latin and Greek classes in the University of Aberdeen, for the session 1866-67, and from these returns the social position of the students attending the Scottish Universities may be accurately judged.

From the schedules of these students we find that the answers to the questions relating to the profession or occupation of their fathers may be divided into the eight following heads :

CLASSES.

I. Professional,.

:

These returns are corroborated by those furnished by Professor Blackie. They show, beyond all doubt, that the Scottish Universities are essentially national; that their advantages are not confined to a class as in England, and, to a very great extent, in Ireland; but that almost every grade in the social scale is represented, from the highest to the very lowest.*

In the course of the inquiry, the son of a shepherd in the West Highlands called upon us and told us of his circumstances. His father had £20 a year of wages, besides his house, cow's grass and croft. The lad who was twenty-two years of age, had gone from the Parochial school in his native parish in the West Highlands to the High School in Inverness, and from there he had come to the