UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN.

Another proof of the great impulse which had been given to education in Scotland during the fifteenth century is furnished by the institution of a third university towards its close. William Elphinstone, one of the most eminent and enlightened prelates of his time, who was consecrated bishop of Aberdeen in 1487, prevailed upon his patron James IV. to solicit from the pope the erection of a university in Old Aberdeen, for the purpose of extending the advantages of education to the northern districts of his kingdom. The University of Aberdeen was accordingly founded in 1494, by a bull of Pope Alexander VI., issued on the representation of James IV. The papal edict authorised the erection of a studium generale et universitas studi generalis, in the city of Old Aberdeen, for teaching divinity, the canon and the civil law, medicine, and the liberal arts; and conferred upon it all the privileges and immunities which were enjoyed by the Universities of Paris and Bologna. The university was to consist of a chancellor, who was to be the Bishop of Aberdeen, a rector, and doctors of faculties, and was invested with the power of conferring degrees, which were to be held as valid throughout Christendom. Two years after, on the publication of the deed of erection, the king granted a charter in favour of the university, bestowing upon it certain ecclesiastical funds for the support of its members, and granting to it all the rights, liberties, and advantages which his ancestors had given to St Andrews and Glasgow. Its privileges were finally established by a papal bull issued in 1500. In erecting this new seminary, the model of Paris, where Bishop Elphinstone had read lectures on the canon law, seems to have been mainly followed. The suppositors were divided into four nations, who seem to have elected their procurators (procuratores nationum); but they took no further part in elections, nor in the government of the university, the procurators acting as their representatives.

King's College.

In 1505, Bishop Elphinstone, for the purpose of increasing the revenues of the new university, and enlarging the city, or number of its members, founded and endowed a College, or King's Collegiate Church, in honour of the Trinity and the Virgin Mary, which was in the following year confirmed by the Aberdeen, head of the church, and soon after by the reigning monarch. The college was to consist of thirty-six ordinary members, the chief of whom was to be a doctor or licentiate of divinity, who was to be styled principal, and to whom all the members were to yield obedience. Next to him were doctors or licentiates of the canon and the civil law and medicine; a master of arts, who was to be regent and sub-principal; and another, who was to teach the elements of literature. Besides these there were five masters of arts, students of divinity, who were to retain their appointments for a limited number of years; and thirteen poor scholars of respectable talents and proficiency, who were to be students of arts. All the members, with the exception of the doctor of medicine, were to be ecclesiastics, and were required to live within the college. The rector of the university, if not a member of the college, and if he was, the dean of the faculty of arts, and the official of Aberdeen, were constituted visitors, with power to remedy whatever was found defective. In the following year, Pope Julius II., at the request of the bishop, conferred on the chancellor, with a separate provision in case of a vacancy in the see, the power of granting the degrees of doctor, master, bachelor, and licentiate in the faculties of theology, the canon and the civil law, and medicine; thereby investing the college, temporarily at least, with the privileges of a university.

A new erection, increasing the number of the members of the college, improving their comforts, and introducing a more efficient system of instruction, which had been prepared by Bishop Elphinstone, but left unexecuted at his death in 1514, was officially published by his successor, Bishop Dunbar, in 1531. By this new charter, which, though modified by time and circumstances, has hitherto regulated, in a great degree, the form and practice of the university, the members of the seminary were to be forty-two. The first class consisted of four doctors; a doctor of divinity, who was to be principal, and whom all the other members were respectfully to obey; and doctors of the canon and the civil law, and medicine, or licentiates if doctors could not be found. In the second class were eight masters of arts, the first of whom, learned in philosophy and the arts, was to be sub-principal; the second was to be skilled in poetry, grammar, and rhetoric; and the remaining six, from whom the regents were to be elected, were to be students of divinity, and to retain their appointments for six years, until promoted to the degree of doctor therein. The next class was formed of students of law, who were to study the civil law, and to attend the lectures delivered on that subject. All these, with the exception of the doctor of medicine, were to belong to the priesthood, and were occasionally to say mass for the founders. There were, besides, thirteen students of arts, retaining their endowments for three years and a half, the usual curriculum in that faculty; and eight prebendaries, who were to attend to sacred music, one of them being styled cantor, and another sacrist, and six boys for the choir. For all these, with the exception of the mediciner, grammarian, civilist, and canonist, who were furnished with manses, accommodation was to be provided within the college. The revenues were placed under the charge of a procurator or factor, who was to be appointed by the principal officers of the college.

The principal was to be elected by the rector of the university, the procurators, doctors, sub-principal, regents in arts, humanist, theological students, cantor and sacrist, and to be admitted by the chancellor. His duties were to govern the college, to preside in its meetings, to direct the regents in the delivery of their lectures, and to punish such as were deficient in their duty, to profess every day in philosophy and the arts, and to give lectures in divinity to the people six days in the year. The doctors, who were to be appointed by nearly the same electors, were likewise to be admitted by the chancellor, and to lecture to the students, each on the subjects belonging to his faculty. The election and admission of the sub-principal and humanist were to be conducted in a similar manner. The former was required to lecture in philosophy and the arts quotidianum legilibi die, to instruct the students in manners and virtue, to preside at public disputations among the students, to inflict fines on such as absented themselves from divine worship, and, along with the principal, to take a general superintendence of the affairs of the college. The students of theology and the arts were to be elected by the sub-principal, the regents and the doctors of faculties, and admitted by the principal. The theological students were required to apply themselves to the study of their science, and to be qualified within three years to take their bachelor's degree. Their places, when vacant, were to be filled up from the students of arts. The college was exempted from all civic burdens.

From this statement it appears that the northern seminary closely resembled in its constitution the Colleges of St Andrews and Glasgow. The connection between the college and the university is distinctly marked in the charter of foundation, in which it is recommended that the permanent and higher offices should be supplied from the inferior members if they were qualified, if not, from the members of the university of Aberdeen; and failing these, recourse was to be had to other universities. As at Oxford, Cambridge, and St Andrews, however, the university has disappeared, and the incorporated and endowed college only remains. The college is co-extensive with the university, or rather the university is confined to the limits of the college; nor is any distinction between them preserved, as has hitherto been the case at Glasgow.

The college remained in nearly the same state for more than a century, not, however, escaping the deterioration which seems to be incident to all exclusive bodies. In 1619, Bishop Forbes obtained a commission of visitation, by which the abuses that had gradually been engendered were reformed, and the original foundation, with some exceptions, restored. By the introduction of the reformed religion, some of the offices were rendered unnecessary; and accordingly the General Assembly, in 1639, ordered those of the canonist and cantor to be abolished. After the abolition of episcopacy, Charles I. resolved to apply part of the revenues of the different sees to the support of the universities, and appointed a commission to inquire into the state of those of Old and New Aberdeen; the result of which was his executing a charter uniting them as one university, under the name of "King Charles' University of Aberdeen." The colleges, however, continued distinct, and are separately recognised in the Act of 1641, by which the grant of the rents of the bishopric of Aberdeen was ratified; nor do they appear ever to have acted together as one university. Bishop Elphinstone's seminary has since retained the name of King's College.

From the period of its institution down to the earlier part of the last century, various improvements were introduced by royal and parliamentary commissions. The General Assembly also extended its jurisdiction to the college; and the chancellor of the university and the ordinary visitors appear to have watched over its interests. In what manner the rector and his assessors were elected, and how frequently their visitations took place, are unknown for a period of 129 years after the institution of the college. Subsequently this court appears to have been efficient, and to have been instrumental, in several instances, in giving effect to improved plans of education. The senate, consisting of the regular officers of the college, likewise applied themselves to the same laudable object, and from time to time introduced such alterations as a change of circumstances or the advancement of knowledge rendered neces-

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1 It would perhaps be difficult to fix the exact date at which this designation was given to Bishop Elphinstone's Foundation. That it was, locally at least, applied to the College at a very early period, is proved by the fact that Hector Boeceus, the first principal, whose signature is attached to the new erection, dates the dedication of his History to the Archbishop of St Andrews, "Ex Regali Collegio Aberdonensi, ad Kalendas Maias, Anno salutis Christianae sexto et vigesimo supra millenium quinquagimum." Aberdeen. sary. About the year 1620, a professorship of divinity was insti- tuted by the college, and was confirmed two years after by royal charter. Weekly discourses on catechetical doctrine were estab- lished; and in 1764 a professorship of oriental languages was founded, for which an endowment out of the bishops' rents was afterwards obtained. In 1753 the teaching of the elements of Latin was abolished, and the scholarship of the class raised to the stan- dard of the other universities. In the same year, the senate, taking into consideration the whole state of the college, approved of certain statutes intended to regulate the length of the session, the manage- ment of the bursaries, and the plan of instruction. On this last head, after mature deliberation, it was determined, chiefly, it is alleged, through the influence of the celebrated Dr Reid, who was at that time one of the regents, that the old system of the same regent conducting the students through the whole course should be continued, as at once more beneficial to the students, and more ad- vantageous to the cause of literature and science. And it is a curi- ous fact, that the system thus sanctioned by high authority pre- vailed till the year 1800, when the practice of the other universi- ties was introduced.

Marischal College.

History.

Marischal College, in New Aberdeen, was founded as a college of arts by George Earl Marischal, under royal au- thority, in 1593; and in the same month received the sanc- tion of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. In July following it was ratified by an act of Parliament, which granted to it all the privileges and jurisdiction apper- taining to "ane frie college" within the realm, but, con- trary to the ancient practice, subjected all its members to the jurisdiction of the magistrates of the city, in all things done or committed by them beyond the walls of the col- lege; in consequence, perhaps, of the magistrates having furnished the site for the buildings. The college was de- nominated an Academy, or Seminary of Learning (Acade- mia—publicum Gymnasium), and was to consist of a chan- cellor, rector, dean of faculty, principal (Gymnasiarcha), three regents, six alumni, and two inferior persons to manage the internal affairs of the seminary. The principal was to superintend the whole establishment, and to exercise juris- diction over all its members; being invested with the power of censuring the regents, and of expelling them from the college, with the concurrence of the rector and dean, after three admonitions. He was to be well instructed in sacred literature and in the learned languages, particularly in Hebrew and Syriac, and was required occasionally to teach divinity, anatomy, physiology, the principles of geography, chronology, and astronomy, and the elements of Hebrew grammar and construction; duties presupposing an extent of acquirement which the founder must have had some dif- ficulty in obtaining. He was also invested with the power of conferring degrees in arts on such as he deemed worthy of the distinction. The first regent was required to teach the elements of arithmetic and geometry, and the sciences of ethics and politics; the second was to teach the prin- ciples of logic; and to exercise the students in writing and declaiming in Latin and Greek; and the third, who was the lowest, was appointed to teach Greek, combining with it, during the first six months, Latin composition, after- wards the writing of Greek, and adding a short account of the elementary principles of logic. It thus appears that, from the commencement of the college, the regents had particular professions assigned to them; and that it origi- nally consisted solely of regents or professors in the faculty of arts. It was expressly ordained that no regent should undertake a new professorship. The Earl Marischal re- served to himself and his heirs the patronage of the pro- fessorships; the examination and admission of the persons nominated being vested in the chancellor if he were a clergyman, the rector, dean, the principal of King's Col- lege, and three clergymen, including the minister of Aber- deen. By the forfeiture of the Marischal family in 1716, the patronage devolved upon the crown. The election of the bursars was likewise retained by the founder, and their admission vested in the members of the college. No vaca- tion was allowed; and, that the members of the college might devote themselves exclusively to their respective duties, they were prohibited from holding any public office, and even from acting as rector or dean of faculty.

The chancellor, rector, and dean, were instructed to visit the college three times a year, for the purpose of correcting whatever might be found wrong in doctrine or discipline. The rector was to be elected by all the students, through the medium of procurators appointed by them when divided into four nations, to have jurisdiction over the college, and to preside in its meetings, after taking the oath of office. The dean of faculty was to be elected by the senate and the minister of Aberdeen; his duties being to preside at examinations, to administer the oath of fidelity to the examiners, and to take cognizance of the doctrine and dili- gence of the regents. He was invested with all the privi- leges which were understood to belong to the dean of the faculty of arts in the University of St Andrews, or in any other university. A charter of confirmation and Novoda- mus was granted by William Earl Marischal in 1623, rati- fying the deed of foundation by his predecessor, but with- drawing certain lands and revenues which had been origi- nally assigned to the college. Such was the condition of the college, till it was united with King's College, as form- ing an integral portion of "King Charles' University of Aberdeen," a union which seems never to have been rec- ognised by the members; and which, independently of the "general act rescissory," was formally rescinded by a new confirmation of its original rights and privileges granted by the Scottish Parliament in 1661. Neither in the charter of foundation, nor in any of the other charters or acts of parliament relating to the college, is it recognised as a separate university; nor is allusion made to any faculty except that of arts. The members have nevertheless, with- out any apparent legal right, conferred degrees in divinity, laws, and medicine, since before the middle of last century.

Notwithstanding the precautions of the founders, innovations were soon made on the constitution of the college. A few years after its institution, another regent was appointed; additional members were admitted, and each professor, in conformity with the general prac- tice, conducted his students through the whole course. In 1700 the privy council of Scotland assigned the Greek department to one professor; and in 1763 the system was finally altered by the senate. A professorship of mathematics was founded about 1613, and in 1616 a professorship of divinity. From this time the principal seems to have confined himself to the superintendence of the busi- ness and discipline of the college. The state of the college was the subject of frequent visitations appointed by the king, the privy council, and the parliament, by means of which, and by the inter- position of the senate, a system of instruction differing but little from that which has hitherto prevailed, was at a comparatively early period introduced.

For somewhat more than a century, the advantage of having in Attempts the north-east of Scotland a complete university, fully equipped in at union; all the faculties, instead of two incomplete colleges, has forced it- self upon public attention. In 1747—the year in which the union of the St Andrews Colleges was effected—1754, 1770, and 1786, negotiations for a similar union also took place between the col- leges, but led to no definite result. The commission appointed in 1828, and which issued their report in 1831, recommended an en- tire amalgamation and union of the colleges, and the institution of a complete university, with the faculties of arts and divinity at King's College, and those of laws and medicine at Marischal Col- lege. In 1835, a bill, founded partly on the report of this commis- sion, providing for the same comprehensive fusion of the colleges, with a different distribution of the faculties, was brought into par- liament by the member for Aberdeen; but, in consequence of strong opposition, was withdrawn. This failure was followed by the ap- pointment of a royal commission, specially for investigating the state of the Aberdeen colleges, which recommended a partial union. From this time the question of union remained dormant till 1839, when, on the suggestion of King's College, a scheme of complete fusion of the two establishments, their property, functions, and privileges, was prepared by members of the two colleges, which at first met with the approval of a large majority of both incorporations, of the town council of Aberdeen, &c., &c., and was favourably viewed by The curriculum in arts extends over four years, and includes Edinburgh attendance on Latin, Greek, English literature, mathematics, natural history, logic, natural philosophy, and moral philosophy.

All bursars, and all candidates for degrees, must attend these curricula branches in a certain prescribed order. The fee for the junior class in Latin, Greek, mathematics, and natural philosophy, is arts, Ls. 3s.; and for the senior classes, Ls. 1s. Those for natural fees, history and moral philosophy are Ls. 3s.; for English literature, Ls. 1s., and for logic, Ls. 2s. The classes of English literature and logic are conducted by the same professor. The matriculation fee is Ls. 1s.

The session at present commences on the first Monday of November, the previous week being occupied in deciding, by comparative trial, the vacant bursaries in the gift of the university, and in ascertaining the competency of the bursaries presented by private patrons, and terminates on the first Friday of April. A scarlet gown is worn as an academical dress by all students in arts; and those of them who belong to the Established Church are required to attend the college chapel.

The number of matriculated students during session 1859-60 was 713; in arts, 416; in divinity, 91; in laws, 17; and in medicine, 189. The numbers who graduated were 143; in arts, 61; in divinity, 0; in laws, 2; and in medicine, 90. The fees for graduation are: for the degree of A.M., Ls. 4s.; of M.B., Ls. 2s.; and for M.D., Ls. 5s., in addition to the previous fee for M.B.; and exclusive of any stamp duty, which may for the time be exigible.

The following is a table of the professorships, with the date of foundation and the patronage.

| Office | Date | Patronage | |-------------------------|--------|-----------------| | Principal | 1505 | Crown | | Greek | 1505 | Crown | | Humanity | 1505 | Crown | | Logic | 1860 | University Court| | Mathematics | 1505 | Crown | | Moral philosophy | 1505 | Crown | | Natural philosophy | 1505 | Crown | | Systematic theology | 1593 | University Court| | Divinity and church history | 1616 | Synod of Aberdeen. | | Oriental languages | 1674 | Crown | | Law | 1505 | University Court| | Institutes of medicine | 1860 | Crown | | Practice of medicine | 1505 | Crown | | Chemistry | 1793 | University Court| | Anatomy | 1839 | Crown | | Surgery | 1839 | Crown | | Materia medica | 1860 | Crown | | Midwifery | 1860 | Crown | | Medical jurisprudence | 1857 | University Court| | Botany | 1860 | Crown |