CATHEDRAL.-UNIVERSITY.-LORD RECTOR. 131 privileges. Previously to the Reformation, the whole University, like a royal borough, formed a general corporation, while at the same time it was divided. into separate faculties, which, like the different classes of tradesmen in a borough, were distinct inferior corporations, enjoying peculiar immunities, property, and by-laws. The whole incorporated members, whether students or teachers, assembled annually in full congregation on the day after St. Crispin's day. They were divided into four classes, called nations, according to the place of their nativity. Under the heads of Clydesdale, Teviotdale, Albany, and Rothsay, all Scotland was included; and each nation or class elected representatives, who acted as assistants to the lord rector on weighty occasions. At the dissolution of the Catholic hierarchy, however, this system was overturned, and various changes effected from time to time, till the constitution of the University assumed its present form. It is now governed by a chancellor, a lord rector, a dean of faculties, a principal, and professors. The office of chancellor is usually filled by some nobleman, or other gentleman of rank, elected by the senate, who holds the dignity for life. The office of rector, however, may, in one respect, be called the most important in the University; because the person appointed to it is chosen upon the favourite principle of the whole members of the college having a voice in the election. The popular character of this officer has generally imparted intense interest to it; and when candidates of opposite politics are started, which is generally the case, a keen contest takes place, in which not only the professors and students, but also citizens of every class, engage with all the zeal and enthusiasm peculiar to political partizanship. In evidence of this, we need only state, that the rector's chair has been successively filled by such men as Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Marquess of Lansdowne, Sir James Macintosh, Lord Brougham, Thomas Campbell, Lord Jeffrey, and Lord Cockburn; thus associating not only their alma mater, but the city and its inhabitants, with the most distinguished characters of the age. The election of Campbell, who was Brougham's successor, was carried under circumstances peculiarly flattering to the illustrious poet. The name set up against his was no less than that of George Canning, but the poet of Hope gained the election by a vast majority. The office of lord rector, originally instituted for the protection of the rights of students, had become a sinecure honour; and Mr. Campbell's predecessors had, from time immemorial, contented themselves with coming down for a few days to Glasgow and making a speech on their installation. Campbell set the first remembered example of a lord rector attending, with scrupulous punctuality, to the duties which his oath implied.* * He spent several weeks in examining the statutes, accounts, and whole management of the University. The induction of the illustrious statesman, Sir Robert Peel, to the same distinguished honour, is an event too recent, and fresh in the memory of every man, to require any notice in these pages. The occasion was most strongly marked by all that could do honour to that accomplished scholar and senator, and to the professors and students who had installed him in his high office of Lord Rector in the Glasgow University. Omitting numerous objects and topics of great interest-literary and scientific institutions, museums, charitable foundations, national monuments, in all of which Glasgow is peculiarly rich, but which our space will not even permit us to name-we proceed to notice those particular scenes of beauty, or wonder, on which the painter has laid his hand in this picturesque province; the valley where "Clyde, foaming o'er his falls, tremendous roars, And Mouse, through rugged rocks, his waters pours; And Lee's recess-whence many a chief of name, Heroes and sages, moved in quest of fame."-WILSON. The river Mouse, which traverses the parish of Lanark from east to west, presents in its course much wild and romantic scenery. Near Cleghorn, it plunges into a deep ravine, scooped out apparently during the long lapse of ages by the impetuous rush of its waters. Lower down, and nearer its junction with the Clyde, it makes a sudden bend, and pouring its waters into a deep chasm in the hill of Cartlane, which forms its channel for about a mile, presents throughout a succession of views peculiarly wild and imposing. Wherever the cliffs press forward like jutting battlements on the one side, there is a corresponding recession on the other; so that the ravine appears to have been formed by some sudden and awful disrupture, and if closed seems as if each projection and depression would again enter into their original union. The north bank, piled During the first and second year of his rectorship, however, royal commissioners were employed in a similar inspection, and with their proceedings he found it beyond his power to interfere. But so much satisfaction had been diffused among the students by his known good intentions, that they resolved to confer upon him the honour, unprecedented for a century, of electing him for a third year. To this proceeding the professors objected, and, setting up Sir WALTER SCOTT as a candidate, gained over a large body of the students; and, in fact, the nomination of Sir Walter was carried, by what the Campbellites considered an unfair election. A deputation of them, therefore, went off to Edinburgh, and waiting on Sir Walter Scott, expressed themselves to that effect. This illustrious individual accordingly sent word to the professors that he declined the proffered honour. Campbell immediately left London for Glasgow, insisted on a new election, and carried it triumphantly. Such was the joy of the students on the occasion, that they founded the "Campbell Club" in honour of the poet, which still continues.-MS. |