seems able, whenever it puts up a candidate, to draw many away from the rival clubs. Still it may be doubted whether it will ever come nearer victory than it came four years ago, when it secured five hundred votes for Mr. Emerson as against seven hundred recorded in favour of Lord Beaconsfield, then Mr. Disraeli.

The societies devoted to the discussions of professional subjects meet once a week, and are reported to be in a flourishing condition, but from the very nature of the case their proceedings are not regarded with general interest.

In many respects the Dialectic Society is by far the most important institution established by the students, and some account of it may serve to illustrate the character of our academical life as it manifests itself otherwise than in devotion to study. But I shall reserve this matter for another letter.

The dark cloud of debt which has for some years been hanging over us seems at length to be lifting, and shortly after the session began it was still further diminished by a bequest of £60,000 under the will of Mr. Randolph, an alumnus of the University, and long one of the foremost shipbuilders on the Clyde. It speaks well both for the University and the City that such cordial relations should exist between them as are indicated by the frequent liberality of the latter.

The General Council at its last meeting was chiefly engaged in discussing the report of the Royal Commissioners on the Scottish Universities. On behalf of the committee of council, Mr. Veitch, the professor of logic, submitted a report summarising the principal proposals put forward by the commissioners, and pointing out the probable effect of their adoption. Mr. Veitch, in his hostile criticism of some of the most important items in the proposed scheme of reform, and especially in his condemnation of the innovations recommended in regard to graduation in arts, seemed to command the general assent of the council, although there were not wanting earnest advocates of the new order sought to be introduced. The whole subject will be brought up again at the next meeting to be held in April, when no doubt it will be finally disposed of. In the meantime, therefore, it is not necessary to detail the views already provisionally expressed.

UNITED COLLEGE, ST. ANDREW's, N.B.,

Dec. 18, 1878.

OUR session this winter began auspiciously with a rectorial address worthy of the occasion. The 22nd of last month was the day Lord Selborne, whom we had elected our Lord Rector a year before, chose for his address to us. The old library hall, where these addresses are given, is striking in many respects. Situated in quaint South-street, it forms one of the sides of the quadrangle of St. Mary's College, a long narrow building of two stories offering no windows to the street, the dead wall of which is relieved by three empty niches and a long line of crests belonging to successive bishops and regents. It is in the upper story that meetings are held, and the structure is so old that a careful system

of props is necessary, to support the floor under the pressure of such an audience as assembles to hear our Lord Rectors' addresses. The hall is long and narrow, and is lined with books from end to end; the separate bookcases between the windows which look on the quadrangle are surmounted by hollow-eyed busts; and a narrow gallery raised on pillars runs round the three remaining sides. At the further end from the entrance is a slightly raised platform, and over this, immediately above each successive speaker's head, are the words in gold, 'AIEN 'APITEYEIN, which are said to have incited Lord Chancellor Campbell in his career of success. Of these words we were called to take heed on this last occasion, as we have been admonished before, and may well be admonished again. Lord Selborne's address was chiefly remarkable for its high moral tone, evidently deep and sincere as the heart, and that no shallow one, of the speaker; it presented no career of glitter and glory as the goal of the truly successful man, but a life in which from first to last there dwelt the beauty of a good conscience. The speaker's words went home to many of his hearers; and seldom or never in recent years has a more respectful hearing been given to a Lord Rector. At the close of his address, Lord Selborne announced that he would offer a prize of twenty guineas for the best essay on "The Causes of the Decay of Nations"-rather a serious subject just now, if the fears of alarmists are well founded.

Our University is bright and vigorous this winter. An anxious feeling was excited at the beginning of this month by the illness of Professor Campbell, but he is now convalescent. The number of students is still on the increase, although we are not yet two hundred strong. A single class of some hundred students, as it may be found in Edinburgh or in Glasgow, is simply a mass of units. It seldom happens that any but the prominent men are known even by name; and sometimes one sits by a neighbour a whole winter and barely exchanges with him the ordinary compliments. Indeed, men are known who have never addressed a remark right or left. That individualism for which the Scottish nation is noted seems to reach its highest point in many of the Edinburgh classes. Not so much, perhaps, in Glasgow; for Glasgow University is more a community removed from the city, whose members wear the red gown-a very decided link of brotherhood, unknown in the post-Reformation University. The gown worn here is much more of a garment than that worn in Glasgow; it is larger and heavier, has a handsome velvet collar, and hooks in front. The Glasgow gown is simply thrown about the shoulders. Here, perhaps, we do not need the gown quite so much as a link and badge of brotherhood, for a student will have considerable difficulty in remaining an unconnected and unattracted particle in our midst. When any important question, such as the election of a Lord Rector, comes up, where a canvass of individual students is thought desirable, there is no student left unvisited by the committees, and no lodgings are held sacred The man is not to be envied who does not declare himself, for he will be allowed no peace. classes range from twenty to fifty, quite a sufficient number to occupy the professor's attention, and to insure a thorough knowledge of the men. The first year's classes are naturally the largest. Freshmen go under the name of bejants (becs jaunes, yellow beaks or young birds), a name unknown in the two southern Scottish Universities. The first occasion on which they appear upon the scene is at the bursary compe

Our

tition, which takes place in the United College Hall, usually on the last two days of October. A bejant is an object of some interest then. Knots of older students are scattered about, and these seize upon each one as he enters, and endeavour to secure him for one of the two debating societies to which the great majority of the students belong. These societies, the Literary and the Classical, are of old standing, the former quite as old as the century, with many a distinguished name enrolled in its books. Every Saturday at six o'clock these societies assemble, the one in the Moral Philosophy, the other in the Logic class-room. An open meeting is held once a year, when openers and seconders, one from each society, are appointed to lead the debate. The question for the present session is "Disestablishment." Connected with the societies also are two standard festivals-the Solatium, which takes place about the month of February, a modest banquet, provided by those whose residence is coming to an end, and who are about to receive the diploma of honorary membership from the society; and the Gaudeamus, à parting feast in April, to be chairman of which is counted no small honour, an honorary member often coming a considerable distance to preside. These meetings are usually held in two different hotels upon the same evening, and deputations are sent from one to the other to entertain and be entertained.

One great boon has been granted us within the past three years. A reading room, with a supply of newspapers and all the important magazines and periodicals, was started three sessions ago, and is supported partly by a grant from the senators and partly from members' subscriptions. We have particular facilities, besides, for reading and research. There can be no great demand at the library from students, members of council, or residents, for St. Andrew's is not a populous place. Accordingly each reader looks confidently to obtaining the book be requires, a most unusual thing in many University libraries.

There is a monastic tinge in the seclusion and quiet of our existence here. It is breezy and fresh, and from our class rooms we do not look through murky panes on the bustling life of the city; but the sun shines in upon us bright and clear, lighting up at the same time the grassy lawn around the college. Over the whole town the hourly bell is heard, that summons to the lecture rooms. A short walk of three minutes takes one to the links, where the weariness of study soon disappears in the delightful forgetfulness of the game; or, if one prefers a walk, there are numerous ways by beach and cliff and inland.

A session at St. Andrew's need not cost more than £35, fees included. One takes one's rooms by the session or six months, and the charges range from £3 10s. for a single room to £8 or £10 for two chambers. Coal and gas, which are extra, are covered by a further 30s. or £2. When once a student gets comfortably settled, he seldom changes from year to year; landladies here take a pride in having their students a long time with them. Very many of the more saving students cannot spend more than £25. Their way of life is most frugal; late dinners and wine are almost unheard of. Overwork is the rule, and not the exception; for, besides the keen competition of the foremost men, a very large number come up poorly prepared, so that it takes a considerable amount of uphill work for them to rise to the required level. Scarcely anything, except perhaps a lunch or evening at a professor's, breaks the even tenour of the day's occupation: breakfast at half-past eight; classes till one or two o'clock; dinner, followed by a game at

golf or a walk; tea at half-past five; and a steady sitting over books till midnight.

There are now seven classes absolutely necessary for the Arts degree, since chemistry was dispensed with last May. For many years ours was the only Scottish University which included the subject in the M.A. curriculum. St. Andrew's, with the other Universities, is looking forward with interest to the practical result of the report of the Scotch Universities Commission published in March last.

Ladies' classes are being carried on by several of the professors, both of the United College and of St. Mary's; chemistry, moral philosophy, education, and quite a number of subjects, are either being lectured upon or will be lectured upon during the session. These classes are well attended, a circumstance to be looked for now that the old monastic idea of exclusive learning is dying out. The L.A. degree is likely to prove a success, although some time may elapse before certain of the subjects will be approached. The requirements in Greek, for instance, include the 6th book of the Odyssey, the 1st book of Herodotus, and the Antigone of Sophocles. But why should not the days of Lady Jane Grey and the Lady Elizabeth see revival?

UNIVERSITY OF SEVILLE.

Dec. 1878.

THIS University, which had its origin in the School of Maese Rodrigo de Santaella, was founded at the petition of the city of Seville in 1502, and, influenced by the same spirit which prompted the institution of the flourishing Universities of the kingdom, its studies comprise the faculties of philosophy, theology, canon law, and medicine.

Our celebrated city of Seville, styled the "Queen of the Guadalquivir,” has passed through epochs of glorious renown in letters and arts, and the splendours of those days have not yet become dimmed. The museums of Europe are considered fortunate when they become the possessors of specimens of the Sevillian school. In the vestibule of the gallery which contains the marvellous works of Rafaelle d'Urbino, the late Pope Pius IX. placed a canvas of Murillo; and learned art critics, after admiring the beautiful painting of the Transfiguration, have remained spellbound before that of the Prodigal Son.

The writers of Seville alone would form a choice library, among whose gems stands pre-eminently the great Bible due to the wisdom and immense erudition of Benito Arias Montano, whose remains, after several translations, have at last been laid in peace to rest in gimnasio quod juvenis frequentarat.

The bards who tuned their lyres on the banks of the great river enjoy a deservedly high renown in the literary world. But the era of our scientific glory is traced back to the time of the Conquest. Under the favour and protection of the King Don Alonzo XII. the sciences flourished in our land; for, wishing to remedy the evil caused by ignorance, and to establish an institution which should diffuse the light of knowledge throughout the provinces newly liberated from the

Arab domination, he granted to Seville by especial prerogative, in 1256, a schedule for the study of Latin and Arabic. With deep penetration Alonzo the Wise saw the necessity of Latin for the study of antiquity, and of Arabic for acquiring the solid and immense wealth contained in the Arabic manuscripts in relation to the study of astronomy, medicine, agriculture, and geography, which he rightly judged it was expedient to make known among Spaniards. His love of science and his predilection for Seville impelled him to establish in this city a general study of all faculties, as stands patent by a bull of Pope Alexander IV. given on 29th July, 1260. Justly is this king surnamed the Wise, for he had spent his life in the study of history and national legislation, of politics and warfare, Christian morality and elegant literature, and possessed a profound knowledge of mathematics and physics.

The thirteenth century rewarded his scientific and literary labours with bitter ingratitude; but not so Seville, which carries emblazoned on its arms the emblem of loyalty, and knows the priceless value of him whose remains repose in the great Basilica side by side with those of the saintly conqueror. He made this city the shining centre, whither all the sciences should be gathered together, diffusing a beneficent influence over the rest of Spain, and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations. His noble desires were not limited to simply collecting the science of the ancients and drawing all possible profit from the inheritance left to him after the Conquest, but he faithfully pursued the end which he had proposed to himself, and, following the dictates of his clear intellect and of his love of his country, he summoned and gathered together the highest intellects of the age from distant lands, of all races and beliefs whether noble or plebeian, so long as these men were the most eminent in wisdom, the most keenly observant, and dowered with the greatest experience. And when this mighty army of sages from all lands were gathered around him he addressed them thus: "Write, and with your writings and investigations instruct this age and all succeeding ones in every science."

In this way was the Academia of Science and Literature commenced in Seville, which afterwards took root in Toledo, where these wise ones continued their tasks of collecting, translating, teaching, and so enkindled this fertile land with the love of science, that this distribution of the scattered wisdom of every land became, so to say, acclimatised in our fruitful soil, and proved the foundation of other and greater advancements.

From these studies and laborious researches came forth the famous Tables known under the name of the Alfonsine-a work which marks the line which the ancients had reached in their knowledge of astronomy, and which was to be the starting point for the progress of later discoveries in that science. These four volumes, Delambre assures us, would suffice, were all other books on astronomy to be lost, to teach the whole science of astronomy. A work so extensive, complete, and of so much research and labour, became justly celebrated in other countries, its acquisition considered a public benefit, and its possession memorable in history.

The Arabs had perfected this science and had invented new instruments for the advancement of their observations. In the Biblioteca Nacional is preserved an Astrolabe, which demonstrates the state of our science 800 years ago: towards the end of the eleventh century a universal one was invented in Toledo.