Second report of the commissioners appointed by his Majesty William IV November 23rd 1836 and re-appointed by her Majesty Victoria I October 2d 1837 for visiting the Universities of King's College and Marischall College, Aberdeen / presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. Commission for Visiting the Universities of King's College and Marischal.
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Second report of the commissioners appointed by his Majesty William IV November 23rd 1836 and re-appointed by her Majesty Victoria I October 2d 1837 for visiting the Universities of King's College and Marischall College, Aberdeen / presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    cessors, and to weigh the various suggestions offered and regulations proposed hy them in their Report to your Majesty. While in regard to most of the topics embraced in that Report we were struck Avith the able manner in which their investigations had been conducted, and while we concurred with them in many of their leading views, we found that there were several important subjects on which Ave Avere required to report, as to which their Report had been altogether silent, and certain other subjects especially in reference to the administration of the funds and property of the Universities, as to which their investigations had been less minute than appeared to us to be necessary, in order to put your Majesty in possession, either of the past system of management or of the existing state of the funds and property of the Universities. On the other hand Ave found that they had gone into numerous details, and framed a system of minute regulations on various matters which appeared to us to be less fitted for express and definite regulations by Royal visitors than for the administration of the Senatus Academicus and Professors, uuder the superintend- ence of the constituted authorities of the University. In these circumstances, while on points of statistical detail, the present Report is to be regarded as merely supplementary to that of our predecessors, Ave have felt it to be our duty to report to your Majesty the result of our inquiries into various subjects Avhich they had omitted, and at the same time to express our vieAVs on those subjects as to which Ave have seen cause to differ from them. Having thus explained the principles by Avhich Ave have been regulated in con- ducting our investigations, Ave shall proceed to lay before your Majesty the results of those investigations, in so far as they Avere not embraced in our former Report, and in doing so we shall folloAV the order adopted by your Majesty in the Com- mission under Avhich we have the honour to act. Sinecures. That Commission specially authorizes and requires us in the first place to report whether there are any of the Professorships or other offices of the said Univer- sities or Colleges which have become sinecures, or in regard to Avhich the duties enjoined on the Professors or other office-bearers by the Charter, foundations, or regulations of the said Universities have not been performed by the Professors or office-bearers,—and Avhat remedy ought to be provided for such cases where they shall be found to exist. On this subject Ave beg to refer your Majesty to our former Report, Avhich con- tains a statement of the existing sinecures, and suggests the most efficient remedy Avhich, in our humble opinion, can be provided. Administration of We are in the next place directed to report to your Majesty Avhether the said Funds. « Universities, or any body therein claiming a right to the administration or ma- nagementof the property and funds thereof, or of any part of the same, have since the date of the Report of the Commissioners above mentioned duly or unduly administered the property or funds of the said Universities, or any part of them, or made payments, appropriations, or distributions of the same, contrary lo the foundations Charters and regulations of the said Universities, or Avhether any- thing has been done or omitted in regard to the same inconsistent Avith the duty of the Universities as administrators thereof. In order to enable us to frame a satisfactory Report upon this subject, Ave called for abstract accounts of the total amount of the income and expenditure of each of the Universities for each of the years 1825 and 1835 and intervening years, distin- guishing the amount of free income in each year, and also for a full account of the particulars of the income and expenditure of the Universities for the crop and year 1832. These accounts will be found in the Appendix. We shall direct your Majesty's attention to the accounts of the Universities separately. I. King's College. King's College. The accounts of King's College have been kept in a mariner so complicated as to render it difficult to folloAV them. In order to make the result of our investi- gations intelligible, it is necessary to premise that the Senatus Academicus are managers not only of the property and funds bestOAved on the College at its founda- tion and by subsequent grants, but also of a large proportion of the funds mortified for Bursaries. The mortification funds are managed by an officer called the Master of Mortifi- cations. The other funds are managed by the same individual in the separate character of College Factor or Procurator.