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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    Although there is no trace in the returns of this resolution having been altered, the Edilis fund does not now derive any benefit whatever from that Royal Grant. Mortification Account. Appendix, p. 26. Bursaries. Abuses in their Administration. IV.—Mortification Account. The accounts of all the mortifications for Bursaries in King's College for the years 1825 and 1835, and intervening years, will be found in the Appendix. We considered it our duty in investigating these accounts to examine the terms and conditions of the various grants or mortifications, with the view of ascertaining how far these conditions had been observed in administering the respective funds. We found that comparatively feAV of the mortifications had been administered in terms of their foundation; and that there were many in which not only the letter but the spirit of the foundations had been violated. We have already adverted to the practice of the Procuration fund borrowing from the Mortification fund, or, in other words, of the Professors taking loans for their own behoof from the funds under their management as trustees for different Bursaries. We consider this practice as objectionable under any circumstances, but especially when combined with a practice Avhich appears to have prevailed very generally of the Procuration fund borrowing from the Mortification fund, at a rate of interest considerably lower than the College obtain for money lent out by themselves, the College thus making a profit to the extent of the difference, at the expense of the Mortification funds and of the Bursars to whom those funds properly belong. Another abuse which we found to prevail to a considerable extent is the practice of allowing Bursaries to continue vacant for a longer or shorter period, of accu- mulating the Bursary funds, and of increasing the number of Bursars upon the fund, in place of dividing the increased revenue among the number of Bursars appointed by the founder. We consider this practice as objectionable, not only as it involves a violation of charters, but as it increases the number of small Bursaries, which we agree with our predecessors in thinking a source of manifest evil to the interests of education, at the expense of a smaller number of liberal endowments, which might be made highly conducive to the promotion of those interests. The practice ought to be the more sedulously guarded against, that the personal interests of the Professors afford considerable temptations to it, as it both increases their patronage and enlarges the proportion of the Burse funds which come to themselves in the shape of fees ; the practice being to retain the Professor's fees out of the sums paid to the Bursars. There is another abuse connected with this subject which, in our opinion, ought not to be allowed to continue. It frequently happens that Bursars are absent from College during part of the four years, which is the usual period for which Bursa- ries are granted. On these occasions the Bursaries are virtually vacant. In place, however, of the fund payable to such Bursars being allowed to accumulate, or being appropriated to other Bursars at the commencement of the session, the Master of Mortifications in the last week of the session furnishes to the four Regents a list of the names of the absentees, leaving the Regents to dispose of these vacant Bur- saries as they think fit. On these occasions it appears to have been a common prac- tice for the Regents to fill in the names of students, who have attended their classes and paid their fees during the preceding session. These students become nominally entitled to the Bursaries so vacant, but out of them the Master of Mortifications retains for the Regents and servants of the College the full fees that would have been exigible from such students, had they obtained the Bursaries at the commence- ment of the session, without regard to whether such students may have previously paid their full fees to the Professors or not. The result is, that often a very large proportion of the Burse funds so vacant, in place of being allowed to accumulate, goes into the pockets of the Professors, without their having afforded instruction to any Bursars in respect of the same, the Professor thus drawing double fees from the same student, and the Burse funds being to that extent misappropriated. On this subject we directed certain queries Appendix, p. 273. to be put to the Master of Mortifications, which together with his answers, will be found in the Appendix. Having premised these general observations, we proceed to submit to your Majesty our remarks on the administration of the different Bursaries. Dr. Moir's The mortification by Dr. Alexander Moir, in 1769, was for the support and Bursary.
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