The Universities (Scotland) Bill : a letter to the Lord Provost, magistrates and town council of the city of Edinburgh / by James Colston.

Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Universities (Scotland) Bill : a letter to the Lord Provost, magistrates and town council of the city of Edinburgh / by James Colston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    Scotland. It is composed of seven members, with four to form a quorum, who have received large authority not only to take evidence, but to deal, as they shall see fit, with the management and funds of the various Institutions which come under the scope of their operations. No doubt, there is a provision whereby there may be an appeal, and parties heard. But the chances attendant on such appeal seem to be very slight. Let us hope that the Commissioners may do their work well and thoroughly. We cannot alter the state of matters now ; and the Commissioners are on their trial. But, would it not have been well to see how this Commission fulfilled the object for which it was ap- pointed, without immediately saddling the country with another Executive Commission in regard to our Universities ? The University of Edinburgh is at present engaged in a great work. It is trying, by the aid of the citizens and other friends, to raise ^ico.ooo for additional buildings. Already more than one-fourth of that sum has been contributed. Any one who has had to enoaoe in the raising of large sums of money for any object, however good, is not long in finding out, that nothing is so disastrous to the enterprise as when people find out an excuse for not contributing on what they con- sider ' a principle.' This was well illustrated in the case of the subscriptions for the Royal Infirmary. Whenever the late Professor Syme raised the question of site, from that day the subscription list collapsed. The introduction of the Universities (Scotland) Bill