The grievance of the university tests as applied to professors of physical science in the colleges of Scotland : a letter, addressed to The Right Honourable Spencer H. Walpole, Secretary of State for the Home Department / by George Wilson.

Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The grievance of the university tests as applied to professors of physical science in the colleges of Scotland : a letter, addressed to The Right Honourable Spencer H. Walpole, Secretary of State for the Home Department / by George Wilson. 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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    that Confession as altogether his. Of the others, there can be no question that they would have declined it; yet, if we except Priestley, who, for reasons apart altogether from his religious faith, was obnoxious to the majority of his contemporaries, the other philosophers whose names have been given, have been accepted by the country as its teachers, without complaint being made on either bank of the Tweed, or on either side of St George’s Channel, that the religious principles of any were en- dangered by the teachings in chemistry of those teachers. I do not wish to infer from this, that it is not necessary to inquire into the moral and religious character of a professor of physical science, or to place on the same level Cavendish, who was desti- tute, to all appearance, of any religious belief, and tender con- scienced pious men like Boyle and Faraday. I simply take the list of British chemists as history supplies it, and point to it, as showing how safely a wide latitude may be permitted in reference to the creed of Professors of Physics. I do not stop to inquire at what point this latitude should be circumscribed. It will be a misfortune if it is formally circum- scribed at all. I believe Sir Robert Kane to be as conscientious a Roman Catholic as I am a conscientious Protestant, and that his lectures on chemistry would be acceptable and profitable to students of all creeds. I should regret, therefore, to see it in- scribed in permanent record in a national statute, that the country held that no Roman Catholic could be trusted to teach physical science to Protestant students. Scotland, moreover, at present goes far beyond excluding merely Roman Catholics from its University Chairs. Protestants of the greatest piety are placed in the same category. There have been few men more pious, devout, gentle, and conscientious, than the late William Allen, a member of the Society of Friends. He lectured on chemistry with great acceptance to one of the largest medical schools of London ; was the associate of all the men of science of the day, and an esteemed Fellow of the Royal Society. He was, in addi- tion, renowned over Europe for his catholic philanthropy; yet, this pre-eminently good man, was, according to the Tests, not good enough for a Scottish Chair.
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