er possible for Philosophy and Theology to
remain conjoined.

A separation was effected, and determined the leading feature of the
University system. The foundation was Philosophy, and the fundamental
Faculty the Faculty of Arts. Bologna, indeed, was eminent for Law or
Jurisprudence, and this celebrity it retained for ages; but the
University of Paris, which is the prototype of our Scottish
Universities, as of so many others, taught nothing but Philosophy--in
other words, had no Faculty but Arts--for many years. Neither Theology,
Medicine, nor Law had existence there till the 13th century.

Second, the system of conferring Degrees, after appropriate trials.
These were at first simply a licence to teach. They acquired their
commanding importance through the action of Pope Nicholas I, who gave to
the graduates of the University of Paris, the power of teaching
everywhere, a power that our own countrymen were the foremost to turn to
account.

THE OFFICE OF RECTOR.

Third, the Organisation of the primitive University. Europe was
unsettled; even in the capitals, the civil power was often unhinged.
Wherever multitudes came together, there was manifested a spirit of
turbulence. The Universities often exemplified this fact; and it was
found necessary to establish a government within themselves. The basis
was popular; but, while, in Paris, only the teaching body was
incorporated, in Bologna, the students had a voice. They elected the
Rector, and his jurisdiction was very great indeed, and much more
important than speechifying to his constituents. His Court had the power
of internal regulation, with both a civil and criminal jurisdiction. The
Scotch Universities, on this point, followed Bologna; and that fact is
the remote cause of this day's meeting.

[SCOTCHMEN ABROAD.]

THE UNIVERSITIES OF SCOTLAND FOUNDED.

So started the University. The idea took; and in three centuries, many
of the leading towns in Italy, France, the German Empire, had their
Universities; in England arose Oxford and Cambridge; the model was Paris
or Bologna.

Scotland did not at first enter the race of University-founding, but
worked on the plan of the cuckoo, by laying its eggs in the nests of
others. For two centuries, Scotchmen were almost shut out of England;
and so could not make for themselves a career in Oxford and Cambridge,
as in later times. They had, however, at home, good grammar schools,
where they were grounded in Latin. They peram