CATHEDRAL. UNIVERSITY. LORD RECTOR. 



131 



privileges. Previously to the Reformation, the whole University, like a royal 

 borough, formed a general corporation, while at the same time it was divided 

 into separate faculties, which, like the different classes of tradesmen in a borough, 

 were distinct inferior corporations, enjoying peculiar immunities, property, and 

 by-laws. The whole incorporated members, whether students or teachers, 

 assembled annually in full congregation on the day after St. Crispin's day. They 

 were divided into four classes, called nations, according to the place of their 

 nativity. Under the heads of Clydesdale, Teviotdale, Albany, and Rothsay, 

 all Scotland was included ; and each nation or class elected representatives, who 

 acted as assistants to the lord rector on weighty occasions. At the dissolution of 

 the Catholic hierarchy, however, this system was overturned, and various changes 

 effected from time to time, till the constitution of the University assumed its pre- 

 sent form. It is now governed by a chancellor, a lord rector, a dean of faculties, 

 a principal, and professors. The office of chancellor is usually filled by some 

 nobleman, or other gentleman of rank, elected by the senate, who holds the 

 dignity for life. The office of rector, however, may, in one respect, be called 

 the most important in the University ; because the person appointed to it is 

 chosen upon the favourite principle of the whole members of the college having 

 a voice in the election. The popular character of this officer has generally 

 imparted intense interest to it ; and when candidates of opposite politics are 

 started, which is generally the case, a keen contest takes place, in which not 

 only the professors and students, but also citizens of every class, engage with 

 all the zeal and enthusiasm peculiar to political partizanship. In evidence of this, 

 we need only state, that the rector's chair has been successively filled by such men 

 as Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Marquess of Lansdowne, Sir James Macintosh, 

 Lord Brougham, Thomas Campbell, Lord Jeffrey, and Lord Cockburn ; thus 

 associating not only their alma mater, but the city and its inhabitants, with the 

 most distinguished characters of the age. The election of Campbell, who was 

 Brougham's successor, was carried under circumstances peculiarly flattering to 

 the illustrious poet. The name set up against his was no less than that of 

 George Canning, but the poet of Hope gained the election by a vast majority. 

 The office of lord rector, originally instituted for the protection of the rights 

 of students, had become a sinecure honour ; and Mr. Campbell's predecessors 

 had. from time immemorial, contented themselves with coming down for a few 

 days to Glasgow and making a speech on their installation. Campbell set the 

 first remembered example of a lord rector attending, w.ith scrupulous punc- 

 tuality, to the duties which his oath implied.* 



* He spent several weeks in examining the statutes, accounts, and whole management of the University. 



