PROCEEDINGS AT GENERAL MEETINGS. 27 



grant from both sources should be continued if the Chair on its new footing 

 proved successful. In the negotiation with the University Commissioners, it was 

 thought fit to suggest that the Highland Society should have some voice in the 

 patronage of the Chair. The committee, however, reported their opinion that the 

 Society should not seek for any alteration, especially as an Act of Parliament 

 would be required for that purpose. " The present patrons," said the report, "are 

 the Lords of Session, the curators, and the University Court (three delegates 

 from each), and your committee are of opinion that a body so constituted is well 

 worthy of the confidence of the Society." Mr Swinton proceeded to state 

 that a 'supplementary report had been drawn up by Professor Lyon Playfair 

 and Professor Balfour, stating the arrangements which should be adopted in 

 the event of the endowment being granted, so as to make the Chair not an 

 isolated one, but that it should be brought into connection with other chairs — 

 such as Botany, Natural Science, and Chemistry — and a regular curriculum of 

 agricultural education adopted. It was also suggested that certificates of 

 proficiency should be granted to the students in addition to the diploma they 

 might receive from the Highland Society on passing the necessary examina- 

 tions. The Senatus expressed their willingness to have assessors from the 

 Society to act along with them in prescribing the examinations, in appointing 

 the examiners, and otherwise assisting to make this a great department of 

 the University. It was thought that if this Chair of Engineering was estab- 

 lished on a similar footing, it would form the basis for a university technical 

 education, as the Chair of Agriculture would for an agricultural education. It 

 was also believed that if the Chair of Agriculture was so established, a great 

 impulse would be given to the study of agriculture as a branch of university 

 education. The proposal of the Directors was to offer L.150 per annum, if the 

 Government would give L.200, in consideration of that sum, and the L.50 of 

 present endowment. Mr Swinton concluded by moving the approval of the 

 proposal. 



The motion was unanimously agreed to ; and the Directors were authorised 

 to make, in concert with the Senatus Academicus, the necessary application 

 to Government. 



Proposed Veterinary Charter eor Scotland. 



Mr Gillon of Wallhouse reported the proceedings which had been taken 

 since last meeting by the committee on a charter for the Veterinary College of 

 Scotland. Since the general meeting in June a draft of a veterinary charter 

 had, he said, been prepared, and forwarded to the Principal Secretary of State 

 for the Home Department, by whom it had been referred to the President of 

 the Board of Trade. By desire of the Directors, a communication, accompanied 

 by a copy of the Society's memorial, had been sent to the convener of every 

 county in Scotland, and it was believed that, with one or two exceptions, all 

 the counties had adopted memorials in favour of a veterinary charter for 

 Scotland. A very influential deputation, consisting of six Peers, nearly all 

 the Scotch Members of Parliament then in London, the Lord Provost of 

 Edinburgh, a number of leading veterinarians holding the Society's diploma, 

 besides several other gentlemen, waited, according to appointment, on the 

 Duke of Richmond, the President of the Board of Trade, on the subject. The 

 object of the deputation had been fully stated by the Lord Provost on behalf 

 of the Corporation of Edinburgh, and by Mr Campbell Swinton on the part 

 of the Highland Society. The deputation had been very much indebted to 

 Lord Colonsay, who explained that, on a proper construction of the charter 

 of the English College, monopoly was not to be inferred. The Duke of 

 Richmond stated that the subject would receive his best consideration, but he 

 reserved his decision till he heard the case of the Royal College of Veterinary 

 Surgeons, a deputation from which was to wait on him on the 28th November. 

 At a recent meeting of the Veterinary Committee of the Highland Society, 



