484 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



opportunities for study — with few 

 facilities, no compulsion, no dis- 

 cipline, no subordination. The 

 professor reads his lecture, the 

 student pays him for it — If he 

 attends it, which he does or not 

 as he likes, he walks off at the 

 conclusion as independent of the 

 professor as a man of his drawing- 

 master at the end of the hour's 

 lesson. There are, besides, private 

 tutors who can be engaged for 

 assistance, at leisure hours. 



At Heidelberg, the University 

 is divided into four faculties — 

 Divinity, Jurisprudence, Medi- 

 cine, and Philosophy. Each de- 

 partment has several professors, 

 and a pro-rector, chosen annually 

 among them, is the actual head 

 of the University. The Grand 

 Duke of Baden, in wliose territory 

 Heidelberg is comprised, is the 

 nominal head under the title of 

 Rector. There are a smaller and 

 greater senate chosen from ihe 

 professors, tlie former of which 

 meets every fourteen days for 

 transacting the business of the 

 University — andfour Epkori, who 

 are said to superintend the in- 

 dustry and morals of the students, 

 to correspond with their parents, 

 &c. But these last have an office 

 of little efficacy. Their admoni- 

 tion is without authority ; for, 

 short of the power of the police 

 in criminal offences, the students 

 are subject to no power whatever 

 of punibhmcnt or control. They 

 can, consequently, neglect all 

 study, and push their excesses to 

 the verge of a breach of the law 

 in defiance of Rector, Ephori, and 

 professors. Offences which over- 

 step this bountl are liable to 

 punishment by the University 

 Police ; for t!ie University is not 



subject to the ordinary police of 

 the country — a University Amt- 

 manji (Bailiff) and Beadles, sup- 

 plying the place to the University 

 of the ordinary provincial Bailiff 

 and Gens d'urnte. The conse- 

 quence is, the broken windows, 

 riots, and disturbances, with which 

 the students annoy the citizens, 

 are visited very lightly by the 

 University Magistrates, who often 

 observe them with a secret satis- 

 faction as symptoms of a spirit of 

 independence which they hope 

 may be one day turned to better 

 purposes. With such licence it is 

 not to be wondered that the 

 students find the authorities of the 

 law nearly as much employment 

 as our students give to the gentler 

 advice and correction of the heads 

 of houses, proctors, &c. In some 

 universities the students are almost 

 as much the terror and nuisance 

 of the neighbourhood, as the 

 worthy associates of Robin Hood 

 or Rob Roy, were to the inhabi- 

 tants of the scenes of their ex- 

 ploits. In an inn where I slept 

 at Manheim, it was discovered, 

 one morning, that one of these 

 young gentlemen had decamped 

 by his bed -room window, taking 

 with him the sheets of his bed. 

 At Heidelberg, where there are 

 many of noble and respectable 

 families, they are rather better 

 behaved than usual — and a lady 

 of the town, told me she found 

 them " tolerably quiet consider- 

 ing. 



The students live in lodgmgs, 

 at the houses of the shopkeepers 

 in the town ; a system which if 

 their superiors possessed any con- 

 trol over their conduct would 

 almost entirely frustrate it. They 

 dine at the tables d'hote of the 



inns," 



