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Universities, having been a member of the Royal 

 Commission to which I have already referred. The 

 work of the committee is of a serious character, as 

 may be imagined from the well-known impecuniosity 

 of Universities, and the demands which professors 

 make, all in good faith, on any grants to which they 

 may have access. This is illustrated by the fact 

 that on our asking the Universities to state their 

 requirements, it appeared that their immediate de- 

 mands exceeded the total capital sum at our disposal. 

 By the wise advice of our chairman, we met such 

 demands by a carefully considered financial system, 

 the result of which has been greatly to assist the 

 Universities. It is a question as to whether or not 

 it might have been more to their benefit if the whole 

 sum had been applied in the direction of general 

 assistance rather than in the payment of fees, but on 

 this point Mr. Carnegie's instructions were precise. 

 I was particularly glad to be able to assist in the 

 inauguration of a system of Carnegie Scholarships and 

 Fellowships for the encouragement of original in- 

 vestigation, based to a considerable extent upon that 

 of the Royal Commissioners of 1851 ; for the 

 warmest admirers of the Scottish Universities, and 

 I am one of these, cannot shut their eyes to the fact 

 that despite short terms and long vacations, the 

 amount of original scientific and literary work which 

 has issued from the Universities has been in no way 

 proportionate to the funds at the disposal of those 

 Universities, including a Government grant of 

 ,70,000 a year, or to the amount of free time which 

 the professors and lecturers as well as the students 

 have at their disposal. Hence I considered it was of 

 the highest possible importance to do something to 

 stimulate research, and, if possible, to discourage the 



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