410 THE LIFE OF JAMES D. FORBES. Ten AT. 



hoped though the country itself is delightful and we 

 are now anxious to get away. St. Andrews, however, 

 has not yet a perfectly clean bill of health ; perhaps it is 

 vain to wait for such, but we shall probably go first to 

 Edinburgh for a time. Thus without any of the heavier 

 ills of life, the amenity of our summer has been much 

 interfered with, and the " Eagle's Nest " is like a glimpse 

 of fairyland, or a return of one of those happy Alpine 

 summers which I used to know some twenty or twenty- 

 five years since. But life does not always pass so 

 smoothly, and the chariot- wheels become clogged as we 

 advance ; of which we ought not to complain/ 



To the DUKE OF ARGYLL. 



< December 31st, 1861. 



'. . . Your Grace asks what is thought of the Ordinance. 

 Always excepting Dr. Tulloch's peculiar case, it has, I 

 think, been generally accepted as a fair solution of a 

 difficult case. No doubt our Professors complain a little 

 that the entire burden of extinguishing a debt which few 

 of them shared in contracting, should be thrown entirely 

 on existing lives, and their successors gain on a sudden 

 both principal and interest, I mean by the rent-charge 

 for the principal ceasing at the same time with the interest 

 on the debt. Still it is a relief to all, I should think, to 

 see this discreditable debt question fairly buried, and the 

 repetition of such transactions expressly prevented. In 

 my own case I am slightly a loser by the Ordinance, the 

 extra rent-charge being deducted from my salary as 

 recently augmented by the Treasury. But your Grace 

 will give me credit, I hope, for not being a grumbler. 



' I am surprised, and a little amused, to learn that my 

 old colleagues in Edinburgh University, who very justly 

 and rightly get the lion's share of the 10,000, are 

 much more discontented than the poorer brethren at 

 St. Andrews. 



' I hope your Grace will kindly take an opportunity of 

 lending your powerful aid with Mr. Cowper in favour of 

 completing the restoration of our beautiful College chapel. 



