1859. OPENING OF SESSION. 481 



Brougham Banquet set us all astir. It was a totally unsecta- 

 rian meeting, and, so long as I was able to remain, it went off 

 famously ; but I lost, I believe, the second-best speech, that, 

 namely, from the Lord Justice- General M'Neill. 



" Two days after, came on one day the installation of Sir 

 David Brewster, as Principal, and the election of Chancellor 

 and Graduates' Assessor (i.e., representative in the University 

 Court). The former the Senatus had all to itself. . . . 



" Well ! carrying our newly-made Principal with us, we ad- 

 journed to the Music Hall, where, by a dreadful, but unavoid- 

 able arrangement, we were locked in, after the voting began, and 

 had to listen to a roll of 1300 names read over. However, it 

 was an interesting scene, which I witnessed to advantage from 

 the platform. . . . The votes for Chancellor were watched with 

 immense interest, till it was quite certain that Brougham must 

 win ; and then the faces showed, like sun-dials, which Star they 

 obeyed. I admired the pluck of the defeated men about me. 

 It is a grand feature in our national character, and is not in the 

 Yankee nature, to submit to a majority, and take a fair defeat 

 uncomplainingly. . . . 



" Next week came the opening. I hope to send you with this 

 Sir David's speech. He gave me a good word, which the stu- 

 dents took in hearty part. 1 



" The day after, our separate classes began. I lectured for 

 Kelland at 1 o'clock, and for myself at 1 2. You will be happy 

 to learn that he got back to Edinburgh on Saturday from Hit- 

 chin, near London, where he has been lying for nine weeks 

 with a compound fracture of the left leg, above the ankle. I 

 found him very hearty and cheerful. He gave me a most gra- 

 phic account of the railway smash, and what befell him, ending, 

 as one likes to hear a man end, with saying, that he had no idea 

 there were so many kind people in the world : that everybody 

 had been kind to him. 



" When I came back from Aberdeen, I wrote him an account 



1 Sir David, in speaking of the Chair of Technology and the Industrial Museum, 

 refers to their being " under the guidance of Dr. George Wilson, one of our most dis- 

 tinguished philosophers."' Introductory Address by Sir D. Brewster, on the Open- 

 ing of Session 1859-60,' p. 17. Constable and Co., Edinburgh. 



2 H 



