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Digest of the Statutes.-System of Education

15. Not examined.

16. (26.9 feet by 28) has a tessellated floor; but not perfectly examined.

17. Ditto.

18. Ditto.

19. (21 feet by 15) A division at the end of the gallery, No. 11, paved with white tesseræ.

20. (19.6 feet by 18.6) The floor was destroyed.

21.19.6 feet by 7) A passage, floor

tessellated.

22. (19.6 feet by 9) Not perfectly

examined.

23. (19 feet by 10) The præfurnium to the hypocaust of the adjoining bath.

24. (21 feet by 17) A warm bath; the flues around it remain, and the pillars of the hypocaust; but the floor is much

broken.

25. (27 feet by 18) Not perfectly examined the recess to the east is a cold

bath.

26. Not perfectly examined. 27. Ditto.

28. (28 feet by 26) Not examined. 29. (28.6 by 8) A plain red tessellated pavement.

30. (28 by 22.9) Has a rich tessellated pavement, the central part destroyed:

31. (28.6 feet by 9.3) A passage.
32. (28.6 feet by 24) But partially

examined.

33. (28.6 feet by 15) A red tessellated pavement.

34. (10 feet by 8) A terras floor.
35. (19 feet by 3.3) A passage, with tes-

sellated floor.

86. (10.8 feet by 8) An hypocaust: the bases of the pillars only remain. 37. Not perfectly examined. 38. Ditto.

39. (17 feet by 14) Ditto. 40. (17 feet by 11.4) Ditto. 41. (19 feet by 13) In the corner of this room is a bath, lined with white

tesseræ.

42. (19.3 feet by 12.9) Not perfectly

examined.

43. (25.9 feet by 26.9) Ditto. 44. (80 feet by 8.6) Á portico, with the bases of two columns.

45. Crypto-porticus; not perfectly examined.

46. Continuation of ditto.

[Aug. 1,

formation as to the progress of this
highly-desirable work, they will confer
an obligation on one of your constant
readers.
A. B.

Devonshire; July 8.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

WHEN of the most simple Eng

a boy can read with ease

lish authors, and the Bible, (for that volume forms, in Scottish seminaries, the principal English class-book,) he is entered at the first class of the Grammar-School, or, as it is, by way of emi nence, styled, the High-School. This school, the largest of the kind in Scotland, in which an exclusive attention is paid to classical learning,-is superintended by five masters, one of whom is named rector or superior.

Of the attainments which these masters generally possess, it would be difficult to speak with any accuracy. Most, however, who hold these situations, have attended those classes which qualify for the church.

The salary that each master receives from the institution, or from its patrons, the town-council, is extremely small; and here, as in most other seminaries in Scotland, the teacher has to place his whole reliance on his own exertions.

The number of boys that annually attend each class may be estimated at from 100 to 130; making, in all the five classes, nearly 600 pupils.

For attendance at this seminary the expenses are but trifling. Each boy pays at the rate of three pounds a-year, including all school-fees. But that is the minimum: an additional compliment is not refused; and in this, as in other cases, money is not without its effect,as those pupils are not unfrequently observed to stand highest in the class, who, on the quarter-day, present their master with a double remuneration.

Of this school there is an annual examination; at which the pupils ex47. Continuation of the same: the bases hibit, in public, their progress in their

of these columns remain.

last year's studies. On this occasion, rewards (either books or medals) are

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. distributed among such boys as have

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1818.]

at the High-School and University of Edinburgh.

At all the public classical or grammarschools, in all the principal towns of Scotland, the same plan of tuition is nearly observed; the same punishments obtain; and there is but little difference in the fees. The very lowest order of the Scotch, however, are not precluded from giving their children a useful education. And this the poorer classes in Edinburgh can easily effect, by means of the numerous small schools which abound in that city; where it is not uncommon to observe, in several of its obscure lanes and streets, seminaries, amounting to fifty or an hundred pupils; who pay at the rate of three-pence or four-pence per week for an educationin which English reading, writing, and arithmetic, with the principles of the Latin, are included; and conducted by a teacher, whose pitiful situation might preclude the idea of his capability, and oven, from some, might provoke contempt, were it not known that, from stations equally obscure, there have arisen many whom Scotland has been proud to rank among her sons.

In the first class the boy remains for a year; and there, besides being grounded in the rudiments of the Latin, he commits to memory the primary words of that language from a vocabulary compiled for that purpose; and reads some of the Colloquies of Corderius,-a treatise written in simple Latin, and very well calculated to initiate the pupil in the principles of translation.

After a year of this preparatory labour, the boy, although he does not leave his master, enters the second class, or second year. In it, portions of Cornelius Nepos and Cæsar's Commentaries are read; and Turner's Exercises in the Composition of Latin are prescribed to the pupils in daily or weekly tasks. At the expiration of the second year he enters the third class; and reads Ovid's Metamorphoses, Sallust's Catiline or Jugurtine War: in this class, also, Mair's Exercises are introduced, a compilation similar to Clarke's, on the same subject, and in which the examples are more difficult than in Turner's.

.

In the fourth class, or fourth year, the prose authors generally read are the easiest of Cicero's Orations; of poetry, Virgil's Bucolics, and one or two Books of the Æneid; and the rules of prosody are learned from Ruddiman's Grammar.

The boy, at the end of these four years, with whatever acquirements he may have elsewhere attained, either in

31

private, or in seminaries devoted to commercial education, is thought fit for business. Should his parents, however, intend him for any of the learned professions, he joins the rector's or fifth class; in which he is prepared to enter the literary classes at the University.

The books most commonly read during this last, and most advanced, stage, are Selections from Horace, Cicero, and Livy; and a Psalm of Buchannan's version is prescribed for Sunday's task, and for Monday's examination. To the Latin, the boy has now an opportunity of adding the rudiments of the Greek, from Moor's Grammar, and of translation from Dalzel's Collectanea Minora,-a compilation of easy Greek passages, selected from Esop's Fables, Lucian's Dialogues, &c.: to which are annexed some short notes, and a small dictionary. Along with these studies, the pupil acquires a knowledge of geography, ancient and modern, from the best maps.

In Edinburgh, and throughout Scotland, the boarding system, or academics where the pupils receive, along with their education, board and lodging, are rarely to be found, at least, conducted on such an expensive and extensive a scale as prevails in this metropolis and its vicinity. If a boy be boarded in Scotland, it is most generally that he may have the advantage of attending a dayschool. Thus gentlemen, residing in the country, and at a distance from any seminary of celebrity, send their sons as boarders to clergymen, or other respectable individuals, in Edinburgh, that they may have the advantage of attending at the High-School of that city.

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH.

On the System of Education pursued at
that University.
Literary Classes.

As to the High-School, that class is named the first which is least advanced, and so on to the second, third, and fourth, in proportion to their progress; so, at the university, there are first and second classes of Latin, and first, second, and third, of Greek, corresponding to the number of years the pupil has attended.

The sessions of Edinburgh University, like the others in Scotland, commence in October, and terminate in April; during which time every class meets at least once a-day.

At the first Latin class, which meets twice a-day, select portions of Ciceroas his Orations, two or three Books of

Liry,

32 System of Education at the Livy, and one or two Books of Virgil's Eneid, are read. Translations from English into Latin are made in the class once or twice in the course of the week. The passages, which the present professor selects for that purpose, are from the works of Blair,' Johnson, Addison, and Hume.

The books chiefly read in the second or advanced Latin class are of Cicero's philosophical works, his treatises De Officiis and De Finibus; selections from his Quæstiones Tusculana de Natura Deorum; aud of his rhethorical works, his De Oratore: of Virgil, two books of the Georgics; and of Tacitus, his treatise De Moribus Germanorum, or De Vita Agricolæ.

The first Greek class, which assembles twice in the day, commences with the Grammar (Moor's); and, during the session, reads a few chapters of the New Testament, a portion of the Colleetanea Minora mentioned above, and a Book of Homer.

At the second or advanced Greek class, Neilson's or Dunbar's Exercises, and part of the Analecta Majora,-a work precisely the same in arrangement as the Minora, and by the same author, but with more difficult examples,-form the books of study. At the third or highest Greek class, extracts from the second volume of the Analecta are read. At the end of the session, in the advanced Greek and Latin classes, there are subjects in Latin and English for essays, and in Greek and Latin for odes, epigrams, &c. given out by the professor for competition; and, to the successful competitors, prizes (which consist of small sums of money, books, &c.) are awarded.

In these classes, at their meetings, five or six students, at most, are examined on the exercise delivered on the preceding day; and this arrangement is observed until the whole of the class has been examined.

In these advanced classes, once in the week, lectures are delivered by the professor of Latin on Roman antiquities, synonymous words, &c., and by the professor of Greek on the History and Literature of the Grecians.

The punishments inflicted at the literary classes are, fines of five, ten, and twenty, shillings, expulsion from the University,

&c.

The number of students that annually attends each Latin and Greek class, varies from one to two hundred.

The fees paid by the student on his

University of Edinburgh. [Ang. 1, admission to each of these classes, is three pound eight shillings, including all expenses; and, it may here be observed, that, after an attendance of two years at any class, the ticket becomes perpetual.

We had occasion painfully to remark, that, at the high-school, the masters were in the habit of accepting pecuniary compliments from their pupils, to the disgrace of the seminary, and to the prejudice of those whose circumstances are less favoured. But a practice, so prejudicial in its nature, receives no encouragement at the university. The stated fees only are asked and received; and even these, in cases of inability on the part of the student, are frequently remitted.

Previous to a student's admission to any of the classes, he must provide himself with a matriculation-ticket, for which he pays ten shillings, and the fund accumulated from such a source, which, from the two thousand students that annually attend the University, amounts to a thousand pounds a-year, is allotted towards defraying the expenses of the library.

At the commencement and termination of the sessions, these classes, like all others of the University, are opened and closed by an introductory and valedictory lecture. The plan of study, the authors to be perused, and the advantages of the subject, form the chief topics of the introductory lectures; and, in the valedictories, the professor takes the opportunity of cominenting on the various states of proficiency which the stu dents have displayed during the season, of congratulating those on their success who have made creditable improvements, of rousing the indolent to a sense of their duty, and of placing before the eyes of all the splendid prospects of fame and immortality as incentives to vigorous application.

Mathematical Classes.

At the first mathematical class, the student is initiated in the principles of geometry, of algebra, and of plane trigonometry.

At the second class, the student resumes the subject at the place where on the second year he had left off; which, in algebra, is generally at quadratic equations; in geometry, at some of the Books of Euclid succeeding to the sixth; to these he adds spherical trigonometry and conic-sections.

In the third mathematical class, the doctrine of loci, the theory of fluxions, the principles of fortification, gunnery,

&c.

1818.] System of Education at the University of Edinburgh.

&c. form the subjects of the student's attention.

The rewards, punishments, and fees, are the same nearly as at the literary classes.

Logic Class.

At the commencement of this course, the Professor, in the form of lectures, delivers a dissertation on the several systems of philosophy that have existed from the time of Pythagoras until the present day, with copious criticisms on the excellencies and errors of each. He then gives an abstract of human physiology. From that, he passes to what may strictly be called logic. To the student, subjects chiefly of a metaphysical nature are given once in the month for essays; and, at the end of the session, exercises of the same kind are delivered for competition, in which the successful competitors, to the number of three or four, are each rewarded with two or three guineas. Metaphysical Class, or Class of Moral Philosophy.

The course of lectures delivered in this class embraces that view of the subject which the learning of its Professor can accumulate, or his genius suggest.

Natural Philosophy Class.

The various applications of the mixed mathematics in dynamics, hydraulics, hydrostatics, optics, astronomy, &c. form the subjects of the lectures delivered at this class.

The fees for attending the four last classes, are the same as in the literary. Medical Classes.

In the medical division, which comprehends the classes of anatomy, chemistry, practice of physic, botany, clinical surgery, midwifery, the same arrangement in treating these subjects is observed which is common to most of the medical lecturers in the different parts of the kingdom. The terms of attendance on each of these classes amount to four pound nine shillings, being one guinea more than what is paid at the literary and philosophical.

Law Classes.

There are three classes in which lectures are delivered on the subject of law; that of the Scotch law, that on civil law, and that on the law of nature and nations.

Almost all the students who intend to practise the law, either as advocates or attorneys, attend the first of these: the second is attended only by those who are designed for the bar; and the last, the MONTHLY MAG. No. 315.

33

class of the law of nature and nations, is rather an honourable sinecure for a de

serving gentleman, than a laborious and useful situation.

The fees for attending the law classes are the same as those of the Medical.

Divinity, or Theological, Classes.

The division of study that remains to be mentioned is the theological; and it comprehends the classes of divinity, ecclesiastical history, and oriental languages.

Every student must attend the first of these at least five years before he can take orders or obtain a licence to preach. Previous to his admission into this class, however, he must produce certificates of his having completed his literary and philosophical studies.

In this class, or hall as it is named, the student reads or delivers one or two discourses annually, and on subjects, for the first year, of the professor's, and latterly of his own, selection. Of these discourses, one must be in Latiu.

The student in divinity, along with this class, having attended that of ecclesiastical history, and that of oriental languages, each for one year, applies to the nearest presbytery for a licence.

On a day appointed by this body, and on a text of Scripture of their choosing, the student delivers a sermon or lecture: after which, he is examined as to his knowledge in Philosophy, and his proficiency in the fearned languages; and, if it then appear to his examinators that his acquirements are such as qualify him for the office he is about to undertake, he is presented with a warrant to preach.

The fees for attending these classes are but smail; and, in consideration of this, the professor of divinity has a salary, which exceeds that of the other professors at least by a third: it amounts to 1607. a year.

DEGREES OBTAINED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH.

Master of Arts.

At this, as at the other Scotch Universities, there is no degree preceding that of Master of Arts; and this academical honor is not, as at some universities, to be claimed by the candidate's proving that his name has been so many terms or sessions upon record. It is certainly a necessary qualification for obtaining it, that the student has attended a philosophical course, and that he can produce, from his several professors, certificates as to his behaviour and proficiency. But, besides this, he must, if

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Contrariety in Surgical Practice.

he be required, compose a thesis on some question in science or in literature, in Latin, and defend it in presence of the professors. If that body are pleased with the candidate's ability, he is presented with a diploma. The most of this form, however, is generally dispensed with, especially if the talents and acquirements of the candidate are known. And to this it may be added, that, at this university, a student can never obtain any academical honour before he has completed his twenty-first year.

Doctor in Divinity and in Civil Law. The degrees of Doctor in Divinity and in Civil Law are likewise unattainable by any period of attendance at the University. They are conferred by the Senatus Academicus, out of respect to their talents, on some popular preacher, or on some eminent literary character.

Doctor in Medicine.

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[Aug. 1,

nor capital to obtain medical practice, and who find that, preparing young men for their examinations is the only way by which they can put their medical or classical knowledge to profit. To these every medical student applies, and, for a certain sum, obtains either a translation of his Thesis, or a Thesis ex toto; and is instructed, previous to his examination, nearly in the precise questions he will be asked.

The class, fees, and college expences, attending on medical graduation, amount to about sixty guineas.

Of the learned professions in Scotland, the law is the most expensive, and leads to the greatest honors.

Previous to his being called to the bar, the advocate, besides the classes that relate immediately to his profession, must have attended a philosophical course, and must compose a Latin dissertation on some point of law, and defend it in the same language before a committee of the Faculty of Advocates.

The expences attending the education of an advocate for class fees, &c. amount nearly to 1507., of which 1007. is paid on his entering the faculty.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

HERE is scarcely a profession

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science. If he is successful in these trials, the candidate, on the second of August, is presented with a diploma.

Were the purposes of this course of study and examination answered by corresponding diligence and proficiency on the part of the student, then might the medical degree equal in respectability any other, and the University of Edinburgh deserve that high celebrity for medical science which it generally obtains. But it is a fact, and one most Famentable to be recorded, that the advantage and honour which might accrue from such preparation is generally obviated either by the ignorance or indolence of the young man intended for that profession. Many of my readers may be inclined to doubt my veracity, when I make the following assertion, that, ont of the eighty who graduate at one period, there are not twenty who have converted their thesis into Latin, or sixty who have composed their thesis at all.

The cause of this opprobrium is easily to be explained. At Edinburgh, there is a body of men, generally sons of Esculapius, who neither have connexion

The

ference of opinion, so far as regards the practical part of it, than in that of surgery, especially as to the treatment of what is denominated Cancer. It is a complaint which, by most surgeons, has been deemed incurable, except by extirpation by the knife; and then the disease has been frequently known to recur. Mr. Aldis and Mr. Young have obtained considerable notoriety by their modes of treating this disease. method of the one, however, is diametrically opposite to that of the other; but which of the two is to be preferred. I must leave to the consideration of their brethren and the public, or rather of their patients. While the oue removes the diseased part by extraction, by an application of his own; the other, equally singular, gets rid of the cancer by means of pressure made on the affected part; or, in other words, Mr. Aldis draws out the tumour or uleer, when Mra Young presses it inward. Both these gentlemen stand high in the profession, and have followed their several modes for some years. The one supposes that, by pressing the part till the whole he comes absorbed, the person is thereby

cured;

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