General report of the Commissioners under the Universities (Scotland) Act, 1858 : with an appendix containing ordinances, minutes, reports on special subjects, and other documents / Scottish Universities Commission.

Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: General report of the Commissioners under the Universities (Scotland) Act, 1858 : with an appendix containing ordinances, minutes, reports on special subjects, and other documents / Scottish Universities Commission. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    LV. From tlie Kirk-session of the Parish of Turriff. [Same as No. II., omitting secs. 2, 5, 6, and 9, and having immaterial verbal alterations in sec. 8.] (Signed) John Cruicicshank, Moderator. LYI. From the Kirk-session of the Parish of Monquhitter. [Same as No. II.] (Signed) Henry Mitchell, A.M., Moderator, etc., and 8 others. among the EVIL From the Kirk-session of the Parish of Gartly. [Same as No. II., omitting secs. 2, 6, and 8.] (Signed) James Thomson, Minister, and 3 others. LVIII. From the Kirk-session of Speymouth Parish. 1. That Your petitioners have learned with alarm and regret, that the Commissioners appointed under the Universities (Scotland) Act, passed in the 21st and 22d year of Your Majesty’s reign, have issued certain Ordinances affecting the mortifications and foundations for bursaries at the University of Aberdeen. 2. That by these Ordinances the number of existing bursaries will be reduced from 255 to 189, and that thus a grievous check will be given to the advancement of education middle and lower classes in the North of Scotland. 3. That Your petitioners deprecate any interference with the funds bequeathed by benevolent individuals for the education of poor but deserving young men, as unjust, inexpedient, and calculated to prevent benevolent persons from devoting their means hereafter to such laudable objects. 4. That, in particular, Your petitioners consider, that the interference of the Commissioners with the bursaries commonly called the Redhyth Bursaries, is uncalled for and injurious, as these bursaries have always been managed with great judgment and propriety, and have been the means of advancing many young men to positions of credit and responsibility, who, but for this aid, must have remained without any but a mere elementary education. 5. That Your petitioners humbly submit, that the substitution of scholarships for bursaries, con- templated in these Ordinances, would be a spoiling of the poorer classes to benefit the more wealthy ones, would be an entire subversion of the purpose of the founder of these bursaries, and would prove most injurious to the cause of University education in this district of the country. May it therefore please Your Majesty in Council to signify disapproval, and withhold consent from said Ordinances. And Your petitioners shall ever pray. (Signed) John Cushny, Minister of Speymouth, and 3 others. LIX. From the Parishioners of the Parish of Fyvie, in the County of Aberdeen. 1. [Same as sec. 1 of II. 2. Same as sec. 2 of II. 3. Same as sec. 3 of II. 4. Your petitioners, as a community, feel a deep interest in preventing these Ordinances from being- carried into effect, there being certain bursaries belonging to the parish of Fyvie, which might through their operation be diverted from the end intended by their benevolent founder, as is at present attempted to be done in the case of the valuable Redhyth Bursaries, which have so much promoted the interests of learning in the North of Scotland. 5. Your petitioners submit, that these Ordinances are not in accordance with the intentions of the founders of the bursaries ; and that they are inexpedient and unjust,, inasmuch as they sacrifice the interests of the many to those of the few, of the poorer to the more wealthy classes. 6. Your petitioners feel assured, that the effect of putting these Ordinances in operation would be to prevent benevolent persons in future from mortifying property for educational purposes, as there would be no security that their intentions would be respected. May it therefore please Your Majesty in Council to signify disapproval, and withhold consent from these Ordinances. And Your petitioners shall ever pray. (Signed) John Marshall Lang, Minister of Fyvie, and 103 others. LX. From the undersigned Parishioners of Ordiquliill, in the County of Banff. 1. That Your petitioners observe with deep regret, that the Commissioners appointed under the Universities (Scotland) Act, passed in the 21st and 22d year of Your Majesty’s reign, have recently issued Ordinances in which it is proposed greatly to reduce the number of bursaries at the University of Aberdeen, and particularly the Redhyth Bursaries, which have been of great benefit to many in this locality. 2. That Your petitioners cannot view the institution of a few scholarships, by means of the funds obtained from the suppression of bursaries, as affording any adequate compensation for the loss that will be sustained by the suppression of so many bursaries, and are decidedly of opinion, that the Ordinances, if carried into effect, will be most injurious to the cause of education in the North of Scotland. 3. That it appears to Your petitioners, that the Ordinance affecting the Redhyth Bursaries is not only uncalled for and inexpedient, but is, moreover, ultra vires of the Commissioners, inasmuch as the ample powers conferred on them by the Act, relative to the revisal and alteration of mortifications and endowments, etc., are limited by a regard to the main design of the donor, and the interests of religion and learning; and it cannot possibly tend to- the advancement of religion and learning, to take away from so many the means of obtaining a liberal education; and instead of more effectually carrying out, it is in manifest opposition to, the intentions of Petitions against Ordinances as to Bursary Founda-