Latin, the Norman French, and the English; whereas the sciences were only taught in one, the English: another was, that students should be near London. Here are the inns of court: hence the expediency of having proper colleges, hostles, or inns of law, in the great city.

So again, with respect to physic, there is a distinct professorship founded for it by Henry VIII. though (its salary being only £40 a year) it is little more than honorary; and another for anatomy, founded by the University in 1707; yet Cambridge has never been considered as the proper place for the medical or anatomical student. The proper place is a great city like London or Edinburgh and, without touching on the history of those eminent men of the latter city, in the medical profession, (which however commences but late,) we need only compare together the population and local circumstances of the two places, for the reasons on which the superior medical advantages of them over Cambridge depend: for numerous crowded hospitals, and other public institutions, must always furnish materials for lectures and experiments, which cannot be supplied in a town comparatively small, and with a single hospital. The present Regius Professor of physic is Sir Isaac Pennington: of anatomy Sir Busick Harwood, who delivers lectures on comparative anatomy.

Other professorships, lectureships, and fellowships, (I · mean the travelling fellowships,) might be mentioned. For sinecures, as such, I make no distinct head: where

a Fortescue de Laud. Ll. Ang. cap. 48. In addition, and in some measure, in contradistinction to the reasons assigned by Sir John Fortescue, why the municipal or common law was not formerly studied in our Universities, Blackstone mentions the character and offices of the clergy, who were canonists, and civilians; and through their attachment to the see of Rome, no friends to the common law of England. COMMENTARIES, &c. on the Laws of England, Introduction.

we do not absolutely approve, we are not prepared positively to applaud; and men unqualified to reform, are sometimes as little inclined to condemn. Let then the arguments stand, as they are urged, in all their force,that Universities should possess, in certain cases, the means for bestowing on merit benefits without services, as well as of remunerating services with merited ease and dignified retreat. But without obtruding an opinion, it is sometimes not out of place to state facts, and facts well known and public, it cannot be impertinent to repeat.

The high character of Oxford for oriental literature, superior to that of Cambridge, has been already mentioned. It may be further remarked, that Oxford enjoys, what one of our Cambridge literati notices, as we have seen, to be a desideratum in this University, an observatory for astronomy. Oxford also has a professorship, (and it ought to be made of some consequence to Englishmen,) a Saxon professorship, not possessed at Cambridge. The Scotch Universities have gained reputation by their lectures in Political Economy. Cambridge makes no distinct professorship for this important branch of science: those which approach nearest to it were delivered, as lectures, by a tutor in his private collegea. This circumstance of there being no professorship for this science so impressed a late tutor of Queen's, that he published a judicious syllabus of lectures, professedly on political œconomy, with a view to giving a course of public lectures b.

* Dr. Paley's Lectures on Moral Philosophy.

b A Syllabus or Abstract of a System of Political Philosophy; te which is prefixed a Dissertation, recommending that the study of political œconomy be encouraged in the University, by a course of publie lectures. By Robert Acklom Ingram, B.D. 1799.

It is well-known, that Edinburgh has a distinct professorship for agriculture. How far the improvements made in agriculture, may be, in any measure indebted to that professorship in the way of science, or to statistical and agricultural Surveys, in the way of observation, let others determine: but improvements in agriculture have, as all know, been made in Scotland. Cambridgeshire, too, it is well-known, is an agricultural county; and certain professors have, no doubt, in their lectures, with propriety, assigned agriculture its place in their course of lectures. But let not ignorance smile at scientific farmers and professors of agriculture. Who knows not that agriculture derives its surest rules, its most natural improvements, and steadiest supports, from science?

That the University of Oxford should have a Saxon professorship, and Cambridge not, as just observed, is a circumstance which some might choose to dwell on with peculiar emphasis. Every one, too, will recollect what attention the French have paid to the study of their own language, from the time of Cardinal Richlieu, under whose auspices was founded an academy, exclusively, for the study of the French language: now the Saxon is in fact our own language: it was that spoken by our English ancestors, and into that the greater part of our words, and our grammar, may be resolved. Consequently, in inquiries into the genius, analysis, and con

a Recueil des Harangues prononcées par Messieurs de l'Academie Françoise, dans leurs Receptions, et en d'autres occasions, depuis l'establissement de l'Académie jasq'à present. Par Jean-Baptiste Coignard. Monsieur Charpentier, one of the academicians, in his address, ascribes the perfection of the French poetry and eloquence to this institution, and, conformably to that idea, wrote his Treatise de L'excellence de la Langue Françoise,

struction of the English language, and into our local customs, and national antiquities, as well as our history and laws, a knowledge of the Saxon language must bring with it undoubted advantages: and, perhaps, never from the English press issued a book, better entitled on many accounts, to the attention of Englishmen, than Bishop Wilkins's edition of the Anglo Saxon Laws.

The language itself, too, is copious and expressive*. Should any one affect to treat it as monotonous and poor, he should be dismissed for more correct information, and wholesome chastisement, to an English lady, who wrote a very useful Saxon Grammar.

I cannot help adding what follows on this subject. In Baker's MSS. in the British Museum, are some papers relative to a Saxon professorship. From several letters of Sir Henry Spelman, the antiquary, copied from MSS. in the public library at Cambridge, it appears, that a few years before his death, he meditated to found a Saxon lectureship; and that eighteen years after the establishment of the Arabic lectureship, by Sir Thomas Adams, Lord Mayor of London, funds were appropriated by Spelman for a Saxon one. The order of the senate may be seen among Baker's Papers, signed by the Vice Chancellor; and part of an introductory discourse to the University. The following is the title: "Oratio et Specimen in Britanno-Saxonicam Prælec

a See a Treatise on Languages, and one professedly on the English Language, in Camden's REMAINS.

b Preface to Dr. Hickes of the Rudiments of Grammar for the English-Saxon Tongue; by Eliz. Elstob. This work is grounded on Dr. Hickes's Grammatica Anglosax. in his Thesaurus Linguarum Septentrionalium:-Mrs. Elstob handles those who affect to treat the SaxoR language and antiquities contemptuously with great smartness.

tionem, auspiciis honorabilis viri Domini Henrici Spelman inchoatam, datum et habitum in Conventu academicorum omnium ordinum in Scholis juris consultorum ab Abrahamo Wheloco."

Englished:

An Oration and Specimen towards a British Saxon Prelection, begun under the auspices of that honourable gentleman, Henry Spelman; given and delivered at a meeting of the academics of all ranks in the law schools, by Abraham Whelock.

The Oration and Specimen are very short, abrupt, and unfinished, ending with-cætera desiderantur.

And here some readers may call to mind, the professorship (founded by Geo. I. in 1724,) of Modern History, which in the hands of Mr. Gray, was ineffective: this is mentioned not to censure Mr. Gray, but to applaud the present professor, Mr. Smyth. Mr. Mason has undertaken Mr. Gray's defence. It appears, there were some difficulties in the way, which Mr. Gray could not easily surmount; and that after all, had he lived, (for he had great scruples on the subject,) he would, most probably, either have given lectures, or resigned the professorship.

a

The circumstance has been more particularly mentioned, to shew, how establishments, that may have been suffered to sleep awhile, may be brought again into effect. For under the management of the present professor, the department of modern history is become, not merely effective, but of high consideration.

It is obvious to remark, that Alma Mater has no professorship for the fine arts. Anciently, in the monasteries,

a See Mr. Gray's last Letter to Mr. Mason, with the observations of the latter on it, at the end of Mason's Memoirs of the Life and Writ ings of Mr. Gray,