university men, with the University of Oxford-the sun and centre of the Reformed Catholic Church in these kingdoms. In consequence of the long reign of Presbyterianism in Scotland, the ancient custom of Scottish graduates resorting to Oxford after they had taken their degree in Scotland, for the purpose of more extended study and converse with their southern brethren, has been discontinued; but we shall try to give our readers some idea of the rules and the former practice on this point. The University of Oxford has been styled the first university in the world,' and she has always shown great liberality in her practice of incorporating graduates of other universities in her own. What can be more noble than the opening of the chapter Concerning the Incorporation of Students who come hither from other universities?" 'Since the University of Oxford is accustomed to receive and embrace persons who come from the Universities of Cambridge and foreign countries throughout almost the whole earth (provided only they are aliens born, and have no intention of settling within the realm of England), with the same affection, wherewith it is well assured that its own men would be received in the University of Cambridge and in foreign seats of learning; in order that such end may be more easily achieved, it grants to the House of Congregation the power of incorporating those persons who desire to be incorporated. But by persons of foreign birth, we do not understand, in this place, those who were born within the realms of Scotland and Ireland, who are allowed to be incorporated if they have taken their degrees after the requisite time in their own university, and on previous performance of the exercises.'* The university gives that credit to the stamp which a sister university has affixed upon the character for learning of her students: that she at once admits of these graduates to the same distinctions and privileges as her own children; only, she insists for a proof of the religious convictions of the person applying to be incorporated, that he first matriculates and signs the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England. This is necessary in the case of graduates from Ireland and Scot * Corpus Statutorum Acad. Oxon, Oxford, 1768. The clause in this chapter as to carrying terms from one university to another, beginning 'Proviso semper ut nemini,' as it now stands in the statutes, was added 18th May, 1829. land; as a Roman Catholic may take the degree of Master of Arts, at Trinity College, Dublin,* as well as at the Scottish universities. No other university in the United Kingdom has shown equal liberality. The University of Cambridge + at one time required that foreign graduates in medicine should be examined before being admitted into that university at another, they refused to allow the degree of Doctor to be taken by Masters of Arts who had not previously graduated at Oxford or Dublin. And again, the Cambridge senate passed a grace that no Bachelor of Arts in another university should be allowed to take his Master's degree there, unless he kept six terms at Cambridge: although, after ten years, they repealed it, apparently because it displeased the University of Oxford. So, at Edinburgh, the university would not accept the certificate of the University of Cambridge, but examined her graduates before allowing them to take their degree at Edinburgh. The University of Dublin was not behind hand in narrow-mindedness by its statutes printed in 1749 and published in 1778, and still of authority, it declared 'that no member of any foreign college shall be admitted to the same degree in our college that he possesses in his own, except he has first taken the same degree in the University of Cambridge, where the same statutes and the same time for taking degrees are observed, as with us.' § It may be mentioned that the professedly liberal, and newly founded University of London, does not allow of any incorporation at all. We shall present our readers with a list of those Scottish graduates who were incorporated from the period of the Restoration, and we doubt not that many of the names will be recognised as some of the most strenuous supporters of the Scottish branch of the catholic Church. The four students who were incorporated on the 11th of July 1671, are said, by Anthony A. Wood, in his Fasti Oxonenses under that year, to have been exhibitioners of Dr Warner, Bishop of Rochester, who, in 1666, gave £80 a-year out of his manor of Sway 6 * This was effected by Act of Parliament in 1793. † Statuta Acad. Cantab. Cantab., 1785. Register of the University of Edinburgh. § Statutes of University of Dublin. Dublin, 1749. Consuetudines vel Regulæ Universitatis Dublinensis. Dublin, 1778. Two out of the four first fellows of Trinity College, Dublin, were James Fullarton, M.A., Glasgow, aud James Hamilton, M.A., St Andrews.-Elrington's Life of Ussher, Dublin, 1847. ton for the maintenance of four scholars of the Scotch nation to live and abide in Balliol College, Oxford, to be chosen from time to time by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Rochester, and each to have £20 yearly till they were Masters of Arts, and then to return to their country, and there be ministers of God's Word,' &c.—(Wood's Ath. Ox., vol. ii. p. 374.) These exhibitions are now, we believe, held with the Snell exhibitions from Glasgow; which, although the House of Lords has refused to devote them to the purposes of the founder, may, perhaps, by the superior attainments of those students . who are designed for the Church, be restored to their proper channel.* A Extracts from a Register of Bachelors of Arts in the University of Oxford, among the Gough MSS. in the Bodleian Library. B Extracts from 'Register Magistrorum, Oxon. Clar. Typ. 1801.' C From the Register of the University of Oxford. B. 1660. June 20. Andrew Bruce, Ch. Ch., M.A., Incorp. from St Andrews. B. 1661. Sept. 9. B. 1671. July 11. Robt. Wishart, M.A., Incorp. from St Andrews. B. 1671. July 11. Will. Falconer, Ball., M.A., Incorp. from Aberdeen. B. 1671. July 11. Will. Monypenny, Ball., M.A., Incorp. from St Andrews. B. 1671. July 11. Stafford Wallis, Ball., M.A., Incorp. from St B. 1673. Oct. 21. B. 1675. July 8. A. 1675. Nov. 29. Andrews. Geo. Heriott, M.A., Incorp. from Edinburgh. creatus erat A. Bac. 1678, May 14, M.A. *The authorities of Glasgow College, in the recent law-suit, stated, that if the candidates for the Snell exhibitions were equal in point of attainments, they gave a preference to Episcopalians. P. B., Mr. of Arts of Aberdeen, in Scotland, did not desire to be incorporated in the said degree, but only to compleate B. of A.—Let. Canc. in lib. Conv., p. 117. A. 1676. Ap. 29. Jonathan Lowe, A. M., in Acad. Glascow apud Scotos. ad. gr. Bac. art. adm. vid. in mros. 1676. B. 1676. Ap. 29. B. 1676. July 5. A. 1677. June 26. B. 1691. Feb. 18. Jonathan Lowe, M.A. Robt. Dixon, M.A., Incorp. from Edinburgh. David Gregorie, Ball., Incorp. from Edinburgh, M.A. Sav. Prof. of Astronomy. B. and D.M. B. 1692. Ap. 13. Will. Strahan, Ball., M.A., Incorp. from Edinburgh. B. and D.C.L. Dec. 8, 1709. B. 1693. Mar. 29. Thos. Fyfe, Ball., M.A., Incorp. from Edinburgh. B. 1693. July 15, James Canaries, D.D., in the Univ. of St Andrews, Incorp. B. 1693. July 15. John Strachan, D.D. in the Univ. of Aberdeen, and Prof. of Div. at Edinburgh, Incorp. D.D. B. 1693. Oct. 10. Hon. Archibald Cambell, gr. son to Marquis of Argyle, Univ. M.A., Incorp. from Edinburgh. B. 1694. Feb. 2. John Keil, Ball., M.A., Incorp. from Edinburgh. B. and D.M. 1713, July 9. B. 1697. July 12. James Gray, St Alban Hall, M.A., Incorp. from Glascow. B. 1700. Jan. 14. James Oswald, Ball., M.A., Incorp. from Edinb. C. In Veneli Congregatione Magistrorum Regentium 13 die Junii 1696 habita, Egregius Vir Johannes Carnegie, Artium Magister in Academia Abredonensi creatus (post publicationem Literarum Testimonialium et post gratiam petitam et concessam) ad eundem gradum Statum et Dignitatem admissus fuit apud Oxonienses, quibus insignitus est apud suos Abredonenses. We subjoin the forms of entry in the Register of Graduates from Dublin and Edinburgh being incorporated. C. In frequenti congregatione Magistrorum Regentium 25 die Junii 1695, Egregius Vir Thomas Dent, Art. Magister in Academiâ Dublin. creatus ad eundem gradum Statum et Dignitatem ad *Born in the Bprick. of Durham, brot. up in Edinburgh, where he commenced M.A, was by the Chancellor's letters created B.A. only. missus fuit apud Oxonienses, quibus insignitus erat, apud suos Dublinenses. C. In frequenti congregatione 2o die Feb. Ann. Dni. 1694, Egregius Vir Johannes Keill, e. coll. Ball. Artium Magister in Academia Edinburgensi creatus, ad eundem gradum Statum et Dignitatem admissus fuit apud Oxonienses, quibus insignitus erat, apud suos Edinburgenses. To guard against the practice instanced in the case of Mr Peter Brooke, mentioned in the previous list, of a M.A. of one university being admitted B.A. in another, the oath or declaration at Edinburgh, down to 1803, contained this clause, Necnon spondemus nos nunquam commissuros ut magisterii titulo semel ornati, ita de gradu dejiciamur, ut ad Baccalaureatum denuo redeamus.' The object of persons being admitted to a lower degree was, that they might proceed to a higher degree, and acquire the privileges belonging to it, without residence for the 180 days which is required at Oxford, before an incorporated M. A. can acquire the right of voting. A foreign B.A., incorporated at Oxford, and keeping his Master's term, may take the M.A. degree and vote; but if he is incorporated as M.A. he must reside 180 days in one year to obtain the same privilege. Of course, degrees conferred only by grace, as all honorary degrees, give no right to incorporation in another university. The indiscriminate bestowal of these honorary degrees by some of the Scotch universities, who have been very profuse of their Doctorates, the recipients taking care to avoid the marking that the degree was merely honorary, justified the observations of a writer on this subject, which were published so long ago as 1772. 'I presume that the true value of academical honours, in the view of reasonable and sensible men, will probably consist in this: that they intimate that the person on whom they are conferred has had what we call a regular education; that is to say, that he has been bred up in a seat of learning, where he has had an opportunity at least of improving his understanding, and passed a moderate test of his having in some measure availed himself of this opportunity; and the value of a higher academical honour, in comparison with a lower, will in like manner consist in its implying a more extensive opportunity, and a test something more comprehensive. It is upon these considerations, I conceive, that we reckon a degree taken at one of our English universities, or at Dublin, more respectable than |