ten shillings, and I believe that the average amount paid by those who live in a respectable way, does not exceed twenty. The allurements to extravagance with which a city so large as Glasgow abounds, are certainly numerous; but a powerful barrier is opposed to their influence, when many of the students, so far from having money to expend on frivolities, are dependent for their support in a greater or less degree upon their own exer. tions, even during the time of their attending the classes; and some allowance must be made in other cases for the characteristic habits of the Scotish nation, as to prudence and economy. I have tried to be impartial in this comparison of the academical system of the two Colleges. To say that both of them are susceptible of improvement, is only to say that they are human institutions. Both however attain with considerable suc cess the objects of their institution; they develop the mental faculties of the young, store their minds with literary and scientific knowledge, and train them to active efforts in the discovery and communication of truth; the philanthropist will therefore regard each of them as the source of unmeasured benefit to the human race, and he will cordially wish their conductors increased success in their salutary labours. I was present on one occassion at the splendid annual ceremonial of the Commemoration' at Oxford; beyond all comparison the most im 6 165 posing scene of a literary kind that I ever witnessed. The great officers of the University, heads of houses, and young noblemen, were all arrayed in their appropriate and gorgeous costumes, and the highest academic honours were conferred, with every attention to pomp and circumstance, on men of distinguished reputation in literature, arms, and hereditary rank; prize essays were read, and the founders and benefactors of the several Colleges commemorated' with grateful eulogy, in a long Latin oration. To such a scene as this, Glasgow College and Yale are alike unable to furnish a parallel, but the relative influence of each institution on the wellbeing of society, is not thus to be estimated; and both Scotland and America may reap the most abundant advantage from their academical institutions, while the utmost simplicity prevails in their organization and festivals. |