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gor ferries should be avoided. For this purpose, good carriage roads have been opened from Capel Cerrig in one direction and Tan-y-bwlch in another, to Beddgelert, from which an excellent line of communication has been formed along the edge of Traeth Mawr, through the new town of Tre-Madoc, to the little bay of Porth-Dinlleyn, on the northern coast of the promontory, not far from Nevin. The advantages of this harbour (where a town is now building) over Holyhead are, that it is better sheltered, that even at the lowest ebb tide there is plenty of water for the largest packets to go in and come out, and that the frequent loss of one or two tides now experienced by the packets being forced by north-westerly gales into Caernarvon bay, is entirely obviated. Whether this scheme will finally meet with the success which it appears to merit, may perhaps be questioned; but at all events, the country through which the new road passes cannot but be materially benefited by this facilitation of intercourse.

Two other probable sources of improvement to this district are the extensive embankments of the marshes and sands of Traeth Mawr, carrying on by Mr. Maddox; and the introduction of the cotton manufactory by the same gentleman into his new town of Tre-Madoc.

Concerning the mineralogy of this promontory I am only able to state the following particulars: The general dip of the strata is to the south-west; the most ancient rocks, therefore, occur on the northern coast, where we find chlorite slate and coarse serpentine, the latter of which is intermixed with veins of calcareous spar and red jasper. This serpentine is particularly abundant at Porth-Dinlleyn, where the piers and new houses are constructed of it; for chimneypieces and other ornamental parts of architecture it is unfit, on account of its hardness, and the consequent expense of polishing. Upon the Chlorite slate rest beds of primitive Argillaceous schistus and Grünstein, sometimes alternating with each other: of these minerals the former is generally in the state of coarse common slate; in some places, however, it is largely mixed with Carbon, forming a hard kind of drawing slate, and in others is penetrated both by Carbon and Pyrites, forming Alum slate; the Grünstein consists of white and greenish crystals of Felspar, largely mixed with Chlorite and Hornblende.

The above strata form the general level of the district, rarely rising into hills, except at the eastern extremity. The higher hills that are distributed through the whole length of the promontory consist entirely of smoke-coloured Hornstone-porphyry; their figure is for the most part pretty regularly conical, and their surface is remarkably rough with broken fragments. The lower hills, especially on the southern coast, have a strong tendency to form banks and ridges, and are chiefly compact Felspar, of a whitish-grey colour, and not unfrequently porphyritic. No mines of any description have been opened in this district.

SKETCH OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW.

(concluded.)

From the sketch which has been given of the scheme of public study at Glasgow, it will appear that the general arrangement of its parts is judicious, and fraught with many advantages to the interests of education. It is not, however, entirely free from the defects to which all such institutions are liable. In a systematic establishment of this nature, a more important station ought surely to have been allotted to mathematical studies than the one which they now occupy. A superficial knowledge of the subject is indeed rendered necessary to the degree of Master of Arts; but this requisition is far from being of sufficient strictness or regularity to remedy the evil, and the general indifference towards such pursuits, manifested among the students, seems to require some other counteraction than is afforded by the present plans of education pursued in the college. The mathematical department, which is conducted by Mr. Millar, son to the late celebrated professor of law, occupies an intermediate situation between the public and private classes. A regular attendance is exacted from those who enter upon the study, examinations are made in connection with the ordinary business of the class, and prizes distributed at the close of the session to the young men, who have rendered themselves the most eminent on these occasions. Still, however, no specific period in the academical routine is allotted to the prosecution of this science: the mathematical class is considered merely as an appendage to the system, and, like other appendages, is disregarded as comparatively trivial and unimportant. The mind of the youthful student is often distracted by the intricacies of the syllogism, or the modern mysteries of metaphysical doctrine, when a previous direction of his attention to the studies of mathematical or natural science would have given arrangement and precision to his ideas, and qualified him for future intellectual exertions of the most arduous nature. A doubt, too, may be stated on a more general ground, whether a systematic course of education, carried to such an extent, is really advantageous to the interests of the rising generation. The faculties and exertions of the student are directed to a variety of objects in succession, without allowing his inclinations to attach themselves to any one in particular, from the steady pursuit of which he might derive future reputation and celebrity. His mind often becomes wearied by a complication and multiplicity of subjects, where a judicious selection would have conferred new vigour upon his exertions, and given increased rapidity to his literary or scientific progress. I start these doubts merely as objects of interesting consideration; and in their application to the scheme of public study at Glasgow, I should myself feel tempted to throw a negative upon their validity. Individual characters and circuinstances there may be, upon which such a system has an unfavourable effect; but, upon the whole, it may with safety be presumed,

that

that its general consequences are beneficial to the interests of educa

tion.

The student, having passed through the five public classes, or through the philosophy classes only, is qualified to propose himself for the degree of Master of Arts. By an unaccountable negligence in the conduct of this graduation, the proposal here is rendered almost identical with the acceptance. The strictness of examination is preserved in external forms alone, and the test applied is such as to exclude only the most glaring instances of ignorance and demerit. It is said, however, that the faculty of professors have it in contemplation to remedy this evil by increasing the difficulty of the examinations; thus preserving the distinction which ought ever to be established between the industrious and active, and those of an opposite character. This distinction is, indeed, in a great measure maintained, by the distribution of prizes in the different public classes, as rewards either for general industry and merit, or for particular instances of talent and activity, connected with the studies of cach class. The allotment of these prizes is usually determined by the votes of the students themselves; the business being conducted in such a way as to secure, in general, a perfect fairness and impartiality of decision: there are, however, as might naturally be expected from a popular determina tion of this kind, occasional instances, in which the allotment of these honours is decided rather by influence and solicitation, than from any unbiassed regard to the pretensions of real merit. The prizes, considered in themselves, are trifling; consisting generally of books, the value of which is proportioned to the rank which the students have respectively assumed on the prize list. They are distributed, on the last day of the session, in the common hall of the college, where the publicity of presentation enhances the pleasure derived from a consciousness of desert. Independently of the prizes given in the different classes, there are several of a more general description, the competition for which is open to all the public students attending the college. The decision in this instance is made by the faculty of professors; the subjects of competition being essays on the various topics of literature, science, or the politics of the day. A few of these prizes, which are usually medals, or a corresponding value in books, are confined exclusively to the divinity students; the subjects of disquisition having a reference, of course, to the studies in which they are more immediately engaged.

The reputation of Glasgow as a medical school, though in a state of progressive increase, will not bear any present competition with that of the Edinburgh college. The only professorships, connected with this department, are those of anatomy, the practice of medicine, and botany; courses of chemistry, materia medica, and midwifery, are, however, delivered by lecturers under the patronage of the university. The lectures on anatomy by Dr. Jeffray are valuable and numerously attended; but the opportunities for private dissection among the students are much less favourable than might be wished; a cir

..

cumstance

cumstance which must ever interfere materially with the progress of a medical school. The prejudices of the lower ranks of society on this subject are here exceedingly violent. About five years ago, the discovery of an attempt by some young men to procure a subject for dissection excited so much popular ferment, that the business of the college was almost entirely suspended during a period of several days, and military interference was rendered necessary to restore the peace and regularity of the town. The acquisition of the Hunterian Museum is a circumstance extremely advantageous to this branch of the medical department; the collection of natural and morbid preparations, made by the late Dr. Hunter, being at present unparalleled for extent and value. The college faculty will doubtless deem it expe> dient to make such arrangements for the publicity of this collection, as may secure its continued service to the interests of medical knowledge.

The celebrity of Black and Irvine, names venerated by every lover of science, has annexed a corresponding reputation to the chemical chair of the university. This department is at present conducted by Dr. Cleghorn, whose extensive employment as a physician in the town and neighbourhood of Glasgow, enables him to confer a peculiar value upon those parts of his subject which have a relation to the theory or practice of medicine. The number of students attending this course has been very considerably increased within the last two or three years, but, like the other branches of physical science, chemistry is rarely made an object of much attention by those who are frequenting the college with a view to general literature. The attractions of the study are either unknown or disregarded, and few traces exist of that ardor of pursuit, which the interesting and important nature of the objects under contemplation would seem so peculiarly fitted to excite. Independently of his engagements as a lecturer on chemistry, Dr. Cleghorn confers an additional service upon the medical department by a series of clinical lectures delivered in conjunction with Dr. Frere, the professor of the practice of physic, to the students attending the city infirmary. The importance of such lectures must be obvious to every one who considers the superiority of the knowledge, derived from observations at the bed side of the patient, to that vague and inefficacious acquaintance with the forms of disease which is procured through the medium of books alone.

The present number of medical students at Glasgow may probably exceed two hundred, of whom much the most considerable proportion are natives either of Scotland or Ireland. The obloquy attached, not without propriety, to the Aberdeen and St. Andrew's degrees of medicine, is partially shared by this university; but an increased strictness, which has lately been introduced into the examinations for graduation, will, it may be hoped, efface the stain, and remove a portion, at least, of those evils, which must ever accompany the intrusion of ignorance or incapacity into the profession of medicine.

As a school for divinity, Glasgow has long enjoyed very considerable celebrity

celebrity is this part of the island. The provisions made for the edu cation of the ministers of the Scotch church, are such as to secure to this class of the community a merited reputation for learning, information, and talent; and in no one religious establishment, probably, can the officiating members lay claim to a greater or more general respectability of character. It is usual for each theological student to pass through the five public classes previously to his entering the divinity hall by this means a sufficient basis is formed for his more important studies, the prosecution of which, during the required period of seven years, creates every necessary qualification for the discharge of the ministerial office. The present professor of divinity is Dr. Findlay, a venerable old man of ninety, who commands respect equally from his extensive learning, and from the general moderation and liberality of his religious principles. His lectures are valuable in the quantity of information they contain, but are characterized by too great a degree of diffuseness and detail; a single course of divinity being laid out at such length as to occupy several entire sessions. This circumstance has given rise to an anecdote of a student from the sister island, who, returning to his friends at the close of a session, complained to them that he had attended the divinity hall regularly for six months, and had got only half an attribute as a recompence for his exertions. The story, though a palpable embellishment of fact, is a fair evidence of the extreme prolixity and diffuseness of the lecThe number of students, engaged in the study of divinity at Glasgow, is usually between forty and fifty; many of whom are natives of Ireland, preparing themselves for the occupation of the different presbyterian churches in the northern part of that country. Professorships of church history and Hebrew are attached to this department of education; but here, as well as at the Edinburgh college, the latter study occupies very little general attention. Besides the lectures on the historical and doctrinal branches of theology, sermons are composed and recited by the students of a certain standing, and commentaries made upon select passages of scripture, with a view to their exercise in the performance of those duties which are afterwards to be fulfilled in their capacity as public teachers of religion. The quantum of orthodoxy prevailing among the divinity students at Glasgow is very considerable: the names of Priestley, of Price, and Lindsey are known but to few, and their religious principles are still more rarely understood. The attention of the young divine is too exclusively and indiscriminately directed to the writings of the fathers and reformers of religion, and he is often engaged in balancing the minute differences of a doctrine, which a more general and unbiassed examination might have led him to reject in toto, as the offspring of distempered enthusiasm or mischievous hypocrisy.

tures.

The public has lately received from the pen of Mr. Craig, an elegant biographical memoir of one of the most distinguished characters which have adorned the literature of modern times. The death of the late professor Millar, while it deprived society of a fair and conspi

cuous

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