Page:(1856) Scottish Philosophy—The Old and the New.pdf/7

Rh have exceeded their powers. Possessing a judicial, they have usurped a legislative function. The Government of the country has relieved the University of Edinburgh of one test, and they, of their own authority, have imposed upon it another; and, as most people will think, a much more obnoxious one. Chiefly through their liberalism the religious test was abolished, and entirely through their illiberalism, a philosophical test of the most exclusive character, has been substituted in its room. It is well to know that a candidate for a philosophical chair in the University of Edinburgh need not now be a believer in Christ or a member of the Established Church; but he must be a believer in Dr Reid, and a pledged disciple of the Hamiltonian system of philosophy. The promulgation of that restriction was a pretty considerable stretch of arbitrary power on the part of our municipal corporation—was'nt it?

Whence, one may ask, did the Town Council obtain the authority, in virtue of which they have pronounced this decree? Did they find it in their charter? No, indeed. Their charter empowers them to appoint a Professor to the Chair of Philosophy in Edinburgh, but it does not empower them to define whose philosophy in particular that Professor shall profess and teach. If I am under a mistake on this point, I shall be happy to be put right. But I am under no mistake. The Town Council are not able to produce any authority for this exercise of their power. Malversation is apparent in this administration of their trust. The tenure by which they hold office gave them no more right to require that the Professor of Metaphysics in Edinburgh should adopt the systems of Reid or of Stewart or of Hamilton, than it empowered them to enact that he should teach the transmigration of souls, or believe in the vortices of Des Cartes. It gave them no right whatever to determine that the standards of these thinkers were to be accepted as the fundamental articles of all sound metaphysical faith, and that no man should obtain the vacant Chair unless he were prepared to subscribe this confession. Yet they have assumed this right; they have acted as if they possessed this authority; and herein I take the liberty of saying, that they have considerably exceeded their