Page:A Catalogue of Graduates who have Proceeded to Degrees in the University of Dublin, vol. 2.djvu/19

 INTEODUCTION. xiii Sovereigns and Popes, and has been granted many privileges under the name of a University. Savigny, in his work on the Eoman Law of the Middle Ages,* in terms describes the University of Paris as a Corporation of teachers ; and he con- trasts it with Bologna, which he describes as a Corporation of scholars. These were the two oldest Universities. Merlin treats the old French Universities as corporations. In a learned treatise of Professor Bluntschli, of Heidelberg, on Universal Constitutional Law,t he describes Universities (especially in Grermany), as they stood at first, "in the juristic-corporate sense of the word, beginning with single sciences ; and, as they have become organic institutions, embracing and developing to full ripeness the entire higher scientific culture." He explains in a lucid manner the important influence of their corporate character, in securing the independence and the mental freedom that the successful study of science demands, and for which, corporate self-dependence (he says) is an excellent foundation. He sets forth the principal corporate privileges: the last to which he refers is the representation which is conceded to the Corporations of the Universities in the Council of the Nation, which (he adds) " is quite as much corresponding to its great importance for the spiritual life of the Nation, as serviceable for discerning deliberations on legislation." The whole of the extract, for which I am indebted to my friend Mr. Droop, of Lincoln's Inn, late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, will be found in the Appendix. J From these and other autho- rities, it appears that the true ancient notion of an University included the corporate foundation. Sir William Hamilton, therefore, has well described the ancient Universities as " cos- mopolite corporations." The great authority of Savigny may suffice as to the particular case of the University of Paris. Halmagrand (on whose authority Dr. Todd has relied) was a medical writer, not a jurist. edition. X Note B, p. xxviii.
 * Vol. iii. p. 157, 2nd German t ^ol. ii. p. 367, 4th cditiou.