Page:The Student, Edinburgh University Magazine, New Series, Volume V., Summer Session 1891.pdf/19

 and France was recalled. M. Paul Melon said that they were trying to show a little of the Scottish hospitality which was proverbial in France ; that they would welcome all Scots who came to Paris whatever they might wish to study, and he hoped in the near future there might exist a corresponding organisation for French students in Edinburgh. M. Léné recalled the pleasant meetings they had had with the Scottish delegates in Paris in 1889, and again in Montpellier last year. Professor Coats and Dr Hunter Stewart expressed their satisfaction with the opportunities Paris offered to the student, and the way these were available to all.

who may wish to study at Paris can get information before leaving, from the Scottish Professors named, or from Andrew J. Herbertson, University College, Dundee. The secretary in Paris this summer is Dr G. W. Thompson, 36 Rue des Ecoles.

—At the ordinary meeting on the 11th inst. the plan of alterations for the new rooms is to be discussed. A good attendance therefore is requested, in order that the details of the scheme proposed by the Committee may be approved of, or amended by, the Society, before operations commence. For place and time of meeting see notice boards.

—The next meeting of the above club will be held at Gullane on Saturday next, the 9th, to play for the Challenge Cup and club prizes. Train to Longniddry at 9.27, and to Drem at 10.20.

We have to acknowledge the receipt of a very carefully prepared map of South Africa from J. & H. Lindsay, 31 Princes Street. Cape students should call at the Council Offices.

Sir William Hamilton died, Scottish Metaphysics received a shock from which, in the estimation of many, it has not yet recovered. It seemed then as if a race of little men had succeeded, and the days of the giants were past. His immediate successor has just handed in his resignation to the University authori­ties, and a reign of pigmies is apprehended. It is always thus, for the old men become identified with their positions, and their absence occasions a blank not easily filled up. Not only so, but the appointments to a University chair are not unseldom unworthy of the institution. Things are believed to be better managed now-a-days than they once were, though strange sayings find circulation even among the University students of to-day.

There are few old students of Edinburgh University but will notice with sincere regret the retiral of the old man who for thirty-five years has maintained the cause of divine philosophy in the northern capital. He succeeded a great man, and the great man’s mantle never descended on him ; nevertheless he has become inwoven with University traditions, and he supplied a link to the mighty past. That link is now broken. The new Professor—whoever he may be—will be the successor of Campbell Fraser; he will not be the successor of Hamilton. That is no doubt but an obvious fact, yet it means a great deal. Our Universities are perpetually undergoing such changes. The new teachers never make up for the old. I can fancy the condition of things consequent on the retiral say of Professor Masson. The chosen successor might be a well-known man, or he might be a nonentity; he might be an incipient Hallam, or a belated Montgomery; but whoever he might be, he would not be Masson. He could never have been the friend of Carlyle who had seen and talked with Thackeray and Jerrold, De Quincey and Dickens. He would be an interloper—something disconnected—a person without a history