Elections. The
duties of the Lord Rector and the mode of his election have varied
frequently in near five hundred years. In Murray's day, as in my own,
the students elected their own Rector, and before Lord Bute's energetic
reign, the Rector had little to do, but to make a speech, and give a
prize. I vaguely remember proposing the author of _Tom Brown_ long ago:
he was not, however, in the running.

Politics often inspire the electors; occasionally (I have heard) grave
seniors use their influence, mainly for reasons of academic policy.

In December 1887 Murray writes about an election in which Mr. Lowell was
a candidate. 'A pitiful protest was entered by an' (epithets followed by
a proper name) 'against Lowell, on the score of his being an alien.
Mallock, as you learn, was withdrawn, for which I am truly thankful.'
Unlucky Mr. Mallock! 'Lowell polled 100 and Gibson 92 . . . The
intrigues and corruption appear to be almost worthy of an American
Presidential election.' Mr. Lowell could not accept a compliment which
pleased him, because of his official position, and the misfortune of his
birth!

Murray was already doing a very little 'miniature journalism,' in the
form of University Notes for a local paper. He complains of the ultra
Caledonian frankness with which men told him that they were very bad. A
needless, if friendly, outspokenness was a feature in Scottish character
which he did not easily endure. He wrote a good deal of verse in the
little University paper, now called _College Echoes_.

If Murray ever had any definite idea of being ordained for the ministry
in any 'denomination,' he abandoned it. His 'bursaries' (scholarships or
exhibitions), on which he had been passing rich, expired, and he had to
earn a livelihood. It seems plain to myself that he might easily have
done so with his pen. A young friend of my own (who will excuse me for
thinking that his bright verses are not _better_ than Murray's) promptly
made, by these alone, an income which to Murray would have been
affluence. But this could not be done at St. Andrews. Again, Murray was
not in contact with people in the centre of newspapers and magazines. He
went very little into general society, even at St. Andrews, and thus
failed, perhaps, to make acquaintances who might have been 'useful.' He
would have scorned the idea of making useful acquaintances. But without
seeking them, why should we reject any friendliness when it offers
it