you nor I, nor the
Solicitor-General nor the Duke of Buccleugh, can possibly
know anything about. In the present state of our affairs,
therefore, to apply for a Visitation in order to remedy an
abuse which is not perhaps of great consequence to the
public, would appear to me to be extremely unwise.
Hereafter, perhaps, an opportunity may present itself for
making such an application with more safety.

With regard to an admonition, or threatening, or any other
method of interfering in the affairs of a body corporate
which is not perfectly and strictly regular and legal, these
are expedients which I am convinced neither his Majesty nor
any of his present Ministers would choose to employ either
now or at any time hereafter in order to obtain an object
even of much greater consequence than this reformation of
Scottish degrees.

You propose, I observe, that no person should be admitted to
examination for his degrees unless he brought a certificate
of his having studied at least two years in some university.
Would not such a regulation be oppressive upon all private
teachers, such as the Hunters, Hewson, Fordyce, etc.? The
scholars of such teachers surely merit whatever honour or
advantage a degree can confer much more than the greater
part of those who have spent many years in some
universities, where the different branches of medical
knowledge are either not taught at all, or are taught so
superficially that they had as well not be taught at all.
When a man has learnt his lesson very well, it surely can be
of little importance where or from whom he has learnt it.

The monopoly of medical education which this regulation
would establish in favour of universities would, I
apprehend, be hurtful to the lasting prosperity of such
bodies corporate. Monopolists very seldom make good work,
and a lecture which a certain number of students must
attend, whether they profit by it or no, is certainly not
very likely to be a good one. I have thought a great deal
upon this subject, and have inquired very carefully into the
constitution and history of several of the principal
universities of Europe; I have satisfied myself that the
present state of degradation and contempt into which the
greater part of these societies have fallen in almos