The Sun.
London, England, 1867-06-21 00:00:00

UNIVERSITY REPRESENIATION.

OnWednesday evening a meeting of St. Andrew's
Medical Graduate Association was held at the Free-
masons' Tavern, under the chairmanship of Dr.
Richardson, the president, principally for the pur-
pose of promoting an organised opposition to a clause
in the new Scotch Reform Bill, by which the gra-
duates are excluded from voting for a representative
of their university. The chairman said he was
happy to state that since their last meeting,
when the question of the enfranchisement of the
university was discussed, their efforts had to a
large extent been successful. It was true that
they had yet to exert themselves, but he was
glad to be able to say, from a correspondence which
had taken place between Dr. M'lntyre, Mr. Sclater-
Booth, and Mr. Beach, that in consequence of the
representations which had been made to the Go"
vernment the Lord Advocate, who had the bill In
hand, said he had reason to believe an amended
clause would be immediately introduced. He
should say that since they last met they had had
ample proof of the influence which their graduates
had with members of Parliament ; indeed he
might add that at the present time they could
get thirty members to go to the Government
in their behalf. Dr. M'lntyre said that the
clause in question must be expunged entirely or
modified to a great extent, because in its present
form it was derogatory to them, keeping as it did
the whole of the St. Andrew's graduates out of the
constituency of the university. lle himself pre-
ferred the entire expulsion of the clause, and he
should like to know the opinion of the meeting In
reference to it. The chairman, with the concur-
rence of the meeting, asked Dr. M'lntyre to embody
his opinion on the subject in an instruction to the
council. Before their discussion on the subject
ceased he thought it right to say that as Mr. Bills,
M.P., told them broadly there was reason for sup-
posing that degrees were bought at St. An-
drew's, he wrote to Mr. Troop, the registrar of

the university, and received a reply from that gee'
tleman that there was no truth whatever in the es'
sertion that degrees were got by purchase. Dr'
Rogers said that in a conversation with John Stuart
Mill he found that the hon. gentleman had an
opinion that the degree of St. Andrew's was simply
honorary, and said that the House of Commons
had an objection to the admission of gentle-
men to the suffrage who simply possessed
honorary degrees. lle thought it was desir-
able the association should take the trouble
to diiabuse the minds of the House of Commons
and of the Government of that false impression'
Dr. Williams moved a resolution to the effect that
the council of the association be requested to urge
upon the Government the claim of the medical
graduates of St. Andrew's to vote for the repre-
mutation of that university. As proof of the status
of the graduates, he mentioned that in Londe
there were twelve connected with the Public
„
schools and twelve in the provinces, and there
were also between sixty and seventy St.
drew's men attached to the public hospitals Oa
dispensaries in London as honorary members, alia
in the country districts about one hundred an
seventy. He thought those facts warranted s
a
comparison with any other university as regaru
the public usefulness of the medical graduates. P
Sedgwick seconded the motion, and it was lina.
nitnously adopted.