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Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V

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University,] A STUDENTS? RIOT. I1 placed in the city charter room; and this order occurs often afterwards, or is referred to thus :- ?? In 1663 the magistrates came down with their halberts to the college, took away all our charters and papers, declared the Provost perpetual rector, though he was chancellor before, and at the same time discharged university meetings.? During the summer of 1656 some new buildings were in progress on the south side of the old college, as the town council records state that for the better carrying on thereof, ?there is a necessitie to break down and demolishe the hous neirest the Potterrow Port, which now the Court du Guaird possesseth ; thairfoir ordaines the thesaurer with John Milne to visite the place, and doe therin what they find expedient, as weil for demolishing the said hous as for provyding for the Court du Guaird utenvayis.? During the year 1665 some very unpleasant relations ensued between the university and its civic patrons, and these originated in a frivolous cause. It had been the ancient practice of the regents of all European seminaries to chastise with a birch rod such of the students as were unruly or committed a breach of the laws of the college within its bound. Some punishment of this nature had been administered to the son of the then Provost, Sir Andrew Ramsay, Knight, and great offence was taken thereat. In imitation of his colleagues and predecessors, the regent, on this occasion, had used his own entire discretion as to the mode and amount of punishment he should inflict ; but the Lord Provost was highly exasperated, and determining to wreak his vengeance on the whole university, assumed the entire executive authority into his own hands. ?? Having proceeded to the college, and exhibited some very unnecessary symbols of his power within the city-the halberts, we presume-on the tenth of November he repaired to the Council Chamber and procured the following Act- to be passed :- Th CoumiZ agrees fhut fhe Provosf of Edinburgh, present and to come, 6e &ways Rector and Governor uf fhe roZZege in a21 time coming.? The only important effects which this disagreeable business produced were, that it was the cause of corporal punishment being banished from the university, and that no rector has since been elected,? adds Bower, writing in 1817. ?The Senatw Arademiclls have repeatedly made efforts to revive the election of the ofice of rector, and have as often failed of success.? A short time before his death Cromwell made a grant to the college of &zoo per annum, a sum which in those days would greatly have added to the prosperity of the institution ; but he happened to die in the September of the same year in which the grant was dated, and as all his Acts were rescinded at the? Restoration, his intentions towards the university came to nothing. The expense of passing the document at the Exchequer cost about L476 16s. Scots; hence it is extremely doubtful if the smallest benefit ever came of it in any way. The year 1680 saw the students of the university engaged in a serious riot, which created a profound sensation at the time. ?i After the Restoration, the students,? says Amot, ? appear to have been pretty much tainted with the fanatic principles of the Covenanters,? and they resolved, while the Duke of Albany and York was at Holyrood, to manifest their zeal by a solemn procession and burning of the pope in effigy on Christmas Day, and to that end posted up the following :- ??I?HESE are to give notice to all Noblemen, Gentlemen, Citizens, and others, that We, the Students of the Royal College of Edinburgh (to show our detestation and abhorrence of the Romish religion, and our zeal and fervency for the Protestant), do resolve to bum the effigies of Anfi-ch&f, the Pqe of Rome at the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh, the 25th of December instant, at Twelve in the forenoon (being the festival of Our Saviour?s nativity). And as we hate tumnlts as we do superstition, we do hereby (under pain of death) discharge all robbers, thieves, and bawds to come within 40 paces of our company, and such as shall be found disobedient to these our commands, Sibi Caveant. ? By our Special command, ROBERT BROWN, Secretary to all our Theatricals and Extra L i t d Divertisements.? ?AN ADVERTISEMENT. This announcement filled the magistrates with alarm, as such an exhibition was seriously calculated to affront the duke and duchess, and, moreover, to excite a dangerous sedition. According to a history of, this affair, published for Richard Janeway, in Queen?s Head Alley, Paternoster Row, 1681, the students bound themselves by a solemn oath to support each other, under penalty of a fine, and they employed a carver, ?who erected then a wooden Holiness, with clothes, tiiple crown, keys, and other necessary habiliments,? and by Christmas Eve all was in readiness for the display, to prevent which the Lord Provost used every means at his command. He sent for Andrew Cant, the principal, and the regents, whom he enjoined to deter the students ? with menaces that if they would not, he would make it a bloody Christmas to them.? He then went to Holyrood, and had an interview with the duke and the Lord Chancellor, who threatened to march the Scottish troops into the town. Meanwhile, the principal strove to exact oaths and promises from the students that they would re
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