constituency, but a majority in only one "nation," although that is the largest, yet he will be defeated by the candidate who has a majority in each of the three smaller "nations."

The Rectorial contest is usually, but not invariably, conducted on political grounds. An unsuccessful attempt was made in 1874 to break down this tradition by the creation of an Independent party with Emerson for its candidate. An election is always an occasion for much boisterous fun. I recall a meeting of the supporters of one of the candidates-I think Gladstone; the room was the Greek classroom, at that time the largest in the University. The meeting was raided by the opposite party-the supporters of Disraeli-who succeeded in entrenching themselves in the back benches. Armed with pea-shooters and plentifully supplied with ammunition, they bombarded the front benches and the platform. No visible progress was made, and at the end of an hour the floor was thickly covered with peas. In revenge for this invasion of the rights of freedom of speech, the injured party laid a deep plan. They refrained from attempting to enter the room where their opponents were assembled on the following afternoon; but when the meeting had begun they established a blockade by screwing up the door and fastening the windows. Through an opening which they had left for the purpose they threw into the room quantities of burning asafoetida, which had a deplorable effect upon those who were imprisoned. They were following the Greeks with their stinkpots and anticipating the Germans with their tear-gas. Such escapades naturally led to the rule that meetings connected with the Rectorial elections should not be held within the walls of the University. On the evening of the election it was customary to have a torchlight procession through the town and to end by a great bonfire in front of the University buildings on Gilmore Hill.

Some classes were rather notorious for rowdiness; but in general, the Scots students go to the Universities to learn, and their poverty causes them to be frugal of their time.

In the eighties a project was carried into effect in Edinburgh for the provision of residences for students attending the University there, and a similar project was formed for Glasgow. Those of us who were interesting ourselves in the matter found on inquiry that the Glasgow student paid so small a sum for his board and lodging that a considerable annual subvention would be necessary to maintain a college residence in which students could live at a fair standard of comfort. It appeared to be the fact that the students boarded with widows and married couples possessed of small means, who chose

this method of increasing an already existing income. The effect of this condition was that the students received their board and lodging 1 for little more than the cost of it, while out of the balance the services of their landladies were remunerated at a rate for which specialised service could not be obtained. Students whose families reside in Glasgow do not require a college residence to be provided for them, while those who come to the University from the country are not usually possessed of more means than may enable them to meet the expenses necessarily incurred under the conditions which have been described. The richer families in the country usually sent their sons to the English Universities. The fame of the Edinburgh medical school drew students of medicine there from all ranks of society in Great Britain and even from abroad, especially from Australia, and thus the problem of residences in that University bore a different aspect and offered much greater prospects of success than in the University of Glasgow.

There being no college residence, no common-room, no students' union, no gymnasium, there was thus in my time no opportunity for students to meet as students elsewhere than in the class-rooms. There was a general debating society called the "Dialectic," and there were special class debating societies; but these were not as a rule attended by more than a few, and they had no influence upon the general body of students. The University was thus decidedly deficient in college life. This was so obvious a disadvantage that in later years all the wants save one-that of residences-were supplied. While there was complete absence of general college life, students formed, nevertheless, fairly sound judgments upon the ability of their fellow-students as these disclosed themselves in their classes. The practice of long standing in the University of awarding the class prizes by votes of the class and not by the award of the professor perhaps contributed to this. I have never heard of a case in which the prizes were alleged not to be given in accordance with merit.

Of my fellow-students I remember only a few. Among these was James Lambie, who went to Australia, became a journalist, and during the South African War went as war correspondent of a Melbourne newspaper. He was killed in one of the early battles. Robert Kemp, who gave promise of being a poet, wrote some fine lines on Marlowe and then buried himself as parish minister of Blairgowrie; W. P. Ker, who went to Balliol as a Snell Exhibitioner and became Pro

1 The average cost to the student, as we found at that time (1887 or 1888), was 12s. 6d. per week.

fessor of English Literature in University College, London; Wallace Lindsay, who also went to Balliol, edited Plautus and became Professor of Humanity at St. Andrews; George Dodds, who became Senior Tutor of Peterhouse, Cambridge; Patrick Smith, who became SheriffSubstitute at Selkirk; Kirkpatrick, who became Professor of Theology at Knox College, Toronto, and Peter Clark, who became a Free Church minister at Perth, are some of those whom I remember.

Among the lectures I listened to in Glasgow in the seventies (in 1876 and 1877) was one by Fleeming Jenkin on Telpherage,1 or a system of communication by means of aerial wires from which small carriages were suspended and along which they were propelled by mechanical or electrical power. Jenkin was very enthusiastic about his system, upon the development of which he had embarked a considerable amount of money. I doubt if the company he formed made much out of it. Probably some mechanical details remained to be perfected. Now telpherage is in extensive use. I have seen it in operation in the backwoods of Canada, where it was carrying material across gorges and bringing ore out of quarries. The same idea has been applied in the mines at Bilbao, and during the war, in the Italian campaign on the Isonzo, where telpherage was used to carry guns and ammunition from the valleys to the peaks, and from one peak to another.

About this time there was a legal dispute over improvements upon the dynamo, or Gramme machine, as it was then called. I went to Edinburgh in order to hear some of the evidence. Young, Shand and Asher, all afterwards on the Bench, were engaged in the case.

In 1876 I had the good fortune to hear Alexander Graham Bell deliver one of his first lectures on the telephone. Another significant lecture of this kind was given by Swan of Newcastle upon his incandescent lamp.

About the same date Dean Stanley came to Glasgow and lectured upon the Christian Church. Stanley was a diminutive person, extremely thin, with an active body and an eager face. The vote of thanks was proposed by Norman Macleod. Macleod was a man of great if not enormous bulk, and when he appeared in public was habitually jovial. In moving a vote of thanks, Macleod spoke of Stanley as the

Fleeming Jenkin afterwards (in 1884) read a paper on the same subject before the Society of Arts. This paper was published by Robert Louis Stevenson, London, 1887.

It is also used on the aerial line extended above the whirlpool at Niagara. This line was constructed by the same Spanish engineers who built the similar line at Bilbao, and it was originally financed by Spanish capital.

Dean of Windsor; and Stanley, desiring to correct him, plucked his sleeve, like a small boy endeavouring to engage the attention of a giant. Stanley whispered, "Dean of Westminster." "Of course, of course," said Macleod. "As I was saying, we have listened to an admirable lecture by the Dean of Windsor." Stanley jumped up and again interposed; but when Macleod repeated the offence once more, he shrugged his shoulders and sat still. Whether or not the repetition, or even perhaps the original offence, was a mistake or a piece of mischievous fun I do not know. It is possible that it was a joke.

On some such occasion, I do not remember who was lecturing or what precisely was the subject, although it must have been connected with the utilisation of water power for the generation of electricity, possibly at the Falls of Foyers, Lord Kelvin, then Sir William Thomson, made a little speech which I do not find recorded in any of his published writings. He spoke of the possibility of utilising Niagara Falls in the production of electrical power, and he defended the use of them in this manner against the criticism of those who objected on the ground that the scenic beauty of the Falls would be diminished or destroyed. "Think," he said, "what would be the aspect of the Niagara gorge and of the precipice over which the waters now tumble if these waters were altogether withdrawn and permitted to enter the river channel at a lower level. The face of the precipice would soon be covered with aquatic plants giving a splendour of colour which with all their magnificence the Falls do not now possess, while the pool below would have a quiet beauty instead of its present misty turbulence." I do not recall if he suggested, as he may have done, that the abrasion of the crest of the precipice from the flow of the stream would cease and would only occur very slowly from the milder forces of the atmosphere.

During the crisis induced by the Russo-Turkish War (in 1875-77) Gladstone came down to speak at Glasgow. I took with me to hear him my friend Leo Mélliet, who had been a member of the Paris Commune of 1871. Gladstone was a member of the Cabinet which entered upon the Crimean War, but he had withdrawn from the Ministry upon what appeared at the time to be an inadequate pretext. Goldwin Smith told me that he thought Gladstone never approved of the war, which in Goldwin Smith's opinion had been brought about by the co-operation of Napoleon III., Stratford de Redcliffe, who was British Ambassador at Constantinople, and Palmerston. He thought also that Gladstone had all along been anxious to find an excuse for separating himself from his friends. However that may be, for a long period before 1876