the middle of the fifteenth century (when the ancient numerous resort of the University had declined), directed to the restriction and abolition of this popular right; and after several fruitless, and sundry partial measures, the privilege was at length, in 1560, totally withdrawn. The Venetian fathers were too wise in their generation to dream of exercising this important function themselves. Under the Republic of Padua, the Princes of Carrara, and the Venetian domination, prior to 1515, two, and subsequently four Paduan citizens, of distinguished prudence, had been chosen to watch over the University, and to suggest the persons proper to be nominated to vacant chairs. In 1516, they were reduced to three, and the election of these academical Triumvirs (Triumviri Studiorum, Moderatores Academiæ, Riformatori dello Studio di Padova) intrusted to the six senators of the venerable College of Seniors, by whose wisdom the most important affairs of the Republic were administered. To this small and select body of Moderators, the Senate delegated the general care of the University; and, in particular, that of looking around through Europe for the individuals best qualified to supply the wants of the University. Nor were they easily satisfied. The plurality of concurrent chairs (which long continued) superseded the necessity of hasty nominations; and it not unfrequently happened that a principal Ordinary was vacant for years, before the Triumvirs found an individual sufficiently worthy of the situation. On the other hand, where the highest celebrity was possibly to be obtained, nothing could exceed the liberality of the Senate, or the zeal of the Moderators; and Padua was thus long eminently fortunate in her competition for illustrious teachers, with the most favoured Universities of Europe.

In Pisa, the students do not appear to have ever exercised so preponderant an influence in the election of their teachers as in Padua or even Bologna. From the period of the restoration of the University by Lorenzo de' Medici, the academical patronage of the state was virtually exercised by a small intelligent and responsible body. In 1472, the Senate of Florence decreed that five Prefects should be chosen out of the citizens, qualified for the magistracy, to whom should be confided the superintendence both of the Florentine and Pisan Universities. These were annually elected; but as re-election was competent, the body was in reality permanent. Lorenzo appears among the first. In 1543, Cosmo de' Medici gave new statutes to the University of Pisa, with which that of Florence had been united. By these, beside the Prefects, who were not resident in Pisa, a Curator or Provisor was established on the spot. This office was for life; nor merely honorary, for attached to it was the Priorship of the Knights of

St Stephen. The curator was charged with the general superintendence of student and professor; and whatever directly or indirectly concerned the wellbeing of the University, was within his sphere. In the appointment of professors, he exercised a great and salutary influence. The prefects were the definitive electors; it was, however, the proximate duty of the curator to look around for the indviduals suited to the wants of the University, and to bring their merits under the judgment of the prefects. How beneficially the curator and prefects acted as mutual stimuli and checks, requires no comment.

By this excellent organization of the bodies to whom their academical patronage was confided, Padua and Pisa, in spite of many unfavourable circumstances, long maintained a distinguished reputation; nor was it until the system which had determined their celebrity was adopted and refined in other seminaries, that they lost the decided pre-eminence among the Universities of Europe. From the integrity of their patrons, and the lofty standard by which they judged, the call to a Paduan or Pisan chair was deemed the highest of all literary honours. The status of professor was in Italy elevated to a dignity, which in other countries it has never reached; and not a few of the most illustrious teachers in the Italian seminaries, were of the proudest nobility of the land. While the Universities of other countries had fallen from Christian and cosmopolite, to sectarian and local schools, it is the peculiar glory of the Italian, that under the enlightened liberality of their patrons, they still continued to assert their European universality. Creed and country were in them no bar; the latter not even a reason of preference. Foreigners of every nation are to be found among their professors; and the most learned man of Scotland sought in a Pisan chair, that theatre for his abilities which he could not find at home. When Calvinist Leyden was expatriating her second Boerhaave, the Catholic Van Swieten; Catholic Pisa had seduced from Leyden the Calvinist foreigner Gronovius. In Schismatic England, a single sect excludes all others from the privileges of University instruction; in Catholic Italy, even the academic chairs have not been closed against the heretic.

The system was, however, carried to a higher perfection in the Dutch Universities; and notwithstanding some impediments arising from religious restrictions (subsequent to the Synod of Dordt), its efficiency was in them still more conspicuously displayed.

It was first realized in Leyden, the oldest of these seminaries; and from the greater means and more extensive privileges of that University, whose degrees were favoured throughout France, its operation was there more decisive.

In reward of the heroic defence made by the citizens in the memorable siege of Leyden, they received from the States their choice of an immunity from taxation, or of a University. They chose the latter. But though a recompense to the city, and though the civic aristocracy was in no other country so preponderant as in Holland, the patronage of the new establishment was not asked by, or conceded to, the municipality. Independently of reason, experience had shown the evil effects of such a constitution in the neighbouring University of Louvain, where the magistrates and the professors rivalled each other in their character of patrons, to prove, by a memorable example, how the wealthiest endowments, and the most extensive privileges, only co-operate with a vicious system of patronage in sinking a venerable school into contempt. The appointment of professors, and the general superintendence of the new University, were confided to a body of three Curators, with whom was associated the mayor of Leyden for the time being. One of these Curators was taken from the body of nobles, and chosen by them; the two others, drawn from the cities of Holland, or from the courts of justice, were elected by the States of the province. The duration of the office was originally for nine years, but custom soon prolonged it for life. The curators were recompensed by the high distinction of their office, but were allowed a learned secretary, with a salary proportioned to his trouble.

The system thus established continues, to the present hour, in principle the same; but the changes in the political circumstances of the country have necessarily occasioned changes in the constitution of the body—whether for the interest of the University is still a doubtful problem. Until the revolutionary epoch, no alteration was attempted in the college of curators; and its permanence, amid the ruin of almost every ancient institution, proves, independently of other evidence, that all parties were at one in regard to its virtue and efficiency. In 1795, the four curators were increased to five, and all made permanent. Of these, three were elected by the national delegates, two by the municipality of Leyden; and the spirit in which they were chosen, even during the frenzy of the period, is shown in the appointments of Santenius and De Bosch-the most illustrious scholars in the curatory since the age of Douza. On the restoration of the House of Orange, and establishment of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, a uniform constitution was given to the Batavian and Belgian Universities. By the statutes promulgated in 1815 for the former, and in 1816 for the latter, it is provided that ، in each Univer'sity' (these were now Leyden, Utrecht, and Groningen; Louvain, Ghent, and Liege ، there shall be a board of curators,

'ed.'

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consisting of five persons, distinguished both by their love of literature and the sciences, and by their rank in society.' 'curators shall take precedence according to the date of their appointment;' but in the statutes of the Belgian Universities, it is stated, the president shall be named by the King, and ⚫ must be resident in the town where the University is establishThese curators shall be nominated immediately by the King, and chosen-at least three-fifths of them—in the province where the University is established; the two others may be chosen from the adjacent provinces.' The chief magistrate of 'the town in which the University is situated, is, in virtue of, but only during the continuance of his office, a member of the college of curators. Beside the duties touching the superintendence and administration of the University, when a chair falls ⚫ vacant, the curators shall propose to the Department of Instruc6 tion in the Arts and Sciences' (in the Batavian statutes, to the ministry of the Home Department') two candidates for the 'situation, and they shall subjoin to their proposal the reasons which have determined their choice. The definitive nomination 'shall be made by the King. To hold, annually, two ordinary and as many occasional meetings as circumstances may require. The 'curators shall, on their appointment, make, before the King, the 'following oath: I swear (I promise) fidelity to the country and to the King. I swear to observe the regulations and enactments concerning academical establishments, in so far as they concern my function of curator of the University of, and to co-operate, in so far as in me lies, to its welfare and celebrity.' Office of curator gratuitous; certain travelling expenses allowed. To every college of curators a secretary is attached, bearing the title of Secretary-inspector, and having a deliberative voice in their meetings. He shall be bound to residence in the town where the University is established, and, when the college of curators ' is not assembled, shall watch that the measures touching the high instruction and the regulations of the University are observed, ' &c.'

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We have spoken specially of Leyden, but all the schools of Holland owed their celebrity to the same constitution; and the emulation of these different boards contributed greatly to their prosperity. The University of Franeker, founded in 1585, had three curators and a secretary. That of Groningen, founded in 1615, was governed by a college of six curators, appointed by the States of the province; Utrecht, raised from a Schola illustris to a University in 1636, and in endowments second only to Leyden, had five curators and a secretary; and Harderwick by (we believe) a board of five curators and a president. The Athenæum of Amsterdam,

which emulated the Universities of Leyden and Utrecht, was governed by two curators; and the other Scholæ illustres were under a similar constitution. On the curatorial system likewise was established the excellence of the classical schools of Holland; and these, as recently admitted by the most competent authority in Germany, have been long, with a few individual exceptions, the very best in Europe.

But let us consider how the system wrought. We shall speak only of Leyden.

It is mainly to John Van der Does, Lord of Noortwyk, a distinguished soldier and statesman, but still more celebrated as a universal scholar under the learned appellative of Janus Douza, that the school of Leyden owes its existence and reputation. As governor of that city, he had baffled the leaguer of Requesens; and his ascendency, which moved the citizens to endure the horrors of the blockade, subsequently influenced them to prefer the boon of a University. In the constitution of the new seminary it was he who was principally consulted; and his comprehensive erudition, which earned for him the titles of the Batavian Varro' and Common Oracle of the University,' but still more his lofty views and unexclusive liberality, enabled him to discharge, for above thirty years, the function of first curator with unbounded influence and unparalleled success. Gerard Van Hoogeveen, and Cornelius de Coning, were his meritorious colleagues.

Douza's principles were those which ought to regulate the practice of all academical patrons; and they were those of his successors. He knew, that at the rate learning was seen prized by the state in the academy, would it be valued by the nation at large. In his eyes a University was not merely a mouthpiece of necessary instruction, but at once a pattern of lofty erudition, and a stimulus to its attainment. He knew that professors wrought more even by example and influence than by teaching; that it was theirs to pitch high or low the standard of learning in a country; and that as it proved arduous or easy to come up to them, they awoke either a restless endeavour after an ever loftier attainment, or lulled into a self-satisfied conceit. And this relation between the professorial body and the nation, held also be tween the professors themselves. Imperative on all, it was more particularly incumbent on the first curators of a University, to strain after the very highest qualifications; for it was theirs to determine the character which the school should afterwards maintain; and theirs to give a higher tone to the policy of their successors. With these views Douza proposed to concentrate in Leyden a complement of professors all illustrious for their learn

VOL. LIX, NO. CXIX.