3

I may have been led to adopt touching the comparative
merits of distinct systems or of their respective features
in detail. Not that I am blindly wedded to every
feature of the scholastic & disciplinary systems adopted
here. On the contrary I sometimes find myself prone to
ascribe to our regulations imperfect and which may not be
peculiar to them but may be unavoidably incidental
to all human institutions. I can, indeed, claim a
title to cooperate with the earnest friends of educa-
tional improvements on one{underlined} ground. It is that of
not underrating the difficulty of the problem. It is,
therefore, with diffidence and doubt that I would
apply to any different combination of circumstances
the results of an experience acquired during my
connection with this institution.

(1) . I doubt the advantage or safety of the plan of
charging your Vice-Chancellor with the duty of supervising
the Professors. Undoubtedly cases of delinguency will
occur. But even though there were no other method of
reaching them I have a strong conviction that the
remedy would prove far more mischievous than the
disease. I can recal to mind some half dozen
instances in which colleges of the highest {illegible} have
been completely disorganized by reason of dissensions
springing from the authorized{underlined} exercise by the President
of the right of supervising the teaching departments,
whereas in almost every institution of learning in
which harmony in the Faculty has continued to
exist without serious interruption the fact is ascribed
by all parties to the prudence of the President in
virtually dispossessing himself of an authority which
it seems can scarcely be exercised without {illegible: empending?}
discord & dissensions far more mischievous than any
official delinguency on the part of Professors --