The Finest Profession in the World.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 265, 14 November 1885, Page 5

The Finest Profession in the World.

That is a pretty good profes.-ion in those hard times which a man cat! ontor.fresh from college, at a yearly salary of i'l,'2oo or C 2.000 or .IM,OOO. An hour's work a day (with v rett on Saturdays and Sundays), or even two houra' work, is not too much to ask of its members, especially when they have a six montliH1 annual holiday (not counting tho fortnight at Christina.?) in which to get tho hotter of the ovor-prcssu re. Scotch university professors constitutotho membership of this enviable profession. Thoir salaries vary according to tho subject on which thoy locturo and the attendance at thoir classes. Professor Turner, of Edinburgh, for instanco, tho distinguished anatomist, has an annual income from his lectures of sonio .C-1,000 a year, his, ch'iir being at present tho most valuable in tho world. Sovoral of his brother-professors in tho medical school make from £^',000 to £3,000 a year, and similar salaries aro obtained in Glasgow. The Arts professors, who have, on tlio whole, lass to do, aro not worse oil". In tbo classes of ! " Humanity " and Greek, which, unless ho parses a preliminary examination, tlio studont mu»t attend fnr two sessions, there aro two divisions with about two hundred students on an average in each. If this is an ovor-ostiniate for Edinburgh, it is much the roverso for Glasgow, whoro tho Arts classes arocrammod. As each student pays a feo of thrco guineas a year, the professors in those classes cloar about .Cl.L'dO oil' fees alone, and thus havo tlio double advantage over all other professional men of being paid tho great part of thoir salaries in advance Tho mothod of collecting the students' fees is eminently to tho point. Fur tho first fow days of the sossion tho profoseor lecture? for twenty minutes, and thon retires to his ante-room, lloro the umlergraduatos follow him in droves, clutching each his threo pound notes and his threo shilling pieces, and thosa aro handed him across a table that positively groans under its weight of money. Scotch students do not find it convenient to pay in cheques ; ,'.nd a story wont round tho quadrangle onco at the boginning of a sossion, to tho effect that Professor Sollar was off to tho bank with GOO onepound notes sticking out of his pockets: This may easily havo been tho ca-o. Thero aro two Arts professors in Edinburgh at present—tho ono in tho Greek and the other in tho Mathematical chair-whoso united ago ia not much moro than sixty, and who both entered the most satisfactory of professions fresh from Oxford and Cambridge, As each chair is endowed to tho amount of a few hunJrsd pounds a your, and tho professor.-! havo all the fees, thoso gentlemen aro doing pretty well. Mr .lainos Payii, tho novelist, animadverts, in his "Library KemiuitCi nces," on tl.o revoronco with which the Scotch mind regards professors; but then Mr l'ayn never saw a Scotch professor in his autoroom raking in his monoy at the rate of £5 a minute. Any ono would rovero him who hud witnessed that.

It is qtiitT impossible for a Scjtch profoPFor, attendance at whoso classos is necessary for tho degree, to help making a largo income. Uo may bo about eighty years of ago (as ho .s.nnotimus is), or his room may bo a boar-garden (as it sometimes i.»); but intending graduates roust tike the class ami pay tho fees. At Uio same timo it depend;' on tho professor himsolf whether ho in to havo n vory largo salary or only a largo salary. If ho bo an outstanding man with his heart in his work, many outsiders will take, a session with him though they have no intention of completing tiio full curriculum; and tho rtudont who can afford it will take out big class a second or oven.a third timo. It is because of tho lino reputation ho has mado for himself that L'rofcssor Tumor's classes aro so crowded ; and mon of nil »s:o.-<, besides tho regular studonts, arc drawn to tho English Lttornture leeturos in Edinburgh, which L'rofoeHor Mnsson has mado an ovont in tho lives of many of Ilia eountrymou. There are a number of Scotch professors attendance at whoso lecturos is optional- that ia to say, it. if not necessary for tlio degree. I lore tbo lc furor must bo a special attraction in him.=el. if his foes aro to amount to anything considi. ■ ablo; and, on thu whole, thoso c'asses .-.ro thinly attended. Ot one a cruol joko i-> i ild at tho professor's expense It is said that, on ontoring his room ono day ho found this notico on his dotk : —"Thoro will bo no lecture to-day, as tho student is miwall." Though the attendance in such cases hardly teems to justify the existence of tho chair, it should not bo rashly concluded that theso professors at least aro poorly paid. Thoir chairs aro all richly endowed, mid they saunter throuch life vory comfortably on as littlo ns .CfiOO or £700 a year.

Somo Scotch professors seem bettor off than thuy are, and others add largely to thoir professional income. Professor Tumor, for instanco, has to conliuo himself to university work, not being expected to engage in privato practice. There aro thusinodical mon in Scotland making larger incomes thin hi-j; and a iow of tbo successful Edinburgh advocates make mnnh more than an v law professor. Tho Arts professors, however, have ladies' classes iv addition to their university lecturos, and theso yiold incomes in themsolves.

Whon there is a vacancy in tiii< delightful profession it doss not require many advortisotr.onts to bring forward candid il.es. The appointments may bo in tho hands of tho Sonatus, of tbo Town Council, or of a fow choson men from ench of those bodies. It may bolong to tho Crown ; or .■■omo outside organisation interested in tho subject may have a vote. Tho Scottish Acadomy, for instance, baa a say in the appointment of the Fine Arts Professor in Edinburgh. The Corporation has now-a-days much lees to do with the control of university matters than it had formerly, when Town Council and Senatus woro in a state of perpetual war; but in tho cases where it still has a voice in the appointment of professors its obstinacy occasionally irritates tho Sonatus or tho representatives of tho Senatus. On the other hand, the buainess'iuen have more than once got tho best man into a chair when there was a "set" against him in the Senatits. Seldom is an appointment made at which thero is not somo uplifting of hands, When Profossor Blackio rotirod recently, a.prominent Scotch news-paper moved "heaven and earth " to got bis chair for a -well-known Edinburgh schoolmaster. Probably it loctured tho curators on their obivous duty a little too much, for thoy retaliated by giving Ilia appointment to a brilliant young .English ccholar of no exporionco. Professor Butcher's opponents mado much capital out of his nationality, declaring it would be disgraceful to confer th 3 post on an Englishman, who could havo no sympathy with Scotch students, when there were co many distinguished Scotch candidates. This ridiculous argument,, which if taken up in England would bo so dieastrous to tho thousand-andone Scotchmen holding appointments in this country, waß not allowed to have weight; and already thoro are fow professors in the north country so popular as Professor Blackie's successor.

Professor Ray Lankestcr and others have of late been demanding endowment for research ; but for what oiso aro the mass of tho Scotch chairs endowed ? Year after year the Scotch professor delivers the same or much tho same lectures ; so that after ho has got into tho swing of the thing ho has nothing to prepare for them His assistant, whoso profession is very far from being tho linest in the world, does the weary work of correcting the examination-papers. With so littie to do in the winter and nothing to do in the summor, a Scotch professor should take to research if only to keep himself from languor. In many cases he does so. and produces result?, literary and scientific, that reflect glory on himself and on his chair. Sometimes he only tries to look as if he had been living hours of labour, and when his brother-professors see his writings they ask him as a personal favour to writa no moro. Thero is ono who " edits " cla?pjcal works by simply putting bis name on title-pages ; and there is another whoso profound treatises on philosophy should bs issued by the Tract Society. The remainder smoke. Their appointments arc practically 'or life, and the retiring allowances aro as generous as the salaries. Carlyle, in hi« "Reminiscences," says that at one time ho wu.3 an applicant for a Scotch university chair, but did not get it, •'thank God!" We havo often wondored what Carlyle mount.—"'St. James's Gazette."