The indiscriminate collation of degrees has justly taken away that
respect which they originally claimed as stamps, by which the literary
value of men so distinguished was authoritatively denoted. That
academical honours, or any others should be conferred with exact
proportion to merit, is more than human judgment or human integrity have
given reason to expect. Perhaps degrees in universities cannot be better
adjusted by any general rule than by the length of time passed in the
public profession of learning. An English or Irish doctorate cannot be
obtained by a very young man, and it is reasonable to suppose, what is
likewise by experience commonly found true, that he who is by age
qualified to be a doctor, has in so much time gained learning sufficient
not to disgrace the title, or wit sufficient not to desire it.

The Scotch universities hold but one term or session in the year. That
of St. Andrews continues eight months, that of Aberdeen only five, from
the first of November to the first of April.

In Aberdeen there is an English Chapel, in which the congregation was
numerous and splendid. The form of public worship used by the church of
England is in Scotland legally practised in licensed chapels served by
clergymen of English or Irish ordination, and by tacit connivance quietly
permitted in separate congregations supplied with ministers by the
successors of the bishops who were deprived at the Revolution.

We came to Aberdeen on Saturday August 21. On Monday we were invited
into the town-hall, where I had the freedom of the city given me by the
Lord Provost. The honour conferred had all the decorations that
politeness could add, and what I am afraid I should not have had to say
of any city south of the Tweed, I found no petty officer bowing for a