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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
readily afford them all official aids and facilities , in bringing to light the authors of such foul and dangerous aspersions , and in guarding * themselves as far as possible from their probable and most injurious consequences . And while the Faculty deeply feel tlie
alarming- nature of this charge , they regard themselves as warranted to complain of the manner in which the precognition respecting it has been conducted . A * a matter of mere decorum it might have been expected , that the magistrate charged
with an inquiry so serious and unprecedented , wonld hare commenced his functions by waiting ou the head of the University , explaining to him the nature of his unpleasant mission , and receiving his opinion as to the manner of fulfilling it with the least possible degree of publicity and scandal . Ingtead of which he made
his first appearance in the courts of the College , attended by the Procurator Fiscal j questioned the College servants , and Upon the information obtained from them proceeded to examine Professors , and others not professors ; among whom were Ladies , members or inmates of Professors '
families . The matter of course speedily became the common topic of conversation in the city ; and the Faculty were cruelly subjected to a variety of unpleasant comments , which a mode of procedure somewhat less summary would have enabled them to escape .
Thus exposed as the Faculty now are to public misrepresentation and obloquy , tlicy are at the samo time at a loss to know what , they should do , to repair in some measure the injury they have already sustained , and to meet aud repel the further
injury they maybe still exposed to . In the mean time , they beg leave to apply to your lordship for information on some points , about which , in consequence of the silence of the sheriff with respect to them , they remain wholly ignorant . They request to be informed of the real nature and extent
of the charge against their chaplain , by which the highest interests of the University may be so deeply affected ; they request to know , in so far as may be consistent with your lordship ' s official duty , upon what information or authority this charge
and the consequent procedure have been rested ; and they request , ( if not improper ) that Mr . Mylne should be furnished with copies of the declarations made by the persons examined in the niecognition .
'Raving accidentally heard that the advocate was on that day at his place of residence , ucnr Glasgow , but that he was very speedily to remove from it for JLondon , the Faculty was extremely , desirous that the above two papers should be submitted to his Lordship V consideration before be
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should leave the country , They ' were accordingly transmitted to him by express , and the most satisfactory results-were willingly anticipated . The substance of other declarations besides minfc , had , by this time , beco me pretty well known in the
Collegeand it was generally understood , that the whole precognition had not brought forward a single testimony that could furnish ground even for a plausible surmise , that the slightest crime or criminal intention was impntable to me ; and , on the other hand , it was also understood , that the whole
evidence tended to prove my perfect guiltlessness , and to show that the suspicions entertained against me had been founded on nothing but the most absurd and unnatural misrepresentations . The Faculty therefore conceiving that the precognition mu& have
been by that time in the hands of his lordship , and that consequently the injury that had been done to me must have been as distinctly perceived and as indignantly felt by him , as it was by themselves , indulged the assurance that his reply to their
communications would contain an impression of generous aud unqualified satisfaction in ihc result of the inquiry , and a frank promise of all the assistance which his official duties would permit him to give them in their endeavours to detect the malignant informer . The letters , howev-er , which we received
from his lordship were far from insuring these apparently reasonable expectations . The first is dated from Killermont , 4 th April . Killermont ^ April 4 th , 1815 . To the Rev . Principal Taylor . Sir ,
I am honoured with your letter of yesterday ' s date , signed in name and by appointment of the Faculty of Glasgow College , respecting a precognition stated to have been taken by the Sheriff of the county , within which the Collere is
situated . That letter has been transmitted to me by Professor Mylne , along ( alongst ) with a letter from him , and a statement by him , of the substance of a declaration as emitted by him when examined l > y the Sheriff of Lanarkshire .
No such precognition has been laid before me , but if such a precognition shall be laid before me as his Majesty ' s Advocate for Scotland , you and every member of your beamed body may be assured , I shall consider it with the greatest attention and deliberation . I need scare * * d ( 1 > that howerer great my attachment i *
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4 O 4 Proceedings against Professor Mylne > on the Charge of Sedition .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1815, page 404, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1762/page/4/
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