14 JULY 1835.

The Magistrates and Town Council had before them a letter from Mr Bannerman M.P. addressed to Mr Nicol advocate regarding the Aberdeen University Bill, now in progress through Parliament in which he positively declares that no alteration will be made in that clause of the Bill which transfers the School of Arts from King's College to New Aberdeen and that he is quite ready to meet the obloquy to which he must necessarily be exposed from those whose interests this measure chiefly affects that no material alteration can be obtained in the House of Commons but by a division and that little can be hoped for in that manner in short that he means as far as depends upon him to press the Bill through the House without any alteration or amendment.

The Council taking into consideration this most extraordinary communication do hereby unanimously record their opinion that it is tyrannical, unreasonable, and unjust, and highly insulting to the Magistrates and other inhabitants of Old Aberdeen whose interests are so deeply involved in this obnoxious measure.

to

The following resolutions were made and unanimously agreed

That the Magistrates and Town Council, who are the legal guardians of the Common Good, feel themselves imperatively called upon to adopt every constitutional means of averting this public calamity. That the Lord Provost who has kindly offered to proceed to London forthwith be authorised if he see cause to employ Counsel at the expense of the public funds to defend the interest of Old Aberdeen when the Bill comes under discussion in both Houses of Parliament. That the petition now in preparation of the Magistrates to the House of Commons be sent for presentation to General Arbuthnot and that to the House of Lords to Lord Aberdeen the Chancellor of the University with an earnest request to support the prayer. That copies of these petitions be printed and circulated among the most influential members of both Houses accompanied with letters calling their particular attention to the grievances complained of and begging them to use their best endeavours to obtain the necessary redress. X 114.

28 MAY 1836.

The Provost laid before the meeting a Bill to provide for the better regulation of Municipal Corporations in Scotland prepared and brought in to Parliament by Mr Stewart and the Lord Advocate, which bill provides that Old Aberdeen and New Aberdeen shall be united under one Magistracy and containing many other provisions highly objectionable to the meeting. They therefore appointed . . . a committee to go over the Bill and to report their opinion to a future meeting. X 132.

13 NOVEMBER 1846.

The Provost stated that he had called the present meeting in consequence of having observed in last Aberdeen Journal, an advertisement calling a meeting of the inhabitants of Aberdeen, and the suburbs; to consider an application proposed to be made to next session of Parliament, for a Bill for the purchase of the Aberdeen Gas Works, and the improvement of the City of Aberdeen, and in which it was contemplated to include this City. The Council after considering the matter, were of opinion that the proposed measure, having been so hurriedly gone into, and being as yet undeveloped to such an extent, so as to enable the meeting to understand it in all its bearings, it would be better for the Magistrates and Council in the meantime neither to assent or dissent at the public meeting. X 214.

25 AUGUST 1847.

Baillie Dyce stated that he had requested the present meeting to be called with a view of proposing that the Council should request Mr Dalgarno to sit for his portrait to be hung up in the Town Hall as some mark of respect for his great liberality and benevolence to the poor in instituting and so liberally endowing the "Dalgarno Poor Fund". Mr Dyce's proposition having been favourably received by the Council, Messrs Dyce and Stables were named as a deputation to ascertain if would be agreeable to Mr. Dalgarno himself and the deputation having reported to the meeting that they had seen Mr. Dalgarno and that he had consented to sit for the portrait the meeting cordially agreed to Mr Dyce's proposal, and appointed the Provost and Baillies Nicol and Dyce a Committee to see it carried into effect.1 X 224.

The portrait, which was painted by Mr. John Mitchell, now hangs in the Town and County Hall.

21 SEPTEMBER 1848.

Provost Nicol reported to the Council that in accordance with the resolutions agreed upon at a previous meeting, he had the honour along with the other Magistrates of waiting on his Royal Highness Prince Albert in the forenoon of the seventh inst., in the Hall of King's College and of presenting to him the following address which his Royal Highness was pleased most graciously to receive and having also condescended to accept the freedom of the city therein offered to him by the Council a diploma had been prepared in his favor and his name entered in the Roll of Burgesses.

Copy Address

TO HIS ROYAL Highness PRINCE Albert

May it please your Royal Highness

We, Her Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects the Provost Magistrates and Council of the City of Old Aberdeen most cordially offer to your Royal Highness our congratulations on the occasion of your first visit to this part of the United Kingdom. We have witnessed with delight the high and princely accomplishments and the public and private virtues by which your Royal Highness has adorned the exalted station you occupy. And it is our fervent prayer and hope that Divine Providence may long vouchsafe to Her Majesty and your Royal Highness the blessing of every domestic enjoyment and we most respectfully entreat your Royal Highness to permit us to have the honour of enrolling your name amongst the number of our freemen and to accept the usual certificate. Signed in our name &c. X 239.

31 JULY 1849.

Baillie Fyfe stated that he along with others were conscious that an endeavour should be made to discontinue the practice of giving bread and wine at funerals. Whereupon it was agreed that a Committee of the Council be appointed to meet with the Kirk Session on the subject. The following were appointed for that purpose, The Provost Baillie Fyfe and Convener Laws. X 250.

DD

16 DECEMBER 1854.

The Committee appointed at last meeting relative to the proposed Union of King's College and Marischal College laid before the meeting the draft of a Memorial to the Earl of Aberdeen. The Memorial was to the following effect

Sheweth

That your Memorialists have watched with great interest the measures which have lately been taken here and elsewhere for effecting a Union between King's College and Marischal College; and, therefore, as the representatives of the community of Old Aberdeen, venture to address your Lordship on the subject: This City has, for the last three hundred and fifty years, been the seat of a University invested with all the powers granted to any similar seminary in Europe; and of a College which has hitherto been the representative of the University. Accordingly the members of the Town Council, in common with the inhabitants, regard the University and College as the chief ornaments of their City, and the sources of its prosperity; and look with jealousy on any interference with the privileges which, through a succession of ages, have been transmitted to them. At the same time they are quite sensible of the anomalous position which the two Colleges hold among the Universities of Scotland in consequence of the deficiency of Professorships in all the Faculties; and, believing that their present condition can be improved only by a well considered scheme of Union, they are prepared to support such a Union on terms which appear them to be fair and equitable.

Your Memorialists are besides fully aware of the invaluable advantages which would be conferred on the North of Scotland by the establishment in this locality of a University complete in all the Faculties, not only in promoting the interests of Literature and Science, but also in furnishing to the Youth of the country an Education of the best description without the inconvenience or expense of resorting to more distant Universities. Your Memorialists regard it as a circumstance peculiarly fortunate that your Lordship presides in the Councils of Her Majesty when a question involving so many important interests is brought under the notice of the Government. Your Lordship's long connection with the University and King's College as Rector and