The Examiner, in its last issue, publishes a letter addressed
to ourselves by "M. A.," on the-subject of Professor Robertson's testimonials in applying for the chair at University College, London. The letter must, we suppose, have been thrown aside by us (without a sufficient glance at it to show its specially per- sonal character), with a number of others on both sides of that exhausted controversy, or we should certainly have published it. We read it in the Examiner for the first time. It states that Mr. Robertson's name is not "J. Croon" Robertson, but George Croom Robertson- that he was not Sub-Professor to Mr. Bain at Aber- deen, but Assistant-Professor of Greek, and lectured in that capacity on Plato and Ariatophanes ;—that no one has any right
to refer him to the sensationalist or nervous-system school of psychologists ; that in 1861 he gained a scholarship in philo- sophy open to the competition of all the Scotch Universities; and that he has high testimonials from four German pro- fessors, as well as Dr. M'Cosh, Dr. Donaldson, Professor Hasson, and Professor Bain. All this is creditable to Mr. Robertson, nor did we ever say a word inconsistent with it, except as to his school of philosophy and his sub-professorship. If it is more in his favour that he was Sub-Professor of Greek, which he is not to teach, than of Metaphysics, which he is, we regret our error. His friends alone must answer for the confident statements as to his school of thought which was put forward by them as one of his great merits, but "M. A." does not venture to deny these statements. That Mr. Robertson is a meritorious and promising young man we never doubted, but early promise is not precisely the same thing as a long career of unusual success as a teacher with brilliant metaphysical genius.
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