quæstors, appointed for the reception of the honorarium, or charge for the attendance of lectures, to whom especially belongs the reception of all money belonging to the administration of the university, and attention to every thing connected with the financial department.
The universities possess funds of their own, which are derived from ancient grants from the princes, and from private legacies. To this fund the government adds an annual determinate contribution; and from this united income are defrayed the total expenses of the High School; as the salaries of teachers and officers, and the management of its subordinate institutions. Besides this financial administration of the university, it has also a building and economy commission. The building-commission has the superintendence of the new building and necessary repairs in the university, and under its direction is placed the building inspector with a yearly salary. In the economy department of the university, the commission, in all that falls under its management, has to maintain a correspondence with, and receive the approval of the curatorial office. It assembles once a month under a director, who is selected from the members in routine. The cashier of the university has a seat in the commissions, and he is at the same time secretary, and draws up and signs the decrees of the senate.
As the university has its own Board of Finance, so has it also its Court of Justice. The peculiar life of the universities--their peculiar relation to the state--the members of such societies--flowing together, as they did and do, from such different countries, to combine themselves, so to say, into an imperium in imperio; into a small state, in fact, which must enjoy a certain, and, indeed, ample degree of freedom, and yet must be made subordinate to the great state,--all this made the princes in the times immediately succeeding the founding of the universities, feel it necessary to grant to them their own courts of justice. So received these institutions peculiar privileges. Individual laws were given, till their number became so great that it was requisite to collect them into a code. These laws, as they at present exist, have been revised by the government, in conjunction with the senates of the universities, and confirmed. They bear especially upon the following points. First, upon the acquisition and forfeiture of the rights of academical citizenship. Candidates for matriculation must, upon an appointed day, and at an appointed hour, appear before the board of matriculation, and lay before it their certificates of learning and morals. If these are found satisfactory, the board delivers to the candidate the printed academical regulations. Hereupon must he sign what is called the reverse; that is, an attached form of declaration, binding himself to take no part in any prohibited verbindung, or union, or in any designs of a demagogue burschenschaft, but to conform himself to the academical laws. The new candidate thereupon gives to the prorector what is called the hand-gelübde, or literally, hand-oath; that is, he gives him his hand, pronounces what is above stated, and then receives the matriculation certificate, or diploma, which confers upon him the enjoyment of all the rights of academical burgership. Through this he acquires a claim on the academical court of justice, on the protection of the academical laws, as well as the right to enjoy the benefit of the library and the learned institutions.
No one who has not matriculated can attend the public lectures, except the tutors, companions or attendants, appointed by parents or guardians to students--these, of course, also paying the regular fees--and such persons not studying in the universities as are so far advanced in life as to put matriculation out of the question. This right of academical citizenship continues five years, provided it be not voluntarily relinquished or penally forfeited. The laws extend themselves to the relations between the students and the heads, professors, and subordinate officers of the university, as well as towards other officers of the state or city. For instance, the penalties are stated, for offences against these various officers, as also the duties of the students in regard to their studies. A long series of laws defines the penalties for the peculiar offences of students, as for games of hazard, real and verbal injuries to one another, especially for the duel, under its various forms; for breaking the peace, drunkenness, tumults and uproars, interdicted assembling of themselves together, secret combinations of students, etc. It is further declared, that public processions are only permitted under certain conditions, and that the wearing of colours is forbidden. Further declarations regard the debts of the students; and lastly, the regulations under which the advantages of the university library are to be enjoyed are made known.
The oversight and penal jurisdiction over the students are exercised by the academical senate, the prorector, and the amtmann, or magistrate of the university. The ephorat is a peculiar board, consisting of select professors, which only in the sphere of fatherly and friendly admonition exercises its superintendence chiefly over the moral conduct of the students when occasion requires; exhorting them to diligence and good behaviour, and putting itself, if necessary, in correspondence with their parents. The magistrate exercises the jurisdiction in the first instance. In criminal cases, he draws the process, and sends it, not to the court of justice of the university, but to the ordinary tribunal of the state; in affairs of discipline he conducts the inquiry, and pronounces all academical penalties, with the exception of the consilium abeundi. The proceeding in the inquiry is summary, and, in cases where the ordinary oath is administered to people in general, is the ehrenwort, or word of honour of the student demanded. To the condemned it is neither allowed to look into the proceedings against him, nor is the name of his accuser revealed. He must even submit himself to the judgment of the senate, without the power to insist that the ground of its judgment shall be made known. The appeal from the sentence of the amtmann, lies to the senate, which also pronounces the consilium abeundi and the relegation, on the motion of the amtmann. The appeal from the sentence of the senate lies to the minister of the interior.
For the administration of the academical laws and acts of justice, especial police officers, and beadles, upper and inferior, are maintained. The chief beadle in pressing cases, has the right to cite before him, and to arrest without warrant, but must immediately make announcement thereof to the amtmann.
The chief beadle, who lives near the college, has at the same time, the care of the prison, which is in the upper part of his house. Two beadles do duty in the university library. In the scale of academical punishments, first stands reproof, then pecuniary fine, then incarceration. The signing of the consilium abeundi, includes a solemn promise not to suffer himself to become guilty in future of any offence, even of smaller moment. He who, notwithstanding, breaks this promise, and becomes guilty of an offence which would draw upon another at least eight days' imprisonment, can meet with no lighter punishment than the consilium abeundi. This consilium abeundi consists in expulsion out of the district of the court of justice within which the university is situated. This punishment lasts a year; after the expiration of which the banished student can renew his matriculation. The relegation is the punishment next in severity. It has two degrees. First, the simple relegation. This consists in expulsion out of the aforesaid districts, for a period of from two to three years; after which the offender may indeed return, but can no more be received as an academical burger. Secondly, the sharper relegation, which adds to the simple relegation an announcement of the fact to the magistracy of the place of abode of the offender; and according to the discretion of the court, a confinement in an ordinary prison, previous to the banishment is added; and also the sharper relegation can be extended to more than four years, the ordinary term, yes, even to perpetual expulsion. Loss of honour is one of a class of severe penalties which can only be pronounced by a civil court of justice. Previous to any consilium abeundi and relegation, the university amtmann must send intelligence to all the German universities, and to the city magistrates, of the cause of the prosecution, together with the signature of the culprit, and also must affix a copy of the sentence on the black board, that is, a black tablet, or board, in the university, to which all the announcements to its members are attached; and at the same time must advertise the parents, or those standing in their relation, of the same. Causes of complaint, which a student considers himself to have against an academical officer, must be laid before the academical amtmann, if such officer belong to the inferior class of the servants of the High School. When it affects a head or teacher, then before the academical senate; if it affects the prorector, or academical senate, then it must be carried to the curator of the university, who must receive it, and lay it before the minister of the interior.
Through these brief sketches we hope to have given to the reader a clear notion of the constitution of a German university,