Three months later he wrote to the Chief Rabbi that he was much gratified at the prospect of young Hebrews matriculating at St. Andrews. "I do not pretend," he added, "to have any other motive in the matter than zeal for the good of the university; but I sincerely think that the benefits would be reciprocal."[10] Bute was not a little incensed at this time by what he called a "most unseemly" letter written to the newspapers by one of the professors, who said that he would much prefer that a group of Jewish students should have "a comfortable {196} berth in Abraham's bosom" than that they should come to St. Andrews. A question subsequently arose as to the unsuitability of a certain Saturday--which was not only, of course, the Hebrew Sabbath, but chanced to be also their solemn Day of Atonement--for the entrance examination of Jewish candidates. The Principal suggested, as an alternative, holding an examination on the following Sunday--a proposal that drew from Bute a characteristic protest, in which he gives interesting proof of his sympathy with Hebrew religious ideals: The Day of Atonement is, as the Chief Rabbi feelingly wrote me, the most solemn day in all their year.... Anything more defiantly contemptuous of their race and religion than the original selection of that particular day for the examination can hardly be conceived, nor any device better calculated to raise contempt for St. Andrews in the whole Jewish world. I fear it can hardly have been inadvertent.... The amended proposal, of holding the examination on the Sunday, seems to me hardly less objectionable. I had suggested Thursday, in order that the young men's minds might be as free as possible on their solemnity. On the Principal's plan, they would have to reach St. Andrews--a place utterly strange to them--on Friday evening and there pass the Day of Atonement alone, presumably in an inn. When night set in on Saturday, they would have been 26 hours without so much as a crumb or a drop of water--unwashed, barefooted, and probably dressed in grave-clothes--their minds having been fixed as far as possible on Sin, Death, and Eternity--and worn out by hours of recitation of Hebrew prayers. Would they be likely in this state to do themselves justice in an examination held a few hours later? {197} [Sidenote: 1893, Bute's disinterestedness] It seems unnecessary, after a lapse of a quarter of a century, to enter into further details of the regrettable controversy between St. Andrews and Dundee, which persisted throughout Bute's term of office in the university, but of which all, or nearly all, the protagonists have now passed over "To where, beyond these voices, there is peace."