When his health began to fail in 1793, a full year before his death, intriguing for the succession to his place began in official circles. The Bar, who absorb so many posts outside their profession, began to speak of the Provostship as a political office; and had they succeeded in appointing another lawyer, we should presently have had it put forward as an axiom, that none but a lawyer is fit to hold a post which requires any knowledge of the law. We hear this absurd argument repeated every day with fatal effect. On the other hand, the Senior Fellows, who had considered this great post as their proper prize ever since the necessity of importing scholars from England had passed away, were equally zealous in counteracting these schemes. Four or five times did they send deputations to London to interview Pitt, Dundas, Portland, and perhaps with most effect Edmund Burke and the Marquis of Abercorn, both of whom exerted themselves warmly against the politicians and the lawyers in favour of an academical and clerical appointment. Even Burke himself was spoken of for the office, and then an English Bishop of Cloyne, Bennett, who was deterred by a threatening visit from some of the Fellows. Meanwhile, the moment for the celebration of the Bi-Centenary of the Foundation had arrived. The Centenary had been held in 1694, the 100th anniversary of the first taking of degrees. The more correct date would have been 1692. But neither date was debated for one moment by the creatures who were thinking of nothing but the loss of a step in their promotion, or the chances of succeeding to a lucrative post. All remembrance of the dignity of the College and its historic position was obscured by these personal anxieties, to which was added, in the minds of better men, a keen sense of the inconvenience of having a stranger and a politician as the head of a place of learning. Had any of the three great Provosts been guiding the councils of the College, this disgraceful omission of so honourable a commemoration would not have been tolerated.