ABSTRACT
Under the Charter of Queen’s College, a professor was required to make a declaration promising, inter alia, that he would not ‘introduce or discuss… any subject of politics or polemics, tending to produce contention or excitement…’ Later modified, this political clause was finally abandoned with the establishment of The Queen’s University. Thus the danger was at least reduced that a Professor of Political Science might lecture himself out of his Chair in the act of lecturing himself in. But, lest the original statute casts a long shadow, may I assure you that, though I must introduce politics, I shall not produce ‘excitement’, for I intend to deal mainly with the use of reason and empirical knowledge in the study of politics.
