The Scotch College at Rome had, for some years, been in a very unsatisfactory state. Those intrusted with the administration of it, after the suppression of the Jesuits, had given occasion to many complaints. Repeated remonstrances proved ineffectual, and at length Bishop Hay resolved to go in person and lay the case before His Holiness. His desire to have the Statuta Missionis approved and printed furnished a pretext for the journey, and he set out for Italy in the summer of 1781. Passing through Germany, he visited the Scotch Benedictine monasteries at Wurtsburg and Ratisbon, and. arrived in Rome about the middle of October. Cardinal Antonelli, Prefect of Propaganda, received him with marked distinction, and soon after he was admitted to a private audience of the Holy Father. His great object was to get national superiors placed in the Scotch College. After repeated conferences on the subject with Albani, Cardinal Protector of Scotland, he obtained his consent to the immediate admission of a member of the Scotch mission, with a promise that in a little time the entire administration should be placed in his hands. Many years elapsed, however, before the desired change was effected.
After a stay of six months at Rome, Bishop Hay returned to Scotland. Soon after his arrival, the illness and subsequent death of the Rev. Andrew Dawson obliged him to remove to Scalan. Here, in addition to the work of the mission, he superintended the cultivation of the farm attached to the Seminary, composed small treatises for the use of the students, and taught them the elements of literature. His leisure moments he devoted to the study of metaphysics, for which he had a special predilection, and made a compendium of Reid's Inquiry into the Human Mind. From this congenial employment he was recalled, by the illness of Bishop Geddes, to resume his former func-
