<f^. 
 
 
 IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 LO 
 
 I I.I 
 11.25 
 
 1^12.8 |2.5 
 
 ^ f^ 12.2 
 
 li 
 
 1.8 
 
 
 U 11.6 
 
 %. 
 
 
 V] 
 
 W 
 
 
 v: 
 
 V 
 
 /A 
 
 A 
 
iV 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 
 Microfiche 
 
 Series. 
 
 CIHIVI/ICMH 
 Collection de 
 microfiches. 
 
 *« 
 
 Canadian Institute for Historical [ licroreproductions Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 
 
 1980 
 
Technical Notes / Notes techniques 
 
 The Institute has attempted to obtain the best 
 original copy available for filming. Physical 
 features of this copy which may alter any of the 
 images in the reproduction are checked below. 
 
 D 
 D 
 D 
 D 
 
 D 
 
 Coloured covers/ 
 Couvertures de couleur 
 
 Coloured maps/ 
 
 Cartes g6ographiques en couleur 
 
 Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ 
 Pages d6color6es, tachet6es ou piqudes 
 
 Tight binding (may cause shadows or 
 distortion along interior mdrgin)/ 
 Reliure serr6 (peut causer de I'ombre ou 
 de la distortion le long de la marge 
 intdrieure) 
 
 Additional comments/ 
 Commentaires suppl6mentaires 
 
 L'institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire 
 qu'il lui a 4t6 possible de se procurer. Certains 
 difauts susceptibles de nuire d la quality de la 
 reproduction sont not6s ci-dessous. 
 
 n 
 
 D 
 
 Coloured pages/ 
 Pages de couleur 
 
 Coloured plates/ 
 Planches en couleur 
 
 Show through/ 
 Transparence 
 
 Pages damaged/ 
 Pages endommagies 
 
 Th 
 po 
 of 
 filr 
 
 Th 
 
 CO 
 
 or 
 ap 
 
 Th 
 fill 
 
 M 
 in 
 up 
 be 
 fo 
 
 Bibliographic Notes / Notes bibliographiques 
 
 D 
 D 
 D 
 
 Only edition available/ 
 Seule 6dition disponible 
 
 Bound with other material/ 
 Reii6 avec d'autres documents 
 
 Cover title missing/ 
 
 Le titre de couverture manque 
 
 D 
 C 
 D 
 
 Pagination incorrect/ 
 Erreurs de pagination 
 
 Pages missing/ 
 Des pages manquent 
 
 Maps missing/ 
 
 Des cartes g6ographiques manquent 
 
 D 
 D 
 
 Plates missing/ 
 
 Des planches manquent 
 
 Additional comments/ 
 Commentaires suppldmentaires 
 
The images appearing here are the best quality 
 possible considering the condition and legibility 
 of the original copy and in keeping with the 
 filming contract specifications. 
 
 Les images suivantes ont 6ti roproduites avec le 
 plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et 
 de la nettet* de I'exemplaire fi'imA, et en 
 conformity avec les conditionn du contrat de 
 filmage. 
 
 The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall 
 contain the symbol —►(meaning CONTINUED"), 
 or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever 
 applies. 
 
 The original copy was borrowed from, arv' 
 filmed with, the kind consent >: th« following 
 institution: 
 
 National Library of Canada 
 
 Un des symboles suivants apparattra sur la der- 
 nidre image de cheque micrc" rio selon ',„ cas: 
 le symbols — »> signSfib . o > 7FiiE". le symbole 
 V signifie "FIN". 
 
 i. axemplaire filmd fut reproduit grAce d la 
 3^>n6rosit6 de I'dtablissement prdteur 
 suivant : 
 
 Bibliothdque nationale du Canada 
 
 Maps or plates too large to be entirely included 
 in one exposure are filmed beginning in the 
 upper lAft hand corner, left to right and top to 
 bottom, as many frames as required. The 
 following diagrams !Uustrate the method: 
 
 Les cartes ou les planches trop grandes pour dtre 
 reproduites en un seui clich6 sont film6es A 
 partir de Tangle supdrieure gauche, de gauche d 
 droite et de h&ut en bas, en prenant le nombre 
 d'images n^cessaire. Le diagramme suivant 
 illustre la mdthode : 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 

 M< 
 
 BEING 
 
 PR 
 
u^.,^p^- ^^'[^^ .A^ ,., ^. .^ j^^. cj. 
 
 S#-V ^ 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION 
 
 OF 
 
 MCGILL TJ^TiYEESITY, 
 
 MONTEEAL. 
 
 BEING THE ANNUAL UNIVERSITY LECTURE IN THE SESSION OF 1888-89. 
 
 BY 
 
 PRINCIPAL SIR WILLIIM DSWSON, C.M.G., LLD., F.R.S. 
 
 UXontveaX : 
 GAZETTE PBINTING COMPANY 
 
 1888. 
 

 / 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION OF MCGILL UNIVERSITY 
 
 BEffifi THE ANNUAL ONIVEKSITY LECTURE OF THE SESSION OF 1888-89. 
 
 BY PRINCIPAL SIR WILLIAM DAWSON, C.M.C., LL.D., F.R.S. 
 
 (-PVom The Gazette, Montreal, Nov. IGth, 1888.) 
 
 
 The subject of this lecture has been 
 suggested by the departure from among us 
 within a few years of several old and 
 valued members of the university, and by 
 the fact that the men who took part in 
 the revival of McGill University under its 
 amended charter in 1852, have now almost en- 
 tirely passed away, while the few wbo remain 
 must soon follow. It is therefore desirable 
 that the new generation which has come 
 upon the stage should know something 
 of the causes which gave our university 
 its present constitution, and which have 
 in some respects moulded that consti- 
 tution as time has proved its original excellen- 
 ces or defects. Great universities are not usu- 
 ally created by any sudden or arbitrary act of 
 establishment. They grow by slow accre- 
 tion of men and means, and adapt themselves 
 by degrees to the changing conditions of 
 their existence, while the value and stability 
 of their organization are proved by the vi- 
 tality and vigor of growth which they ex- 
 hibit, and the capacity which they show to 
 continue in efficiency after their originat- 
 ing minds have passed away. McGill is 
 now in the position to show the capabilities 
 of its constitution in these respects. 
 
 Of the original ba nd of citizens of Montreal 
 who constituted the first board of governors 
 under the new charter, Mr. Ferrier, the late 
 Chancellor, was the sole survivor. Mr. 
 David Davidson, it is true, one of the most 
 able and zealous of these men, still lives, but 
 he has long since removed from Canada and 
 has resigned his connection with the uni- 
 versity, though showing his interest in 
 education in Montreal by continuing his 
 gold medal in the High school. Of 
 
 the staff of professors organized between 
 1852 and 18J5, not one now re- 
 mains on our list of teachers except 
 my friend Dr. Howard and myself. A few 
 others still live, but have retired from active 
 work. Thus the men of the University have 
 passed away and have been renewed in about 
 thirty-three years, and the government and 
 educational work are for the most part in 
 new hands, while ten generations of stu- 
 dents have in the meantime graduated and 
 have gone into the active work of life, and 
 very many of them are older men than Dr. 
 Howard and I were thirty years ago, and are 
 now occupying the moat important position a 
 in the University and in public life. 
 
 McGill university, like many of the greater 
 universities and colleges of other countries, 
 originated in a private endowment. It is, 
 however, almost alone in this respect among 
 the colleges of Canada, and owes I think 
 much of its prosperity and success to this 
 fact, more especially in connection with the 
 unique position which it occupies as the 
 highest educational institution of an in- 
 fluential, progressive and intelligent minor- 
 ity in this city and province. 
 
 THE FOUNDKR OF THE 0NIVBU8ITY, JAMES H'OILL, 
 
 was born on the 6th October, 1744, in Glas- 
 gow, Scotland. He received his early edu- 
 cation and training in that country, but of 
 these little is known. He arrived in Can- 
 ada before the American revolution, and ap- 
 pears, in the first place, to have engaged in 
 the Northwest fur trade, then one of 
 the leading branches of business in 
 Canada. Subsequently he settled in 
 Montreal, and, in partnership with his 
 
brotlier, Andrew McGill, became one of the 
 leading merchants in tlie little town 
 of about nine thousand inhabitants 
 which then represented our commercial 
 metropolis. His settlement in Montreal, 
 and his marriage with a lady of French 
 parentage, the widow of a Canadian 
 gentleman, occurred a little before the 
 beginning of this century, and from that 
 time till his death, in December, 181:!, 
 be continued to be a prominent citi- 
 zen of Montreal, diligent and prosperous in 
 his business, frank and social in his habits, 
 and distinguished for public spirit and ex- 
 ertion for the advancement of the city. His 
 name appears in several commissions relat- 
 ing to city matters — for instance, that for 
 removing the old walls of Montreal. He 
 was Lieutenant-Colonel and subsequently 
 Colonel of the Montreal City Militia ; and 
 in his old age, on the breaking out of the 
 American war of 1812, he became Brigadier- 
 General, and was prepared in that capacity 
 to take the field in defence of his country 
 He represented for many years the West 
 ward of Montreal in the Provincial Legis- 
 lature, and was afterwards a member of the 
 Legislative and Executive Councils. 
 Mr. McGill is described by his contem- 
 poraries as a man of tall and commanding 
 figure — in his youth a very handsome man, 
 but becoming corpulent in his old age. He 
 was a prominent member of the association 
 of fur magnates known as the "Beaver 
 Club." A reminiscence of a gentleman, 
 then resident in Montreal, exhibits 
 him, when an elderly man, at one of their 
 meetings singing a voyageurs' song with 
 accurate ear and sonorous voice, and im- 
 itating, paddle in hand, the action of the 
 bow-man of a " North canoe " in ascendmg a 
 rapid. The remembrance of another con- 
 temporary represents him as much given to 
 reading and full of varied information ; and 
 it is certain that he cultivated and enjoyed 
 the society of the few men of learning 
 from the mother country then in 
 the colony. There arc, indeed, good 
 reasons to believe that his confer- 
 ences with these gentlemen had an 
 important influence in suggesting the sub- 
 sertuent disposal of a large part of his for- 
 tune in aid of education. 
 
 In this connection it may be stated thai 
 Mr. McGill's resolution to dispose of his 
 property in this way was not a hasty dcath- 
 death-bed resolve, but a mature and deliberate 
 decision. He had taken a lively interest in 
 the measures then before the Government for 
 
 the establishment of an educational system 
 in the Province of Quebec, and bad mentioned, 
 many years before bis death, his intention 
 to give, during his lifetime, an endowment 
 in aid of a college, if these measures should 
 be carried out by the Government. But 
 many delays occurred. From 1802, 
 when the act to establish the 
 " Board of Royal Institution mv the 
 Advancement of Learning" was passed, 
 until the time of Mr. McGill's death,the per- 
 sistent opposition on the part of the leaders 
 of one section of the people to any system of 
 governmental education, and the apathy of 
 some of the members of the council, had 
 prevented the appointment of the Board, or 
 the completion of the liberal grants of land 
 and money for educational purjjoses which 
 had been promised. Mr. McGill was 
 apparently weary of these delays, and 
 feared that he might be cut off by death 
 before he could realize his intentions. He 
 had also the sagacity to foresee that a pri- 
 vate endowment might force the reluct.ant or 
 tardy hands of the members of Government 
 to action. Accordingly, in his will, pre- 
 pared in 1811, more tlmn two years before 
 his death, he bequeathed liis property of 
 Burnside, and a sum of ten thous!>nd pounds 
 in money, to found a college in the 
 contemplated provincial university, under 
 the management of the Board of Royal In- 
 stitution ; but on condition that such col- 
 lege and university should be established 
 within ten years of his decease. Three 
 leading citizen 5 of Montreal, the Honorable 
 James Richardson, James Reid, Esq., and 
 James Dunlop, Esq., and the Rev. John 
 Strachan, afterwards Bishop of Toronto, 
 were appointed trustees under the will. The 
 wise liberality of a good man is often far 
 more fruitful than he could have anticipa- 
 ted. Mr. McGill merely expressed a wish to 
 found a college in connection with a uni- 
 versity already provided for by the gen- 
 erosity of the British Government. But the 
 grants promised to the university were not 
 given, and the English settlers in the 
 province of Quebec were deprived of the pro- 
 visions for education made by the liberality 
 of the Crown in other colonies. In the pro- 
 vidence of God, Mr. McGill's bequest inter- 
 vened to avert some, at least, of Ite evils 
 arising from this failure. In consequence 
 of his will, a pressure was brought to bear 
 on the Government, which resulted in the 
 appointment of the Board of Royal Institu- 
 tion in 1818 ; and though, from the refusal 
 of the French to take part in it, it was 
 
almost entirely English in its composition, 
 it procctMlod to tlic ostalilisliuu'iit of non- 
 (li'noininfitional sciiools. 'i'lifstt scliools were 
 never very nunieroiis — iibout eiglity being 
 tile niaxinmni number ; but tiiey Inrnied tlie 
 beginning of tlie prehent wehool system. Tlie 
 Royal Institution, lieing a Government 
 board, liad, on Ibat account, too little of 
 till: iiopular synii)atliy, espicially among tne 
 settlers in the Eastern Townships ; and the 
 Local Legislutiue practically refused to ac- 
 knowledge it, and set up in opposition 
 to it the denominafional system of 
 "Fabriijue schools' in the French parishes ; 
 and, finally, its functions were restricted to 
 tlu! McGill CO lege alone, by the new educa- 
 tional act which followed the rebellion of 
 18;i7. 
 
 In so far as the McGill college was eon- 
 eerned, the Uoyal Institutiim at once took 
 action by applying for a royal ciiarter, 
 which was granted in 1821, and prepared 
 to take possession of the estate. This, how- 
 ever, owing to litigation as to th« will, 
 was not surrendered to them till IH^'.K They 
 also demanded the grants of land which had 
 b(!en promised, and received fresh assur- 
 ances ; and, as an earnest of their fulfilment, 
 the Government of the day was authorized 
 to erect a building for McGill colleg';, and 
 to defray the expenses out of those " Ji'suits' 
 estates," which have in our own time given 
 to the Legislature of Quebec so startling and 
 exceptional celebrity. But the hopes 
 thus held out proved illusory, and 
 the college buildings had to be be- 
 gun with the money left by Mr. Mc- 
 Gill, and were at length completed only 
 by the liberality of another citizen of Mont- 
 real, the late Mr. William Molson. 
 
 In the year of Mr. McGilTs death the 
 population of Montreal was scarcely fif- 
 teen thousand, and of these u very small 
 minority were English. One-third of the 
 houses we'-e wooden luits, and the 
 extent of the foreign trade may be 
 measured by the nine ships from 
 the sea, of an aggregate of 1,589 tons, 
 reported as entered in the year 1813. The 
 whole English population of Lower Canada | 
 was very trifling. There was no school 
 system, and there were no schools, with the I 
 exception of the seminaries of the Church j 
 of Rome, and a few private adventure 
 schools. It seems strange that, in such a ! 
 condition of aiiairs, the idea of a universitv I 
 for Montreal should have occurred to a man i 
 apparently engaged in business and in pub- 
 lic affairs. Two circumstances may be 
 
 mentioned in explanation of tliis. The tirst 
 is the long agitation on th(! part of some of 
 the more enlightened of the English colon- 
 ists in behalf of the establishment of a uni- 
 versity and a system of schools. As early as 
 1787 the Legislative council had taken action 
 :n the matter and had prepared a scheme of 
 gencal education ; b,t this infant Hercules 
 was according to the testimony of 
 Abbe Fcrland, in his life of Hishop 
 l)i\ I'lessis, " strangled in its cradle " by 
 a remonstrance written by Du Plessis. In 
 1801, the project was revived, and thi: act for 
 the establishment of the Royal Institution 
 was jiassed ; but the new scheme was ""or the 
 timefoih'd by the refusal of the Roma.^ Ca- 
 tholic eleigy to acton the board ; so that, us 
 another learned i)riest Rev. M. (now Bishop) 
 Langevin informs us in his " Coins de 
 Pedagogic," it was without result, " thanks 
 to the energetic vigilance of tlu; Roman 
 Catholic clergy.'' Mr. McGill was familiar 
 with these movements, and no doubt was 
 somewhat displeased with the " energetic; 
 vigilance " above referred to, and with tne 
 yielding of the (iovernment to such opposi- 
 tion, lie k" w what colleges and a school 
 system had done for his native country, and 
 that the withholding of such a system from 
 the new settlers in this province would in- 
 volve semi-barbarism, leading to poverty, 
 discontent, superstition, irreligion, and a pos- 
 sible war of races. In so far as these evils 
 have been averted from the Province of Que- 
 bec he has certainly contributed to the result 
 more than any other man of his time. 
 
 A second circumstance which may have 
 aided Mr. McGill in his resolve, was of a 
 dilVerent and more personal character. In 
 17'J7, General Simcoe, the first Governor of 
 Upper Canada, and his Executive Council, had 
 decided to establish a seminary of higher 
 learning in that province. They had incited 
 Mr. Strachan, a graduate of St. Andrews, to 
 organize this institution. He arrived early 
 in 179'J, but only to find that his patron, 
 Gen. Simcoe, had been removed, and that 
 the plan had fallen to the ground. Gr-^eitiy 
 disappointed by this, Mr- Strachan opened 
 a school in Kingston, and subsequently 
 occupied, as a clergyman of the Church of 
 England, the mission of Cornwall, and 
 commenced the Grammar school at that 
 place, where many men subsequently of 
 note in Upper Canada were educated. A 
 year before McGill's death, Strachan was 
 transferred to Toronto, of which diocese he 
 was afterwards the Bishop. The precise 
 circumstances which introduced to each 
 
other tho future biHhop and tlio Montreal 
 merchant are unknown to uie. It is certain, 
 however, that tliey were friendH, and that 
 the young man wlio had come to Cana.ia 
 with HUch bright hopeH ol educational usc- 
 fulnesH, deHtined for the time to be diHaji- 
 pointed, and the wealthy citizen meditating 
 how bes^ to disaiin the ujiposition which 
 had HO long deprived Lower Canada of the 
 benetitH of education, had much in common. 
 It HeomH at least highly probable that 
 Strachan had a large Hhare in giving to 
 Mr. MvGIU'h wishes the form which they 
 ttfterwai 's assumed, and there are some 
 reasons for believing that Mr. McGill 
 }md hoped that liis college might have at- 
 tracted to it the abilities oi the young 
 teacher who seemed slighted in Upper Can- 
 ada. It is also known that in the fust at- 
 tempt to organize McGill Lnivcrsity in 182.'!. 
 Strachan was inv'ted to a professorship ; but 
 the career opening to him in Upper Can- 
 ada was already too tempting to permit him 
 to aid in this way the project of his old 
 friend. 
 
 The value of the property bequeathed 
 by Mr. McGill was estimated at the time 
 of his death, at jL'30,000; and it has since 
 become much greater, owing to the growth 
 of the city. The sum was not large in 
 comparison with many other educational 
 bequests; but it would be dithcult to esti- 
 mate its value to Canada in general, and to 
 Montreal in particular. Gathering around it 
 the gifts of other liberal men, it has sus- 
 tained the McGill University, and carried it 
 on to its present point of usefulness and 
 success as a source of literary and 
 scientific culture. Hundreds of profes- 
 sional men m all parts of Canada bear 
 testimony to its value; and the city 
 derives from ?t much of its higher 
 character as a centre of learning and 
 practical science. Indirectly, it has ben- 
 efited the cause of common and Gram- 
 mar school education, through the action 
 of the Royal Institution, through the 
 services of students and graduates as 
 teachers, and through the McGill Normal 
 school, which, though supported by Gov- 
 ernment, would scarcely have been estab- 
 lished but for the inriuence of the college. 
 Those who have in these ways received its 
 educational benefits are to be found in all 
 parts of the country, contributing by sup- 
 erior skill and intelligence to the common 
 good. If the future may be anticipated 
 from the past, its utility will, in the time to 
 gome, go on increasing and widening. 
 
 growing with the growth of our country 
 and jiervarling all d(!partinents of useful 
 and honorable occupation. The experience 
 of older nations has shown that such educa- 
 tional endowments survive all changes, and 
 go on, bearing fruit from age to age. It will, 
 doubtless, be so here also, iind the time will 
 come when the original endowment of Mc- 
 Gill will api)ear but as the little germ from 
 which a great tree has sprung — or as the 
 spring which gives birth to a mighty river. 
 
 TlIK AMKNDKI) CUAUTKll. 
 
 I have referred at some length to these 
 points, because they constitute an important 
 element in the origin not only of the uni- 
 versity, but of its constitution, as based on 
 its royal charter. As alreacly stated, his 
 was granted in 1821, and under it were car- 
 ried on for thirty years the early operations 
 of the university — embarasscd by pecuniary 
 dithculty, owing to the failure of the Gov- 
 ernment to give the promised public aid, 
 and by the structure of the charter itself, 
 which was cumbrous and unwieldy, and un- 
 suited to a small college in the circum- 
 stances of this country. The result 
 was that, after nearly thirty years 
 of struggle, the university, with the 
 exception of its medical faculty, was al- 
 most extinct, and that it was without 
 sufficient income even to sustain the scanty 
 stafl:' which it then possessed in the faculty 
 of arts. Its existence at this time seems to 
 have been largely due to the persistency 
 with which the late Vice-Principal, Ven. 
 Archdeacon Leach, clung to its interests. 
 It was then that several gentlemen, citizens 
 of Montreal, assumetl the responsibility of 
 its renovation, and secu, id an amended 
 charter under which its later work has been 
 carried on. 
 
 Of the noble band of men who at 
 that time undertool: this herculean and, 
 in the view of many, desperate task. Day, 
 Ferrier, McGill, Anderson, Davidson, Coffin, 
 Ramsay, Holmes, Robertson and Dunkin, 
 none has left more of the impress of his mind 
 on our constitution than the last named, 
 the Hon. Christopher Dunkin. Dunkin was 
 a man of high culture and eminent ability. 
 He had passed through a somewhat excep- 
 tional university career. The son of a widow 
 with limited means, he entered the Univers- 
 ity of Glasgow at the age of fifteen, and came 
 off at the end of the session as the highest 
 prizeman in his class. In the meantime the 
 new University of London had been estab- 
 lished ; and as his mother resided in that 
 
5 
 
 ^ 
 
 city, ho naturally left his Glasgow 
 college and entered the new Metro- 
 p )litan univerHity. Here, in IiIh hcc- 
 oiu! year, ho asaiii carried olf the 
 highest honors. His mother having mar- 
 ried Dr. Barber, who had been appointed in- 
 structor in elocution at Harvard University, 
 hu followed her to the United States and 
 completed his college career at Harvard, 
 where he was appointed a tutor in Greek ! 
 before he had attained the age of twenty-one, 
 He came to Canada and entereu on the 
 study of law shortly before the stirring times 
 of 18.'37, and was engaged under Lord Dur- 
 ham and Mr. Hullcr in drawing up the cele- 
 brated report which prepared the way for 
 responsible government and the exisiting 
 constitution of this Dominion. A prepara- 
 tion so varied aad extensive added to his 
 acute intellect, his unwearied industry and 
 his intense educational /.eal, admirably fitted 
 liim to be the acting member of the new 
 Board in the amendment of the charter and 
 the construction of the statutes of the uni- 
 versity, which still remain essentially as they 
 were when they left his Land. But it re- 
 quired all the influence and business capacity 
 of his colleagues, and especially the t^ict and 
 experience of Judge Day and the strong 
 faith and Scottish persistency of Mr. Ferrier 
 to give form and effect to his plans. One 
 act of the latter gentleman deserves mention 
 in this connection. He had been the presi- 
 dent of the Board of Royal Institution, but 
 voluntarily resigned this position in favor of 
 Judge Day as the most fitting head of the 
 university — to resume it under the better 
 conditions of a much later time. 
 
 THE VISITOR. 
 
 Turning now to the constitution as it exists 
 under the royal charter, the first fact which 
 meets us is that the supreme authority in 
 the university remains in the hands of the 
 Crown, and is exercised by His Excellency 
 the Governor-General as Visitor. This I re- 
 gard a,s a special and important feature of 
 our constitution. It gives us an imperial 
 character, and removes us at once from any 
 merely local or party influence, while 
 it secures to us the patronage of the 
 head of our political system. Though 
 the new charter dates from 1852, the first 
 Visitor, in point of fact, was Sir Edmund 
 Head, a graduate of Oxford and a Fellow and 
 Tutor of Mereton college, in that university. 
 Sir Edmund was a man of much literary 
 and scientific culture, and an admirable 
 writer ; and would have attained a very high 
 
 literary reputation had he not gone into 
 public life. Curiously enough, his first step 
 in this direction was under the patronage of 
 the Maniuis of Lansdownc, the grandfather 
 of our late Governor-General, and who was 
 e(iually eminent as a statesman and a 
 patron of men of letters. I had the 
 pleasure of knowing Sir Kdmund when 
 Governor of New Brunswick, and of 
 serving under him on a o-ommission crgan- 
 ized for the improvement of the university 
 of that province, and on which he often met 
 with us and took a lively interest in all our 
 proceedings. On his elevation to the govern- 
 ment of Canada he was waited upon by a 
 deputation of the Governorr. of McGill who 
 solicted his patronage and assistance. He 
 entered heartily into their plans, 
 gave valual)le advice, and evinced a lively 
 interest in the welfare of the uni- 
 versity, which he continued tomaintjiin dur- 
 ing his term of office. His successors have 
 been equally friendly, and our three last 
 Governors-General, Lord Dufferin,Lord Lorno 
 and Lord Lansdowne, have all shown a 
 warm interest in our welfare and have 
 promoted it by every means in their 
 power. The present Governor-General, I 
 have no doubt, will in this follow their ex- 
 ample. It is popularly supposed that the 
 Governor-General has no power in educa- 
 tional matters, but in our case this is a 
 mistake. He has not only a substantial 
 veto in matters of appointments and of new 
 statutes, but a positive power in aidinj us .n 
 many important ways, and we owe much to 
 the countenance of our successive Visitors 
 since the office was established under the 
 charter of 1852. 
 
 One fact is settled by these provisions of our 
 charter, namely, that for us there can bo 
 no question of change of allegiance, for 
 whatever political chinges may occur, we 
 have nailed our colours to the mast ; the 
 Crown must continue to be the crest of the 
 McGill arms, and the only appropriate flag 
 to float over that emblem is the flag o*" "'^e 
 British Empire. 
 
 THE OOVERNORS. 
 
 Next to the Visitor the highest governing 
 body of the university is the Board of Royal 
 Institution, Governors of McGill college, 
 whose president is ex-officio our Chan- 
 cellor. The Board of Royal Institution at 
 one time had charge of all schools in this 
 province, but its function is now limited to 
 the administration of McGill college and of 
 such other colleges as may be connected 
 
6 
 
 with it ; and all tindownu'tits (;ivcn to it for 
 educationul ptirpoHt-s are held by it aH royal 
 endownuiiits Tlio vacantieH in tlu! Horrd 
 arc flllud by nomination of the rcniainlnf^ 
 mombors, witli ajiproval of ♦lit! Visitor, who 
 haH power to appoint without any nomina- 
 tion if the numbor of uuNnbers falls lielow 
 ten. But the nominations are made under 
 certain rostrictions. The gentlemen ap- 
 pointed must be residents of Montreal. They 
 must be laymen, not deriving any emolu- 
 ment either directly or indirectly from the 
 college. They must be Protestants, an<l as 
 far as possible must represent all the Pro- 
 testant denominations. Th(!se (jualilicationK 
 probably give the highest secur- 
 ity poKsible in a community like 
 this for an efficient non-academical 
 governing board, and hitherto their working 
 has been successful. I doubt if any body of 
 men discharging any public duty in Canada 
 has been more ethcient and influential or 
 more respected and trusted than the Board 
 of Royal Institution, and I have reason to 
 know that this has tended, by the confidence 
 it inspired, to attract endowments to the 
 University. On my first introduction 
 to the Board in 1855, it struck me as an ad- 
 mirable body of men, and one under which 
 any institution might prosper, and though 
 its composition lias since changed by death 
 and removal of its members and by new ap- 
 pointments, it still retains its high qualities, 
 a fact which augurs well for its permanence. 
 It is strictly a non-academical governing 
 Board, whose representative capacity lies in 
 its selection from leading and influential 
 men, representing all sections of the Protes- 
 tant body in this city, thereby giving to the 
 university a character at once Protestant 
 and non-denominational. We have the more 
 reason to be satisfied with it when we con- 
 sider the serious failures, in other countries, 
 of merely academical bodies, of regulation 
 by local governments,"and of boards of non- 
 resident or denominational trustees. A curi- 
 ous instance is afforded by the history of the 
 Scottish universities. Originally they were 
 governed by independent academical bodies. 
 But ..nder modern conditions this proved 
 altogether insufficient, and various amend- 
 ments were made constituting new 
 offices and representative boards. The 
 result has been so much conflict and 
 confusion, that a bill is now before Parlia- 
 ment, which is said to meet with general 
 approval, and which transfers the manage- 
 ment of finances, the passing of statutes, or 
 ordinances as they are called, and the ap- 
 
 pointment and salaries of officers, to a Royal 
 Commission, whoH(! membcrK are chosen by 
 the Crown, and which may be continued us 
 long as the Crown ordains, with the alter- 
 native of transferring their powers perma- 
 nently to a committee of the Privy t'ouncil. 
 In short the new act places the Scottish 
 ?inivcrsities under a body very nearly re- 
 sembling our Board of Royal Institution, 
 except tliat its powers are to extend, not to 
 one university merely, but t(> all the univers- 
 ities in Scotland. 
 
 TlIK I'UINCIl'AI. 
 
 under the old charter was one of tin; 
 governors, but under the new charter he 
 is a salaried servant of the university, ap- 
 pointed, in tlie same manner with the 
 professors, by the govcruors, and holding 
 office during their pleasure. He is, ex-officio, 
 Vice-chancellor and a member of the cor- 
 l)oration. Except in his capacity of mem- 
 ber of the corporation he has no legis- 
 lative function, and is merely an ad- 
 ministrative officer, under the statutes and re- 
 gulations passed by the governors and cor- 
 poration, bjyond the enforcement of which 
 his powers do not extend. He is 
 entitled to preside at all meetings of 
 the faculties and at meetings of the corpor- 
 ation in tlie absence of the Chancellor, and 
 may discharge teaching duties as assigned 
 to him by the governors. He has general 
 superintendence of the university, and is the 
 ordinary medium of comumnication between 
 the university and other bodies, and 
 between the different portions of the uni- 
 versity itself, and he acts for the univers- 
 ity in the public conferring of all detrrees. 
 Practically in McGill the substantial power 
 resides with the governors, the corporation 
 and the several faculties ; the Principal has 
 merely to see that all members of the uni- 
 versity obey the regulations, to harmoni/e 
 as far as possible the interests of different 
 departments, and to keep up their united 
 working for the common good, as wdl as to 
 attend to all emergencies of a general or in- 
 definite chaiacter that may occur, and to 
 such public reports, exercises or cases of 
 discipline as may affect the whole university 
 or more than one faculty. His position is 
 thus much less autocratic than that 
 of . the president of an ordinary Am- 
 erican college, and his largest op- 
 portunities for usefulness depend on his 
 personal influence and on his right to be the 
 official medium of communication between 
 different parts of the university, which 
 
 1/ 
 
,/ 
 
 i' 
 
 makes him the link of conm'ction he- 
 twi'on dilVtiiont departnientH, an<l omiblfK 
 him to Hiuootli nKpcriticH ami to pre- 
 vent conliictH of jiiiiB(iiction. Inciilentaily 
 it fftllH to him to extend, aH far aH poHsible, 
 the liospitality of the univerwity to its 
 friendH and to Htrangors, and to >;ive or 
 eauHe to be f,Mven to H»udents and infendinj; 
 studentK hucIi aid and jrenerai guidance aH 
 tliey may retinire, wliile no inconHiderable 
 part of his time is occupied with attending 
 in various ways to tlio interests 
 of individual graduates, stiidents and 
 other members of tlie uiuverKity, wlio 
 may apply to him for testimonials, 
 assistance and guidance under a great variety 
 of circumstances. As the present occupant 
 of the ofrlce lias been to a large extent a 
 pioneer, and has in his time had to attend to 
 every detail from the planting of trees on the 
 grounds and the making of roads, to the 
 organizing of faculties, and as he cannot in 
 the course of nature very hjng continu*! in 
 officii, he may say that it is extremely desir- 
 able in the interest of the university that ' 
 his successor should be less burdened with 
 details of management and insti ...tion, and ] 
 should bo afforded the means more fully to i 
 discharge the incidental duMes to the uni- 
 versity and to the public which belong to 
 liis position. 
 
 TliK COIIPORATION OK THE UNIVKUSII V 
 
 is the highest academical body, pro- 
 perly SO called, and with reference to 
 educational powers. It consists of Gov- 
 ernors, Principal and Fellows. The two 
 former have been already noticed. The 
 latter are not, as in some universities, the 
 recipients of handsome annual stipends, 
 without obligation to work, but men held to 
 do v/ork for the university without special 
 remuneration,and who are selected with refer- 
 ence to the representation of all its faculties 
 and departments, as well as of some bodies 
 only indirectly connected with it. At pres- 
 ent there are twenty-nine fellows, consti- 
 tuting nearly two-thirds of the corporation, 
 and whose representative capacities may be 
 stated as follows : — 
 
 Deans of faculties 4 
 
 Elective representatives of faculties 5 
 
 Representatives of graduates 8 
 
 " affiliated colleges. G 
 
 " the Normal school 1 
 
 " the Donaldaendowmenu 2 
 Governors' fellows, appointed on account 
 
 of services to the university 3 
 
 The governorB' fellows at present are the 
 late president of the Protestant School Com. 
 
 
 missioners of Montreal, the rector of the 
 High school, and th<' Protestant sc, rctary of 
 the Department of Public InHtrtiction. In- 
 cluding the governors and principal, the 
 corporation Tiumbers forty-four members. 
 
 The powers of the <ori)oratiou arc fixed by 
 the statutes, and include tlu; framing of all 
 regulations touching courses of study, ma- 
 triculation and gradiiution, and the grant- 
 ing of degrees, the i)ublic coiifv-rring of 
 such degrees in convocation being merely 
 formal and consequeiit on their being grant- 
 ed by the corporation, which must, hov,'- 
 ever, either act on (he reports of the 
 faculties, or in the case of ad eundem and 
 honorary degrees which may originate in the 
 corporation, must give opportunity to the 
 faculties to make representation. Thecor- 
 poiati(m is intended fairly to represent all 
 l)arts of the university. It cannot, of course, 
 do this on any merely numerical standard, but 
 this matters little in a body whose members 
 may be supposed to have regard to the general 
 interests of the university as well as to those 
 of the special jiart of it, which they may 
 happen to represent ; and there is no mem- 
 ber of the university who has not through 
 the principal, the representatives of v.'oi- 
 leges, faculties and graduates, means of ac- 
 cess to the corporation '»i relation to the 
 exercise of any of its powers that may atl'ect 
 him. On the other hand, no regulation or 
 action affecting any department can be car- 
 ried out in corporation without the cogniz- 
 ance of representatives of that department. 
 Tb'> function of the corporation is purely 
 educational. It has no control of property, 
 income, salaries or appointments. Its 
 members may thus be salaried officers 
 without any suspicion of interested motives 
 in their action. Its regular meetings are only 
 four in each session, but it may hold special 
 meetings for certain purposes, and it has 
 several permanent committees which carry 
 on important parts of its work in the inter- 
 vals of its meetings. 
 
 THE FACULTIES. 
 
 The several Faculties of McGill College 
 have large independent powers. This grew 
 up in the old condition of the uri versify, 
 when the faculty of medicine had tt sustain 
 itself and to carry on its own affairs 
 almost independently, and the autonomy 
 which it possessed has in many re.>pect8 
 been extended by the statutes to the 
 other faculties. Each faculty has indepen- 
 dent powers of framing regulations as to de- 
 tails of the course of study, examinations, 
 
 <l 
 
8 
 
 admission, discipline and government of 
 students, fees, and in general all things re- 
 lating to tho internal government and dis- 
 cipline of its portion of the university 
 system. It has also judic:ial powers of hear- 
 ing and determining complaints as to viola- 
 tion of its rules. These wide powers are 
 limited only in two ways. New regulations 
 or repeal of those in force must be approved 
 by corporation, and no student can be ex- 
 pelled without consent of corporation. 
 The functions and powers of indi- 
 vidual professors are determined in 
 the first instance by the terms of 
 their appointment by the governors, 
 and as to details by the rules and action of 
 their faculty. The Dean of each faculty 
 has the same general supervision in the 
 faculty which the principal has in the uni- 
 versity ; and the dean of the faculty of 
 arts is ex-otHcio, vice-principal. 
 
 The above portions of our constitution 
 relate to the university and to McGill (college, 
 which is the University College properly so 
 called ; all others being affiliated colleges of 
 the university, though the charter gives 
 power to have other colleges co-ordinate 
 with McGill, should endowments be given 
 for them. 
 
 AFFILIATED COLLEGES 
 
 may be of different kinds, but they all differ 
 from faculties in being independent bodies, 
 with distinct acts of incorporation and gov- 
 ernment, and having connection with the 
 university only in so far as its university 
 powers are concerned. An aflilisted college 
 in arts of the first class is one having a suf- 
 ficient staff to bring up students for the de- 
 gree examinations. An affiliated college of 
 the second class is one competent to pre- 
 sent students for the intermediate examina- 
 tion. Morrin college, Quebec, is an example 
 of the first, St. Francis college, Richmond, 
 of the second. On similar terms, schools of 
 theology become affiliated colleges, 
 and our system in this respect has 
 met with marked success and is 
 deserving of imitation elsewhere. An 
 incorporated school of theology of any 
 Protestant denomination haviug an adequate 
 staff of instructing officers may become 
 affiliated, and its students may obtain not 
 only the education of the faculty of arts but 
 exemptions from certain studies .in the arts 
 course and exemptions from fees, while the 
 college is entitled to a representative in the 
 corporation and to reports as to the examin- 
 ations of its students. By this simple ar- 
 
 rangement any theological college estab- 
 lished sufficiently near to the university 
 can relieve itself from the burden of main- 
 taining classes not strictly theolosrical, and 
 can obtain for its students, practically with- 
 out expense, the whole benefits of the staff 
 and appliances of th« univeraity, and the 
 inestimable benefit of the association 
 of its students with those of other denomin- 
 ations. The four theological colleges now 
 affiliated, and representing four of the most 
 important Protestant denominations, are all 
 highly successful and are growing rapidly 
 in importance. While they add by the,num- 
 ber of students to the prestige and to the 
 usefulness of the university, it is not too 
 much to say that the reputation of the uni- 
 versity greatly tends to their success. 
 
 The McGill Normal School is affiliated to 
 the university as a training school tor teach- 
 ers. Its higher teachers have the title of 
 professor and it is in reality a pro- 
 fessional college for one of the 
 most important of all professions. The 
 arrangements which we have recently 
 made for admitting the students of its ad- 
 vanced class to the course in arts, while in- 
 creasing its scope and efficiency, tend to con- 
 nect it more closely with the university. 
 
 Lastly, we have Affiliated Schools, both in 
 Montreal and in other parts of the Dominion, 
 providing a course of study sufficient to 
 train students for junior or senior matricu- 
 lation and entitled to examination and cer- 
 tificates, and to such privileges, in respect to 
 free tuitions, etc., as the university may be 
 able from time to time to grant. 
 
 THE SECRETARY. 
 
 I should perhaps here refer to the im- 
 portant office of secretary, registrar and 
 bursar, so long and so gracefully held 
 by the late Mr. W. C. Bayncs, B. A., 
 and which requires for the due fulfil- 
 ment of its varied duties a rare combination 
 of educational and business capacity. But 
 as the bare enumeration of these duties oc- 
 cupies a page and a half of the statutes, I 
 must content myself with referring to these. 
 
 THE GRADUATES AND STUDENTS. 
 
 This completes our study of the machinery 
 of the university, and little time remains 
 to speak of its constituency. The various 
 bodies and officers above referred to con- 
 stitute the government and its staff of em- 
 ployees, while the graduates and students 
 and the general public are the nation or peo- 
 ple for whom these work. What shall we 
 
 A 
 
9 
 
 
 say in regard to this great body of the uni- 
 versity itself, its hundreds of graduates and 
 students, ranging from aged men who have 
 long ago attained to the highest standing 
 in their professions, and who are the 
 seniors and magnatetj, not only in 
 the academical sphere but in the great world 
 without, down to the newest freshman 
 just come up from school. This great body 
 has also under our constitution its duties, 
 its rights and privileges as varied as the dif- 
 ferences of its members in age and standing. 
 Let us begin with the student, including 
 the women in our separate classes in Arts 
 under the Donalda endowment, as well as 
 the men. The student may be defined to be 
 one who is in the intermediate stage between 
 a Kchool-boy and a graduate. In this condi- 
 tion he is still tn statu pupillari, but not at 
 all in the school-boy stage, while he has 
 not reached to the freedom which he attains 
 after taking his degree. He has become a 
 member of the university, a proud title which 
 connects him with much that is best and 
 greatest now and in the past. In the words 
 of our old charter, he has acquirod the 
 " liberty and faculty of taking the degrees of 
 bachelor, master and doctor in the several 
 arts and faculties at the appointed time," 
 and has " liberty within himself of perform 
 ing scholastic ex^ircises " to that end. You 
 observe his position is expressed by the 
 words " liberty and faculty" ; but these are 
 to be used for a special purpose. He has 
 not liberty and faculty to be idle and waste 
 his time, or to occupy himself with matters 
 foreign to his educational course, or to the 
 objects for which the university is instituted, 
 but liberty to take certain degrees and per- 
 form such exercises as may tend thereto. 
 The same liberty in short, that a runner has 
 who follows a definite course marked out 
 for him, and strains forward to a goal that he 
 may win a prize. Yet this is liberty in the 
 true sense. The runner is not driven on- 
 ward by dread of the lash, he runs freely, 
 because he desires to do it, yet with regard 
 to the rules of the course, because he 
 values the victory and the prize. The stu- 
 dent is not a slave, but an athlete ; and a 
 main object of the college is to train him to 
 act t.i'js for himself, well and wisely. The 
 student is very apt not to realize the 
 full importance and responsibilities of his 
 position. Many men of greater age 
 fail to do this. But no greater service can 
 be rendered to him than to direct his atten- 
 tion to the fact that all the machinery of 
 the university exists for him, and that in the 
 
 few years in which he passes through his 
 college course, he has to lay the foundations 
 on which his life must be built. He has to 
 lay these for himself, for all that the best 
 academic system can do is to give him the 
 " liberty a. J faculty " — the means and op 
 portunity — to educate himself. 
 
 If I say little hereof the undergraduate so- 
 cieties, it is not because I think lightly of 
 them. They are in truth most important, 
 representing as they do the spontaneous 
 efforts ( f the students in the directions of 
 physical training, of culture of the powers of 
 thought and expression, and of the higher 
 spiritual life. The Athletic and its several 
 clubs, the Literary and the Delta Sigma and 
 the Medical, the Young Men's Christian as- 
 sociation and the Theo Dora are all of the 
 highest value with reference to these great 
 ends. 
 
 The transition from the life of the student 
 to the position of the graduate is one even 
 more strongly marked than that from the 
 school-boy to the student. As this has form- 
 ed the staple theme for valedictory addresses 
 from time immemorial, I do not propose to 
 poach on the domain of the valedictorian, al- 
 ready so much at a loss for anything new or 
 striking. There is, however, one phase of the 
 position of the graduate which in the multi- 
 tude of valedictories to which I have had the 
 pleasure of listening, I have not observed to 
 be much noticed, and that is the new rela- 
 tion in which the graduate stands to the imi- 
 versity, and which he not infrequently does 
 not seem distinctly to comprehend. The 
 student is under the tuition and control of 
 a faculty. This relation ceases at once oa 
 his graduation. He no longer belongs to 
 McGill college as such, or to any faculty 
 of it, but to the university as a whole. As a 
 student he was in a state of pupilage, being 
 shaped and fitted by the hand of masters for 
 the place he is to occupy. Asa graduate he has 
 left the workshop and has been set up on his 
 own pedestal, in presence not merely of his 
 classmates, but of the world. As a student 
 he is fed with milk and nourished as a child 
 of the university, as a graduate he earns his 
 own manly food and may hold out his strong 
 arm to sustain the mother that has nursed 
 him. Graduates should keep these things in 
 mind, and should be prepared to weigh well 
 their true relation to the university, which 
 now entails grave duties of aid and support 
 rather than advantages to be enjoyed by 
 them, and which connects these duties with 
 the university as a whole rather than with 
 any particular college or faculty. 
 
10 
 
 The graduates arc a great and increasing 
 element in the constitution of the uni- 
 versity. Individually the success in life 
 of every graduate is a recommendation of 
 his university, and he has much power to 
 advance its interests both by commending 
 it to others and by giving it, as many 
 have done, substantial aid. Collectively 
 the graduates can do much as a society, 
 by aiding in our struggles against the ob- 
 stacles which meet us in this province, by 
 promoting all improvements and movements 
 in advance, by placing us in bettor relations 
 with the non-academical world ; and in gen- 
 eral by lending their countenance and sup- 
 port in every way to the cause of higher 
 education Much of this legitimately be- 
 longs to the Graduates' society ; and it 
 would seem that the time has arrived 
 when this might enlarge itself by having, as 
 is the case with the large American univer- 
 sities, branches in various parts of the 
 country. Above all, under the constitution, 
 the graduates enjoy a large share of influence 
 in the corporation Sometimes this is 
 measured by their number of direct repre- 
 sentatives, but that is a mistake. Eight 
 members in a body of forty-four may seem 
 to be a small representation, but in our cor- 
 poration there are at present nine other gra- 
 duates who have seats otherwise than by 
 direct representation, making: seventeen in 
 all, and it is absolutely certain that at least 
 half of the available members of corporation, 
 thai, is of those who can ordinarily attend 
 meetings, will always be graduates of this 
 university, and that the proportion of gradu- 
 ates must tend constantly to increase. But 
 representation in a college corporation does 
 not depend merely on numbers. One lead- 
 ing, influential and popular man, regular in 
 his attendance and zealous for good, is of 
 more value than a dozen who are inert, care- 
 less or unnecessarily aggressive. Careful 
 selection of good representatives and retain- 
 ing them in office for a number of years, and 
 allowing them to be absolutely free and un- 
 trammelled by any previous pledges, will 
 give weight -and power to the graduate repre- 
 sentation, and will constitute an argument 
 for its further extension. The graduates, I 
 think, are becoming more and more aware 
 of this, and are taking more interest 
 in the election of their representatives. 
 
 RELATIONS TO THE PUHLIC.' 
 
 I have now exhausted the more important 
 elements in our constitution. To a careless 
 listener or reader it may seem complex and 
 
 cumbrous, but, after an experience of many 
 years, I see qo reason to doubt its working 
 eflicsency, and it is deserving of notice that 
 few jars "or conflicts have characterized its 
 action, and while there have no doubt been 
 differences of opinion as to details, there has 
 been practical unafiimity as to important 
 methods and principles, while there has been 
 unquestionable progress in every department 
 — l)rogre8S indeed necessarily intermittent 
 and unequal ; for we cannot advance 
 without now and then placing one foot 
 in front of the other ; and in a 
 body where there are so many interests re- 
 presented, and where no one will can be 
 dominant, there must always be occasional 
 delays and detentions, trying to some. I 
 have myselt ii large packet of " abortive 
 schemes," containing projects started but 
 nipped in the bud, and which I look over 
 now and then to see ii the time is approach- 
 ing when any of them may have practical 
 efl'ect. Otliers may have like schemes and 
 projects, but we must be content to wait. 
 No constitution is perfect, but ours has at 
 least the merit of having grown to suit our 
 enviro»>'i.ent, and if this growth continues 
 in a natural manner we may hope that when 
 the present sapling becomes a stately tree it 
 will preserve its regularity and symmetry, 
 and will be so adjusted and proportioned in 
 its par's that no storm will uproot it or 
 break it down, and that it will stand as 
 a thing of beauty and of perennial fruit- 
 fulness, as " a tree planted by the streams 
 of water that bringeth forth its fruit in 
 its season." Let us bear in mind that 
 its growth is to be promoted and its 
 safety secured, not by continual attempts 
 to bend it hither and thither, to lop off" a 
 branch here and there, or to cut it into some 
 shape that pleases present fancies, but by 
 giving its roots due nourishment and allow- 
 ing it freedom to develop itself in the air 
 and in the sunlight. The three great enem- 
 ies it has to dread are the borers and cater- 
 pillars that nestle in the wood and foliage, 
 the ruthless woodman who would girdle its 
 trunk or cut down its branches, and the lack 
 of due nourishment from the soil which sup- 
 ports it. To drop the figure, we have to 
 dread in our circumstances : First, a sel- 
 fish or reckless spirit growing up among 
 ourselves, and a want of that enlightened 
 devotion to the cause of education and the 
 common good which characterized the 
 founders and early friends of the university : 
 Secondly, the effects of such unwise legisla- 
 tion as that whicli has recently consigned 
 
11 
 
 the control of our faculty of law to the 
 tender mccies of an irresponsible profes- 
 sional board, on which the university has 
 no representative ; and of similar legisla- 
 tion which has threatened the like fate to 
 our faculty of medicine : Thirdly, a 
 failure of that Id and support on 
 the part of the Protestant population 
 of this city which has so far sustained 
 us Bo liberally. I have space to say 
 a few words only as to the last. 
 
 Hitherto McGill university has had 
 the greatest cause to be thankful 
 for the enlightened liberality of the 
 citizens of Montreal, ahd it has often 
 seemed as if that liberality was forthcoming 
 just at the junctures when some pressing 
 want was staring us in the face, without 
 means of meeting it. The original endowment 
 of Mr. McGill came at a great crisis in the 
 affairs of this province, when there was 
 danger that no adequate provision would be 
 made for the educational wants of its Eng- 
 lish population. I can never forget the lib- 
 eral subscriptions of 1856, which, headed by 
 the endowment of the Molson chair of Eng- 
 lish, gave the first augury of success in the re- 
 vival of the university under its new charter. 
 The completion of our University buildings 
 by Mr. Wm. Molson in 18G1 came at another 
 critical time. The endowment of the Peter 
 Redpath,Logan and John Frothingham chairs 
 in 1871-73 gave another stimulus and acces- 
 sion of force when our progress seemed ar- 
 rested by want of means. The foundation 
 of the Peter Redpath museum in 1880 plac- 
 ed one important department in advance of 
 every other Canadian university, and 
 made v/ny for extension in other directions. 
 The Scott, Mills and David Greenshields 
 endowments of 1882-84 were just in 
 time to prevent contraction of our work 
 under the great diminution of income aris- 
 ing from the fall in the rate of interest. The 
 large endowments to the medical faiulty in 
 1884-5, met the necessary expansion of its 
 teaching power and of its rooms and labora- 
 tories, demanded by the great extension of 
 its course and increase of its students. The 
 last great endowment, that of the Hon. 
 
 Donald A. Smith, for the higher education 
 of women, was offered at the moment when 
 the university seemed called on to enter on 
 this work without adequate means. Many 
 such instances rise to my remembrance, and 
 impress me with the belief that a kind Provi- 
 dence has watched over our efforts, and 
 has intervened to sustain us just when 
 hearts and hands were beginning to fail. I 
 chorish the faith and hope that it will b*> so 
 in the future, and look forward to the time 
 when our iaw faculty will be adequately en- 
 dowed, when ovr unendowed chairs in the 
 faculty of arts will be suitably provided for, 
 when our heavier chairs will be divided or 
 furnished with assistance, when we shall 
 have enlarged accommodation for our 
 library, when we shall have a larger con- 
 vocation hall, a dining hall and college 
 offices, and rooms for college societies ; 
 when we shall have a college plant-house and 
 botanical garden, a mechanical workshop, 
 and a new university gymnasium, and 
 when our special course for women will 
 have grown into a well appointed Royal 
 Victoria college, co-ordinate with McGill. 
 All these things and more are now desir- 
 able, and I have no doubt they will be pro- 
 vided, but not perhaps until our faith and 
 self denial and self sacrificing industry are a 
 little longer tried. They may not be real- 
 ized in my time or the time of the older 
 workers of to-day ; but the university will 
 not die with us. The history of 
 college endowments in the Mother 
 Country shows that these are the 
 most permanent of 
 outliving revolutions, 
 and evdn civil wars, and tending constantly 
 to attract fresh means to themselves. May 
 McGill university equal them in permanence, 
 and at the same time be exempt trom the 
 defects which have sometimes marred their 
 usefulness, and from the abuses which for a 
 time have grown up around them. We 
 may, I trust, hope that in our new and 
 young society, and in the greater light of a 
 cultivated and progressive age, this may, 
 under God's blessing, be our happy destiny. 
 
 all investments, 
 changes of dynasty 
 
^B 
 
 i.. 
 
 ^