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GEORGE MONRO GRANT

GEORGE MONRO
GRANT

BY
WILLIAM LAWSON GRANT
AND
FREDERICK HAMILTON

EDINBURGH: T. C. & E. C. JACK
TORONTO : MORANG & CO., LIMITED
1905

C<X'2A.5

TO
The REV. DANIEL MINER GORDON, D.D.
Principal of Queen's Univernty

PREFACE
"TMOGRAPHIES written by sons are, as a
-U rule, only one degree less contemptible than
those written by daughters," says a candid friend.
It is impossible to come so closely into contact
with the hfe of a great man as is implied in
writing his biography without becoming a hero-
worshipper. When the life to be written is that
of one who has been the biographer's hero ever
since he drew conscious breath, the attainment of
impartiality becomes almost impossible. Even to
attempt it is to seem, in the eyes of many, guilty
of unfilial coldness, of disloyalty to the loved and
honoured dead. Yet much of the available material
was contained in letters, portions of which were
too private for any eye save my own; and filial re
verence, even if endangering impartiality, at least
shuts out the possibUity of ignorance. It thus
seemed fitting that I should take a share in the
work, and I have been fortunate in having as my
colleague a graduate of Queen's— -a friend of my
father, and a writer of repute. Chapters I to X,
XVII, and XX to XXV are my own; the re
mainder are by Mr. Hamilton. But our work is
in the fullest sense a collaboration. Its plan was
thought out by us both; we discussed together

PREFACE
the perspective in which every important incident
should be placed; each has revised the work of the
other. My father's own cardinal maxim in criticizing a
biography was that the hero should speak for him
self, and to this rule we have endeavoured to
adhere. Yet it has been impossible to avoid ex
pressing certain opinions on men and movements
of the time; for any of these which arouse contro
versy I take the fullest responsibility.
In many of his letters, matters of local or ephem
eral interest mingle with those of permanent value.
When it could be done without altering the per
spective, we have not scrupled to cut out passages
which seemed unnecessary, or, in a few cases, to
run two letters into one. In any case where con
fusion could have resulted, we have been careful to
mark the omission by asterisks.
To the many friends who have given us help; to
the comrades of his youth; to the surviving mem
bers of his Halifax congregation; to all who have
given us their memories of him, and without whose
help this book could not have been written, we
render thanks. Their names are too numerous to
quote, but they are written deep in the memories
of us both. The chapter on his relations to his col
leagues embodies the ideas, and to a great extent
the words, of Professors Cappon, Shortt, and Dyde.
I must also thank in a very special manner the
Rev. Robert Murray, editor of the Presbyterian

PREFACE
Witness, Halifax, and Mr. J. S. Willison, of the
Toronto News, who read through the book in
proof, and to whose advice we owe many valuable
suggestions and corrections. W. L. GRANT.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
EARLY DAYS 1

CHAPTER II
STUDENT LIFE AT GLASGOW 23
CHAPTER III
CHURCH AND EDUCATION . 49
CHAPTER IV
THEOLOGICAL STRUGGLES ... 67
CHAPTER V
CONFEDERATION . . .87
CHAPTER VI
THE PASTOR ... . . ¦ 105
CHAPTER VII
HOME MISSIONS, 1868-73 ... . 121
CHAPTER VIII
"OCEAN TO OCEAN" ... ... 129

CONTENTS

CHAPTER IX PAGE
UNION . .... 145

CHAPTER X
FINAL YEARS IN HALIFAX . . .171
CHAPTER XI
QUEEN'S BEFORE 1878 . ... 189
CHAPTER XII
THE INSTALLATION . . 205
CHAPTER XIII
THE ENDOWMENT CAMPAIGN OF 1878 217
CHAPTER XIV
UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION . 235
CHAPTER XV
PUBLIC ACTIVITIES  243
CHAPTER XVI
FEDERATION .... .271
CHAPTER XVII
ROUND THE WORLD . . .295
CHAPTER XVIII
QUEEN'S AND THE PROVINCE . 313

CONTENTS
CHAPTER XIX Page
CANADIAN POLITICS . . .347
CHAPTER XX
IMPERIALISM ..... 395

CHAPTER XXI
LAST DAYS .

. 421

CHAPTER XXII
WITH THE STUDENTS .... 441
CHAPTER XXIII
WITH THE STAFF . . . . .453
CHAPTER XXIV
PRIVATE LIFE ..... 465
CHAPTER XXV
RELIGIOUS LIFE AND TEACHING . . .481
CHAPTER XXVI
HIS PERSONALITY ... 499
APPENDICES . . . . .609
INDEX ...... 529

CHAPTER I
EARLY DAYS
THE province of Nova Scotia owes its name to
the fact that in 1621 King James I., ever on
the look-out for some cheap way to reward his
needy Scottish favourites, granted Sir William
Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling, a vast do
main on which to plant a colony. Sir William, one
of that numerous class of Scotchmen with more
force of character than money, found the up-build
ing of a nation too great a strain upon his resources,
and with the full consent and approval of the
sapient James, hit upon the plan of founding an
order of Knights Baronets of Nova Scotia, wherein,
on payment of a thousand merks (Scotch) to him
self, and two thousand to the king, each member
was granted direct from the Crown a baronial estate
in Nova Scotia, and vast social prestige at home.
The scheme was short-lived, though before it died it.
brought considerable profit to the shrewd originator.
But the name has to the Nova Scotian a deeper
significance. King James and his canny favourite
builded better than they knew, when to the eastern
province they gave the name of New Scotland.
In soil and in products, in climate and in scen
ery, Nova Scotia bears a strong resemblance to the
1

PRINCIPAL GRANT
" Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood,"
and when the long struggle between France and
Britain was over and Canada was again thrown
open to peaceful settlement, nowhere did the High
land emigrants find a resting place so hke the old
home over seas, as amid the wild hills and pleasant
straths of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton. Nature
did not, indeed, clothe the mountains in the summer
mantle of purple heather, which casts a glory over
the Highlands, but in every other feature of sea
and sky, of mountain, glen and torrent, the emi
grants found scenery which recalled to them their
homes in Inverness or Sutherland.
One of the first parts of the new colony to be
settled was the district afterwards known as the
county of Pictou,1 on the north shore of the pro
vince, separated from Prince Edward Island by
Northumberland Strait. In no other settlement did
the sturdy newcomers fare so hardly, and prob
ably for this reason in no other did their Scottish
love of country strike so deep a root.2
The land was wooded to the water's edge ; the
winter cold was a revelation for which they were
1 The origin of the name Is uncertain. In many old documents it
is spelt " Poictou," and has therefore been supposed to be taken from
the old province of France. The first white settlers found that the
Indians knew it by the name of " Pictook," a Micmac name of un
certain origin. See "History of the County of Pictou," by the Rev.
Geo. Patterson, D.D.
a The first Highland emigrants to Nova Scotia, and indeed, to the
Dominion of Canada, came in 1773. On September 15th of that year,

EARLY DAYS
wholly unprepared ; the nearest settlement was
thirty miles away, over the mountains, at Truro ;
small wonder that for a moment some of the new
comers gave way to despair. But when the first
shock of surprise was over, men and women buckled
to with the grim heroism of their race. Trees were
felled, and a few acres of land brought under culti
vation ; those whose means were insufficient walked
over the mountains to Truro and there found em
ployment. Many a man now living in comfort has
heard his father tell how, in the old days, he walked
by a blazed trail from Truro to Pictou with a bag
of seed potatoes on his back, stumbling over stones
and fallen trees, mired in swamps, swept away by
torrents in spate, sitting down half-way to assuage
his hunger with a bite of raw potato. The hardships
they endured only kindled their Highland hearts to
a more lively flame of devotion to the new land, a
flame which shows no trace of diminution in their
descendants. To this day, it is said, a Pictou county
man may be known by the tone of subtle contempt
in which he speaks of every other country in the
world. Nor was it long before their lot began to amend.
They had not been accustomed to ease in the old
land, and were not afraid of hardships; the rivers
and the sea teemed with fish ; they soon made

the brig Hector, of Greenock, cast anchor in Pictou Harbour with
nearly two hundred passengers from the counties of Inverness, Suther
land and Ross. 3

PRINCIPAL GRANT
friends with the Indians, and learned from them
to trap or to shoot the game with which the forest
abounded. Their larders were often filled with a
rude abundance of cod, trout, and salmon, part
ridges, moose, and bear. A trade in lumber soon
arose and brought them again into touch with
the outside world. But the intervals of ease and
plenty were separated by longer periods of hardship
and of want. No county in Canada has in later
times produced so many famous men, but it is not
these whom Pictou county loves best to recall, but
rather the men who fought against the giants of
mountain, river, and fell, and hewed out of the
forest primeval the inheritance of which their des
cendants are so proud to-day.
In the early days the rivers were the chief roads ;
and settlement followed, in thin parallel hnes, the
fertile intervale land along their banks. Into the
harbour of Pictou flow from the south three fine
streams, the East, Middle and West Rivers, the first
and largest of which is formed by the junction of
two other streams, known as the East and the
West branch.
Gradually, as land was cleared, agriculture be
came more profitable ; the cutting and export of
lumber and the building of wooden ships for sale
brought a riotous but transient prosperity. In 1826
a commercial panic, following on and caused by
the great crisis in Britain, killed for a time this in
dustry, but in 1828 the mining of soft coal began to
4

EARLY DAYS
assume large proportions, and put the county upon
a footing of more permanent prosperity. During all
this time, especially between 1800 and 1820, im
migrants were flowing in from the "Highlands and
Islands " in a steady stream, many driven from home
by misery and changing social conditions, others
persuaded by agents, or by the less glowing but
more truthful tales of their friends afready in Nova
Scotia ; so that by 1830 the county was a thriving
community of over fourteen thousand people.
Among the immigrants in the year 1826 was
James Grant, a young Scotchman from Banffshire,
whose family had for generations cultivated the
httle farm of Balnellan, now part of the estate of
Sir George Macpherson-Grant, and almost under
the walls of Ballindalloch Castle, at the junction of
the Avon and the Spey. James, born December
23rd, 1800, was the fourth of seven boys, and find
ing no suitable prospects of a livelihood at home,
decided to try his fortunes in the New World. He
settled first at Albion Mines, on the East River,
about two miles from New Glasgow, and ten from
the town and harbour of Pictou. Here he took up
land, but soon added to farming the position of
school-master of the district. A man of no special
force of character, but of unblemished hfe and simple
Christian piety, he was, perhaps, specially noted for
the dignity of his carriage, and the spotless neatness
of his attire. He afterwards abandoned school teach
ing, and moved into the town of Pictou, where he
5

PRINCIPAL GRANT
did much of the legal work of the community,
writing deeds and wills ; for a time he tried his
hand at auctioneering, and while in none of these
vocations did he amass even a competence, he
always bore an honourable name in the community
as a kindly neighbour and an honest, God-fearing
man. His kindliness sometimes got him into diffi
culties, for his dislike of saying "No" more than
once led him into "putting his hand to paper," to
oblige a needy friend, and thereby lessened still
further the slender household resources.
On September 15th, 1831, he married Mary Mon
ro, who had been born at Inverness, June 10th,
1804. She came of a clerical line, her grandfather
being the " Godly Mr. Monro," (minister of Cro
marty) mentioned by Hugh Miller in " My Schools
and School Masters." During all their married life
they lived in Pictou county, first at the Albion
Mines, then in Pictou town, then at Middle River,
(from 1848-56) and from that time until 1865 at
Viewfield, a farm which James Grant purchased,
about two miles from New Glasgow. In that year
his wife died, and he returned to the Albion Mines,
where he hved till his death on June 4th, 1870.
During their earlier residence at the Mines were
born their five children, the third of whom, George
Monro Grant, born December 22nd, 1835, is the
subject of this memoir.
Grant's early days were passed on the little farm,
where he acquired both that love for nature, and
6

EARLY DAYS
that practical ability to turn his hand to the need
of the moment, which were among his most promi
nent characteristics. In the summer of 1843, shortly
before his eighth birthday, occurred the incident
which cost him his right hand, and changed the
whole course of his hfe. Near his home were the
Albion coal mines, controlled by the General Min
ing Association, a British corporation formed to
operate nearly all the mining lands of the province,
which had been most iniquitously leased by the
home government for sixty years to the Duke of
York, and transferred by the royal spendthrift to
one of his many creditors. A new haycutter for the
horses in the mine had recently been imported, and
lay in a shed adjoining the pit-head, where it was
inspected by an admiring crowd. Peering through
the legs of the spectators was httle Geordie Grant,
and when the grown-ups had retired, he and a
number of his playmates decided to put the new
cutter in operation. To young Grant was assigned
the task of feeder ; the machine soon clogged, and
he seized a bundle of hay to pull it out; this
done, the machine again began working, the handle
turned by a boy of about Grant's age, but the baby
fingers had again plunged deep into the hay, and
the knives swept off the httle hand just below the
thumb. The cry that rose brought several of the
miners to the spot, and the sufferer was carried
home, a comrade running by his side, and endeav
ouring to cheer him up with the boyish consolation, 7

PRINCIPAL GRANT
" Dinna greet, Geordie ; I hae the fingers." It was,
very possibly, the long convalescence, lasting nearly
a year, which first turned his mind in the direction
of study. James Grant had all the national love of
scholarship, and both he and his wife were of learn
ing and culture above the average, but it was
probably the loss of a hand which made it impera
tive for George to turn to a vocation other than
manual. Many stories are still current about the
event; how the father said, "He'll never be a farmer
now ; we'll have to make him a scholar," which is
obviously a wholly unjustifiable perversion of what
may have passed through his mind ; and how on
the very evening of the accident the httle sufferer
began to practise writing with his left hand, an
exaggeration which yet brings out vividly the in
domitable pluck and energy which were his even
as a boy.
Once the shock of the accident was over, his
abounding vitality soon returned. In 1845 he struck
an observer as "being the most restless, or let me
say vivacious, child that had ever come within my
range." But though apparently rather "a pickle,"
he was always his father's favourite. "George will
do what is right," the good man would say, when
any question of household discipline arose.
To about this period, probably to the summer
of '44, belongs a characteristic story of how he
borrowed, unknown to the rightful owner, the rod
of his elder brother Archie, and went fishing in
8

EARLY DAYS
the East River. A struggle took place with a pas
sing boy who had views of fishing not coincident
with his own, and Grant was precipitated from the
bridge into the river. Alarmed at his act, the bully
rushed away, but a small boy who had seen the
scuffle toddled to the house, and brought word to
his parents. When rescued he was apparently dead,
but luckily a doctor was near at hand, and he was
eventually restored to consciousness. At about the
same date, while attending his father's school, he
beguiled his elder brother and sister, and one or
two of their playmates into taking part in the noble
game of attempting to see which could peer furthest
over the edge of a well in the school-yard without
falling in. Not unnaturally, one of the contestants
over- balanced himself, and fell with a prodigious
splash into the water. He still lives to tell of the
Spartan zest with which James Grant "skelped"
his three eldest offspring before the eyes of the
admiring school.
Shortly after the family removed to Pictou,
Grant entered upon a more systematic course of
study at the still famous Pictou Academy; but the
deepest influence upon his life at this time was that
of his mother, a woman who combined great practi
cal sagacity with a deep Scottish piety, and whose
memory Grant always cherished as that of a saint.
"My mother and yours," he said once to his son, on
one of those rare occasions when he opened his
heart and spoke of his own feelings and emotions, 9

PRINCIPAL GRANT
"were the two best women I have ever known." Of
this period of his hfe, his only surviving brother,
the Rev. C. M. Grant, of St. Mark's Church, Dun
dee, Scotland, speaks as follows: —
"Genius comes from the mother, and it is no
disparagement of the mental — which was greater
than the practical — ability of our father to say that
it was from our revered mother that the genius
in George Grant came. She was a woman of
wonderful insight, and we early learned to place
an almost superstitious value upon her judgment.
'Mother can't be wrong,' became a formula of the
faith that was in all of us. Whilst her love for all
her children was of the deepest and tenderest, I
think there was something in her feeling towards
George and myself which differentiated it from
that towards the others, for I was her youngest —
her Benjamin — and her seeing eye early saw in him
that which we all afterwards came to see. Her own
hfe was hved very close to God, and she was a
woman of prayer as few were or are. When I was
about ten years of age I made a discovery which
made an impression on me, which, thank God, has
never left me, and in which those who beheve in
the power of intercessory prayer may find the ex
planation, or part of it at least, of the great and
unselfish life which has so recently closed. I ob
served that when the household work was ended
after breakfast, it was my mother's habit to retire to
her own room. I wondered what she could be doing
10

EARLY DAYS
there, and one day I found out. Hearing her voice,
I stepped to the door, and, boy-like, listened and
learned. She was praying, evidently quite uncon
scious that in her importunity she was speaking
aloud, and praying with a passion that to this day
fills me with awe as I go back in thought, and once
more stand beside that door. I have never been able
to speak or to think of Jacob at Penuel wrestling
and prevailing, without thinking of that morning
and that mother's prayer. In the strong arms of
her faith she seemed to hold her Saviour, and she
would not let Him go without the blessing. But it
was not for herself that she sought it with such
strong cryings and tears. 'My children, Lord, my
children' — that was the burden of her cry. The
remembrance of that prayer has been one of the
inspirations of all my after days.
"As I have said, the mother's seeing eye soon
saw in George what in the fulness of the time we all
came to see, and her soul sang its magnificat for
him. As she phrased it, after the fashion of the
faith that was in her, she was sure that 'God had a
purpose for him.' One day when talking about him
to a godly neighbour about his having, before he
was twelve years of age, been three times at the
door of death — once when he was scalded, once
when he was all but drowned, and once when he
lost his hand — the neighbour said to her: 'Do
not be afraid about that boy, Mrs. Grant; the
Lord has surely some work for him to do.' The
11

PRINCIPAL GRANT
remark made a great impression on her, and I
distinctly remember frequent references to it by
her. 'Yes,' she would add, 'the Lord has a work
for him.'
"I am not one of those prodigies who profess
to remember everything from the first hour of their
lisping, and I have no distinct impression of him
till the close of the school days in 1847, when I
was five and he upwards of eleven years of age.
We were then living in Pictou town, and he was
attending the academy there, the head of the Eng
hsh department of which was dear old William
Jack, a name of fragrant memory to many. Sud
denly I saw George — it is my first clear vision of
him — bounding across the vacant space between
the academy and our house, for neither then nor
ever could he move save forcefully, and ' Cha, I
have got the medal,'1 he cried. I looked up from
my mud pie and wondered that he should seem
surprised. The idea of any other boy being equal to
him ! And so thought we all of us.2
" In 1848 we removed from Pictou town to the
Middle River and entered into the hfe of a very
1 The prize, a silver medal for proficiency in arithmetic, lies before
me as I write. It was one of my father's most cherished possessions.
" No other prize I ever won," he would say, "gave me half the joy and
pride which I felt as I carried that medal home to my mother. How I
ran that day ! "
2 "I was once caned while at the academy," he told his son, "I did
not sleep that night till I had stolen out, broken into the school, and
smashed that cane into a thousand pieces."
12

EARLY DAYS
primitive farming community. Money was scarce
and schools were few, and even where they existed
they were but fitfully filled. There might be three
months or perhaps six months of teaching, but such
activity would be followed by six or twelve of
vacation. I am literally correct when I say that
I myself never got more than six months of con
secutive teaching till, at twelve years of age, I
went to Pictou Academy, boarding with my uncle,
Edward McArthur. Through our residence in the
county town for several years, George had enjoyed
better opportunity, but after we went to the Middle
River his education must have been carried on very
spasmodically. "These were the days of ecclesiastical and pohti
cal factions at their fiercest. 'Kirkmen' and 'Anti-
Burghers' hated each other with a whole but an
unholy hatred. The former were 'Conservatives'
and the latter 'Liberals,' and I remember the loath
ing with which a certain man was pointed to as
one who, though a Kirkman, had voted Liberal.
A veritable Judas and nothing less, we all deemed
him. 'Fear God and hate the Anti-Burghers,'
summed up our creed, and with the necessary
change of one word, it summed up that of our foes.
It therefore required considerable fortitude on our
part to send George to the seminary at the West
River, at which the Anti-Burghers gave their young
men a training and preparation for their Divinity
course ; and it required considerable charity on their
13

PRINCIPAL GRANT
part to receive him. He remained there for two
sessions, till the way was opened for the continu
ance of his studies after a fashion more satisfactory
in itself, and more in accordance with the ec
clesiastical sympathies alike of his parents and of
himself." No gathering of Scotchmen would for long
consent to forego the ordinances of religion, and
hardly was the first acre cleared and the first potato
planted, ere the immigrants sent a request to Scot
land for the ministration of a qualified Presbyterian
clergyman. It was the hey-day of the Moderate
party in the Established Church, a party which
included many men of culture and morality, and
not a few of quiet, unostentatious piety, but which
was almost wholly devoid of evangelical fervour and
missionary zeal. Hence the immigrants were com
pelled to turn to the Dissenters, and applied for
aid to the Associate Synod of Scotland and to the
General Associate Synod, better known as the Bur
ghers and the Anti- Burghers. These were two sec
tions of a body which had left the Establishment
on the question of patronage, and then, after the
manner of such bodies, had in turn split upon the
question of the Burgess Oath, which one party con
sidered to imply a recognition of the Estabhshed
Church. The question was at best a trifling one, and
a very sorry affair to cause a schism in the church
of Christ ; but narrow and even absurd as were the
views of the sectaries, they yet had more of the
14

EARLY DAYS
missionary zeal of their Master than the grandees of
the Establishment, and in 1786 the Anti-Burghers
sont to Pictou tlie Rev. James, afterwards Dr.,
McGregor. Dr. McGregor at first stood aloof from
the ministers of tlie adjacent county of Colchester,
who belonged to tlie Burgher section of the seces
sion, but the difference between them, small enough
in Scotland, was meaningless in Nova Scotia, and
in 1817 the two bodies united, forming " The
Presbyterian Church of Nova Scotia." This body
included also two or three congregations originally
connected with the Church of Scotland, the only
one remaining outside being St. Matthew's, Halifax,
whose peculiar constitution prevented its joining
tlie union. "All the secessions originated in Scot
land, all the unions have come from Canada," and
the Nova Scotia union was followed in 1820 by
that of the parent churches in Scotland, and in
1S47 by their further union with the Relief Synod,
thus forming Scotch dissent into one powerful
body, known as the United Presbyterian (U.P.)
Church. In Pictou county the United Church was still
from old association known as the Anti-Burghers,
their leader by this time being not Dr. McGregor,
but tlie Rev. Thomas McCulloeh, who had come
out in 1803 from Stewarton, in Ayrshire. In 1816
Dr. McCulloeh succeeded in founding Pictou Aca
demy, as a protest against tlie narrowness of King's
College. Windsor, one of those Anglican insti-
15

PRINCIPAL GRANT
tutions, whose arrogance, at once social and re
hgious, has done so much to weaken that church
throughout the colonies. A long struggle foUowed,
in which rehgious dissent and political reform fought
hand in hand against the ecclesiastical hierarchy and
the merchant aristocracy of Halifax, which were at
this time supreme in church and state. The aca
demy, which aspired to do not only scholastic but
also collegiate work, fought hard for some share of
the support permanently granted, alike by the pro
vincial legislature and the home government, to
King's ; several times a bill to this effect was passed
through the House of Assembly but vetoed by
the council, and the academy had to be content
with some small annual doles. Of this politico-re
ligious struggle, Dr. McCulloeh was the heart and
soul. He also taught for some years in the aca
demy, and taught not inadequately, "Greek and
Hebrew, logic, moral philosophy and natural philo
sophy," and was in addition throughout the whole
period minister of the Pictou church, preaching
regularly twice a Sunday.
In 1831 a sharp rebuke to the dominant party
by Lord Glenelg, the colonial secretary, led to the
passing of a bill for the permanent endowment of
Pictou Academy, but the triumph of the Anti-
Burghers was short-lived. Between 1817 and 1831,
several congregations in connection with the Es
tabhshed Kirk of Scotland had been founded, and
these had gradually, partly owing to personal dif-
16

EARLY DAYS
ferences between the ministers, drifted into an
attitude of bitter antagonism to the Anti-Burghers.
While the academy was nominally free to all, Dr.
McCulloeh had apparently given to it a dissenting
tinge, and at the crisis of the struggle the whole
weight of the kirk party was thrown upon the
side of Conservatism. Accordingly, the bill which
was passed limited the use of the greater part of
the government endowment to what were known
as, 'The Grammar School Branches," and the more
advanced philosophic and rehgious instruction de
cayed, till, in 1838, it was done away with alto
gether, Dr. McCulloeh himself and half of the grant
being transferred to Dalhousie College, in Halifax,
and Pictou Academy being remodelled as a high
school. From this time the Anti-Burghers trans
ferred their hatred, in Pictou county at least, to the
kirk, and a struggle began, of whose half tragic,
half ludicrous intensity it is difficult to form an
idea. " Every Kirk man was a Conservative, and every
Anti-Burgher as necessarily a Liberal. I remember
going to the town of Pictou a few days before
I left for Scotland. There was an election being
held. The usual fight had occurred and was almost
finished as I got into town. The streets were covered
with snow. It was early in March. But on that
forenoon the snow was not all white. The red was
there, and not sparingly. Patches of blood were here
and there along the street. Savage Indians could
17

PRINCIPAL GRANT
not surpass the brutal violence of that day, in the
Presbyterian town of Pictou."1
Separate schools were founded, with the natural
result that the children grew up in an atmosphere
of hatred and distrust, and that organized encount
ers not infrequently took place between the scholars
of neighbouring institutions.
In 1843 came "the disruption " in Scotland, and
the founding of the Free Church. In 1844 the
schism spread to Nova Scotia, and it looked as if
the cause of the Estabhshment was lost. " The
sheep," says the Rev. C. M. Grant, "had then been
all but deserted by the shepherds. A number had
gone out, and all the rest, with the solitary ex
ception of good old Dr. McGillivray, of McLellan's
Brook, had, naturally enough, perhaps, but not very
chivalrously, returned to Scotland, somewhat to fill
the depleted ranks there. The people, however,
continued to chng to the church with something of
the same loyalty with which their forefathers had
clung to the Stuart cause. Since then another gen
eration has arisen, and with it a less fervent and
more Laodicean mind. I have never encountered
anything more passionate — and I fear it must also
be confessed, more unreasoning — than the loyalty
of the Pictou congregations of that day. And this
confession I make as one born and baptized into
the same spirit, and, as a lad, myself filled with
1 Reminiscences of the Rev. Alexander Maclean, D.D., of Hope
well, N.S. 18

EARLY DAYS
it to the overflow. And even yet, whilst I cannot
justify it, I cannot but sympathize with it — so
ardent, uncalculating and unselfish it was. The
deserted flocks hung together with a touching
tenacity. If they could not worship within their
own Zion, they at least would not worship any
where else. I know that our own family was looked
upon with some suspicion because we walked or
drove three miles every Sunday to the Anti-Burgher
church at Pine Hill. This temporary lapse we, how
ever, rectified in the better times soon to come,
when we gladly walked or drove five miles to New
Glasgow, when Allan Pollok came to us from
Scotland."1 In this atmosphere of political and sectarian
bitterness young Grant grew up ; but it filled him,
not with its own miasma of narrowness, but with
the passionate desire to do away with such an
unchristian jangle. He became filled with that
passion for unity which was one of the strongest
features of his religious life ; not, as he himself put
it, "the dead uniformity of a churchyard, but the
living, breathing unity of a healthy growing organ-

1 " Kirk " and " Anti-Burgher " lasted as political terms long
after Anti-Burghers and Free Kirk had been merged in the
"Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces." In the confeder
ation struggle the Conservative party were for the most part for
confederation, the Liberals against it. Hence the Anti-Burghers
were also Anti-Confederates, and as late as 1871 the election
in Pictou county was run between the " Kirkmen " and the
"Antis." 19

PRINCIPAL GRANT
ism." "Christ is divided,"1 was in after years the
theme of one of his most impassioned sermons.
To the young student, thinking high thoughts as
he walked through the rich pasture-land along the
intervale, the division between the various members
of Christ's church seemed in very truth an actual
physical rending of the body of his Master, a sin
hideous as that of Golgotha itself.
In 1853 the cause of the kirk began to look up,
for the Establishment, reviving from the shock of the
disruption, sent out to the shepherdless flock four
ministers, two of native birth and two Scotchmen :
Messrs. Herdman, Sprott, Maclean and PoUok. Of
these the Rev. Allan Pollok, now the revered prin
cipal of Pine Hill Divinity College, Halifax, took the
lead, and a hght began to shine through the gloom
and depression. The creation of a native ministry
was one of the tasks to which these men directed
their energies. In the enthusiastic youth of the con
gregations they found material, in plenty, to hand.
But how was it to be utilized and fitted for its pur
pose ? A local theological hall was, in the circum
stances, impossible, even if an arts course could be
had somewhere. Whilst the people, as a whole, were
fairly well off, the scarcity of money was such that
no class existed which was able to meet the expense
of sending its sons to Scotland. The expedient of
estabhshing a system of bursaries presented itself
1 1 Cor. i. : 13. The text reads : " Is Christ divided ? " but he took
advantage of the varia lectio to emphasize his point.
20

EARLY DAYS
and was adopted. By what was known as "The
Young Men's Scheme " bursaries of twenty pounds
a year in Nova Scotia currency (eighty dollars),
were given to all young men of the revived synod
willing to devote themselves to a theological train
ing in Glasgow or Edinburgh University. Some aid
of a less certain character was also given to those
who preferred to carry on their studies at Queen's
University, Kingston. The terms on which the
bursary was given were that the recipients promised
on receiving license to return to Nova Scotia and
to give service there for at least three years. In
1853 two were assisted to begin their course at
Queen's, and four set sail for Glasgow University.
In the order of age their names were: — William
McMillan, Simon McGregor, John Cameron, and
George Monro Grant.1
1 Of the four, Simon McGregor — now minister of Appin, in Scotland
— alone is left. McMillan served his Master, unknown to all save his
native county, in a quiet parish on the East River of Pictou, and went,
nearly twenty years ago, to his reward. Cameron and Grant, whose sky
of life-long friendship had never been flecked by a cloud, passed away
within a few months of each other.

21

CHAPTER II
STUDENT LIFE AT GLASGOW
GRANT'S success at Glasgow was rapid and
complete. The Rev. David Macrae of Max
well Park, Glasgow, a life-long pohtical antagonist
and personal friend, writes : — " There was no lack
of other brilliant men during those years, in the
various faculties, men hke Flint,1 Everett, George
Luke, Menzies, John Macleod,2 Hunter,3 and
Bryce.4 "These were all giants in their own departments.
But Grant's superabounding energy and wide-spread
sympathies carried him into every sphere of stu
dent life; into every one of them he carried the
same whole-hearted enthusiasm ; and in them all
his rare powers carried him to distinction. In the
debating society, as well as in his classes ; on the
football green, as well as in the political oratory
of the elections, Grant was always to be found in
the foremost rank. Hence the uniqueness of his
position ; while, crowning all his varied and ver-
1 Now professor at Edinburgh University.
2 The late minister of Govan.
3 Sir Wm. W. Hunter, the celebrated East Indian historian and
administrator. *¦ Now the Rt. Hon. James Bryce.
23

PRINCIPAL GRANT
satile gifts, was his bright, brave, chivalrous spirit,
and irresistible geniahty. Disappointment or defeat
never seemed to sour or dishearten him. He might
be struck down for a moment, but only to reappear
buoyant, brave, and cheerful as ever. On the other
hand, his triumphs never seemed to beget pride,
never showed themselves in any assumption of
superiority, never made any one jealous of him.
" Apart from his brilliant powers, his manner was
singularly engaging. His very salutation had a
warmth and heartiness about it that made it feel
like a personal compliment. I can recall vividly a
delightful expression that was often in his face
when you were talking with him — a merry twinkle
from between his half-closed eyelids, as if he were
keenly enjoying what was being said, and had
something racy to follow it up with, as he usually
had." But though so prominent in all circles of academic
life, Grant never forgot that he had come to Glas
gow to study. He took bursaries, scholarships, and
medals, during almost every year of his course, and
maintained himself in comfort without being com
peUed to draw upon the scanty exchequer at home.
The days of specialization and research were still
in the future, but he obtained, which was for his
purpose much more valuable, a broad and thorough
education along the hnes of science, hterature, phil
osophy and theology. His coUege note-books stiU
remain, and embrace in a handwriting already
24

STUDENT LIFE AT GLASGOW
formed, but much smaUer and more regular than
that of his later years, lucid and orderly notes on a
great variety of books read and lectures attended.
Long extracts from Carlyle, Coleridge, Lord Ches
terfield's Letters, and numerous other authors, indi
cate a habit, which he retained till the last, of making
written excerpts from any passage which caught his
fancy. While none of the professors made so deep an
impression on him as some ofthe books read, or some
ofthe ministers and authors encountered, he retained
for nearly aU of them a high regard, and an especial
affection for Lushington, professor in Greek, and
brother-in-law of Lord Tennyson. " Old Ramsay,"
says Dr. Macrae, " author of ' Roman Antiquities,'
(facetiously known by us as ' Ramsay's Iniquities')
was professor of humanity, and classic Lushington of
Greek; old Buchanan, the incomparable examiner
and educator, (Logic Bob, as he was usuaUy caUed
by the students) was professor of logic and rheto
ric ; blushing Blackburn, of mathematics ; WiUiam
Fleming (Moral WuU) of moral philosophy; Nichol,
the early and eloquent expounder of the nebular
hypothesis, occupied the chair of astronomy ; and
Thomson, now Lord Kelvin, was professor of natural
philosophy, with a constant tendency in his classes
to soar away into the empyrean of the higher
mathematics, where only a handful of his students
were able to follow or even keep sight of him."
Though the young Canadian had made the most
25

PRINCIPAL GRANT
of his early opportunities, he was at first at a dis
advantage in contesting with the best students from
the parish schools and academies of Scotland ; but he
was soon brought to the front by his unflagging
industry, and stiU more by his power of seeing to
the heart of a subject, to the exclusion of unimpor
tant details.
Hardworking and faithful student though he was,
the actual learning acquired was the least part of
his education. The ardent, unspoiled mind of the
young colonial sunned itself in the warmth of
hterary, historic, and architectural charm and asso
ciation. In his hohdays he wandered about the
country, now along the border, now among the
western or central Highlands at Morven or Blair
Athol. He heard the greatest preachers, and became
the personal friend of more than one. In the whirl
of civil and ecclesiastical politics he took a keen
interest, and gained a knowledge of men and affairs
which stood him in good stead. Though by several
years the youngest of the four Nova Scotians, he
from the first evinced a maturity of thought which
made him the friend and even the trusted counseUor
of those who were his elders in years.
One of the great events in the life of every true
Scottish student is the election of the lord rector,
the representative of the students on the govern
ing board of the university. Though occasionally
some man of commanding genius, such as Carlyle,
is chosen unanimously, the contest is usuaUy con-
26

STUDENT LIFE AT GLASGOW
ducted upon hnes strictly pohtical; and into this
party warfare Grant entered with the greatest zest,
becoming one of the chief speakers of the Conserva
tive Club, and eventuaUy its president. Even at the
West River Seminary he had been foremost in the
debating society, and his readiness, coolness, and
dash soon made him a prominent figure in the
tussles which all old Glasgow students wih remem
ber as taking place in the Greek class-room. "He
was a very Rupert in debate," says an old friend,
"charging and slashing out in all directions with
unaffected enthusiasm and dehght," yet wary as a
hawk and ever ready to deal out punishment to
those who tried to presume on his assumed reck
lessness. On one occasion a luckless Liberal spoke
unguardedly of the Conservative Association.
"There's no such thing, sir," thundered Grant,
"it's a club."
"WeU, what's the difference?" was the reply.
The young Nova Scotian was on his feet in an
instant, his nostril curled in scorn. "There's an
association, gentlemen," he said, flinging out his
left hand, the fingers hanging limp and separate;
"there's a club," and at the word his closed fist shot
out from the shoulder, fingers clenched, the whole
posture suggestive of the total difference between
limp individualism and the smashing power of united
effort. But there was no mahee in his sallies, and he was
always a fair fighter, scorning wire-pulling and
27

PRINCIPAL GRANT
trickery. "The Liberals," says Dr. Macrae, "found
in him such an absence of aU personal bitterness,
such fairness, and such a spirit of hearty chivalry,
that even those who were fiercest in their defence
of the principles that Grant assafled, were amongst
those who cherished the warmest affection and
admiration for Grant himself." Few things ever
gave him more pleasure than the presentation by
the Liberal Association, when he was leaving the
university, of an address and a handsome set of
Shakespeare, for whUe he often drank deep of
"dehght of battle," while he loved to give and
to take thrusts of the sharpest, he was ever loath to
introduce personal feehng into the debate, and was
the first, when the battle was over, to wish to bind
up the wounds of any honourable antagonist.
His friend, Simon McGregor, teUs of a meeting
held in the Greek class-room, at which McGregor
himself was president. Two Conservative speakers
had vainly tried to make themselves heard, but had
been compeUed to retire. Feet were stamping, tin
horns blowing, all the bedlam of a students' meet
ing had broken loose. "Grant was detained from
the first part of the meeting; he came in, however,
just as it was his turn to speak. As he came forward
and began his address it seemed as if he also must
depart, for the noises continued and the din but
httle abated. He appealed for a hearing, but for a
moment in vain. I noticed, however, his eyes flash,
and instantly he sprang on the book-board, and
28

STUDENT LIFE AT GLASGOW
stretched out his hand. In a few moments he
gained complete control of his noisy and excited
audience, and held it during the course of a moder
ately long speech, so as to render the hearing of
the proverbial faUing pin actuaUy possible. At the
end of his speech the whole audience sprang to
their feet, calling for 'Three cheers for Grant,' in
which liberals and Conservatives alike most heart-
fly joined."
So great, indeed, were his triumphs that a life
long friend doubts whether in later years his ora
tory gained greatly in any essential particular,
though he notes a tendency to "boisterousness,"
which later on calmed down.
Boisterousness there probably was in one so brim
ful of spirits, of the mere healthy physical joy in
life. No matter how late up at night, he was sure
to be bright and hvely in the morning. The genial
roar of his laughter was hke a tonic to tired souls.
In athletics he was prominent, being throughout
his whole course a member of the university foot-
baU team, and for some years its captain. On the
footbaU green he is said to have been ardent and
untiring, fuU of wiles and of dash, and perfectly
regardless of injuries, either to himself or to his
opponents. He feU into frequent scrapes, out of
which his cleverness usuaUy extricated him. On
one mid- winter day a fierce snow-baU fight began
opposite the coUege gates between some younger
students, and a crowd of boys and grinning lads in
29

PRINCIPAL GRANT
the street. In the course of it one small student —
conspicuous in his scarlet coUege gown — had thrown
a snow-baU which struck a big lad fuU in the eye.
In sudden passion the big fellow dropped his snow-
baU, rushed at the boy and began to pummel him
unmercifully. At this moment Grant appeared at
the coUege gate with his books under his arm. The
instant he saw what was going on he handed his
books to another student, fought his way quickly
to the heart of the crowd, and went for the bully.
So fierce was his attack that the blood spurted out
over the snow, and a pohceman arriving arrested
Grant on a charge of stabbing. He was soon bailed
out by his fellow-students, but was compeUed to
appear next day to stand his trial. "The police court
was flooded with students," says Dr. Macrae, "the
younger set of whom, in their enthusiasm over
Grant, had conceived the wild idea, if he were
condemned, of swarming over the barriers, over
whelming the police, and carrying Grant forth to
liberty. As it turned out, there was fortunately no
occasion for attempting this mad feat. He stated
the circumstances with such effect, and his state
ment was so fuUy corroborated, that the magistrate
not only dismissed the case, but said something in
the way of complimenting him on his chivalrous
intervention. The students applauded, swarmed out
with Grant, escorted him to the coUege court, and
after a rousing cheer in his honour and another in
honour ofthe magistrate, dispersed."
30

STUDENT LIFE AT GLASGOW
He hved economically, but creditably, for he was
weU connected, especially on his mother's side ; his
holidays he spent in various ways, sometimes roving
through the country, never without a volume in
his pocket of Horace, Thucydides, Racine or Car
lyle; sometimes joining a reading party in a quiet
Highland glen; on two occasions, at least, fining
his scanty purse by acting as tutor in private
families. A series of rules, or rather, of demands
made by him upon the parents, found in an old
coUege note-book, seems to show that this last
occupation was not always a bed of roses.
" A behef that I have the boy's best interests at
heart, and that I in the schoolroom must know
better than any one out of it, the circumstances of
a case and what ought to be done.
"A behef that I am not a tyrant ; that I wiU
punish only for impertinence, and then not by
touching the head or any part whence injury could
result. " A belief that when a howl is heard, it is caused
not so much by pain, as (by the frequent confession
of the children themselves) by a wish to attract the
sympathy or interference of their mother. Pity that
there ever should be mad yelhng. But for such
I certainly am not to blame.
" 1. Absolute refusal to hear tales. If anything
goes wrong or any information wanted, an explana
tion to be asked from me.
" 2. Punishment outside the schoolroom for im-
31

PRINCIPAL GRANT
pertinence or intentional howhng, in the shape of
sending the offender early to bed, and showing him
that he is under a sentence of moral disapprobation
everywhere, and that it is not his teacher who is
a tyrant, but rather his own sin. No petting or
coddling as a prize for crying loudest.
"3. An understanding that I may leave at a
week's warning if these rules are broken either in
spirit or in the letter."
As was natural, the young Nova Scotian at once
made acquaintance with the city clergy, and soon
after his arrival definitely joined the Barony Church,
of which Norman Macleod was minister. The per
sonality of "Norman of the Barony," soon became
the most vital force in his hfe. No other hving man
ever had the same deep and far-reaching influence
on him that was held by Norman Macleod. "He
was the greatest man I have ever known," he would
often say. Ever since, in 1845, Norman had been
one of the delegation sent out by the kirk of Scot
land to visit the shepherdless sheep in Nova Scotia
and Canada, he had retained a kindly remembrance
of the colony, and more especiaUy of Pictou county,
where the most successful of a series of successful
meetings had been held. He soon saw the genius
that lay hidden in young Grant, took him into his
great heart, introduced him to his home, made him
his friend. This kindness Grant repaid with a love,
deep, tender and hfe-long. Despite his great flow of
language, he was not a man who talked much of
32

STUDENT LIFE AT GLASGOW
his own emotions; but when, in 1872, Norman
Macleod passed away, even Grant's trust in God's
providence was for a moment shaken.
Through Macleod, Grant became greatly inter
ested in the work of the city missionaries in the
foul wynds and closes and vennels of Glasgow.
Sabbath in the purheus of a Scottish city in those
days must have been hke a peep into a very squalid
inferno. A strict Sabbatarianism closed all places of
amusement, forbade all street cars or omnibuses,
and indeed aU wheeled vehicles to be seen in the
streets, and would not even aUow pedestrians to
appear unless garbed in decent black. As a result,
the poorer classes, unable to get to the country,
without clothes suitable for church-going, remained
indoors, stewing in the fetid air of their iU- venti
lated, over-populated warrens, driving away ennui
by steady whiskey-drinking, which terminated to
wards nightfaU in sodden orgies of vice and crime.
WhUe Grant never sympathized with " the Ameri
can Sunday," and opposed Sunday street cars in
Kingston and in Halifax, his recoUections of those
awful Sabbaths in Glasgow made him ready to
assist all reverent methods of freeing the Lord's
Day from the trammels of an out- worn asceticism.1
He also did mission work in the parish of Cathcart,
under the superintendence of the parish minister,
1 Of Sunday street cars in Toronto and Montreal he approved,
deeming them necessary to take the poorer classes into the suburbs
and adjoining country.
33

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Dr. Smith, a grand old survival of the Moderate
party, who died only a few years ago, when weU
over ninety. On the conclusion of his labours at
Cathcart, the teachers of the Sunday school and
other friends presented him with a gold watch and
chain, which he wore to the day of his death, and
which is still, after many an accident amid the
Rocky Mountains or in far Australia, apparently as
sound as ever.
To the influence of Norman Macleod is probably,
in large measure, to be ascribed the warm attach
ment which Grant came to feel for the Estabhshed
Church of Scotland. He had left Nova Scotia in
a state of discouragement. The abandonment of
the cause in 1844 by the kirk ministers, and stiU
more, the exaggerated stories spread throughout the
colonies by numerous Free Kirk delegations as to
the number of the seceders, and the mercenary
motives of those who had remained within the
Estabhshment, had not been without their influ
ence. Landing in Scotland, he found the Estabhsh
ment recovering from the staggering blow of the
disruption; the standard of her preaching set by
such men as John Caird and Norman Macleod; her
endowment fund, under Professor Robertson, rising
to proportions equal to those of the sustentation
fund of her opponents; while the Frees were being
beset with difficulties peculiarly their own, and
proving, as was shown by the celebrated Cardross
case, not really so free from the jurisdiction of the
34

STUDENT LIFE AT GLASGOW
state as those whom they had been wont to caU
"the crouching Erastians of the Establishment."
In 1859 Grant became Scottish correspondent for
the Record,1 and from these early productions, fuU
of the breezy outspokenness and charming, though
occasionaUy impertinent, dogmatism of youth, we
can gather his attitude on the question of church
Estabhshment, and, indeed, can see foreshadowed
along many lines the conclusions of his more mature
mind. Many things in the Free Church commanded
his admiration; its splendid hberality to home and
foreign missions, and to the sustentation fund;
its evangehcal zeal and fervour; above all, the self-
sacrifice which had moved many of the noblest
men in the nation to leave houses and lands and
assured incomes for conscience sake, hke their an
cestors of old, and to preach the gospel by lonely
moors and foam-swept sea-beaches, rather than sub
mit to what they considered the unjust yoke of
the state. But he came increasingly to dislike the
Puseyism, the tendency to priest-craft, of their
leaders. Thus he says: "Nothing can be more de
plorable than when a priestly love of power causes
it to trespass on the inahenable rights and func
tions of the state, or even to view such with a harsh
and jealous eye. Ecclesiastical rule in temporal
affairs was never intended by God, and the only
1 "The Record of the Synod of the Maritime Provinces in con
nection with the Church of Scotland," first published in 1855 by the
Rev. A. Pollok.
35

PRINCIPAL GRANT
perfect specimen of such a government that we
have, in the papal states, is not calculated to make
the world faU hopelessly in love with it." This ten
dency of ecclesiastical courts to pay no heed to the
sanctity of temporal contracts he saw exemplified
in the Cardross case, of which his letters are fuU.
Connected with their Puseyism went a logical
drawing towards Voluntaryism, which he considered
far less suitable for such a country as Scotland than
an Estabhshment. In Canada, the entire difference in
local conditions and in history made him a strong
Voluntary, but wherever an Established Church was
possible, he considered that it tended to give a
broad sanity to religion, whereas the Voluntary
tended to become hysterical. Not only was it a fine
thing to see the state recognizing the religion of
Christ as its true and indeed its only abiding found
ation, but he considered that an Establishment had
an uplifting influence ahke on minister and on con
gregation. On the one hand the minister was more
independent of his congregation and needed not to
truckle to their whims. The Free Church, as he
said, seemed to be coming to the conclusion that
non-intrusion meant not only the right to keep out
an unacceptable presentee, but also to put out any
one who offended the prejudices of the majority.
On the other hand, "the iron hoop of the Estabhsh
ment" kept down the ineradicable tendency of
religious parties to arrogate to themselves the pos
session of all truth, and to expel, in the name of
36

STUDENT LIFE AT GLASGOW
the Lord, all who could not see eye to eye with
them. Grant was also deeply offended by the intoler
ance of many, even among the leaders of the Free
Church, — their wish to unchurch men whom he
revered with aU his soul. He speaks of " the foul
calumnies" directed against those who remained
faithful in '43 merely because they " preferred weU-
defined constitutional rights to being above the
law." The excited language of those who accused
the Estabhshment of "plucking the crown from
the Saviour's brow," woke no response in him. He
notices, especiaUy among "The Men,"1 in the High
lands " atrocious instances of uncharitableness, and
dark unchristian virulence, too often manifested by
the leaders of the flock." " In other parts I found
Free Churchism rampant, and the people darkly,
deeply fiUed — not with the enthusiasm which is
pervasive and beautiful, but with the fanaticism
which is stern and fierce."
When fanaticism and Voluntaryism joined in the
pohtical attempt to dis-estabhsh the church, and to
bring about equality, like Reynard in the fable, by
making aU ahke tailless, his generous anger was so
moved that in 1872 he declares: — "We cannot
shut our eyes to the fact that the Free Church has
almost from her birth nourished two serpents in her

1 A name given to the elders and a few influential communicants,
who very often in the North of Scotland formed an oligarchy before
whom the minister was powerless.
37

PRINCIPAL GRANT
bosom — spiritual pride, and pohtical ambition." So
that, greatly as he revered men hke Macdonald of
Ferintosh, "the Apostle of the Highlands," Guthrie,
or most of all the Olympian Chalmers, seven years'
experience confirmed and deepened his love for the
church of his fathers, and in his letters he recurs
again and again to the attempt to hearten the
strugghng remnant in Nova Scotia by the thought
of the noble strength of their mother over-seas.
After an account of church extension in Glasgow,
he breaks out : — "WiU any of your readers say that
a church which has done so much noble work in
one presbytery is dead, or possesses but a galvanized
activity ? WiU they not rather love their dear old
mother kirk the more, seeing that she is worthy of
their love ? Yes ! She has always been in my sight
'the fairest of the daughters of the Reformation';
she has been in the fire, but not been consumed ;
the floods have swept away many a buttress, and
many a polished shaft ; but she was buUt of ' living
stones ' ; a principle of life was ever in her ; and so
she sent forth stronger supports, goodlier piUars ;
her waUs are hung with weU worn trophies, and
memorials of our great ancestors ; and dishonoured
be the Scot at home or abroad, who feels no grati
tude, no reverence, for the church ofhis fathers."
These forgotten letters are fuU of lively pen
pictures of men and events. The very first sentence
reveals the delightful cocksureness of the Pictou
man. " And so you have by no means given up the
38

STUDENT LIFE AT GLASGOW
Record. It is stiU to be an institution — a welcome
messenger of what's doing on God's side to all the
members of our church. I am very glad to hear of
it ; aU the more so, because the pluck, and therefore
the credit, is to be set down to the score of Pictou.
Long hve the county of Pictou I "
He sketches with considerable frankness the
leaders of the time in the Scottish Church. " Mr.
Smith of Grey Friars, a plain, heavy-looking man,
defended himself in a very fair speech, very badly
delivered. Dr. Pirie, who appeared for the synod, is
quite a different style of man. With a strongly-
marked, rather plebeian expression of countenance,
and strong Aberdonian accent, he is sure to attract
a stranger's attention. There is a good deal of hum
our, and stiU more cheeriness about his face, and
both his head and his speeches indicate plenty of
hard, clear, logical talent. If he commenced an
argument with one, I am certain he would argue
fiercely aU night, never be at all out of humour,
and perhaps end with confessing that he had proved
more than he had intended."
Of Robertson of EUon, afterwards professor at
Edinburgh University, and the organizer of the
endowment fund, he says : " Robertson is an ex
traordinary man ; one of those self-educated pro
digies of whom Scotland has ever had her fair
share. First a ploughman; then a school-master; then
a minister ; now a D.D., a professor, a Dean of the
Chapel Royal, and one of the leaders of the church.
39

PRINCIPAL GRANT
A man possessed of sound common sense to an
extent rare in these days, and of irresistible energy;
proved by the fact that he has raised three hundred
and forty thousand pounds for the endowment
scheme ; yet with a crudity of ideas on some points
that is perfectly charming. He has the largest head
I have ever seen, and the strongest lungs I have
ever known. At two o'clock in the morning, after
hard work aU day, he wUl stiU speak with the same
invincible freshness and strength which has hours
before wearied out his opponents on other ques
tions ; and next morning he is first at the assembly.
His Aberdonian accent is perfect, and he seems
proud of it."
Of the Ulster revival, which was then running its
course, and which the still powerful remnant of the
Moderates were inclined to distrust, he speaks with
high praise. "Some medical men, hundreds of mUes
away, coolly declare that it is aU the result of
atmospheric influence, or subtle sympathetic con
tagion ; but it has been weU remarked that if the
fruits of epidemics be a lessening of drunkenness,
vice, and party spirit, along with increased love,
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, we should aU
pray with great earnestness for epidemics. The Dean
of Down, I am told, has also preached against the
whole revival on the true Puseyite ground that
it has not taken place within and by means of 'the
Church'1; and also, because the return of the prodi-
1 He afterwards came to have a juster view of the value of the
40

STUDENT LIFE AT GLASGOW
gal son is the only type of true conversion ; and
there not being, in his case, any violent and physi
cal display, neither should any such be tolerated in
any other case. Truly man, in his argumentings
upon God's operations, often
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As make the angels weep.
For what can be more irreverent or foolish than
to seek to limit or mathematicaUy define the
manner of the Spirit's workings? Neither at the
same time are we required to consider everything
that happens at a revival as genuine. The question
is not 'How much chaff is there,' but rather, 'Have
you any wheat ? ' and if the work be of God doubt
less the devU wiU try to spoU it by engrafting his
own upon it. But he that is wise wiU try the spirits."1
While at the West River Seminary, he had
formed a friendship with a youth two or three years
older than himself, now the Rev. Professor John
Currie, of the Presbyterian CoUege, Halifax. Some
of the many letters which passed between them
have been preserved, and give a vivid picture of his
mental and spiritual development.2
Puseyite movement. See "Reformers of the Nineteenth Century,''
published in 1866. His earlier attitude was probably due to the influ
ence of Carlyle.
1 His desire for equable growth, and perhaps a larger experience of
the ways and personal habits of so-called revivalists, made him, in later
days, rather distrustful of such manifestations. "I never knew a pro
fessional revivalist that was perfectly sincere," he said once — " Except
Moody," he added, with emphasis.
2 See appendix A. 41

PRINCIPAL GRANT
In the summer of 1860 Grant took his testamur
in theology at Glasgow University, and in the
autumn of the same year went with WiUiam Mc
Millan for a tour upon the continent. Starting from
Leith, the two friends landed at Rotterdam, passed
through the cities of Holland and Belgium, up
the Rhine to Frankfort, then through Nuremberg,
Munich, and the cities of southern Germany to
Turin and Venice. They had intended to take in
Rome, but funds ran short, and they returned by
way of Paris, which Grant seems to have thought
garish and vulgar after the Old World towns of
Bavaria and Piedmont. A diary which he kept
shows great keenness of perception, and powers
of historical imagination, as weU as an extensive
knowledge of continental art and architecture. In
every town the first buUding to which he turned
his steps was the picture gaUery, the next the
cathedral, and he criticizes not only with insight
and common sense, but with a surprising know
ledge ahke of the history and the technique of
modern and mediaeval art. At Frankfort he says:
"Next, to the museum, where I saw the pride of
the city, Danneker's 'Ariadne on the Panther.' The
panther is not very good; the body seems too smaU
in comparison with that of Ariadne; and its legs
are thicker than those of any panther that I ever
saw. But Ariadne is so perfect that criticism seems
hke injustice; she is the model of female beauty
and form. The rosy sunlight from the window
42

STUDENT LIFE AT GLASGOW
above makes her look warm and living; soon after,
when the sun was obscured, she appeared, indeed,
the cold marble, yet then I admired her equally.
Her head is not set on her body, it grows out of it,
the natural development and glory of the whole.
You see in her what an organism is; she is not
built up; she is, has been, and wih remain one, a
person; her unity appears everywhere. You can't
separate one hmb and criticize it. You must deal
with the soul of the being.
"Next, to the cathedral; saw first, in the Dom
Platz, Luther's house, the ground floor now a shop,
distinguished by a bust on the outside, rude and
unpainted, certainly, yet truthful and striking. Lu
ther was so intense an individuality that every
portrait must have caught — could not fail to catch
— somewhat of the man. Here we have him the
hearty, laughter-loving, humorous companion; the
broad face and kindly brown eyes beaming with
jollity and frankness. In Cranach's portrait of him,
though I fear it is only a copy of it which I have
seen, we have rather the theologian represented.
His face is more angular, the expression is intense,
but not so broad and expansive. He is Luther, try
ing against his nature to bind aU humanity within
a sect by the inelastic bonds of the schoolmen,
which he had himself derided. In his portrait by
Fleischmann, he is the great human Luther again,
but there is a gloom, a noble sorrow about the face.
He is older; the hghts in the eyes are not so bright
43

PRINCIPAL GRANT
and lightsome; he has fought hard the battle of
hfe, and, though victorious, has found that the
devil is strong in his foes, his friends, and himself.
And the end he feels is not yet; but he is weary
and longs for rest. Courage, brave soul! For such as
thee there is rest."
Luther was always to Grant the most epoch-mak
ing man of modern times. In his diary at Worms
occurs this extract: "As one walks to and from the
cathedral, one perpetuaUy thinks of that great day,
some three hundred and thirty-nine years ago, when
Luther passed bravely up the streets, the people
crowding the windows and the housetops, and
exhorting him not to give way; and in the vener
able cathedral, even then seven or eight centuries
old, the staUs fiUed with the nobles and great
churchmen, the side chapels with works which
linked the forgotten great ones of forgotten ages
with the rehgion and ceremonial against which he,
a poor monk, was now at feud; what strife must
have raged within his breast! How firm a stand
must he have taken on the rights of the conscience
and the immutable truth of God's word, when aU
the mundane forces could not shake him. It was
not prison, the rack, or physical death that Luther
was called on to contemn. Many a man has done
that before, and many do it every day. But he was
summoned in the sight of men and God — he, the
human-hearted, trustful, and many-sided Luther —
to tear up from the soul its all but deepest feelings,
44

STUDENT LIFE AT GLASGOW
and to weigh them out as nothing in comparison
with truth, to sever himself from history and human
development, to say to princes and cardinals, to
popes and councils, to the embodied Church of
God on earth, 'You are deluded, and I only am
right'; to say this not as a mathematician who had
proved it in demonstrable quantities, nor as a dog
matist who could only see his little atom of truth,
but not the whole edifice, nor as an enthusiast
whose vanity and heat made him regardless of the
claims and voice of general humanity; but as a
thinking soul, trembhngly sensitive to the awful
magnitude of the step he was making, resolute to
go on only because he realized the unseen. Do you
think that the task was easy — that it was not the
hardest ever given to man on earth ? Then you
understand not Luther, and you have never proved
yourself. As I stood before the high altar at Worms,
and then looked down the long length of the nave
where the rich hghts streamed from the round win
dow, and summoned around me the times and the
voices of the past, I felt that even with the addi
tional knowledge and strength of the present, in
such an hour of trial and temptation, I would have
compromised." Of his exhaustless energy, which sometimes
proved a httle too much for his comrades, the fol
lowing is a sample, written at Innspruck, October
3rd:— " Up at 4, and after a refection of sandwiches and
45

PRINCIPAL GRANT
schnapps, set off for the Brenner, but after walking
a mile I remembered that I had not packed my
flannel shirt in my bag, and so I had to return. Off
again at 5 ; and after walking two or three miles,
attempted a short cut, which failed me at a viUage
in the country, and I was obliged to retrace my
steps, not sorry, however, that I had wandered, as I
had a magnificent view of the sunrise upon the
white hiUs at the back of Innspruck. Walked on
thirty-five miles to Sterzing, which I reached at
3.30 o'clock, having stopped on the way half an
hour for coffee, another quarter for wine, and when
over the Brenner (a pretty long, stiff puU) another
half for soup. At 4.30 the dihgence reached Ster
zing, J. J. with my bag ripped and my new plaid
torn in two or three places ; he having been too
much engaged in attending to two Enghsh ladies
to take any care of them. We then agreed to walk
across the hiUs to Hofer's house and Meran; but
just when starting it was discovered that J. J. had
let his bag go on in the diligence to Brixen. Again
we had to change our plans, and to set off for
Brixen after the dihgence. Darkness soon descended,
and after a walk of ten miles, J. J. knocked up
entirely. So we entered a viUage inn, supped, and
went to bed for a few hours, when the next dili
gence would be passing."
In December, 1860, the four friends were ordained
by the presbytery of Glasgow as missionaries for
Nova Scotia. Speeches were made by Principal HUl
46

STUDENT LIFE AT GLASGOW
and by Norman Macleod, the latter saying that
while "one of them was not able to speak Gaelic,
he would back his friend, Mr. Grant, against any
man for speaking in the English language." So
high was Grant's reputation, so strong the personal
friendship between the two men, that Macleod had
offered to the young colonial the position of his
assistant. His refusal was the turning point in his
life. The pulpits emptied at the disruption were
not yet aU fiUed, and any young minister of ability
did not long lack a lucrative appointment. Had
Grant taken the position of assistant at the Barony
Church, his career would have been played upon a
larger stage, before a more brilliant audience, and
under circumstances of far greater comfort. But his
duty to his native land caUed him with a voice that
could not be denied, and on January 11th, 1861, he
landed again in Nova Scotia.1
1 On their departure a dinner was given by a number of their fellow-
students to tlie four Nova Scotians. Of this an amusing account was
sent by their Glasgow correspondent to some of tlie English papers : —
"We are losing at present one or two of the best students of our
university. I say ' losing ' because, as you know, the Scottish universi
ties have neither fellowships nor anything else by which their distin
guished students may be retained after the present course of study is
completed. The students we are losing this session are Nova Scotians,
who, for six or seven years back, have been amongst our best men in
arts and divinity, and are now returning whence they came. George
Monro Grant is the foremost of them. Grant is a splendid fellow, the
realized ideal of Kingsley's muscular Christian. Whatever he undertook
he achieved. His courage was indomitable, his energy absolutely resist
less. If a prize was offered for competition, Grant went in for it; if the
medicals engaged in a football conflict with us, no ' kick ' was so form-
47

PRINCIPAL GRANT
idable to them as Grant's. He was a foremost man in all his classes, the
best debater, the best orator, and the best canvasser in college. Not
that his natural abilities were unequalled, but that he made the best of
them, concentrated his powers on everything, and when he worked at
all worked like a Hercules. . . . The rising of Grant to reply was the
signal for another outburst, more deafening and prolonged than the
last. Through the din there presently became audible the well-known
voice of Grant, but very hoarse and sepulchral. It turned out that he
had a bad cold, and must be excused from making a long speech. He
recalled his first impressions of college and college friends. When he
looked around, he said, he could see some of the old familiar faces, but
most of them were gone. One old classmate was now a professor in
Nova Scotia, one was a fellow in Oxford, others were in Germany,
others in India, and others, alas, had gone to their long homes, and
oblivion had swallowed them up. He was grieved to leave the old
college, endeared by so many fond associations ; but he consoled him
self with the reflection that he was going out to fight the battle for
which college had been designed to prepare him. His motto in college
had been : 'What thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might.'
That would be his rallying cry in the battle of life, and would, he
hoped, be ours."

48

CHAPTER III
CHURCH AND EDUCATION
DESPITE much devoted labour on the part of
both ministers and laymen, Grant found his
native church in a very unsatisfactory condition.
She was, indeed, hardly a native church at aU, but
rather a foreign mission, officered largely by Scotch
men, and supported in great measure by the funds of
the colonial committee of the mother church. There
was no native ministry, and thus an utter dearth of
catechists or divinity students to do the work of
church extension, so essential in a widely scattered,
thinly settled community. Herein she contrasted
very unfavourably with her Free Church and U.P.
rivals, whose institutions at the West River and
elsewhere had given them a native-trained ministry,
which was doubtless in many respects crude, but
which was numerous, enterprising, and in fuU touch
with the thoughts, difficulties and aspirations of the
people of the province. The home church was in no
state to send an adequate supply of ministers to
Nova Scotia, and those who came were in many
respects unsuited for work in a new country, proved
unable to adapt themselves to the altered condi
tions, and, after a few years of discontent, returned
home. 49

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Especially gaUing to one of Grant's nature was
their financial dependence upon the colonial com
mittee of the home church. From his mother he
inherited a horror of debt; the first money he
earned in Nova Scotia was devoted to repaying to
the Young Men's Scheme every penny which he
had drawn from it. That the church in the Mari
time Provinces, with wealthy congregations at
HaUfax and St. John, should hve upon the dona
tions of a committee which drew its funds largely
from the offerings of the poor of Scotland, that
Nova Scotia should pay her ministers from the
savings of Edinburgh servant lasses and Paisley
weavers, seemed to him an outrage. In May, 1861,
he says : " Instead of two ministers, the Church in
Prince Edward Island should count at least four;
but better that it should remain as it is than that
it should burden the colonial committee longer.
We have been too long, in matters financial, under
tutors and governors ; it is high time that we should
begin to keep house for ourselves, and at our own
expense. It is not pleasant to be taunted with the
receipt of ' foreign money,' when our people are as
able and as willing to pay as any other denomina
tion in the provinces."
The difficulties under which this lack of a native
ministry placed the church, he sums up in an
article in the Record for 1865 : —
"In 1841 the Kirk had as many ministers and
nearly twice as many people as the Seceders, so
50

CHURCH AND EDUCATION
much had the last immigrations from Scotland told
in our favour, even though the other body had been
the first to enter the field.1 Now, we have some
twenty congregations, and twenty thousand adher
ents ; the other body has five times our number of
congregations and settled ministers, and more than
three times the number of our adherents. That is
surely a sad reversal of positions, and sufficient to
make every true son of the church inquire into the
reasons of our comparative decline, and endeavour to
supply a remedy. Of course, the great reason of our
present weakness was the disruption, in 1844, of our
church here, many of our ministers forming the Free
Church then, and others of them flocking to vacant
parishes in Scotland. But would such a fatal disrup
tion have occurred here had we then possessed a
native ministry ? Of course not ; and should there
ever again be a similar demand for ministers at
home, would we not be exposed to a similar deser
tion and shipwreck?
"The Free Church, again, in 1849, was not nearly
so strong as we, either in the wealth, intelligence or
compactness of its adherents ; but it was able to
discern the * signs of the times,' and therefore asked
aid from Scotland, not to subsidize foreign agents,
but to train up native ones. And now, look at the
position of the united body. It has ninety-four
organized congregations, only eighteen of which are
1 In 1862 the figures were : — Church of Scotland, 19,063 ; Church
ofthe Lower Provinces, 69,456. 51

PRINCIPAL GRANT
not absolutely self-sustaining; and yet it is stiU
satisfied with a Hall in which only one professor
gives the whole of his time to the work, the other
two being settled pastors. Again, that we may look
on this side, and then on that, and mark the con
trast, I point to the fact that, whereas, in 1854, the
Free Church and Secession together had only forty
self-sustaining congregations, and they have now
about eighty, we who then had seven, have now,
according to Mr. McKay, only nine. And the same
argument applies with still greater force to New
Brunswick. "It has been said that we can get men from
Scotland, if we only offer inducements sufficient.
Why, there is no church in the Lower Provinces
that has offered half the inducement that ours has,
that has expended half so much on home missions,
in proportion to its numbers, or that has been so
continually disheartened by desertions. It is not
men only that we need, but men adapted for the
work to be done, men who will cast in their lot
with us and take what the country can give. Dur
ing the last seven years in which the other body has
so much increased, twelve or thirteen ministers have
left us. The outfit and passage money, alone, of
those came to more than one thousand pounds —
for one of them was sent out twice, some of them
brought wives, and the return passage of some was
paid. They each and all received, while here, one
hundred and eighty-seven pounds ten shillings per
52

CHURCH AND EDUCATION
annum ; and where now are to be seen the fruits of
their labour ? On our home missions, last year, the
colonial committee expended over seven hundred
pounds sterling, and there was raised, for the same
purpose, in the province, over two hundred pounds,
— that is, in all, double of what the united body,
with its ninety-four congregations, expends. Can
these facts be scoffed away? I do not mean to
disparage the ministers that came to us from Scot
land. As a class they were very able men. Some of
them worked nobly; one of them has been pro
moted to be principal of Queen's University ; al
though an ' ecclesiastic,' who does not know half of
our ministers in these provinces, volunteers the im
pertinence that he does not think that we have now
one man who could teach divinity ; others have had
the offers of splendid appointments in Scotland and
Canada ; but the system has been bad in itself, and
has therefore worked badly. Men received the old
country training for old country appointments.
They came here beheving in an Estabhshed Church,
and had to work Voluntaryism of the extremest
type ; they were repeUed by the ahen sympathies,
tones of thought and habit they encountered;
climate, the extent of the country, and the nature
of the work aU told against them. To their honour
be it recorded that many persevered, and at length
triumphed over aU difficulties, winning the con
fidence of the people, and being regarded as fathers
in every tribe of Israel. But, where one remained, 53

PRINCIPAL GRANT
two went away — some disgusted, others wearied,
and others — not because they loved us httle, but
because they loved their own country more, —
bidding a sorrowful good-bye. Under such a system
can the church ever take root in the land ? WiU
not every year make the difficulty greater, for the
coming generation wiU be more Nova Scotian and
less Scottish than the preceding ; and they who wiU
not meet the sympathies of the people, wiU enter
the race heavily weighted, and wUl be obhged to
give up the contest, to which they ought not to
have been summoned. Not that I consider that
Scottish born or Scottish educated ministers will
not be required in the future. They wiU always be
welcome. If our thoroughly organized congregations
prefer them, as we often see to be the case in the
sister church, and in our own church in Canada,
they wiU contribute a valuable element to our
strength, and help to keep up the kindly ties, that,
I trust, will ever hnk us to the mother church.
Thus, the fact that they could have had native
ministers did not prevent Chalmers' Church, Hali
fax, or St. Andrew's, Montreal, from sending to
Scotland for pastors. But, though city congregations
could do that, will not every one acknowledge that
our church in Canada would be a mere fragment,
were it not for Queen's College, and that the
church of the Lower Provinces would not possess
half its present strength had it not been for their
Theological HaU? Those who heard the late Dr.
54

CHURCH AND EDUCATION
Leitch, when he visited us two years ago, must
remember with what earnestness he sought to in
culcate these sentiments, and how he repeatedly
stated that they had been indebted for the forma
tion of almost every new charge in Canada to the
students of Queen's College."
From the historic charm and Old World culture
of Scotland and the continent, to the primitive
conditions and continuous petty hardships of a
Nova Scotian mission-station was a change which
must have taxed Grant's courage. But ho word of
complaint broke from his lips, no thought of dis
satisfaction or regret clouded his cheery spirit; he
had made his choice, and he flung himself into the
work of his native province with the same buoy
ant confidence and whole-hearted enthusiasm with
which he had plunged into the fervour and turmoil
of a rectorial election.
He was at first appointed by the presbytery to
work in the mission field of River John, a scattered
Highland community about fifteen miles west of
Pictou. His first sermons were preached in the
U.P. and Methodist Churches, but it was not long
before his energy roused the people to build for
themselves. When finished, the church was named
St. George's, not, as the congregation expressly
stated in writing, after St. George of Cappadocia,
but after George Monro Grant, who had been a
very saint to them in their day of adversity. To
this early canonization Grant often referred with
55

PRINCIPAL GRANT
humorous pride. For River John and its true-
hearted Highlanders he retained a deep affection,
and often in after years altered his plans to spend
the Sunday with them. Of one of his later visits
a touching incident is told. He was staying with
the minister of the village, and, after the two had
spent a long day in visiting, on their return to the
manse late in the evening, they were told by his
host's wife of a lad hving about a mile away, who
had met with an accident which had resulted in the
loss of his left hand. Grant immediately asked if
they could not go to see him that night. It was
replied that the place was too far away, and the
night was too dark to think of doing this, and the
conversation turned to another subject. Soon, how
ever, Grant spoke again of the sufferer, and the up
shot of the conversation was that he and his host
started with a lantern to visit the boy. When they
arrived at the house Grant sat down beside the boy
and began to cheer him up. Removing the black
mitten with which the stump of his own maimed
hand was habitually covered, he showed this to the
boy, saying : " I would not be where I am to-day
if I had not lost my hand"; and then he added,
" You are more fortunate than I am, for you have
only lost your left hand, whUe I lost my right."
After about three months at River John he was
removed to Prince Edward Island. His unflagging
zeal in this presbytery is still remembered. By Feb
ruary, 1862, his efforts had built and opened at
56

CHURCH AND EDUCATION
St. Peter's Road, six miles from Charlottetown,
a church capable of accommodating over two hun
dred people. Before the end of the summer it was
free from debt, and had guaranteed to pay half of
tlie seven hundred and fifty dollars, which was
the minimum stipend paid by tlie church in Nova
Scotia to a minister. In January, 1863, another
church, also free from debt, was opened at Brackley
Point. He had thus, in eighteen months, built two
churches and seen provision made for the payment
of their incumbents. All this was in addition to the
charge of his largest station, that of Georgetown,
on the east coast of tlie island, thirty miles distant
from the others. Here there was already a church-
building, but the congregation consisted of a mere
handful, discouraged by a succession of misfortunes.
Before he left, it had become self-sustaining, no
longer a burden on the colonial committee, but a
contributor to every scheme of the synod ; and a
comfortable manse had been erected and paid for.
In August and September, 1862, he was re-trans
ferred by the synod to River John, but in Septem
ber returned to Georgetown.
During his first winter in the island, an incident
occurred which was very typical of tlie man. Awak
ing one Sunday morning he found that a storm which
had been raging for several days had so increased in
violence that the door of the house was blocked and
the roads impassable. The church was nearly a mile
away, and he was urged not to venture amid the
57

PRINCIPAL GRANT
trackless drifts. But as soon as breakfast was over,
the young minister was out, and after a glorious
wrestle with the snow, reached the church, dripping
with perspiration. There was no sign of a congre
gation, so he again flung himself into the drifts,
and finaUy reached the house of the sexton. Him he
aroused and sent to the church to hght a fire, and
then to ring the bell Meanwhile he himself, still
unwearied, toiled to the houses of the nearest
parishioners, dragged them out, and, having even
tually coUected a handful, delivered to them a long
and eloquent discourse.1
He was now to be transferred to a field of wider
usefulness. St. Matthew's Church, Halifax, was the
largest and most influential Presbyterian Church in
the province. Founded in 1750, in the year foUowing
the first settlement of the city, by Lord Cornwallis,
" for the Protestant dissenters," it is probably the
first Non-conformist church in the world endowed
by the British government. Originally known, after
the celebrated New England divine, as Mather's
Church, it changed its name early in the succeeding
century; at about the same time the dissenting in
fluence which had hitherto controlled it was ousted

1 One native born elder was for a time distrustful of him, supposing
him to be a Scotchman. His suspicions were dispelled by a walk to
gether during the early winter, when Grant stepped so fearlessly and
familiarly over the slippery ice that the old man said in delight : " Ye
eanna be a Scotchman ; nae Scotchman walks on ice that way." "Oh
no," said Grant, "I'm a Pictou man." Their friendship was sealed from
that moment.
58

CHURCH AND EDUCATION
by the later Church of Scotland arrivals, though a
relic of the older element persisted, tiU well on in
Grant's pastorate, in the use of Watt's hymns.1 Its
constitution stiU retains a strong Congregational
element, and on one occasion the refusal of the
people to obey the wishes of the presbytery so
disgusted Grant, that he told them publicly that if
he had read their constitution in time he would
never have accepted the call.
His predecessor in the charge was the Rev. John
Scott, of Jedburgh, Scotland, who had been in
ducted in 1826. A fine specimen of the gentleman
and the scholar, Scott had weakened his influence
by a distant and retiring manner, which effectuaUy
veiled from the congregation the love and devotion
of which his heart was full. He was now growing
old and feeble, and cordiaUy joined in the desire of
his people to open up negotiations with the young
missionary whose zeal was attracting so much atten
tion. Scott's name is first in the unanimous " call "
of the congregation, and tiU assured that his consent
had been given freely and without pressure, Grant
declined to consider the matter. The congregation
first opened up negotiations with a view to obtain
ing him as assistant and probable successor, but
1 The present church was erected in 1857-8. When the site was
purchased from the Anglican bishop of the diocese, he added a stipu
lation that if any other building was erected on any portion of the
property, the purchaser should be subject to a fine of $2,000. Hence, to
this day, there is no separate school-house or lecture hall, and the
Sunday school is held in the basement of the church.
59

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Grant scouted the idea. Though as yet only a mis
sionary, and not formaUy inducted to any charge,
he felt that he owed a duty to the people of George
town, who had been so loyal to him, and he would
not leave them for any probabihty. He was then
requested to preach a trial sermon, but this he
absolutely refused to do.1 FinaUy on December 4th,
1862, an unconditional and unanimous caU was
sent, and on May 13th, 1863, the young minister,
not yet twenty-eight, was formaUy inducted into
the charge.
From the moment of his return to Nova Scotia,
he had taken a deep interest in the work of the
synod, and had been a regular attendant and fre
quent speaker at its meetings. As has been already
shown, he at once saw that the most important
question before it was that of the practicabihty of
producing a native-trained ministry. The West
River Seminary of the United Presbyterian Church,
in which instruction was given both in arts and
divinity, had been transferred in 1858 to more
commodious quarters at Truro ; in 1848 the Free
Church had founded an academy and divinity school
1 One of his most frequent and most forcibly expressed pieces
of advice to his divinity students in later days was : "Never consent to
preach a trial sermon. You are servants of God, not petty shopkeepers
huckstering your wares. If they wish to know what spirit you are of, let
them question your professors and fellow-students ; if you have already
preached, whether on a mission field or in a settled charge, let them go
there and enquire as to your walk and conversation ; let them send
a delegation to hear you in your own pulpit, but never cheapen your
manhood by preaching to a congregation on trial."
60

CHURCH AND EDUCATION
at Hahfax, the former of which was aided by the
province. In 1860 these two bodies coalesced, be
coming " The Presbyterian Church of the Lower
Provinces," and establishing their theological haU
at Hahfax, their academy at Truro. To contend
against this the Establishment had nothing but the
Young Men's Scheme, which was uncertain and
precarious, and deprived the synod of aU use of the
students during their seven years of study.
Moreover, in Grant's mind, the question was
bound up with that of the higher education of the
province. A bitter discussion was at this moment
raging in Nova Scotia, which culminated in the
educational act of Dr. (now Sir Charles) Tupper, in
1864, a measure to which Grant gave his heartiest
support, and which laid the foundation of that
admiration for Tupper, which his conduct at con
federation did so much to intensify. As the coping
stone of the system of primary and secondary
schools therein inaugurated, Grant's imagination
saw rising a great provincial university, drawing to
itself the resources of the struggling denominational
institutions, free from aU sectarian bias, and offering
to every Nova Scotian the advantages of culture and
of science. To bring about this end he at once bent
himself, and he was not long in finding material to
work upon. Early in the century, the lieutenant-
governor, Lord Dalhousie, had appropriated a certain
fund, known as Castine, the spoil of a forgotten raid
during the war of 1812, to be devoted to the erec-
61

PRINCIPAL GRANT
tion of a provincial university, free from all religious
tests, and in 1820 the corner-stone of Dalhousie
College was laid. The building was completed some
years later, but, with one brief exception, the history
of the first forty years is the history of a building,
and of the jangles of a board of governors, in which
a prominent part was played by King's CoUege, the
stormy petrel of Nova Scotian education.
In 1838, Dr. McCuUoch, transferred from Pictou
Academy, did his best to galvanize it into activity,
but died five years later, worn out and despairing, and
Dalhousie fell back into chaos. This was the unpro
mising material with which Grant had to work. At
the synod of June, 1862, he set about the task, and
in August a vigorous article appeared in the Record
over the well-known " G." "The history of Dal
housie College is a strange and chequered one. In
tended, according to the terms of its endowment,
to be formed on the model of the University of
Edinburgh, but never yet realizing any grade higher
than that of school, museum, post-office, lumber-
room, or something of the sort, as the effeteness, or
whims, or indifference of governments or of pro
vincial public opinion drifted it; a standing reproach
to Nova Scotia ; a too truthful iUustration of the
shamelessness of our political morahty, and of the
Pharisaic sectarianism of our religion. Such are but
poor omens for its future usefulness ; and did we
beheve in fatality, ill-luck or auguries, we would
say, have nothing to do with that ill-starred college.
62

CHURCH AND EDUCATION
But we believe in something higher than good or
bad luck. Dalhousie College has never yet had a
fair trial ; let us give it one, if we are aUowed.
The buildings are solid, and in fair repair ; the en
dowment amounts to about nine hundred pounds
sterling a year ; and the object aimed at in its in
stitution is avowedly a purely secular education."
His plan was that the kirk should raise four
thousand pounds to endow one chair, that the
Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces should
be requested to merge their Truro institution in
the revived university, that the government should
endow three chairs out of the existing funds of the
college, and that any other bodies or corporations
which appeared willing, should be allowed to take
part upon reasonable terms. He found an enthusi
astic helper in the Rev. AUan Pollok; doubters
were convinced or at least silenced ; the synod was
swung into hne, and a deputation sent to the synod
of the United Presbyterian Church, then in session.
The spirit manifested by that body was, to the full,
as noble as then own. Before the meeting adjourned
the committee was able to report that they had
conferred with the committee of the sister church,
and had arrived at the following conclusions : —
1. That any rehgious body that endowed a chair
should have a representative on the governing court
of the college.
2. That any rehgious denomination that took
part in the scheme should keep its funds under its
63

PRINCIPAL GRANT
own control, so that it might have perfect Uberty
to retire from the partnership whenever it con
sidered that it was not dealt with in good faith.
3. That were a satisfactory arrangement made,
the united body would be willing to give up its
denominational institute at Truro.
So admirable was the spirit of the sister church
that for a moment Grant dreamed that the other
denominations might be induced to join in the
endeavour. The hope was vain. King's was avowedly
and on principle sectarian. Acadia College, Wolf-
viUe, the Baptist university, had been founded in
1838, as a protest against the bigotry of the Pres
byterian and Episcopal governors of Dalhousie, and
was in no mood either to unite with her rival, or to
look with friendly eyes on the attempted resuscita
tion. Mount Allison, the Methodist institution estab
hshed in 1858, at SackviUe, was beyond the borders
of the province, and though not unfriendly, refused
to coalesce. The opposition of Acadia became so
extreme that trouble in the legislature was threat
ened, and Grant roundly declared that the scheme
would not be pushed forward unless it were assured
of the unanimous support of both parties in both
Houses. Acadia was finally pacified, and on April
29th, 1863, the bill for the reorganization of Dal
housie CoUege became law. In June, 1863, the
committees of the two Presbyterian Churches met
and agreed that Dalhousie College " should be not
a denominational but a provincial institution; that
64

CHURCH AND EDUCATION
no religious test should ever be enacted ; that the
governors should be selected by the governor-in-
councU and be not removable at pleasure ; that any
denomination, corporation, or individual, endowing
or sustaining a chair or chairs, should be represented
by an additional governor for every such chair, and
that existing vacancies at the board should be fiUed
up by suitable persons of other denominations, not
Presbyterian." The chair to be endowed by the kirk was that
of mathematics, and Grant at once set about col
lecting funds. From his own congregation at St.
Matthew's he obtained two thousand four hundred
and ninety-four pounds of the four thousand pounds
required, and most of the remainder was coUected
throughout the synod by himself. The chair was
fiUed by Professor Charles Macdonald, a graduate
of Aberdeen, who was, till his death in 1901, one of
the two or three admitted to the inner circle of
Grant's love and friendship.1
In the revived university Grant took the deepest
interest. He was at once elected one of the board of
governors, a position which he held tiU 1885. At
every convocation he was caUed upon for a speech,
which usually took the form of the offer either of a
1 On the death of the first occupants of the chairs, the church with
drew from Dalhousie to strengthen its own theological college at Pine
Hill, Halifax, the funds originally contributed by its United Presby
terian branch, but the professorship of mathematics is still supported
by the church and in great part from the money collected by Grant in
1863.
65

PRINCIPAL GRANT
subscription or of a prize to one of the departments
in the university — arts, science or medicine. Later
on, when the project of union with King's became
prominent, he did all in his power to bring it to
pass, but without success.

66

CHAPTER IV
THEOLOGICAL STRUGGLES
u /~\UR Young Men's Scheme affords us an
V_/ insufficient and uncertain supply of minis
ters ; and not only so, but it leaves uncared for the
great mass of our intelligent young men who are in
consequence obhged to obtain their higher educa
tion at the school of one of the other more enter
prising sects. I saw one day in our synod three
young ministers of the united body sitting in one
pew there as strangers and foreigners, and I weU
knew that if such an institution had been estab
hshed ten years ago, every one of those would now
be a minister of our church, and would have sat
there as a member of our highest church court.
''Tis true, and pity is, 'tis true.' But there is no use
repining. We have to take warning, however ; and
now let us work."
This evil Grant now saw removed in part by the
revival of Dalhousie ; his next thought was to
obviate it altogether by the foundation of a theo
logical haU at Halifax. To pay professors to devote
themselves whoUy to the work was impracticable,
but he hoped that foUowing the example of their
Free Church brethren, the city ministers would be
able to spare from their charges the time necessary
67

PRINCIPAL GRANT
for giving instruction in the haU, and that courses
of lectures would be given for six or eight weeks in
the year by outside ministers. He himself was wUl
ing to devote his services freely and fuUy to the
work, and in 1865 the matter was brought up in
the synod. Support was promised by the sister
church of New Brunswick, and after much dis
cussion a motion was passed, approving in general
terms of the idea, and appointing a committee to
consider the details more fuUy, and to present the
result before the synod of 1866. Hardly had the
meeting adjourned when a hot controversy arose.
The Rev. W. M. PhiUp, minister of St. Paul's,
Truro, and afterwards at Albion Mines, a man of
distinct abihty, but of no love for his adopted
country, and not noted for accuracy in controversial
matters, had alone opposed the overture at the
synod, and even he had left the meeting before the
final vote, which was therefore unanimous. In the
September Record he attacked the proposed haU,
stating that " the scheme was suddenly disclosed at
the eleventh hour, at the fag end of the session,
and shpped hurriedly through court." As moderator
of the synod in 1865, Grant had taken no open part
in the discussion, but he was known to be the real
father of the scheme, and was convener of the
committee appointed. In the October Record, he
emphatically and indignantly disclaimed the charge
of unfairness ; others joined in the controversy,
which grew so bitter that in December the com-
68

THEOLOGICAL STRUGGLES
mittee of management pubhshed the foUowing
decisions : —
1. That aU communications intended for inser
tion in the Monthly Record must be submitted to
the consulting committee ere they can be pubhshed.
2. That no communication containing person
alities shaU be pubhshed, until anything of this
nature that may be considered objectionable shaU
have been expunged by the author.
3. That it is expedient that for the present aU
further controversy on the subject of the proposed
Divinity HaU be discontinued.
Grant protested vigorously but without avail,
though for the previous seven years no number of
the Record had appeared without an article, either
signed or unsigned, from his pen. When, in June,
1866, the committee reported, the supporters of the
proposed haU did indeed win a Pyrrhic victory,
but the opposition was so bitter that the project
was left in abeyance. At the same time Grant's
name was dropped from aU committees, save that
which pro forma continued in existence on the
question of the theological hall.
The scheme was certainly open to grave criticism.
The colonial committee looked coldly upon it, and
would give no aid ; as a foreign mission to the New
Hebrides had lately been organized at a cost of
about four hundred pounds per year,1 the financial
1 It is interesting to note that the only opposition to this expansion
of the church's usefulness came from Mr. Philip.
69

PRINCIPAL GRANT
question would have presented difficulties, though
the amount needed was ridiculously over-estimated
by Phihp and his associates; the Young Men's
Scheme, on which the opponents of the haU rehed,
had certainly produced some noble fruit, and the
training at Glasgow or Edinburgh had on the best
minds a culturing and refining influence superior to
the results achieved in the native seminaries. But
grave as were these objections, Grant's plan was
the only one which, if successful, would have built
up an indigenous church, and he was bitterly disap
pointed at its frustration, especiaUy as he shrewdly
suspected that more than one had been not a little
moved by the Judas plea of Philip that the money
would be better spent in raising the salaries of the
present incumbents, and making their lot more
comfortable, than on training "a dwarfish and
feeble race " of divinity students and catechists.
Grant's defeat on this question, and his removal
from the synodical committees, represents the cul
mination of a number of influences which had for
some time been working against him. His outspoken
desire to have the church in Nova Scotia stand upon
her own feet had, not unnaturaUy, irritated the im
perfectly acchmatized Scotchmen in the ministry;
his " heinous crime of being a young man " made
the grey-beards, even among the native-born, con
sider any one not deferring to their authority as
dogmatic and overbearing; but the chief cause of
his temporary defeat lay in his having "unfurled
70

THEOLOGICAL STRUGGLES
the banner ofthe free spirit." Ever since he landed
he had been fighting the battle of freedom of
thought with a verve and an audacity which had
spared no sham however sacred, no prejudice how
ever venerable. In 1861, writing on the tercentenary
of the Reformed Scottish Church, he says : —
"What has Scotch protestantism done during
the last three hundred years? Not so much in Scot
land as might have been expected from its vitality.
It has not converted to the national type of pres
bytery the upper classes, who are almost to a man
Episcopahans. It has not protestantized those ten
thousands of Irish Romanists who have flocked to
its shores. It has not even rooted out the powerful
remnants of popery that ever since the Reformation
have possessed many fair portions of the land — in
Glenhvet, Moidart, Uist, and in the south as weU
as the north. It has not been sufficiently generous
and expansive to keep the whole family united
under one roof-tree. And why has it thus not
fulfiUed its complete mission ? Because when it
became powerful, it was the first to deny its own
spirit and principles. It became intolerant and per
secuting. It bound itself with inelastic bands hke
those which it had indignantly cast off. And when
the days of proscription and persecution had passed,
the punishment of such unfaithfulness remained
upon it. Thus does every institution as weU as
every man reap as it sows."
More vigorous, and more calculated to rouse
71

PRINCIPAL GRANT
opposition, were his attacks on the coldness, faint
heartedness, and bigotry of the clergy, on their
wilhngness to rest contented in vain repetitions of
formulas which had lost aU relation to the real hfe
of the community, on the worldly wisdom which
masked itself as piety. Preaching in 1866 to the
assembled synod, he says : —
"Ministers the especial agents in this work of the
regeneration of men, did I say ! Surely I am wrong
— that is not their part in the present day. The
minister's duty now is to give no offence to saint or
sinner ; to tread delicately lest he offend delicate
sensibilities ; to make much of the people, and by
indirect flattery make them think weU of them
selves that they may think weU of him ; to be, in a
word, an amiable, harmless creature, a dignified and
respected wind-bag, from which shaU proceed at
regulation intervals sounds that shaU be accepted
as thunder, thunder without hghtning, thunder
warranted to hurt nobody. The minister's work
now is to crush his manhood out of him ; to have
no opinions which differ from those entertained by
any one he meets, and to have no opinions at aU on
matters of real hfe ; to strike at the vices of the
absent, of other classes, other times ; to echo the
cuckoo note of a barren orthodoxy, to strain at the
gnats of heresy, and to be suspicious of scientific
criticism and free thought. No, in the name of the
hving God, a thousand times no. Ministers are —
ought to be — 'labourers together with God,' stew-
72

THEOLOGICAL STRUGGLES
ards of his mysteries ; not servants of the people, in
the sense in which the word is commonly under
stood, that is, hirelings doing so much work for so
much wage. No, they are God's servants to serve
men ; responsible, therefore, not to man but to their
Master; above their people in the Lord, though
serving them. 'I magnify my office,' — not myself.
In the ordinary work and relationships of hfe I am
as one of my people, and would not dare to assume
authority by clothing myself for common use with
the sacredness of office. But as working with God I
am an ambassador of Christ, and must speak as for
Him whether men hear or whether they forbear."
Speaking in 1869, he says : " Of aU these I have
named, the one who has least education and fewest
natural advantages is Mr. Moody, and yet in mov
ing and reaUy convincing men he stands head and
shoulders above them aU. The pulpit should set
itself to learn the secret of his success. The secret is
an open one, wliich aU may easUy learn. Convince
men that you are disinterested and that you are in
earnest, and they wiU hear you, provided always
that you have got something to say and can say it
directly and in the language of everyday life. If
a minister of Christ is selfish and worldly, he dis
seminates infidelity more effectuaUy than a regi
ment of sceptics. If he has no distinct message
from the Lord to give, he had better step down
and out. Unreahty of language and tone, dogmas
preached at second or third hand, duU platitudes 73

PRINCIPAL GRANT
and want of candour, all these abominations hving
men wiU no longer tolerate. They cry for reality,
for frankness. If a man has no message to them
from the unseen world, let him not pretend that he
has. But the pulpit professes that it has. It is based
on faith. Its very raison (TStre is faith. The man of
science can speak only of an unknown and unknow
able God ; for Nature's face is veiled, and that veil
no mortal has ever yet been able to draw aside.
But faith cometh not of science. Faith is the vision
of the unseen, faith assumes revelation. For, as Dr.
WaUace said the other day in Edinburgh, 'Faith in
an unknown and unknowable God is as meaningless
as to speak of faith in Abracadabra.' Faith cries,
' God has spoken. We know Him that is true. This
is hfe eternal to know God in Jesus Christ whom
He hath sent.' "
Along with this fearless frankness went his lack
of what was called evangelicalism ; a whisper grew
that he was not " sound " ; his cheery vitality, his
utter lack of gloom, his sympathy with everything
human was construed into a hazy universahsm, a
disregard of the vital principles of Calvinistic theo
logy. On the first Sunday of 1865, he preached to
his people on the text : " Rejoice, oh young man, in
thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days
of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart,
and in the sight of thine eyes ; but know thou, that
for all these things God will bring thee to judg
ment." The sermon was reprinted at the desire of
74

THEOLOG IC AL STRUGGLES
the congregation, and reads to-day like the eloquent
expression of a common-place.
" Man, as material and spiritual, is linked to two
distinct worlds or systems of things. Duties devolve
upon him from his relation to each, and it is the
great practical difficulty of life to adjust the respec
tive claims ofthe two. Human nature is one, but it
is compound; and so different in kind is the one
part of it from the other, that there often seems to
be in man two natures, as there are in him two
springs of action. On the one hand, man is flesh and
blood, with impulses, appetites, passions, desires,
craving for instant gratification, and he is in a beau
tiful world filled with objects and arrangements
adapted and designed to meet aU the hunger and
thirst of his sentient nature, and thus to give him
that gratification which, with all the imperiousness
of instinct and necessity, he demands. But in this
earthly there is a heavenly citizen. Man is also a
spiritual being, having in him ' a connexion ex
quisite of distant worlds,' spiritual capacities which
no created thing can compass or fill, imperative
convictions of duty which are felt to be everlasting
in obligation, and which must be obeyed, though
feeble sense and quivering nerve and fibre shrink
back from the work."
He goes on to say that either side of this nature
makes its lawful demands, and continues : " Now
then, let us see where we are. Man is bound up in
the two great departments of God's universe, I have
75

PRINCIPAL GRANT
said; and we become unnatural and unhealthy when
we confine our view to one side of our being and
possessions, one side of truth, happiness and duty.
It is ours to drink from aU the streams of happiness
that issue from God's throne. Our bodies are not to
be macerated, but to be nurtured into strength and
beauty ; our characters not to be stunted, not put
into straight jackets, but to be disciplined unto aU
their rightful issues; our minds to be developed, our
tastes to be cultivated, our imaginations to be edu
cated, our recreations to be encouraged, no legitimate
exercise of any part of our nature to be checked ex
cept when it comes into collision with higher claims;
and aU this to be done — religiously !
"And such a combination of the lower and of the
higher hfe is, I beheve, what is enjoined in the text.
There is nothing ironical or sarcastic in it, as is
generaUy supposed, any more than in the context.
In the preceding verse, the preacher had said that
one ought to rejoice aU his life, i.e. should ever
keep a brave and happy heart ; for many diseases
both of soul and body take their rise in gloomy and
bitter thoughts ; while a merry heart is better than
medicine. In the opinion of Luther, the man of
modern times who had surest faith in spiritual
reahties, facetious books and music are next best to
words of Holy Writ for driving away the devil
from us. And the preacher next specifies the time
of life in which enjoyment is most natural and
attainable. 'Young man, walk in the way of thy
76

THEOLOGICAL STRUGGLES
desire and by the sight of thine eyes,' i.e. whatever
you see within your reach which would increase
your happiness, enjoy that. It is yours ; but remem
ber always that God wiU bring you into judgment
for the manner in which you use this liberty. In
other words, use God's blessings as comforts and
pleasures intended for you ; but beware of abusing
them ; for know weU that He wiU caU thee to ac
count for aU that thou doest. Such is the wisdom of
Scripture, and it is too broad for the ascetic and the
austere, for Scribe and Pharisee." In the rehgious
and in the secular press, and in private life he was
attacked by those who looked upon the text as a
sarcastic warning of the bitter vengeance stored up
against the frivolity and levity of youth.
This sermon was one of many utterances which
sprang from his deep feehng that all God's gifts
were good, and that the fuUest expression of any
truth could not but help forward the cause of
the God of truth. In 1862, in a lecture upon "The
Young Man's Life," delivered first at Pictou, and
afterwards at Halifax, he bitterly complains of the
distrustful attitude of Protestant and Roman Catho
hc ahke, to the discoveries of modern science. To
him aU the universe was God's universe ; every
truth was God's truth, and every man who, with a
view to the discovery of truth, investigated the
nature of God's universe, was a servant of the
Almighty, seeking to manifest His ways to men.
He spurned the theory which cut the world in two
77

PRINCIPAL GRANT
with a hatchet, and gave one half to reason and the
other half to faith. Through and through, in warp
and woof, he believed the universe was an organic
whole belonging to the Almighty; reason but re
vealed in detail that which was already certain to
the intuitive glance of faith.
" What then is the legitimate demand of science
or of reason ? For if we know that, we will be able
to judge whether the cause of the hostility hes with
it or with faith. I see keen-eyed reason coming to
faith and addressing it thus, 'You say that the
Bible is from God — a revelation of His will. WeU
then, let it be fearlessly studied by aU the faculties
of knowing. For if it be "hopelessly obscure," it is
mockery (as Arnold wiU confess) to caU it ' the rule
of faith.' You thereby impute an obscurity to God's
work such as attaches to the work of no phUosopher
and no human legislator. Furthermore, you say
that the world is from God — a revelation of His.
wiU. Let me then have perfect freedom to search
into it and announce what I find there. If both are
from the one author they wiU not contradict each
other. So do not put me to the rack, as the papists
did with Galileo, if I find that the earth goes round
the sun. And do not persecute and call me hard
names, as many of the evangehcals are in the habit
of doing, if I cannot find traces of the Noachian
deluge in America, or if I find bits of pottery in
Egypt or flint weapons in France which I believe
were fashioned by men more than six thousand
78

THEOLOGICAL STRUGGLES
years ago. In neither case am I an infidel, but the
reverse. I would be an infidel if I refused to believe
what is shown unto me by the light that lighteth
every man that cometh into the world. I may be
mistaken in my inference, but show me that I am.
Or your inferences from the Bible may be unwar
ranted. And until we settle which is in the right,
had you not better give and take the benefit of the
doubt?' " What ! you say to me, . science is here claiming
nothing but the sacred rights of human thought in
the religious and inteUectual order of things. Who
wUl dare to refuse her? Has not the indignant
protest of humanity three centuries ago against the
slavery of the mind settled aU this ? No, brethren,
there is much in human nature opposed to this
freedom; our pride, prejudices, fears, selfishness, are
as intolerant of it now as in the days when Roger
Bacon with his scientific discoveries, and Faustus
with his printing press, were held to have made
compact with heU, working wonders through the
power of Beelzebub. Romanism still keeps the god
less waU of separation raised between philosophy
and rehgion. According to its theory we have a
domain of revealed truth to be believed in on tra
ditional authority, beside the domain of reason,
which carries its evidence in itself. The two are
represented, not as two parts of universal truth, but
as two totaUy distinct kingdoms — the one of which
has generaUy been trying to put down the other
79

PRINCIPAL GRANT
under it; whereas — the church now being weak —
an aUiance is recommended to be made between
them on terms of mutual respect and forbearance."1
The good people of Pictou might have stood
with equanimity the vigorous denunciation of Ro
manism which foUows, but Grant had a bad habit
of not confining himself to the vices of the absent,
and he went on to attack the attitude of Protes
tantism towards science as equaUy cowardly, equaUy
unscriptural, and far more blameworthy, as being a
sin against those very principles of liberty on which
Protestantism was ostensibly based. Indeed, another
cause of the distrust shown towards him was what
was considered his undue sympathy with the Church
of Rome. Of popery and of the hierarchy he had a
wholesome Presbyterian distrust, but his tour upon
the continent had opened his eyes ; not only did he
see thousands of men and women in the Roman
communion leading holy, self-sacrificing fives, but
he came increasingly to admire the splendid organi
zation and administration which had done so much
Christ-like work among the lapsed masses, no less
than the simple faith which lifts the soul of the
Irish labourer or the Canadian habitant so far above
the self-sufficient materialism of lower class Protes
tantism. As early as 1859 he had written words
bold indeed for a young man about to start his
career in Presbyterian Nova Scotia. " If Romanism
be a huge deception, assuredly its death warrant
1 "The Young Man's Life."
80

THEOLOGICAL STRUGGLES
has been signed and sealed long ago ; and the longer
the angel delays to put it in execution the more
complete and awful wiU be the destruction; but it
wUl not be put into execution as long as the
papal church possesses a single good principle or
particle of good which Protestantism has not at
tained unto. Let us then see well unto our own
ways, and even enquire if we may not yet learn
something from those whom we have long been
satisfied with anathematizing."
In Halifax his church and house were close to
those of Monseigneur Thomas ConoUy, the Roman
Cathohc archbishop, and the growing friendship
between the brilliant young Scot and the equaUy
briUiant Irishman, a kinship of heroic hearts, who
grew together in ever-increasing love and mutual
understanding to the end, gave great offence to the
narrow bigotry which in certain circles was rife.
When Grant reached Nova Scotia the "organ"
controversy was raging. Though the brunt of the
battle feU on PoUok, here, too, Grant played a prom
inent part, though it was not a question which he
considered really important. St. Matthew's did not
instaU an organ tUl 1873, but in this, as in aU other
innovations, he stood for individual and congrega
tional Uberty. In 1859, speaking of stained glass
windows, he says: "I know that some who imagine
themselves imbued with the old Puritan principles
may object to such decorations of churches. On
what good ground I am at a loss to know. The day
81

PRINCIPAL GRANT
has surely gone by forever when the chief aim
in buUding temples to God was to crowd together
the greatest possible architectural deformity at the
least possible expense. God who planned this so fair
universe, and fretted with golden fire the great arch
of heaven, is the infinite source of the beautiful
as weU as the good and the true. It is weU that we
should be in harmony with Him, and let us not
confound the reaching up unto spiritual truths
through material symbols, with the gross material
ism and fetichism which would rest in the outward
and give to the creature the glory that belongs to
the Creator."
In May, 1865, he writes : " It is absurd for people
or congregations opposed to instrumental music to
feel or speak angrily on the subject, because no one
dreams of even asking them to change their usages ;
aU that is asked is liberty for those who think dif
ferently to act without being fettered by the tastes
of people who may hve a hundred mUes away, and
be very differently circumstanced. And for such
congregational Uberty I wiU contend at aU hazards.
The articles and laws of the Church of Scotland are
numerous and stringent enough, and these are not
the times for attempting to make them more so.
They are the innovators who would make a new
law where no law now exists, and any such attempt
would alienate ten for every one it would confirm.
In a large and historic church there cannot be,
there ought not to be, absolute uniformity in things
82

THEOLOGICAL STRUGGLES
indifferent, and though personaUy aU my tastes and
prejudices are opposed to instrumental music in
churches, I shaU never sanction any narrowing of the
congregational liberty, which, I beheve, we possess."
In January, 1867, whUe perhaps stiU shghtly in
censed at his defeat in the synod, he dehvered
before the Y.M.C.A. of the city a lecture upon,
"Reformers of the Nineteenth Century," which
would not now excite much remark, but which at
the moment raised a storm. The three reformers
were Coleridge, Wordsworth and Carlyle, and a
long introduction described in caustic terms the
conditions of the eighteenth century with which
they were caUed upon to grapple. " In aU spiritual
things there has hardly been so barren a century as
the eighteenth, since the Christian centuries began.
When Thomas Carlyle says of it that, ' What httle
it thought may be caUed Voltaire; what httle it did
Frederick the Great,' he is unjust to it, but only
because he exaggerates. Samuel Johnson hved in it
and almost redeems it. Burns Ut up its later decades
with a fire that consumed much of its dross. But little
truth, httle heroism, httle faith hved and reigned
in it." . . . . "Geneva did something positive for
a new system of things, though it was a something
that Calvin would have stared at, when she sent
forth Jean Jacques Rousseau. But certainly there
was more living faith in the truths of Christianity
during the eighteenth century at the Vatican than
at any of the headquarters of Protestantism." 83

PRINCIPAL GRANT
As compared with an eighteenth century of sham,
he caUs the nineteenth a century of attempts to
struggle back to reality, honesty, and true Christian
self-sacrifice; a century which has seen the heroism
of the disruption in the Church of Scotland, and the
unflinching loyalty to truth of Faber, Manning and
John Henry Newman.
" Now the astonishing thing is that the men who
laud the heroism of Chalmers, Cunningham, Cand
lish, and their confreres most loudly, refuse to see
any moral beauty, any faith, in Faber, Manning, or
John Henry Newman, though they acted in obedi
ence to precisely the same principles, and were men
of at least equal purity of hfe, and equal inteUectual
and spiritual power. Why should there be nothing
but praise for Chalmers' honesty, and nothing but
blame for Newman's honesty ! Because, do you tell
me, the former went out for the cause of truth, the
latter went out for the cause of error? Precisely.
The former went out for what half a milhon Scotch
men were taught, during the heat of a ten year's
conflict, to believe to be truth ; the latter for what
two hundred milhons of human beings had always
believed to be the truth. In both cases I disagree
with the church principles that the men held; in
both cases I admire the moral principle by which
they were actuated.
" This one principle, however, we see clearly in
every movement in the world of theology, whether
it be the Sabbath question, or the relation of Moses
84

THEOLOGICAL STRUGGLES
to Christ, or subscription to confessions of faith, or
inspiration or ritualism ; — that men speak out and
act out their belief, no matter what the conse
quences ; and that thereby the churches generaUy
are in a state of ferment that makes it utterly im
possible to predict what institutions wiU stand the
test of the next quarter of a century, or what or
ganizations may arise. Is this to be deplored? No,
but rejoiced over. But what if our faith gets shaken?
If a true faith, it can take care of itself; if a false
faith, a mere faith of personal comfort, the sooner
it gets shaken, and shaken out of you, the better.
If it be faith in articles or a system, the sooner they
are thrust into the background, and faith in the
hving God takes their place, the better. If faith be
not that blessed and inexorable hght of Heaven
vouchsafed unto you, by which at your perU you
are to walk, what is it ? A luxury carefully prepared
and labelled, to be kept securely for your private
delectation. What a pity such a bon-bon should be
stolen from you 1"
The whole lecture is fuU of striking sentences,
and breathes a high moral fervour, which must have
been almost as the voice of an accusing angel to
many of the young men Ustening. But it is also fuU
of sarcastic candour, of half humorous contempt
for the unconscious shams of his clerical brethren,
of a disparagement of the letter with which, in the
minds of many, the spirit was identified. He must
have expected criticism, but perhaps hardly the
85

PRINCIPAL GRANT
storm that followed. One passing remark was es
peciaUy unwelcome to the so-caUed religious press.
" Rehgious newspapers ! The Irish Church, I be
lieve, means a church not for the Irish people. So
most certainly a religious newspaper means a news
paper that has no rehgion." For weeks the battle
raged, if battle it can be caUed, when Grant, after
reprinting his lecture in pamphlet form, retired into
contemptuous sUence. The press, secular and rehg
ious, denounced him ; pamphlets in reply were pub
lished1 ; the city pulpits hastened to show that they
had no sympathy with his errors.
The Record for April, 1867, contains the foUow
ing editorial note : — " In the last two numbers of
our Record, notice was taken of the lecture dehv
ered by the Rev. G. M. Grant before the Hahfax
Young Men's Association. These notices would
seem to be in defence or commendation of said lec
ture. AU that we desire to say now is, that whoever
undertakes to defend that lecture should do so
under his own signature ; and that the character of
the Record should not be compromised in any way
by the sentiments advanced in the lecture."
His first endeavour to broaden the church had
thus ended in apparent failure ; but good seed had
been sown, and when his next attempt was made
it was to have a different termination.
1 One in special by Judge Marshall, a retired gentleman of more
physical than mental vitality, is still interesting. The judge soon after
wards fell foul of him again on the question of confederation, which he
proved to be denounced as unconstitutional in the Holy Scriptures.
86

CHAPTER V
CONFEDERATION
""V7~OUR father, my dear," said an old lady to
J- Grant's son, "was a very able man, a very able
man indeed; but far too much taken up with the
concerns of this world ever to have been a minister."
Expressed at greater length and with more caution,
this judgment sums up the criticism of very many
upon any clergyman who ventures to apply the
doctrines of his Master to the concerns of this
world. Against this view of his ministry, a view
even more prevalent during his Hahfax career than
now, Grant always protested. In his lecture on
"Nineteenth Century Morality/' dehvered in 1869,
he says : —
" WeU, we have described what ought to be the
pohtical morahty of every citizen, party and gov
ernment. But have we described only Utopia?
What are the facts of the case ? Why, in the first
place, aU the citizens do not take an intelligent
interest in the affairs of the state, aU do not vote,
many do not vote honestly. Here the question
comes up, that is, but should not be, a question at
aU — ought the clergy to vote ? Yes, always. You
might as weU ask — ought the clergy to read the
papers ? Because if they read them, they must form
87

PRINCIPAL GRANT
some opinion on the questions of the day. And
if they are prevented by a false public opinion from
giving a constitutional expression to their views,
they must either conceal them or express them in a
frightened, underhand way that will make them
unmanly or hypocritical, and in the end lead to
their seeking and gaining a secret and unconsti
tutional influence dangerous to a free state.
"The people have a right to expect that their
minister shaU vote honestly ; that he shall use no
unfair or dishonourable means to influence others ;
that if he has any 'ledger influence n he'U not press
it ; that when he speaks or argues he will speak like
a gentleman ; and then, of course, the minister has
a right to expect the same rules to be observed
by each and every one of his people. That is, the
one is as much bound to act as a good citizen as
the other; and therefore a clergyman should speak
freely, vote freely, and he may freely be elected a
representative of the people."
To the last this conviction grew and deepened.
To retire from the world and save one's own soul
by leaving one's feUow-beings to the tender mercies
of the devU, was an ideal for which he had scanty
sympathy. That we best serve God by making this
1 At this time very many of the country people were deeply in debt
to the Halifax merchants. A merchant who had a number of them on
his books as debtors could naturally sway their votes by the threat of
legal procedure. This was known as "ledger influence." The meaning
of the term widened, till it became practically synonymous with the
modern "pull."
88

CONFEDERATION
world of His more habitable, more cleanly, less full
of darkness and abominations, was a truth which he
felt with the deepest intensity. In so doing men
were not only bringing their souls into harmony with
the stern law of duty, but also treading in the foot
steps of Him who went about doing good. Thus aU
Grant's work was transfigured and hallowed by the
thought that it would some day be rewarded by the
smile of the risen Son of Man. God was very near
to him, near him as loving father, nearer still as
elder brother, nearest of all, perhaps, as aU-pervad-
ing, all-sanctifying spirit. He often preached upon
the text, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of
the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto
me;" and he counted no work, pohtical, educational
or philanthropic, unfit for the hand of the servant of
the Lord. In accordance with this conviction, he
from the first took the deepest interest in those
great pohtical principles and movements with which
the welfare of the country and of the world is so
largely bound up. In local politics he felt but httle
interest, save in the question of honest adminis
tration. But from 1863-70 Nova Scotia was agitated
by a series of problems of great importance, to
which he recurred long afterwards in his last pubhc
address. "At first they were, — shaU we provide free com
mon schools for all our chUdren or not ? and shaU
our little province encourage the establishment of a
university governed by an independent board of
89

PRINCIPAL GRANT
different denominations, or remain content with a
number of small and sectarian institutions ? But
these questions, important in themselves, soon be
came dwarfed by the infinitely more important one :
ShaU our three provinces remain separate or shall
they form a maritime union or even a confederation
with Upper and Lower Canada, and so aim at the
formation of a British North American nation? This
issue forced every man to whom country was dearer
than self to think, and to think with aU his might.
It soon became evident that vested interests were
imperilled, that the immediate prosperity of Hah
fax, the good old city I loved so well, was threat
ened; and that local feehngs aU over the province
were in favour of our remaining simply Nova
Scotians, instead of trying an experiment, the out
come of which no one could foreteU."
The confederation ofthe British colonies of North
America had long been a problem of academic
interest, mentioned by Robert Gourlay, discussed
by Judge Haliburton (Sam Shck) and Lord Dur
ham, urged with glowing eloquence by Joseph
Howe. In 1864, the exigencies of Canadian politics
brought it with startling suddenness into the re
gion of the practical. In that year a conference at
Charlottetown to discuss a legislative union of the
Maritime Provinces was, with true statesmanship,
seized upon by Sir John Macdonald, and made an
instrument to bring about a wider federation. This
solution of their political difficulties was eagerly
90

CONFEDERATION
accepted in Upper and in Lower Canada. In New
Brunswick, the legislature, in 1865, appealed to the
people, and was defeated, but in the succeeding
year another election resulted in a large majority
for confederation. In Nova Scotia resolutions in
approval were passed by a coalition. Joseph Howe,
who had for twenty years been the most prominent
figure in provincial politics, was not at this time in
the legislature, having accepted an imperial position
as fishery commissioner. In 1865 this office, owing to
the lapse of the Reciprocity Treaty with the United
States, ceased to exist. Howe was without office of
any kind, and for a time both parties were eagerly
watching his course, and anxious to secure his aU-
powerful influence. At last he chose to be leader
of the anti-confederates. The agitation gathered
strength, and was fanned by the mercantile and
banking interests of Halifax, which had no desire
to admit any outsiders into their lucrative preserve.
The local passion for independence, and the long
standing jealousy of Canadians were kindled into
fury.1 Archbishop ConoUy was a sincere and ardent
confederate, but very few of his flock foUowed his
example. Dr. Tupper and Adams G. Archibald,
the leaders of the coalition, held together their ma
jority in the legislature by means, some of which
wiU not bear careful scrutiny, resolutely refusing
1 Eighty cents per head was the amount of the annual subsidy to
be paid to the province by the proposed Dominion, and the country
districts were swept with the cry: "We are sold for the price of a
sheepskin." 91

PRINCIPAL GRANT
the desired appeal to the people, and, in April,
1866, passed the final resolutions which led to the
inclusion of Nova Scotia in the Canadian confed
eration. Howe and his associates at once proclaimed that
they woidd " seek justice at the foot of the throne,"
and a deputation was sent to the British parhament.
As the most pertinent answer to their appeal, Dr.
Tupper pubhshed a pamphlet, consisting whoUy of
extracts from Howe's former eloquent pleadings in
favour of union. Howe soon saw the hopelessness of
his attempt, and with noble inconsistency joined
the ranks of the confederates, accepting office in
the federal administration, and thereby obtaining
for Nova Scotia far better financial terms than had
previously been awarded. It seems evident that
his heart had never been fuUy in the agitation; his
eloquence had done more than anything else to
make confederation a hving issue, and his belated
attempt to set the heather on fire and to stultify
his previous work was unavailing. Against the
charges of inconsistency and of corruption which
were passionately brought against him, Grant de
fended him with equal passion ; whUe not blind
to Howe's faults, he always considered him our
greatest Canadian statesman. " He was the noblest
of our native born, a greater statesman than Mac
donald, a greater orator than Laurier."
Nova Scotia's most tangible grievance, the finan
cial injustice of the original proposals, was removed
92

CONFEDERATION
by the better terms obtained by Howe in 1869; but
the whole procedure was of a very questionable
character. "LegaUy, of course, confederation was
the act of the imperial parliament, which had full
power to legislate for dependencies."1 But for a
legislature, elected on a totally different issue, to
refuse an appeal to the people on a question of
paramount importance is more legal than moral,
and the manner in which the measure was passed
left a long-enduring bitterness in the minds of the
people.2 Of confederation Grant was an ardent advocate.
By it alone, he saw, could his native province grow
from petty sectionalism into the fuU status of nation
hood, and for the higher spirit and the wider out
look wrought by the consciousness of partnership in
a noble heritage, he considered the temporary com
mercial depression of Hahfax to be a smaU price
indeed. This idea he had learned from Howe ;
unhke some others, he had learned it so thoroughly
that when Howe appeared in his new role as the foe
of union, Grant was unable to foUow him. His
motive is given in the speech already quoted.
" There was my first principle of political action ;
— British North America must unite and must
resolutely and patiently cultivate a union of hearts
1 Goldwin Smith. "Canada and the Canadian Question."
2 So late as 1886, the Hon. W. S. Fielding, then premier of the
province, swept Nova Scotia on the repeal issue, though after his elec
tion nothing practical was attempted.
93

PRINCIPAL GRANT
and of interests. The Maritime Provinces had no
more right to deny to the interior provinces an
ocean frontage and a maritime element to their
population than Quebec, because it held the mouth
ofthe St. Lawrence, would have the right to deny
to Ontario freedom to freely navigate the river.
' Each for all, and all for each,' must be our motto.
The time for action, too, had come, and though
party and selfish interests demanded delay, these
had to be subordinated to the common good. So I
stood against my old political mentor, Howe, and
on the side of Tupper, for confederation, as I had
stood by him in his common school and university
policy." Speaking at Pictou, in March, 1865, he devotes
himself almost entirely to this larger side of the
question. " Nova Scotia is too weak to be able to
exist by herself, and too valuable to be allowed an
independent existence. If a nationality distinct from
that of the northern states cannot be formed, Can
ada must fall into the hands of the United States,
and we sink or swim with Canada." Of the actual
terms of the proposed measure he says compara
tively little, save that while not perfect,1 it is the
1 In 1874, speaking in Montreal to the Evangelical Alliance, he
says: — "In our organization as a Dominion, education was left to the
different provinces. As far as universities are concerned, a greater mis
take could not have been made. There should be common intellectual
centres where the young men of the Dominion could form friendships
as they studied, discuss the problems of the age, prepare themselves for
active life, and cultivate a high standard of thought and manners. The
94

CONFEDERATION
best practicable, and that to let slip the present
occasion might be to miss the chance of a genera
tion. " The longer the colonies keep separate, the
greater tlie difficulty in arranging a union. The
longer any state exists, tlie more do officials multi
ply, salaries increase, and local feelings intensify.
Hence the difficulty of effecting a union between
England and Scotland, beneficial and necessary
though it was. Hence, too, tlie impossibility of
peacefully fusing into one the petty German states.
establishment of such centres should be in tho hands of our first-class
public mon, and should be fostered by tlie liberality of tbe whole
country. Thoy have boon deliberately left to our second-class public
men, and generally to the fostering care of private individuals aud
sects." Tlie last sentence points to another danger iu our confederation,
which, as early as I WW, ho foresaw, that Canadian statesmen and politi
cians would more and moro make Ottawa tho goal of their efforts, and
that tho local legislature would bo filled by men of inferior calibre.
Writing in tbat year to his brother Charles, who, in 1868, had left
Halifax to servo as a missionary ofthe Church of Scotland in India, he
goes so far as to say : " The poor Locals, since Howe gave them up,
have been sinking deeper and deeper into contempt, and I only hope
that they will at length bring tho whole arrangement of a local legis
lature into such contempt that it will have to be given up." . . . . " As
to politics, wo hnve 110110. Tlie Locals are despised ; but the game isn't
thought worth trying for hy any organized sot of better men. Tlie
Loc:d Houses must iu time get themsclvos abolished. The only object
of ambition will ho Ottawa. "
But these aro more obiter dietn, born of impatieuoe, for in his cooler
moments ho always recognized that our great size, aud diversity of
interests aud nationalities, made anything but a federal and largely
decentralized union impracticable. " Provincial legislatures are neces
sary, but certainly not such as those we have -which, like a well-known
class of horses, are pretty much • all action and no go,' " he wrote
in 1880.
95

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Even though they now constitute a commercial
unit, every intelligent German wiU teU you that
their thirty-three princekins are thirty-three chains
around Germany. Every little duchy has its separ
ate civil, military, home and foreign estabhshments,
laws, currency, court and humbug to eat up its
revenues ; but the ruts have been worn so deep that
they cannot run the wheels of state out of them
without war or anarchy. It was the stern pressure of
war that forced the states of America together.
Cannot we profit by their experience, and that of
the whole past to effect a sounder union when un-
distracted by oppression or war ? Each year that
passes by wiU make the task more difficult ; and
faUure now when the auguries are aU bright, would
make the boldest hereafter hesitate before trying
against increased opposition."
Such was his admiration for the unfailing courage
of Dr. Tupper, that at a later date he even ven
tured, not very successfully, to defend the manner
in which confederation was carried.1 The only true
defence was that of the colonial secretary, Lord
Carnarvon, when with unusual candour he declared
that to submit the measure to the people of Nova
Scotia, would be to postpone it indefinitely ; and in
view of the change in sentiment wrought in New
Brunswick by eighteen months of calm considera-
1 "Canada and the Canadian Question," a review in the Week of
Goldwin Smith's book of that name ; republished by the Imperial Feder
ation League in Canada.
96

CONFEDERATION
tion, the truth of his Lordship's prediction may be
doubted. Finding no satisfaction in Britain, the anti-con
federates next talked secession, and even in the
House of Assembly one of their prominent men
spoke of seizing the custom houses, for which in
cautious piece of treason he was promptly made
to apologize by the sturdy old lieutenant-gover
nor, Sir Hastings Doyle. In Halifax, especiaUy,
which saw her commercial supremacy threatened,
the struggle was fierce. Grant's congregation com
prised leaders of both parties, and only an imperious
sense of duty drove him to speak, which he was
careful to do not from the pulpit but on pubhc
platforms and in the press, where his opponents had
a right to reply. Even so, the indignation was ex
treme. "' Mr.  is not coming to church,' one of the
elders said to me, in an icy tone, 'because he is
offended at you for having spoken in Pictou in
favour of confederation.' ' Has it not occurred to
you that I may be offended because he has spoken
against confederation?' I replied. This point of
view was so novel that a puzzled look was the only
response. ' TeU him,' I resumed, ' that I am not at
aU offended, and that he has too much good sense
to deny me the freedom which he himself takes.'
Both men, it may be added, remained members
of the congregation." Others were less polite. "Why
the devil don't you stick to your damned preaching97

CONFEDERATION
June 18th, 1869. — " Since Howe won Hants by
thirty-eight of a majority, the repealers have felt
that the game was up. They still talk a httle,
mutter and grumble a good deal, but the fire is
dying to ashes. Wilkins tried to get resolutions
passed to appeal to British courts of law, but his
own coUeagues in the government deserted him and
he was defeated. StiU, the aspect of affairs, though
now calm enough outwardly, is not at aU satisfac
tory to me. The repealers — many of them — have
become annexationists, and I am afraid that in New
Brunswick, and more especiaUy in Ontario, that
Esau party is increasing. There's not enough pubhc
spirit in the new Dominion to make sacrifices to
encourage and develop provincial resources and
foster inter-provincial trade ; and the United States
is such a near, big, rich, tempting market that it
seems so much easier to be dependent on it. But
nous verrons. The loyal party must do its duty —
that's the one point clear."
August 13th, 1869. — "As to matters political,
they are a httle more exciting of late. The sluggish
waters have again been stirred. Sir John Young, the
governor-general, is visiting the north shore of New
Brunswick, and Charlottetown, P.E.I., and is to visit
Hahfax next week. So the mayor was requested to
call a meeting to arrange for a welcome to him. He
does so — and at the city council chambers, a smaU
room able to hold one hundred. Meeting is held
on Tuesday at 3 o'clock, but by 2.30 the antis had
99

PRINCIPAL GRANT
the body of it packed by fifty or sixty determined
men. Mr.  there spouted treason liberally ; a row
was the result, and the meeting was squashed. The
confeds., indignant, called a meeting for next night
at Temperance Hall; had it crowded, unanimous,
enthusiastic ; and have made arrangements for a
magnificent welcome. The judges went in a body
to the first meeting, but were so indignant at  's
disloyal balderdash that while he was speaking they
rose in a body and left. Half an hour after the
meeting  was at the governor's explaining that
his speech meant nothing, that he had been in
terrupted, was misrepresented, etc., etc. Nice man
to head a revolution ! But the antis are still furious.
But if Archibald wins Colchester it will be a ter
rible blow, and I think he will win, though the
farmers are stubborn and slow to change. Next
month will show."
September 9th, 1869. — "I haven't a great deal of
news to give, but such as I have had best be given.
To-day the election in Colchester takes place, the
county having been opened by McLellan accepting
the situation and accepting at the same time a
senatorship and an Intercolonial Railway inspector
ship — a case, in my opinion, of unblushing and
shameless buying up an opponent. I thought that
the case was so bad that it would operate against
Archibald, for the Colchester people were justly
enraged. I was up in Truro a week ago — inducting
Wilkins — and it happened to be nomination day.
100

CONFEDERATION
The village was crowded ; at least five thousand had
come in from all parts of the county. At the speech-
making the people wouldn't hsten to one word of
abuse of McLellan, nor one word in his favour, nor
one word from him — 'We don't want to hear his
name,' was the universal cry. It was reaUy grand ; a
stern reprobation worthy of Romans. As he sup
ported Archibald I was afraid that he would there
by damage him, but to-night's paper has just come
in, and says that in the districts as yet heard from,
Archibald is 300 ahead. If so, he is safe, and another
naU has been driven in the coffin of the local gov
ernment. As to repeal, it is dead and buried. An-
nexationism is the next foe to fight. And on the
whole I think it is not to be feared. Prince Arthur,
third son of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, has been
paying us a visit during the last two or three weeks.
He visited Prince Edward Island, and is now in
New Brunswick, and has been greeted everywhere
with exuberant bursts of loyalty. I was introduced
to him, and found him an exceedingly pleasant,
natural, simple — I mean genuine and honest — son
of his father. McGregor and all his people met him
at HopeweU, and McG. read a glowing address and
had sixteen sturdy Highlanders aU ready, clad, as
the reporter puts it, 'in white shirts and other ap
propriate costumes,' who dragged his carriage a
mile. Of course, loyalty is quite in the ascendant at
present. A week before the Prince came, the gov
ernor-general paid us a visit, and the antis tried
101

PRINCIPAL GRANT
their best to insult him by refusing to sign an
address to him, go to his leve'e, or anything. Pubhc '
opinion was so decidedly against them that even
they saw it, and so they went in for giving the
Prince a welcome ; but the inconsistency was too
glaring to impose on any one."
September 2Mh, 1869. — "I have not much else to
write about. Political matters are in a lull, since
Archibald's return by a majority of three hundred
and fifty-five for Colchester. It is a terrible blow to
the Locals and The Morning Chronicle : for Adams1
is not only an original sinner, but an unrepentant
sinner ; a Quebec delegate, and aU that is bad, and
not sorry for it. StiU I hope that there wiU not be a
general election this year. The people need another
year of the local government to sicken them thor
oughly ; and by that time, too, I expect that the
Yankees wiU take the duty off coal, and that will
aUay most of the remaining dissatisfaction. For
there is no doubt that trade suffers terribly when
we are cut off from United States markets for our
only two great staples, coal and fish. In the mean
time the Locals are scunnering the people, as fast
as it is possible, of all that they were identified
with." August 20th, 1870. — "There is no fear of confed
eration now; but the slowness of the government in
many things is disgusting. The fault is, that in a
popular government there is too little authority.
1j.e., Adams G. Archibald.
102

CONFEDERATION
Vou mustn't do this or that or you'll offend people
who have votes, and at next election they'U remem
ber. Faugh 1 It makes one wish for a wholesome
despotism. I hope for better things however."
Even while the repeal agitation was at its height,
there were those who saw that its triumph was to
be transitory. "As a young man," writes Mr. J. J.
Stewart, editor of the Halifax Herald, "I was in
1867 a friend of A. Woodbury McLeUan, at that
time one of the foremost opponents of confedera
tion. 'How is this election going?' I asked him
once. 'Oh,' he said 'we shall win this immediate
election, win easily, but we shaU lose in the end.'
' How so ? ' ' The men with ideas and ideals are
against us. Look at Archbishop Conolly, and that
young Presbyterian minister, young Grant, in Hah
fax. Those are the men of the future, and they are
all against us.' It is not often that a political pro
phecy is so exactly fulfiUed."
There were dark days in store ; Grant himself
had his doubts ; but as in other cases, he kept them
to himself and set himself to do steadily all that
within him lay to aid the young confederacy in her
struggle towards a high and noble nationhood.

103

CHAPTER VI
THE PASTOR
CONFEDERATION killed the old merchant
aristocracy of Halifax. Some of its members
survived the shock and are to-day prosperous under
altered conditions, but the days when political as
cendancy, business influence, and social prestige
centred in a few long-estabhshed famihes passed
away forever. When Grant entered upon his minis
try, these evU days were unforeseen, and Hahfax
could boast of a culture, in some respects super
ficial, but far more truly weU-bred than the garish
splendour of present-day Chicago or New York.
"Nowhere in Canada," he said once, "have I seen
such weU appointed dinners, such perfection of
service, as in those early days in Hahfax." Hahfax,
indeed, was the province. There centred not only
the wealth, but also the intellect, legal, political
and hterary, of Nova Scotia. With this society
Grant soon became a favourite. His Celtic charm
of manner and vivacity of conversation made him
sought after at every dinner table; his flow of
stories and cheery common sense made him as
popular with the men as his tact and Highland
gallantry did with his hostesses. His love for society
was, of course, misunderstood by some of the "unco
105

PRINCIPAL GRANT
guid," especiaUy by such as would have given a year
of life for one of the invitations which showered in
on him ; yet most even of these were soon won over
by his kindness, his charity, his utter lack of pre
tence, and, above all, by his success in every de
partment of his congregation.
For his organizing and administrative capacity
he had a splendid field, "fine faUow ground," as
he put it. In such matters, the Rev. John Scott had
apparently gone upon the easy principle of the
Scottish housewife that " things must aye be some
way." But the reserved son of the Lowlands and
the impetuous Celt had in common a deep love for
their fellows, and the old man gave to his energetic
successor his cordial approval and support. TiU his
death he was a regular attendant at the church
where he had so long ministered, and his diary
shows the deep interest with which he followed the
plans and purposes of the newcomer. In February,
1864, he died suddenly. "Calmly and in deep
peace," said Grant to the congregation on the next
Sabbath, "he passed from a world in which his
work was done, into the world of spirits. The last
prayer I heard from him was on my own behalf.
Holding my hand in both of his, and drawing me
closer to himself, each word came from him very
slowly and very distinctly : 'May God bless you in
aU your work. Amen 1 ' I then left him. By faith,
when he was a-dying, he blest his son in the minis
try." This whole sermon is one of the most remark-
106

THE PASTOR
able ever preached by a newly arrived minister,
supposedly anxious to be on good terms with a
proud and slightly self-important congregation. He
roundly takes them to task for their ingratitude to
his predecessor, their failure to see the heart of love
beneath an exterior of dignified reserve. Not yet a
year among them, he speaks as he had previously
spoken to the people of Georgetown, with the calm
self-confidence of one who felt himself to be a
steward of the oracles of God. While he had no
sympathy with those who arrogated to the ministry
priestly or supernatural powers, he resolved from
the first to speak out his mind upon any question
on which he had strong convictions, and "neither
to fear nor to flatter any flesh." But he never
scolded. With the fervour of the Old Testament
prophets, he denounced the shams and hypocrisies
and immorahties of his time, his city and his con
gregation, but his indictments were so true, and
above all, so blended with love for the sinner, and
indeed for universal humanity that none save the
Pharisee could take offence.1

1 He was fond of telling the story of an Irish saloon-keeper in the
congregation, whose vices became so notorious that in one of his ser
mons Grant scourged them with more than wonted asperity. Coming
out of church that morning he was surprised to meet the man in
question, his face beaming.
" A grand sermon, Mr. Grant, a grand sermon ; it did me good to
listen to it."
" To tell the truth, Mr.  " said Grant in some surprise, " I rather
thought that some parts of it hit you rather hard."
"My dear fellow," said the good-humoured rascal, laying one hand
107

PRINCIPAL GRANT
He at once organized classes of both sexes for
reading the Bible. These met weekly and were
conducted by himself, though he always encour
aged, and what is more difficult, secured the fullest
liberty of discussion. The devotion of the ladies'
class was tested by the inauguration of an en
trance fee of a penny per week, the sum procured
being given to charity. His Bible class was con
fined to grown-up men and women, and was held
at a different hour from the Sunday school. The
ladies were also organized into a sewing circle for
the poor, and into a "Woman's AuxUiary" which
gave valuable aid ahke to foreign and to home
missions. The missionary energy and enterprise
which characterizes the women of Canada is now
systematized by the Presbyterian Church into the
Woman's Foreign Mission Society, a branch of
which is found in every congregation. Of this great
society the AuxUiary of St. Matthew's was one
of the pioneers. In addition to his Bible class, he
organized for the young men of the congregation, a
club, which met fortnightly, on week evenings, to
discuss topics of secular interest, and at which, for
many years, the average attendance was not less
than forty. Such questions as prohibition, confed
eration, and the due observance of the Sabbath
were discussed. The last he introduced in 1865,
apropos of Norman Macleod 's celebrated pamphlet,
affectionately on the shoulder of his minister, " it's a poor sermon that
doesn't hit me somewhere. "
108

THE PASTOR
which so convulsed the church at home. Among
the audience was a young man who had recently
been a Plymouth brother, and who naturaUy was
bitterly opposed to the views of Norman Macleod
and of Grant. The argument which ensued grew so
hot on both sides that many of the congregation
stiU remember it.
One of Grant's most noticeable characteristics
was his abihty not only to work himself but to get
work done by others. Taking every man at his best,
he got his best out of him. If a man were wiUing to
work and not merely to prate, Grant would endure
surhness, eccentricity, anything short of absolute
dishonesty. When he secured an efficient co-worker
he gave him a free hand, sympathizing, suggesting,
counselling, but never interfering or intervening,
and never claiming any share in the honour which
accrued. As superintendent of the Sunday school
he was fortunate enough to secure Murdoch Lind
say, as true and efficient a co-worker as ever minis
ter possessed. Ardent, enthusiastic, practical, filled
with a fervent desire to win to Christ the young
souls under his charge, Murdoch, as he was usuaUy
known, was an ideal superintendent. Over his work
the minister watched with loving care. Most scru
pulous caution was exercised in the selection of
teachers. The life, doctrine, and temper of each
were carefuUy scrutinized before the young were
entrusted to their charge. Every Sunday morning a
class was held for the teachers themselves, in which
109

PRINCIPAL GRANT
the minister carefully went over with them the
lessons for the day. Many of the officers, commis
sioned and non-commissioned, of the British garri
son were induced to take classes, and soon won the
hearts of boys and girls ahke.1 The number of pupils
soon increased to five hundred and fifty, and the
teachers to forty-seven, so that the basement was
fiUed to over-flowing.
The congregation had for some years subscribed
to the support of a city missionary, who visited the
purlieus characteristic of what is both a seaport and
a garrison town. In 1865 Grant succeeded in per
suading the three Kirk congregations in the city to
support a missionary of their own, and a year or so
later St. Matthew's itself undertook full charge of
this work.
As a successful coUector of money he soon ac
quired a wide reputation, though few had any idea
how repugnant such work was to his high spirit.
His cardinal principle in coUecting was never to
ask money for any object to which he had not
himself given to the fuUest extent of his ability.
To this he added a determination never to beg;
he demanded the money as a right, and often half
humorously portrayed himself as giving to the
rich a grateful opportunity for doing good. Thus
1 This was especially so during the stay in Halifax of the 78th High
landers, but even in the English regiments Grant found a sprinkling of
Presbyterian leaven. For the army and for the military type he had a
high admiration, and was a frequent guest at the infantry and the
artillery messes in Halifax.
110

THE PASTOR
he never tried to stampede his congregation. His
practice was to make a fervent appeal on the
Sunday before the coUection, but on the day it
self to confine himself to a bare announcement of
the object for which the money was desired. The
chief annual collections were those for the poor of
the church and for the home mission fund of the
synod. These rapidly and steadUy increased ; in
1865, forty -five pounds ten shillings were given on a
single Sunday to aid the mission of the sister church
among the savages of the New Hebrides ; and when,
shortly afterwards, the synod agreed to cooperate
with the United Presbyterian body in this work, by
sending out the Rev. H. A. Robertson, St. Mat
thew's at once came to the front with a contribution
which assured success. Grant's work in the home mis
sion committee is described elsewhere ; as minister
of St. Matthew's he established Sunday schools at
Richmond and at the Northwest Arm. The former,
started in a deserted freight car, soon grew into a
mission-station and finally into a self-sustaining
charge; the latter still exists as a flourishing mis
sion-station.1 In every charitable and philanthropic work he
took the keenest interest. For years he was on the
board of that noble school for the blind, of whose

1 Much of the collecting for this object was done by the G.P.C., the
General Plasterers' Club, a name which Grant gave to the Ladies' Aux
iliary because of the zeal with which they furnished the newly estab
lished churches. Ill

PRINCIPAL GRANT
work Halifax is so justly proud1; and he was never
on the board of any institution which needed funds
without coming forward both as a contributor and
coUector. He was also connected with the Deaf and
Dumb Institute, the ChUdren's Home, the Old
Ladies' Home, and stUl more closely with the
Industrial School. Vice, he felt, is often only mis
directed energy, and he gave many an hour to help
those who were struggling to rescue the chUdren of
the city and province from homes of destitution
and misery, and to give them an opportunity of
making a clean and honourable hving. When the
new Y.M.C.A. buUding was opened, he aided its
promoters in every possible way, and his breezy
conversation and wholesome merriment did much
to assure the young men of the city that this was
not a new device to bribe them into hearing ser
mons. Previous to his time the Halifax Young
Men's Christian Association would have been bet
ter styled the Hahfax Old Men's Prayer-Meeting.
When the new buUding was completed, a great
meeting to consider the best means of reducing
the mortgage was held in it. Of this gathering
Grant took charge. It was his first attempt at
what he so often did afterwards, getting a meet
ing into good humour, and keeping it so while

1 This school was founded by the late William Murdoch, who left
five thousand pounds for its endowment on condition that the board
raised a like sum. This they, — or rather Grant, — soon succeeded in
doing. 112

THE PASTOR
the subscription hsts were being passed round.
At the first mention of a subscription, several of
the listeners made for the door, and the exodus
threatened to become general. "Let them go,"
caUed Grant, with a laugh, "they're only Dart
mouth people that have to catch the last boat." No
self-respecting Haligonian would voluntarily be
classed as an inhabitant of the suburb across the
harbour, and the retreat was at once stayed. The
supposed suburbans being thus ehminated, Grant
ordered the doors to be locked tiU every Hali
gonian had either subscribed or expressly refused
to do so. Amid laughter and cheers a subscription
hst was signed which practicaUy extinguished the
mortgage. In no class did he take a keener interest than in
the sailors of the port. Jack ashore fared hardly in
those days. Scarcely had he landed, with his hard-
earned doUars burning in his pocket, before he was
beset by the harpies of either sex who infested the
lower streets of the city. Even if he desired to keep
sober, there were few places of amusement, and
no respectable lodging-houses where he could meet
with others of his class. The natural result was
that he ended in being decoyed into one of the
low dens in the neighbourhood of the wharves, to
be drugged and robbed, and to awake on board
some outward bound craft, by whose agents he had
been crimped. To provide a suitable boarding-house
was easy ; the proper man to put in charge was
113

PRINCIPAL GRANT
harder to find, but he came at last, and Grant saw
the Sailors' Home opened under the care of Mr.
James Potter, now missionary among the sailors
upon the St. Lawrence canals. Its success proved
to be the commencement of a better era, and to
day in Hahfax any sailor who wishes to save his
money, or to spend it respectably, has fuU oppor
tunity to do so.
Later on, his favourite charity was perhaps the dis
pensary on South Brunswick Street. Chiefly owing to
his exertions, a new building was erected and opened
in April, 1876. To this was added a morgue, the
lack of which had long been a disgrace to the city.
To defray the cost of the new building, an annual
collection in aU the city churches, Catholic and
Protestant, on what was known as Hospital Sun
day, was resorted to ; out of the two thousand
seven hundred doUars coUected on its first in
stitution, St. Matthew's was responsible for one
thousand, and Grant soon afterwards wiped off the
remaining deficit by coUecting over three thousand
doUars from friends in the city. At the same time
the work of the dispensary was enlarged, the city
being divided into four districts, which four of the
prominent physicians of the city were induced to
visit free of charge. Grant wished to see a chUdren's
hospital founded in connection with this institution,
but the accommodation proved inadequate, and the
funds with which to build were not forthcoming.
Of the North British Society he was- naturaUy a
114

THE PASTOR
prominent member, and took an equal interest in
its dinners, its balls, and its charities. In 1875 he
became president, and had the satisfaction of adding
to the roU the largest number of members in its
history. His glowing speech on "The Secret of
Scottish National Life and Character" is preserved
in the records of the society.
Meanness in financial matters was to him almost
the unpardonable sin. He was no spendthrift. Early
days in Pictou and at Glasgow had taught him how
to make the most of every doUar. But for a man
with money to refuse to give to any good ob
ject was a form of selfishness with which he had
httle sympathy. "Practise smaU economies in order
that you may be able to give largely," was often
his advice to his students.1 Not only to institutions,
but to individual cases, his heart was open. No cry
ing child was ever passed without a kindly word,
and the solatium of a penny. Again and again when
the superintendent of the industrial school met him
and complained that funds were not forthcoming
for the maintenance of a child, Grant, without
1 For some years after his arrival in Halifax a faithful member of
his congregation was a wealthy but penurious Scot, an old bachelor
who sincerely liked his minister, but who strongly reprobated "thae
terrible begging sermons," though he always promised that his will
would reveal how dearly he loved his church. After his death it was
found that he had made no mention of St. Matthew's. Next Sunday the
minister gave out as his text : — James v. 1, " Go to now, ye rich men,
weep and howl for your miseries which shall come upon you." A dis
course followed which mentioned no names, but which it was impossible
not to fit to the recent occurrence. 115

PRINCIPAL GRANT
wasting time on sympathy, at once asked : — " How
long do you want to keep him there?" "Ten years."
" Very well, I shall be responsible," and the young
minister passed on with his quick step and kindly
smile, apparently oblivious of the new financial
burden, but never forgetting to send his cheque
when quarter day came round.
So eminent was his financial and administrative
success, that in 1866 he was offered a partnership
in one of the largest business houses in the city, an
offer which he declined with an indulgent smile.
In 1858 when Mr. Scott was invited by a liberal-
minded clergyman to preach in a Free Presby
terian pulpit, several members of the congregation
indignantly rose and walked out of the church ; yet
from the commencement of his work, in the face
of more than one rebuff, Grant sought exchanges
with the clergy of every Protestant denomination,
and though his attitude was sometimes misunder
stood, the liberal spirit which graduaUy grew up
was largely the result of his efforts. Against vice,
hypocrisy, and meanness, he thundered unceasingly ;
but he resolutely refused to regard as more than
mere matters of convenience questions of adminis
tration and ritual. On one occasion at least he
caused great scandal by attending the St. Patrick's
banquet upon a Saturday evening and joining bois
terously in the merriment, though even his op
ponents admitted that he reached home before
midnight. 116

THE PASTOR
Yet where things apparently trivial acquired,
through special circumstances, an added importance,
he could be strictness itself. He fought for years
against the carelessness that preferred private bap
tism. Save in cases of hfe and death, he insisted that
parents should make public profession of the faith in
which they pledged themselves to bring up the child,
holding that publicity was absolutely necessary to
give full solemnity to the sacrament. So, too, in any
doubtful case, he insisted upon a thrice repeated
proclamation of the banns of marriage. Many of
the sailors in Hahfax could boast of a wife in every
port, and the men of the garrison often practised
the same plurality. Grant made sure that he should
have no hand in such a profanation of the marriage
ceremony, not only by putting the applicant through
a searching course of questions, but also by a rig
orous insistence on the proclamation, already in
many quarters passing out of use.
" The ideal committee is one of three, in which
two of the members are permanently absent," was
one of his sayings, and he was inclined to act with
a shght disregard of the Kirk Session, though
always careful when any trouble arose to use them
as a shield, and to refer feelingly to his own lack of
personal authority.1 Yet their relations were nearly
1 In the Presbyterian Church, authority in congregational matters
is vested in the Kirk Session, which consists of the minister, and of a
certain number of elders, elected by all members of the congregation
in full communion. Financial control rests with a separate body of
trustees or managers. 117

PRINCIPAL GRANT
always harmonious, for the disregard extended only
to small matters of routine, which he settled off
hand, whereas in any business of importance, he
was careful to consult their dignity. OccasionaUy he
was plagued by the desire of the session to worry
over smaU things, but such complaints he usuaUy
laughed out of court. Sometimes, however, the ses
sion took the bit in its teeth, as when it wrangled
for seven months with the trustees as to which
body should " appoint some poor boy to ring the
beU on Sundays, aUowing him some slight re
muneration." For the individual members of the session, Grant
found work in abundance. Each took his turn in
controUing the weekly prayer-meeting; to them
was delegated the care of the mission-stations at
Richmond and the Northwest Arm. Each was put
in control of a certain district of the city, and
expected to accompany the pastor in his official
visitations ; to keep a strict account of aU Presby
terian families moving in or out; to investigate
cases of distress; and in every way to assist the
spiritual welfare of the district. The office of elder
thus became one of great importance, which some
were even compelled to decline on account of the
amount of time involved. Grant always considered
the elders worthy of the highest reverence, and
few things in his whole career gave him more pain
than the occasion on which he was compelled, as
head of the session, solemnly to depose from the
118

THE PASTOR
eldership an unworthy member, and at the next
communion to forbid his attempted approach to the
table ofthe Lord.
With the young he was a universal favourite.
The junior members of the old families of the city,
brought up in a cultured and ease-loving commun
ity, were often inclined to habits of laziness, which
not infrequently degenerated into drunkenness and
vice. With these he laboured unceasingly, and
more than one owes to him his reformation. For
the minister to walk along Pleasant Street arm-in
arm with a half-drunken youth, was certainly to
expose himself to the reproaches previously directed
at his Master, who ate and drank with publicans
and sinners, but when in many cases the drunkard
ere long became a sober, duty-doing citizen, the
voices of the traducers were hushed. Often he
failed. One young fellow, over whom he had agon
ized for years, died a drunkard's death. Grant
preached the funeral sermon in the house, and
those who were there tell how, disregarding aU
banalities, he spoke frankly, yet with deepest and
tenderest sympathy, of the life that was gone,
ending with the deep-voiced peroration: "He was
more sinned against than sinning. Let him that is
without sin among you cast the first stone at him."
" No wonder that he was our idol," writes an eye
witness of the scene. " I was a young fellow re
cently come to Halifax," writes another, who is
to-day one of the foremost financiers in the Ameri-
119

PRINCIPAL GRANT
can union, "when he was at St. Matthew's, and two
or three of us were hving in semi-bohemian style
in lodgings, half thinking what a fine thing it was
to be free from aU restraint, and half grumbling
that no one seemed to take any interest in us. One
evening your father caUed upon us, introduced
himself, chatted in a kindly way for a few minutes,
and invited us to his house for the next evening.
We felt that we were cared for, and this in itself
was a great help to us. We went, formed acquaint
ances, were invited elsewhere, and I, for one, be
came a regular attendant at your father's church,
and a worker at his Sunday school."
Grant hved first in Britannia Terrace, now merged
into Dresden Row, but after the death of Mr. Scott,
he moved into the manse, at the corner of Pleasant
and Bishop Streets. On May 7th, 1867, he married
Jessie Lawson, the eldest daughter of WiUiam Law-
son, a prosperous West Indian merchant, whose fam
ily had been estabhshed in the town ever since its
foundation by Cornwallis, in 1749.1
1 An incident which happened at this time shows how jealously he
preserved his ministerial independence in his dealings with the congre
gation. A few of his wealthy members had privately agreed to furnish
his manse from garret to cellar. On returning home one day, he found
a new and costly carpet laid in his drawing-room. The mystery having
been explained by his housekeeper, he at once proceeded to the donor
and delivered himself of the following speech : "I am your clergyman,
and in that capacity I may some day have a delicate task to perform.
No carpet or other article of furniture shall rise up between me and my
duty, and I must therefore ask you to lift the carpet, and take it back.
The others who generously intended to do as you have done, must not
go beyond intention."
120

CHAPTER VII
HOME MISSIONS, 1868-73
IpARLY in 1868 Grant broke his long silence
^ by an article in the Record on " Union," and
in July of the same year his heart was gladdened
by the union of the Church of Scotland in Nova
Scotia and Prince Edward Island with that of New
Brunswick. Once more in full accord with his
brethren, and finding in the councils of the church
the beginning of a broader spirit, he gladly ac
cepted the convenership of the newly- appointed
Home Mission Board, and was for five years its
heart and soul. Perhaps he had himself learned
a lesson. His temper was naturally violent, and
only gradually did he acquire over it the almost
complete mastery which characterized his later
years. Some of his earlier utterances are marked
by an academic dogmatism, and by unnecessary
jibes which his maturer taste would have avoided.
From the time of his marriage he was greatly
helped by the restraining influence of his wife,
whose sweet and gentle nature gained more and
more power over him, till he came to have an
almost unquestioning faith in her judgment, es
pecially of character; more and more he learned
from her caution and prudence, and the inward fire
121

PRINCIPAL GRANT
which consumed him gave forth not less heat but
more light.
The difficulties which beset the church have been
already sketched ; they were increased by the chao
tic character of her relations with the colonial
committee — ministers, congregations, presbyteries,
aU corresponding with the committee, and in too
many cases finding it easier to lean upon the mother
church than to rouse themselves to a sense of their
own duty. The new board gave its convener a free
hand, and though in the synod some grumbled at
the increasing centralization, it was felt that he was
too valuable to be dispensed with.
Such money as had been contributed locaUy had
hitherto been coUected semi-annually at the church
door. In Halifax Grant roused into activity the dor
mant Lay Association, and a house to house coUec
tion was taken up, with gratifying results. Similar
associations were formed in the other presbyteries ;
the relations of the various ministers and congre
gations to the colonial committee were brought
under the control of the board; the money col
lected by the Lay Associations and those granted
by the colonial committee were paid to the central
treasury at Halifax. In 1872 he was able to report
to the synod that the sums annually contributed by
the colonial committee had been reduced from six
thousand five hundred and forty-two dollars in
1868-9, to one thousand five hundred and forty
dollars in 1871-2, and that for the next year only
122

HOME MISSIONS
one thousand and fifty doUars would be required ;
that of thirty-five congregations, aU but ten were
now self-sustaining; that the amount locally con
tributed for home mission purposes had increased
from eight hundred doUars to two thousand three
hundred doUars per year, and that the system of
aUocating missionaries was at once more economi
cal for the church and more satisfactory to the mis
sionaries.1 In addition to this home mission work the
church was also sending four hundred pounds per
year to the support of the foreign mission scheme
in the New Hebrides. But while this part of the
work was increasingly satisfactory, church extension
proved a harder problem. Every letter to the col
onial committee is fiUed with appeals for more
missionaries, Gaehc speaking if possible, but at aU
events, missionaries. Sometimes the frankness of
his language sounds startling in an official com
munication. " Surely there are many young licen
tiates or chapel ministers in the church who are
willing to come to their countrymen here. They
would find a good chmate, good society, fine people
and plenty of work. What more does a man want?"
But though some came, few remained, and his re
port in 1 873, when he laid down the convenership,
in spite of the striking financial success he had won,
is gloomy and discouraging. We have no catechists,
1 For a fuller treatment of this subject see " Short History of the
Presbyterian Church in Canada," bythe Rev. Wm. Gregg, M.A., D.D.
123

PRINCIPAL GRANT
he says in effect, no divinity students, no men to
do the work of church extension; some come out
yearly from Scotland, but every year more return
than are sent; accustomed to an Estabhshment,
they refuse to hold any coUections other than those
at the church door ; again he urges the necessity of
a native theological haU, but though the synod
cordiaUy approved, and though the colonial com
mittee was now favourable, circumstances com
peUed him to wait.
As convener he visited every church and almost
every mission-station in the synod, preaching, ex
horting, expostulating. In September, 1871, he
visited Prince Edward Island, and spent some
days with a branch of the church not in connection
with any presbytery. OriginaUy organized by the
Rev. Donald Macdonald, a hcentiate of the Church
of Scotland, the members had added to their fer
vent Scottish piety an hysteric emotionalism which
assumed extraordinary and even terrifying physical
manifestations. But they were sound at heart, and
Grant found the visit much more pleasant than he
had anticipated. Writing to his wife he says : —
Sunday evening. " The scene in the church was
strange and almost horrible ; yet it did not affect
me with the dislike I had feared beforehand. Fancy
preaching to a crowded house, aU deeply attentive
and drinking in your words, when suddenly an
unearthly scream is heard and a woman starts to
her feet, clapping her hands and tossing her head
124

HOME MISSIONS
violently, and shouting some words such as, ' Glory
to His Holy Name,' or 'Mercy,' or some Gaelic
expression. Perhaps two or three others join in
in different ways, with strange contortions, such as
they would not be capable of in their ordinary
physical state, till, after a few minutes, they sink
back in their seats exhausted. Or perhaps a man
with his deep bass strikes in so that in the babel of
sounds the preacher is unheard. What are you to
do ? I went on as if nothing had happened ; and the
thing soon subsided ; but, as I said, it did not horrify
or disgust me. In the course of the day perhaps
about thirty or forty out of four hundred communi
cants yielded to those influences — chiefly women,
and those of a sensitive or hysterical temperament.
But they were all so evidently under deep religious
feeling that one could neither mock nor oppose."
Sunday evening — to his brother Charles: — "I
have just returned from assisting McColl here at
his communion. Service lasted from 11 a.m. to
6.15 p.m., English and Gaelic alternating. I began
with Enghsh tiU 12.30 ; McColl followed in Gaelic
tiU 1.45 ; then came eight tables, four in Gaelic and
four in English, an average of fifty at each table. I
am pretty tired, as I have preached in four differ
ent places on the last four days of last week con
secutively. " De Sable church holds seven hundred. To-day
one thousand people were in it and five hundred
more outside. They are old Macdonald's people,
125

PRINCIPAL GRANT
and under McColl now. They cling to Macdonald's
rules and ways with great tenacity. The men sit in
one part of the church, and the women in another ;
the eiders in a great pew beneath the pulpit and
lead the singing. AU the tunes are the old Gaelic
ones in the minor key. Of course the great char
acteristic of the people is their jerking, and shout
ing when speciaUy excited, and the man that can
so excite them they consider to be the holiest. As
you may suppose, strong lungs, emphatic state
ment, and ' unction ' are pretty sure to bring out
'the works.' For though Macdonald regarded them
as the signs of the Spirit, they are physical and
nervous entirely, though generally connected with
highly wrought religious feelings. I was unfortunate
enough to produce them to a much more consider
able extent than usual ; but I soon found out what
subjects were most sure to evoke them, and by
avoiding these, I had none of them at the last two
tables I served. They are a primitive, and very
kindly people ; with good bodies, and good heads
too ; of a good stock, most of them Highland, but
with a sprinkling of Lowlanders."
Monday evening — to his wife: — "To-day has
been another day of hard work for me ; and I
am beginning to feel tired. Service commenced at
10 a.m. with half an hour of Gaehc by McCoU;
then I preached for an hour, there being about
seven hundred and fifty people in the church ; then
Mr. Duncan, who had arrived in the meantime,
126

HOME MISSIONS
preached for another hour; then I baptized eighteen
children; then there were devotional exercises and a
coUection. This brought us to 1.30; then the people
were dismissed, and fifty or sixty elders remained in
at my request. I brought the subject of 'union'
before them in a long speech, for this was the first
time it had ever been mentioned to them, they
being aU opposed to union and not readers of the
Record ; we talked of it for an hour and a half, and
then I gave them a scolding for being a year in
arrears with Mr. McColl's salary, and so finished
the direct work of the day. I have to preach to
morrow in Cape Traverse, fourteen miles west from
this, and the next day at Summerside, sixteen miles
stiU further west. I'll not visit the island again in a
hurry I think. But people are so kind, and so hun
gry for the Word of God that it is a pleasure to
preach to them."
Thursday — to his wife: — "And now to resume
my diary. I was exhausted on Monday evening,
and didn't get up tiU 10.30 on Tuesday, and then
there was one of the elders who talked me to death
tiU one. After dinner, another elder, a fine High
lander, appeared to drive me fourteen miles west
ward to Cape Traverse (where the boats come in
from Nova Scotia, and where there is a congre
gation of Macdonaldites). I put up there with one
of our people — a thorough gentleman — Irving by
name, a connection of Edward Irving. Went to the
httle church at six, and found it crowded ; about
127

PRINCIPAL GRANT
one hundred and seventy present. Preached for two
hours and the people were greatly impressed ; and
several cried out in a fearsome way. They would
have done anything for me had I been able to stay;
but I had engaged to go on next day twenty-one
miles to Summerside; so, on the next day, one of
the elders drove me on, and four or five other
families abandoned their haying and came on too,
to hear another sermon. There's hunger for you!
"I am not feeling one bit tired, and I think that I
have done eight days of real good work. God grant
that some good may have been done. I think that
some good seed has been sown. It is a pleasure
indeed to preach unto people whose only grief is
that you are drawing to a close, and who wiU walk
miles or drive tens of miles to hear the Word of
God. I wish that Hahfax, — St. Matthew's — people
had the same spirit."1
1 See Appendix B. for a series of letters to his brother, which give
graphic glimpses into the life and work of a busy minister.

128

CHAPTER VIII
"OCEAN TO OCEAN1'
IN 1867 the western boundary of the Canadian
confederacy was for all practical purposes Lake
Huron and the state of Michigan. In 1869 we pur
chased from the Hudson's Bay Company the vast
territory known as Rupert's Land, extending from
Lake Huron to the Rockies, and in 1871 acquired
Pacific frontage by union with the mountain pro
vince of British Columbia. The chief condition of
this latter union was that a railway should at once
be commenced, and completed within ten years,
to join the newly acquired province with her elder
sisters. " On the 20th July, '71, British Columbia
entered the Dominion. On the same day surveying
parties left Victoria for various points of the Rocky
Mountains and from the Upper Ottawa westward ;
and aU along the hne surveys were commenced."
(Ocean to Ocean, p. 24). In the summer of 1872,
Sandford Fleming,1 the engineer in chief, resolved to
see with his own eyes the main features of the coun
try. On this expedition Grant accompanied him as
secretary, and the results of the tour were embodied
in the foUowing year in his book, Ocean to Ocean.
*Now Sir Sandford Fleming, K.C.M.G., Chancellor since 1880 of
Queen's University. 129

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Leaving Hahfax on July 1st, the secretary joined
the rest of the party in Toronto on the loth. On
the next day the expedition started, travelling by
train to CoUingwood, and thence by steamer to
Port Arthur, then known as Prince Arthur's Land
ing. Then foUowed five hundred and forty miles by
canoe, steamer and pack horse, along the Dawson
route, the old track of the North-West Company
to Fort Garry; thence chiefly on horseback, though
accompanied by Red River carts and buckboards,
eleven hundred mUes through Fort EUice, Fort
Carleton, Fort Pitt, Fort Edmonton to Jasper
House ; thence six hundred and fifty miles by the
YeUow Head Pass through the Rockies, down the
North Thompson River to Kamloops, and through
the Cascade Mountains to the sea. New Westmin
ster was reached on October 4th ; ten days were spent
in visiting Victoria, Nanaimo, and other harbours on
Vancouver Island and the mainland; boat was then
taken to San Francisco, and the party returned via
the Union and Central Pacific RaUways. On No
vember 2nd, Grant re-entered Halifax. His book
closes with the expressive summary : —
Distance travelled by railway  y.57 miles
horses, including wagon,
pack, and saddle horses. . 2,185 '¦'
'" steamers on St Lawrence
and Pacific waters  1,687 "
" " canoes and row boats  485 "
From Halifax to Victoria, between July 1st, and
October 11th  5,314 "
130

OCEAN TO OCEAN
His interest in Manitoba dated back to 1868. In
that year the Red River settlement had been over
whelmed by a plague of grasshoppers, and Grant,
on the solicitation of his friend Fleming, had col
lected three thousand doUars in Hahfax for the
starving community. " I could have coUected the
money quite as easily, and the givers would have
given quite as intelligently, had the sufferers been
in Central Abyssinia," he said later. His journey in
1872 revealed this unknown land alike to himself
and to Nova Scotia. It is impossible to over-estimate
the effect which it produced upon his mind and
imagination. From that time he never wavered
in his behef in the high destiny of Canada ; the
sight of the great North-West struck from his
mind the unspoken fear which had haunted him
since confederation. " This journey resolved the
uneasy doubt in my mind as to whether or not
Canada had a future; for from the day we left
CoUingwood tiU we reached Victoria, the great pos
sibilities of our great North-West impressed us."1
Our ignorance of our own resources, our lack of
hope in a great national future were at this time
widespread. Upper and Lower Canada had long
been absorbed in a faction fight more favourable to
the development of poUtical shrewdness than of
far-sighted statesmanship. The North-West was to
the average man of that day a sub-arctic region,
the prey of hailstorms, hostUe Indians, and grass-
1 " Thanksgiving and Retrospect." bv G. M. Grant 131

PRINCIPAL GRANT
hoppers, British Columbia a sea of mountains, New
Ontario a barren wUderness effectuaUy separating
Eastern from Western Canada.
"No white man is known to have crossed from
the Upper Ottawa to Lake Superior or Lake Win
nipeg. There were maps of the country, dotted
with lakes and lacustrine rivers here and there; but
these had been made up largely from sketches on
bits of birch-bark or paper and the verbal descrip
tions of Indians, and the Indian has little or no
conception of scale or bearings. In drawing the
picture of a lake, for instance, when his sheet of
paper was too narrow, he would, without warning,
continue the lake up or down the side, and naturaUy
an erroneous idea of the surface of the country was
given. A lake was set down right in the path of
what otherwise was an ehgible hne, and, after great
expense had been incurred, it was found that there
was no lake within thirty mUes of the point. In a
word, the country between old Canada and the Red
River was utterly unknown, except along the canoe
routes travelled by Hudson Bay men north-west of
Lake Superior." (Ocean to Ocean.)
Sir John Macdonald and the Conservative party
were attacked for paying for Rupert's Land the
price which now appears so small. On the pub
lication of Ocean to Ocean, and on the delivery
of some lectures1 on the subject, Grant was assaUed
1 The proceeds of these were given to public objects, the dispensary
receiving a special share. Lectures sometimes proved a convenient
132

OCEAN TO OCEAN
throughout Nova Scotia as the hireling of Sir John
and of the still more hated Tupper. These lectures
were instinct with the fever-heat of patriotism to
which the vast potentialities of the prairie coun
try had stirred him. His imagination was filled
with the heroic dream which is now becoming a
reahty. " Looking fairly at all the facts, admitting aU the
difficulties — and what country has not drawbacks?
— it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that we
have a great and fertile North-West, a thousand
miles long, and from one to four hundred miles
broad, capable of containing a population of mil
lions. It is a fair land, rich in furs and fish, in
treasures of the forest, the field, and the mine;
seamed by navigable rivers, interlaced by numerous
creeks, and beautified with a thousand lakes ; broken
by sweUing uplands, wooded hiUsides, and bold
ridges; and protected on its exposed sides by a
great desert or by giant mountains. The air is pure,
dry, and bracing the year round, giving promise of
health and strength of body, and length of days.
Here we have a home for our own surplus popu
lation and for the stream of emigration that runs
from northern and central Europe to America. Let
it be opened up to the world by raU and steamboat,
and in an incredibly short time the present gap be
tween Manitoba and British Columbia will be filled
method of recruiting an exchequer left empty by his constant liberality.
"So much for carpets," is his note upon a cheque received in St. John.
133

PRINCIPAL GRANT
up, and a continuous line of loyal provinces extend
from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
"From the sea-pastures and coal-fields of Nova
Scotia and the forests of New Brunswick, almost
from historic Louisburg up the St. Lawrence to
historic Quebec ; through the great province of
Ontario, and on lakes that are seas ; by copper
and silver mines so rich as to recaU stories of the
Arabian Nights, though only the rim of the land
has been explored ; on the chain of lakes where the
Ojibbway is at home in his canoe, to the plains,
where the Cree is equally at home on his horse;
through the prairie province of Manitoba, and roU
ing meadows and park-like country, out of which a
dozen Manitobas shaU be carved in the next quarter
of a century; along the banks of
' A full-fed river winding slow
By herds upon an endless plain,'
fuU-fed from the exhaustless glaciers of the Rocky
Mountains, and watering 'the great lone land';
over iUimitable coal measures and deep woods ; on
to the mountains which open their gates, more
widely than to our wealthier neighbours, to lead us
to the Pacific ; down deep gorges fiUed with mighty
timber, beside rivers whose ancient deposits are
gold beds, sands like those of Pactolus, and chan
nels choked with fish ; on to the many harbours of
mainland and island, that look right across to the
old Eastern Thule 'with its rosy pearls and golden-
roofed palaces,' and open their arms to welcome the
134

OCEAN TO OCEAN
swarming miUions of Cathay ; over all this we had
traveUed, and it was all our own.
' Where's the coward that would not dare
To fight for such a land ?'
"Thank God we have a country. It is not our
poverty of land or sea, of wood or mine that shaU
ever urge us to be traitors. But the destiny of a
country depends not on its material resources. It
depends on the character of its people. Here, too,
is fuU ground for confidence. We in everything
•are sprung of earth's first blood, have titles
manifold.' We come of a race that never counted
the number of its foes, nor the number of its
friends, when freedom, loyalty or God was con
cerned." Yet Grant had httle confidence in mere material
resources. " Wealth may ruin but it cannot save a
nation. A nation is saved by ideas; inspiring and
formative ideas," he said later, and for mere material
prosperity he had almost a contempt. He was proud
of the physical greatness and of the resources of
Canada, because he saw in them the raw material
which could be worked up into a mighty nation.
"He regarded Canada as the last clear field given
by a beneficent Creator in which the children of
men could have scope, untrammeUed by ancient
institutions, to work out the best ideas derived
from the experience of the past." The greater the
country, the wider was the field, the more favour
able the conditions for the experiment. 135

PRINCIPAL GRANT
His prophecy that he would live to see Manitoba
and the Territories export twenty miUion bushels
of wheat was derided ; he lived to see their exports
of wheat fifty-five milhon bushels, and to know
that this was but the foretaste of what a few years
would bring.
His return journey by the Union Pacific took
away aU fear that we could not compete with the
United States : "And how does the country crossed
by the Union and Central Pacific RaUway compare
with our own North-West, has been asked us since
our return. Comparisons are odious, and therefore
the answer shall be as brief as possible. The Pacific
slope excepted, for there is nothing in British
Columbia to compare with the fertile vaUeys of
California, everything is so completely in our favour
that there is no comparison except the old racing
one of ' Echpse first and the rest nowhere.' Cali
fornia itself, though its yield of wheat in favour
able years is marveUous, is not a country to rear
a healthy and hardy race. There is no summer or
autumn rainfaU, the air is without its due pro
portion of moisture, and the lack of moisture is
supplied by dust. The people look weary and used
up. In the course of a generation or two, unless
a constant infusion of new blood renews their
strength, the influence of chmate must teU disas
trously, not only on their physique but on their
whole spirit and life. Are Anglo-Saxons secure
from faUing into the same sleepy and unprogressive
136

OCEAN TO OCEAN
state that the energetic Spaniards who first settled
the country soon sank into ? "
Thus without fear he called upon Canada to
" rise up and build," though from the first he saw
that the light-hearted promise of a railway in ten
years would prove impossible of fulfilment. "At
the time, the finances of Canada were flourishing,
her revenues were expanding, and the discovery of
her great North-West had inflamed her imagina
tion. It had come to be considered that a raUway
could be flung across the Rocky Mountains as
easUy as across a hay field." (Scribner's Magazine,
1880). When failure became evident much iU-feel-
ing was aroused ; British Columbia talked secession
and many Canadians repudiation. From both ex
tremes Grant stood aloof. National obhgations were
paramount ; the raUway must be buUt and speedily,
but the contract could not be carried out to the
letter ; British Columbia must give a reasonable
extension of time. He did not fully see to how
great an extent in modern times railways must
not foUow but create traffic. In 1876 he considered
that " the safe policy would be, not to begin con
struction from the Pacific side until a milhon of
people had actuaUy settled in the North-West,"
but that the railway should be pushed from the
eastern side and kept just in advance of settlement.
Even in 1880 he was doubtful of the wisdom of
immediate construction. But when in 1881 the days
of doubt and hesitation came to an end, and the
137

PRINCIPAL GRANT
great company was formed which so quickly carried
through the work, his voice was steadfastly lifted
in its support, and he never faltered in his belief in
its capacity and its integrity.
In the merits of the Peace River country he was
from the first a believer, and always held that the
Yellow Head, the Peace River, or the Pine River
passes were more suitable than the Kicking Horse
route. He speaks of "the extraordinary fertility of
immense prairies along the Peace River, the salu
brity and the comparative mildness of the climate;"
it is "a charming country, rich in soil, wood, water,
and coal, in salt that can be gathered fit for the
table from the sides of springs with as much ease
as sand from the seashore ; in bituminous fountains
into which Sir Alexander Mackenzie and Harmon
both say that 'a pole of twenty feet in length
may be plunged without the least resistance, and
without finding bottom,' and in every other pro
duction that is essential to the material prosperity
of a country."
Ocean to Ocean itself is an admirable book of tra
vel. His notes were written at the end of long day's
marches, by the flickering hght of the camp fire,
and the book was published early in the next year,
but of this haste no trace is evident. From cover to
cover it has the merit of being interesting ; it is fuU
of vigour and dash, giving a succession of pictures
of men and events in which the most graphic word
is invariably found with apparent ease. Who can
138

OCEAN TO OCEAN
forget Terry, the Irish cook, a good servant, a good
tailor, a good cobbler, but who, unfortunately, had
joined the expedition in order to learn the rudi
ments of cooking; or Brown and Beaupre", the half-
breeds, one Scotch and one French; or the group
of Indians — Keasis, the Little Bird, with his great
sickness, and the wonderful results produced there
on by a dose of castor oil ; Souzie, the Cree, whose
magnificent appetite revelled even in Terry's cook
ing ; the uncomplaining Valad, and the noble Iro
quois of the Dawson route. Their silent fortitude,
their honesty, their good nature, their self-respect
and high-bred bearing deeply impressed him. Here
is a picture of a chief met on the Dawson route : —
" He came with only one attendant, but two or
three canoes made their appearance about the same
time with other Indians, squaws and papooses, who
squatted in groups on the banks at respectful dis
tances. The old Indian came up with a ' B'jou,
B'jou,' shook hands all around, and then drawing
himself up — knife in one hand, big pipe in the
other, the emblems of war and peace — commenced
a long harangue. We didn't understand a word,
but one of the men roughly interpreted, and the
speaker's gestures were so expressive that the drift
of his meaning could be easily foUowed. Pointing,
with outstretched arms, north, south, east and west,
he told us that aU the land had been his people's,
and that he now, in their name, asked for some
return for our passage through it. The bearing and
139

PRINCIPAL GRANT
speech were those of a born orator. He had good
straight features, a large Roman nose, square chin,
and as he stood over six feet in his moccasins, his
presence was most commanding. One great secret
of impressive gesticulation — the free play of the
arm from the shoulder, instead of the cramped
motion of the elbow — he certainly knew. It was
astonishing with what dignity and force, long,
rolling, musical sentences poured from the lips of
one who would be carelessly classed by most people
as a savage, to whose views no regard should be
paid. When ended he took a seat on a hUlock with
the dignity natural to every real Indian, and began
to smoke in perfect silence. He had said his say,
and it was our turn now."
Of our own treatment of them, as compared
with that of the United States, Grant is fuU of
pride, and especially urges the generous fulfilment
ahke in letter and in spirit, of every promise made
to them. " To break a treaty made with these old
lords and sons of the soil, would be worse than
to break one made with a nation able to resent a
breach of faith." The high-bred dignity of the true
Indian appealed keenly to his Celtic instincts. "Her
Majesty has expressed herself as struck with the
gentlemanly demeanour of the poorest Highlander.
Well, the Indian is as far above the Highlander in
this characteristic as the Highlander is above the
Saxon." (Good Words, 1874.)
The most widely separated types are drawn
140

OCEAN TO OCEAN
with kindly human charity not inconsistent with a
humorous insight into their frailties. In the heart
of the Rockies the party met with a solitary gold
miner. " Two miles farther on, the sound of a bell was
heard. Jack said it must be the bell horse of another
pack-train; but in a few minutes a solitary traveller,
walking beside his two laden horses, emerged from
the woods ahead. He turned out to be one John Glen,
a miner, on his way to prospect for gold on hitherto
untried mountains and sand-bars. Here was a speci
men of Anglo-Saxon self-reliant individualism more
striking than that pictured by Quinet of the Ameri
can settler, without priest or captain at his head,
going out into the deep woods or virgin lands of
the new continent to find and found a home. John
Glen calculated that there was as good gold in the
mountains as had yet come out of them, and that
he might strike a new bar or gulch that might pan
out as richly as Williams Creek, Cariboo ; so put
ting blankets and bacon, flour and frying pan, shin
ing pick-axe and shovel on his horses, and sticking
revolver and knife in his waist, off he started from
Kamloops to seek 'fresh fields and pastures new.'
Nothing to him was lack of company or of news
papers ; short days and approach of winter ; seas of
mountains and grassless vaUeys, equally inhospit
able ; risk of sickness and certainty of storms ; slow
and exhausting travel through marsh and muskeg,
across roaring mountain torrents and miles of fallen
141

PRINCIPAL GRANT
timber; lonely days and lonely nights ; — if he found
gold he would be repaid. Prospecting was his busi
ness, and he went about it in a simple matter-of-
course style, as if he were doing business on 'change.
John Glen was to us a typical man, the modern
missionary, the martyr for gold, the advance guard
of the army of material progress. And who wiU
deny or make hght of his virtue, his faith, such as
it was ? His self-reliance was sublime. Compared to
his, how smaU the daring and pluck of even Milton
and Cheadle ! God save thee, John Glen ! and give
thee thy reward ! "
For the things of the table he shows the hearty
love of the hungry traveUer. The glories of Kam
loops beef, of the Doctor's plum pudding made of
berry-pemmican and boiled in Terry's sugar-bag,
and of the mild toddy brewed at the conclusion of
a hard day's ride, are fittingly extoUed. In V's
Cache, after crossing the Thompson River, the
traveUers, wet, tired and hungry, find a splendid
coUection of canned meats, and over the "crowning
mercy" of "half a dozen of Bass's pale ale, with the
familiar face of the red pyramid brand," the en
thusiastic secretary fairly sings a paean of praise.
To all self-denying missionary enterprise, of what
ever church, he is careful to give its meed of praise.
For some time their companion was the Rev. Mr.
McDougal, a Methodist missionary for whom the
whole party soon came to feel the deepest affection,
and the memory of whose friendship Grant ever
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OCEAN TO OCEAN
cherished as one of his most precious possessions.
The Roman Cathohc mission at St. Albert especi
aUy impressed him with the Christian common
sense of the priests, combined with " that devoted-
ness which is a matter of course with them." " The
gentle Christian courtesy and lady-hke manners of
the sisters charmed us, while the knowledge of the
devoted hves they lead must impress with profound
respect Protestants and Roman Catholics ahke.
Each one would have adorned a home of her own,
but she had given up aU for the sake of her Lord
and His httle ones." Sunday was strictly observed
as a day of rest, and every Sabbath morning, white,
half-breed, and Indian, Roman Catholic, Methodist,
Episcopal and Presbyterian gathered to offer up
worship to the great Father of all.
Ocean to Ocean made a sensation, and several
editions were called for. It revealed Grant to the
people of Nova Scotia as he had never been known
before. Above aU it revealed to Canada the glories
of her northern and western territories, and did not
a little to steel the hearts of many through the dark
days that were to come.

143

CHAPTER IX
UNION
THE desire for union between the various
branches of Canadian Presbyterianism had
for some time been increasing, and was strength
ened by pohtical federation. Separation had been
natural while congregations largely, and ministers al
most invariably, had been but recently transplant
ed from Scotland ; but a native laity and a native
clergy had grown up, to whose ears the noise of Old
World battles sounded very far away and unreal. The
union of Burghers and Anti-Burghers in 1817, was
the first of six coalitions, with the result that in 1868
there were four separate organizations — the Synod
of the Lower Provinces, the Synod of the Maritime
Provinces in connection with the Church of Scotland,
the General Assembly of the Canada Presbyterian
Church, and the Synod of the Canada Presbyterian
Church in connection with the Church of Scotland.
In 1 870 negotiations for a seventh and final union
were begun, and in 1875 were carried to a success
ful conclusion. Union was the watchword of Grant's
whole pohtical and ecclesiastical career, and for
four years he lost no opportunity, in pubhc and in
private, of trying to aUay the distrust and suspicion
of his co-presbyters, for, as always, the smaUest of
145

PRINCIPAL GRANT
the four bodies was the most unwilling to abandon
its independence. He paid several visits to Montreal
as a delegate from his synod, usuaUy going on to
Toronto and Ottawa to consult with his friends
MacdonneU1 and Gordon,2 and thus becoming com
paratively famihar with the chief men and questions
before the pubhc eye in Upper Canada. Throughout
the synod he lectured and preached, and in private
exerted all his rare personal influence with the
timorous and the doubtful. Though with no great
enthusiasm, the majority of the synod finaUy con
sented to the union, which was consummated in
Montreal on June 15th, 1875. This was in some ways
the proudest day in Grant's career. He had been
unanimously chosen moderator of the httle synod,
which met on the morning of that day for the last
time as an independent body. Led by their mod
erator, the members marched from St. Gabriel's
Church to Victoria HaU; through each of the four
doors streamed in a long procession, amid vast
cheering and clapping of hands, and with tears of
gladness in the eyes of not a few, as they saw the
breaches of their long-loved Zion now so grandly
restored. Short religious exercises followed, in which it feU
to Grant to give out the 100th Psalm ; the Articles
1 The late Rev. D. J. MacdonneU, minister of St. Andrew's Church,
Toronto. 2 The Rev. D. M. Gordon, then minister of St. Andrew's Church,
Ottawa ; now principal of Queen's University.
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UNION
of Union were read, and subscribed by each of the
four moderators, who then clasped hands in token
of feUowship. " The moderator of the synod of the
Lower Provinces then solemnly declared that the
four churches were now united, and formed one
church to be designated and known as the Presby
terian Church in Canada."1
This happy consummation had not been brought
about without labour. The Very Rev. Dr. Macrae,
the late principal of Morrin CoUege, Quebec, gives a
ghmpse of Grant's share in it : — " In 1871 the Kirk
synod met in St. Matthew's, and the movement
began which culminated in the union of the Pres
byterian Churches in Canada. I was keenly inter
ested in the question and passed a sleepless night
before the day appointed for its discussion, but had
no intention whatever of taking a prominent part
in arguing in its favour. Passing the window of St.
Matthew's manse, on my return home from a walk
before breakfast, your father haUed me, and insisted
that I should open the campaign; his contention
being that, for certain reasons, no other of our Kirk
ministers could hope to carry the Pictou elders. It
was to no purpose to refuse ; he would have his
way. I refer to this merely to iUustrate one marked
feature of his character ; his adroitness in guiding
the movements of a church court, or other public
1 Gregg's " Short History." By a striking coincidence, the moder
ator was the Rev. P. G. McGregor, son of the celebrated Dr. McGregor,
first moderator of the synod of Nova Scotia.
147

PRINCIPAL GRANT
body, by inducing others to perform certain work,
the direction of which remained none the less in his
own hands."
Writing to his brother in June, 1871, Grant
says: — "What with the synod and the weddings
this has been a busy week. The manse, and its gar
den for the smokers, was a great resort. I had three
elders here — old Holmes, John McKay (surefooted
deacon) and  . I nabbed Holmes to keep him
to myself safe on the union question. He came to
synod, determined to oppose it ; so did a number of
others. But we carried it unanimously. Strange,
wasn't it ? The explanation is that everything fav
oured us. Macrae of Newfoundland did good ser
vice by capital speaking, and he was a new and
unexpected force on our side. John McKay and I
fairly overpowered Holmes, first into a resolution
not to oppose, and then the old man conceived the
idea that he would go in for union and make them
all Kirkmen. And why not? Then the idea that we
were going to unite with our own church in old
Canada made the old people feel that it was not
simply a union with Anti-Burghers. And above aU
we felt that the over-ruling hand of God was in
the matter, and I think no one felt bold enough to
oppose. As it is, the twenty-four delegates from
the four supreme courts are to meet in Montreal
in October and endeavour to draw up a basis of
union to be submitted to their respective courts
next spring, and then if approved to be sent down
148

UNION
to presbyteries and congregations. The union may
take place next year."
Writing home on June 17th, 1875, he says:
"The union is consummated, Dr. Cook is moder
ator of the Assembly, and in his opening speech
struck a grand keynote. Last night the citizens
entertained us at a social reception — about 8,500
present. Eleven speakers, and I may safely say I
was the lion of the evening, through what one man
caUed 'my enormous common sense.' The others
spoke too long, and as they could not be heard,
they wearied the people. Seeing that, I spoke with
emphasis for two minutes and sat down. The ap
plause was terrific. I was encored tUl I had to
re-appear, and promise that I would speak at the
close of the meeting on the night foUowing. It is a
great occasion; three ministers of the Canada Pres
byterian Church and seven of the Kirk hold out ;
all the Lower Province Church go in, and aU ours
but the Pictou county men, and I am certain that
they wiU be in very soon."1
1 The following table shows the material success of the union : —
1875 1903
Ministers in charge  627 1,218
" without charge  27 191
" received from sister churches . . 12 22
Missionaries in foreign field  16 158
" " home field  150 583
" " French-Canadian field  26 68
Congregations (self-sustaining)  570 791
" (augmented)  136 206
Communicants  88,228 222,031
149

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Grant's speech on this occasion was even shorter
than appears from his own description. Old sores
were stUl raw, and through the proceedings there
had run a slight but dangerous note of irritation,
not softened by several rather prosy speeches. At
their conclusion, the chairman, with the suspicion
of a sneer, announced that, "We wiU now listen to
the hon of Hahfax," a name which had been given
to him by the Rev. Dr. Ormiston, of New York.
Grant made his way, not without difficulty, to the
platform, and stretching out his arm, said slowly,
in his clear, rich voice: "Beloved, let us love one an
other; for love is of God, and every one that loveth
is born of God and knoweth God."1 There was a
moment's pause, and then the cheering began.
One drop of gaU was in his cup, a drop which
went far to take away aU its sweetness. After long
hesitation, with many searchings of heart, the pres
bytery of Pictou had proved hostile. "We had
either to abandon the proposed union or to see our
synod broken into two, and to part from old friends
and fellow-workers, some of whom regarded us
as traitors to them and to our past. SorrowfuUy we
chose the latter alternative, the hours of decision
being perhaps the bitterest some of us ever knew."
(Thanksgiving and Retrospect). In Pictou county
1 1. John iv. 7. This was the text of a sermon preached on the pre
vious Sunday to the members of the Assembly by the Rev. Patrick Gray,
of Chalmers' Church, Kingston. The sermon had made a great impres
sion on its hearers, and Grant's reference to it at once recalled them
to their higher selves.
150

UNION
the feud had been not only religious, but political and
personal. For many, union with the Anti-Burghers
meant union with political antagonists and personal
foes. They had borne the burden and heat of the day,
and could not now declare that the old watchwords
had grown meaningless. Not without regret and
hesitation was their decision made. Grant's hopes
had been high. The ministers were favourable, or
at worst neutral, but in the laity, as often, the fires
of fanaticism burnt far more fiercely. Had there
been one who dared to risk all for the sake of a
great cause, he might even at the eleventh hour
have carried the day ; but no hero appeared, and
the clergy were swept away by the sterner spirit of
their people.
Hardly was the house completed when its sta-
bUity was put to a severe test. The largest and
most active segment of the union was the Canada
Presbyterian Church. No other had more of the
fine Scottish morale, no other had so largely aided
home and foreign missions, or shown greater zeal in
the cause of education. To these quahties was joined
a somewhat excessive desire for absolute doctrinal
" soundness," and a firm resolve to show the other
branches of the church that they, at least, held fast
to the faith. They did not long lack opportunity.
On September 26th, 1875, the Rev. D. J. Mac
donneU, of St. Andrew's Church, Toronto, preached
a sermon in which certain doubts were thrown on
the doctrine of an unconditional and conscious
151

PRINCIPAL GRANT
eternity of punishment for aU who died impenitent.
His position sprang rather from what Principal
Caven afterwards caUed his "fastidious conscience,"
than from any incipient scepticism. By the words
of Scripture he felt absolutely bound, but com
paring Scripture with Scripture, he seemed to find
certain passages which rendered doubt permissible.
The tide of orthodox dissatisfaction soon rose high
against him, and it seemed as if many would be
satisfied with nothing less than his exclusion from
the church.
Grant's letters show his own position. Writing
to his friend Miss Machar1 on October 20th, 1875,
he says: — "To serve MacdonneU I would gladly
go to Toronto, or to the Rocky Mountains, but
it would do him dis-service were I to appear
at the presbytery. Perhaps, too, it may be kept
out of the church courts. I see no caU for bring
ing it there. His Knox CoUege speech was aU
right, and would have evoked no rejoinder had
it not been for the feeling aroused by the sermon,
and had it not been for the presence of that Orange
man, Robb,2 to whom the word ' ritual ' is what a
red rag is to a buU. As for the sermon, he seems to
me to have been injudicious, (1) in preaching about
1 The celebrated Canadian authoress and artist, widely known as
"Fidelis." sThe Rev. James Gardner Robb, D.D., minister at this time of
Cooke's Church, Toronto. Ordained originally in the Irish Presbyterian
Church, he came to Canada in 1874, but returned in 1878 to Ireland,
where he died in 1881. His ability as a debater was remarkable. In the
152

UNION
what he himself has not fixed opinions on. We go
to the pulpit to announce God's truth, not to
indulge speculations. Any part of God's truth we
are not clear upon, not clear, that is, as to what the
truth on the subject is, we had better keep for our
study, for further thought, for discussion with
trusted friends. (2) In preaching upon *a burning'
question in an excited way, even teUing the people
that he was excited. There's no need of calling
attention to the fact that you are excited. That
only confuses people and excites the ignorant to an
altogether extraordinary pitch. (3) In taking the
position of an advocate on the heterodox side, after
confessing that there were passages on the other
side so strong that they could not honestly be
explained away. He might have left the two sets
of passages to the calm thought of any of his people
who are able calmly to consider the question.
"StUl, if the matter goes into the church courts,
I back him through and through. He is too honest,
too able, too noble a feUow to have a hair of his
head harmed by fools. But usuaUy his head is so
'level' that I cannot understand his indiscretion,
especiaUy at this time. The battle for hberality in
construing the confession may have to be fought
soon, but he might have allowed us a year or two

Assembly of 1876, probably the best exhibition of dialectics was the duel
between himself and Grant. Each was avowedly partisan, without the
slightest attempt to sympathize with the position of the other. But as
examples of dialectical skill both speeches rank high.
153

PRINCIPAL GRANT
first to shake down together into something like
knowledge and love of one another. However, the
Lord reigns."
But though Grant considered the sermon hasty and
indiscreet, an opinion in which MacdonneU himself
concurred, the attempt to drive his friend from the
church roused his deepest indignation. If to be a
follower of Christ is to be a Christian, he knew no
man in Canada who walked so close in the footsteps
of his Master as did James MacdonneU, and the
mere thought of the spiritual agony which expul
sion or censure would inflict on such a man was
unendurable. Yet simUar blunders were scattered
with melancholy frequency along the whole course
of the church's history. " The ablest expounder of
the New Testament that I heard when a student in
Scotland, was Morrison, the founder of the Evan
gelical Union. Him the United Presbyterian Church
cast out. The holiest man I ever knew was John
McLeod CampbeU, whose work on the Atonement
is the most valuable contribution to that great sub
ject that the nineteenth century has produced. Him
the Church of Scotland cast out. The most brilliant
scholar I ever met, a man who could have done
the church greater service than any other Enghsh
writer in the field of historical criticism, where
service is most needed, was Robertson Smith. Him
the Free Church of Scotland cast out from his
chair. Of course, these churches are ashamed of
themselves now, but think of what they lost, think
154

UNION
of what Christ lost by their sin, and if, where such
vast interests are concerned, we may think of indi
viduals, think of the unspeakable crucifixion of soul
that was inflicted on the victims." (Speech before the
World's ParUament of Religions, Chicago, 1893).
In 1874, speaking at Montreal in the Evangelical
AUiance on, "The Church of Canada: Is such a
thing possible ? " Grant had urged that charity and
wise cooperation might in the fulness of time bring
to being in the Dominion the greatest of national
churches. " God will give us the church of the
future. It shaU arise in the midst of us, with no
sound of hammer heard upon it, comprehensive of
aU the good and beauty that He has ever evolved in
history. To this church, Episcopacy shaU contribute
her comely order, her faithful and loving conserva
tism ; and Methodism impart her enthusiasm, her
zeal for missions, and her ready adaptiveness to the
necessities of the country ; the Baptist shaU give
his fuU testimony to the sacred rights of the indi
vidual; the Congregationalist his to the freedom
and independency ofthe congregation; and Presby
tery shaU come in her massive, well-knit strength,
holding high the Word of God ; and when, or even
before, aU this comes to pass, that is, when we have
proved our Christian charity, as weU as our faithful
ness, proved it by deeds, not words, who shaU say
that our Roman Cathohc brethren, also, shaU not
see eye to eye with us, and seal with their consent
that true unity, the image of which they so fondly
155

PRINCIPAL GRANT
love ? Why not ? God can do greater things even
than this. And who of us shall say, God forbid 1 "
As if in mocking answer to his question, came
the spectacle of the majority of the newly united
Presbyterian body attempting to cast out their
holiest and their best rather than aUow a temporary
suspension of judgment on a doctrinal question
confessedly obscure. SmaU wonder that he says,
"When I think of the material the Lord has to
build his temple with, I don't wonder at the slow
ness with which the building proceeds."
It is not to be inferred that he agreed with
Macdonnell's point of view. Writing to Miss Ma
char on November 12th, 1875, he says: — "Mac
donnell's letter is hke himself — truth, and fear.
lessness that is so great that it can afford to
be gentle and conciliatory. As to James's views,
or rather your views about ultimate restoration,
I cannot accept them. Surely if any words in the
Bible are to be regarded, the Lord's words must.
They are ' pure ' words. WeU, His teaching is so
absolute on the subject that language could not
make it clearer. But I do not care to argue on the
subject. It is beyond us. These things we know:
that sin, the Saviour's atonement, the wrath of
God, are reahties, and I fear that any discussion
whatsoever on them tends to shake the afready too
httle estimate of them that men have. There are
some subjects, and these the deepest and tenderest,
that it is best to contemplate in silence with awe
156

UNION
and holy fear, and I do dread a General Assembly
discussion on such a subject as the eternity or non-
eternity of punishment. But stUl I would rather
have the General Assembly debate on any subject
than that MacdonneU should injure the truthfulness
of his moral fibre. He must at all hazards be true to
himself." January 4th, 1876: — "As to the controversy on
eternal punishment, I too can say, 'My heart within
me pleads,' and the effect of that is to make me
disinclined to controversy, for with McLeod Camp
beU I feel that restorationism is 'not revealed,' and
that we have no right to feed our minds with
vain imaginings. Laon's remarks on MacdonneU's
readiness to accept the unmistakable teaching of
Scripture prove that he does not understand any
question connected with the infinite and the eternal.
But the doctrine of eternal punishment is not one
for hght remarks on the street, or heated discussion
in church courts or church assembhngs. It is to be
received — if received at aU — with awe unspeakable,
with tears, with holy submission to Him who must
do aU things justly and lovingly. Here's a story
of Erskine on the subject. A lady ofthe Edinburgh
school said to him, 'Have you heard that Mr. X. is
dead V 'Yes.' 'He did not know God on earth, I
wonder where he is now.' ' Perhaps he is learning.'
'Ay, but where?' pressed she, gloating over the
idea of eternal helL 'In the nursery, perhaps,' was
the reply as he turned away. And so I, too, indulge
157

PRINCIPAL GRANT
a hope. More we cannot indulge. And with different
minds the hope will be more or less faint. But to
preach such a hope ! No, no — I dare not."
In 1876 he was sent by the United Church as a
delegate to the Assembly of the Church of Scot
land, but rushed home in time to be present at the
Canadian Assembly in Toronto.
Writing from Scotland to his wife, he recurs to
the same subject: "We are only chUdren, grown
somewhat bigger. Where shall we spend our man
hood, and in what respects shall it differ from our
child life? We can guess little better — ah, not so
weU — as children can of the hfe of manhood. AU
that we know, and it is enough, is that they who
are the Lord's shaU be with the Lord."
To Miss Machar, July 18th, 1876: — "The whole
attitude of the Assembly was to me very disap
pointing. It was impossible, without doing injury
to MacdonneU, to take vigorously the stand that
one would have most wished to take. But we must
have patience. Large bodies move slowly, but what
is the use of a few individuals moving ? Unless the
mass is brought with us, the only result is to estab
hsh a chasm between the few and the many. In
time the leaven wUl work, and the patience of God
should teach us to exercise patience. As to the
doctrine itself, I am more and more disposed to
make the acceptance of it an open question, for the
extreme to which some went has driven me, and I
dare say many others, to a position that we would
158

UNION
not ourselves, perhaps, have taken, or at any rate,
not so soon. My feeling now is that the mind of the
Lord was to confine the thoughts of men to present
duty and the necessity of immediate repentance,
and to take away from them the terribly subtle
temptation to postpone, which is the most danger
ous of aU temptations; that He therefore spake
absolutely, and that we are bound to have regard
to His awful words and warnings ; but that when
we go so far as to shut out aU hope, or positively
declare that the conscious suffering of the wicked
shaU be eternal as God Himself, we import into
His words more than they reaUy contain."
The result of this discussion was to defer settle
ment of the case for a year. Both sides made great
preparations for the Assembly of 1877, which was
held in Hahfax, in St. Matthew's Church.1 His
letters to Miss Machar show Grant's attitude to
wards MacdonneU and his opponents.
May 16th, 1877:— "As to MacdonneU's state
ment, it certainly is more positive than I thought
he was prepared to give, though, in the hght of
aU that he has said already, I don't think that any
1 While the Assembly was sitting, they were startled by the news of
the great fire in St. John, which left one-half of the city in ashes.
Busy though he was, Grant took charge of the meeting of the citizens,
which was held in Temperance Hall. As he entered, a barefooted newsboy
shyly handed him a dollar for the fund. On this modern version of the
widow's mite Grant delivered an address which roused the audience to
such enthusiasm that before they broke up, over ten thousand dollars
had been added to the one which proudly headed the list.
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PRINCIPAL GRANT
one could call it Jesuitical, and I know that it
is not considered satisfactory by his enemies, and
that they wiU still fight to try and extrude him.
We have to meet a packed Assembly, but we
shaU do our best. James, it may fairly be ar
gued, has already been frank enough, or too frank
for a court, and he is not required to put wea
pons into the hands of his enemies to be used
against him, enemies who have shown themselves
incapable of appreciating trust and generous frank
ness." So bitter was the feehng that a large min
ority, of whom Grant was one, would probably
have broken up the newly-formed union rather
than sacrifice MacdonneU, and with him liberty
of thought and speech.1 A compromise was fin
aUy arranged, and the following statement, drawn
up by a committee, of which the convener was the
Rev. Dr. Jenkins, minister of St. Paul's, Mont
real, was signed by MacdonneU, and unanimously
accepted as satisfactory by the Assembly : —
" That Mr. MacdonneU, in intimating in his last
statement to the General Assembly his adherence
1 "At the Toronto Assembly in 1876," writes an eye-witness,
"the friends of Mr. MacdonneU met at the close of the sederunt.
After a general discussion, Grant said : ' If they are determined to
push the matter in this spirit, let us demand that they repone us,
and let us have peace and liberty.' Professor MacKerras at once stood
up and with great earnestness said .- ' No, that will never do ; we must
maintain our union at all hazards.' The majority of us intimated fer
vent agreement with MacKerras, and I never heard a second proposal
of separation."
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UNION
to the Confession of Faith, intends to be under
stood as saying :
" ' I consider myself as under subscription to the
Confession of Faith in accordance with my or
dination vows, and I therefore adhere to the teach
ing of the church as contained therein on the
doctrine of the eternity, or endless duration of the
future punishment of the wicked, notwithstanding
doubts or difficulties which perplex my mind.'
" The committee, therefore, unanimously recom
mend that this statement be accepted as satisfac
tory, and that further proceedings be dropped."
In the judgment of the present day, it reads
almost hke a victory for the most uncompromising
orthodoxy ; but for the combatants at the time it
had a very different ring. On June 30th, 1877,
Grant writes to Miss Machar : —
" It was a capital Assembly, good in every re
spect, and especiaUy wonderful in the ending of
the MacdonneU case. Your astonishment is natural,
and you err in supposing that Dr. Jenkins' tacties
had much to do with it. The explanation I can
hardly give, because I can only guess the innermost
thoughts of the leaders of the majority. Certain
facts, however, may partly explain the result. The
majority were beaten in debate and they could
hardly help feeling it. They were also forced to see
that the utmost they could do against him was
to send the case to the presbytery with instructions
to proceed by libeL That would take another year,
161

PRINCIPAL GRANT
and would probably end in failure. They were also
made to see the possibUity of collision with the
civil courts ; and that the minority were compact,
determined, and strong, and also would be strongly
supported by public opinion. Again, we had got the
Halifax press unanimously into hne on our side,1
and the social influences to which they were sub
jected from day to day told heavUy on many of
their foUowers, who intimated, not obscurely, to the
1 This unanimity on the part of the press was due to Grant's skilful
handling. The influence of newspapers he could on occasion disparage.
Writing to a friend on January 4th, 1876, he says : " Perhaps I under
rate the effect of newspaper controversy, but really a newspaper is
something so ephemeral that I can never think of it with respect.
Several times I have wondered at the importance attached by you to an
anonymous expression or article in one of these ephemeral produc
tions. I am not criticizing, remember, but telling you my own stand
point. I would rather let the thing alone were I concerned, for less and
less is the newspaper, and, indeed, man's judgment in my estimation as
years roll on. Let them say and let us build." But this is little more
than a passing fling, which his next letter easily refutes : " You often,
as Mr. Romanes puts it, 'uproot a fallacy very prettily.' Thus, in your
last to me, referring to my words about the ephemeral nature of news
paper writing, you say, 'The newspaper itself is ephemeral, yet not so
ephemeral as spoken words, and both sometimes leave undying traces.'
Capital ! I am routed and convinced in a single sentence. There is
argument, illustration, and moral earnestness compacted together. Now
I don't write this in an assuming way, as if I could teach you anything
in style, or anything else ; but simply because I must speak and write
frankly or not at all. I give offence often, but I would rather do that than
add to the insincerity so frightfully common now-a-days." But though,
when his mind was made np, he cared little for the praise or blame of
newspapers, he well knew their importance. In spite of his pronounced
views on political and social topics he was on terms of intimacy with
all the editors in Halifax, and, at the time of the MacdonneU trial, for
several days all the editorials on the subject, in all the city papers, were
either written or inspired by him.
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UNION
leaders, after the first vote, that they were not dis
posed to foUow them much further. That we gained
a great practical victory is universally felt here ; aU
the more so that the two speeches made by the
representatives of the majority, immediately before
the committee was appointed, stoutly asserted that
neither doubts nor difficulties could be tolerated. I
was determined, therefore, that both words should
be in the statement, and as they had insisted on
a new subscription, I was determined that his ad
herence should be simply in consequence of his
ordination. Hence the ' therefore ' in the statement,
a word they strongly objected to, but which I in
sisted upon and carried. The effects of this victory
wiU be very great on aU sides. Even their followers
feel that they were brought down to Halifax only
to surrender; and they wiU not foUow so readily
the next time. Besides the next time wiU be long
in coming. They wiU not expose themselves in a
hurry to such a toil and trouble for nothing. And if
they do we shaU be prepared, and we now know
whom to trust and what to do. Altogether, there
are great compensations for the worry and anxiety
that this case has caused, and I rejoice exceedingly.
Had they accepted his first statement this year the
victory would have actuaUy been theirs, but by
pressing for more they lost all. They put him be
fore the pubhc in his original position; and they
have legitimized doubts, difficulties and perplexities
to any extent as far as other ministers and other
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PRINCIPAL GRANT
doctrines are concerned ; and that, too, in the face
of our declarations that doubt necessarily involved
a measure of mental suspense."
Once the struggle was over, both sides quickly
settled down to more constructive work. The battle
had reaUy done good ; either party had expressed
its opinion frankly and fearlessly, and, as the debate
proceeded, the divisions had been less and less along
the old lines of cleavage. By a somewhat rough pro
cess the different members of the Assembly had
come to know each other. Writing to his wife,
Grant says: — "After aU, this MacdonneU trouble
has done good in fusing us together, and making us
understand each other, as we could not have under
stood one another at half a dozen ordinary As
semblies. It has been a fine gladiatorial exhibition,
and on the whole conducted in a good spirit."
In 1876 he was sent as delegate to the General
Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Even on ship
board he could not rest, but organized prayer-meet
ings every evening in the steerage, "attended by
two-thirds of the steerage, and one-third of the
cabin passengers," foUowed by a sacred concert in
the saloon. His task in Scotland was dehcate. The
Assembly was inclined to be suspicious, and the
colonial committee was presided over by the Rev.
R. H. Muir, whose doubts approached open hos
tility. The sixteen Kirk ministers who had remained
outside the union (seven in Upper Canada and nine
in Pictou county), claimed to be the remnant which
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UNION
alone had remained faithful, and had sent as dele
gates to the Assembly the Rev. Gavin Lang and
the Rev. R. McCunn, who laid claim to aU the
financial aid which was received from the parent
church. Dr. Muir, of whose purbhnd honesty there
was no doubt, considered that " neutrahty " would
be obtained by giving an equal aUowance to either
body, to which solution the delegates from the
United Church naturaUy objected. Grant's powers
of persuasion, pubhc and private, proved useful,
and he finaUy won over the Assembly, though
the attitude of the convener long continued un
satisfactory. Writing to his wife he says : —
May 20th, 1876: — "WeU, the agony is over
and we have succeeded. I spoke yesterday under
great difficulties in the Assembly, and the Glas
gow News that I send you wUl show that I didn't
do badly. I had a week of as hard work as ever
I had, but it has not been for nothing, and I am
glad that I came over. I think that things have
been so set that they'U be kept right now, for I
have got Charles, Finlay McDonald, and other
friends on the colonial committee, and they are in
perfect accord with me. And it was aU managed
without an open fight in the Assembly, though
Muir held out tUl within half an hour of our speak
ing, and we had aU our arrangements for a fight
made. But say nothing on this.
"Tuesday was a busy day, writing letters and con
cocting with Jenkins and Paton the kind of deliver-
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PRINCIPAL GRANT
ance we wish the Assembly to pass. We called on
Dr. Archie Scott, as he has influence in the church,
and talked the subject over with him, — ' discoorsed
him.' After lunch Dr. Jenkins and I went to Mer-
chison Castle, where I saw young DouU and the
other Hahfax boys. They were aU glad to see me,
especially as I brought with me half a hundred
weight of maple sugar from James B. Duffus. Next
morning went to the U. P. Synod and found that
aU foreign delegates were to be heard that after
noon. At 12.30 met the F. C. colonial committee,
and explained the way in which we wished them to
cooperate with us and send ministers to us. They
assented to all I proposed and were most cordial.
I consented to preach for one of them, in Free St.
Stephen's on Sunday next. At 1.30 met a commit
tee that was arranging for a meeting of representa
tives of aU Presbyterian Churches in Edinburgh
next year; at 2.30 went to the U. P. Synod.
They had delegates from Norway, the Netherlands,
Geneva, the United States, England, but my speech
was reaUy the most successful. They were a most
sympathetic audience, though without the dignity
of either Assembly, and after I spoke more than a
dozen of my old coUege friends crowded around
me congratulating me most heartily. It was very
pleasant. " Next day drove with Dr. Jenkins to the levee ;
there met Dr. Monro and learned that the colonial
committee were to have another meeting that after-
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UNION
noon. Muir had gathered his sateUites together, and
a printed letter had come from Lang with two
hundred copies for the Assembly, with the most
astounding statements. Dr. Monro and Paton deter
mined to be there, and I got hold of Dr. Smith, of
Cathcart, a member of the committee who hadn't
attended a meeting for years, and coached him up.
Meeting them later on at dinner I found that they
had been for two hours and a half at the colonial
committee, but Muir would concede httle, so we had
to arrange our plan of action. At 9 o'clock a clever
young member of the Assembly — King, whose name
you wiU see in the Daily News — came in, and I,
anticipating a contest, coached him for two hours
on the subject. Next morning I went to a Bible
Society breakfast and spoke there. On returning, I
found that Muir had been calling for me, and had
left his card and proposed report (amended). This
was a sign of caving in that I hailed. Charles ar
rived at 11, and so did Paton and Dr. Monro, and
we aU went up together to the Assembly. There
we arranged to have our dehverance moved as an
amendment to Muir's, and got Dr. Monro to be
ready to move, J. A. CampbeU to second, and
Smith, of North Leith, to support it ; but, whUe in
the ante-room, Dr. R. H. Stevenson, who was to
move Muir's, came in and showed us his, and after
an hour's talk we came to an agreement, he taking
into his aU that was, in our view, essential, and add
ing to the colonial committee eight names suggested
167

PRINCIPAL GRANT
by me. I was the more wiUing to agree to this,
because of my anger at the Toronto presbytery
in re MacdonneU, as I saw it reported in the Globes
which I had just received. If the church is deter
mined to foUow the Toronto presbytery in its rigid,
external, narrow way of forcing the Confession of
Faith down the throats of its ministers, I don't know
what my action may be ; and, therefore, I was un
willing to force a division in the General Assembly
by strong statements, and perhaps a few months
after have to eat some of my own words. At 3 I
was caUed on to speak, and considering that I was
exhausted when I began, I did weU. I spoke for
forty-five minutes, and carried them with me from
first to last. We could have got anything we chose
to ask from the Assembly. The News wiU give you
an idea of it."
Revisiting his old university, he found it in new
quarters. " The old head janitor and wife, who have
a boy, now a student, caUed after me, were greatly
delighted to see me. They don't hke the grand new
coUege half as weU as the old, though they have
now magnificent rooms instead of the old kennel.
MacPherson (the janitor) declared to me that the
students now were too respectable. He never saw a
snowbaU made in the new quadrangle and the
rectorial election meetings were more like ' prayer-
meetings ' than anything else. The old man heaved
many sighs as he thought of the departed joys of
which he had been a delighted spectator."
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UNION
On his return from the Assembly in Toronto, an
unfortunate quarrel arose with his old and valued
friend McCunn, minister of River John. In 1874
Grant had again brought up in the synod the ques
tion of a native ministry and had this time been
successful, the plan being adopted of cooperating
with the sister church, and of appointing one of the
staff in their Halifax institution. For this position
the Rev. Allan PoUok was unanimously chosen, the
colonial committee agreeing to pay his salary for
the first six years. In 1876 the continuance of this
grant was called in question. McCunn, torn be
tween love for his old associates who had entered
the union, and a desire to do the best for himself
and for those who had sent him, secretly in favour
of the United Church, but kept silent by the fierce
hostUity of his people, found it difficult to steer a
straight course, and both in Edinburgh and on his
return was compeUed to temporize. Grant was irri
tated at the time by the MacdonneU trial and by
various other matters, and in their correspondence
hit harder than was either fair or just.
"You have I think carried out your maxim of
' perish policy ' in a sense different from what Dr.
Norman meant. The pohcy of union — which in the
winter of the revival you declared Christian and
necessary — has perished ; the policy of going into
the union as a distinct presbytery, which you agreed
to in the spring foUowing, has perished ; the policy
of general cooperation in our schemes urged on you
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PRINCIPAL GRANT
by Mr. Muir, has perished ; the pohcy of aiding in
the endowment of Dr. PoUok's chair, to which you
pledged yourself last May in Edinburgh, has per
ished Do you wonder if I am puzzled ? I am slow
to suspect any man, but can I help suspecting your
good faith ? "
The hfe-long friendship was soon restored, Mc
Cunn showing a fine forbearance, and when, in 1894,
St. George's, River John, almost unanimously en
tered the union, Grant made a special journey to
the spot to preach for his old friend and for his own
first congregation.

170

CHAPTER X
FINAL YEARS IN HALIFAX
DURING the early part of 1875 Grant was
much interested in a spontaneous outburst of
rehgious fervour, not marked by the presence of any
professional revivahst, which took place throughout
Pictou county, especiaUy in the districts of West
River and River John. With its earlier stages Grant
was intimately connected. Writing from Pictou to
his wife, he says : " On Saturday evening (at Hope-
weU), I took the evening meeting from 7 tiU 10
o'clock. On Sunday we were seven hours in the
church. I did almost aU the talking, preaching two
long sermons, and addressing the communicants,
and not feehng a bit tired. It is easy to feed hungry
people. Monday morning I preached till 1 o'clock,
and then, according to Mr. McKinnon's previous
arrangement, it was announced that the daily meet
ings at HopeweU would be discontinued, in order
that district meetings might be held. This left me
at liberty, and I determined to visit Pictou, especi
aUy as I was certain that there was need there.
I took the afternoon train, and on the way learned
that there was to be a union prayer-meeting in the
Kirk in the evening in New Glasgow, and I resolved
to stay over for one night there. The Coulls are
171

PRINCIPAL GRANT
rejoiced to see me, and gave me most stirring ac
counts of the work that was going on in the country
round about. There are about forty young men in
New Glasgow who go out, three, five, eight, ten, and
twelve miles to settlements, gather the people, hold
prayer-meetings, and address them with singular
directness and power ; and their zeal and faith are
being abundantly blessed. Monday night the New
Glasgow Kirk was fuU. It was a prayer-meeting for
an hour; then followed interviews with enquirers in
the session room, and an adjourned meeting in the
church of about seventy young men, who spoke,
prayed, sang, and counseUed one another in grand,
spirit-stirring style, and aU without the shghtest
appearance of undue excitement. I am so overjoyed
at the manifest goodness of God to the people that
I find no difficulty or fatigue in preaching. My own
soul is being fed, and I trust that I may be a more
faithful minister of Christ hereafter."
In the latter part of this year he became involved
in a singular controversy. His friend Miss Machar
and Mr. LeSueur of Ottawa were conducting in
the Canadian Monthly a discussion on the efficacy
of prayer. Into the controversy suddenly plunged
Laon, an anonymous author, with a bludgeoning
attack on Christianity, which he declared opposed
to the whole tenor of modem thought, and, indeed,
not honestly tenable by any man of culture. Grant
came to the rescue of his friend and of his faith,
and began a hot argument with Laon, who rather
172

FINAL YEARS IN HALIFAX
curiously turned out to be Mr. LeSueur himself.
Some of Grant's private letters give his attitude
more completely than his rather hurried articles in
the Monthly. On the whole he shows less sympathy
with the sceptical point of view than he came to
feel in later years, though his desire for construction
always rendered him a little impatient with the
self-complacent individual who is satisfied to sit on
the outskirts of the battle and make comments,
however brilliant. Writing to Miss Machar, he
says :—
" I am glad that you have met Mr. LeSueur.
He is one of a more numerous type than I once
thought. And I have very great sympathy for
them. I know no cure for them but the spirit of
God blessing to their souls good honest Christian
work engaged in by them. I can quite understand
how such a man should once have appropriated
Christianity with the whole strength of his being,
and yet now consider that aU that was a delusion. I
have felt the temptation, and although I did not
know the tempter then, I know him now. His
name is spiritual pride — the subtlest form of Satan.
In him now it might be caUed intellectual pride,
that form of self which seems to many pardonably
sinful — so refined and beautiful is it. His letters
interest me, but the same tone of self-sufficiency
and personal infallibility that runs through his
articles is in his letters as the fly in the ointment.
He assumes that if a new revelation, through a
173

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Divine Teacher, were to be given to the world, that
cultured sceptics would be more likely to receive it
than earnest (he would use another adjective — pro
bably bigoted, unthinking, traditional, or perhaps
only orthodox) Christians. Not so was it when
Christianity appeared. The Sadducees gave no great
names to the new religion. Nothing ever comes
from Sadduceeism. The Pharisees, even, were more
tolerant than the Sadducees. Gamahel was a Phari
see. Besides, the Pharisees gave not only Nico
demus and others like him in the time of the Lord,
but the very cream of their order — Saul. Besides,
we read that ' a great company of the priests were
obedient to the Faith.' And see also Acts 21 : 20.
And the first Gentile believers were found in the
ranks of those ' devout ' men and women who had
already beheved in the living God. I quite agree
with you that there are types of orthodoxy as
unlovely as scepticism ; but there is generaUy one
great difference which is all-important in a world
hke this, that even the worst form of orthodoxy
is more fruitful than scepticism."
For Grant 1876 was an eventful year. Early in
March the Rev. Father Chiniquy began a series of
lectures in the various Presbyterian Churches of
Halifax, in which, as was his wont, he attacked with
great asperity many of the rites and practices of the
church of which he had formerly been a member.
Among the Roman Catholics of the city great in
dignation was aroused, which culminated in a riot,
174

FINAL YEARS IN HALIFAX
in which the windows of Fort Massey Church were
broken, and the lecturer's life endangered by a mob.
The mayor, though Protestant, was a weakling,
and when appealed to for protection gave forth a
very uncertain sound. For the spirit represented by
tlie militant ex-priest, Grant was absolutely devoid
of sympathy ; but he had no intention of seeing
a brave man deprived of his right to freedom of
speech, and he promptly offered to Chiniquy the
use of St. Matthew's for his next lecture. He then
wrote to tlie mayor informing him he had done so,
and added : " The windows of St. Matthew's are
small and inexpensive ; those of St. Mary's,1 while
quite as easUy broken, are very beautiful and could
not be so easily replaced." The hint was taken and
Chiniquy's next lecture was delivered without op
position. This disgraceful riot took place in the absence of
the archbishop, who on hearing of it, hastened back,
and not only offered to pay aU the expenses of
repairing Fort Massey, but publicly and severely
reproved his flock for their unchristian foUy.
Later in the year this great and good man was
caUed to his last home. Grant sat constantly at his
bedside tUl death grew very near, and then leaving
his friend to the care of those of his own faith, went
quietly downstairs and there waited for the end.
Though it was long after midnight when the arch
bishop passed away, four hours later the following
1 The neighbouring Roman Catholic cathedral.
175

PRINCIPAL GRANT
letter, addressed by Grant to the editor of the
Morning Herald, appeared in that paper : —
July 28th, 1876. — "A great man among us has
fallen. We are, as a rule, blind to merit very near
ourselves, and, therefore, the true worth of Arch
bishop ConoUy wiU probably be better appreciated
by us years after this. But his virtues and true great
ness aU classes and denominations in Halifax grate
fully acknowledged while he lived, and now that he
is dead I am sure all are anxious to pay every respect
to his memory. How this can best be done it is for
those in authority to consider. Whether a pubhc
funeral should be tendered, or this matter be left in
the hands of his own church and to the spontaneous
expression of the citizens, I shaU not undertake to
say, but of course an opportunity wiU be afforded
us to manifest our sense of the loss which, as a
community, we have sustained.
"It is needless to add that I am not thinking
now of Dr. ConoUy as a churchman, an archbishop,
nor even as a much esteemed friend. I write con
cerning him as our most prominent pubhc man,
and as a public benefactor. Theobald and Stephen
Langton were great, not chiefly as Archbishops of
Canterbury, but as patriots and statesmen. No one
thinks of Richelieu and Mazarin as cardinals, but
as — each in his time — the brain of France. And
many to-day think of the late Dr. ConoUy, not as
the self-denying priest, or the archbishop abundant
in labours, but as the man who has long deserved
176

FINAL YEARS IN HALIFAX
weU of this city and this Dominion of ours. He was
a wise man — rich in saving common sense. He was
a man of peace — ever seeking to build bridges
rather than dig ditches between men of different
creeds. He was a great man with an eye that dis
cerned any spark of greatness in others, with a
noble scorn of aU that is base and with resolute
strivings after great things. He was a good man,
beloved by the poor, by aU whom he ever employed,
and by aU who reaUy knew him."
Somewhat later in this year Grant attended a
meeting in New York of the Evangehcal AUiance
and saw something both of the religious fervour
and of the moral degradation of that great city.
" There being no meeting in the evening, six of us
went with a detective to see the worst parts of
New York. Some things were so revolting that I
am sorry I went. Utter abominableness 1 Certainly,
if we are hearing about the remedy, we also saw
something of the disease."
As a lecturer Grant had long been prominent. In
February of 1876 he began in Temperance HaU a
series on " Questions of the Day." The first dealt
with the Eastern problem, and with the political
situation in Germany. From Carlyle he had im
bibed a deep love for the Teuton, and was perhaps
a httle inclined to disparage France. In the great
struggle of 1870 his sympathies had been entirely
Prussian. Writing to his brother in India on Sep
tember 9th, 1870, he had said: — "I have been
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PRINCIPAL GRANT
thinking and reading of nothing for the last three
or four weeks but this war of giants in Europe.
As you may suppose, all my sympathies are with
Germany; and predictions that I made freely at
the outset are all being verified, though I am not
much of a prophet — that it would make Germany
a united power, giving to central Europe hereafter
an equihbrium, the want of which in the past en
abled France to disturb the peace of the continent
when she liked, i.e. when the war whim seized on
or suited her ; and that it would destroy the Napo
leonic dynasty. Other results there wUl be of course,
for the whipping is very complete — a republic in
France for a whUe, for nine Frenchmen out of ten
believe they are repubhcans ; the Pope under Brit
ish protection ; the possible surrender to Germany
•of Alsace and part of Lorraine — Oh, Heavens,
where are we to stop I — for united Germany then,
af it liked, could swaUow up Holland and Den
mark, and so Britain would be merely a wealthy
island anchored off the coast of Germany. But Ger
mans are not Frenchmen. They want their own,
but not their neighbour's. And that is my confid
ence that aU wUl go weU. Napoleon is, I think, to
end his days in the Strand, i.e. if he survives. What
a drama has been enacted! What lofty tumbling!
Prussia has vindicated Carlyle's prophecy of her.
Henceforth she will be the bulwark of Europe
against the Cossack and the Celt, first on land, as
Britain is at sea. The Teutonic race are the mas-
178

FINAL YEARS IN HALIFAX
ters of the globe, and Protestantism is the dominant
form of rehgious thought."
At the conclusion of the war, widespread sym
pathy was aroused for the widows and orphans of
both armies, and many schemes were formed to
raise money for their support. In Halifax a debate
was held, the proceeds of which went to this object.
Dr. Clay and the Hon. James Macdonald, subse
quently chief justice of Nova Scotia, supported the
argument that the French nation was not respon
sible for the outbreak of the war, while Grant and
the late Hon. WUham Garvie upheld the cause
of Prussia, the late Sir WiUiam Young acting as
chairman and judge. At the last moment illness
prevented Garvie from attending, and the whole
burden of the negative fell on Grant. He won a
complete victory, rousing the enthusiasm of aU by
his eloquence, his historical knowledge, and his
skiU in debate. In giving his decision the chairman
said : — " We must aU come to the conclusion that
Mr. Grant has had the best of it ; but we must also
admit that even were his the weaker side, his abihty
to make the worse appear the better reason would
have made it seem the stronger."
Grant's historical knowledge was not that of a
speciahst, but it was wide and clear. He possessed
to a high degree the faculty of reading a map, of
visualizing the geography of a country, and of per
ceiving what consequences it must have entaUed on
the character and history of the people. Before
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PRINCIPAL GRANT
visiting any country, or making up his mind upon
any question of foreign policy, he was always careful
to study thoroughly the map, and to read at least
three or four standard works upon the subject. Thus
to the Eastern question he brought a vivid knowledge
of the pohtical and physical features of the countries
involved, and an accurate acquaintance with the
works of Gibbon and Finlay, as well as with all the
numerous articles by Gladstone, McCoU, and Miss
Irby in the great monthly and quarterly reviews. In
this he was aided by a retentive memory, and by
his power of reading and assimUating with marvel
lous rapidity. On questions of church history, such
as the Reformation, and on everything dealing with
the past of Canada, his knowledge was, of course,
much more intimate and detailed.
A later lecture of 1876 discussed free trade and
the legislative union of the Maritime Provinces.
Both he advocated strongly. "At a time when most
men were deceived by the plausible arguments that
can always be urged in favour of protection, Howe
saw clearly what a cheat the whole thing is, unten
able in theory, vicious in practice; the fruitful
parent of rings, lobbying and bribery about legis
latures, the robbery of the community at large for
special classes, and the pauperizing of mechanics
and manufacturers ; for how else shaU you define
paupers than as a class that have to be sustained by
a tax on the whole community." He would allow
only those limitations on free trade that aU sensible
180

FINAL YEARS IN HALIFAX
free traders allow ; first, the artificial encouragement
of what the safety of a country imperatively de
manded; secondly, that as a revenue must be raised,
all the industries of tlie country must bear their
fair share of the burden.
"A maritime union of Nova Scotia and New
Brunswick, even if Prince Edward Island and
Newfoundland did not come in, would greatly re
duce the cost of local government, increase our
provincial credit and our influence in the councils
of the nation."
But from 1874 to 1877 his chief public appear
ances were in the role of educational reformer. The
Act of 1864, while satisfactory throughout the pro
vince, had left the schools in Halifax unorganized,
and required to be supplemented. This was done in
1 874. The solution adopted was not altogether to his
liking, but has stood the test of time with remark
able success. Separate schools were claimed by the
Roman Catholics, and were favoured by Grant,
who claimed that through a subterfuge they were
reaUy in existence already, and under far less care
ful supervision than in Ontario. " The grant of
properly regulated separate schools woidd do much
to sweeten our political hfe, and would take away
the opposition now silently entertained by Roman
Catholics to union with New Brunswick." In this
attempt he was unsuccessful, though under tlie
present system certain of the city schools are, sub
ject to the general regulations, controUed by the
181

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Roman Cathohc section of the board. His advocacy
of separate schools was contrasted by his opponents,
not without effect, with his attitude on the univer
sity question. His mind was not made up without
long hesitation. Writing to his brother he says: —
" The question of questions with the Romanists
is 'separate schools,' but they put forward their
claims so moderately and quietly, except where
they can control the election, that neither party
cares to come out openly against them. I see that
Rome is becoming more and more of a sect, but
certainly the most formidable of sects, because of
her numbers, her authority, and the connection she
insists on between religion and politics. The ten
dency of the modern spirit is to carry the principle
of the division of labour into the inteUectual and
spiritual regions, letting the pohtician have his de
partment, and the scientific man his, and the re
ligious man his ; but the ultramontanist sees that
man is a unity and that his soul should control the
whole man. It is the true idea, but unluckily the
ultramontanist can't be depended on to feed the
soul with truth. What then is to be done? I am
often at a loss, swaying to-day to this side, and
next day to that, for I cannot sympathize with
either side, and there is no other great party in the
field. WeU, I must just work on as best I can, and
wait with patience. But there are great social ques
tions involved, that press for solution."
At the same time the university problem became
182

FINAL YEARS IN HALIFAX
acute, and the government was compelled to decide
between three rival policies : —
To continue the existing grants to denomina
tional institutions.
To form a non-sectarian teaching university.
To found a non-sectarian examining body.
The first policy was advocated by Acadia College
and its Baptist constituency. The second, which
practicaUy meant submerging aU others in Dal
housie, was strongly advocated by Grant. The taunt
that Dalhousie was reaUy Presbyterian, he refuted
with vigour and success ; at the same time the
feeling that it was unfair for one church to contri
bute so largely to the support of a provincial uni
versity, and to win in return nothing but ingratitude
and misrepresentation, made it hkely that if the
state determined to adopt the Baptist policy, the
Presbyterians would withdraw their funds from
Dalhousie, found a university of their own, and
claim state aid in proportion to their numbers.
Speaking in March, 1876, Grant says: —
"The chief argument for denominational col
leges is that they exist, and that they have received
grants in the past, and that they have the confid
ence of their denominations. The case of Acadia
is put generally in the forefront, not only because
it has more students than SackviUe or King's, but
because of the circumstances connected with its
origin. When Dalhousie CoUege was put in opera
tion in 1839, Mr. Crawley applied for a professor-
183

PRINCIPAL GRANT
ship. A majority of a rump board of governors —
said majority consisting of a worthy but pig-headed
governor and the treasurer of the province — con
sidered that as King's was the college of the Epis
copal Established Church of England, Dalhousie
should be the coUege of the Presbyterian Estab
hshed Church of Scotland, and so Mr. Crawley
was not appointed. The Baptists were indignant,
and started Queen's CoUege, now caUed Acadia.
Though the most ample apologies were made in
the House next year, and a new board of governors
appointed, the mischief was done, and though apol
ogies have been periodicaUy renewed ever since, in
the press, on the platform, and in the House, all
has been of no avail. Denominational coUeges have
been fastened on us for a generation, and are to be
continued forever. Truly events are far-reaching.
Those two worthy gentlemen had httle idea of the
importance of their act. Might I take the liberty of
suggesting to Nova Scotians that they have by this
time punished themselves enough for the stupidity
of Sir Colin Campbell and Mr. WaUace. Honest
men, they are both dead, and, let us hope, in peace.
Let us, too, have peace.
"The prosperity of a country depends to an al
most extraordinary extent on whether it has a few
men whose native vigour has been cultivated to the
highest possible degree. One Joe Howe was worth
to us ten thousand men. And he would have been
worth to us ten times as much had he received the
184

FINAL YEARS IN HALIFAX
advantages of a thorough coUegiate training. WeU
he knew that. Often and often he lamented that it
had never been within his reach. And always he
lifted up his voice on behalf of an institution where
young Nova Scotians without distinction of class
or creed could contend in that literary contest
where defeat is no dishonour and where victory
ensures modesty.
"Halifax ought to be the educational centre of
the Maritime Provinces. But what is its state? We
have not a high school yet. An enhghtened Scottish
nobleman founded a coUege for us with imperial
funds. It lay long like a wreck on an unkindly
shore. No hand was stretched forth to refit it and
send it forth with sails set and streamers flying. At
last a few young men in the country, who had been
educated abroad, put their shoulders to the work.
They succeeded. But how much sympathy, how
much practical assistance have they received? Their
honesty has been questioned, their position mis
represented, and their success denied. And in this
very year (1876) a paper pubhshed in Hahfax has
calmly proposed that it be broken up, the revenues
confiscated and divided among half a dozen de
nominations, and Halifax left without a college."
The government finaUy decided to increase the
grants to denominational colleges and to Dalhousie
for the five years from 1876 to 1881, and then to
withdraw them entirely.1 At the same time they
1 Dalhousie weathered the loss of the provincial grants; in 1879
185

PRINCIPAL GRANT
founded the University of Halifax, a degree-con
ferring institution, with a staff composed of mem
bers of the faculties of existing teaching bodies.
After a perturbed existence of some years this
paper university sank into a state of coma, from
which it has not yet emerged. On its foundation
Grant accepted a position on the senate, but early
in the next year resigned in disgust.
In 1877 Grant turned to the more practical task
of securing endowments for Pine HiU Theological
CoUege. The old Free Church CoUege on Gerrish
Street, adopted by the United Church, was, both in
building and equipment, inadequate for the work of
giving a theological training to the Presbyterian
youth of the Maritime Provinces. New buUdings
and additional professors were required. A canvass,
in which Grant took the lead, was organized and
carried to a successful conclusion, over eighty thous
and dollars being raised, with part of which the
new buildings on the Northwest Arm were pur
chased. From end to end Grant toured the three
provinces so gaily that many came to think he
enjoyed the work of a collector. In reahty it cost
him many a bitter pang, even in so good a cause.
To his wife he writes: "Duties must be done, and
above all, those which spring from one's public

George Munro, of New York, an expatriated Nova Scotian, began his
celebrated series of benefactions ; his noble example was followed by
others, and the position of Dalhousie is now secure as de facto if not de
jure, the provincial university.
186

FINAL YEARS IN HALIFAX
position. This work I am now on is hateful to me
as far as begging is concerned; but there are no
other ways of establishing the Hall, just as, if I
had not put my shoulder to the wheel fourteen
years ago, Dalhousie CoUege would not have been
resuscitated. But one thing is certain, I'U never
start another money scheme."
The time had now come for him to play his part
upon a larger stage. In October, 1877, he was
offered the vacant principalship of Queen's Univer
sity. Intimation of his impending resignation had
been given him by Principal Snodgrass, and of the
hkehhood of his being summoned as successor. To
leave Halifax was a wrench to himself and still more
to his wife. The congregation was in despair, and tried
hard to induce him to remain. But more and more
his conviction deepened that it was his duty to go,
a conviction strengthened by the unanimous coun
sels of his friends and of his brother. He had been
fourteen years in the one charge, and manifold as
were his interests he could not but feel that there
was some danger of his faUing into the pastoral
groove. It was better for himself that he should
pass into a different atmosphere and have the op
portunity of influencing a wider constituency. In
the larger sense his work in Halifax and in Nova
Scotia was done, and such a man was far more
deeply needed in Upper Canada. When the official
invitation came he asked but a single question; Was
he sure of the cordial support of his coUeagues? It
187

PRINCIPAL GRANT
was answered that he was. Two months more were
spent in Halifax ; then, early in December, regret
fully but resolutely, he turned his back upon his
native province.

188

CHAPTER XI
QUEEN'S BEFORE 1878
THE University of Queen's CoUege in 1877
preferred to describe herself as one of the
" outlying coUeges," and was generaUy regarded as
a " denominational institution." Imperfectly known
in central and western Ontario, for she lay remote
from the city in which the functions of the province
were rapidly being centralized, she was out of touch
with the remarkably coherent educational system
which at this period was in process of construc
tion. Her aloofness from the provincial system was
accentuated by the memories of past quarrels in
which she had played a losing part, and by the
wide unpopularity of denominationalism in educa
tion. Yet in 1877 she was not denominational in
the sense of commanding the support of an ecclesi
astical body. She had been a foremost care of the
synod of the Old Kirk, but at the union the
Presbyterian Church in Canada decided to assume
nothing beyond a partial responsibility for her
theological faculty. Since 1875 her constituency'
had been hmited to individual Presbyterians and
to the people of Kingston. Disadvantageous as was
her material position, she possessed a vigorous and
remarkably individual hfe, and commanded a pas-
189

PRINCIPAL GRANT
sionate loyalty which gave her a remarkable vi
tality. Queen's owed her origin to the fight against sec
tarianism in education, and she had an honourable
record of freedom from prejudice and intolerance.
The great tide of Scottish immigration into Upper
Canada in the thirties was coincident with the
virulent struggle over the university question.1 The
Scottish Church foUowed the migration of her
children with her usual sober, disciphned energy.
She sent out ministers in fair numbers, and the
men she sent were of fine scholaiship. From the
very first the immigrants felt acutely the lack of
means of higher education which was the result of
the deadlock which had foUowed the Anglican at
tempt to seize upon the university endowment. In
particular the church desired a native ministry. For
a few years the Upper Canada synod wasted time
1 In 1797 a royal enactment had directed the establishment of gram
mar schools and more advanced seminaries. The local authorities
implemented this by setting aside a quantity of wild lands for this pur
pose. In 1827 two hundred and twenty-five thousand acres were appro
priated as a university endowment In the same year Ring's College
was chartered, and to this university college was handed over the whole
endowment; at the same time it was made an exclusively Anglican
institution. The protests were bitter, the numerous and energetic
Methodist body leading. In 1836 the Methodists founded the Upper
Canada Academy at Cobourg, and this, in 1841, became Victoria
University. Queen's began work in March, 1842. Victoria is the oldest,
Queen's the second oldest college in Ontario. King's College, though
chartered in 1827, was not opened until 1843. King's was abolished in
1849, Toronto University being set up in its stead as a secular teaching
body. In 1853 University College appeared as the teaching body of
Toronto University.
190

QUEEN'S BEFORE 1878
in efforts to force an equitable administration of the
pubhc endowment. Then the Presbyterians realized
that for the time at least the endowment was locked
up, and in 1839 they definitely decided to assume
the burden of estabhshing a coUege with their own
resources. Forty thousand settlers, scattered over a
region as large as Scotland, almost all recent immi- j/
grants, almost all in the early pioneer stage of pro
gress where ready money is scanty, determined to
provide the province with a coUege.
The Scottish universities furnished the model.
The founders of Queen's were famUiar with coUeges
which consulted the interests of churches, received
aid of the government, evoked the hberality of mu
nicipalities and profited by the gifts of individuals,
aU with no loss of freedom or of harmony. The cir
cumstances of Upper Canada caused the founders to
lay special stress on religious liberty, and as early as
possible in the royal charter of Queen's occurs an
exphcit prohibition of rehgious tests or qualifications
for students or graduates. In conferring degrees in
divinity the new university was to be guided in the
matter of declarations and subscriptions by the ex
ample of the University of Edinburgh. Queen's
from the beginning was absolutely tolerant. In the
early fifties the synod noted that Episcopahans,
Methodists, and "even Roman Catholics" had
avaUed themselves of her advantages. Intending to
render pubhc service, the founders of Queen's could
see no reason why they should not receive pubhc
191

PRINCIPAL GRANT
aid ; and the earlier politics of the college had much
to do with the question of whether the endowment
provided by royal enactment should be reserved for
one institution, or should be used to aid the three
or four colleges then at work in the province.
The beginnings were prosperous. A fair endow
ment — about forty thousand doUars — was raised.
The colonial committee of the Church of Scotland
gave an annual grant. A scholar of great polish and
brilliance, the Rev. Dr. LiddeU, was sent out as
principal. The professor of classics, CampbeU, was
afterwards principal of Aberdeen University, and
the third professor was Dr. Williamson, for half a
century a servant of Queen's. The attendance was
encouraging, and so promising was the outlook
that plans were prepared for large buildings on the
outskirts of the city. Then, in 1844, the disruption
took place, the first of the three great disasters
which have overtaken Queen's. She remained with
the Old Kirk, and at a stroke that church lost
more than two-thirds of its membership. The stu
dents who sided with the Free Church party at
once withdrew; Queen's began her fourth session
with only thirteen — some accounts say eleven —
students in attendance.
The tenacity of the board of trustees saved the
situation The staff went to pieces. Professor Camp
beU left to take a Scottish pulpit. Dr. Liddell lost
heart and advocated a surrender to King's College
and the reduction of the university to the footing
192

QUEEN'S BEFORE 1878
of a theological coUege. The trustees rejected the
counsels of despair, and Dr. LiddeU resigned. The
staff was recruited from the clergy of the province,
four ministers engaged in parochial work adding
collegiate instruction to their other laboure. Gradu
aUy the college pulled through, a permanent staff
was gathered, tlie attendance crept up, and by 1850
there were forty-one matriculated students, rather
more than before the disruption. The first storm
had been weathered.
The fifties were a period of precarious prosperity.
The income was small, varying from eight thousand
to eleven thousand dollars, and tlie staff numbered
only four or five. By intense zeal and activity the
professors achieved astonishing results. Not only
did they impart a remarkably sound education, but
it was their recognized duty to tour tlie countryside
in vacation times drumming up recruits. A connec
tion was established with the Old Kirk in the Mari
time Provinces. The colonial committee was induced
to send out for education at Queen's young Scotch
men who intended to enter the Canadian ministry.
A successful medical faculty was added. The alert
ness of the New World seems grafted upon the
doggedness of Scotland as we regard tlie combina
tion of resourcefulness and determination which
marked these early days.
Ill- fortune marked the sixties. They opened with
tlie second great disaster, the depression which was
caused by the loss of harmony in the staff. The
193

PRINCIPAL GRANT
earlier gains had been wrung from unpromising
circumstances by the zeal of the professors. At
the moment when the university became involved
in a pubhc controversy of great bitterness, disunion
appeared within. A personal quarrel between Pro
fessors George and Weir so rent the coUege that
Professor George resigned, Professor Weir was dis
missed, and Professor Lawson withdrew to Dal
housie. Soon after, Principal Leitch, who had come
out from Scotland in 1860, died suddenly, and Pro
fessors Williamson and Mowat alone were left of
the band of workers of the fifties. As the harmony
disappeared the attendance declined.
This misfortune was comphcated by the results
of the university conflict of 1860 and 1861. King's
CoUege was opened in 1843 in Toronto. After a
few troubled years as an Anghcan institution it
passed, by a series of changes, into University Col
lege. The constitution of the provincial university
was long in dispute. An ideal which was generaUy
held was that there should be only one university
in the province. A plan which Queen's supported
was for the several institutions in Upper Canada to
be teaching colleges in this university, having equal
powers and sharing as their circumstances dictated
in the public funds. The opposite view was that
the provincial university should have only one arts
coUege, and that this coUege should absorb the
whole of the revenue from the endowment. The
clash of ideals was marked by a painful bitterness.
194

QUEEN'S BEFORE 1878
The Act of 1853 was drafted with an ingenious
wrongheadedness which so encouraged both these
theories as to make conflict certain. It placed Uni
versity CoUege in such peculiarly close relations to
Toronto University as to give it control of the
senate, which was the governing body of that insti
tution. Simultaneously it professed to incorporate
the other coUeges — which had independent univer
sity powers of their own — in Toronto University.
By a triumph of fatuity, it gave the outlying col
leges a claim on the revenue from the endowment,
but left it to their bitter rival, University College,
to decide the amount of the sum which they should
receive. University CoUege was to be maintained
and the surplus from the revenue was to be given
to the others. As University CoUege was in financial
control of the university, the clause was a deliber
ate inducement to waste money.
In 1860 the outlying coUeges demanded the sum
which by the terms of the Act of 1853 they should
receive from Toronto University. A desperate fight
ensued, a trial of strength between the outlying or
denominational coUeges and the " secular coUege "
as they unwisely caUed their opponent. The struggle
ended in complete defeat for the church institutions.
University CoUege remained in possession of the
endowments. More than that, it remained in pos
session of pubhc sympathy. A province which had
just rid itself of the plague of the clergy reserves,
and which was commencing the organization of an
195

PRINCIPAL GRANT
elaborate system of secular schools, offered a bad
field for denunciations of the "godless coUege."
The unpopularity of the denominational coUeges
probably dates from this conflict.
Hitherto University College had not surpassed
Queen's or Victoria in point of attendance. Now,
however, she forged ahead and secured that superi
ority in numbers, which long was one feature of
university conditions in the province. To some
extent this may have been due to the new popu
larity of University CoUege. To some extent it was
due to the advantage which the state college de
rived from her wealth. To the great indignation of
the other institutions, she spent several thousand
dollars a year in scholarships. In 1860 there were
thirty of these, each of one hundred and twenty
dollars a year. They constituted a powerful induce
ment to attendance and Dr. McCaul1 described
them as his "sheet anchor." This pohcy of Toronto
University explains the constant appeals which the
other universities were obhged to make for sub
scriptions to provide scholarships, prizes and bur
saries. In the main, however, the sudden increase
in the attendance at University CoUege must be as
cribed to a general change in educational conditions,
a change to which Toronto University adapted her
self more readily than did her rivals.
One of the early difficulties had been the lack of
secondary schools. Each coUege had been compeUed
1 The president of Toronto University.
196

QUEEN'S BEFORE 1878
to estabhsh a preparatory school, and for years these
few institutions were the principal feeders of the
universities. At this period, when University Col
lege was triumphant, and the other coUeges de
pressed and embarrassed, occurred the rise of the
grammar school. The relative importance of the old
preparatory institutions soon disappeared. Owing
to many causes Toronto University influence was
predominant in the new schools. A large pro
portion of the masters were University CoUege
graduates. At this period each university had its
own matriculation standard. The result of this
was that the high schools — whose masters were
largely Toronto men — whose courses were pre
scribed by an education department which worked
in more or less harmony with Toronto and with
out consulting the other universities — and whose
staffs were plagued by a chaotic multiphcity of ex
aminations — nearly everywhere developed a strong
reluctance to teach any but the Toronto matric
ulation. About 1865 Queen's puUed herself together under
Principal Snodgrass, a burly Lowlander, whose prac
tical, half-humorous sagacity aU knew, and who hid
under a heavy exterior a force and determination
wliich were to tide the university over her third
great crisis. A new staff was built up. Professor
MacKerras succeeded Weir, Professor Dupuis, in
1864, commenced his long term of service, Pro
fessor Watson joined in 1872, and Professor Robert
197

PRINCIPAL GRANT
BeU1 took the natural science work. In 1865 the
course was lengthened to four years. A misfortune
at this period was the discontinuance of the faculty
of medicine, owing to internal difficulties. In its
stead appeared the Royal CoUege, affiliation re
placing the older and closer relationship.
The reviving energies of Queen's were all but
paralyzed by the disaster which came in 1868, the
halving of the income. The faUure of the Commer
cial Bank reduced the university's investments by
two-thirds. It was foUowed by the withdrawal of the
government grant. The income feU from thirteen
thousand six hundred doUars, to seven thousand
seven hundred doUars.
The pre-confederation government of Canada had
compromised with the outlying coUeges in the mat
ter of the university endowment by voting them
certfain yearly sums. The total vote was twenty-one
thousand four hundred doUars, of which Queen's and
Victoria received five thousand doUars each, Trinity
four thousand doUars, and four Roman Cathohc in
stitutions — Regiopolis, St. Michael's, Bytown, and
L'Assomption — seven thousand four hundred dol
lars. Sandfield Macdonald governed Ontario in a
spirit of determined economy. The discontinuance
of these grants seems to have been a popular meas
ure of retrenchment, the outlying coUeges now
feehng to the full how unfortunate for them had
been the result of the controversy of 1860-1. It
1 Now Director of the Geological Survey.
198

QUEEN'S BEFORE 1878
came to be regarded as an axiom in Ontario politics
that public support could not be given to "denomi
national " institutions.
This seemed sheer ruin for the outlying coUeges,
and the impression prevailed over the province that
they must close their doors and leave the field to
University CoUege. At Victoria nearly the whole of
the senior year forthwith deserted and went to the
prosperous rival. The Queen's senior year showed
firmness, yet one or two desertions took place. Few
new students, however, cared to join what seemed
a moribund institution. In 1867-8 the arts students
numbered only twenty-eight. In 1868-9 and 1870-1
the numbers touched low water mark, twenty-five.
Principal Snodgrass saved Queen's. Far as the
pawky Scot was from brUhance, he possessed a
will of iron and a firm courage. He set his teeth
and determined that Queen's must not die. First
he steadied his coUeagues. For a moment he stood
alone. "The only thing we can do for our Alma
Mater," MacKerras wrote, "is to give her a decent
burial." Then Snodgrass called upon the church. In
January, 1869, a meeting of the synod, pro re nata,
was held in Kingston. Stirred by Snodgrass's appeal
and MacKerras's fiery eloquence, the synod deter
mined to replace the lost revenue by raising an
endowment of one hundred thousand doUars. Snod
grass and MacKerras undertook the work of coUec
tion. They succeeded. They visited eighty-six pastoral
charges, delivering public addresses and prosecuting 199

PRINCIPAL GRANT
a house to house canvass in each. The sum they
raised came from five thousand two hundred indi
vidual givers. It saved Queen's, but kiUed Mac
Kerras, whose health was irretrievably shattered
by his exertions. The lost government grant was
replaced by interest from invested capital.
The struggle was stiU very hard. Despite rigid
economy and skilful management, the expenses in
creased untU Dr. Snodgrass's last budget showed
an expenditure of sixteen thousand eight hundred
dollars, while the revenue could not be brought
over sixteen thousand two hundred and seventy-
five dollars. Nearly eight thousand doUars of this
was from interest on capital, and nearly seven thou
sand five hundred dollars came from Presbyterian
sources — the grant from the colonial committee of
the Scottish Church, a sum from the temporalities
fund, (a rehc of the old clergy reserves) and contri
butions from churches. Year by year discouraging
deficits ate into the capital.
In 1875 Presbyterian union profoundly modified
the position of Queen's. The Voluntary section of
the Canada Presbyterian Church, which far out
numbered the Old Kirk, opposed the maintenance
of arts coUeges by churches. The footing of Queen's
was one of the most delicate points in the negotia
tions. FinaUy an arrangement was effected, which,
while leaving Queen's nominaUy Presbyterian, vir
tually transformed her into a private institution.
Hitherto the governing body, the board of trustees,
200

QUEENS BEFORE 1878
had been elected by the synod, from a list of per
sons nominated by the individual congregations.
After the union the board became a self-perpetu
ating body. Theoretically the corporation of the
university remained the communicants of the Pres
byterian Church in Canada. Practically the church
as a body had no control over the university. The
stipulation that trustees must be members of the
Presbyterian Church remained in force for fifteen
years; in 1889 it was modified. The trustees con
tinued to furnish the General Assembly with an
annual report. The church undertook to contribute
a proportion of the expenditure on the theological
faculty.1 More or less consciously, Queen's at this junc
ture turned to her graduates as her true constitu
ency. The legislation which was obtained in 1874
constituted a new body, the university council.
Elected by the graduates, its functions were mainly
advisory, but it afforded a link between the trustees
and the general sentiment of the friends of the uni
versity. It has proved a useful body, and in 1889 it
was empowered to elect five members of the board
of trustees. Another change made in 1874 was the
institution of the dignified office of chanceUor. This
post was filled by election by the alumni. The con
stitution of 1874 was a strikingly far-sighted and
1 The church has contributed from two thousand to four thousand
dollars a year for this purpose. In 1901 it helped to endow a fourth
chair in that faculty.
201

J

PRINCIPAL GRANT
judicious work, and reveals Principal Snodgrass as
a man of high constructive powers.
Many circumstances at this time mortified the
\ friends of Queen's. The General Assembly was
guarded and even cold in its attitude to the uni
versity. It refused to aid her in a project to get a
third theological professor. Difficulties arose as to
the proportions in which the church's expenditure
for theological education should be divided among
the four coUeges, Queen's and Knox in Ontario,
Montreal and Morrin in Quebec. Several move
ments against Queen's started in the presbyteries.
For some years a project to estabhsh a Presby
terian university for the conferring of theological
degrees— a direct attack on Queen's — figured in
ecclesiastical politics. Queen's had been forced into
her semi-independent position, and yet complaints
were constant about the anomalous relation in which
she stood to the church.
When, in 1877, Dr. Snodgrass was offered the
hving of Canobie, in Scotland, he gladly laid down
the burden. A steady increase in the number of stu
dents had been the one encouraging feature in his
work since the raising of the endowment. Conditions
were changed in the province, and, thanks in part to
an alteration in matriculation methods, the young
people were flocking to the universities in greater
numbers. The finances were a great anxiety. The
painful effort of 1869-70 had barely made good the
losses of 1868, and had not met the need for expan-
202

QUEEN'S BEFORE 1878
sion. The changed attitude of the church depressed
the friends of Queen's. Some aspects of the Macdon
neU case increased the impression that the Assembly
looked coldly upon the university. Grant, in 1902,
declared that the peculiar state of affairs so created
had an influence in deciding him to cast in his lot
with Queen's. "Vehement discussions over a so-
caUed heresy case had deepened the old lines of
division in the church," he said, "and had Queen's
been obhged to close its doors from lack of suffi
ciently generous aid, the union, from which so much
spiritual good was anticipated, would have been
imperUled." Queen's, in short, was in a profoundly
critical condition.
The great hope lay in the remarkable affection
which from the earhest days she had been able to
evoke. Passionate loyalty to the Alma Mater per
vaded the whole atmosphere of the college. A cer
tain individuality and faculty of developing individ
uality also characterized her. The undergraduate
life was independent and vigorous.1 It was in these
intangible elements that hope lay when George
Monro Grant became the sixth principal.
1 An "Alma Mater Society " afforded a means of expression to the
corporate life of the student body, and a less formal organization, the
"Concurgus Iniquitatis et Virtutis," had by degrees been brought to a
singular point of efficiency as a students' court.

203

CHAPTER XII
THE INSTALLATION
THE new principal arrived in Kingston on De
cember 1st, 1877, and was greeted with high
enthusiasm. He was met at the station, two miles
outside the town, by the university authorities, the
civic dignitaries, and the students. When the for
mal welcomes were over, and the cheering had
spent itself, he was driven into town, the students
marching in parade, headed by a mUitary band.
The principal's stopping-place was Professor Mac
Kerras 's house, and from the doorstep he addressed
a few words to the thronging undergraduates. His
presence, his voice, his air of strength and confid
ence, produced a great effect.
The installation took place four days later, in the
city haU. Principals Caven and MacVicar were
present, and another visitor was Sir John Mac
donald,1 M.P. for Kingston, then the leader of the
opposition. The opening prayer was offered by the
Rev. D. M. Gordon, of Ottawa, Grant's junior
and friend at school and coUege, and destined to be
his successor as principal. Hope and confidence seem
1 In 1839, Sir John Macdonald, then a rising young barrister, had
taken a prominent part in the foundation of Queen's. Later on he had
been active in organizing the medical faculty.
205

PRINCIPAL GRANT
to have been the keynotes of the occasion. The pre
vailing idea was expressed in the students' song,
with its plain intimation of the work which was
expected of him: —
" For cash to build new halls and found new chairs,
We here at Queen's have long remained in want,
At last propitious Fortune hears our pray"rs,
And from her treasures sends *a liberal Grant.' "
Grant's address made the instaUation a matter of
provincial importance. Queen's aloofness from the
general life and interests of Ontario was unpleas
antly evident in the scanty list of visitors at the
ceremony. Few persons other than Presbyterian
clergymen and Kingstonians took the trouble to
be present. But Grant's great power of arresting
and compelhng public attention was shown by the
wide currency given to his striking dehverance on
university ideals, university work, and university
policy. Long as the address was, it was pubhshed
in fuU in the Toronto press. On the day of his
installation, the principal began the work of bring
ing Queen's before the public, and into relation
with the hfe of the people.
The address faUs into two main divisions, an
examination of the position of Queen's, and a
declaration of the new principal's theory of the
work and purposes of a university. Both were keen
and courageous. The latter and more general por
tion was an elaboration of the principles which for
seventeen years he had championed in Nova Scotia.
206

THE INSTALLATION
The portion relating to Queen's went to the root
of the matter. The reasons for her existence were
boldly discussed. Her footing in the country was
glanced at, and her attitude towards the provincial
system defined. Her needs, constitutional as well as
financial, were expounded. A direct demand for
support was made upon graduates and friends.
Queen's was still a purely Presbyterian insti
tution, and Grant discussed the question of the
form in which the university was to exist from the
standpoint of a churchman. Emphatically, almost
curtly, he laid down the principle that Queen's ,
would continue as a university, having both arts'V
and divinity faculties. Life, he said, was too short
to be always discussing the same subject. He re
ferred to the history of the past few years : " The
question of consohdating our various institutions
delayed the union of the churches for two or three
years. It was found that Knox College, though
then without buildings or endowments, refused to
move east; that Montreal Presbyterian CoUege,
though without endowment, would not move west;
and it could not be expected that old Queen's,
with buildings and endowments, would abandon
her limestone foundations in the ancient capital of
Canada. The matter then ' took end' as far as legis
lation is concerned. But it only took beginning as
far as action is concerned."
The churchman passing into the publicist, Grant
next defined the claims which the university had
207

PRINCIPAL GRANT
upon Presbyterians, as weU as upon her "special
friends," as the ecclesiastical phrase of the day had
it. "The church, in accepting Queen's, of course
^ meant to preserve, cherish and honour her. Her
special friends, in insisting upon the maintenance
of her integrity, of course meant to develop and
strengthen her in every department. They con
sidered that Ontario was too vast a country for one
college, however nobly endowed that coUege may
be; that there was an undoubted advantage in a
combination of the arts and divinity faculties when
the constituency was extensive enough to support
both ; that Queen's had too Ulustrious a record to
consent to extinction ; that her vitality had been
proved by surviving shocks that had kUled other
institutions ; that the number of students who
flocked to her haUs showed that she supplied to
the country a felt need ; that she was required by
the church now, and might be still more required
in the future."
The passage which foUowed must have startled
many of the new principal's hearers. It was an
explicit abandonment of the claim of Queen's
upon the university endowment, an acceptance of
the result of the disastrous struggle of 1860-1,
and, by waiving the claims which had been the
point of contention, a distinct overture of friend-
u ship to Toronto University. " As far as provincial
action was concerned," he said, "it was surely weU,
it seems to me, that Ontario should devote the
208

THE INSTALLATION
whole endowment accruing from the land set apart
for university education, to one good college, rather
than fritter it away on several institutions. If others
are in existence from local, denominational, or other
necessities, let the necessity be proved by the sacri
fices their friends are wiUing to make for them, and
the real extent of the necessity by the survival of
the fittest. The existence of one amply endowed
from provincial resources will always be a guarantee
that provincial educational interests shall not be
sacrificed to the clamours of an endless number
of sects and localities, and a guarantee also of the
efficiency of the various colleges, the provincial
coUege included. Competition, when there is room
for it, is a good thing, even in education. Dr. Chal
mers thought the best possible condition of things
for promoting the religious well-being of a country
was an Established Church, surrounded by a vigor
ous dissent. I quite agree with him, when the coun
try happens to possess a free historical national
church ; and I would submit whether a similar
condition of things does not offer the best security
for the educational welfare of Canada."1 — <
The relations of Queen's to the Presbyterian
Church, to Ontario, and to Toronto University
thus touched upon, Grant discussed the needs of
the hour. Chiefly he dwelt upon the financial need.
One internal change he suggested. From the very
1 The principal carefully confined his acquiescence to the old royal
grant ; an important point, in view of subsequent circumstances.
209

PRINCIPAL GRANT
beginning he regretted the rupture which had caused
the Royal CoUege to replace the old medical fac
ulty. Not for nearly fifteen years did he see a rever
sion to the old arrangement, but he hinted at it in
this his first address. His significant plea for univer
sity culture as part of the curriculum for the phy
sician, foUowed his introductory sentences. He was
more explicit in his statement of the needs of the
two existing faculties. The university needed a new
convocation haU and more class-rooms. "In order
that the degree of B.Sc. may be on an equal footing
with, and occupy an entirely distinctive position
from that of BA., an additional professorship of
physics is needed." Professor Dupuis should have a
good laboratory. Bursaries and scholarships also
were required. The need for a new professor in the
faculty of divinity was pressing.
FinaUy, the principal demanded "pecuniary in
dependence of the mother church." "In the most
generous manner she has for many years given us
five hundred and fifty pounds sterling per annum.
We have no right to ask that that grant should be
continued much longer. We have always been an
independent church, but our recent auspicious union
indicates that the Canadian church expects to do
its own work with its own means, and that the aid
of the mother churches should be sought only for
our new provinces in the North-West, for newly-
arrived emigrants, or to wind up the threads of the
old work." 210

THE INSTALLATION
The principal invoked the name of Canada in his
caU to the men of Queen's. "We ask nothing for
ourselves. We ask aU for Canada. Canada has no
past. We begin to count a past only after centuries
of noble achievements. We do not boast much of
her present. But we know that she has a future,
and her colleges are essential to the glory of her
future. Speaking for my brother professors, I may
say that we wiU do aU that in us hes. Like our
fathers, we are willing to cultivate learning on a
httle oatmeal. But fervent zeal and unconquerable
will must fail if supports do not come up in strength.
You have brought me here. Was I rash in reading
these words between the lines of my appointment:
'Depend upon us for sympathy and loyal aid'?"
The educational ideals which Grant set forth
were those which in past years had created such a
stir in Nova Scotia. The world had moved, and in
1877 in Ontario they aroused no uproar. So far as
curriculum went, he leaned on the whole to the
philosophical side. "Those studies," he said, "should
be encouraged in the college which are gymnastic
in their effect rather than necessary on their own
account, which are valuable not so much for the
facts imparted as for the ulterior progress they en
able the student to make." Accordingly, he gave
primacy to mental philosophy. None the less he
valued the side of the work which he summarized
as "knowledge imparted and truth discovered." As
a matter of fact he had a moment before been
211

PRINCIPAL GRANT
demanding a strengthening of the coUege on the
science side.
-ft More valuable than special studies was a truth-
loving spirit. "A homage to truth, the knowledge
that truth is the pecuhar possession of no one sect
or party, the conviction that truth is one, and
therefore harmonious and consistent — this is the
spirit the true student receives from the university.
My highest ambition, students of Queen's, is to
foster this spirit in you. As patriots, we must not
be satisfied with dreaming dreams ; we must belong
to a party. As Christians we must not stay in the
closet, nor fly to the desert; we must belong to a
church. But seU yourselves to no party or sect.
Supremely loyal to Christ alone, ever foUow that
which He reveals, no matter whither it seems to
lead. Sic itur ad astra.
"Piety and learning are both dishonoured when
even for a moment it is imagined that there is any
incompatibility between them. Get knowledge then;
and remember that one fact accurately known is of
more value than hazy notions about a dozen."
Further, he went on, "Learning by itself is not
wisdom. . . . Seek, then, the cultivation of aU your
faculties, the development of your character to aU
its rightful issues, 'self-reverence, self-knowledge,
self-control.' Something more is needed than escape
from the false; we must attain to the true. And in
order that we may know the truth, have faith, the
right kind of faith — -faith in Him who ever has been
212

THE INSTALLATION
and now is light, life and love. Never dishonour
yourself or Him by imagining that 'He requires
your he,' or that you may find Him out in incon
sistencies unless you shut your eyes to one or other
of His revelations."
A reference to science naturaUy foUowed. He
was for fearless investigation and interpretation.
"There are two classes of men who especially dis
tinguish themselves as obstructionists. The one
class beheves nothing but what is old, the other
beheves nothing but what is new. It is difficult to
decide which are the greatest enemies to truth,
though a curious characteristic of both is that they
always speak as if they had the sole monopoly of
truth. When a man boasts in newspapers and at
pubhc meetings that he is orthodox, suspect him.
When he assures you that he is an advanced
thinker, avoid him. As a rule both are pretentious
humbugs, and will come to naught."
These general principles were fortified by a refer
ence to current controversies. "Suppose, e.g., that
the Darwinian theory is not estabhshed — that it is
only a puerile hypothesis, as Dr. Elam does his
best to show. It was at any rate useful to Darwin,
and it wUl soon pass away and be forgotten. Sup
pose it is established, what possible harm can result
to theology? As Professor Asa Gray points out in
his pleasant Darwiniana, it only means 'that what
you may have thought was done directly and at
once, was done indirectly and successively.' For
213

PRINCIPAL GRANT
suppose that we hear that a missionary somewhere
has found men with tails ; or that a chemist in Ger
many has succeeded in making albumen; or that
Bastian has proved that there is such a thing as
spontaneous generation; that in inorganic matter
out of which every germ of antecedent life has
been expelled and has been excluded, protoplasmic
specks have developed, which, in their turn devel
oped into organized matter, vegetable or animal,
what is the response of the true behever? A waU of
despair, a plunge into scepticism, the rejection of
Christ, His hght, hfe, and Lord ? Certainly not. He
adores God, and confesses that He is inscrutable.
He acknowledges that he must rearrange his old
theory of matter and of the universe. He gives
ungrudging praise to the discoverer and the man of
science. First of aU, however, he asks are these
things so? And he finds, so far at any rate, they are
not; that the first is a canard; that albumen has not
yet been made; and that Beale, Tyndal, Huxley,
and others, have, by experiments more rigorous and
exhaustive than Bastian's, proved him mistaken.
Even then does the true behever take up a cry of
exultation against Bastian? No, for he honours his
spirit and the method by which he seeks to discover
the truth. He learns that his experiments and the
experiments of those who detected his mistake have
widened our knowledge of nature; have shown us
how universaUy diffused are the germs of hfe; how
infinitesimally smaU, yet how potent and of what
214

THE INSTALLATION
persistent vitality they are; and he understands in
some degree the commercial, social, and sanitary
value of this knowledge. The investigator has not
discovered what he sought. Let us sympathize with
his disappointment, for he sought in the right way,
and he has discovered what is, perhaps, of more
value to us."

215

CHAPTER XIII
THE ENDOWMENT CAMPAIGN OF 1878
i i "T CAN hardly believe that I am principal and
-L professor. I am utterly unfit for the post
and told all the trustees to whom I wrote so, but
they would not believe me. I am rusty in scholar
ship, disgracefully so. I am not systematic in my
theology, and never will be I fear. But MacdonneU,
Mitchel, Gordon. MacKerras, Snodgrass, Ross, Croil,
CampbeU, and others — not forgetting Wishart, of
Madoc — aU joined in urging it upon me. And I
felt that there are crises when one should take the
opinion of others about himself rather than his own.
But for the next two or three years I must not
touch the matters you refer to, such as public chari
ties, etc. I can only do one thing at a time. And
I must now go into reading and quiet thinking."
So Grant wrote in October of 1877, while pre
paring for the transition to what was to be his life-
work. The outcome was pathetically unlike his
purpose of " reading and quiet thinking." Eager as
his activity had been in Hahfax, distracting as had
been the number of his interests, his life in Kings
ton was to be yet more crowded with diversity of
occupations. He was assuming tlie direction of an
institution dependent to an extraordinary degree
217

PRINCIPAL GRANT
upon the leadership and executive skiU of its head.
To be primarius professor of divinity was a smaU part
of his duties ; indeed, to the end of his life he felt
qualms of regret at the inroads made by his avoca
tions upon his work with his theological students. To
the minutest points he had to administer the affairs
of the university. From the selection of professors to
the saving of trifling expenditures, his control was
necessary.1 In addition and above aU, he was charged
with the duty of increasing the scanty income. It
was imperative that the endowment of 1870 be
supplemented. Snodgrass had shrunk from the ap-
paUing task. The work feU upon Grant. " I'll never
start another money scheme," he had written early
in 1877. His first service for Queen's was to coUect.
The university's expenditure stood at seventeen
thousand doUars, her revenue at sixteen thousand.
Of this, nearly three thousand doUars was a grant
from the Church of Scotland, and that body was
preparing to terminate its long-continued aid. Other
sources of income were precarious. The principal
estimated that to enable Queen's to pay her way
on the existing basis, her income must be increased
by five thousand doUars. But he had not left Hali
fax to be content with merely holding his own. His
programme was a new chair in theology, a chair
1 In 1881 he devoted much attention to the question of blinds for
Convocation Hall. In three letters to his wife the subject is discussed.
Finally he wrote: — "As to the blinds, get Mr. MacdonneU and Dr.
Smith to decide — they are the trustees. My own view is that they
should be put up ; but only on the west windows, and of drab colour."
218

THE ENDOWMENT CAMPAIGN
of physics, and a new building. The addition to the
divinity faculty was an old project, and it had won
the cautiously worded approval of the General As
sembly of 1877.
The work was repellant. The canvass did not
merely mean addressing public meetings in scores
of towns and villages, it meant calling upon nearly
every Presbyterian family, and upon many non-
Presbyterian households in every place visited. To
a proud man, this could not be otherwise than
intensely disagreeable. Grant loathed it ; yet it was
the work, and so he set about doing it. He sup
pressed his feehngs, and few people knew how his
soul hated it. Sometimes he broke through the
restraint he placed on himself; his hot temper rose
at the evidences of human meanness which the
canvass brought to his attention, and his wiU could
not always keep his exasperation below the boiling
point. One outbreak is remembered in Kingston.
In a drawing-room Grant once found himself in
company with a man whose ample means were the
result of a grasping and petty avarice, and a hard
ness of heart which had made him an object of
detestation. His unpopularity was increased by his
unctuous piety.
" Mr.  ," said the principal, " can you not
give something for the coUege ? "
Mr.  protested his interest in the college —
his desire to subscribe — the hard times — the em
barrassed condition of his resources — his liberality
219

PRINCIPAL GRANT
to other institutions — "so that really, Principal,
considering the claims upon me, I should be com
mitting a sin."
"Mr.  ," Grant's voice was intense, driving
every word home, " that is a lie black enough to
sink a shipload of souls." And he turned on his heel
and strode to the other end of the room.
At the outset he was confronted with one especi
ally discouraging circumstance. Times continued
hard, and the country was in a political ferment,
for it was election year. He faced the difficulty, and
decided that the need was pressing. Once he had
reached his conclusion, he took his accustomed
imperious tone. " Some have asked, why not delay
a year or two ? I answer we cannot afford to delay.
If we must economize, let us begin at our material
comforts and luxuries, not with that which wiU teU
in future on the best interests of our children and
the true glory of our country."
Through the winter he discharged his academic
duties, lecturing to his divinity students, arranging
for scholarships, and mastering the work of ad
ministration. AU the whUe he was in eager, active
consultation about the endowment with prominent
men, in the university, in Kingston, and at a dis
tance. One indirect, perhaps unconscious preparation
he lost no time in making. He stamped his indi
viduality upon the public mind. His first utterance
had arrested attention. He threw himself into the
life around him. He preached freely. His lecture on
220

THE ENDOWMENT CAMPAIGN
Norman Macleod was written at this time. He
gave his lectures on Howe and Burns and other
addresses far and wide. The desire of the public
to hsten to lectures and addresses, now sensibly
diminished, was stiU strong, and the new principal
could have found no quicker road to popularity.1
Informal consultations grew into conferences be
tween university trustees and prominent Kingston-
ians. The first open step was taken at convocation,
at the end of AprU. Grant invariably was scrupulous
to work through academic channels, and, recognizing
the value of the university councU, he laid his plan
before that body. The council took up the scheme
with enthusiasm. Its recommendation went to the
board of trustees, and was agreed to by them. The
scheme was fairly launched.
The plan was that an endowment of one hundred
and fifty thousand doUars should be raised. The
original calculation was that the new buUding would
need thirty thousand dollars, that each of the two
chairs would require a simUar sum, that a further
thirty thousand doUars would be needed to replace
the colonial committee grant, and that twenty
thousand dollars would be needed for equipment.
The plans underwent various modifications. The
building ultimately cost about sixty-three thousand
doUars, and the sum secured lacked ten thousand
doUars of that at which Grant aimed.
The campaign was opened in Kingston. On May
1 In 1878 Glasgow University conferred upon him the degree of D.D.
221

PRINCIPAL GRANT
30th a pubhc meeting was held in the city hall.
The mayor, Mr. John Mclntyre, occupied the
chair, and about five hundred persons were present.
Amid great enthusiasm, formal approval was given
to the scheme, and the citizens pledged themselves
that Kingston would supply the buUding. A hst
was opened, and within fifteen minutes twenty
thousand dollars had been subscribed. It was a
splendidly encouraging start. Grant was delighted.
His exultation when he came home that night was
long remembered in the famUy. His own subscrip
tion was two thousand five hundred doUars.1 The
professors subscribed three thousand five hundred
doUars towards the scheme.
Grant's note-book contains his draft of the speech
which he made on this occasion: — "After reading
what has been done by trustees and Assembly, tell
what has been revealed to us since of the colonial
committee.2 Actual state financiaUy. Expenditure
of seventeen thousand doUars, of which one thou
sand five hundred, two thousand five hundred, and
at least one thousand doUars are insecure. So we
are going behind. Additions indispensable, aU have
admitted. ... It is not a divinity hall, but a uni
versity that has to be sustained. For two-thirds we
1 At that time his salary was two thousand seven hundred and fifty
dollars. 2 On June 24th, 1878, the colonial committee wrote, requesting him
to show cause why the grant should be continued. The Rev. C. M.
Grant and Dr. Snodgrass had kept the principal apprised of the temper
of the committee.
222

THE ENDOWMENT CAMPAIGN
appeal directly to the church, for one-third to the
citizens of Kingston and individuals of the church.
The university is the child of the church. . . . The
action of the university council and trustees. Actual
necessities of the college — four hundred, six hun
dred, two thousand four hundred, six hundred dol
lars from uncertain sources of revenue. . . . Our
unwillingness to trench on capital, as a university
must go on extending to meet the growing necessi
ties of the age. We must meet this deficit, must
have sufficient accommodation, and must add to
the staff. . . . Encouragement from other quarters,
combined with this — that everything would depend
on what Kingston would do. . . . Remember, we
can't go to the church for the university, only for
the divinity haU connected with it. . . . This being
the case, everything depending on Kingston, I have
called you, the children of the university, to ask
and take your advice. . . . Points to be remembered:
(1) That if we delay till harvest I can do little or
nothing; (2) That the fund is to be raised by instal
ments extending over four or five years; (3) That
we offer a quid pro quo; (4) That what is most
needed is one or two men to start it handsomely. If
there is that, to him will be the credit of success,
and I will guarantee success in such a case. We are
all embarked on an honourable and unselfish enter
prise." Before the council had met, the "handsome start"
had been made. On May 22nd, the Rev. D. M.
223

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Gordon wrote from Ottawa that the subscriptions
for the chair of physics would be headed by two
gifts of five thousand dollars each. One of the givers
was Mr. Allan Gilmour. The name of the other
benefactor was kept secret, for a time. He was Mr.
Sandford Fleming, and it was largely through his
influence that Mr. Gilmour had made this consider
able gift. Heartened by these two encouragements,
the principal went to the meeting of the General
Assembly at Hamilton, and then, in the heat of
June and July, began his canvass.
Toronto and Montreal were visited first. After
wards he went through the country districts, neg
lecting no Old Kirk congregation. It was on this
tour that he laid the foundation of the close know
ledge of rural Ontario which he possessed. In after
years a clergyman going to a strange charge could
always get fuU particulars from Grant. All through
the province he told of Queen's. "A country's pros
perity depends on learning and rehgion — therefore,
on its coUeges," was the keynote of his appeal.
Grant's difficulties were increased by the fact
that he had to do the greater and more exhausting
part of the work himself. Professor MacKerras, who
had been of such assistance to Principal Snodgrass
in 1869, was a dying man. He tried to help, but
soon had to retire. In nearly every place Grant
found local alhes, zealous friends and loyal gradu
ates, who were ready to do his bidding, but the
organizing and the planning aU feU upon him. He
224

THE ENDOWMENT CAMPAIGN
prepared each visit with minute care. "The arrange
ments about my meetings," he wrote to his wife,
"cause me an infinite amount of bother. To-day I
had to write ten letters." His difficult tour through
western Ontario began by his arriving in London
on a Friday, "to find that no arrangements had
been made for my meeting Monday evening on
account of the absence of the ministers, and their
stupidity, and I have been at work till now, seeing
the papers and doing aU I could."
Late in the campaign, when his great strength
had been overtaxed, and when every letter home
told of intense suffering, he spoke stiU more ex
plicitly. After speaking of pain "which sickened
me so that I thought it was inflammation of the
bowels and death," he wrote: " The fact is, I must
do the work I am at. No one else can. They only
spoU places; e.g., poor Mr.  only made one
hundred and seventy-three dollars last week in the
presbytery of Kingston with incredible toil. And
in Montreal last week I divided the people to be
called on into two hsts, giving one to the best man
I could find and taking the other myself. In the
three days he got three hundred doUars, and I got
five thousand five hundred. What will you do with
such facts ?"
The physical toil was increased by the need for
constant wariness. The union was new, and old
animosities had not been forgotten. Queen's, for
many reasons, partly because of her connection 225

PRINCIPAL GRANT
with the Old Kirk, partly because of Free Church
championship of University CoUege, partly because
of pohtical prejudice — for her supporters at this
time were generally Conservatives — was regarded by
many Presbyterians with positive aversion. Grant
was no longer the slashing young fighter of earher
HaUfax days. A heavy sense of responsibility, a
new reluctance to incur antagonism, shows at this
period. He felt himself a stranger in Ontario, and
this increased his disposition to tread cautiously.
The dehcate relations between the several theo
logical coUeges furnished one phase of the diffi
culty, and in some places it was necessary to deal
with a matter which had been one of the recent
points of soreness. His notes show his tone to have
been extremely conciliatory towards Knox. His
entry into some regions may have aroused the
jealousy of friends of other institutions. For terri
torial constituencies he had shght respect, although
one post-union project had been the assigning of
areas of support to the several coUeges. On the
other hand, he steadUy refused to poach on what
he regarded as the rightful preserves of sister insti
tutions. He was on terms of close friendship with
George Munro, the New York miUionaire whose
gifts were the foundation of Dalhousie's prosperity.
During the canvass he had occasion to visit New
York, and he was Munro's guest. He abstained
from any suggestion of the need of Queen's, leav
ing his host and friend to concentrate his hberahty
226

THE ENDOWMENT CAMPAIGN
upon the university which had already attracted his
interest. July was spent in midland Ontario. August was
devoted to rest in Halifax and Cape Breton. Dur
ing September he canvassed western Ontario, a
region mainly held by the Canada Presbyterian
wing of the church, where Queen's was almost un
known, and which was the stronghold of the an
tagonistic forces. One singular circumstance may
have encouraged him. The first considerable be
quest to the university, a sum of about eleven
thousand dollars, had come from western Ontario.
The giver was Robert Sutherland, a man of negro
blood, who had practised law at Walkerton. Mr.
Sutherland had been educated at Queen's, and
had conceived for her the intense love character
istic of the Queen's alumnus. His favourite phrase
about his alma mater was that while there he had
"always been treated like a gentleman." He re
tained his affection through a solitary and cheerless
hfe, and, dying a bachelor, bequeathed his savings
to the university. On the principal's motion, a
suitable monument was erected by the university
to mark his grave in Mount Pleasant Cemetery,
Toronto. Partly, perhaps, because of the peculiar circum
stances attending his visit to the western peninsula,
Grant wrote a diary for publication in the Record.1
1 This was reprinted in the Queen's College Journal, November 9th,
1879.
227

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Vivacious in tone, it gives a close insight into the
toUs of the work.
September 2nd. — "Had our meeting in Guelph
this evening, and having addressed three of our
congregations yesterday, expected a fair attendance.
There was more than a corporal's guard. Rev. Dr.
Wardrope presided, and capital addresses were made
by Revs. Messrs. Torrance and BaU. A letter was
read from Rev. J. C. Smith, promising a subscrip
tion of two hundred doUars. The list was opened,
well headed, and next day it reached one thousand
nine hundred doUars. On the 4th and 5th the Rev.
R. Campbell, of Montreal, took it up, and left it
at two thousand eight hundred dollars. Of course
the local committee and Mr. J. Davidson, the
local treasurer, wiU see to it that Guelph comes up
to at least three thousand dollars. Had it not been
for the 'peculiar circumstances' that always afflict
every congregation and every locality, Guelph would
have been good for a chair."
September 4th. — "Fergus, of blessed memory 1 I
always think of Fergus as an Indian must think of
a happy hunting-ground. The meeting here was
'a great success'; and how could it be otherwise,
for Rev. J. B. Mullan presided. Brother MacdonneU,
from Toronto, spoke, and he always speaks weU in
Fergus.1 It was the evening for the union prayer-
meeting, so the Methodists came out, and to return
the compliment we protracted the meeting to a
1 Fergus was the Rev. D. J. Macdonnell's old home.
228

THE ENDOWMENT CAMPAIGN
very late hour. Next day the Fergus list mounted
to one thousand six hundred doUars, and the day
after Messrs. MacdonneU and CampbeU brought it
up to two thousand doUars. Fergus has no idea
of taking a back seat when any good work is to be
done." September 6th. — " Took train to Walkerton.
CaUed on resident graduates, magnates and others,
and found that with scarcely an exception they were
away at election meetings far and near. By the
few who had remained in the town I was looked
upon as a great curiosity. A man who could talk
'coUege' and 'endowment' when a general election
was impending! He must be a wandering Jew,
dead to all merely mundane matters. Dr. BeU pre
sided at the meeting, and gave an address that I
hope to see yet in the Queen's College Journal.
Left the Walkerton hst at nearly six hundred
doUars, half of that amount being Dr. and Mrs.
BeU's subscription. By this time I have little doubt
that the list foots up to one thousand doUars. Rob
ert Sutherland's example should stimulate others,
and, to the better example, by doing it whUe living.
It was expected that he would leave something for
the town; but the coUege is in greater need than
the thriving and beautiful town which has sprung
fuU-grown from the forest. The church in Walker
ton is a gem."
September 24th, Kincardine. — "The presbytery
was in session, and Dr. Cochrane had come from
229

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Brantford to see the court, on home mission thoughts
intent ; it had been arranged that he was to address
a joint meeting of the two Kincardine congrega
tions in the evening on home missions, and that I
was to follow him and talk Queen's CoUege. When
the meeting commenced, the presbytery kindly
adjourned from the session-room to the basement
to hear us. The presence of so very reverent and
distinguished an audience made us speak our best
for two hours ; but the production of the subscrip
tion hst at the close reminded the fathers and
brethren of their unfinished business in the session-
room, and they rose in a body to attend to it. The
rest of the audience mistook the movement and
rose also. I never saw a basement with so many
doors ; and in a moment they were all crowded, and
I was left standing beside my subscription hst,
supported only by Mr. Anderson and Mr. Murray,
and a little knot of sympathizers. As Mr. Murray
remarked, 'After such a display of oratorical fire
works, it was fitting that there should be a grand
dissolving view.' That was the only meeting that
was brought to a close without the benediction.
Next day, however, the Kincardine list was brought
up to six hundred and thirty doUars, and aU blame
for the meeting's sudden dissolution was thrown on
the presbytery, although the presbytery had none
but thoughts of kindness to us. None of us are
hkely to forget soon the moving scene that took
place in Knox Church, Kincardine."
230

THE ENDOWMENT CAMPAIGN
September 26th. — " Last night, Mr. John Mordy,
who had been hcensed yesterday by the presbytery
to preach the everlasting gospel, drove me to Pink
erton, twenty-four miles distant. After driving eight
miles, a thunderstorm overtook us. We drove on
through the dub and mire, the pitchy darkness of
the night being ever and anon turned into noon
day glare by the hghtning, by which the heavens
were almost continuously aflame. This evening,
took Mr. Mordy 's prayer-meeting. The attendance
was good, but not as large as it would have been
but for the Paisley fair being held in the neighbour
hood. Each month has its own obstacles. A little
whUe ago it was the election. Now it is the ever-
recurring fair or show. After preaching, a Pinkerton
list was opened, and between two and three hundred
doUars were subscribed.
"Total amount subscribed from September 2nd,
to October 2nd, about seventeen thousand doUars. A
good month's work, aU things considered ! The suc
cess is due to the zeal of the graduates more than
to any other cause. I find some of them wherever I
go, and so far, have not found one ungrateful or
disloyal to his alma mater."
Work of this sort went on through the autumn
until December. About November, whUe in Glen
garry, his health gave out. Letter after letter speaks
of the pain, the weariness, and the disgust. In
December, at Ottawa, he broke down. Writing
on the 6th, he says : "The pain came back so
231

PRINCIPAL GRANT
viciously yesterday that I have been confined to
bed, and I did not hke to write till I had better
news. I am writing this in bed, but the pain has
almost disappeared, and I feel very thankful. Dr.
Grant1 tells me that I must keep my bed here for
three or four days ; so here I am, fairly embargoed.
... I am glad that I have the opportunity of con
sulting Grant. He says that the left kidney is dis
turbed, and that I wUl get quite weU, but must
take care." The illness which declared itself under
the provocation of these labours, was the trouble
which ultimately caused his death.
The work was done. About one hundred and
forty thousand doUars had been raised. The colonial
committee grant was replaced. The buUding was
under way. The new professor of physics was a
certainty. In January, ChanceUor NeUes, of Vic
toria, wrote : — " I congratulate you sincerely on
your marveUous success in securing your increased
endowment. One may now adopt the expressive
Orientahsm and say, 'Oh, Queen's, live forever!'
Of course, it is as yet only a 'conditional immor
tality,' but in a case of such moral rectitude, the
condition wiU doubtless hold."
The results were not exclusively monetary. As
was always the case when a canvass was on foot,
attendance was stimulated. The Walkerton meet
ing was a disappointment. In the audience, how
ever, was a high school pupil named Adam Shortt.
'Now Sir James Grant.
232

THE ENDOWMENT CAMPAIGN
Grant's address drew him to Queen's. He is now
professor of economics in his alma mater.
The work had been carried through with a strange
mixture of apprehension and faith. Writing during
his August vacation to Miss Machar, he summarized
the difficulties and expressed his aspirations : —
" I sometimes think that it is a hopeless attempt
to keep up a university, a faculty of arts and science,
and a divinity hall in Kingston, on our slender re
sources, when on either side of us — in Montreal and
in Toronto — are such comparatively wealthy insti
tutions. The revenue of McGiU CoUege (apart alto
gether from the revenues ofthe Presbyterian CoUege
for divinity affiliated to it), last year was forty-nine
thousand dollars. That of Queen's, for all purposes,
was fifteen thousand doUars, of which two thousand
seven hundred was from the colonial committee.
However, when I think of the sacrifices that have
been made in the past for it, and the people that
have been and are associated with it, and the hopes
they cherish, I for one cannot ' give up the ship.'
Besides, looking at it in the hght of work actuaUy
done, it is worth a resolute fight. We actually
graduated more men in arts last session than Mc
GiU did. So that we are fighting, not for a dream,
but for a fact. But oh, how I would like to make it
what it ought to be — the eye of eastern and central
Ontario, a generous mother to all generous youth,
and the hope of the best men and women in the
church. And if it is God's will, so it shall yet be.
233

PRINCIPAL GRANT
He can put great thoughts into the most unlikely
bosoms. Is it not, however, rather humiliating to
think that in all the thirty-eight years' history of
Queen's, the greatest thing done for her has been
done by the one coloured graduate she sent forth ?
It is so like God's usual way of working, making the
weak ones do great things, that I am much cheered
by it. The one thing that makes me determined to
nail this flag to the mast, 'Queen's CoUege, where
it is, and as it is,' is that I feel that our church
in Canada is doomed to be a sect, and more and
more a paltry sect, instead of a national church in
the best sense of the word, unless Queen's, under
God, can deliver her from the doom."

234

CHAPTER XIV
UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION
QUEEN'S University in the early eighties was
not the depressed institution of six years be
fore. Her material gains had been enormous, and
with them came a spirit of buoyancy and con
fidence. The new principal's energy in the first
enthusiasm of his work, in the strength of middle
manhood, fairly staggered his associates. There
seemed no hmit to his activities, and his physi
cal toughness helped to strengthen the impression.
Men stiU speak of the swiftness of his step, of his
Nova Scotian fondness for the plaid in winter in
stead of an overcoat. However, he no longer was
quite the strong man of Ocean to Ocean, for the
campaign of 1878 had left its mark upon him.
The first duty was to use the endowment col
lected with such painful toil. The new building had
been begun ; the corner-stone was laid on May
30th, 1879, by His ExceUency the Marquis of
Lorne and the Princess Louise. In the autumn of
1880 it was ready for occupancy. With its semi-
ecclesiastical, early English style, and its fine square
tower, it furnished the university with a dignified
home, and with accommodation, which, for the
time being, was ample. 235

PRINCIPAL GRANT
One event in the administration of the university
at this time, was the advent of Mr. Sandford Flem
ing as chancellor. The Rev. Dr. Cook, of Quebec,
sometime principal of Queen's, had been her first
chancellor. He retired in 1879, and it was necessary
to select a new head. Mr. Goldwin Smith was men
tioned in connection with the post, but private
enquiry showed him indisposed to accept it. The
names of Mr. Fleming and the Hon. S. H. Blake,
Q.C, were placed before the alumni, and after a
close contest, Grant's old friend received the ap
pointment. The strained relations between the university and
the Royal CoUege of Physicians and Surgeons had
aroused Grant's regret from the very first. He ex
pressed his vigorous disapprobation of the course
which had led to the disagreement, and as soon as
the new building was ready for use by the arts
college, he gave the older building to the medical
coUege at a nominal rental. The old friendship was
restored, and later, in 1891, he had the satisfaction
of seeing the Royal College merge its independence
and become once more a faculty of the university.
Adjoining the six or seven acres then owned by
the university was a large open field of fifteen or
sixteen acres, held by the Dominion government
for militia purposes. Grant urged its purchase on
the trustees and this was effected in 1879 and 1881.
The investment cost about seven thousand dollars,
and has been abundantly repaid. The 1879 building
236

UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION
is situated on the first portion bought, and the
buildings erected in 1901 and 1902 stand on the
portion bought in 1881.
In the session of 1878-9, women students ap
peared in the class-rooms, a sign of liberality of
which Grant was very proud.1 In the foUowing year
a Women's Medical CoUege was opened in connec
tion with the Royal, the experiment of co-education
in medical subjects having failed. This was the first
distinctive institution opened in Canada for the
medical education of women.2
The staff needed re-organizing. In January, 1880,
Professor MacKerras died. Reference has been made
to his flaming zeal for Queen's. His influence upon
his students was intense. He lectured when he could
barely drag himself into the class-room. "Don't carve
your names on the desks," he said one day — a gasp
for breath followed — '' carve them in the calendar."
" Never was Kingston so moved," wrote Grant to
Dr. Snodgrass. " We aU feel as if we had lost an
essential part of Queen's CoUege, and a part of our
selves, and we go about our work in a half-hearted
way." Grant tried hard to raise the funds necessary
to endow a professorship in honour of him, but
1 The principal was of the opinion that Queen's had been the first
Canadian university to admit women. The University of New Bruns
wick had women graduates a year or two earlier, but Queen's was in
the position of never having excluded them. Prior to Grant's arrival
special classes in literary subjects had been attended by women.
2 The first woman to take the degree of M.D. in Ontario, graduated
in 1884.
237

PRINCIPAL GRANT
the sum coUected was insufficient to do more than
establish the scholarship which bears his name. In
1881 the veteran Williamson wished his work light
ened. He had served for forty years. His connec
tion with Queen's had commenced before the mel
ancholy disruption. More than once he had stood
all but alone on the staff. He had rendered singu
larly efficient service, and around him for years
had centred the half-humorous but whole-hearted
love of the students. Professor Dupuis, afready a
veteran, had too much to do. MacKerras was re
placed by Professor Fletcher,1 with the Rev. A. B.
Nicholson as assistant professor. A lecturer in na
tural science, the Rev. James Fowler, was added to
the staff. The Rev. Donald Ross became professor
of apologetics, Queen's long-standing desire for a
third chair in theology finding fulfilment. The Rev.
Dr. Bell, the first graduate of the coUege, became
registrar. In addition, Grant made every possible
use of outside talent. A surprisingly large number
of clergymen engaged in parochial work gave special
lectures. In part, this was due to necessity, for the
principal's frequent absences, especiaUy in 1878,
weakened the divinity faculty. In part it was due
to settled conviction, for he was weU aware of the
advantages to both parties in the maintenance of
such relations between the pastoral clergy and the
university. The new principal's guiding hand was felt from
1 Now professor of Latin in University College, Toronto.
238

UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION
the first in Queen's public policy, as well as in her
internal affairs. When he came to examine the
situation, he was much perturbed at the extent of
her isolation in educational affairs. He was especi-
iaUy dismayed at the smaU number of Queen's
graduates in high school work, and at the slight
amount of influence which she exerted in the
secondary schools of the province. Very early we
find him investigating the affairs of the Kingston
Collegiate Institute, to the surprise and pleasure of
the headmaster,1 who had never before encountered
a university principal so interested in high school
work. Grant's questions indicate that he approached
the subject as a Kingstonian interested in the city's
school, as a publicist, and as a university executive
officer. A great difficulty which then beset high
schools was the multiplicity of examinations. Each
university had its own matriculation, with the result
that overburdened high school teachers, generaUy
Toronto men, were reluctant to prepare matricu
lants for the outlying colleges. Grant quickly fas
tened on this primary weakness of Queen's position,
and caused the matriculation curriculum to be con
formed to that of Toronto. Professor MacKerras,
his chief adviser at this time, opposed the move as a
surrender, but soon revised his opinion. The steps
thus taken to make entrance more convenient
coincided with a great increase in attendance. In
1878-9, the arts students had numbered ninety-
1 Dr. A. P. Knight, now profesaor of biology in Queen's.
239

PRINCIPAL GRANT
two ; in 1879-80 the number was one hundred and
one, and next year it was one hundred and sixty. In
1881-2 the attendance went up to one hundred
and eighty-six ; in 1882-3 it was one hundred and
ninety-one, and in 1883-4 it stood at two hundred
and sixteen.
Another highly important step taken at this
period was a reorganization of the curriculum. One
of the points at issue between Toronto and the
outlying universities was the comparative merits
of the special and the fixed courses. Speaking
broadly, University CoUege laid stress on honour
work, and to give students opportunity to pursue
certain lines with some thoroughness, permitted
them to omit certain other studies, or at least to be
content with a slighter acquaintance with them.
The outlying coUeges prescribed a fixed or bal
anced course, which aU were obhged to take. It
provided an exceUent general education, but no
where gave specialized instruction, while the Univer
sity CoUege honour courses took students a respect
able length into the department of their choice, at
the risk, as the outlying coUeges invariably pointed
out, of leaving them iU-informed on other essential
subjects. The honour course met with the approval
of the provincial education department, as weU as
of the general public, and the absence of honours
in the degrees of the outlying institutions was one
reason for the preponderance of Toronto men in
the high schools. Grant now moved towards the
240

UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION
honour course by instituting a system of options
which at first enabled students to lean towards the
side of the curriculum which their tastes caused
them to prefer. The tendency continued as the staff
was increased, untU at length Queen's carried the
principle of speciahzation to considerable lengths.
Grant's first moves in university politics thus were
in the direction of conciliation, and of causing
Queen's to conform to the type which was finding
favour in the province.
The financial problem again became acute in
1882. The endowment of 1878 provided an income
of over seven thousand five hundred doUars, but a
large proportion of this went to meet former defi
cits and to replace sources of revenue which were
in process of extinction, such as the grant from
the Church of Scotland.1 The budget during this
period stood at about twenty thousand doUars.
Another source of revenue, however, was threat
ened. The temporahties board had long contributed
a considerable proportion of the income; in addition
to a direct yearly grant of two thousand doUars, it
assisted in the payment of a number of professors
who had been clergymen of the Old Kirk, and at
one time nearly four thousand doUars had come in
one form or another from this source. That fund,
however, was now in a precarious condition, and
began to reduce its grants. Further replacement
was necessary. An additional circumstance was the
1 The last Scottish grant was made in 1884.
241

PRINCIPAL GRANT
fact that the reorganization of the work of the
university necessitated a strengthening of the staff.
Six or seven professors might carry on the work
of a college which had the old fixed course, but
honour work could not be pursued without a con
siderable subdivision of subjects. The situation was
serious, for another endowment campaign was out
of the question. The course selected was an appeal
to the graduates for special subscriptions to the
annual expenditure during the next five years — a
striking illustration of the growing tendency of
Queen's to regard her alumni as her true constitu
ency. On October 16th — University Day — the principal
announced that the sum needed had been raised.
The university budget was thus placed at about
thirty thousand doUars for the five years ending
in 1888. Two additional professors were appointed,
one in chemistry and one in physics. The arts
faculty was thus materiaUy strengthened on the
side of science. It now consisted of four professors
of what may be caUed the humanities, two in
classics, one in philosophy, and one in English
history; and five in science, two (including the
aged Professor Williamson), in mathematics, one
in physics, one in chemistry, and one in natural
science. On this basis the arts coUege worked until
1888, when it received a great accession of strength,
chiefly on the literary and philosophical side.

242

CHAPTER XV
PUBLIC ACTIVITIES
"T^\7ITH great hghtness of heart, Canada
* * bought up the Hudson's Bay Company's
rights in the North-West; then a bargain was
hghtly made with British Columbia, which induced
her to cast in her lot with the new Dominion.
From that day to this, the question in Canada has
been, how shaU we carry out the bargain with
British Columbia ? That question has made and
unmade our ministries. It hes at the bottom of our
tariff questions, and throws its shadow over our
future. It is our Gordian knot, and the harder we
try to unloose or cut it, the worse it gets. The fact
is, that the bargain turned out to be impossible of
fulfilment. One of its terms — the principal term —
was that Canada should construct a railway in ten
years from her existing raUways to the Pacific.
Though the terms were afterwards modified and
the time extended, the bargain is stiU so com
pletely beyond our means, that, if pressed* there
can be only the one issue of Dominion bank
ruptcy." " It is interesting to note how the countries most
concerned have taken this change of fiscal policy on
our part. You, on the whole, have recognized our
243

PRINCIPAL GRANT
right to cut our coat according to our cloth and
according to our fancy. You have been accustomed
to do so yourselves, and must have wondered at
our entertaining the question: 'WUl other countries
be offended if we act as if we were no longer in a
state of commercial pupilage ?' But Manchester has
scolded as it never scolded before. Mr. John Bright
declares that our present trade policy is not only
injurious to the inhabitants of the Dominion — poor
children who cannot take care of themselves — but
that, ' if persisted in, it will be fatal to its connec
tion with the mother country.' There is the shop
keeper's last word to his pastor, 'If you don't deal
at my shop, I will leave the church.' If the life of
man could be summed up in the one duty of buying
in the cheapest, and selling in the dearest market, a
change in the Canadian tariff might break up that
wonderful thing caUed the British Empire. But
only Manchester thinks so, and Manchester is not
the empire. You are far more guilty of the deadly
heresy of protection than we. But of you, Mr. Bright
writes more in sorrow than in anger. Of us, always
more in anger than in sorrow."
Thus Grant wrote in 1879 for Scribner's Monthly.1
The general election of 1878 had placed the Con
servatives in power, and the country had definitely
turned to protection. The problem of the Canadian
1 The articles numbered four, and appeared in the May, June, July,
and August numbers, in 1880. The actual writing was done in the
summer of 1879. All the evidence available points to exceptional care
in the production of this work.
244

PUBLIC ACTIVITIES
Pacific Railway lay heavy upon the nation ; the
bargain with the syndicate was as yet in the future.
Few Canadians to-day realize how depressing was
the outlook before the great company took up the
work of constructing the national highway. The
four articles in which Grant, addressing himself to
American readers, sketched the past and appraised
the present of Canada, are the least hopeful of his
pohtical utterances. The tale of Canada is briUiantly
written, with the sympathy with the struggle of
the individual against great odds which marks his
attitude towards history, and particularly towards
Canadian history. The series opens with de la
Roche's jaU-birds marooned on Sable Island and
their weird contest with inhospitable nature. The
earher story hangs upon the gallantry and the
energy of Champlain, Maisonneuve, the Sulpicians,
La SaUe, and de la Verendrye. The backwoods life
of the British settlers is told with searching sym
pathy. For Upper Canada's "primeval and barbaric,
but heroic era," he avowed his liking.
" Its poet or historian has not yet appeared, and
its memories are fading so fast from the minds
of men, that probably its records must remain for
ever unwritten. Pity that it should be so; for
wUderness and backwoods hfe in Canada abounds
in pictures infinitely varied in colouring, and in
dramas fuU of poetic interest. In the Old World,
country hfe is the same from generation to genera
tion ; in a colony, the scene shifts with amazing
245

PRINCIPAL GRANT
rapidity. After a few years absence you go back
to the old spot and find everything changed. The
first period is one of savage wrestling with nature.
The camp or shanty of the lumberman is succeeded
by the solid log house of the settler. This is the
time of logging and building 'bees,' and ' bees ' of
all kinds, of hard drinking, and of 'corduroy' roads.
No beauty is seen in a hving tree ; it is every man's
enemy. After this rude period comes a golden era.
Thrown on their own resources, the inventive facul
ties are stimulated. Every young feUow becomes a
thinker and inventor in his way. One constructs
water-wheels or windmiUs, another cunning helps
for the women-folk; a third makes gun-stocks or
fiddles ; a fourth puzzles his brains over perpetual
motion. Numbers go to coUege, or leave home to
seek their fortunes in the world. In a few years
more, the tides of the city's hfe find their way into
the hitherto isolated spot, sweep over it and sub
merge the distinctive peculiarities. The place is
'improved,' but it is not the same dear old place,
where every house was a club, and every man a
genius in his way."
It is when the political outlook is faced that the
writer takes a grave, almost sombre tone. Canada
stUl is in a state of pupilage. She is over-governed —
he is robust in his ridicule of the sending of a gov
ernor to rule Manitoba, "with a salary equal to
nearly a doUar per head of the population. Think of
the poor httle province, not yet out of moccasins,
246

PUBLIC ACTIVITIES
with such finery ! " Canada is making a momentous
fiscal experiment ; the Canadian Pacific Railway
bargain with British Columbia is an all but hope
less problem. The conclusions, however, are far
from pessimistic. The people sturdily refuse to dis
cuss "fancy politics." As for independence, "the
common sense of the people rejected the scheme
before it was formulated." Mr. Goldwin Smith has
just begun to preach annexation. " In his estimate
of the forces at work, he has never taken fuU ac
count of the depth and power of popular senti
ment." And again : " Were there no other reasons,
the one consideration that puts annexation totally
out of the question with us is that it involves the
possibility of our having to fight, some day, against
Great Britain." . . . "Therefore annexation is an im
possibility to us until the grander scheme, outlined
by our Joseph Howe, can be carried into effect —
namely, some kind of aUiance or league of aU the
English-speaking peoples."
Picturesque Canada foUowed the Scribner's arti
cles. In 1881 the firm of Belden Brothers of Toronto
projected this enterprise and asked the principal to
edit it. He consented, and the work appeared in
parts from 1882 to 1884. The editor's labours, great
in any event, were rendered more arduous by the
minute industry which he brought to bear on aU
the details. The securing of writers was difficult
enough ; he added a careful supervision, which often
involved a rigorous revision of style and matter.
247

PRINCIPAL GRANT
In some cases he re-cast material supplied by men
of technical knowledge but no skiU in writing. An
other and more dangerous kind of editorial work
was the pruning of the style of contributors of
hterary ability, but prone to exuberance. The editor
seems to have accomphshed the feat of doing this
faithfuUy and yet of retaining the friendship of the
writers whose style he controUed. The book became
a standard Canadian work and has frequently been
reprinted. Grant's best work was put into the chapters dis
tinctively his own. His confidence in Canada had
returned, presumably with the appearance of the
Canadian Pacific Railway Syndicate, and with its
encouraging display of sagacity and practical skiU.
He seems to have bent his energies to backing up
its members in their fight; and in the long discour
aging period when the company needed every friend
he was its steadfast champion. The great railway
assured, his hope for the future was as high as when
Ocean to Ocean had sounded the note of advance.
In 1879 his attachment to British connection was
sturdy. In 1882 it was buoyant. His survey of the
future rings hke a bugle call : " What, then, is our
destiny to be? Whatever God wiUs. The only
points clear as sunlight to us, as a people, are that
Canada is free, and that we dare not break up the
unity of the grandest empire the world has ever
known. Annexation has been advocated, but no one
has proved that such a change would be, even com-
248

PUBLIC ACTIVITIES
merciaUy, to our advantage. We would get closer
to fifty, and be removed farther from two hundred
miUions. PohticaUy, Canada would cease to exist.
She would serve merely as a make-weight to the
Repubhcan or Democratic party. The French-
Canadian element, so great a factor, actuaUy and
potentiaUy, in our national hfe, would become a nul
lity. We would surrender aU hopes of a distinctive
future. Strangers would rule over us ; for we are too
weak to resist the ahen forces, and too strong to be
readUy assimUated. Our neighbours are a great peo
ple. So are the French and Germans. But Belgium
does not pray to be absorbed into France, and Hol
land would not consent to be annexed to Germany.
Looking at the question in the hght of the past and
with the foresight of the future, and from the point
of view of aU the higher considerations that sway
men, we say, in the emphatic language of Scripture,
' It is a shame even to speak ' of such a thing. We
would repent it only once, and that would be for
ever. Their ways are not our ways ; their thoughts,
traditions, history, are not our thoughts, traditions,
history. The occasional cry for independence is more
honourable ; but, to break our national continuity
in cold blood, to cut ourselves loose from the capi
tal and centre of our strength ! to gain — what ? A
thousand possibilities of danger and not an atom of
added strength. What, then, are wre to do ? 'Things
cannot remain as they are,' we are told. Who says
that they can ? They have been changing every
249

PRINCIPAL GRANT
decade. The future will bring changes with it, and
wisdom too, let us hope, such as our fathers had,
to enable us to do our duty in the premises. In
the meantime, we have enough to do. We have to
simplify the machinery of our government, to make
it less absurdly expensive, and to disembarrass it of
patronage. We have to put an emphatic stop to the
increase of the public debt. We have to reclaim
half a continent, and throw doors wide open that
miUions may enter in. We have to grow wiser and
better. We have to guard our own heads while we
seek to do our duty to our day and generation. Is
not that work enough for the next half century?
No one is likely to interfere with us, but we are not
thereby absolved from the responsibility of keeping
up the defences of Halifax and Quebec, and forti
fying Montreal by a cincture of detached forts.
These cities safe, Canada might be invaded, but
could not be held. But what need of defence, when
we are assured that 'our best defence is no defence.'
Go to the mayors of our cities and bid them dismiss
the police. Tell bankers not to keep revolvers, and
householders to poison their watch-dogs. At one
stroke we save what we are expending on aU the
old-fashioned arrangements of the dark ages. It has
been discovered that the 'best defence is no de
fence ! ' "
Grant's contributions to the book were the his
torical introduction, and the chapters on Manitoba,
Winnipeg to the Rocky Mountains, and British
250

PUBLIC ACTIVITIES
Columbia. In addition, he coUaborated in the writ
ing of two or three other chapters, such as those on
lumbering, on eastern Ontario, and on Toronto to
Lake Huron. His description of the West was
based upon the Ocean to Ocean journey. A note
worthy feature of this portion of the work is its
defence of the change of the route of the Canadian
Pacific from Edmonton and the YeUowhead Pass,
as projected by Sir Sandford Fleming, to Calgary
and the Kicking Horse Pass. Grant argues that
Fleming had been led to believe the southern
portion of Assiniboia and Alberta to be arid and
unsuited for farming. "But when, in consequence
of explorations made at Mr. Fleming's urgent re
quest, the real character of the southern country
along the Qu'AppeUe became known, it was evi
dent that a more direct and shorter railway, running
due west, would have many advantages, and that it
was worth while to try to force a way through the
Rockies by the Kicking Horse or some other
pass." In the summer of 1883, Sir Sandford Fleming
was asked by the directors of the Canadian Pacific
RaUway Company to penetrate the mountains
by the Kicking Horse, Rogers, and Eagle Passes.
Painful uncertainty stUl reigned as to the practi-
cability of the route which it had taken two years
of searching to discover. The raUs were laid to
Calgary, and as yet no person had passed over the
Rockies and Selkirks in one continuous journey.
251

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Again Fleming asked Grant to accompany him,
and so it fell out that the writer of Ocean to
Ocean was a member of the first party to travel
from Calgary to the coast by the new route. It
proved a more arduous journey than that through
the YeUowhead Pass. With a rather smaU party,
the engineer and his companion worked their way
to the jaws of the pass, clambered down the savage
defile of the Kicking Horse, found Major Rogers,
the engineer who had discovered the rift through
the Selkirks, and leaving him, forced their way
through the wilderness to the Columbia. Rogers
had worked into the pass from both ends in differ
ent seasons, but had not made the journey across.
Lack of food made the adventure one of some
peril, but Fleming's executive ability proved as
effective as it had eleven years before.
Grant again was diarist. He pubhshed in the
Week a Uvely account of the journey. The work
had a political bearing, for the progress of the
Canadian Pacific was being watched with the keen
est jealousy.
" In aU my previous journeyings," he wrote of
the final stage of the journey, the struggle down
the valley of the IUe-ciUe-waet, "other men had
been before me, and had left some memorial of
their work — a railway, a macadamized or gravel
road, a lane, a trail, or at least blazed trees to
indicate the direction to be taken. Now we learned
what it was to be without benefit of other men's
252

PUBLIC ACTIVITIES
work. Here there was nothing even to guide, save
an occasional ghmpse of the sun, and the slate-
coloured, churned-up torrent, running generally
west or south-west, hemmed in by canons, from
which we turned aside only to get mired in beaver
dams or alder swamps, or lost in labyrinths of steep
ravines, or to stumble over slides of moss-covered
rocks that had faUen from over-hanging mountains.
It rained almost every day. Every night the thunder
rattled over the hiUs with terrific reverberations,
and fierce flashes lit up weirdly taU trees covered
with wreaths of moss, and the forms of tired men
sleeping by smouldering camp fires."1
" After ah," he wrote to his wife, " roughing it is
the best form of rest, a lesson which needs to be
learned by this work-shunning generation of ours."
The most picturesque person associated with the
exploration of the mountains was Major Rogers,
the engineer in charge of this division, and the
discoverer of the passage through the Selkirks.
Rogers was an energetic man, renowned for un-
conventionahty and profanity. Yet Grant and he
seem to have become great friends, and the narra
tive contains a very pleasing picture of the gray-
bearded, keen-eyed, indomitable pioneer. The en
gineers passed on the eastern slope of the mountains
were greatly amused at the prospect of the hard-
swearing Rogers being host to a clergyman. They
gave a terrifying account of the major's roughness.
1 The Week, May 22nd, 1884, p. 391. 253

PRINCIPAL GRANT
"He can blow, and he can swar, and he can spit
tobacco as well as any man in the United States,"
was one summary given.
Rogers at first was under the impression that
Grant, who was addressed as "Doctor," was a
medical man. The day after the first meeting was
Sunday, and Fleming proposed that Dr. Grant
should hold divine service. The major took the
suggestion as a huge joke, received it with an out
burst of jubUant profanity, and with great energy
drummed up his men. Grant preached at length,
and dexterously brought the subject round to pro
fane swearing. Avoiding any appearance of slanting
at any one hearer, he pointed out its uselessness,
and incidentaUy noted its gradual disappearance
from the conversation of gentlemen. He had ob
served with accuracy one sahent point in Rogers'
character. The man was passionately determined to
hve like a gentleman, and to have his men regard
him as a gentleman. The discourse struck home.
Then and there he resolved to abstain. Once, at
least, during their stay with him, his guests' pity
was excited by his heroic suppression of his vocabu
lary at a trying moment. Something went wrong
with one of the canoes. Rogers opened his mouth —
in the nick of time remembered his resolve — and
stood helpless. Grant laid his hand on his arm.
"Major, hadn't you better go behind a tree and say
it ? " Sir WiUiam Van Horne was fond of telling
the story of his first meeting with Rogers sub-
254

PUBLIC ACTIVITIES
sequent to this affair. After some talk, Sir WiUiam
said : —
"What's the matter with you, Rogers? You
haven't cursed once."
" WeU, Mr. Van Horne, it's this way. Fleming
passed through our camp last summer, and he had
with him a parson named Grant. Thought he was
a sawbones at first, but he was a parson. He gave
us a sermon on swearing, and he made out that it
wasn't gentlemanly to swear. So I quit."
Grant remained a consistent friend of the Cana
dian Pacific Railway. In November, 1898, he wrote
a series of articles for the Globe on Canadian pohcy,
and in consulting with the editor, Mr. J. S. Willi-
son, expressed his later view with regard to the
railway. "Permit me to say," he wrote, " that I have pretty
decided convictions along the foUowing hnes: —
(a) That the interests of the Canadian Pacific RaU
way and Canada are inseparable, and that it is folly
to treat the Canadian Pacific RaUway as if it were
a pubhc enemy, when it is the reverse ; (b) That —
as compared with aU other trans-continental roads
— the Canadian Pacific RaUway has been, and is a
model of public spirit, far-sightedness and straight
forward deahng ; (c) That I hke it for the bitter
enemies it has made — the American trunk hnes,
that are, compared to it, as chalk to cheese; (d) That
it is indispensable to an adequate solution of the
whole transportation problem, more particularly to
255

PRINCIPAL GRANT
one of the great links yet to be supphed, viz., the
fast line for mails and passengers, and its neces
sary concomitant — freight steamers far superior in
size, quantity, and quahty to anything we now
have." He was most active on behalf of the Canadian
Pacific in the difficult years when it was striving
for its foothold. It was regarded with deep sus
picion and dislike by the Liberal party, and its
heads, who bitterly resented the criticisms they
received, were grateful to Grant for his frequent
assertions of the national value of the hne. His sup
port had its limitations. In November, 1896, he
wrote to Mr. WiUison on the subject of the pro
jected railway through the Crow's Nest Pass. " Is
the government," he asked, "committed to buUd
ing a railway through the Crow's Nest Pass to
Rossland, or is the Globe committed to any such
policy ? If not, I would suggest that we 'go slow.'"
He expressed doubts, which proved to be well-
founded, as to the permanence of the sort of de
velopment then in progress in Rossland, and added,
" At any rate, I do not think that the pohcy of
building branches to the Canadian Pacific Railway
is one that should commend itself to the present
government. Their predecessors patented that pol
icy, but it always seemed to me outrageous."
Later, in March, 1897, he wrote again: — " Suffer
me to congratulate you on having reached a sound
position regarding the Crow's Nest Pass Railway.
256

PUBLIC ACTIVITIES
Either construction by government or construction
by a company distinct from the Canadian Pacific
RaUway, has seemed to me from the first, quite
out of the question. Construction by the Canadian
Pacific Railway, on its own hook, without a bonus,
or with the aid of a reasonable bonus, on the condi
tions specified by you, is quite another thing."
In 1882 occurred that fierce but now forgotten
controversy, the Temporalities Case. The Old Kirk
had shared in the clergy reserves, and when these
were abolished, annuities were given to the bene
ficiaries. The capital sum necessary to produce these
incomes was treated as church property and became
the nucleus of a temporalities fund, which virtually
constituted a home mission fund. When the union
was consummated, provincial Acts were secured
making over to the new body the property held by
the four churches which constituted it. The view in
the united body was that the former churches had
entered the union as churches. Seven congregations
of the Old Kirk in Ontario and Quebec refused to
enter. Led by the Rev. Gavin Lang of Montreal,
they set up the claim that the Kirk continued to
exist as a separate body, that they constituted it,
that aU Kirkmen who had joined the new Presby
terian Church in Canada were simply seceders, and
that they, as the original Old Kirk, were the real
owners of the church property, which was mainly
represented by Queen's University and the tem-
porahties fund. Engaging as counsel Mr. Donald
257

PRINCIPAL GRANT
MacMaster, Q.C., of Montreal, they took their case
to the courts, and after one or two reverses secured
a judgment of the privy council declaring the pro
vincial Acts vesting the property in the new church
to be ultra vires. Application was at once made by
the United Church for Dominion legislation, virtu
ally confirming the provincial Acts which had been
held to be invalid. The matter was fought out be
fore the private biUs committee of the House of
Commons, in March, 1882. The opponents of the
biU were represented chiefly by Mr. MacMaster, a
comparatively young man who had won their
case before the privy council, and had made a con
siderable reputation as a pleader. Principal Grant
was made the spokesman of the applicants. Mac-
Master was openly confident of success. The earlier
portion of Grant's address was an exposition of the
right of a church to form a union with another
rehgious body. He also established the fact that the
Kirk, in going about the union, had taken a course
not only correct, but courteous. His antagonist
^rew restless as the argument went on, and the
speech became a fight between the two men. Mac-
Master lost his temper and had the punishment of
seeing the committee approve the biU by an over
whelming majority. "The Hon. WiUiam MacDou
gaU openly complimented me before the committee
on possessing every faculty of a great constitutional
lawyer." An amusing incident occurred in 1883. Mr. John
258

PUBLIC ACTIVITIES
Cameron, the recently appointed editor of the
Globe, asked a number of clergymen to contribute
editorial articles on rehgious topics. These were to
appear in the Saturday issue of the journal. Grant
was included in the hst, and the subject which he
treated was "The Present Position of Christianity."
His second article, which appeared on February
12th, stated with vigour and fairness the grounds
of the attack on Christianity. A provincial election
campaign was at its height, and the Mail assailed
these articles bitterly, as being designed to under
mine faith. " The Hoof of the Agnostic " was the
caption under which, with acrid cleverness, it argued
that the case against Christianity was stated with
obvious sympathy. The management of the Globe
was much perturbed, and suggested that Grant
avow himself to be the author. This he did not do,
and the series came to a rather abrupt conclusion,
Grant writing a third article on the wide diffusion
of the present-day influence of Christianity, and
then ceasing.
To the contributor thus assailed, the matter
seemed a joke. In his reply to Mr. Cameron's letter
he refused to take the affair seriously.
" I read the MaiTs article with great pleasure —
for it has kept me on the broad grin ever since, and
is good for many a day. It is the richest thing of
the kind I have faUen in with for a long time.
" What fun it would be for me some day, at a
press dinner or some such pubhc gathering, to
259

PRINCIPAL GRANT
represent myself as the bold and daring enemy
of Christianity, according to the Mail! .... What
a beautiful illustration of my sermon of last April,
on the way in which party spirit destroys, not only
the sense of justice, but even the inteUectual acute
ness of its slaves !
" I was perfectly willing to avow myself the
author of my articles when they were pubhshed as
I sent them. But the last one was changed in sev
eral respects, and of course it ceased to be mine.
Doubtless, it was too long, and I have accordingly
made this one shorter, and wiU make the others
shorter still, if you wish. But it is against a principle
on which I have always acted, to write subject to
changes made by others. Of course, were I one of
your ordinary staff, I would submit to your correc
tions. And equally, of course, as long as I write for
the Globe, I am bound not to reflect upon any of
its weU-known positions. Any hints that you give
as to subject, length, etc., I shaU also, of course,
attend to. And if you wish, I can send my articles
on at an earlier date, so that you can return them
to me with indications of what you wish changed,
and it would be for me to decide if I would adopt
the changes. But I don't see that I can do any
thing else to meet your views.
" If I ventured to say one word, it would be to
accentuate a hint dropped in one of your editorials,
that the number of men in Ontario, independent
of party, is increasing, and that the publicist who
260

PUBLIC ACTIVITIES
secures them, secures the triumph of the cause he
advocates." In the autumn of 1883, he was asked by Mr.
Mowat, the premier of the province, to take the
portfolio of education in his cabinet. The iUness of
the minister, the Hon. Adam Crooks, had thrown
the educational administration of Ontario into con
fusion, and this was the more serious since a reor
ganization which particularly affected the secondary
schools was in progress. Grant considered the pro
posal very seriously, and several letters passed upon
the subject. Those of the premier cannot be given,
as the principal returned them. Grant kept the drafts
of his own. None of them are dated.

" This morning I received yours of — , and hav
ing given it careful consideration, I hasten to reply,
because it is not fair to you to delay one moment
longer than is necessary. I wUl treat your communi
cation as also confidential, and I wiU answer you
with complete unreserve. First, then, let me say,
that personaUy, I am much gratified by the proof
you have given of confidence in me. In the next
place, I have no doubt whatever, that a judge or a
clergyman ought to enter into public hfe if he has
the gifts for the work to be done, and if there is a
needs-be. I honour you for having resigned your
seat on the bench to enter on a political life, and to
cite the case of only one clergyman of my own
261

PRINCIPAL GRANT
denomination, no Irish member was so useful in
the last British House of Commons as the late
lamented Professor Smith, of Londonderry. Thirdly,
I have given myself up to the work of education.
I have not the slightest doubt that a person at the
head of the education department of Ontario would
do more good than he possibly could do at the head
of any coUege in the country. And lastly, except on
one point — thinking that the education department
would more assuredly have the confidence of the
whole province if it were unconnected with party —
I think that I agree with you on every pubhc ques
tion, although I must add that I take comparatively
httle interest in other pubhc questions. Holding
these sentiments, had you suggested to me that the
question of appointing a superintendent of educa
tion, unconnected with party, was under consid
eration, I think that I would have been constrained
to reply, that however much the thought of sever
ance from Queen's pains me, stUl, if I can be of
service, you may command me. But to your present
proposal I cannot reply in the same way. In the
first place, I beheve that the experiment of a
non-political superintendent of education should be
tried. I am aware that Dr. Ryerson suggested the
change that was made, but I have not the same
exalted opinion of Dr. Ryerson's wisdom that many
people seem to have. Secondly, once I joined myself
to a party, I would stand or fall with it. InteUectu-
aUy I shrink from putting myself in that position.
262

PUBLIC ACTIVITIES
I prefer to be free, to be a by-stander, somewhat in
Goldwin Smith's fashion. Secondly, I could not
afford to identify myself with a party ; I have a
wife and famUy, but do not own a dollar; and when
the party went into opposition, a position of course
to be contemplated, where would I be ? You may
say that a place would be provided for me. But I
could never be a mere place-man. And having
given up the active work of the ministry, because
God had called me, (I use the words with all rever
ence) to other work, I could not return to the
ministry for a bit of bread.
" I have written you with aU frankness. Believe
me, that I shaU ever value your friendship, and I
trust that you wUl never find me unworthy of it."
n.
" The fact that you are wilhng to meet me half
way, so far as my views on educational adminis
tration are concerned, imposes on me the duty of
seriously considering the proposal you have made,
I feel an almost unconquerable aversion to ex
change my present position for political hfe. Party
contests in Canada seem to me unreasonable, be
cause based neither on principles nor on measures,
and I can see no reason why the work of adminis
tration should not be carried on by the best men,
irrespective of accidental party associations. But to
serve the public to the utmost extent of our abihty
is, as I read Holy Scripture and listen to my own
263

PRINCIPAL GRANT
reason and conscience, the highest duty of a Christ
ian ; and a man has no right to shrink from a posi
tion because of its unpleasantness or risks, if that
position enables him to do more good to the people,
and if those who know him, and who have the
responsibility, caU upon him to undertake it.
"Therefore, I now wish to answer the question —
is it or is it not my duty to accept the position
offered me? In trying to answer that question, I
shall take the liberty of, as it were, thinking aloud,
that you may see how I view what is involved in
it, and that I may hereafter know whether your
views accord with mine. It would be a mistake
were you to ask me to accept the position, unless
our views, as to the line to be taken by me in the
event of my accepting the position, harmonize.
" (1) Could I say publicly to the constituency,
for which I would have to run, without incon
veniencing your government, or endangering my
own chances of election, something such as this :
That my appointment as minister of education was
a pledge on your part that the department was to
be kept free from party influences ; that I accepted
the position for educational ends only ; that I re
tained my views that it would be best administered
by a non-political head ; and that if after experience
it was found that there could be no doubt that it
would be in the interests of education that changes
should be made in that direction, I myself would
propose them ; also that I went into the govern-
264

PUBLIC ACTIVITIES
ment with the intention of devoting my whole time
to educational questions ; that I was not interested
in and had not studied purely pohtical questions,
and, therefore, was not yet competent to discuss
them ; but that I had confidence in you, and as a
matter of course, felt myself bound on every ques
tion to consider the interests of Ontario.
" (2) I know that the simple acceptance of any
position in connection with one pohtical party puts
it out of the question that I could continue to hold
my present position, were it for no other reason
than this, that the principal of Queen's must be a
man who can appeal to the sympathies and pockets
of both sides. The divinity classes have to be taught
for six months, commencing almost immediately.
A professor of divinity cannot be got at a moment's
notice. Neither can a principal. Yet I am bound to
see to it that Queen's does not suffer from hasty
action on my part. How can I throw up my post
at the beginning of the session ! How soon, then,
would it be necessary for me to resign my present
post? How soon, i.e., would it be necessary for
me to hve in Toronto ?
"(3) In the event of my accepting your proposal,
I should resign, as soon as might be judged becom
ing, my position as a minister of the Presbyterian
Church. I feel that the public should have a guaran
tee that the education department would be admin
istered in the interests neither of party nor of sect.
As member of a government, I could not attend to
265

PRINCIPAL GRANT
the duties of the ministry, and while always ready
to sympathize with and help all churches, I could
do so the more unreservedly when it was known
that I was acting not as a clergyman of one de
nomination, but as a Christian man, and ordination
means as little in my eyes as it did in the eyes of
the Reformers. Calvin, you are aware, was never
ordained. It simply is a human authorization gener
ally to preach and administer the sacraments, and
an obUgation on the part of the recipient to do so
in accordance with the doctrines and forms of a
particular church. It would be unwise to retain
such a position in my altered circumstances.
" Seeing now what the acceptance of your propo
sal would involve, as regards myself, my future,
and Queen's CoUege, I feel that I have no right to
take so momentous a step without consulting confi-
dentiaUy, at least one of those friends on whose
judgment I have been accustomed to rely. I refer
to such men as Sandford Fleming, George Mac
donneU, Professor Watson, and the Rev. D. J.
MacdonneU. Do you give me permission to speak
to any one of these ? " ill.
"Yours of the 25th received. Partly in order that
I may confidentially consult one or two of the
gentlemen whom we have named, and partly that
I may talk the matter over with yourself, I shaU
run up to Toronto to-morrow afternoon, and wiU
266

PUBLIC ACTIVITIES
see you at your house on Wednesday morning at
10 a. m. I must return to Kingston on Friday, and
shall not decide definitely on your proposal tiU next
week, when I shall communicate my decision to
you at once. I am endeavouring to find out in which
direction duty hes, but my present position has so
many attractions and advantages, and the change
proposed has in it so much of the unknown that
I confess to feehng bewildered." IV.
" I have never felt it so difficult to make up my
mind on any subject as on that contained in your
proposal. But I have at length thought it out, and
am compeUed to conclude that it is my duty to
refuse. I need not go fully into the reasons, as
you wiU give me credit for acting honestly in the
matter. For a time I felt inclined to accept, be
cause my ambition could not suggest a more im
portant position than the one you placed within
my reach. But I have come to feel, first, that to
abandon Queen's would probably injure it, and in
view of the fact that one-third of its income is
secured for only four years, a good many of its
friends would consider my withdrawal almost dis
honest. Besides, the more nearly I contemplate
giving up my rehgious work, the more I shrink
back from the step. Not only would the position
oblige me to practicaUy abandon ministerial work,
but I would have to surrender literary work which
267

PRINCIPAL GRANT
I am contemplating. A literary man must feel him
self at liberty to write on any subject.
" What is of stiU more consequence, on thinking
out the matter, I do not see how I could enter
political life as member of a party without identi
fying myself with that party. To bring in a biU to
create a permanent office for myself two or three
years hence, would provoke much adverse criticism.
The personal element would taint the measure.
Besides, I doubt whether, under our system, it
would be possible to combine a seat in the House
and a partial membership in the cabinet with a per
manent office, and to have both a superintendent
of education and a minister, I think, would not
work. "I shall always feel personaUy grateful to you
for your great kindness, and if I can ever be of any
use to you educationaUy, whUe retaining my pre
sent independent position, it would give me much
pleasure." Mowat's reply, dated November 7th, 1883, has
been preserved : —
" I have your note of the 4th. I need not say
how much I regret your decision, but I know that
you did not arrive at it without taking every pos
sible pains to consider thoroughly the whole matter;
and there is nothing for me now but to acquiesce.
"Thanks for your kind offer made in the last
paragraph of your kind note, and of which I may
perhaps have occasions to avail myself.
268

PUBLIC ACTIVITIES
" As to my letters, I suppose that you may as
weU return them to me, especially as I kept no
copies." " Principal Grant undoubtedly hesitated," writes
Professor Watson, whom Grant consulted at the
time. "The temptation to have a determining
authority in the education of the province was
great. He even thought, or tried to think, that he
could serve Queen's better as a minister of edu
cation than as principal of Queen's. If anybody
helped to dissuade him, it was the late Rev. D. J.
MacdonneU, though my opinion is that he finally
dissuaded himself. What he could not get over, I
think, was that he would have to ' unfrock ' him
self, (his own term) and he was not prepared to
give up his status as a minister of the Presbyterian
Church." A year later, whUe the secret conferences which
resulted in university federation were in progress,
the premier wrote a letter containing the virtual
offer of another important post. This is dated
August 9th, 1884:—
" I have just seen a newspaper paragraph stating
that a conference had been held in Toronto on the
subject of university matters, and your name is
amongst the names of those present. I have seen
or heard nothing of what was done. I wish you
could see your way to taking some position on the
questions discussed that would not place beyond
consideration any future offer you might receive of
269

PRINCIPAL GRANT
the presidency of University CoUege. In the con
versations which I had with my colleagues, before
Mr. Ross became minister of education, we aU
agreed that if the presidency were then vacant, an
offer of it should at once be made confidentially to
you. I think that in the general interests, there is
more to be said in favour of such an appointment
than even there was in the case of that other office
we had correspondence respecting, and should it be
the good fortune of the province to have your ser
vices by and by, as Dr. Wilson's successor, I hope
that the transfer from Queen's may be practicable
without detriment to the latter. I hear from so
many quarters that my dear old friend, Dr. WUson,
is sensibly failing, that I cannot close my eyes to
the responsibility which his resignation may at any
moment place upon me, and I therefore write this
note. I do not expect an answer to it. Its object is
merely to put you in possession of an historical fact."

270

CHAPTER XVI
FEDERATION
QUEEN'S in 1883 was a fairly weU-equipped
college. Three years later she was confronted
with a need of expansion as urgent as that of 1877.
During the three years which had elapsed, the pro
vince had re-cast its idea of university education.
The old grouping of the coUeges had been broken
up, a new and powerful combination had been
effected, and the university centre at Toronto had
aU but doubled its expenditure.
The change involved more than the mere increase
in expenditure. Hitherto the college ideal of educa
tion had ruled in Ontario. It now gave place to the
university ideal. To the older preference for general
culture, succeeded a demand for speciahsts. The
advance of science, the increasing regard for the
German type of training, and the rapid develop
ment of the larger American universities produced
the now famihar demand for intensity of study and
variety of subjects. In particular the rise of CorneU,
a few hours' railway journey from the boundary
line, fixed the attention of educationists of the pro
vince and powerfully affected pubhc opinion. The
fear grew up that Cornell would attract the choicest
youth of Ontario. 271

PRINCIPAL GRANT
The system of honour courses and options which
she had worked out predisposed Toronto Univer
sity to the new ideals. An increase in attendance
which taxed the accommodation of University Col
lege acted as a spur. The desire for sub-division of
subjects was quickened by the unwieldy size of the
classes, and in 1883 her authorities declared that
the time had come when greater " teaching power "
must be provided. To increase the teaching power
it was necessary to go afield for revenue. The old
royal endowment, the exclusive use of which To
ronto University had claimed and secured, produced
about sixty-five thousand doUars a year, but this
was aU absorbed in the maintenance of University
CoUege and Toronto University on the existing
basis. Whence was the money to come for the ten
or twelve new chairs which the friends of the uni
versity demanded? From the provincial govern
ment, rephed the Toronto men.
The situation was profoundly affected by the
spirit in which the provincial treasury was attacked.
Queen's, Victoria, and Trinity, favoured state aid
for higher education. Had the University CoUege
authorities come to an understanding with them,
the united demand for government grants could
scarcely have been resisted. The outlying coUeges
would assuredly have been ready to form an aUi
ance. Grant had carefuUy withdrawn aU opposition
to the undisturbed use of the royal endowment by
Toronto University, and held definite views as to
272

FEDERATION
the advisabihty of state aid on the Scottish plan
of recognition of self-help. To ChanceUor NeUes,
the prospect of such an agreement would have
given the keenest pleasure. Unfortunately, the To
ronto men seem to have been almost as anxious to
keep the other universities from getting state aid
as they were to get it for themselves. The violent
and stiU unextinguished prejudices against denom-
inationaUsm, created by the fights over the clergy
reserves and separate schools, probably affected their
views. So also did the spirit of mutual animosity,
the result of by -gone quarrels, which poisoned the
atmosphere of higher education. The provincial
and the outlying universities regarded each other as
rivals, not as coUeagues. The vice-chancellor of
Toronto University, Mr. WiUiam Mulock, M.P.,1
in putting forward his request for aid, added a rider
that it must not be given to the denominational
coUeges. Grant had been careful since his coming to
Ontario to be conciliatory to Toronto University.
He was on friendly terms with the heads of the
other outlying universities, and particularly with
the chancellor of Victoria, but he had held back
from the schemes of combat which Nelles, trained
in the quarrels of thirty years, pressed upon him in
their correspondence. Now, however, it was Grant
who came to the front and protested against the
Toronto demands. His attitude has been represented
1 Now Sir William Mulock, postmaster-general. 273

PRINCIPAL GRANT
as that of obstructing Toronto University in its
development. It simply was that if the provincial
government should decide to depart from its pohcy
of giving no help to university education, it must
treat the question as a whole. If half of the higher
education of the province was carried on in institu
tions other than University CoUege, those insti
tutions were equaUy entitled to aid. Queen's had
never departed from that position.
The principal's views were clearly expressed dur
ing the controversy which foUowed. He gave four
addresses during the autumn of 1883 and the ensu
ing winter; these dehverances, and a letter to the
press on a personal issue, comprise the part he took
in a singularly bitter quarrel. His first protest, which
was dehvered on October 16th, was foUowed by an
explosion of letter-writing. The fight did not die
out until February, 1884, and by that time upwards
of one hundred and thirty communications had
appeared in the Globe and the Mail. The bitter
jealousy which subsisted between Toronto Univer-
versity and its rivals had so envenomed educational
politics that calmness of debate was impossible.
Relevance was equaUy impossible to most of the
disputants. Every fountain of bitterness was un
sealed. More than twenty subjects were debated
with the keenest acrimony — some of them strangely
far-fetched. When Grant had given the lead, the
Victoria and Trinity men joined fiercely in the con
troversy, and the bulk of the correspondence lay
274

FEDERATION
between them and the champions of Toronto Uni
versity. The adherents of Queen's, on the whole,
held aloof. The university was shifting its ground
from denominationalism to territorialism. Its friends
could not claim close church connection, and as yet
it was too soon to describe it as the University of
Eastern Ontario.
Grant's first utterance, on October 16th, recom
mended University College to raise money for its
necessities by appeahng to its friends. State aid,
under the conditions prescribed by Mr. Mulock, he
defined as meaning "that the friends of other col
leges, who have voluntarUy and at great sacrifice,
and for what seemed to them good and sufficient
reasons, brought their favourite colleges to such a
standard as to compel universal recognition, should
now be forced by law to give more money to ex
tend, they may think needlessly, an institution that,
however exceUent, does not commend itself to them
as embodying the highest university ideal."
Mr. Mulock had put forward the need of coUege
accommodation at Toronto. Grant seized on this.
" No one now dreams that one coUege is sufficient
for Ontario. University consohdation is another
matter, though people often mix up the two ques
tions rather ludicrously, and speak as if the con
solidation of the universities would diminish the
expense of teaching in colleges. Every one now
admits that Ontario not only has, but needs sev
eral colleges, and the only question is whether
275

PRINCIPAL GRANT
these all should be in Toronto or not." His advice
to the friends of Toronto University was either to
call for subscriptions, or to ask the province to help,
" according to a wisely considered plan that stimu
lates voluntary effort."
On November 8th, on the occasion of the open
ing of the divinity session, Grant returned to the
subject : —
"Does it follow that because there is a public
system of education, there should be only one
college ? That would be the ideal of excessive sim
plification run mad. We have more than a hundred
high schools and coUegiate institutes. These ought
to supply, and they do supply, students enough for
three or four colleges. There is a limit to the num
ber of students that class-rooms can accommodate,
and a limit to the number of students that pro
fessors can attend to, unless the students are to be
neglected and the professors confined to hack work.
More than one college is needed in Ontario. Why,
then, if pubhc support is to be given, should it be
limited to one ? Would it not be in true accord
with our high school system, to have at least two
or three colleges in suitable centres ? And if volun
tary effort has already established these, would it
not be wise and economical on the part of the
legislature to recognize and stimulate that volun
tary effort ? The legislature does so in the case of
schools of art, mechanics' institutes, and other insti
tutions. Why not in the case of coUeges ? . . . .
276

FEDERATION
" It is not in accordance with our educational
system that schools or colleges shall receive the
whole of their support from the legislature. In the
case of common and high schools the people who
are chiefly benefited have to contribute the largest
proportion of the support. The grant that the legis
lature gives to high schools does not amount to
one-third of their annual cost. If the province has
more money to give to education, it should first of
all give it to improve the high schools. These need
it most, and in fact, the best way to help the col
leges is to improve the secondary education of the
country." On December 8th, Grant spoke again, this time
to the members of the university council resident
in Kingston. He pressed the college argument home.
" At any rate, the state has been aided in its col
legiate work, and is surely grateful for that, were it
only for the large sum saved to the treasury by our
own sacrifices. Had it not been for the existence of
outlying colleges, the state Avould have had to es
tablish others before this, either in Toronto or else
where, just as it had to establish a normal school in
Ottawa, in addition to the one in Toronto."
The proposal that all the students in the country
should be taken to Toronto he mercilessly ridiculed.
He also fell foul of the theory that University Col
lege is " the copestone of our educational system."
"The copestone does not consist of any one building.
Just as the second storey is, in the main, Upper
277

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Canada College, and one hundred and six high
schools and collegiate institutes, so the third storey,
or copestone, consists of the coUeges that receive
matriculants from these. The men who are studying
for the degree of B.A., and their professors, arcthe
copestone of our system.
"Grants of public money to denominations are a
violation of the modern principle of the separation
of church and state, though we submit to the viola
tion in the establishment of separate schools, and in
grants to denominational hospitals, almshouses and
houses of industry, where the state has not a shadow
of control. But the modern principle is not violated
when a well-equipped coUege is aided to do strictly
scientific work. When the state is satisfied that the
work is required, that it is the complement of the
pubhc school system, that it is unsectarian, that it
is in the pubhc interest, that it can be inspected
and tested, and that there is adequate control so
far as its money is concerned, then the state acts
wisely if it gets its work done economicaUy by
utilizing and stimulating the voluntary liberality of
the people."
Principal Cay en joined in the later stages of the
controversy. Writing with his accustomed keenness,
he supported the University College position, but
treated the outlying coUeges with far more consid
eration than had most writers on his side. Grant re
plied on January 5th, in an address to the Kingston
Graduates' Association. With great skiU he drew
278

FEDERATION
attention to the common ground which he and
Principal Caven occupied. In particular, he dwelt
upon Principal Caven's admission that "whUe many
think that it was an advantage to have but one
university for Ontario, not many maintain that
there should be only one college." He also ap
proved highly of the suggestion which the principal
of Knox CoUege had made, that a commission be
appointed to consider the whole matter. He con
cluded by re-stating his position : —
" That what we have to deal with now is a col
lege rather than a university question, and that a
one-sided solution is not to be thought of; that
Ontario needs more than one coUege, and ought to
be thankful that more than half of its coUegiate
work has been done gratuitously for years ; and that
a better organization of higher education ought to
be aimed at. No man should hail such a reorgani
zation more than the friends of Toronto University
and University CoUege. They must know that any
state institution is unfortunately situated when it
has the sympathy of at most only half the people ;
that such a position leads to snobbery and arrogance
on the part of the weakest men connected with
it ; that it encourages educational sectarianism and
pretence, the enemies of true culture ; and that it
creates in the minds of the friends of other institu
tions a sense of injustice that becomes deeper the
longer it is perpetuated."
By a sudden turn the controversy passed into
279

PRINCIPAL GRANT
secret negotiations ; the negotiations became con
ferences, and out of the quarrel grew the federation
of Toronto and Victoria. The concluding noises of
the newspaper warfare must have sounded hollow
to the men in the inner circles.
Queen's and Victoria had been friends and allies
for many years, but at this point their interests
parted. Queen's is advantageously situated. The
St. Lawrence and Ottawa valleys form peculiarly
distinctive portions of Ontario. Kingston is situated
where midland Ontario marches with the St. Law
rence valley, and it has easy access to the Ottawa
valley, of which circumstances have given Queen's
an unusual command. The town is of considerable
size and moderate wealth. It is large enough to
give liberal support, and smaU enough to be acutely
sensible of the advantage of being the seat of a
university. Queen's had been loyally supported by
the people of Kingston without distinction of creed,
and her investments in land and buildings in 1883
exceeded one hundred thousand dollars in value.
Victoria's position in Cobourg was far less happy.
The town was proud of and loyal to the university,
but it was small, not proportionately as wealthy as
Kingston, and altogether unable to contribute seri
ously to the needs of the institution. Its position
was disadvantageous from a strategic standpoint,
for it gave little better command of midland On
tario that did either Toronto or Kingston, while it
was not in touch with the western peninsula, the
280

FEDERATION
St. I Lawrence valley, or the Ottawa vaUey. The uni
versity investments in Cobourg amounted to only
thirty thousand dollars.
Grant's programme was clear. He was seeking to
induce the Presbyterian Church as a whole to take
the interest in Queen's which the Old Kirk wing
had always felt. He was cultivating in the whole
of eastern Ontario the sense that Queen's was a
local and territorial institution, which was strong
in Kingston and the county of Frontenac. It was
his intention that when the government of the
province made up its mind to assist higher edu
cation by promoting scientific studies, recognition
must be extended to the work carried on at Kings
ton, and aid given to some type of school of science
which would supplement the work of Queen's Col
lege. To Chancellor Nelles the future was more
dubious. The connexionalism of his university was
complete, for the Methodist Church kept Victoria
under its direct control, and the union of Methodism
in 1883 had been foUowed by the merging into
Victoria of Albert University, which the Methodist
Episcopal Church had maintained at BeUeviUe.
Territorialization was impossible in Cobourg, and
Nelles was in a greater hurry for state aid than
Grant was. He revolved various projects. There
were negotiations to move the university to Peter
borough, or to Hamilton. At one time he talked
of taking Victoria to Kingston and effecting a close
aUiance with Queen's. Again he thought of an
281

PRINCIPAL GRANT
arrangement whereby Trinity and Victoria in To
ronto, and Queen's in Kingston, would form a
species of consoUdated university, in opposition to
Toronto University.
While the newspaper controversy was stiU furious,
the vice-chancellor of Toronto University opened
negotiations with NeUes. During November the
Globe published an official denial that any state
aid to Toronto University was contemplated. Soon
after, during the Christmas hohdays, Mr. Mulock
proposed that ChanceUor NeUes and he should
come to some agreement. A series of secret meet
ings took place, and soon NeUes, already anxious to
quit Cobourg and establish Victoria in Toronto, was
aflame with an idea. University consohdation was
in the air. Men who wished to see Ontario possess
a rival to CorneU hoped to achieve the necessary
bigness by a combination of forces on the part of
the four leading arts colleges. Mr. Goldwin Smith
was actively preaching the need of a federation of
teaching coUeges, after the manner of Oxford. The
University CoUege men were moving along a path
way of affiliation which was surrounding the "secu
lar coUege" with a circle of theological coUeges
which were dependent on it for the literary and
scientific training of their students and which also
served as recruiting grounds. The air was filled with
visions — some vague, some definite — of alhance, con
solidation, federation, or affiliation. To two or three
men at this time came the root idea of federation,
282

FEDERATION
the establishment of a group of arts coUeges shar
ing in common a faculty devoted to the more ex
pensive scientific studies. The idea took firm hold
of ChanceUor NeUes's mind. It seems to have
occurred about the same time to Professor Mac-
Vicar, of the Toronto Baptist CoUege, an active
and vigorous institution which soon afterwards de
veloped into McMaster University. It may have
come originaUy from Mr. Goldwin Smith. At aU
events NeUes seized upon it, and constituted him
self its special advocate.
Dr. NeUes was an ardent man, of quick, sanguine,
and perhaps hasty apprehension, of great enthusi
asm, and apparently fond of canvassing and influ
encing others. He threw himself into the work,
negotiated with Mr. Mulock, corresponded with the
Hon. George W. Ross, the newly-appointed minis
ter of education, canvassed the Trinity authorities,
consulted Grant, and strove to influence his own
denomination. Apparently as a result of his ac
tivity, Mr. Ross, in July, 1884, summoned a pri
vate conference of representatives of the universities
and theological coUeges of the province. The con
ference met on July 24th, adjourned tiU September,
and met repeatedly untU, on January 8th, 1885, the
federation scheme was completed.
To Grant this turn of affairs must have been
highly unwelcome. Every scheme of university re
organization broached at this period involved the
idea of concentration at Toronto, the one thing
283

PRINCIPAL GRANT
which was for him impossible. " Queen's roots are
in the ground, not in the air," was his summary
of the situation. In February, 1884, NeUes visited
Grant to discuss the matter. His subsequent letter
to Mr. Ross reveals the tenor of the conversation of
the principal of Queen's: —
"On conversing with Dr. Grant I find him quite
open to give a full and fair consideration to the
proposed scheme of federation, but of course he
will require a little time for deliberation and con
sultation with his friends.
"There are serious embarrassments arising from
their position, but I stiU hope we shall be able to
remove them
"Much can be said in favour of retaining one
university in eastern Ontario, or at least one college
of the federation, but it is desirable that Queen's
should be represented on the senate, so as to give
unity and completeness to the measure. . . .
"In any event the case of Queen's wiU require
(in order to bring her into the federation) either the
purchase of her building or some assistance where
she is, if she is to remain there as an affiliated col
lege of the common university. Such assistance
might be given either by modifying her denomina
tional character (not very marked even now), or
by the government establishing in Kingston some
school of mining or technology. Such a school
would afford advantages of which Queen's could
avuil herself and effect a saving by so doing."
284

FEDERATION
"PS. — As Queen's has several buildings, one of
which cost sixty-five thousand dollars and is new,
it might be found the more economical mode, and
the one least likely to excite prejudice in the coun
try, to establish a school of practical science (of
some sort) in Kingston, thus affording advantages
to Queen's and gratifying the popular demand for
practical education. Or her buildings might be pur
chased for such a school, the Queen's College then
coming to Toronto."
About this time, Grant, in writing to Provost
Body of Trinity, said: "I am half inclined to think
that the aim of the Toronto men is simply to
absorb Victoria, so as to nuUify the Methodists as a
political force."
The conferences resolved themselves into a pro
cess of reaching common ground between the To
ronto University ideal of a huge university college
surrounded by a number of smaller and complemen
tary denominational colleges, and NeUes's scheme
of a group of several precisely equal arts coUeges
sharing tlie common or university professoriate.
The extreme Toronto University view would have ,
rendered the denominational colleges httle more
than theological seminaries. The extreme Victoria
proposals contemplated the ousting of University
College from the university buildings and the chang
ing of its name to Toronto College. The Toronto
men conceded the university professoriate — "split
ting University College," they styled it, and Victoria
285

PRINCIPAL GRANT
acquiesced in the continuance of the close relations
between University CoUege and the university from
which all students in the federation were to receive
their degrees.
Queen's was represented at the opening confer
ence by Chancellor Fleming, Principal Grant, and
Mr. (now Judge) Maclennan. "In anticipation of
the action taken by the minister of education,"
Grant wrote, in reviewing the whole matter,1 "the
university council in April, 1884, had declared:
(1) That a university system similar to that of Scot
land and New England was the one best adapted
to our history and present condition, and most
likely to secure the fullest development of the
mind of the people and the resources of the coun
try; (2) That it was the duty of the government
either to leave the universities to depend upon the
voluntary liberality which they are certain to receive
in due time, or to aid the arts and science faculties
in any university that was equipped and endowed
up to a designated standard, according to the plan
recognized by the British government in its dealings
with the Scottish and Irish universities, and by the
government of Ontario in its regulations regarding
high schools and coUegiate institutes." At the first
conference Grant read a paper setting forth these
views. The other representatives proved to be set
upon a concentration in Toronto. "Seeing this,"
1 This review was given at the opening of Queen's on University
Day (October 16th) 1885. It was published as a pamphlet.
286

FEDERATION
he wrote in his review, "Dr. James Maclennan,
Q.C, pointed out that while such a scheme might
suit institutions in Toronto, or that desired to mi
grate there, it would not apply to any established
in other suitable centres, and that if it was to be
advocated on grounds of public policy, ample gov
ernment provision must be expressly made for such
cases, and also that it would be useless to submit
any scheme to the authorities of Queen's that was
not fair all round. The force of these remarks was
generaUy admitted."
It thus was evident from the commencement that
Queen's could not accept the policy which was un
der discussion, and her claim to consideration and
government aid was expressly stated. It is alto
gether likely that Grant was unprepared for the
minuteness with which the policy of concentration
had been planned. He felt that a cut-and-dried
scheme had been brought to the meeting, and he
returned to Kingston in high indignation and alarm.
" I did not sleep much that night," he said to a friend.
The whole period was for him replete with anxiety.
He attended a number of the meetings, helped in
the discussion, was at the final conference, but made
it clear to most of those attending that he did not
favour Queen's entrance into the proposed federa
tion. Some have criticized his action in attending
when he had no intention of joining the union that
was being planned. As he himself pointed out, he
had been asked to attend. Refusal would have
287

PRINCIPAL GRANT
been ungracious and might have jeopardized the
chances of the scheme. His influence in the con
ferences was exerted towards the settlement of
difficulties, and he never used the knowledge at
tained at this time to prejudice the reconstructed
university. When the plan of federation was pubhshed, on
January 10th, 1885, the authorities and friends of
Queen's gave their answer very quickly. The board
of trustees met on January 13th, and passed reso
lutions disapproving of the centrahzation contem
plated by the scheme. The weight of opinion against
the plan was overwhelming, but the governing
board of the university took every possible step to
show how absolute was the repugnance of the
friends of Queen's to a removal from Kingston.
Two meetings of graduates and benefactors resident
in Kingston were held. On February 9th, a third
meeting, largely attended by graduates and friends
from a distance, condemned the project. Circulars
were issued asking for expressions of opinion. Three
hundred and forty-seven rephes were received from
friends and graduates outside of the county of
Frontenac. " The great majority of correspondents
declared that they did not wish .o see her go, but
they would continue to help her here," said Mr.
Fleming at convocation on April 27th. "A large
number would not only give her nothing in case of
removal, but would withdraw their present aid. A
very smaU minority favoured the scheme ; two men
288

FEDERATION
would give aid if the college were removed."1 The
meeting decided that it was "of the unanimous
opinion that the authorities of Queen's should now
determine that the university should forever remain
at Kingston." It followed this up by resolving to
form an association to further the interests of the
university. "Queen's would sink with her colours
flying," Grant said, " or prosper where her fathers
had placed her."
Victoria accepted federation after a bitter internal
struggle, the most remarkable incident of which
was NeUes's declaration of hostihty to the scheme
which he had done so much to frame. Trinity re
jected the plan. The consolidation was not consum
mated until 1887, when Mr. Ross carried through
the legislature an Act which brought Victoria to
Toronto, and considerably increased the resources of
Toronto University. Its income was to be brought
up to about ninety-three thousand dollars, and some
economies of management were instituted which
made the increase of productive expenditure nearly
thirty thousand doUars a year. Seven professors and
five lecturers were added to the staff. Victoria in
creased her expenditure to about thirty thousand
dollars a year, so that the university expenditure in
Queen's Park was brought up to about one hundred
and twenty thousand doUars a year.2
1 Queen's College Journal, June 1st, 1885, p. 150. Reproduced in
the Domesday Book.
2 Victoria raised about four hundred and fifty thousand dollars to
move to Toronto. Of this sum about one hundred and fifty thousand
289

PRINCIPAL GRANT
From the first, Grant and the friends of Queen's
saw that this meant that more money must be
raised. The thirty thousand doUars a year which had
been ample when Toronto University was spending
sixty-five thousand, was not enough when the big
university centre at Toronto was spending nearly
double that sum. The meeting which rejected fed
eration also formed a Queen's University Endow
ment Association. The delay in bringing Victoria
into federation gave a breathing space, but in 1887
it was imperative to act. The revenue secured by
the five-year scheme was about to lapse, and at
least two or three new chairs were needed. The
endowment campaign of 1887 foUowed.
Grant aimed at a quarter of a million — the JubUee
Fund it was styled, for the decision to found Queen's
had been taken just haff a century before, and Grant
used the associations of the anniversary. The pros
pect was disheartening, for the country was not
prosperous. Grant looked upon the project with the
deepest apprehension, but the need was overpower
ing. " I had tea with Dr. NeUes and spent two or
three hours discussing the university question with
him," he wrote, as early as May, 1885, from Co
bourg. " He has got the representatives of Toronto
University to consent to some modifications of the
dollars went into the building in the Queen's Park adjacent to Toronto
University. The Ontario government bought her Cobourg buildings,
but the university was compelled to refund about thirty thousand
dollars to persons who had subscribed to her endowment on the under
standing that she would remain in Cobourg.
290

FEDERATION
scheme, and he intends to push it at the various
conferences of the Methodist Church that meet this
summer, being convinced that if Victoria remains
at Cobourg, it will die. He may succeed in carrying
the church, and if he does the men of Queen's must
be prepared to put her in a position to compete with
the patent combination or see her decay. Our motto
must be ' Excelsior.' "
He plunged into the old work of canvassing —
enough has been told of the nature of it. He trav-
eUed, spoke, and visited, as in 1878. As in 1878 he
broke his health ; by September he was iU. His
letters home abound in gloomy anticipations. " It's
going to be the toughest job I've ever had," he wrote
in May, from Toronto. Soon after he was depressed
by " delays, disappointments, refusals, puttings-off,
and worse." From Ottawa he wrote: — "I think
that the quarter minion fund is doomed. One man
cannot raise it, especially over ground that has
been reaped and reaped. Here, in addition, the
Ottawa Ladies' CoUege cuts into me."
AU along he realized that in 1887, as in 1878, he
would be obhged to face the work practicaUy single-
handed. On the last day of 1886 he wrote : — "More
and more clearly I see that the work aU round must
be done by myself, and why not ? It is my work.
Every other man has his work to do, and is kept
closely at it from morning to night. I have no right
to accept a position and shirk the responsibilities
connected with it. Besides, it is a noble work, and I
291

PRINCIPAL GRANT
ought to be proud of having it to do." It was hard
always to be so cheery. " One sees a good deal of
the seamy side of human nature when asking for
money." One or two encouragements came to him.
The Rev. Dr. T. G. Smith1 rendered help which he
described as invaluable. When the success of the
scheme was hanging in the wind, the undergraduates
of the university dehghted him by meeting and sub
scribing about six thousand doUars. This proof of
their loyalty produced an excellent impression and
greatly encouraged the principal. At last, with in
finite toU, the endowment was attained. In March,
1888, Grant reported to the trustees that the mini
mum sum had been subscribed. His health was
wrecked, and the board urged him to go on a tour
of the world, voting two thousand doUars to enable
him to do so.
With the raising of the endowment, Queen's
passed out of the old precariousness into a new
security. Great advances were made in equipment.
The literary side of the university was rapidly
strengthened during the next few years. Professor
Cappon was called to the new chair of Enghsh
language and hterature ; Professor McNaughton
became professor of Greek ; Professor Shortt took
charge of the department of political science ; the
modern languages were recognized by the appoint
ment of Professor McGillivray; and Professor Dyde
1 Formerly minister of St. Andrew's Church, Kingston, and later
financial agent of Queen's University.
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FEDERATION
took the chair of mental phUosophy. A beginning
was made in the matter of getting the school of
practical science, over which Grant had been brood
ing as early as 1884 A wealthy citizen of Kingston,
John Carruthers, gave ten thousand doUars for a
science building to be named after him. It was not
finished until 1890, but as early as 1888 Professors
Dupuis and Goodwin were inspecting similar schools
in the United States, to aid them in planning the
new structure. By 1889 the building of 1878 was
overcrowded and new class-rooms were opened on
the attic floor.
So closed the federation epoch of Queen's. It
was an anxious and a dangerous time, a singularly
intricate maze of quarreUings, negotiations and bar
gainings. The course of the university throughout
had been at once judicious and determined. In
the controversy of 1883-4, her champions, on the
whole, had avoided side issues, and her side of the
case was presented with less bitterness than that of
any other of the universities concerned. She did not
participate in the secret negotiations of 1884. In
the conferences which worked out a scheme of fed
eration, entirely unsuited for Queen's, and gravely
compromising her position, her representatives ap
pear neither as meddhng nor as holding aloof. Grant
had been offered the reversion of the headship of
the reconstructed university, a post of greater ease
and larger emoluments than the principalship of
hard-fighting, struggling Queen's, but the offer had
293

PRINCIPAL GRANT
weighed with him not one whit.1 The decision with
which the friends of Queen's would have none of
federation, was characteristic of her energy and her
internal harmony. She put federation behind her,
turned to the task of making fast her footing as the
territorial university of eastern Ontario, and by a
great effort secured her position. The independence
she had won, not for the first or the second time,
was very sweet to herr "There are some things,"
wrote Grant, " which reaUy must be considered set
tled — the creation of the world, the union of the
thirteen American colonies, the confederation of
Canada, and the position of Queen's at Kingston/'
1 In this connection may be added a letter written on March 27th,
1895, to Mr. J. S. Willison : " I never saw the enclosed before. Of
course you thought it would be a promotion for me, but I know enough
of the constitution and atmosphere of Toronto University to think dif
ferently. There would need to be some changes before I would think of
going to it. Here, I have a free hand, and can work towards my ideal.
I prefer that, united with poverty, to a nominal presidency, and a
struggle against those ecclesiastical and political wire-pullings from
which a university must be free, if it is to breed either men or thinkers. "

294

CHAPTER XVII
ROUND THE WORLD
THE JubUee Fund was coUected, but the man
who had carried it to completion lay at home
broken down and in sharpest physical agony. It was
evident that only a long holiday could save him,
and the trustees insisted upon his taking a year's
leave of absence. The doctors prescribed sea-air, and
early in March, 1888, he started on a tour around
the world. Away from work and worry, his spirits
rapidly rose, and his first letter from New York
is more hke that of a boy let loose from school
than that of an invahd in search of health. The
time spent in waiting for a train or steamer to start
he always grudged, and at New York reduced it to
a minimum, arriving on the wharf just in time to
make a flying leap on board, whence he threw his fare
to the astonished cab-driver. In England six weeks
were spent ostensibly to consult speciahsts, but also
in sight-seeing and in visiting friends old and new.
Oxford he saw for the first time. Writing to
his wife, he says: "The general impression made
on me by these first ghmpses of Oxford — for
where a man could spend a week profitably in one
of the museums, hbraries, or coUeges, that is aU
that I felt I had got — was one of simple bewilder-
295

PRINCIPAL GRANT
ment. A confused vision of wonderful old towers
and spires ; of great domes and exquisite pinnacles ;
of hoary quadrangles enclosing the softest green turf
in the world; of chapels with aU kinds of rare carved
work in wood or stone — the wood often older than
the stone — with reredoses, each more beautiful than
the other, but that of AU Souls' the thing of beauty
never to be forgotten, and stained glass windows
which have told their story for centuries to genera
tions of worshippers; of pictures by great masters
old and new, and illuminated missals and manu
scripts absolutely priceless ; of solemn cloisters and
bright broad walks leading to the river, or gardens
waUed in with thickest greenery, where, in this late
spring, the crocuses and Lent lilies are just begin
ning to give life and colour, or — as in Magdalen —
with groups of deer in them that wiU eat from your
hand; of tombs and crosses and long-drawn aisles,
with processions of white-robed choristers ; of fretted
roofs supported by graceful columns; and of grin
ning gargoyles — what a medley, and yet how inex
pressibly harmonious and satisfying! When I see in
New York, or anywhere else in the New World or
the Old, a magnificent building, or meet a scholar,
statesman, or other great man, I say to myself,
'There is no reason why we shouldn't have as good
in Canada to-day or to-morrow,' but when you see
Oxford, or even such a bit of it as the Bodleian,
you at once confess, 'There can be no other,' and
you are not sorry either! Here is our inheritance,
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ROUND THE WORLD
the incunabula nostrum gentium, and there is no
need for a second edition of our cradle or our
infancy. I do not wonder at the speU which Oxford
weaves round the strongest who come under her
influence. I do not regret having escaped it, but I
think that Willie ought to come here by and by."
He heard Liddon in St. Paul's, but was disap
pointed; the chaste perfection of his diction he
admitted, but the thought rang thin and hoUow to
one who had sat at the feet of Guthrie and Cand
lish, of John Caird and Norman Macleod. " Al
though I have never been able to read one of
Liddon's sermons from beginning to end on ac
count of their wordiness, I expected much from
this 'prince of Enghsh preachers,' but I was disap
pointed. It was an audience to inspire one, for the
aisles were crowded with hundreds who stood from
three tiU five o'clock, with extraordinary patience
and even reverence of demeanour, and the whole
space before, behind and around him was a sea of
faces. He seemed to do his best, too, keeping his
voice weU sustained throughout, rising occasionaUy
to something resembling eloquence, and using ges
ticulation with good taste and effect. His face and
bearing prepossessed one in his favour. It indicates
refinement, culture, and strength. Yet the whole
sermon I thought essentially commonplace, and
partly, if not entirely so, because the man is lim
ited by his High Church position, which he main
tains with inflexible logical tenacity to a narrow
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PRINCIPAL GRANT
and unreal conception both of man and God, of
man's condition outside the influences of super
natural grace, and of God's method of raising him
from helplessness into the condition of salvation.
'The Church' is the one and only ark; and the
voice of the undivided church in the first five
centuries is the only voice which can speak for the
church ; although at present it is possible to gather
its meaning and to share in its divine influences if
you are in communion with Canterbury, Rome, or
Byzantium. Not otherwise. The Christian prays,
therefore, for the union of the divided body. But
Protestantism is a mistake. It meant simply revolt.
And with regard to Non-Conformity in Britain, the
wisest and gentlest treatment to be extended to it
is to utterly ignore it. Speak, act, think, as if it did
not exist. Its churches are httle else than political
clubs, destitute of divine authority. He was advo
cating the Bishop of London's fund for the evan
gelizing of London. He found time to acknowledge
the munificence of a Liverpool brewer, who, it
seems, had just offered to erect a cathedral church
for Bishop Ryle; but he had not a word for all
that the Non-Conformists are doing for England or
London. Such narrowness and lack of generosity in
a man naturally fair and generous, would be extra
ordinary, if we did not know how greater men than
he have been enslaved by the same system. But,
how any man can engage in Christian work in Lon
don, without seeing what an immense proportion of
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ROUND THE WORLD
it is due to Non-Conformist agencies, and what a
devoted Christian spirit sustains those agencies, is
a bit of a puzzle. Thanks to their unwearied and
multiphed efforts, this great metropolis is one of
the most completely evangelized cities in the world.
The Anglican Church is certainly doing much of
the work. Each of its three great sections, the Low,
the High and the Broad, seems to me fuUer of real
life than it was twenty, or even ten years ago. They
do not quarrel so fiercely as they did then, because
each has successfuUy asserted its right to a place in
the church ; and they spend their energies instead
on every possible variety of Christian work. The
congregations are large, attentive, and devout. The
manifest reverence on the part of aU is dehghtful.
They are kinder to strangers, and they seem to feel
that in such a city as this, the church beneficent is
needed more than the church mihtant. But go
where you hke, and the Dissenter is, to say the
least, as earnest and successful as the churchman.
" Besides, as an experienced ' beggar,' I have to
pronounce him rather a failure. The sermon was
far too long. At first it was heavy, and a good
many around me slept. After he had been at it for
an hour, many began to rise from their seats and go
out. And when he ended, there was almost a stam
pede, in which I joined, nothing loath."
On May 3rd he embarked on the Aorangi for
Cape Town. His journey to lands unknown had be
gun. This tour did for his knowledge of the empire,
299

PRINCIPAL GRANT
what had been done in 1872 for his knowledge of
Canada, by his trip from ocean to ocean. Even
before confederation, he had dreamed of the future
greatness of Canada ; his journey showed him that
his dream was no idle fancy, but a vision inferior to
the truth. Long before 1888 he was an imperiahst;
he had long feasted his soul with the thought of
the power and the glory of the empire, and had felt
that the fulness of the power and the completion
of the glory would not come until aU were bound
together in some form of pan-Britannic federation.
While attending a sitting of the House of Com
mons, his imagination soared above the details of
the Irish question which was being discussed. "The
more I looked and meditated, the more did there
rise up a vision of an imperial Reichsrath for war,
defence, treaties with foreign nations, copyright, and
the consideration of trade questions so far as room
could be found for them ; while England North,
England South, London, Wales, Scotland, Ireland,
Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, —
forming a great Britannic federation — would each
attend to its own home matters. It may be a dream,
but I think something hke it will come."1 But now,
by his tour, he obtained the greater insight and the
more vivid knowledge acquired only by one who
knows not through books alone. Wherever he went
he found that the rule of Britain meant order, and
justice, and liberty, civil and religious. He studied
1 From a letter to his wife.
300

ROUND THE WORLD
ahke the men whom he met and the countries he
visited, and his letters home and to his friends are
full of keen characterizations of colonial statesmen
and of the problems with which they were grap
pling. His first halt was at the Cape. Most of his time
was spent at Cape Town, with a run up to the
diamond fields at Kimberley. While in London he
had attended a meeting at the Hotel Metropole,
where South Africa and its problems were discussed
by an audience including members of every state
south of the Limpopo, and this meeting laid the
foundation of an interest in South Africa, and of a
study of her problems which ceased only at his
death. To his wife. — " I am writing an article rather
than a letter. But, South Africa has interested me
greatly. "The British official has indeed never tried to
understand the Boer. He makes no aUowance for
the difficulties that the Boer has had to contend
against for two centuries, when he lived utterly iso
lated from civilization, and yet preserved the purity
of his blood, educated his children, teaching them
to read and write, to fear God and obey His word,
with little or no help from schoolmaster or minister.
What South Africa needs, in my opinion, is a good
understanding between Boer and British, and the
cultivation of a South African national spirit."
Writing to a cousin in England, he says: "SS.
301

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Ionic, S. Pacific Ocean, 19th June, 1888: On the
Saturday before leaving Cape Town I lunched with
the Swedish consul, in the suburbs — by the way,
we had such a collection of nationalities at that
lunch. I went to it with Mr. Hofmeyer, the leader,
or rather the maker and hfe of the cabinet, and
with an honourable member who foUows him. The
one was a Dutchman, and the other a Scotchman.
I sat beside the host, who is proud of being a
Swede and also a loyal subject of the Queen. At
my right sat the leader of the opposition, Mr. Mer-
riman, the son of an EngUsh bishop; an American;
an Afrikander, with a suspicion of 'colour' in his
eye; a colonel of artiUery — Enghsh to the tips of
his fingers; a Jew — attracted doubtless by the dia
mond fields, — there you have the principal sym-
posionists !
"I am so glad that I got a glimpse of Cape Town
and the colonies. Froude's Oceana, chapters three
and four, wiU give you a reasonably good summary
of its history, although Mr. Froude is too much of
a prophet to write with the care required of ordin
ary mortals. Consequently, he exaggerates at one
time, and minimizes at another. Notwithstanding,
his book is weU worth reading. The kindness of the
people, especiaUy of the Boers and their clergy, is
remarkable; but I am bound to say that I would
probably have another story to teU had I been
an Anglican. Being Scotch and Presbyterian, they
thought me one of themselves. They cannot abide
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ROUND THE WORLD
Enghsh officers, who seem to them frivolous; or
English clergymen, who seem to them ignorant,
insular, and exclusive. This is a great pity; for the
only hope for South Africa is in a good understand
ing between the English and the Dutch elements of
population. If they cannot come to terms, the mul
tiplying black populations — continually recruited,
too, from the exhaustless reservoir of Central Af
rica — wiU in the end crowd them into the sea. To
every Englishman I met, I therefore preached:
'The Boer is not so bad as he has been painted';
and to every Dutchman I insisted: 'The English
man is not haff such a fool as he looks.'"
Between three and four months were spent in
Tasmania, Australia, and New Zealand. By this
time his health had returned, and, with his health,
his old activity. Through Australia his journey was
almost hke a triumphal progress. The railways gave
him passes ; in Sydney and Melbourne he lectured
to crowded houses; in every city the hospitality
was almost overpowering.
To his wife. — "After dinner we all went off to
the Y.M.C.A. HaU, where I was to lecture. To my
astonishment, for I had been told that Sydney peo
ple never went to lectures, the haU was crowded.
In quality, quantity and in appreciativeness I never
had a grander audience. Sir F. Darley, chief justice,
the first gentleman in the colony, was in the chair.
The vote of thanks was moved by Sir A. Stephen,
acting-governor in the absence of Lord Carrington, 303

PRINCIPAL GRANT
and, as I told you, eighty-seven years old, the
dearest old man I ever met. He spoke with the
enthusiasm of a boy. How he did praise me ! It was
seconded by the veteran premier, Sir Henry Parkes,
and carried with wild enthusiasm, aU standing."
These lectures were not without a deeper signifi
cance. Australia was at the parting of the ways.
The absence of a powerful neighbour, confidence in
her vast resources, and a not unnatural irritation at
the mistakes of the colonial office, had sown in the
minds of many a strong desire for independence.
Grant's utterances did more than a Uttle to show
them that the fuUest development of nationhood
was not incompatible with membership in the em
pire — could indeed only be attained by holding fast
to the great mother of the race, in whom centred
our most glorious traditions. Yet of all the great
colonies, Austraha interested him least. Her lack of
reverence, with which went a corresponding weak
ness in her religious sentiment; the excessive atten
tion paid to sport, as manifested by the shouting
thousands at the Melbourne Cup ; the tendency of
the workingmen to demand not only necessities but
luxuries from a too paternal government, all ren
dered her in his opinion inferior to Canada, and
also to New Zealand, of which colony he formed
the highest opinion.1
"What a charming country this is," he writes to
his cousin. "I have not time to describe it, but
1 See his article in Harper's Magazine, August, 1891.
304

ROUND THE WORLD
reaUy I am tempted to say that it alone of all the
lands I have ever seen may be made into a better
country than England. It is now mid-winter here,
and yet I am looking out on a lawn of the richest
green, surrounded by shrubbery of all kinds and
tints, and lined by flowers in bloom — geraniums,
stocks, everlastings, violets, chrysanthemums, roses,
and others that I do not recognize; while evergreen
trees — the blue-gum, pinus insignis, the broad-leaf
mapom, wattle, and the cabbage tree (a striking
kind of palm that blooms every other year), inclose
the grounds and make a sort of rus in urbe. I think
you know Latin enough to aUow me a word when
it comes pat to the pen, don't you?"
At Sydney he found the freight steamer Ckangsha,
bound for the Philippines, to take on board a cargo
of sugar. Twelve hundred mUes up the east coast
of Australia, inside the great barrier reef to Thurs
day Island, then across to Port Darwin, and on to
Ilo-Ilo, in the Island of Panay, gave him a ghmpse
of the tropics, at first interesting, but soon a httle
monotonous. He grew weary of "summer isles of
Eden lying in dark purple spheres of sea." His letters
sum up his impressions.
To his cousin. — "I saw for the first time in my
life the flowers, fruits and trees of the tropics — the
bunya-bunya and breadfruit tree growing wild ; the
cocoanut palms, as well as the fan palms, and other
varieties of palm trees ; the banian tree, the papaw,
the pineapple, the banana, mangoes, guavas, sugar-
305

PRINCIPAL GRANT
cane, poppy, maize, cinnamon, citron; and wonderful
tropical flowers and creepers ; passion flowers, single
and double hibiscus of aU colours and enormous size;
the sweet-smelling oleander, and the fragrant frangi-
pani ; the glowing yellow salamander and great
azaleas. With aU these, the landlady of the hotel
apologized for the few flowers, and begged us to
come back at Christmas, and see what they could
show us then ! But I would rather hve in England,
or even in Canada. It is delightful at sea, but on
land the heat is overpowering. The shghtest move
ment makes you perspire at every pore ; and you
feel that at any moment sunstroke may finish you
completely. You know too, that if you venture into
the bush, some lovely looking but horribly stinging
creeper may get its grasp on you, or some stiU more
poisonous reptile give you a death-bite. StUl, it is
pleasant to see those strange lands once ; and from
this place — across the Gulf of Carpentaria, and
through the Arafura Sea to Port Darwin — the
scenery is stUl more lovely, I understand ; and the
best is after that, from Darwin to Hong Kong
through the Sunda and other seas, past innumer
able islands 'at the gateways of the day,' till we
reach the China Sea, and the port where I haff ex
pect to find letters ! I shaU stay only two or three
days in Hong Kong, and go on from it almost
at once to Japan and home — for I am getting
homesick." "Last Sunday evening I came across a remarkable
306

ROUND THE WORLD
woman. The three nights before reaching this port
we cast anchor at sunset because of the dangerous
navigation, and sailed only in daylight; and so it
happened that on Sunday we came to a halt beside
a lightship anchored in the channel near a long low
reef, one of the favourite haunts of beche-de-mer
fishers. The hghtship is tenanted by a Mr. and Mrs.
Wilson and two young Irishmen. Mrs. Wilson, the
only woman of the white kind within one hundred
miles, might be expected to find her hfe lonely.
But no. Her hfe is full of work and incident. Her
'daily round and common task' furnish her with
scope for the inspiration and energy of genius. On
the coast and back in the bush are hundreds of the
natives — naked, brutish, cannibalistic. She has be
come their teacher. By blended kindness and firm
ness she is elevating and guiding them. They come
to her for orders, and bring their pickaninnies to be
named by her. The women now know that they
must weave aprons and clothe themselves, or she
wiU be angry. The men dare not teU her an un
truth, on pain of never getting a stick of tobacco, a
drink of lime juice, or a bit of 'tucker' when they
are hungry. The chUdren are taught to be clean, to
sew, to knit, to obey, to be useful, to help one
another. She is the moral and spiritual force on this
coast, where there is no schoolmaster, parson or
missionary, and where formerly the poor Australian
native knew of 'the white fellow' only as an enemy
endowed with mysterious and potent forces, who
307

PRINCIPAL GRANT
could shoot him or steal him, and who did so when
ever it suited his whim or convenience.
"What do you think of that for a heroine in
humble life ? Is it not a blessing that there are such
lives to redeem the average selfishness and mean
ness of human hfe? She does not look a bit poetic;
is, instead, 'fair, fat, and — at least — forty,' but with
a heart as big as her body. She presented me with
some exquisite sheUs and conchs, and a lovely bit of
coral, and only that I told her that I had no room
in my trunk, would have given me ten times as
much or as many. She is a Dane, a worthy sister of
Alexandra." " There's a small English-speaking community of
half a dozen families at Ilo-llo, and two families
have babies to be baptized. One, an Enghsh mer
chant with Afrikander wife, has two ; and another,
a Scotch bank manager with Scotch wife, has one,
and they have petitioned me to baptize the trio. Of
course, I consented, and this afternoon the httle
community is to assemble for the first Protestant
service ever held in the Philippines, and the young
sters are to be christened. I am the first Protestant
clergyman — so far as known — who has landed on
this isle of the saints. There is a Roman Catholic
bishop hving at a town four mUes away, and doubt
less he wUl be horrified at the invasion, for he has
taught the Indians that it is a mortal sin to be a
heretic and that Panay is happy in never having
been poUuted with any Protestant service, but what
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ROUND THE WORLD
can the poor man do ? He cannot roast heretics any
longer, or even throw them into prison, without an
awful row being made, and he wUl content himself
with the thought that it wiU be a long time before
any other troubler wUl land in the diocese."
He greatly desired to visit Formosa, and to see
the work done there by George Mackay, the noted
Canadian missionary, but time was wearing on,
and he was anxious to celebrate Christmas with
his famUy. A few days were spent in Hong Kong,
and a visit paid to Canton, "the typical Chinese
city, with local colouring as perfect as when Marco
Polo visited it," after which, a fortnight, aU too
brief, was spent in Japan. Everywhere he went he
had met with graduates of Queen's, and one of
them gives a pleasant ghmpse of his stay in the
Flowery Kingdom.
" In the latter part of November, 1888," says the
Rev. J. G. Dunlop, " I received word that Dr.
Grant was in Tokyo, and I set out to see him.
I was then in Shizuoka, about one hundred and
forty mUes down the east coast-road from Tokyo.
" Arriving in Tokyo, I found the principal at the
home of the late Rev. George Cochran, D.D., of
the Canada Methodist Mission. I wrote about him
that night; went over after tea and met him — look
ing strong and weU, and merry as a lark ! I spent
the whole of the next day with him sight-seeing in
Tokyo. Several pictures rise in my mind as I caU
up that day. First, famUy worship at Dr. Cochran's
309

PRINCIPAL GRANT
before we set out — the reverence with with he
handled the Book, the impressive way in which he
gave thanks as he opened it, the reading — we aU
know how he could read — and the prayer after
wards. Then, a morning at the tombs of the Sho-
guns, in Shiba, and the great Buddhist temple
of Asakusa, of which I recaU nothing noteworthy.
I remember the Japanese dinner which the two
doctors, Grant and Cochran, and I had in a restaur
ant near the big temple. We sat cross-legged on
the mats, and Dr. Cochran, who had come to Japan
fifteen years before, and I, who was duly conceited
about my experience of a whole year, had great fun
watching the principal eat his dinner with chop
sticks. The rice, and pickles, and bits of fish, and
omelet, would shp through his sticks and on to the
mats, and the floor was like a deserted battlefield
when he finished. But he declared he had enjoyed
it and had had a good meal — 'if only he could have
topped off with some of Mrs. Cochran's good roUs.
How do the Japanese get on without bread ! '
" Dr. Cochran left us after dinner, and Dr. Grant
and I posted by jinrikisha across to the temple of
the Shin sect of Buddhists where we saw fourteen
or fifteen hundred people seated on the mats listen
ing to preaching. Dr. Grant was deeply impressed
by the apparent devotion of the people, and by
their gifts. As the worshippers rose, each one left
an offering of money behind him. Temple attend
ants then came in and literaUy swept the money
310

ROUND THE WORLD
into heaps and carried it away. The principal's
interest made the priests his wiUing slaves for the
hour, and they took us, not only through the tem
ple, but through the priestly quarters as weU, the
only time I have ever been able to visit such a
place. " Another picture I have of our honoured princi
pal is one the like of which few of his boys have
ever had. We were hastening back from the Shin
temple to visit a museum and exhibition in the
Meno park. Dr. Grant was in a jinrikisha ahead,
whUe I, in a cart behind, pored over a 'Murray,'
getting ready for a new cannonade of questions as
soon as he got close enough to make me hear. My
attention was caUed from the book by a commotion
ahead, and, looking up, I could just make out the
principal's figure as he ran down the road through a
cloud of dust, while his jinrikisha coolie lay pros
trate over the shafts of his cart. The man had
tripped, as jinrikisha men sometimes do, sending
their fares headlong, but the old Glasgow foot-
baUer was too nimble for him. He jumped clear,
but ran a rod or two at high speed before he could
puU up.
" How boyish and free he was that day ! He was
an entirely new Principal Grant to me. But next
morning he was again the old principal I had
known at Queen's. He preached in the Union
Church, Tokyo, such a sermon as has seldom been
heard in that old capital. 311

PRINCIPAL GRANT
"Monday morning I had to start back to my
school. He had earnest queries about my teaching,
and advice as to how I might improve it. I remem
ber nothing more about his visit to Tokyo except
that characteristicaUy he had a couple of meetings
with Bishop Nicolai, of the Greek Church — a caU
and a dinner. Nicolai is a noble missionary, and
their meeting and evident interest in each other did
honour to both."
From Japan he sailed direct to Vancouver, reach
ing Kingston on his birthday, December 22nd. His
health seemed completely restored, and though the
future showed that the enemy had only been re
pulsed, not permanently defeated, he was for some
years free from attacks of pain, and could turn with
renewed zest to the work which awaited him. Writ
ing to his cousin a few days later, he says: "Oh,
such piles of letters and heaps of work into which I
have tumbled here ! When any difficulty occurred
in my absence, the sovereign specific was, 'Leave it
until the principal returns,' and they did. Thank
God I am 'fit.' I feel equal for any amount of
work, and such kind love as I know there is for me
at 'The Croft' helps me to do it and to sing all the
while. This is a poor miserable letter as an ex
change for yours, but read between the lines, and
imagine it ten times as big."

312

CHAPTER XVIII
QUEEN'S AND THE PROVINCE
THE federation negotiations drew Queen's into
the pohtics of higher education. During the
first years of his administration Grant had concen
trated effort on reorganization of a type which de
manded close absorption in the university's special
constituency. With the staff strengthened, the
equipment increased, and the finances established
on a sound if somewhat narrow basis, he was in a
position by 1888 to force pubhc and official recog
nition of the place of Queen's in the educational sys
tem of Ontario. The completion of reorganization
coincided with the entry of the provincial govern
ment on a course of state aid to higher education,
and external as weU as internal causes thus forced
him into the second period of his educational career.
Hitherto he had pursued a coUege pohcy ; hence
forth he pursued a university pohcy, and in the
fourteen years which followed 1888, he buUt up a
second provincial educational centre in Kingston.
The earhest phase of the movement was the wrest
ing of recognition from the educational machinery
of the province. The second phase was the inducing
of the government to concede a measure of public
aid to the new university centre. 313

PRINCIPAL GRANT
To render success complete, cordiality should
have been established between the two leading uni
versities of the province. That cordiality did not
come in Grant's time. Toronto University formed its
ideals during a period of bitter warfare. It acquired
a pre-eminence during the years preceding Grant's
advent to Queen's. Its friends hked to regard it as
the only institution in the province deserving of the
name of university. The steady rise of Queen's from
a position of comparative insignificance to import
ance was galling to men who had come to attach
what to outsiders must seem an undue importance
to exclusive possession ofthe means of higher educa
tion, and every point that Queen's won was carried
in the face of intense opposition. This jealousy has
given a controversial tone to what otherwise would
have been for both a peaceful record of expansion.
It was impossible to check a man of Grant's force,
backed by the sustained and energetic loyalty of
Queen's compact constituency. The work, however,
was infinitely harder than it need have been, and
it is melancholy to reflect that a frank agreement
would have benefited both universities enormously
in material gains as weU as in the spiritual good
which comes of honourable cooperation in the work
of education.
Pubhc attention was first aroused by the suc
cessful three-year campaign for recognition in the
educational system. Grant keenly appreciated the
need for placing Queen's on a proper footing with
314

QUEEN'S AND THE PROVINCE
the education department. He was particularly
concerned over the smallness of the number of
her graduates employed in the high schools, and
his determination grew to place the university in
touch with the secondary education of the province.
Simultaneously came a change in his views respect
ing matriculation. He had come to Queen's imbued
with the light regard for entrance tests which had
prevailed in Scotland in his student days. "You
pay your guinea," he said once, as Mr. Mulock
afterwards reminded him. Acquaintance with On
tario conditions completely changed his opinions,
and he came to attach great importance to adequate
preparation. The question, hke every other aspect
of university pohtics, was clouded by prejudice.
A standing controversy existed between Toronto
and Queen's with regard to matriculation stand
ards. The former set harder papers and required a
minimum of twenty-five per cent, the latter set
easier papers and exacted a minimum of a third of
the marks. Queen's men declared that the easier
questions and higher percentage afforded the better
test of the real qualifications of the candidates.
Toronto men were certain that Queen's standard
was low, and that she blocked the way to increased
stringency. The situation was relieved to a certain
extent when Grant, soon after his arrival at Queen's,
accepted the Toronto curriculum and standard, but
the bitterness continued, and had one important
effect. When Queen's began to urge an improve-
315

PRINCIPAL GRANT
ment in matriculation standards the Toronto men re
fused to believe her sincere. Had Grant's suggestions
been accepted, a great gain would have resulted.
The secondary schools were hampered at this
time by the multiplicity of examinations. Their
energy was principally devoted to preparing can
didates for matriculation and recruits for the prim
ary teacher's vocation. The examination for what
was known as the "second-class non-professional"
teachers' certificate was roughly equivalent to ma
triculation, although the papers were harder and
the percentage higher. It was possible to force a high
school staff to prepare pupils for five examinations
imposed by universities, in addition to the teach
ers' examinations. This was intolerable, and some
measure of simplification was inevitable. The first
move came from the outlying universities. In 1885,
Queen's, Victoria, and Trinity combined, accept
ing the Toronto curriculum and percentage, and
setting a common paper. This was a substantial
gain, but there was stiU great complexity. Prepara
tion had to be made for five examinations, the first,
second, and third-class teachers' tests, the Toronto
matriculation, and the combined universities' ma
triculation ; of these, three covered the same gen
eral ground. A further improvement in which the
outlying universities led was the holding of ma
triculation examinations at the schools, instead of
requiring attendance at the colleges; the minister
of education was quick to foUow this example.
316

QUEEN'S AND THE PROVINCE
In 1886, Professor Dupuis proposed that a leaving
examination be estabhshed to replace the second-
class teachers' examination and to be accepted by
aU the universities as equivalent to matriculation.
Grant's views at this period ran rather on the hne
of common action by the universities so as to secure
a single and more stringent examination. Late in
1886 the senate of Queen's communicated with the
senate of Toronto University, suggesting the estab
hshment of a common matriculation examination.
"It would be expedient," the Queen's senate stated,
"that representatives of the different universities
should be consulted in framing the curriculum of
examination. But even if this were not done, a
joint board to prepare papers for candidates and
to examine the answers would be a distinct gain."
The Toronto senate did not answer this communi
cation, a discourtesy which was keenly resented,
although it was afterwards explained to have been
due to an oversight.1
Mr. Ross, who was trying to simphfy the chaotic
examination conditions, was anxious to see a com
mon matriculation estabhshed. The senate of To
ronto University made objection, and the minister
fell back on a measure of unification of the second-

1 In all these negotiations it must be borne in mind that the
senates of the two universities are bodies of differing types and func
tions. The Queen's senate is a purely academic body and is composed
of the teaching staff. The Toronto senate is a large administrative
body, composed in part of members of the teaching staff, in part of
elected, and in part of appointed members.
317

PRINCIPAL GRANT
class certificate and the matriculation standard of
Toronto University. He accompanied this with cer
tain regulations which would practically force aU
taking teachers' certificates into the courses of To
ronto University. This tendency was particularly
noticeable in the higher grades of certificates, and
especially in the useful "First-class Certificate,
Grade C," which was roughly equivalent to honour
matriculation, or the first year's work at coUege.
The new regulations prescribed the honour ma
triculation course of Toronto University for the
"First C." examination.
Hitherto Grant had agreed fairly well with the
department, although he considered that some of
its arrangements were unfair. The change stirred
him to protest, and a sharp correspondence took
place between him and the minister. In set terms
he demanded either "(1) the old system, (2) or that
the combined papers of the three universities be
accepted by the department, (3) or that university
standing shaU be taken as equivalent to depart
mental examinations, (4) or that a common ma
triculation be insisted upon at once." Mr. Ross
upheld the right of the department to set its own
standards. In a private letter to Grant the minister
spoke of his relations with the Toronto senate. " I
have thrust upon their attention the propriety of
adopting a common matriculation for aU the uni
versities of the province, but so far have not suc
ceeded in convincing the leading members of the
318

QUEEN'S AND THE PROVINCE
senate of the soundness of such a course. I believe,
however, I shall yet prevail. How soon, I can
not say." Grant's protests were sharply worded,
and he stung the minister by a remark that he
could have little real authority over the Toronto
University senate. Apparently of dehberate pur
pose, he embodied in one of these letters, an ener
getic protest against the assumption that the out
lying universities formed no part of the public
system of education. One remark which he made
was noteworthy. Mr. Ross had argued that Toronto
University should be taken as the standard because
of the extent to which the government was repre
sented on the senate. Grant was inclined to scoff at
this. " StiU, if it is held that the minister of educa
tion should be on our senate or our council, or that
the presence of some other gentlemen appointed by
the government, in addition to professors and elected
representatives of graduates from all parts of the
country, is needed as a guarantee that fit examiners
shaU be appointed, I am sure that the authorities
will cheerfuUy consider any reasonable proposal on
the subject."1 The correspondence was interrupted
by Grant's departure on his voyage round the world,
but during his absence a newspaper controversy was
carried on.
On Grant's return the controversy was resumed
in an altered and more public form. He regarded
1 This extract is taken from a draft letter in Grant's papers. The date
was March 3rd, 1888.
319

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Toronto University as the real obstructing force,
and, turned upon it. On February 15th, 1889, a
meeting of the university council was held, at
which he read a paper on the matriculation situa
tion. This was at once a strong plea for a common
and a higher matriculation standard, and a severe
arraignment of the Toronto University authorities.
" Let the universities," he said, "combine on think
ing out, preparing and conducting a matriculation
examination suited to this province. That surely is
the first step. Something or some one persistently
blocks the way. The public has a right to know
who and why. Success in taking the first step might
enable us to see our way further, say to a combined
primary or 'little-go' at the end of the second year.
I outlined this in private to our educational au
thorities four or five years ago. I now appeal to the
public."1 Toronto University remained silent, and Grant
spoke again to the university councU on May 27th.
Ontario, he declared, in this respect was "deplor
ably behind other countries." He despaired of con
certed action towards improvement on the part of
the universities, owing to the impracticable attitude
of Toronto. "I have come to the conclusion that
the plan advocated by Professor Dupuis in his ad
dress on University Day, 1886, is the one that we
1 This and the subsequent address were reported at some length in
the current Toronto newspapers. They were also published in broad
sheet form.
320

QUEEN'S AND THE PROVINCE
should test, viz., that instead of the present July
matriculation there should be a 'leaving' or final
examination for the high schools and coUegiate
institutes. This would mark the completion of the
school hfe of our boys and girls who do not intend
to take a coUege course. AU who pass this examina
tion would receive certificates equivalent in value
to that now marked by matriculation, and they
could become undergraduates of a university by
complying with its special regulations. Let me add
emphaticaUy that I would not advocate this plan if
the examining board were to consist only of the
regular educational machine. I speak of it with all
respect, but for his own sake and the sake of the
cause, the minister of education should avaU himself
of other forces. The board should consist principaUy
of representatives of the high schools and universi
ties and include men in whom the whole country
would have confidence. The members should re
ceive no remuneration beyond their traveUing ex
penses. Though appointed by the minister of edu
cation, they ought not to be dependent on him
for salary or promotion."
At the Toronto University commencement exer
cises on June 7th, the vice-chancellor, Mr. Mulock,
answered Grant's charges with great heat. Some of
his references to the principal were exceedingly
bitter and personal. His objection to the proposals
was singular. " What means this scheme ? " he
asked. " It is simply a proposition to place under
321

PRINCIPAL GRANT
denominational control at once a large portion of
the public school system of Ontario, with the pros
pect of extending that control until the whole
system shaU have passed beyond the reach of the
people's responsible representatives and become an
element of discord among our people to the de
struction of the whole system."
These animadversions referred to Grant's earher
suggestion of common university action. Of the
scheme for a leaving examination, Mr. Mulock
spoke more respectfuUy, claiming, however, that it
was not novel, and insisting that in the framing of
it the outlying universities must have no part.1
Grant retorted effectively that denominational theo
logical coUeges hke St. Michael's, Knox, and Wyc
liffe were represented on the Toronto senate.
The heat of the dispute moderated, and Grant
and Mulock soon were in friendly communication.
In April, 1890, the Toronto senate fixed the ma
triculation curriculum for the ensuing quinquennial
period, and the outlying universities were invited
to send representatives to a conference on the sub
ject. The meeting was, on the whole, pleasant, and
some attention was paid to the representations
made by the other universities, although one re
commendation made by the gathering was rejected
by the Toronto senate, which passed upon the
scheme drawn up in the conference. Toronto, since
1 The text of this address may be found in the Globe and Mail of
June 8th, 1889.
322

QUEEN'S AND THE PROVINCE
then, has shown a disposition to consult the other
universities on this matter. The idea of a leaving
examination took hold. The minister pressed it with
vigour, and, in 1891, the project was accompUshed;
pass matriculation was represented by the junior
leaving, honour matriculation and the "First C."
certificate by the senior leaving. The difficulty of the
papers was somewhat increased and the minimum
percentage was raised to thirty-three and a tliird
per cent. In the same year the old central commit
tee of examiners was replaced by what was known
as the joint board, composed of representatives of
Toronto University and the education department.
Mr. Ross was disposed to keep the nomination of
the entire board in his own hands and to exercise
this patronage so as to give representation to the
outlying universities. The friends of Toronto Uni
versity, led by Mr. Edward Blake, succeeded in
overbearing him on this point. The joint board,
however, in appointing examiners, gave places to
Professors Dupuis and Fletcher, and later, in 1893,
Professor Knight was added. Thus Grant attained
his aim, improvement of the matriculation standard,
and recognition of Queen's in regard to it. Later,
in 1897, the joint board was replaced by the educa
tional councU for conducting examinations. Grant
seems to have hoped that this councU would be
given functions which would make it a strong
advisory body, such as he had favoured from the
first. Had such a board been formed he would have
323

PRINCIPAL GRANT
been wiUing to serve on it. Mr. Ross, however,
limited the powers of the councU to appointing
examiners and drawing up papers, and although
members of the staff of Queen's have served on it,
Grant himself was not disposed to become part of
the machine for conducting examinations and re
cording percentages. He never was fuUy satisfied
with the matriculation standard, and in his later
years was critical of the disposition of University
College and Victoria College to admit unmatricu-
lated students to their first year classes, counting
the passing of the examinations in those classes
as "senior matriculation." The administration of
Queen's became increasingly stringent in the mat
ter of unmatriculated students. In the session of
1902-3, out of a total attendance of four hundred and
ninety-four in arts, only nine were non-matriculated
students proceeding to a degree. During the same
session about forty per cent, of the first year stu
dents at University CoUege had not matriculated.1
During these years Queen's remodelled her cur
riculum, estabhshing a number of strong honour
courses, and Grant, without much difficulty, in
duced the department to recognize these courses as
conferring "specialist standing."2 This opened the
1See pp. 9-11 of Dr. John Seath's presidential address, "Some
Needed Educational Reforms," at the 1903 convention of the Ontario
Educational Association.
2 The secondary schools of Ontario are virtually in the hands of
teachers who are ranked as specially qualified in certain departments
by virtue of having taken university honour courses.
324

QUEEN'S AND THE PROVINCE
way into the teaching vocation, and the number of
Queen's graduates in the high schools and coUegiate
institutes increased rapidly. The hold of Queen's on
the teachers of the province was greatly strength
ened by the institution in 1890-1 of the "extra
mural " courses. By this device persons who cannot
attend are enabled to prosecute studies on the lines
foUowed by the students in the arts faculty. Topics
for essays are prescribed, books are recommended,
and the essays submitted are corrected and returned.
In this way guidance is given in a course of home
reading covering the college curriculum. Many stu
dents so prepared have competed successfuUy at
the regular university examinations and have at
tained to degrees. This expedient appeals strongly
to teachers who cannot abandon their work, and
has given Queen's an additional constituency. The
university authorities scrutinize each case, making
the extension of the privUege an act of grace. A
large proportion of those who begin their studies
extra-muraUy, find their enthusiasm so roused that
the last two or even three years of their course are
spent within the walls of the university.
Grant never altered in his behef that a board of
experts with a strong permanent head was to be
preferred to a minister of education identified with
party conflicts. " I stUl think," he wrote to Mowat,
in 1886, "that the appointment of a minister of
education was, in the circumstances of this pro
vince, a retrograde step ; and that a non-pohtical 325

PRINCIPAL GRANT
superintendent, with a council of educational repre
sentatives would be best for the province."
Thirteen years later, in April, 1899, he gave his
views to the Hon. G. W. Ross : — ¦
" I read in yesterday's Globe the report of Pro
fessor Robertson's address, of the discussion which
foUowed, and the motion adopted, and after think
ing it aU over, I resolved to write you my views,
and to take the liberty of offering one or two
suggestions. " It is evident that, so far as our secondary edu
cation is concerned, there is a good deal of general
unrest, arising, it seems to me, from the fact that
our system has not yet found its centre of gravity.
This has now found expression, and as nothing can
be done at the teachers' convention but simply ex
press the discontent, crude remedies are hkely to
be suggested, the adoption of any of which would
only aggravate matters. In these circumstances,
would it not be wise for the department to consult
with the most experienced educationists regarding
the fundamental principles which should regulate
our system of secondary schools ? I was glad to
learn from you that you favoured the plan of a
consultative board, to be called into existence by
legislative action. Such a board would be useful or
injurious to education according to its personnel
You might find it a great assistance, or only an
addition to your burdens and to the dead weight of
the system which at present is apparently felt to be
326

QUEEN'S AND THE PROVINCE
oppressive. You wiU never get the right kind of
board by the adoption of the rep. by pop. principle,1
or even by taking the same number of men from
each of the universities of the province. You need
the wisest men, no matter where they come from.
And before attempting to caU such a board into
existence by legislative action, why not take the
initiative yourself and invite the universities to send
representatives to discuss with you and the high
school inspectors and any other experts connected
with the department, the questions which are now
uppermost in the minds of aU ? I mean such ques
tions as the foUowing : —
" 1. Should there be a uniform curriculum for
aU high school pupils ?
" 2. If not, how far should the common curricu
lum extend, or what should it cover ?
" 3. What should be the course for pupils whose
education is not hkely to go beyond what is fur
nished by the high schools?
"4. What is the right curriculum for teachers,
and how much of it should be uniform, and what
options might be aUowed ?
" 5. How far should intending teachers and ma
triculants have the same course ?
" 6. What is the best curriculum for matriculation?
"7. On what principles should a consultative
board be constituted ? "

1 A reference to the " Representation by Population " controversy
which, previous to confederation, was long an issue in Canadian politics.
327

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Secondary education always interested him. In
June, 1899, in a letter to the Hon. G. W. Ross, he
gave his later views on some aspects of high school
work : —
" I promised to place before you, when we should
meet at the General Assembly, some definite pro
posals regarding an alternative professional qualifi
cation for teaching in Ontario high schools. As you
could not be with us, aUow me to put my views
before you in writing.
" Our aim is to get our very best men into the
teaching profession, as a good system of education
is that which attracts to it the best teachers. Now,
admitting that the Normal CoUege1 does good work,
the question arises, should it be the only door ? It
seems to me that there are two classes of men who
on the average are better material than even that
which finds its way to the Normal CoUege, after
getting speciahst qualifications at the universities,
and that the present inflexible rule should be re
laxed in the cases of these.
"1. Those who, after graduating with honours,
return to the university for post-graduate study
and tutorial or feUowship work. Such men are more
matured in thought and get much more practice
in teaching than those who take a year at Hamil
ton. But, to give the Normal CoUege the advantage,
it might be weU to make a two years' term of suc-
1 An institution established by the government at Hamilton to give
professional training to teachers in secondary schools.
328

QUEEN'S AND THE PROVINCE
cessful teaching of tutorial classes requisite as an
alternative for the year at Hamilton. If necessary,
an examination on the text-books on methods
might be added, though I attach no importance
to it.
" 2. Those who, after graduating with honours
here, take a post-graduate course of at least two
years in a British or European university. Such a
course gives them a culture and width of view
most desirable in our teachers. An examination on
methods might also be prescribed in their case. I
would willingly add to the foreign universities,
those of Harvard, CorneU, Clark, Johns Hopkins,
Chicago, but it would not do to discriminate.
" With regard to the other subject on which we
spoke, a Normal CoUege for eastern Ontario, I
think that it would reheve the pressure of numbers
at HamUton, and that the cost would be compara
tively smaU. It seems to me that it is a good thing
for a coUegiate institute to have a few students try
their prentice hand at teaching, but not good to
have many. I find that Principal Ellis1 agrees with
me on this point. Between our tutorial classes and
the institute, we could give to about thirty much
more practical work than is now given at Hamil
ton, and the theoretical could be taken in hand by
one professor of the science of education, in addi
tion to our present philosophical course."
As early as 1884 Grant was revolving plans for
1 Principal of the Kingston Collegiate Institute.
329

PRINCIPAL GRANT
estabhshing some form of a school of science in con
nection with Queen's. One of his aims was to pro
mote close relations between the university and the
general pubhc ; Sir William Mulock, who was en
gaged in somewhat similar efforts in connection
with Toronto University, has borne testimony to
the aid which he received from the principal of
Queen's in breaking up the old aloofness of higher
education. In the teaching of science, more especi
aUy of applied science, Grant saw peculiar oppor
tunities for work of this nature. Aid for that pur
pose he was determined must come in part from
the government. He was a graduate of a university
maintained by church contributions, by private
beneficence and by public aid. He was principal of
a university which from her founding had taken the
position that an institution which is rendering pubhc
service deserves pubhc support. The scheme of uni
versity federation was an offer to denominational
coUeges that if they would actuaUy curtail their
teaching of secular subjects, thrust somewhat more
prominently forward their denominational side, and
move to the Queen's Park in Toronto, a measure of
government aid would be given them. Queen's re
fused to accept the offer, because she could not
abandon Kingston. Grant's unvarying contention
was that some countervailing advantages should be
given to Queen's, partly because of her inherent
claims as an institution which, at no expense to
the public, provided a respectable proportion of the
330

QUEEN'S AND THE PROVINCE
higher education of the province, partly because of
the claims of eastern Ontario, whose educational in
terests he was gradually centring in Kingston. He
was ready to prove that the teaching of arts sub
jects involved no denominational propaganda. But
the escape from the infliction of an Established
Church had made so deep an impression on the
mind of the province that a deep antipathy pre
vailed to granting aid to educational institutions
connected with rehgious denominations, however
slight the tie, and however great the gratuitous
service which they rendered to the public. Grant „
pointed out that the same objection did not exist in
the case of aid to denominational hospitals, but he
never convinced the Ontario government that it
could venture upon direct subventions to an arts
coUege which in 1902 granted two-fifths of the
academic degrees won in the province. He never
yielded the point, but turned the weight of his at
tack to the gaining of pubhc aid for the teaching
of science, a division of knowledge in which no sus
picion of denominational bias could be entertained.
At the same time he was resolute to avoid sub
jection of the university to political or financial in
fluences. " You need not be afraid," he wrote to his
son in November, 1900, " of our putting our necks
under the yoke of government, as Toronto is, or
under the yoke of millionaires, as McGill is.1 If the
1 On one occasion Grant attended the closing exercises at McGill
University shortly after a series of magnificent benefactions to that
331

PRINCIPAL GRANT
government offered miUions in order to rule or con
trol us, we would laugh at them. It must be as in
Britain, and as they have done with Upper Canada
College, recognizing that an independent board is
better than a government for exercising patronage
and managing the affairs of an educational institu
tion. You are on a wrong scent altogether in chas
ing 'government control.' As Betsey Prig said to
Sairey Gamp, ' there ain't no sich a person,' so far
as we are concerned."
ChanceUor NeUes, while working for the scheme
of consolidation which suited Victoria, found Grant
meditating the foundation of a school of science at
Kingston. A local grievance aided him in his efforts.
About ten years before, Mr. Mowat's government
had committed itself to a promise that a normal
school for eastern Ontario should be erected in
Kingston. A site was procured, but the city of
Ottawa asserted its claim to the institution and the
promise was broken, to the anger of Kingston,
which revenged itself by electing an opponent of
the Mowat government. This fact gave a leverage
to the demand that some form of provincial edu-

institution had been begun by Mr. Redpath and Sir William Macdonald.
Several of the speakers mentioned these, and one in particular sneered
at the comparatively small resources of Queen's. This irritated Grant,
and when his turn to speak came, his retort was ready. "We must
all," he said, with great outward urbanity, " congratulate McGill upon
these large additions to her revenue. Especially noteworthy is the man
ner in which, following the precept of the great apostle of culture, she
has drawn them so exclusively from ' sweetness and smoke.' "
332

QUEEN'S AND THE PROVINCE
cational institution be established in the city. In
1885, when the federation scheme was announced, a
movement was set on foot in Kingston to demand
a school of agriculture and practical science for the
city, partly to give Queen's benefits analogous to
those given to Victoria, partly to satisfy the city's
claims, and partly to assist in the development of
the country adjacent to Kingston. In June of 1885
the project took definite form. The school was to be
styled the CoUege of Practical Science and Agri
culture for Eastern Ontario, and it was stated in
the prospectus that the intention was to affiliate
the institution with Queen's University.
In March, 1887, when the Methodist Church had
decided that Victoria should move to Toronto, a
number of Kingston residents presented to the gov
ernment a memorandum demanding aid for a faculty
or school of apphed science for Queen's. In this
document it was stated that "the mining interests
of this (the eastern) section are daily becoming
more important," and the fact was cited that eleven
counties and five cities and towns in the vicinity
had passed resolutions asking the legislature to
estabhsh such a school in connection with Queen's.
This proposal was recognized at the time to be a
demand that Queen's should be compensated for
the advantages given to the other universities. For
instance, Mr. WiUiam Houston, then librarian of
the Ontario legislature, wrote in February, 1887,
to Principal Grant, to the effect that many mem-
333

PRINCIPAL GRANT
bers of the legislature regarded the estabhshment
of such a school at Kingston with favour, but held
that it must be regarded as " a settlement of the
claims of Queen's for provincial aid, in consideration
of the privilege accorded to Victoria." No action,
however, was taken by the government. In 1888 a
step forward was made in securing the building by
private beneficence of the Carruthers Science HaU.
This was not a large building, but it was weU plan
ned, and it proved exceedingly useful in relieving
the over-crowding of the main building, which by
, this time was excessive.1 In 1889 apian for securing
Dominion aid was broached, the idea being to estab
lish a "Bureau of Mines and Mining" in connection
with the Geological Survey, and to found at King
ston a school of mining in connection with it.
In 1892, the Hon. WUham Harty, a supporter
of Sir Ohver Mowat, was elected member for
Kingston. Mr. Harty had been active in the agita
tion, and he now pressed the case strongly. A
school of practical science had been built up in
connection with Toronto University, and there was
great reluctance to duphcate this institution. The
government, however, intimated that aid might be
given to an institution separate from Queen's and
doing work not covered in Toronto University.
Grant consulted Dr. W. L. Goodwin, the professor
of chemistry. The professor pointed out that the
1 There were over four hundred students enrolled in 1890-1, when
the hall was first used.
334

QUEEN'S AND THE PROVINCE
School of Practical Science had no equipment for
giving instruction in mining, and that no graduates
in mining engineering were recorded in the Toronto
calendar. A school of mining was accordingly pro
posed and the government promised to aid it. The
people of Kingston invited representatives from all
the counties in eastern Ontario to meet in August,
1892, in Kingston. At the meeting hearty support
was given to the scheme, but a division of opinion
showed itself, some of the counties whose interests
were agricultural expressing a desire to have a
dairy school added to the governmental institu
tions estabhshed at Kingston. Provision for in
struction in agriculture accordingly made part of
the project. Energetic local support was given.
The city councU set aside for the dairy school a
property worth from twenty-five to thirty thousand
doUars, whUe the citizens subscribed money freely
to the school of mining. In 1901, Mr. Harty told
his coUeagues in the cabinet that the city had pro
vided fuUy thirty-five thousand dollars in cash for
the school.
The government aid which was first bestowed in
1893, amounted to six thousand dollars a year, of
which five thousand doUars were for the school of
mining, and one thousand doUars for the dairy
school. Negotiations with the government were
difficult. Sir Ohver Mowat was insistent upon the
careful avoidance of aU appearance of duplicating
any part of the work of the School of Practical
335

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Science at Toronto. He also vetoed all mention of
the contemplated affiliation with Queen's, though
suggesting that this could be effected later. His
attitude is shown in a letter which he wrote to
Grant on October 15th, 1892: "On consideration,
and for parliamentary reasons, and perhaps others,
I should like the contemplated school to be called
for the present the School of Mining and Agricul
ture; and I should advise also that the instrument
for incorporation should not provide for affiliation
with Queen's College, otherwise we might seem to
the House, and to others, to be endowing Queen's
CoUege, or a department in Queen's CoUege. Affil
iation of the school to the coUege can come later, if
this should hereafter be deemed expedient and ap
proved of by yourself and those interested in the
school." Sir Oliver Mowat scrutinized the preliminary
arrangements with great minuteness; he insisted
on the titles for the professors being chosen with a
view to suggesting that mining alone would be
taught. "In your printed paper signed by the chair
man of the board of governors, you describe some
of the teaching staff in terms implying that we are
assisting a school of practical science generaUy,
which we cannot do. Thus, your list contains 'a
professor of apphed chemistry,' * a demonstrator of
analytical chemistry,' and ' a lecturer on applied
physics.' The minister of education suggests that
instead of a professor of apphed chemistry you
336

QUEEN'S AND THE PROVINCE
might have a professor of mineralogy, withdrawing
that subject from the lecturer on assaying and
metallurgy; that you might add to your description
of demonstrator of analytical chemistry, ' as applied
to mining and agriculture,' and that instead of a
lecturer on apphed physics, you might have a lec
turer on mining engineering." Sir Oliver, in the
same letter, again insisted on the elimination of the
statement that the school would be affiliated with
Queen's. This was inserted in the draft of the
announcement, but the premier declared that it
was "expedient to avoid" such a statement.
The new institution was started in 1893. The
dairy school was planned on a modest scale, and has
mainly done practical work; later the provincial
minister of agriculture established a similar school
at Strathroy, in the western peninsula of Ontario,
the authorities of Queen's taking thi_ as a compli
ment to the scheme of local instruction which they
had devised. The School of Mining proved a vigor
ous institution from the first, and under Grant's
leadership, and with the enthusiastic work which
he knew how to ehcit from his assistants, it was
made the nucleus for the school of apphed science
for which he had been planning. The affiliation
which the premier had insisted on delaying came in
1897, and later stiU the school, while retaining its
autonomy, became the faculty of practical science
of the university. The arrangement made was that
it should rent from the university the Carruthers337

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Science Hall. A year or two later a government
grant was obtained for a mining laboratory, in
which specimens of ore were assayed. There was
much mining activity in the province, alike in
eastern and in north-western Ontario, at this period,
and the school at once entered into close relations
with the practical miners. From the start the at
tendance was good, and it increased rapidly.
* As soon as the school was fairly under way pro
vision was made for cognate departments. In 1894
a faculty of applied science was created, with Pro
fessor Dupuis as dean. A mechanical laboratory
was erected, apparatus was procured, and gradu
aUy the new dean was able to show a curriculum
which included surveying, civU engineering, and
electrical engineering. The work was carried on un
der great difficulties owing to the smallness of the
means available. The utmost economy was prac
tised. The work of the various faculties was fitted
together with such nicety that not the slightest dup
lication of effort or expenditure occurred. Medical
students received their training in three buildings
— their own, the arts building, and the School of
Mining. The mining students attended lectures in
the arts building. Apparatus was procured in a meas
ure by inducing large manufacturing firms to make
gifts of machinery. " Its governors and professors
have begged nearly all its equipment," Mr. Harty
said in 1901. Grant's superb skiU as an administrator
never showed to greater advantage than during
338

QUEEN'S AND THE PROVINCE
these high-pressure years when the college was ex
panding into the many-sided university. Through
out he was explicit as to his purpose in starting
the School of Mining. " I had to master a new de
partment of work," he wrote to Sir Oliver Mowat
in 1895, " and interest friends all over the country
in the new project. Success in one department, I
felt, might eventually broaden it into a school of
practical science."
During 1894 and 1895, the School of Mining
carried on a controversy with the Ontario govern
ment which brought out the difficulties in the way
of getting government aid for such a faculty as
Grant was planning. It resulted in Grant's retire
ment from the board of governors of the school,
after a sharp correspondence with the premier.
The circumstances attending the starting of the
school had led its founders to regard the subject
of mining as made over to them in the provincial
educational system, and they made particular efforts
to get in touch with the mining interests of north
ern and north-western Ontario. In 1894, however,
the Ontario government estabhshed a department
of mining in the School of Practical Science in
Toronto. This was announced under circumstances
which caused great annoyance to the Kingston
authorities. The School of Mining, in pursuance of
its pohcy of keeping in touch with the practical
miners, in March, 1894, opened a "prospectors'
class " in Marmora, a mining centre fifty or sixty
339

PRINCIPAL GRANT
miles west of Kingston. A smaU fee was charged,
which made the extension work almost self-sup
porting. They were arranging to open another at
Sudbury, and were contemplating the estabhsh
ment of others still further west, when they learned
that the government had suddenly decided to send
a professor of the Toronto school to open free pros
pectors' classes on the plan which the Kingston
school had initiated. To the protests of Grant and
the board of governors the reply was made that the
School of Mining was intended to meet the needs
of eastern Ontario alone, and that it had all along
been the intention of the government to provide
for the teaching of mining in Toronto. Later on
this was expanded into the statement that the plan
of the government was to have the principal min
ing school at Toronto, with subsidiary schools, for
practical rather than theoretical work, at local cen
tres such as Kingston, and possibly Port Arthur.
Grant availed himself of the opening thus afforded.
"But why it should be thought unreasonable to
have two schools of practical science, yet reasonable
to have three mining schools, I cannot understand."
The controversy dragged for a reason which is worth
noting. In 1894 a provincial general election took
place. Grant supported the government, taking the
ground that the honesty and administrative skUl of
the premier merited another term of office. " On
tario cannot afford to dismiss Sir Oliver Mowat,"
was the way he put it, and the phrase did the
340

QUEEN'S AND THE PROVINCE
Liberals good service as their motto for the cam
paign. In Kingston, Mr. Harty, a member of the
cabinet, and a strong supporter of the School of
Mining, was defeated; but the seat was declared
vacant and he succeeded in the by-election which
ensued. "I wish to caU your attention," Grant
wrote to Sir Oliver in his final letter of May 15th,
1895, "to the fact that the board, since sending
that protest (on May 9th, 1894) has not had the
matter before it, and this for most honourable rea
sons. As the general election was to be held soon
afterwards, it would have been improper to press
the government. The board consists of men of both
pohtical parties, and pohtical capital might have
been made out of local feeling. When the Hon.
Mr. Harty was defeated, any reference to the point
in dispute would have been regarded as pressure.
Therefore, when you and the Hon. Mr. Ross
visited Kingston last, I — though at the time act
ing-chairman, in consequence of the absence of the
chairman from Canada — and feeling that the action
of the government with regard to the school was
incomprehensible — did not say one word on the
matter. I felt that it should be decided on its merits
and not in the shghtest degree by local feehng.
When the Hon. Mr. Harty was elected by a ma
jority that guaranteed the seat, and the government
was in no danger, the time had come to bring our
case before the government and I therefore wrote
the letter of January 31st." 341

PRINCIPAL GRANT
In the conclusion of his letter Grant announced
his intention of retiring from the board of govern
ors. " But, if the government is not willing to take
part in what is reaUy the legitimate development of
a school which owes its origin to the government's
policy, if it is not yet prepared to see in Ontario, at
Kingston, a school like that of Houghton or of
Freiburg, then the Kingston School of Mining can
only be what our neighbours graphicaUy term 'a
one-horse affair,' subsidiary to a central department
of mining in the Toronto school. I can have noth
ing to do with such an affair. When I accepted the
principalship of Queen's, it was with the determina
tion to make it at least equal to Toronto Univer
sity, for I have no faith in second-rate universities
or schools. With the aid of generous and public-
spirited friends of higher education, I have suc
ceeded, and the province is the richer for our efforts
and sacrifices. I must extend the same principle of
action to any school with which I am connected."
Grant accordingly withdrew from the close asso
ciation which he had maintained with the affairs of
the School of Mining.
It was five years before the application to the
government was repeated. These were years of
great activity and of a prosperity that was almost
dangerous, for the attendance and the demands for
accommodation increased more rapidly than the
income. The total attendance went up from four
hundred and fifty-six in 1894, to six hundred and
342

QUEEN'S AND THE PROVINCE
thirty-three in 1899.1 The heaviest increases were in
the faculties of medicine and practical science. The
revenue of Queen's CoUege, which in 1899 had to
provide for three hundred and thirty-seven arts
students in attendance, and to direct the work of
one hundred and twelve extra-murals, was forty-
two thousand dollars. In that year it became abso
lutely necessary to procure additional buildings and
equipment ; Grant reported to the trustees that the
only alternative was a restriction of attendance. A
double campaign was set on foot. The university
authorities approached the city of Kingston with a
request for a direct municipal grant of fifty thou
sand doUars for the erection of a new arts building.
Simultaneously the School of Mining asked the
government for material increases to the aid en
joyed, which by this time had been increased to
about ten thousand dollars a year.
Many years before an Act had been passed by the
Ontario legislature, aUowing municipahties to vote
grants of money to Toronto University. An Act was
now procured extending the privilege to other uni
versities. The chanceUor submitted to the university
council a pamphlet on the subject of college accom
modation, Grant addressed the city council, and the
staff and graduates of the university aided with great
1 AVhen Grant came to Kingston, Queen's had a staff of six or eight
professors, her students numbered eighty, and the university expendi
ture stood at sixteen thousand dollars. Twenty-five years later tlie
staff numbered fifty, the revenue stood at seventy-eight thousand
dollars, and the students exceeded eight hundred. 34:}

PRINCIPAL GRANT
zeal. A by-law voting the money was submitted to
the ratepayers, and these, on October 16th, 1900,
passed it by an overwhelming majority. The inci
dent is altogether unique in the history of education
in Canada. Immediately afterwards the authorities
of the School of Mining, led by the Hon. WiUiam
Harty, pressed upon the government of Ontario —
now under the premiership of the Hon. George
W. Ross — the claims of their institution. In March,
1901, the government decided to assist yet further
a school which had done so weU with the means
so far allowed it. It granted one hundred thousand
doUars for new buildings for the school, and in
creased the annual grant by rather more than ten
thousand dollars. At the same time a grant of two
hundred thousand doUars was made for the erection
of an additional science building for Toronto Uni
versity, and the policy of voting considerable sums
in aid of the revenues of that institution was em
barked upon by the provincial government.
The long-delayed expansion came. On the field
which Grant had procured twenty years before
were erected the new buildings of which there had
been such acute need. Constructed of solid lime
stone, all were exceptionaUy weU designed, and
with their completion the university at last had
sufficient class-room and laboratory accommoda
tion. Simultaneously the professors of the medical
faculty subscribed ten thousand doUars for the pur
pose of adding a third storey to their building.
344

QUEEN'S AND THE PROVINCE
The expansion reached its climax with the rais
ing of money for Grant Hall. The old Convocation
HaU had become inadequate; for years it had been
necessary to use the municipal buildings for the
more important university ceremonies. The success
of the appeal to Kingston was an inducement to
ask the adjacent county of Frontenac for a "bonus"
of twenty thousand doUars to erect such a hall. The
county had been greatly benefited by the presence
of Queen's, and it was hoped that it could be in
duced to vote the sum. An active canvass was
instituted, and though the principal himself was
incapacitated by illness, professors and graduates
spoke at public meetings aU over the county. The
farmers proved less accessible to argument than the
citizens, artd when the vote was polled the by-law
was heavUy defeated. In some of the more remote
portions of the county the old-time antipathy to
learning manifested itself; at one meeting the
speakers presenting the university's case were asked
by a ratepayer — a school trustee — whether it was
not true that " education and immorality were
inseparably connected." Grant had been engaged
shortly before this in his hand-to-hand battle with
the prohibitionists, and the friends of the university
were assured by one of their canvassers that much
of the active opposition to the vote was due to his
action in this matter.
Many of the students attending Queen's were
Frontenac men. They were greatly disappointed at
345

PRINCIPAL GRANT
the defeat, and, on the day foUowing the vote, the
undergraduates, led by students from the county,
determined that they would raise the money. They
themselves subscribed, they canvassed their friends,
and soon had a respectable sum pledged. The move
ment spread, graduates and friends in other places
took it up, and in a very short time thirty-five
thousand doUars had been promised. The movement
remained under the direction of the undergraduate
students. They determined to name the new struc
ture, the home and centre of the university, "Grant
Hall." The principal was disposed to retain the name
Frontenac HaU, which he had selected. " But, sir,"
with polite decision said the leader of a student dep
utation, " if we build the haU surely we can name
it ! " The incident gave him intense pleasure. He
was keenly sensitive to the comphment paid him,
and was even more delighted at the proof of the
loyalty and self-reliance shown by the students. It
was also a great rehef to find that the university at
last had other servants who could raise money for
her necessities. " I didn't raise a cent of it," he ex
ultantly said, with the familiar rising inflection.
" Hitherto when I wanted money I had to get it
myself. Now it's done for me ! "

346

CHAPTER XIX
CANADIAN POLITICS
GRANT insisted on the right to be a pubhcist
as well as a churchman ; few things roused
him to hotter resentment than the theory that
clergymen should take no part in pubhc affairs.
He was the despair, however, of party men. "Grant
a politician ? Heaven forbid ! " exclaimed an old
friend, whose service to one particular organization
was life-long in its faithfulness. " He had no con
tinuity of pohcy; heaven only knows where he
would have led a party ! " His detachment from
party, as weU as from partisan considerations, was
absolute. No other considerable pubhc man in Can
ada has foUowed fixed principles with more com
plete indifference to their effect upon the fortunes
of existing organizations. To men associated with
the daUy incidents of political management, his cool
readiness to abandon the party which had ceased
to further his fundamental principles, was deeply
puzzling. Had he been a professed " independent "
this would have been expected. But the baffling
thing was that Grant, with his intense desire to
effect things, instead of adopting the attitude of
judicial balance usual in the independent, made
himself a powerful ally of the side which he judged
347

PRINCIPAL GRANT
for the moment to be most hkely to advance the
interests which he had at heart.
Speaking broadly, he was a Conservative from
confederation tiU 1893, and the Liberals held him in
marked disfavour. In 1893 he abandoned the party
to which he so long had been friendly ; his condem
nation of the successors to Sir John Macdonald's
cabinet had a great effect, and for the rest of his hfe
his influence told heavily on the side of the Laurier
government. This summary does not fuUy express
the peculiar footing he held in the pohtical world.
His business was to administer a university and to
help to manage a church, and he had httle to say
with regard to the ordinary incidents of pohtics. In
important questions he took an eager interest, and
it foUows that his political career is summed up in
a series of incursions. The practical pohtician was in
danger of forgetting him between crises, and, as he
seldom understood the fundamental principles upon
which with great consistency Grant based his action,
the practical politician nearly always was surprised
when the pungently- worded deliverance came from
Kingston. The impression grew that the principal
of Queen's was an uncertain quantity, and professed
politicians of the type whose aim is to reduce pub
lic affairs to an exact practice, had little liking for
the man whose habit of judging questions accord
ing to first principles was so embarrassing.1
1 Towards the end of Sir John Macdonald's life he and the principal
met at dinner at the house of the premier's brother-in-law, Professor
348

CANADIAN POLITICS
Above aU, his attitude was intensely individual.
In 1893, suggestions were made that he enter par
liament. They were sufficiently authoritative to
tempt him, and for some time he was uncertain.
He wrote to consult his brother in Scotland. He
also consulted his friend, Mr. J. H. Hofmeyer, the
leader of the Afrikander Bond in Cape Colony. Hof-
meyer's advice to him was to stay out of politics,
inasmuch as, once in them, he would be obliged to
put up with many things which would be hateful
to him. In December he wrote to his wife : —
" I am amused at your wishing me to answer
straight whether I am going to run for Kingston as
a McCarthyite. You ought to know me better than
that. No ; nor as a Laurierite nor a Thompsonite.
When I run, it wiU be as a Grantite. Not one of
the existing leaders would I dream of as my leader,
for one moment. And party spirit is too strong here
to accept or take any man who is not connected
with one of the two parties, or with some fad, such
as that of the P. P. A., or the Patrons of Industry,
or the Equal Righters, and I am even less a faddist
than a party man. My aim is to be one of the
guides of the people ; to stimulate them to inde-
Williamson. "How I wish, Principal Grant," said Sir John, "that
you would be a steady friend of mine. "
"Why, Sir John, I have always supported you when you were
right. "
The premier's eye twinkled, and he laid his hand upon the shoulder
of the principal : — "My dear man," he said, "I have no use for that
species of friendship."
349

PRINCIPAL GRANT
pendent judgment, honour and righteousness, and
I can do that work only by preserving my inde
pendence. So, there are ' the aces up my sleeve.' "
He preserved with equal care this detachment
from the ordinary incidents of political life, and his
right to speak when his interest was aroused. "A
newspaper, usually moderate in tone and fair to
opponents, accuses me of stepping outside the pale
of my proper functions to air my views on pubhc
affairs," he wrote in 1893 in his " Pohcy for Can
ada " articles. " Perhaps a reason ought to be given
to it and to those who sympathize with its position.
'Who are you?' said Queen Mary to John Knox,
'who presume to teU the sovereign and nobles of
the realm their duty?' 'A subject, born within the
same,' was the respectful and aU sufficient answer.
That was reason enough for any free man, for any
one who feels that public affairs belong to him as
one of the pubhc. I have always tried to act on
that principle, and my course was strengthened by
the revelations of 1891."
Grant's first guiding principle in Canadian poh
tics was nationahsm. The present generation has
entered upon an era of national unity, national
pride and national spirit to which the Canada of
1870 and 1880 was a stranger. Coming from a
province which was pecuharly self-contained, and
which held a grudge against confederation, com
ing into a province, which, while ambitious, was
self-centred and self-complacent, Grant held with
350

CANADIAN POLITICS
passionate energy to everything that would spread
a national spirit through the Dominion. For local
patriotism of the right sort he had full sympathy —
witness his care for the interests, economic as weU
as educational, of eastern Ontario. National issues,
however, were to him of supreme importance, and
he tested every situation by its effect upon the
rising unity of the larger Canada. Secondly, he was
devoted to efficiency, and efficiency for him to an
unusual extent meant economy. The circumstances
of his up-bringing and the painful management of
the affairs of Queen's combined to give him a hor
ror of waste. He detested the Canadian senate be
cause it not only was useless, but expensive. He
never became reconciled to a cabinet of thirteen or
fourteen members when he was convinced that haff
a dozen men could do the work. The spending of
money which was a real investment he highly ap
proved, as in the case of the Canadian Pacific bar
gain, and as in his advocacy of the removal of canal
toUs. Throughout his pubhc utterances runs this
strong sense of economy, in the larger meaning of
getting value for money spent, rather than in the
mere keeping down of expenses. Back of both char
acteristics lay his desire that pubhc policy should be
honest, just, and in accordance with the wiU and
purpose of God.
In May, 1894, he couched in emphatic terms his
belief in the need for honest administration. He
announced his determination to support the admin-
351

PRINCIPAL GRANT
istration of Sir Ohver Mowat in the general election
which was impending. "The one point that our
people everywhere must settle," he said, "is this:
Can we get administrators who are determined that
the commandment, ' Thou shalt not steal,' must be
observed ? TiU that is settled, it is useless to talk
about anything else. Provincial rights, school ques
tions, tariff reform, British connection, canals, cables,
railways — what is the use of discussing these if we
sink into being a nation of thieves ? That is what
we must become if we tolerate steahng in high
places, for what is done at the top is sure to per
meate to the bottom. Look at the revelations that
we have had since 1891 — corruption in so many
quarters that we wondered if there was a clean spot
anywhere ; the people of Quebec robbed that M.
Pacaud and his friends might have the joy of ex
ploiting what he termed a gold mine 1 The people
of all the provinces robbed that the robbers might
rule Canada ! "*
A further reason which influenced him in this
election was Sir Ohver Mowat's stand for British
connection, at that time fresh in the pubhc mind.
Writing to Mr. J. Castell Hopkins,2 he said :
"Had Sir Ohver Mowat been beaten this time,
his followers would have said that it was because
he had accepted knighthood, kicked out Elgin
1 Interview in the Globe, May 23rd, 1894.
2 Then a leader-writer on the Empire, the official Conservative
organ.
352

CANADIAN POLITICS
Myers,1 etc. We could not afford to have such a
man defeated at such a time."
For several years Grant's pohtics were influenced
by the importance which he attached to the com
pletion and success of the Canadian Pacific Rail
way. The National Pohcy he endured rather than
approved. His instinct was towards freedom of
trade, and he especiaUy desired to see encourage
ment given to trade with Britain. Up to 1887 he
was in favour of Sir John Macdonald's government,
but in that year he declared that "the National
Pohcy has won its last victory." He invariably
maintained that had the Liberals kept to their old
pohcy of economy and a revenue tariff they would
have won in 1891. It was their suicidal advocacy of
commercial union which defeated them, not the
strength of the National Pohcy.
In 1893 Grant formally abandoned the Conser
vative government, which he judged to have lost
its power of administration. The scandals of 1891
horrified him; his references to them were frequent,
and they seem to have impeUed him to resolve
to interest himself more in pubhc affairs. To the
revelations of dishonesty succeeded evidences of ad
ministrative paralysis. The years from 1890 to 1895
were gloomy and unsatisfactory. Canada seemed to
have come to a depressing stop in her development,
and the air of discouragement of the country was
1 A Liberal office-holder who was summarily dismissed by Sir Oliver
Mowat for expressing annexationist views.
353

PRINCIPAL GRANT
reflected in the feebleness of its government. Grant
had become acquainted with Mr. J. S. WUlison,
the editor of the Globe, and acquaintance deepened
into friendship. In the autumn of 1893, Mr. WUli
son proposed that Grant should write a series of
letters on "A Pohcy for Canada." He consented,
and in October and November of that year the
letters were published. They created a great stir,
partly because they were a declaration of hostility
by a man who had defended the Conservative policy
ever since confederation, and partly because of the
force and weight of the attack.
Economy was the first plank in his pohcy. "First,
a government that reaUy desires the interest of
Canada must, first, last, and all the time, stick
to the line of husbanding instead of wasting our
money. Money represents God's world, and he who
wastes this world wiU have a poor chance of the
next. Both parties would wilhngly put my first
plank in their platform, if they were absolved from
the necessity of being specific, but general profes
sions of retrenchment and reform are worthless.
Here is the cold fact, as the general manager of
the Bank of Montreal puts it: 'We have been
spending too much money.' National expenditure
has increased steadily since confederation, out of aU
proportion to our increase in population or avaU-
able wealth, and there is abundant proof that a
great deal of the money has been worse than
wasted. It is bad to throw good money away; but
354

CANADIAN POLITICS
when money is used, directly or indirectly, to cor
rupt the people from whom it is taken, it is infinitely
worse." The bad management of the Intercolonial,
the deficits in the post-office, and the corrupt bung
ling which marked the deepening of the St. Law
rence, were the three Ulustrations which he adduced.
"Now aU this is startling enough, but it is actuaUy
the fact that more has been written in the news
papers about a httle addition to Rideau HaU that
may never be made, than about the actual post-
office annual deficit, or the Galops Channel scandal.
How is it that our guardians should be so concerned
about the spile and so careless about the bung?
Some people are so economical that they seem to
think that we cannot afford a house for our gov
ernor-general, though they have hardly a word to
say about the seven or eight houses kept up for lieu
tenant-governors. I see no necessity for houses for
our lieutenant-governors, but an absolute necessity
for a good house and a good salary for the governor-
general. Our connection with Britain is indispens
able to our national existence, at any rate to the
free development of our national life and aspira
tions, and the governor-general is the hving hnk
that signifies and preserves that connection. The
difference between a first and second-class man
means a great deal to us. It may mean actual mil
lions. He is our only constitutional check against
possible maladministration for years. An appeal to
the sovereign people ought always to be in order,
355

PRINCIPAL GRANT
and that might be needed, especially when we mend
or end the senate, even though the administration
was sustained by a majority of the House of Com
mons. A first-class statesman would know whether
such an appeal should at any time be made. The
consequence of misjudging would faU so severely
on himself that a second-class man would never
take the risk. . . . As for houses for our lieutenant-
governors, a man with a salary of seven or eight
thousand dollars can easily rent a house, if he has
not one already in the provincial capital ; and then
less would be expected of him as regards that
preposterous expense caUed 'entertaining' than so
cial flunkydom now expects." Grant also protested
against " the excessive membership and semi-mem
bership of the cabinet," remarking that "the gov
ernment of the United States is carried on with
less than half our number." "Not only is the ex
pense considerable, but the freedom of parhament
is seriously weakened thereby. With us the cabinet
is simply a committee of parhament. Now every
one knows that committees have such power that
it is almost impossible to defeat any proposal they
make, and that the larger the committee the less
freedom the body appointing it wiU have. . . . The
present system of adding to the cabinet is wrong.
Permanent head clerks or commissioners who do
aU the real work of the departments are the kind of
men we ought to have, instead of fleeting and un
trained partisans."
356

CANADIAN POLITICS
Grant's second plank was "to give the people of
Canada freedom to make the most of themselves,
their country, and its resources. They are deprived
of that feehng on the plea that it is necessary to
raise a revenue and to foster certain native indus
tries. Of course a revenue must be raised, though,
as I have shown, not quite so large a one as we
have been spending." Of the oppressiveness of the
Canadian tariff he spoke in vigorous terms. He
criticized the policy of the opposition as stiU show
ing signs of the commercial union folly. The Con
servatives, he said, advocated their old policy. "The
other side advocates a tariff for revenue, with spe
cial consideration for Britain and the United States.
Neither proposal seems to be quite frank, nor the
best conceivable. . . . Why should Britain and the
States be bracketed together, as if entitled ahke to
special mention and special consideration? The first
is a free trade, the latter a protectionist country.
Now whUe it is easy to increase business with a
free trade country, because the matter is whoUy in
our own hands, and because monopolies cannot
exist where competitors can come in from other
countries and cut under, it is impossible to make
a general treaty with a protectionist country save
by discriminating against free trade countries. For
professed free traders to do anything like that ought
to be impossible. Again, national policy must aim
at arranging the cheapest and most perfect system
of exchange between our producers and their cus-
357

PRINCIPAL GRANT
tomers. Are the mass of those customers to be
found in the United States or the United King
dom? Clearly in the latter, for as long as the great
fertile plains to the south of Canada raise more than
enough for their population — and any one who has
ever seen them knows that wiU be for a long time
to come — their inhabitants must be exporters, and
can be but indifferent customers. . . . Both on com
mercial and political grounds our pohcy is to en
courage trade with the only country whose mar
kets are always open to us, and always hungry,
whose trade pohcy is steady, and in the prosperity
of whose people we are most interested, because
they are our feUow-subjects, and ready to stand
shoulder to shoulder with us in those supreme
crises which at times all nations are caUed on to
face. This pohcy is in our immediate and ultimate
interest. It might be put on commercial grounds
solely. But it is surely none the less attractive
because a proper sentiment for Britain is gratified
at the same time. When it is seen to be bound up
with our national aims and development it becomes
imperative. " There are, however, some people in Canada
who are more American than the Americans, and
whensoever a British or a Canadian pohcy is pro
pounded, they assume that the proposer is hostile
to the States."
Grant concluded his third letter with a personal
remark. The revelations of 1891, he said, had
358

CANADIAN POLITICS
strengthened his- conviction that all subjects of
the realm should take an interest in its affairs.
Those events, he said, " made me for the first time
in my life, ashamed of being a Canadian. Some
of our people may have forgotten those terrible
revelations. I can never forget them. We ourselves
are responsible for them. Our party spirit, our
selfishness, our locahsm, our inaction in pubhc hfe,
are at bottom the causes. In those summer months,
when every day unearthed some new villainy, I
determined to try to be truer to my country than
ever before, and to speak out my convictions
whenever fit opportunity was given me, calmly
and strongly, no matter what the consequences
might be. Should not every honest man join in
this resolution ? Let the issues of the past alone.
Let the dead bury their dead, and with the inspir-
' ing thought of Canada first in our hearts let us go
forward to make our good land one worth hving
for, or, if need be, worth dying for."
Grant's reference to the disclosures of 1891 adds
interest to a brief correspondence, which, early in
the year, passed between him and the Hon. Edward
Blake. Blake had withdrawn from the leadership of
the Liberal party, and had not yet gone to the
imperial parhament. It is evident that even before
the scandals were brought to light, Grant was
troubled by misgivings as to the position of the
country. " I feel that I am scarcely warranted in writing
359

PRINCIPAL GRANT
you a private letter, but my feelings as a Canadian,
anxious above everything else for the country, im
pel me. Last week I voted for the first time since
the Pacific scandal for Sir John Macdonald's gov
ernment, and I did so, not because I hked it, but
because I disliked more the proposed new policy of
the opposition. . . . Having read your paper of
February 6th every day since it was pubhshed with
ever-increasing admiration, I wish to ask you — wiU
you not give us your views as to what is that
future, fair and honest, dignified and serious, that
we should steer for? The people may not be pre
pared for it, but I submit that you should indicate
what we should work for. My only excuse in asking
you for this is that I, like yourself, have sacrificed
much for Canada. I may say that this week I re
fused an offer cabled to me from Edinburgh of a
hfe position infinitely more desirable than the one I
occupy. But I am a Canadian first and last, and
mean to share my country's fate, whatever it is."1
He went on to suggest that he himself should
write an open letter asking Blake to give his views
as to the true pohcy to be foUowed by Canada.
1The reference is to the pastorate of Established St. Stephen's
Church, Edinburgh. Several attempts were made at different periods
to induce him to return to Scotland. When Norman Macleod died,
there was talk of calling him to the Barony, but as one elder put it,
"The Barony could never accept a colonial." Later on, when North
Leith, one of the largest churches in Scotland, fell vacant, his friends
started an energetic canvass, news of which came to Grant's ears, and
which he promptly vetoed. Writing to Dr. Snodgrass on September
28th, 1877, he says : — " Charles writes me that I may have Partick at
360

CANADIAN POLITICS
Blake rephed, asking that he desist from his in
tention, and making it clear that he was resolved
to abstain from public hfe.
For fully a dozen years pubhc affairs were dis
turbed, in Ontario especiaUy, by a series of relig
ious difficulties which culminated in the Manitoba
Schools agitation and the downfall of the Conserva
tive government. In these, Grant bore a gradually
increasing share. In 1883 the Marmion controversy
created a smaU tempest in Ontario. Archbishop
Lynch, the leader of the Roman Catholics in the
province, objected to the choice of Scott's poem for
reading in the high schools. A rather ludicrously
bitter conflict arose, and Grant scoffed at the arch
bishop's scruples. In an address in which he referred
with humorous contempt to the uproar, he said
that he had given the poem to his son, aged nine,
"and the little fellow had the wickedness to like
it." From 1886 to 1894 in Ontario, the other side
were the aggressors. In the former year the ultra-
Protestant section of the Conservatives attacked
the Scripture readings prepared for the pubhc
schools and a distinctly factitious cry was raised for
"the whole Bible." For this Grant had no sym-
once, if I say the word, at five hundred and seventy pounds sterling
and a house. Do you know, the one temptation I had to accept it was
that I could then get on the colonial committee, and keep Mr. Muir
in his place. However, I overcame, by the grace of God, even that
temptation." Several offers were made him by congregations in the
United States, one with a salary attached of ten thousand dollars a
year, but while it cost him a pang to decline the offer from Scotland,
he did not for a moment listen to those from the foreigner.
361

PRINCIPAL GRANT
pathy, and he condemned the agitation, but took
little part in the controversy. He was a member of
the general committee of clergymen who were con
sulted by the education department, but did not
belong to the sub-committee which performed the
actual work of selection. As a matter of fact he
disapproved of the extremes to which the Ontario
government went in eliminating rehgious instruc
tion from the schools.
" By Bible instruction," he wrote in 1895, in
connection with the Manitoba Schools question,
" I do not mean, on the one hand, dogmatic teach
ing, nor, on the other hand, the mere reading of
passages from Scripture without note or comment,
such as we have in the public schools of Ontario.
A section of the London School Board wanted
the former, but they have sustained what is prac-
ticaUy a defeat, and, as I think, a deserved defeat,
at the hands of the Progressives. But the Pro
gressives are in favour of Bible instruction, and
there can be no instruction if neither questioning
nor notes and comments are allowed. ChUdren who
hear verses read as a fetich, wiU learn nothing of
the facts of the Bible, its history, geography, bio
graphies, or its literature. They may study every
literature intelligently except that which is at the
root of our own best language, hfe and hterature,
and the unintelhgent reading of portions of it is
an effective way of teaching them that the Bible
is not intended to be understood. How far this
362

CANADIAN POLITICS
Ontario farce of Bible instruction is responsible
for neglect of Bible reading in after life I shaU not
venture to say. I am only concerned now with
pointing out that the supposed difficulty of giving
rehgious instruction in schools is rather theoretical
than practical, so far as Protestants are concerned
at any rate. Of course, when people are in a state
of suspicion and irritation there is a difficulty. In
those circumstances all education is conducted at
a disadvantage. The moral is that there can be
no greater injury done to our schools than the
creation in the pubhc mind of either suspicion or
irritation."1 Grant's method of handling public questions was
admirably Ulustrated by his refusal to take part in
the Jesuits' Estates agitation, and in the Equal
Rights campaign which grew out of it, though
strongly urged to do so by his friend, D. J. Mac
donneU. In 1888 and 1889 Ontario was swept by a
wave of angry protest against the action of the
Quebec government in restoring to the Jesuits the
estates confiscated in 1760. The Mail was active in
stirring up indignation, and among the steps which it
took was the urging of various pubhc men, especiaUy
clergymen, to express their opinions on the subject.
Grant was one of those asked to speak, but his reply
was not encouraging to those who were trying to set
the heather on fire. In a brief letter which appeared
on February 13th, he explained that he was not as
1 The Globe, September 5th, 1895.
363

PRINCIPAL GRANT
yet sufficiently acquainted with the case to express
a final opinion. In any event, however, he was op
posed to the nature of the protest which was being
planned. "But, as far as I understand, it is pro
posed that a Protestant aUiance with pohtical ob
jects, should be formed. Whether such an aUiance
be caUed Dominion, Evangelical, or Protestant, its
object would be to array one corporate religious
vote against another. The effect of this would be
to divide the community into two hostile factions,
one Roman Cathohc, the other Protestant, and thus
to estabhsh in Canada a state of things that has
been the curse of Ireland. AU history teaches us to
dread ecclesiastical interference in the political re
gion, no matter by what high-sounding name the
ecclesiastical personage, court, or body is known 
Action must be taken by us as citizens, not as
members of this or that rehgious body. It is as
much the interest of the Roman Cathohc as of
the Episcopal, Methodist or Presbyterian citizen
that no political foUy or injustice shall be done in
Canada." Later, in March, he wrote a longer letter. He
had examined the issue with care, going to the
original documents, and he pointed out that the
Quebec legislature was within its rights in dispos
ing of the property under its control, that no op
position had been offered whUe the biU was before
the Quebec House, and that the Roman Cathohc
Church itself had a grievance in the giving of the
364

CANADIAN POLITICS
land to the Jesuit order. Of the latter body he
spoke in terms of strong condemnation. "In my
opinion," he wrote not long afterwards to Principal
Caven, "the question of constitutionality should be
decided in the courts; but behind the question of
the settlement of the estates is the far deeper ques
tion of Jesuitism legalized in Canada. It wiU, I
think, be a mistake not to recognize that many of
the one hundred and eighty-eight1 voted conscien
tiously. To brand them as all alike traitors and
slaves to Rome would be untrue, unjust to them
as well as bad policy."
When once the agitation had burned itself out,
Grant's reputation for wariness stood higher on ac
count of his refusal to aUy himself with the move
ment. It was not wariness in reahty, but his power
of looking through the clamour of the moment to
first principles. The demand that the Quebec legis
lature be over-ruled ran counter to the principles of
provincial autonomy and mutual forbearance, which
are numbered among the basic principles of Cana-
dianism. Grant saw this in the midst of a very bitter
and exciting agitation.2
In 1893 and 1894 the Equal Rights movement
passed into a bigoted and dangerous agitation, the
1 The reference is to the vote in the House of Commons, when inter
ference with the action of the Quebec government was refused on a
division of one hundred and eighty-eight to thirteen.
2 This reserve gave great offence to many strong Protestants. Grant
not long afterwards shared a seat in a train with a stranger. As they
365

PRINCIPAL GRANT
soul of which was the secret and oath-bound Pro
testant Protective Association, commonly known
as the P. P. A., which was imported from the United
States. For a time the attack made by this body on
the Ontario government looked serious, and Grant,
abandoning his reserve, spoke strongly against it.
His most important deliverance was a newspaper
interview.1 " There can be no doubt that Sir Ohver Mowat
stands now for the fair treatment of minorities, and
that is the only way to make possible a united
Canadian people. Some Protestants seem to be
scared now, and they wUl be ashamed of them
selves by and by. We Protestants used to be
fearless. We used to say that truth is great and
would prevail; that truth needed only a fair field
and no favour; but now some of us seem afraid of
the rustling of a leaf. It is fancied that one Roman
Catholic in a cabinet can bind half a dozen Protes
tants, and that a feeble minority can deprive us of
our liberties if they get their share of a number of
paltry offices. The forms that this scare takes are

drew near Kingston his companion discovered that he lived in the
town. "Do you know a man there called Principal Grant?"
"I do."
"A most overrated man, in my opinion. What do the people of
Kingston think of him ? "
"I think the people of Kingston estimate him at his real worth."
"I'm delighted to hear that ! I thought they would ! "
1 The Globe, May 23rd, 1894.
366

CANADIAN POLITICS
so extreme that it is impossible for the thing to
last any time."
" Surely," he said elsewhere in this utterance,
in discussing the position assumed by Mr. W. R.
Meredith, the leader of the opposition, "it is clear
that there can be no such thing as Conservatism in
Canada, in any sense of the word, that is not based
on a good understanding between our two great
rehgious denominations. Coquetting with such an
association, or even sUently accepting its aid, must
be fatal to him. It may be said that he is not
coquetting. No, but the receiver is as bad as the
thief. Such aUies must have their price, and they
are sure to act as a boomerang. I would hke to hear
from both leaders a distinct repudiation and denun
ciation of any organization that is based on the
proscription of any class of our people on rehgious
grounds. We need a union of aU good men in
Canada, and we dare not say to any man that he
must abandon the rehgion of his mother before he
can be expected to be treated as a citizen."
On another occasion Grant spoke even more
bluntly on the issue: "I know nothing but that it
is a secret society, and that its object is to proscribe
Roman Cathohcs. On both grounds I can have no
sympathy with it, except when it is received as a
protest against a supposed solid Roman Cathohc
vote. . . ."*

1 Quoted on page fourteen of a pamphlet, "P.P.A. in Ontario,"
issued as campaign material by tbe Liberals in 1894.
367

PRINCIPAL GRANT
The P.P.A. agitation had barely died down when
the Manitoba Schools issue plunged the whole
Dominion into a dangerous turmoU. The Globe
asked Grant to visit Manitoba and write for it a
series of articles on the situation, and he accepted
the commission. He went to the seat of the trouble
— this was his sixth visit to Winnipeg — and spent
several weeks in a careful examination of the situa
tion. His investigations included drives through
the rural districts, inspections of country school-
houses, visits to Mennonite and French-Canadian
half-breed settlements, and interviews with men of
every type and shade of opinion. The question,
dehcate at best, was complicated by pohtical con
siderations. Grant's own opinion was that both
sides were to blame. The Manitoba government,
he held, had shown great lack of consideration and
statesmanship in the details of its reorganization of
the pubhc school system; the Dominion govern
ment also had gone about the task of remedying
the grievance of the minority altogether in the
wrong spirit. For the Roman Cathohc minority he
felt great sympathy, and his earher letters were
devoted to an exposition of the need for tact, for
consideration, for careful adjustment of official ma
chinery to racial or rehgious pecuharities, and to a
trenchant exposure of the wanton roughness of the
Manitoba government in over-riding the feelings of
the Roman Catholic minority. Great as he con
sidered the grievance of the minority, he opposed
368

CANADIAN POLITICS
federal interference. "Of course the Roman Catho
lics have a grievance," he wrote in a private letter,
"but it is Manitoba that should remedy it." His
conclusion was an argument against the effort made
by the Conservative government to force Manitoba
to pass remedial legislation.1 This attitude naturaUy
annoyed both parties, and he was sharply attacked.
He left his letters to speak for themselves, and kept
out of the controversy. In January, 1896, he wrote
to Mr. Willison:—
" I have thought over your request that I should
write an open letter giving my views as to what
parhament should do with the Manitoba question,
and have decided that it would not be seemly for
me to do so. You are pleased to say that the public
attaches some importance to my judgment. But if
so, it is because I do not rush in without being
caUed, or offer advice too frequently. On the matter
in question, the people most concerned are not in a
mood to hsten to anything that does not suit their
abstract preconceptions or their local political inter
ests ; and the people generaUy have had all the light
on it that could be desired. If, when I went to Mani
toba representing the most important organ of pub
lic opinion in Ontario, the Tribune and Free Press
could only characterize my task as ' self-imposed,'
what would be said of a letter volunteered now?
Their characterization was pointless because untrue,
1 The letters appeared in the Globe of September 5th, 12th, 18th,
21st, 25th, and 28th, 1895.
369

PRINCIPAL GRANT
as weU as uncourteous to the Globe, but it would
have point now, and moderate men would have a
right to say, 'He has forgotten his independent
position, and by repeating himself now he shows
himself a partisan.' I would thus do harm and not
good. It is perfectly well known that on the matter
in debate Mr. Laurier and I are on the same plat
form, and that is enough, unless I take off my coat
and go into the fight."
The election of 1896 placed the Liberals in power,
and Mr. Laurier effected a settlement. Grant did
not regard it as conceding enough to the minority,
and in point of fact the Manitoba Roman Cathohcs
stiU chafe under the conditions imposed on them.
He accepted the arrangement, however, largely be
cause of the irreconcilable attitude of the Roman
Catholic hierarchy. "I do not regard Laurier's set
tlement as at aU a happy compromise," he wrote
to his son on February 21st, 1897 ; " but the atti
tude of Archbishop Langevin and his brother hot
heads in Quebec forces one to antagonize them.
Supporting them means supporting a narrow and
aggressive clericalism against the state."
An interesting side of Grant's public activities
was his long-continued fight against the exclusion
of the Chinese from Canada. As early as in the
Ocean to Ocean journey he had shown warm in
terest in and hking for the patient navvies whose
labours made possible the piercing of the Rockies.
He resented what he considered the unfairness of
370

CANADIAN POLITICS
shutting out all Chinamen, whether good or bad,
and in 1893-4-5, he carried on an energetic and
single-handed campaign against it.
"In view of the fact," he wrote in a memorandum
which he prepared on the subject, " that the immi
gration of the Chinese into the British colonies was
at the express request and urgency of the British
government, and that it was contrary to the tradi
tions and policy of the Chinese empire, the dis
crimination against the Chinese is more offensive
than it would be in the case of any other race.
China places no such restrictions on Canadians and
it has a right to demand reciprocity of treatment."
He described the Canadian legislation as "un-
British and anti-British," and even argued that
" Canada needs sober, industrious and law-abiding
people to fill its waste places and develop its re
sources." "Our legislation is opposed to the principles of
international comity. Every nation has a right to
keep out bad people, no nation has the right to
keep out the good of one nation while admitting
both the bad and good from other lands. We have
only to reverse the position and suppose that China
admitted freely men of aU countries save Canadians,
to understand how offensive our restrictions are.
Our legislation is contrary to the spirit of Christ
ianity, and, seeing that we are sending missionaries
to China, it is most inconsistent with the religion
we profess." 371

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Replying to the argument that Chinese com
petition would degrade white labour to the Chinese
level, he held, " that wherever there is any conflict
between labour and capital, labour can triumph
only by appeahng to the principles of justice and
the rights of humanity ; and that its cause is lost
when it refuses to recognize that God has made of
one blood all nations who dwell on the face of the
earth and when it draws distinctions based upon
race, colour, creed, or sex."
" Our mission is to Christianize the world. What
better means of doing so can there be than fair and
courteous treatment of the greatest neighbouring
nation ? What greater force could be exerted on
China than the return to it of hundreds or thou
sands of their own countrymen brought to Christ
during their sojourn in Canada ? "
He fought the battle in the press, on the plat
form, and in the General Assembly. The latter
body he carried with him, securing a unanimous
and enthusiastic vote in favour of his resolution.
It was of no avail, and his struggle is of interest
chiefly as an instance of the manner in which he
could, when he judged the occasion worthy, go to
great pains and court unpopularity for a hopeless
cause.1

1 A curious incident in this connection was the devotion to Queen's
of a well-to-do Chinese laundryman, resident in Kingston, named
Hong Lee. Hong Lee was well acquainted with the students, and
attended St. Andrew's Church, where the principal worshipped. In
1900 a body of students undertook to raise money to endow a post-
872

CANADIAN POLITICS
After Sir Wilfrid Laurier's advent to power in
1896, Grant found himself in a position command
ing great practical influence. He had become a
consulting publicist. His strictures upon the Con
servative government had had great weight with
the electors during the three critical years which
had decided the fate of that administration, and his
approval now was greatly valued. He was able to
reach tlie pubhc through the most influential chan
nels, and the volume of journalistic work which he
produced — nearly always over his own name — was
considerable. AU these circumstances gave him
an enviable position, and to them was added his
close friendship with several of the members of
the ministry, including Sir Wilfrid Laurier. For
the Liberal government he entertained feelings of

graduate scholarship. Some of Hong Lee's customers suggested that he
contribute. " How much does tlie biggest man give?" Hong Lee instantly asked,
to the amazement of his interlocutors.
'• Fifty dollars," said they. And forthwith tlie Chinaman subscribed
and paid fifty dollars. The incident caused much amusement and
gratification at tlie university. Later, Hong Lee gave one hundred dol
lars to the fund for Grant Hall. The principal was greatly delighted
at his friend's liberality. To some one who suggested that tlie first gift
was really an advertisement designed to secure the student trade, he
replied in kind that none of tlie white laundrymen had seen tlie wis
dom of making such au investment. To one who sought an explanation
in Hong Lee's gratitude for Grant's championship of his race, he re
plied that he doubted whether tlie Chinaman had ever heard of that.
"No," he said, "Hong Lee was actuated by tlie genuine Chinese love
of, aud reverence for learning. Queen's was au institution of learning
aud, like a true Chinaman, Hong Lee was ready to subscribe his hard-
earned dollars to help her."
373

PRINCIPAL GRANT
general approval and he lent his aid to it on several
occasions. His support of the Laurier administration
in 1900 was strengthened by his break with Sir
Charles Tupper. It was a wrench, for his friendship
for Sir Charles dated from the years when he had
fought behind him in Nova Scotia for confedera
tion. In 1894, after the death of Sir John Thomp
son, he had given a newspaper interview strongly
urging the Conservatives to select Sir Charles as
leader.1 But in 1900 the tie was finally broken.
Writing to his son in September of that year, he
says: "The excitement is increasing, and wiU soon
be at boihng point. I have given up Tupper, on
account of his 'sharp curve.' Attacking Laurier in
October for being anti-British, and attacking him
now- — in Quebec too — for being 'too English for
me, with his scheme of imperial federation ' is more
than I — either as a Canadian or a Briton — can stand.
The audacity of the thing staggers one. It is evi
dent, too, that the internal divisions of the Conser
vative party are not healed. The absence from their
Ontario meetings of their Ontario representatives —
notably BoweU, Haggart, and Montague — proves
that. I therefore hope Laurier wUl win, and if
Tupper goes any further I may say so."
Writing in the Queens Quarterly over his weU-
known signature " G," he criticized Sir Charles for
1 This interview he considered the fulfilment of a resolve formed in
1863, when Sir Charles "took his political life in his hands" in advo
cating a provincial school system. " I'll help that man some day," had
been Grant's words as he sat in the gallery of the legislature.
374

CANADIAN POLITICS
this action, and his utterances were much quoted.
In October, in the height of the election campaign,
he was asked by Mr. WiUison to allow an interview
to appear in the Globe. He refused, in the follow
ing letter : —
" On reflection, I think it better not to interview
me : —
" (1) Because my position is already known. The
press is making large use of 'G' in Queen's Quar
terly.
" (2) Because there is no need. Laurier is sure of
victory this time. General prosperity wins against
any other general.
" (3) Because people are now in high fever, and
I would turn half the friends of Queen's into ene
mies. I would do that, were there need. But there is
none. Even to-day, in Kingston, people are voting
against giving anything to Queen's, because the
Globe quotes me in black letter as on Laurier's
side. Two gentlemen had the cheek to tell me so
yesterday. " (4) Because I can do more when people are
cooler. " (5) Because, in an interview, I have to say
things against as weU as for the administration.
" (6) Because what it would be right for me to
do were I running an election and so in a position
to receive as weU as to give blows, is hardly right
for me to do while I occupy what might be caUed
' Coward's Castle.' The Conservatives know that
375

PRINCIPAL GRANT
they couldn't answer me openly without turning
Queen's men against them. To strike into the thick
of the fight at such a moment they would feel to
be ungenerous and unfair.
"You will probably not agree with me, but I
have tried to make up my mind judiciaUy, and
with all my sympathies forcing me to an attitude
of ' friendly neutrality.' "
During the negotiations of the Joint High Com
mission in 1899, he was in close communication
with Sir Wilfrid Laurier, and his letters show his
view on several important Canadian questions of
the time. "The policy demanded at present," he
wrote on February 25th, "is one which shall neither
by word nor act indicate a wish even to retaliate.
That, however, is merely a negative, and govern
ments live only by positive pohcies. Now is the
time to arouse fresh enthusiasm in Canada and
Britain by forcing the hand of the British govern
ment on the Pacific cable. Make us the half-way
house of the empire. It wiU be a grand coup, and
while increasing our apparent obligations, will reaUy
cost nothing.
"Secondly, back the colonial office strongly in
its Newfoundland policy. Insist on a consul at St.
Pierre, and offer to share in the compensation to be
paid the French fishermen for rehnquishing the
decaying business on the treaty shore.
"And lastly, transportation is our great Cana
dian problem. Proper equipment at Montreal and
376

CANADIAN POLITICS
Quebec and the abolition of our canal tolls are
the first things needed in my opinion, and not a
fast passenger service costing three quarters of a
million." "It seems to me," he wrote on March 4th, "that
you did everything that could have been expected,
and that you did well in calling a halt when politi
cal influence forced the American commissioners to
go back on their own offer. The boundary is a ques
tion to be settled by experts, and the sooner they
get at it the better. Even American politicians
must accept the decisions of experts.
"I am dehghted that you agree with me in the
main on the three points I feel strongly on. As to
compensation to France, aU that I mean is that
it would pay us in revenue returns to have the
matter settled, and that an offer from us would
force a settlement. I hope that you will insist on
having a British (preferably a Canadian) consul at
St. Pierre."
In his dealings with the many prominent men
with whom he was brought into close relations,
Grant was scrupulous to abstain from asking per
sonal favours, either for himself or for his friends.
It was his rule not to accept railway passes, ex
cept on certain occasions when a journey was
undertaken in the interests of the railway. "It
is a fixed principle with me," he wrote in 1895
to a friend who had asked his influence with refer
ence to an appointment in the gift of the On-
377

PRINCIPAL GRANT
tario government, "not to ask any government for
any favour or consideration. It is the only way in
which I can preserve my independence. When I
say anything for or against a government, I do so
on public grounds, and it would be impossible to
base any appeal for friends on it." A smaU inci
dent which iUustrates his methods took place in
1897. The Hon. A. S. Hardy, then premier of
Ontario, in a speech at Owen Sound, dropped an
unfortunately worded remark about "cold justice,"
which seemed to hint that the constituency would
be rewarded by grants to public works for a by-
election favourable to the government. Grant wrote
privately to Hardy, censuring him, and the premier
rephed, explaining away the utterance, and evi
dently at once stung by the rebuke and gratified
at Grant's frankness.
In 1899 Grant was describing transportation as
Canada's greatest problem. In 1893 the chief issue
for him had been economy and honest administra
tion. The shifting of his view shows the rapidity of
the growth of the country in the last few years of
the century. The transportation issue occupied his
attention closely for the last decade of his life. The
binding together of Canada by an intelligent use of
her water routes and railway lines came to hold for
him the same importance that the actual building
of the pioneer hne had assumed fifteen years be
fore. He took great pains to ascertain the facts. He
studied carefully the conditions under which the In-
378

CANADIAN POLITICS
tercolonial worked, procured Halifax and St. John
views on ocean transportation, used his friendship
with Sir William Van Horne to get figures as to
the Canadian Pacific trade over the "short hne,"
corresponded with Mr. E. W. Rathbun, a prominent
manufacturer and lumberman, and exchanged views
at length with Mr. James B. CampbeU, an incisive
and industrious pamphleteer on the subject. His
interest was due largely to Mr. Rathbun, who
urged him to master and write upon the subject.
In the years succeeding 1897 a feeling had grown
up in Canada that in the transportation question
she must find the key to national greatness on the
material side. In awakening that conviction Grant
bore his fuU share. In part he made his views
known through the Globe, in part through the
Montreal Star. His later attitude towards the Can
adian Pacific has already been noted. He urged the
completion of the St. Lawrence canal system at
the earliest possible moment, and was severe on the
impolicy of allowing a stretch of shallow canals in
the middle of the system to render useless the
deeper reaches at the ends. For years he advocated
freeing the canals from aU toUs, a policy which was
adopted with striking success after his death. In
the fast Atlantic line he was deeply interested. He
steadily advised the abandonment of aU efforts to
make the St. Lawrence the route. "The failures of
the Huddarts and of Petersen are the final proofs
that a fast Atlantic hne to Montreal is a practical
379

PRINCIPAL GRANT
impossibility," he wrote in July, 1898. "The St.
Lawrence is the route for freight, not for passen
gers who desire speed, i.e., for three-fourths of the
passengers at the least. We must abandon the idea
of a fast line or get an Atlantic terminus." As be
tween St. John and Hahfax he favoured the latter.
In 1898 he was greatly impressed by the proof that
Sydney could be used as a winter port, and also by
the buUding of the Reid Railway across Newfound
land and the placing of an ocean ferry to ply be
tween Sydney and the western terminus of that
railway. In a series of letters which he wrote upon
Newfoundland in 1898, he set forth the advantages
of making that island the western landing-place of
a fast line which would reduce the ocean passage to
four days. In the same connection he urged the
incorporation of Newfoundland in the Canadian
confederation. The relations between capital and labour engaged
Grant's interest and sympathy. He frequently ad
verted to the topic and on several occasions came
into contact with labour organizations in regard to
subjects in which they were interested. His oppo
sition to the single tax movement — he took the
platform against Mr. Henry George at one of his
visits to Kingston — angered some labour men. So
did his views on Chinese immigration. In 1892,
however, at the Pan- Presbyterian Council he de
livered an address on the relations of capital and
labour which was given wide currency by labour
380

CANADIAN POLITICS
journals and evoked much favourable comment
from them. In profit-sharing he saw the way out
of present difficulties. No striking controversy,
however, drew public attention to this avocation,
and the general pubhc scarcely recognized how
great was his interest or how wide his information
on this subject.
The last controversy in which Grant took a
prominent part was with regard to the prohibition
of the liquor traffic. In common with other pro
vinces in Canada, Ontario long had been the theatre
of an energetic agitation for the legislative suppres
sion of the liquor traffic. The propaganda gained
ground at the expense of the older forms of tem
perance endeavour which aimed at influencing the
individual user of intoxicants, and finaUy nearly all
the organized sentiment of the community in fav
our of total abstinence was concentrated in the
demand for legal action. The campaign gained in
activity and in cohesion. The senior organizations
were supplemented by societies which aimed at
political action. Many of the churches lent their
aid, led by the Methodist Church, the most ef
fectively organized Protestant body in Canada.
Experiments in local option in counties proved
disappointing, and the prohibitionists bent their
forces to the attainment of a wide measure of sup
pression, if possible national, at least provincial.
They experienced the usual fate of exponents of
moral ideas who enter the pohtical field. They
381

PRINCIPAL GRANT
made great progress in everything but results.
Scarcely a politician could be found to say a harsh
word of them, and scarcely a politician could be
found to render them an effective favour. The elec
torate treated them in the same way. The voters
showed a remarkable reluctance to cast their ballots
against them so long as the question was academic,
and steadUy refused to pay any heed to their ap
peals the moment a political issue was involved.
They found themselves in the exasperating position
of registering enormous majorities in plebiscite and
referendum, of being baffled by members of parlia
ment and legislature, and of being unable to punish
at the poUs the representatives who flouted them.
This naturaUy exasperated such ardent advocates.
Their temper was rendered the worse by the fact
that for years their case had won by default so far
as argument was concerned. Few cared to speak or
write against total abstinence or against legislative
suppression of the traffic. The hquor trade fought
the propaganda in its own manner, and thereby
made it the harder for reputable men to enter the
lists against the proposal. In the last decade of the
nineteenth century controversy on the subject had
almost ceased. Lack of opposition on the platform
and in the press had its usual effect, and the tone
of prohibitionists' arguments steadily grew intoler
ant. To them, to oppose their ideal was to resist
moral reform, and they could explain it only on
the ground of unworthy and interested motives. By
382

CANADIAN POLITICS
1898, when the Dominion plebiscite on the sub
ject was taken, the prohibitionist campaigning was
marked by an uneasy arrogance. The leaders were
active, the organization was excellent, the only
doubt was whether the movement could command
an effective rank and file.
All through his life Grant's attitude towards this
question was consistent. He always upheld temper
ance, and he always opposed steps to impose ab
stinence by external compulsion. Some of his most
effective work in his Halifax pastorate had been in
inducing victims of drink to become total abstain
ers. He disagreed with the great body of active
temperance workers on two main issues. He would
not admit that the drink evil possessed the relative
importance which they attributed to it. Lack of
faith, lack of courage, lack of reverence, to him
were the root sins, were the cause ; intoxication
and other overt sins were symptoms. Even among
the grosser sins he ranked the excessive use of
liquor as inferior in destructive power to at least
one other evil. He placed a higher value on purity
of hfe than on abstention from liquor. " Not drink
but dirt is the greatest evU in Canada to-day." In
1898 he told the General Assembly that political
corruption was a greater injury to Canada than
drunkenness. Further, he disbelieved absolutely in
the efficacy as well as in the righteousness of at
tempts to compel men to be sober. Apart from the
ethical questions involved in such short-cuts to
383

PRINCIPAL GRANT
virtue, he was of opinion that the amount of harm
ful drinking would not be decreased by prohibition,
and that such evils as hypocrisy, evasion or defiance
of law, and perjury would accompany it.
Many men held similar views. Grant took the
field and advocated them publicly. He was pro
foundly impressed by the hollowness of the situa
tion. It was his conviction that the strength of the
prohibitionist movement was factitious, and that its
apparent voting strength was due to the lack of
argument which led to a general begging of the
question. Further, the whole treatment of the sub
ject by politicians and the mass of the people was
marked by a profound dishonesty more dangerous
than intemperance. Accordingly, when in 1897 the
Dominion government announced that a plebiscite
on the subject would be taken over the Dominion,
he resolved to speak out as a representative of the
great mass who hated intemperance but refused to
believe that prohibition was justifiable or hkely to
promote sobriety. The fight upon which he entered
was by far the most disagreeable of his later years,
probably of his hfe. He entered upon it knowing
what to expect. He was single-handed, for though
thousands agreed with his arguments and were glad
that he made the stand, few came to his aid. In
July he wrote to a friend of " having done my duty
in the matter, and having seen others — from whom
better things might have been expected, in the
state and in the church — shirk theirs." Every ma-
384

CANADIAN POLITICS
terial interest counselled silence. Apart from the
intense unpleasantness of a fight in which, to men
tion but one instance, the body of the ministers
of his church opposed him, was the fact that his
action was almost certain to hurt his university.
Almost aU his closer personal friends besought him
to abstain from so thankless a task. The majority of
the trustees of Queen's were averse to his action.
He felt, however, that the occasion called.
The actual volume of his anti-prohibition fight
in 1897-8 is smaU. It is comprised in three letters
to the Globe1 a pubhc debate,2 and a speech in
the General Assembly of 1898. Yet they created an
immense sensation. He for years had been known
to be opposed to prohibition and in 1895 he had
advocated the adoption of the Gothenburg system,
but his boldness had a great effect, while his argu
ments, coming from a source so far removed from
suspicion of interest, proved exceedingly effective.
In the main, these letters were confined to a des
tructive analysis of the prohibitionists' plan of
affording rehef from the drink evil. He put his
case succinctly in his debate with the Rev. Dr.
Lucas. He complained of misrepresentation. "If,
for instance, a drunkard is seen on the streets of
Kingston, the remark of one paper is, ' Ah, if Prin
cipal Grant saw that, he would change his view on
1 These appeared on December 9th, 11th and 18th, 1897.
2 See the Globe and Kingston News and Whig of January 28th and
29th, 1898. 385

PRINCIPAL GRANT
prohibition.' Now, how are its readers to know that
my view is that if we had prohibition, there would
be two drunkards on the street instead of one? And
half a dozen perjurers and hypocrites for every one
we now have ? Believing that, am I not bound to
warn my friends that their proposed short-cut may
not cure, but aggravate the disease ? It is because I
look with horror on the sin of intemperance and
have fought against it with some success aU my
hfe, that I dread a proposal which, if enacted into
law, wiU do more to throw back the cause of tem
perance and corrupt the country, than any legisla
tion that has ever yet been passed in Canada."
The prohibition party were intensely exasperated
at his attack. They had been unopposed so long
that antagonism seemed little short of blasphemy.
For weeks the press was filled with letters replying
to or attacking Grant. Some confined themselves
to traversing his arguments. Many were insulting.
The wing of the prohibitionists which was disposed
to abuse was led by the Rev. Dr. Carman, who, as
general superintendent of the Methodist Church,
was the official head of that powerful ecclesiastical
body. Dr. Carman's reply was couched in violent
terms ; one hne of attack which he adopted was to
endeavour to injure Queen's by practicaUy calling
upon temperance people to refuse to send their
sons to a university presided over by an anti-pro
hibitionist. Some of his phrases may be quoted as
typical of much that was written and said during
386

CANADIAN POLITICS
the controversy. "But take out the university and
the principalship and what have you left? The
weight of argument in this case is the seat from
which it is uttered. . . . Looking through the lens
at an insect's foot you may well be terrified. It is
often necessary to get around behind the magnify
ing glass to dismiss your horrors and terrors and
come to the balance of your understanding." Fur
ther on he wrote : " If, perchance, a wealthy distiller
or brewer were making subcription or endowment
he would know where to put it ; not hkely on the
majestic personality ! And if a mother were asking
where to send her son to college, she ought to
know as weU." In private correspondence Grant
briefly described Carman's letters as " melancholy,"
and he took no notice of them.
The Rev. Dr. Lucas, a Methodist minister, who
for years had made his living by lecturing for pro
hibition, promptly challenged Grant to a joint
debate, and the chaUenge was accepted. Lucas
was a professional platform speaker, and a power
ful rhetorician. The meeting of the two men was
looked forward to with great interest by the gen
eral community as weU as by the persons especiaUy
interested in the subject. The debate took place on
two consecutive evenings. It was held in the Kings
ton city haU, which, despite the waning interest in
public speaking, was crowded. It was a remarkable
duel, Lucas speaking forcibly and Grant making
one of his most brilliant fights. One characteristic 387

PRINCIPAL GRANT
stroke was his couching of a solid argument in a
jest. Lucas had argued that the imposition of a
license was an admission of a right to prohibit, that
in fact it was a prohibition of seUing by aU but the
licensee. Why not prohibit the five hundredth man
as weU as the four hundred and ninety-nine ? How
about marriage licenses ? asked Grant, and with the
roar of laughter Lucas's argument ceased to weigh
with the audience. The prohibitionists were reluc
tant to confess defeat, but the general feehng was
that Grant had decisively worsted his antagonist.
The effect ofthe debate was remarkable. Through
out the plebiscite campaign of 1898, of which this
affair was an episode, the prohibitionists confidently
assumed that their cause was the only one which
could be espoused by an upright man. In the sub
sequent referendum campaign of 1902 a marked
change was noticeable, a moderation of this intoler
ant begging of the question. For no small portion,
if not for aU of this change of tone, credit must be
given to Grant. He had beaten their champion in
open debate and had broken their record of oratori
cal victories. Moreover, he had proved to the coun
try that a man of inteUect, disinterestedness, and
moral fervour could be opposed to attempts to
induce sobriety by legislation.
This probably accounts for the venomous inten
sity with which the baser sort of the prohibitionists
assailed him. Carman's suggestion that he was look
ing to liquor men for subscriptions to Queen's was
388

CANADIAN POLITICS
a sample of the attacks made. One letter expressed
the hope that his dying hours would be cursed by
the shrieks of those who through his agency had
fiUed drunkards' graves. Others accused him of per
sonal fondness for liquor. Slanderous stories were
circulated by word of mouth. Three years afterwards
Frontenac ratepayers were urged to vote against
the proposal to give money to Queen's because of
Grant's attitude on this question.
Writing to Mr. J. S. WUlison in April, 1898,
while this abuse was at its height, Grant gave his
opinion of the movement. "In my opinion the
strength of the feeling in favour of prohibition is
over-estimated. It is largely fictitious and feverish.
Of course, it is organized, and the forces opposed
to the proposal are not and cannot be organized,
though in the event of a law being passed they
would show themselves in a most hvely way, to the
utter destruction in the first place of the govern
ment responsible for the law, and, in the second
place, of much else that aU parties esteem valu
able." Later, in July, in a letter to the same friend, he
said: "It has been a puzzle to me that no attempt
at organization has been made, save on the side of
bhnd emotion, in connection with a proposal so
momentous as that of national prohibition of a
trade hitherto legitimate in Canada, and estabhshed
in every country in Christendom. On the one side
is a long standing organization with paid officials,
389

PRINCIPAL GRANT
speakers and writers, and with every temperance
lodge and Methodist Church a committee room. On
the other side no attempt at organization, save by
the trade itself. That gives the appearance of public
interest on the one side, and admittedly class and
selfish mterests on the other. Hence the one side
has organization, and, apparently, the cause of mor
ality at its back. The other side has merely an un
popular trade and unorganized individuals. How
can there be anything but a majority of the vote
poUed for prohibition? Yet that majority, though
it wiU give emotion an immense leverage against
the government which does not obey it, represents
almost entirely manufactured rather than rational
sentiment. "What makes this worse is that in great part the
cause of the apathy is party spirit. The Conserva
tives are determined that the Grits shall reap as
they sowed. The Grits dread antagonizing the tem
perance vote, though they ought to know that it is
a good deal of a bogie. And so no effort is made to
save the country from a rash experiment on society,
one that wiU bring about evils tenfold worse than
open drunkenness, especially in the direction of con
tempt for law."
Active participation in this fight came to an
end for Grant with the debate in the Assembly.
That body passed a resolution approving of pro
hibition after a speech from Grant which ranks as
one of his best. His own version of the matter
390

CANADIAN POLITICS
was given to Mr. WUlison: "I ought to tell you a
little about the temperance debate in the General
Assembly. For various reasons (one being that num
bers have no faith in prohibition, but are as un
willing as the Globe to say so) not more than a
third of the members were present, or about one
hundred and ten to one hundred and thirty. Of
these, twenty-four, by the clerk's counting, voted
with me. The strongest men in the church did not
vote. I am more than ever persuaded that much of
the apparent strength of the prohibition movement
is fictitious, though some are willing to have the
experiment tried (at other people's expense and the
expense of the country), and more are desirous of
putting the government into a hole. This latter
class kept quiet in the Assembly, though in pre
vious years they spoke strongly against the prepos
terous fad. The strength of the prohibitionists is in
their organization, especiaUy the lodges and Metho
dist Churches, whUe there is no organization on the
other side, and multitudes of the weak are morally
terrified." The Dominion plebiscite campaign resulted in
majorities for prohibition being registered in the
English-speaking provinces, but Quebec declared
against it so decisively that it was seen that a na
tional measure was impossible. The prohibitionists
turned to the provincial field, and after some delays
secured a judgment of the privy council declaring a
considerable measure of prohibition to be within
391

PRINCIPAL GRANT
the powers of the local legislatures. The result of
much agitation was that the Ontario legislature
passed a stringent prohibitory Act, but made its en
forcement dependent upon the result of a further
popular vote, of the nature of a referendum. This
took place in 1902, the vote being taken in Decem
ber. In February and March, Grant contributed to
the Globe a series of five letters on the subject.1
These he intended to set forth his constructive
policy on the liquor question. His letters of 1898
had been controversial, and had broken the weight
of the argument that there existed only one means
of relief from the evils of drunkenness. He now
recapitulated his earlier arguments, and went on to
suggest a better way of handhng the problem. The
present license system he regarded as utterly crude,
and as embodying specific dangers, chief among
which he ranked the fact that it makes it the in
terest of the license holders to increase the amount
of drinking The "company system" of control he
regarded as avoiding nearly all the objections in
herent in the license system, and the Gothenburg
or Scandinavian system he looked upon as better
still. For the adoption of the latter he argued with
all his force.
The result of the campaign he did not live to see.
In its later stages, while the more bitter-minded of
the prohibitionists attacked him with aU the scur
rility of 1898, the most prominent supporters of the
1 The dates were February 4th, Sth, 12th, 21st, and March 1st.
392

CANADIAN POLITICS
measure concentrated their attack upon the present
licensing system, minimized the prohibitory features
of the legislation demanded, and spoke favourably
of municipal control of the traffic. The result of
this more moderate pohcy was a large vote in their
favour, though, under the terms of the referendum,
insufficient to bring into operation the measure
which had been passed.

393

CHAPTER XX
IMPERIALISM
CONFEDERATION did not make Canada a
nation, but it gave her the possibility of be
coming one. Slowly the consciousness of a common
heritage and of a common destiny began to thriU
through the widely separated members. Along what
lines that destiny lay was not at first clear. Gradu
aUy three alternatives shaped themselves. Our posi
tion as at once a self-governing Dominion, and a
dependency of Britain was clearly Ulogical. Was it
possible to build up an independent and self-con-
troUed Canada; was our union with Britain to
become closer and more clearly defined ; or were
we to cast in our lot with the great republic whose
shadow lay along our southern border ?
The idea of independence was soon recognized as
visionary. In Ontario it was advocated by some of
the later adherents of the "Canada First" party ; in
Quebec the idea of "a Canadian republic on the
banks of the St. Lawrence " is stiU cherished by a
few ; but the sober sense of the Canadian people
felt that to discuss independence in such close
proximity to the United States would be what
Grant described as " fancy pohtics."
Of the other alternatives, Grant fervently advo-
395

PRINCIPAL GRANT
cated that of closer union with Britain. His sense
of historical continuity triumphed over the dictates
of geography. Not that he considered such a closer
union incompatible with independence. Nationahty
he considered "an ultimate God-ordained fact."
" Some men, and aU cattle, lack patriotism," he
said once. He stood for the fullest and most com
plete national independence, with the responsibili
ties and dangers therein imphed; not for sterile
isolation, but for partnership in the councils of the
great group of free nations who boast of a common
sovereign, a common flag, and a common language.
Of the different roots from which sprang his devo
tion to the empire, the deepest was his sense of the
necessity of continuity in national hfe and develop
ment. "Every nation," he said, "must make or
rather work out its own constitution in the course
of its history. Its constitution is not a coat to be
thrown aside for a neighbour's, but the very body
which the inner hfe has gathered around it from
the past and the present. This outward form can be
slowly changed by development to meet the chang
ing environment and the growth of ideas, but it
cannot be exchanged for another by revolution
without grievous — perhaps irreparable — hurt to the
nation's life."1
Most of the great problems which beset the
United States he traced to her violent severance
of that continuity. He fully sympathized with Car-
1 "Canada and the Canadian Question ; A Review."
396

IMPERIALISM
lyle's reference to "the many traditions and me
mentos of priceless things which America has cast
away." His imagination was fired by the splendour
and the glow of English history, by the thought
of the succession of warriors, statesmen, poets and
philosophers, who have won and vindicated her
power and her freedom. "If Whittier," he said,
"can boast ' We too are heirs of Runnymede,' how
much more fuUy can we, sundered by no wars,
severed by no deep-seated prejudice or misunder
standing?" His mind was even more fuU of the
glories of Scottish song and story; no other of his
speeches breathes so impassioned a rhetoric as that
delivered in 1873 before the North British Society
of Halifax, on " Our Scottish Nationality." But his
desire to draw closer the bonds of empire was
based, not on love for the past, nor on an abstract
pohtical theory, but on a firm conviction that the
national ideals of Britain, social, political and re
hgious, were higher and purer than those of the
United States, and that in her statesmen were to
be found the highest examples of political justice
and integrity.
To the faults of England and of the English he was
not bhnd. He saw the supercihousness of the British
globe-trotter, the ignorance of the colonies, and the
contempt for their interests shown by many British
statesmen. He weU knew that, thanks to British dip
lomats, Canada had been " sorely despoiled in the
east, the centre, and the west by treaties," and he
397

PRINCIPAL GRANT
bitterly assaUed, in public and in private, the self-
complacent insularity which had traced the bound
ary of Maine, and given up our rightful claims on
the Pacific. Nor did he share in the wide-spread
Canadian distrust of American men and methods.
For the great repubhc his love grew with his years.
He passed from the youthful impetuosity which
could write to his brother, "Their men, methods,
and manners are ahke detestable," to an increasing
admiration for the energy, the versatility, and the
resourceful daring which has, in less than a century,
spread order and civilization from the AUeghanies
to the Pacific. " It is a great country," he wrote in
1893, "endowed by God with every conceivable
kind of resource, and, as regards the people, it is
enough to say that they are substantiaUy of the
same stock as ourselves."
But to court re-union with the United States
at the cost of severance from Britain, he con
sidered to be a foUy which would destroy the
continuity and therewith the highest ideals and
hopes of our political hfe. "Respect them, ad
mire them, imitate them, hke them, look forward
to a re-union in the future of the English-speak
ing race — that is aU right. But just as they are
not going to break up their own union in order
to bring about any theoretic reunion, so neither are
we. To break up our own empire in order to de
monstrate our affection for another, or in order to
gain some fancied commercial advantage, may be
398

IMPERIALISM
wisdom to parish pohticians, but it is not the
kind of wisdom that self-respecting people will
ever endorse. Canadians must preserve their self-
respect jealously, just because their neighbours — on
account of their own bigness — are wonderfuUy ig
norant of Canada, and just a little apt to regard it
as the rich are apt to regard the poor. Further
overtures from us are a waste of time, energy,
dignity and money, and they simply delay the
coming of an era of improved commercial relations.
... I look forward to a happy re-union of our race
with as much longing as Dr. Goldwin Smith, but
to begin it with a second disruption is out of the
question, and premature attempts from our side
wUl defeat or delay the object we have at heart."
These wider questions did not at first demand
much attention. The attitude of Nova Scotia, the
rebeUion in Manitoba, the entrance into confedera
tion of British Columbia and Prince Edward Is
land, absorbed our first years; to these succeeded
problems of trade and transportation ; but when the
birth-throes of the new Dominion had been over
come, our pohtical relations to the outside world
forced themselves into prominence. In 1885 two
opposite tendencies began to take shape and form.
In May of that year the first branch of the Imper
ial Federation League in Canada was organized in
Montreal; Grant was one of the chief speakers, and
for several years, in the face of many disappoint
ments, did all that he could to found new branches,
399

PRINCIPAL GRANT
and to create enthusiasm. The progress of the idea
was at first slow; not till 1888 was a branch founded
in Toronto; and the members of the society were
forced to undergo not a httle ridicule. Grant de
hvered numerous addresses in the different prov
inces ; his tour of the world deepened his love for
the principles embodied in the new organization;
and largely through his efforts the idea of Canada
as an independent partner of Great Britain passed
from the stage of ridicule into that of serious con
sideration.1 About the time of the foundation of the first
branch of the Imperial Federation League in Can
ada, an active campaign was begun in favour of
closer union with the United States. Promising
more immediate practical advantages, this pohcy
came rapidly to the front, and had been adopted as
the platform of a great pohtical party at a time
when imperial federation was popularly considered
"a fad" and its supporters "a lawn tennis party."
The annexation of Canada to the repubhc, and its
partition into states and territories under the Ameri
can flag, though the goal to which many secretly
looked forward, was too unpopular to be openly
advocated by responsible politicians ; the object put
forward as aimed at was the attainment of freer
trade relations. Canadians stiU remembered the
misery caused by the abrogation in 1866 by the
1 For a fuller treatment of this subject, see " An Encyclopaedia of
Canada," by J. Castell Hopkins, vol. VI.
400

IMPERIALISM
United States of the Reciprocity Treaty negoti
ated by Lord Elgin in 1854. "What that meant
the writer knows from personal knowledge of at
least one district. Hundreds of people had to live
on bread and water, and to go in debt for the
bread."1 The seventies were a period of widespread com
mercial depression, and Canada was ruthlessly ex
ploited by the United States manufacturers as a
slaughter market for their surplus products. The Na
tional Pohcy of protection, introduced by Sir John
Macdonald in 1878, brought about a measure of
somewhat factitious prosperity, but the home mar
ket was so hmited that the Canadian farmer made
repeated efforts to gain entrance into a wider field.
A large trade with Britain was gradually built up,
and has increased with improvements in transpor
tation and in methods of packing and storage ; but
" the nearest market as a rule is the best," and for
entrance to that of the United States the Canadian
farmer was willing to pay high. The modified reci
procity of 1854 in products of the farm, forest, fish
eries and mine was unattainable, and a campaign
was begun in favour of Unrestricted Reciprocity,
often spoken of under the name of Commercial
Union. With this a number of leading men in
Canada and in the United States identified them
selves, the most prominent being, perhaps, Pro
fessor Goldwin Smith and Mr. Erastus Wiman,
1 "Canada and the Canadian Question : A Review."
401

PRINCIPAL GRANT
an expatriated Canadian who had won for him
self a position in the American commercial world.
Commercial Union involved so directly discrim
ination against Great Britain, and the dictation of
our tariff by the dominant partner, that it was
more or less discarded in favour of the more at
tractive title of Unrestricted Reciprocity.
The Liberal party, defeated at the poUs in 1887,
caught at the glitter of the new idea. In 1891 came
the general election. In spite of the promises of
commercial development and prosperity made by
the Liberals to both manufacturer and farmer, the
Conservatives were victorious. "A British subject
I was born, a British subject I wiU die," was the
battle-cry given them by a leader of consummate
skiU; the Liberals were hampered by the presence
in their ranks of a section which almost avowedly
regarded Commercial Union as a stepping-stone to
annexation; the Conservatives found that the rash
ness of their opponents had enabled them to identify
the National Policy with the cause of British con
nection, and on a platform of "the old flag, the old
leader, and the old policy," were returned to power
with a majority of thirty in a House of two hun
dred and fifteen.
Grant was not a fervent admirer of Sir John
Macdonald, whom he regarded as responsible for
much of the corruption which had eaten deep into
our pohtical life; but in this campaign he stood
firmly by his side. Commercial Union he regarded
402

IMPERIALISM
as making inevitable pohtical union, as a dishonest
and discreditable attempt to bring in from the side
what could not openly be avowed. During the course
of the campaign, Mr. Erastus Wiman visited King
ston, and dehvered an address presenting with much
force the material advantages of the proposed policy.
It feU to Grant to reply. Rising to his feet, his voice
quivering with emotion, he began: "For the woman
who seUs herself to buy her children bread, there
may be a plea; but what shaU we say of the nation
which prostitutes its honour for material gain?" To
him this was not a question of doUars and cents,
however great their importance. Though we had
come through the fire of hostile tariffs, and gradu
aUy buUt up for ourselves a market at home and
in Britain, he considered that union with the United
States would be to our immediate commercial ad
vantage ; but to him it was a question of retaining
a high and pure ideal, of keeping intact our national
honour and self-respect, of preserving or of forfeit
ing continuity in our historical, our sentimental, and
our moral development.
An episode which somewhat marred his triumph
was the beginning of a very acute quarrel with one
whom to the last he greatly respected and admired.
The foremost Canadian champion of Commercial
Union was Professor Goldwin Smith. Subsequent
to the election appeared Canada and the Canadian
Question, which Grant regarded as "so brilhant, so
inaccurate, so malicious even, that it is enough to
403

PRINCIPAL GRANT
make one weep." The relations of the two men had
long been friendly. Grant felt honoured that so
distinguished a writer and historian had chosen to
reside in Canada; the zeal for righteousness and for
social and civic purity of the older man moved
his admiration ; on many important questions they
thought ahke; and he was moved to sympathetic
indignation by the coarse and Ul-bred attacks fre
quently made upon the sensitive Oxonian. But their
temperaments were essentiaUy diverse, and even
before 1891 a coolness had sprung up. Canada
and the Canadian Question seemed to Grant so
dangerous that he reviewed it in the Week with
great force and asperity. The review was reprinted
by the Imperial Federation League, and was widely
circulated. Short though it is, Grant bestowed on it
more labour than on any other of his pohtical writ
ings, feeling that he was defending — and defending
against a worthy foeman — the national ideal and
the national honour. The personal friendship of the
two men remained, outwardly at least, unbroken,
and stood the strain even of "The Pohcy for Can
ada" articles in 1893. In 1896 came the open rup
ture. In July of that year Grant wrote for the
National Review an article on "Canada and the
Empire," which was in part devoted to an analysis
of the political ideals of Goldwin Smith, and of the
mental characteristics which had assisted him in
arriving at them. Mr. Smith resented the article,
and his reply in the Canadian Magazine for Octo-
404

IMPERIALISM
ber, and a private letter written at the same time to
Grant, effectively severed relations already strained.
The incident closed with a rejoinder from Grant in
the Canadian Magazine, largely consisting of a re
print of his article in the National Review.
The advocates of closer union with Britain, of
the gradual evolution of Canadian independence
within the empire, not having any definite plan to
propose, found their idea a plant of slower growth.
Practical pohticians who regard as beyond their
horizon any idea which cannot be brought to com
pletion within the year, denounced its advocates as
visionary. To their repeated demand for "a scheme,"
Grant always rephed: "We are not schemers." He
felt strongly that no general plan could be laid on
us from above, that a nation was not a fluid mass
to be run into a mould, but that we must operate
along the lines which have characterized the history
of Britain, and slowly evolve a general plan, suit
able to our history and to our instincts. "If you
ask me for my scheme," he said in Winnipeg on
September 13th, 1889, "I could draw up one or
half a dozen, each more exceUent than the other,
but why should I do your work? Come and help
me. Two heads are wiser than one. You would
have some reason to complain if I elaborated a
plan, and then asked you to swaUow it. Besides,
when the time comes, the weakest of us could draw
up a better plan than he could now. Events are
wiser than men. 405

PRINCIPAL GRANT
"If you stUl press me for an answer I say that I
am a Canadian, and that I am wiUing to wait the
time of the Canadian people and keep step with
them. Admittedly, the question is not yet one for
the mere hand-to-mouth politician. Its importance
may not be immediate. It may be for to-morrow
rather than for to-day. But, should not the states
man think of to-morrow? Should not wise men look
ahead? It may take us a long time to get to a goal,
but ought we not to know how to face, and be sure
we are facing in the right direction? When building
a nation, we think not of the pockets of this or that
man, or the immediate convenience of this or that
locality. We build for the ages."
His quarrel with Goldwin Smith had been partly
due to his dishke for the doctrinaire advocating
general preconceptions to which the hfe of the
country must be made to conform. He dreaded
in pohtical matters statesmen of the type of the
Abbd Sieyes, with his desk full of suitable consti
tutions, each in its respective pigeon-hole. The re
moval of one obstacle after another, the gradual
strengthening of the existing hnks, and the slow
forging of new, would in the end clothe his great
idea in the concrete form which would do no vio
lence to the national instincts and susceptibilities.
In the early days of the movement he was strongly
attracted by the idea of inter-imperial preferential
trade. All his instincts were towards freedom, and
he dreamed of a zoUverein of the various nations
406

IMPERIALISM
and colonies under the British flag. But the diffi
culties which lay in the path of imperial free trade
could not be minimized, and in the Westminster
Review for October, 1891,1 he suggested that a
preliminary step might be taken by adopting a
pohcy of inter-imperial preference, the colonies ad
mitting British goods under a minimum tariff, and
the mother country laying a smaU tax upon the
chief imports of all extra-imperial countries. The
same idea he advocated in several speeches about
this time, notably in one before the Halifax Board
of Trade on the occasion of the visit of Colonel
Howard Vincent, M.P.
A further study of the economic situation in
Britain led him in later years to recede from this
position. Writing on May 29th, 1900, to Dr. G. R.
Parkin, he says: "I beheve that it would be more
sensible to undertake the buUding of a railway from
the earth to the moon than to undertake the con
version of the British public to the abandonment of
their free trade position for any lower consideration
than practical free trade within the empire. I regard
what is caUed the 'Fielding Pohcy' as the only pos
sible way of ever getting there, and it is melancholy
to see a man hke  abandoning his imperialism
for partyism. I need not argue" this point with you.
I have said a little on it in 'Current Events' of the
last Queen's Quarterly.
"Have you got your fifty thousand dollars yet?
1 In a review of "The New Empire," by Mr. O. A. Howland, C. M.G.
407

PRINCIPAL GRANT
That is infinitely more important than the trade
discussions will be, for the one is practical and the
other is not, though John Bull wiU hsten with his
usual patience to everything. Poor old chap ! He is
so inarticulate himself, but he is no fool, and wUl
not wreck the greatest commercial fabric the world
has ever seen for nothing."
Even the plan Of a common consultative council
he regarded as premature.
To Colonel G. T. Denison, January 2nd, 1901. —
"Before a common consultative council of the em
pire, with power to act, can or ought to be estab
lished, a good many preparatory steps should, in my
judgment, be taken. At least a century is required
for these. In the meantime we have the Queen's
privy council in Britain, Canada, Australia, etc.,
and no step is ever taken without interchanges of
sentiment between these. These interchanges are
becoming more and more frequent. The cable is
used more than some of us think.
" What is needed most of all now is a common
agreement as to the principles upon which the war
power of the empire should be so organized that in
case of need the whole could be used with effect.
A royal commission should be appointed to deal
with this in the first instance. But something more
than a report is needed. Every part of the empire
should begin by doing its own work. Canada should
not only take over the defence of Halifax and Es-
quimalt (if she has artiUery and engineers — has
408

IMPERIALISM
she?) but see to the defence of St. John and other
important points. We have not even a naval re
serve. For aU this we need a competent minister of
mUitia. "I would rather see signs of some work being done
than try to draw up plans for a talking council."
But though he would consent to no general plan,
he was zealous in forwarding every practical meas
ure. That Canada should give to Britain a tariff pre
ference, with or without direct return in kind, he was
certain. Even commercially he considered that it
would be an advantage, building up trade, ensuring
return cargoes, lessening the cost of freight. It would
also be a manifestation at once of our loyalty and of
our gratitude, and would draw closer the bands of
empire, and be perhaps the first step on the road to
wards inter-imperial free trade. Such a preference
he advocated in "A Pohcy for Canada" in 1893.
At the same period he was in communication with
Mr. D 'Alton McCarthy, whose independent course
was causing much trouble to the official Conserva
tive party. Tariff reduction was prominent in Mc
Carthy's programme, and Grant urged him to declare
for discrimination in favour of Great Britain. Mc
Carthy, however, dechned to commit himself. "I
have reached the conclusion," he wrote on October
16th, 1893, "that we could not succeed in a policy
which would exclude the United States from free
trade, or partial free trade, if the rulers at Wash
ington are willing to reciprocate with us." 409

PRINCIPAL GRANT
During the next few years the imperial idea
made rapid progress. In 1896 the Liberals came
into power, and in the foUowing year the most im
portant of the tariff proposals of the minister of
finance1 was a preference to goods manufactured in
Britain of twenty-five per cent., subsequently in
creased to thirty-three per cent. Of each successive
increase Grant was a strong advocate, and his dis
gust at the opposition of the Conservative party
threw him more and more into sympathy with the
Liberals. In 1898 a preference was given to West
Indian sugar. For this measure of rehef to the old
est and the most unfortunate of Britain's colonies,
Grant was largely responsible.
To Colonel G. T. Denison, January 3rd, 1898,
(private and confidential). — "A happy New Year
to you! I have just returned from Ottawa. Had an
hour with Fielding discussing the West India ques
tion, which he understands thoroughly. I think that
something will be done, though perhaps not aU we
might wish at first.
"Had an hour also with Laurier. First, the
preference hereafter is to be confined to Britain.
That is settled, but this is, of course, strictly con
fidential. "Secondly, he seemed at first to think that we
had gone far enough with our twenty-five per cent.
reduction, till we could see its workings, but when
I argued for going on steadily along that hne, he
1 The Hon. W. S. Fielding.
410

IMPERIALISM
said, 'I do not say yea, but I do not say nay.' I
intend to push the matter.
"He is in favour of the cable, but thinks that we
cannot take it up this session.
"He impresses me favourably the more I study
him. He has a truer understanding of the forces in
Britain than Tupper, in my opinion.
"Of course I told Fielding that the West India
suggestion was yours, and that I cordiaUy endorsed
it. He is anxious to do something, but thinks that
we must ask, in dealing with them, a quid pro
quo." April 9th, 1898. — "I am sure that my thorough
discussion of the West India matter with Fielding
did good, but the suggestion came from you. We
may be well satisfied with the action of the govern
ment, but it wiU be bad if the public gets the idea
that the British Empire League is 'pressing' them.
It is our task rather to educate public opinion.
Things are moving steadily in the right direction.
"PS. — Mulock evidently is aiming at imperial
penny postage. Good."
The attainment of imperial penny postage he
regarded as a great victory, and he gave full credit
to the unwearied pertinacity of Sir WUliam Mulock.
"How weU Mulock has donel" he writes to Colonel
Denison on August 20th, 1898. " I know the diffi
culties that he had to overcome. It is positively siUy
not to give him aU credit; unwise too."
Of the estabhshment in Canada of an imperial
411

PRINCIPAL GRANT
naval reserve he was also in favour. "Goschen has
weakened in his non possumus regarding the naval
reserve," he wrote to Colonel Denison, "and has
taken a position that is quite reasonable, though it
is one which shows that his former attitude was
mistaken. We must now peg away on this hne, and
get the government to meet him haff way as re
gards expense. The difficulties in the way are im
aginary; at any rate, so far as Newfoundland and
Nova Scotia are concerned there wiU be plenty of
hkely lads to offer. I do not know how it is, so far
as Ontario is concerned."
Next in importance to the tariff he regarded the
plan of a pan-Britannic cable and telegraph system,
encircling the globe. This idea had been for many
years advocated by his friend, Sir Sandford Flem
ing, and Grant supported him loyally. He hailed
with joy the estabhshment of the first great link in
the project, the Pacific cable between Canada, New
Zealand and Australia, owned and operated by
these countries and by the home government. Of
the many delays which attended its construction,
even after the general plan had been decided upon,
a letter to Dr. G. R. Parkin gives us a glimpse : —
"I am dehghted to hear that a meeting of the
British Empire League has been called for Tuesday
night to consider the present position of the Pacific
cable enterprise. The frequent delays are unaccount
able, except to those who know what a grip the
Eastern Extension octopus has in quarters which
412

IMPERIALISM
should be free from all secret and sinister influ
ences. AU the hostile forces have their headquarters
in London, and their great object is to defeat us
by securing successive delays. Every year's delay
means hundreds of thousands of dollars in their
pockets. Most unfortunately, in my judgment, our
government did not appoint as one of its commis
sioners Sir Sandford Fleming, when it was at last
agreed to appoint a board to attend to construc
tion. He is the one man who has led the fight
against the monopoly from the start, and it must
have been great jOy to the Eastern Extension gang
when they found that he was ignored. Our two
commissioners, Lords Strathcona and Aberdeen,
are universaUy respected and have immense influ
ence ; but both of them would readily acknowledge,
that on this matter, Sir Sandford is the authority,
and he should be at the post of danger clothed
with aU the influence that Canada can give him,
untU the victory is gained.
" I need hardly say that Fleming has not the
shghtest suspicion that I am writing you on this
subject. He wih probably be angry with me for
mentioning his name, especiaUy if you should think
fit to give my views to the meeting. Indeed, ex
pressions of opinion wiU, I fear, do no good, for
he could not now be appointed a commissioner.
StiU, I cannot help saying that a mistake was made
which ought not to have been made."
In October, 1899, broke out the war between
413

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Great Britain and the allied forces of the Transvaal
and the Orange Free State. No pubhc event during
his hfe so saddened Grant's heart ; in none did he
find it so hard to discern the finger of Providence.
For the Boers he had a deep admiration. He knew
their history, sympathized with the struggles and
the sacrifices which they had made for liberty, and
understood the monstrous mistakes which, with the
best of motives, had been perpetrated by the Brit
ish government. While in South Africa he had be
come a warm personal friend of Mr. John Henry
Hofmeyer, for whose character and motives he
conceived a very high regard. The wanton lawless
ness of Jameson's filibustering raid in 1895 moved
his indignation. His admiration for CecU Rhodes,
of whose comphcity he felt certain, changed into
what can only be described as loathing. " I hope to
hve to see the rascal hanged," he said more than
once. As between the ignorant and dirty but sim
ple-minded and Bible-loving Boer, and the gold-
seeking speculator of Johannesburg, his sympathy
was entirely with the former.
To G. R. Parkin, June 7th, 1899.— "I hope
Milner may succeed with Oom Paul. If he does it
wiU be surprising, for the positions of the two
parties are reaUy contradictory, and to my mind
the Transvaal is keeping whoUy within its rights.
God keep us from a war of aggression on the
Dutch, who would be fighting for an independence
sanctioned by solemn treaty."
414

IMPERIALISM
The insolent ultimatum of President Kruger
solved his difficulties. After that, he felt there was
nothing for Britain to do but "to see the thing
through." To G. R. Parkin, February 1st, 1900.—" I feel
no anxiety. No other power wiU interfere. Fortun
ately for my peace of conscience, the Boers forced
war on us. The upward progress of humanity has
always been accompanied with blunders and crimes
on aU sides, and in trying to strike a balance the
British empire is fairly clean, or at any rate, less
dirty than others. But when I cease to sympathize
with a people struggling for independence, may I
die. Certainly, good is coming out of evil. The em
pire is becoming practicaUy federated. Theoretical
federation wiU foUow."
Of the sending of Canadian troops he heartily
approved, but he was grieved at the niggardliness
of our government in allowing Britain to pay the
cost of the equipment, transportation, and main
tenance of our later contingents. Writing to Sir
WUfrid Laurier on January 1st, 1900, in answer to
a request for advice, he says : —
" 1. It should be understood that Canada intends
to pay aU the expenses of her contingents. When
the men return, they should receive not only the
shilling per diem paid in South Africa, but as much
more, to make their pay correspond to the differ
ence between the British and the Canadian rates of
wages. 415

PRINCIPAL GRANT
" 2. Should a third contingent be called for, we
have neither the officers nor the horses needed for
it. To prepare for this, and at the same time do
what a year ago was deemed wise by the minister
of militia in our own interests, we should at once
organize the regiment of Mounted Rifles in the
North-West recommended in General Hutton's
report as submitted to parhament. That is the kind
of force needed in the Transvaal, but drill for some
weeks or even months would be indispensable to
efficiency. " 3. We should at once offer the imperial govern
ment to garrison Halifax and Jamaica, and so en
able them to withdraw for active service the only
two white battalions they have on our continent
and islands. The case of Hahfax is clear. But, why
trouble ourselves about the West Indies, it may be
asked? In aU imperial matters, so far as North
America is concerned, the voice of Canada should
be potent, or even decisive.
" The government has already taken this position
and it has been practicaUy conceded by the actual
constitution of the present high commission. Action
in accordance with this is caUed for now. The action
hinted at would do us good in many ways, would
be popular with the militia, and in line with what
Britain is doing.
" In mentioning the above three points I have
had in view a policy that would show due liberality
to our boys, forethought and initiative. That a dis-
416

IMPERIALISM
tinct pohcy is caUed for, and that the government
should lead in it, and not have it forced on them,
seems to me too clear for argument."
His national pride was deeply wounded at the
rejection of his proposals.
To G. R. Parkin, May 29th, 1900.— "I quite
agree with you that there should be no excessive
elation over what we have done in the war. I do
not see why there should be. Australia and New
Zealand have done far more than we in proportion
to their population, and their men went to the field
better prepared than ours. The whole cost to us wiU
be about half a mUlion sterling, a flea-bite com
pared to the cost of the war and to what we get
from Britain. When the war is over, I shaU do aU
I can to get our government to repay to Britain
every doUar our soldiers have cost her. We should
give, not a partial, but a complete gift, if we do
give httle."
In his last pubhc address, delivered in Convoca
tion HaU to the students, on January 6th, 1902, he
spoke stiU more bitterly: — "At the present moment
our position is not one to be proud of. From a war,
— to the justice of which our parhament had un
necessarily pledged itself, while both sides were
engaged in peaceful negotiations ; the justice of
which has been repeatedly affirmed by the prime
minister and parliament ; and in which we took
active part enthusiastically at the outset, — we have
quietly withdrawn, leaving the enormous cost in
417

PRINCIPAL GRANT
blood and treasure to be borne by the senior part
ner. True, we are permitting a few hundreds to be
recruited for service, but on conditions that make
our position more deplorable than ever. We are not
to pay a cent of the cost 1 We give the bravest of
our children to die by the buUet or stUl deadlier
enteric ; but some one else must pay their wages.
We do not grudge the blood of our sons, but with
a treasury so fuU that we can go on paying mUlions
for bounties and bonuses to develop resources which
are said to be the richest in the world,— we grudge
food, clothing and transport for them. Let 'the
weary Titan,' bearing on her back aU the common
burdens of the empire in peace and war, be at this
charge also. Let Canada accept the blood money
without a blush. This state of things cannot con
tinue. The empire must be practically as weU as
nominally united. That principle I continue to hold
as axiomatic, if we are a nation in any sense ; I
might say, if we are honest men, in any sense."
And on April 1st, 1902, in one of his last letters,
he writes to the Rev. Salem Bland, of Ottawa : —
" Thanks for your utterance on the paltry attitude
of the government and opposition ; and there is not
a single man in parhament who has the pluck to
utter the real voice of Canada. It is doubly neces
sary for men who would otherwise keep quiet to
speak out. I felt keenly the beggarly way in which
we sent our last poor contingent, but the answer of
the government to Chamberlain's invitation to dis-
418

IMPERIALISM
cuss matters of general interest was worse. And yet
not a man on either side to speak out ! I was glad
Parkin and Denison gave expression in different
ways to their feelings, but am stiU gladder that
you felt it your duty to speak as you did. The
pulpit refrains too much from dealing with national
affairs."

419

CHAPTER XXI
LAST DAYS
IN 1899 Grant decided that the time had come
for a change in the constitution and in the
status of Queen's, a change apparently so decisive,
and even so contradictory to her history and pre
vious affiliations, that it took aU his influence to
convince the trustees and the graduates of its wis
dom. Of its necessity, and of its harmony with his
watchword of " evolution, not revolution," he was
convinced ; but he admitted that in tracing the
underlying continuity of sentiment the external
vestments of the truth had to be discarded. The
continuity was one of reality, but unfortunately not
of forms.
Queen's in 1899 differed from Queen's of 1841 or
of 1874 in more than in numbers. The powers of the
council, which represented the graduate body, had
been enlarged, and in particular it had been granted
the right of electing five trustees, who were not
necessarUy, or indeed usuaUy, Presbyterians. Several
of the faculty and the majority of the students were
not members of that church. The training of young
men for the Presbyterian ministry was no longer
the most important branch of her work. Her arts
graduates numbered more than eleven hundred, and
421

PRINCIPAL GRANT
in the province twenty per cent, of the teachers in
the high schools and coUegiate institutes had been
trained within her waUs. She had thus become a
provincial, indeed, a national institution.1 Confed
eration had entrusted education to the care of the
provinces, and Grant felt it time for the govern
ment of Ontario to give direct financial recognition
to the work which Queen's was doing so efficiently.
This help was indeed becoming a necessity. The
resources of her old constituency had been ex
hausted, and though the loyalty of the graduates
was as enthusiastic as ever, their means were inade
quate to support her upon a large scale. Practical
science had been admitted to a share in the affec
tions of the university, and was proving a terribly
expensive mistress. Grant's own health was failing,
and a campaign such as that of 1878 or 1887 was
out of the question. Outwardly as buoyant as ever,
talking cheerily of a year's leave of absence and a
visit to Palestine, he knew that the shadow was
creeping closer, and a great desire came over him
1 In the autumn of 1903, four hundred and sixty-nine out of eight
hundred and fifty-three students were non-Presbyterians. The figures
were : — Presbyterians  384
Anglicans  123
Methodists  236
Roman Catholics  67
Baptists  16
Congregationalists  14
Others  13 469
853
422

LAST DAYS
to place the university on a secure financial footing
ere the end came. " Queen's lives," he said once to
his son, "but she lives by having kiUed MacKerras
and by having half killed me." He braced him
self for a last attempt to give her security by win
ning the governmental recognition she so well de
served. For a number of years the government had
showed itself ready to aid higher education at
Kingston, had expressly avowed its satisfaction
if its grants incidentally or indirectly benefited
Queen's, but had carefully insisted on a nominal
separation between Queen's and the institutions
receiving aid. The impression prevailed in some
quarters that she resorted to indirect means to gain
state aid. It would be more correct to say that the
Ontario government resorted to indirect means to
aid the university. It has been shown that the de
lay in affiliating the School of Mining was caused
by the virtual command of Sir Oliver Mowat, who
expressly suggested that the closer connection could
be effected after an interval.
Though refusing to admit that the giving or
refusing of aid to denominational institutions was
other than a question of expediency, Grant did not
seriously attempt to revive the issue. For state aid
he was wUling to make the sacrifice of severing the
technical connection between the university and
the church. But partly unconsciously, partly with
deliberate intent, the University of Toronto had
423

PRINCIPAL GRANT
succeeded in identifying the question of aid to de
nominational institutions with that of the existence
of more than one provincial university. The original
grant of land by the province in 1797 for " semin
aries" had been wholly appropriated by Toronto,
and on Grant's first open attempt to raise the new
issue, his desire to obtain aid for a second provincial
university in Kingston was dexterously confused
with a scheme to revive the old issue of aid to
denominational coUeges. " What of Ottawa Uni
versity ? " it was asked, " and the university at
London ? Should the province aid them also ? "
"Certainly," was the reply. "Whenever, and not
till when, they are doing a large proportion of the
work of the province, and are wUling to become not
only in fact but in name, undenominational."
Grant's real reason for the change lay in the atti
tude of the Presbyterian Church. The union of 1875
had distinctly stipulated that no obhgation should
be laid upon the United Church for the appointment
of trustees in arts, or for the maintenance of that
faculty. Even the loose connection which was main
tained seemed too close for a section who held that
it was undesirable for the church under any cir
cumstances to embark upon work which more pro
perly fell to the civil power. The fusion of the four
churches remained far from complete in aU edu
cational interests. Support even to the theological
faculty was given grudgingly, and was usually in
arrears of the sum fixed by the Assembly. In 1879,
424

LAST DAYS
and for several years after, a scheme was discussed
in the Assembly for founding a national Presby
terian university, a paper body to confer degrees
in theology. The motive which inspired the sup
porters of this idea was certainly not friendliness
to Queen's. The widening of her constitution, par
tial in theory, complete in practice, was looked on
with suspicion.
Grant's liberal views in questions of doctrine had
won for him the reputation of being dangerous,
and his growing prominence as an advocate of the
modern school of historical criticism gave not a
httle offence. The difference came to a head in
1892. In May and June of that year, an attack
was made upon Queen's in the Toronto press by
Mr. Mortimer Clark, a prominent lawyer, president
of the board of trustees of Knox CoUege, and an
influential member of the Assembly. When the
Assembly met, and the report of Queen's for the
past year was presented, Mr. Clark moved that a
committee be named to confer with the trustees of
Queen's, and to "recommend some scheme whereby
the appointment, control and removal of professors
in the theological faculty of Queen's College, and
also the direction and regulation of teaching of
the theological department of that coUege, shall be
vested in the General Assembly as fully and to the
same extent as they now are vested in it in the
cases of Knox and Montreal CoUeges." His com
plaint was that the Assembly had at present no
425

PRINCIPAL GRANT
control over the appointments made by the trus
tees to the theological faculty, further than that
the appointees be Presbyterian ministers, and that
five of the appointing trustees need not even be
members of the church.
Grant's reply was long remembered. So com
plete was his victory that in the opinion of many
he went too far and forced them to feel a certain
sympathy for the unhappy victim. Step by step
he traced the history of Queen's, and showed how
faithful she had been to the church, how careful
to make no move without the approval of the As
sembly. "The great point that we are aU agreed
on is that the legislation of 1874 was obtained
openly and constitutionally, that the negotiating
churches knew of it, and that no opposition to
it was made from any quarter whatsoever. What
was the object of the Act of 1874 ? It was of
ficially stated that it was to 'increase the effici
ency and extend the usefulness of the coUege.'
That was the precise object which the biU of 1889
contemplated, and Mr. Clark admits that the legis
lation of 1889 was weU calculated to secure the
object. It was good legislation, he says ; good for
Queen's as a great institution of learning ; but he
adds, 'we as Presbyterians cannot look at it from
that point of view.' If an enemy of the church
used such an expression we should accuse him of
hbelhng Presbyterianism. As Mr. Clark has used
it, I shaU only point out to him that in 1874 'we
426

LAST DAYS
as Presbyterians ' did look at it from that point of
view, and I shaU prove too, that the General As
sembly, in 1885 and 1889, also looked at it from
the same point of view. The only answer that Mr.
Clark can possibly make to these historical facts is
the plea of the famous juryman who complained
that he had never in the course of his long hfe met
men so obstinate as his eleven coUeagues ! "
In his peroration he rose to a height of indignant
eloquence, and sat down, leaving Mr. Clark, in the
words of an eye-witness, "the dazed possessor of a
purely imaginary grievance." Never again did any
one dare to chaUenge the adoption of the report
of the trustees of Queen's. But her friends felt
that, though Mr. Clark had put himself in the
wrong, it would be weU to remedy the defect to
which he had pointed, and a friendly discussion in
the Assembhes of 1893 and 1894 resulted in the
trustees voluntarily giving to the church a veto
upon aU theological appointments.
But though none dared again to rouse such an
antagonist, a large section of the church persisted
in its lukewarm attitude. To induce them to take
a warmer interest in " the Presbyterian university "
Grant strove in vain for over twenty years. The
General Assembly was as obdurate in refusing to
recognize any responsibility for Queen's as the On
tario government was to help a denominational
institution. Grant came at last to feel that it was
better to sever a connection which had become
427

PRINCIPAL GRANT
nominal, and to make the constitution of the uni
versity representative of the work it was doing.
Writing in Queen's Quarterly for October, 1900,
he says : —
" Since 1874 the church has ceased as a body to
recognize any responsibility for the maintenance
and development of the university. Harmony has
indeed existed between the church and the gradu
ates as to what consitutes a right ideal of education
for clergy and laity alike; and this may have been
a more vital force than a formal connection would
have been. But there is no church organization to
which we can appeal for defence or support, al
though the nominal connection with the church
which stiU exists must always make it difficult for
many graduates to feel the fuU measure of their
responsibility, while it prevents municipalities in
eastern Ontario, or the government and legislature
of the province, from voting the direct aid which
otherwise could be legitimately sought from them.
Such aid would be construed by denominational
institutions into a ground for granting aid to them
selves. That question was settled thirty years ago,
and could not be re-opened."
With the apathy which he found in the church,
with the readiness with which it assented to his
proposals, he was surprised and disappointed. Not a
dissentient voice was raised. This apathy was per
haps more apparent than real, and was in a large
measure due to a feeling of the hopelessness of op-
428

I, AST DAYS
posing him in any measure connected with Queen's
upon which he had set his heart. The consummate
diplomacy with which he conducted the negotia
tions increased this feeling of hopelessness. The
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada,
though not so fully controlled as that of the Church
of Scotland by a "round-the- table oligarchy," is
swayed by a few recognized leaders. Of these Grant
was one.
"In the Scottish Assemblies," writes Principal
Gordon, "it is customary for a very limited num
ber of acknowledged leaders to speak upon a sub
ject, and, after they have discussed it, so httle
remains to be said that it is time to take the vote.
The Canadian General Assembly does not care to
acknowledge leaders, and it hstens attentively to
any one, however young or old, who can throw
light upon the subject under discussion. Yet, of
necessity, some members come to the front by
reason of their special fitness to be there. Famihar
with the work and having quick perception of the
bearings of any question, they see the proper course
while others are still in search of it, and shape a
suitable resolution before others have quite taken
in the situation. This kind of ability is often of
more value than great debating power, and it wins
the reward of being foUowed. By virtue of it men
like Dr. Grant and Dr. Caven come to be looked
to as pathfinders, and their words are waited for by
those of less experience. 429

PRINCIPAL GRANT
"Few were as familiar as Principal Grant with
the various departments of the church's work. For
years a member of the foreign mission committee,
he rendered signal service to the mission cause by
his excellent articles on 'Our Five Foreign Mis
sions,' published first in the Toronto Globe, and
afterwards in pamphlet form for general circula
tion. Owing to his intimate acquaintance with
Canada from sea to sea, and his personal know
ledge of the vast prairie region, he could discuss
with expert intelligence the needs and plans and
efforts of home missions. None were more closely
in touch with the educational interests of the church,
or followed with keener attention the reports on
church life and work. Perhaps the only scheme of
the church on which he never spoke in the Assem
bly was that of French evangehzation, a work with
which he had no sympathy, but which, from a sense
of loyalty, he would not actively oppose."
In the present negotiations Grant succeeded in
enlisting on his side the leaders of the various sec
tions in the church, and the rank and file submitted,
though, as after events have shown, not without
mistrust. In the Assembly of 1900, after the report
from Queen's had been presented, Grant moved
that the Assembly defer further action until a com
mittee had considered the constitutional changes
suggested. This was seconded by Principal Mac-
Vicar, of the Montreal Theological College. The
convener of the committee was Dr. John Thomp-
430

LAST DAYS
son, of Sarnia, whose unfailing sagacity had won
him a high place in the councils of the church. The
report of this committee, which was unanimously
adopted, stated in general terms that the Assembly
"would approve of any well-considered change in
the constitution of the university, which would still
further increase its usefulness by making the body
of trustees more completely representative of the
undenominational character of the work which it is
at present doing." A committee was appointed to
confer with the trustees of the university as to de
tails ; of this committee the convener was the Very
Rev. WiUiam Caven, principal of Knox CoUege, the
most cautious, influential, and enlightened member
of the former Canada Presbyterian wing of the
church. To winning him over Grant successfuUy
bent all his powers.
On November 1st and 2nd, 1900, the corporators
of the university were called together in Convoca
tion HaU for the first time since the foundation of
the university, and two long sessions were held of
the trustees, senate, council, graduates, benefactors,
and corporators.
The meeting was stormy, and not tiU the close of
the second day did it come round to Grant's views.
Many representatives of the Old Kirk, whose loy
alty would not let them oppose their recognized
leader in the Assembly, now spoke out. The uni
versity had been founded with a certain object in
view. To cease directly to pursue that object was
431

PRINCIPAL GRANT
treason to the pious founders and benefactors. Grant
himself felt that to render the university undenom
inational, and to change the theological faculty into
an affihated college, was open to serious objections.
The professors of theology objected to the loss of
status involved./ Integral connection with a great
university enabled the students of divinity "to see
hfe steadily, and see it whole," to retain during
their theological studies a zeal for general culture,
and the ability to pursue post-graduate work. Even
more important was the influence of the divinity
faculty, direct and indirect, upon the whole uni
versity. No university in Canada had so free and
untrammelled a spirit, yet none was so reverent and
devout. This last consideration Grant felt strongly.
Writing to Principal Caven, he says: ''Nothing
would compensate me for any weakening of the
religious life of Queen's; and I see no practical
guarantee for the maintenance of that so great as
the close relations which have existed in the past
between our arts and theological students. 'V
PersonaUy, he looked favourably on a plan which
has been adopted in several universities in Germany
and in the United States, of retaining the faculty of
theology, but making it undenominational, studying
theology as freely and scientificaUy as philosophy or
'J mathematics. But for this he felt that the religious
sentiment of Canada was not prepared, and to re
tain a Presbyterian faculty of theology in an unde
nominational university he saw to be impossible. In
432

LAST DAYS
spite of these doubts, he continued his advocacy
of the main plan, until graduaUy the convention
came around to his view, some convinced, others
silenced, and a practically unanimous vote was
registered in favour of the change.
The winter was taken up with negotiations.
The Assembly's committee was conferred with on
several occasions. Numerous interviews with the
premier and the leader of the opposition made it
almost certain that if the project were consum
mated the claims of Queen's would be recognized.
At the Assembly of 1901, the report of the
committee was presented by Principal Caven; its
adoption was moved by Professor D. M. Gordon,1
of Hahfax, the most universally trusted of the
Old Kirk leaders; the seconder was Dr. Thomp
son, of Sarnia. Opposition was hopeless, and the
resolutions in favour of the change were unani
mously carried. The consent of the corporators and
of the church having been won, the ratification of
the change by the Dominion parhament was now
necessary, and a biU was drawn up embodying the
ideas which had graduaUy been shaping themselves
in Grant's mind. Control was to be vested, as be
fore, in the trustees. Of the new board, some mem
bers were to be chosen by and from the former
trustees, and vacancies were to be filled by coopta-
tion; an increased number were to be elected by
the graduates as represented in the university coun-
1 Now the principal of Queen's University.
433

PRINCIPAL GRANT
cil; one member (with the title of Lord Rector)
was to be elected by the undergraduates ; the aid
given by the city of Kingston was to be recognized
by giving it representation; the minister of educa
tion was to be a member, and in the event of the
province coming to the aid of the university, the
government was to be stUl further recognized. Di
vinity HaU was to be erected into a separate col
lege, placed under the direct control of the church,
and affiliated with the university. Were this done,
it would be perfectly open to any other church to
estabhsh a theological haU of its own in connection
with Queen's, and in fact a project was debated by
Kingston Anghcans of opening a Church of Eng
land seminary in affiliation with the university.
Each affiliated coUege or haU was to be repre
sented on the trustee board by its principal.
All seemed favourable. His own election to the
position of principal of the new institution was
;secure; his half-laughing suggestion to the Assem
bly that the new trustees might deem it necessary
to offer him up as a holocaust was dismissed with
out remark. He had selected a head for the new
theological coUege, the church was quiescent, the
attitude of both government and opposition satis
factory. In a few months aU would have been com
pleted, when the final stage of the negotiations was
thrown into confusion by his sudden death.1
1 The Assembly of 1903 reversed his policy, and referred back to a
committee the whole question of the relations of Queen's to the church.
434

LAST DAYS
In 1896 renewed attacks of pain forced him to
undergo the first of what proved to be a series of
operations. In 1899 he grew steadily worse. On
January 1st, 1901, his wife died, and he sought
respite from grief in overwork. Writing to his sis
ter, in February, he says: "I am thankful for steady
work. It more than anything else is a blessing; for
it keeps me from vain mourning, and too much in
trospection. To-day I have given three addresses on
the queen, at the university, at the joint meeting of
the four Presbyterian Churches, and at night in the
Armouries to over three thousand people, besides
a funeral address for one of our people who was
kiUed by an ice-boat. I preach to-morrow forenoon
and lecture on Monday, so I have not much time
for twenty letters I have to write before going to
bed." In 1901, to the constant strain of the negotia
tions relative to the new constitution was added a
course of lectures which he delivered during June
and July at Chatauqua, and the disagreeable duties
of a campaign among the somewhat unsympathetic
farmers of Frontenac county. On March 11th, the
death of his old friend, Professor Macdonald, of
Dalhousie University, increased the solitude of his
private life. Towards the end of July he crossed the
ocean to Britain to obtain sea-air, and to consult a
specialist. Much of his time, however, was occupied
At the moment of writing the position of the university is still in doubt
See report in the Kingston and Toronto press of February 9th, 1904.
435

PRINCIPAL GRANT
in the search for a suitable professor of French and
Italian, the trustees having deemed it advisable to
reinforce the over-worked professor of modern lan
guages. After some weeks spent in Dundee with
his brother, and in the Highlands, at the beginning
of September he returned to Canada. On his rail
way journey to Liverpool the weather was bitterly
cold, and Grant lent first his plaid and then his
overcoat to a poor woman in the compartment. A
serious chiU resulted, wliich struck inward, and
which grew worse on shipboard, owing to his be
coming overheated while playing shovel-board. In
Kingston he was carried from his house to the
hospital, and so serious was his condition that the
doctors told him to prepare for the worst. "My
work is not yet done," he gasped faintly. For sev
eral days worry arising from a curious source les
sened his chances. The tour through Canada of
the Duke and Duchess of York had been signal
ized by the bestowal of the customary honours,
and on his arrival at Quebec the sick man was
greeted with the news that he had been created
C.M.G. To the acceptance of titles by the clergy
Grant entertained strong objection, modelling his
views on those of Norman Macleod. From at least
one former governor-general he had declined the
honour, and that he was now compeUed to accept
the gift preyed on his shattered nerves. Against
the orders of his doctors he insisted on consulting
friends, and only became reconciled when persuaded
436

LAST DAYS
that the honour was a recognition of the work done
not by himself, but by the university. For a week
he lay between life and death. GraduaUy his wiU
puUed him through. During his convalescence he
was visited in the hospital by the duke and duchess,
an unpremeditated act of kindness and courtesy
which did much throughout Canada to increase the
popularity of the royal pair. He was also gratified by
the response of His Royal Highness to the degree
which was conferred upon him by the university.
"I value highly," said the duke, "the honour you
have conferred upon me. The Dominion has ad
vanced wonderfully in educational matters. It was
a wise and far-seeing pohcy to estabhsh many seats
of learning. I am glad to learn that our university
is carrying on most successfuUy its share in this
work of placing higher education and culture within
the reach of aU."
By December Grant was able to preside at meet
ings of the senate. On January 6th, 1902, he deliv
ered his last pubhc address. The next two months
were occupied with unresting activities, but a fresh
attack early in March drove him again to the hos
pital Again his wih brought him back to hfe. His
nerve and muscles were stUl unskaken. "You have
the arteries of a young man," said his doctor; "if
we can conquer the local ailment you are good for
thirty years."
He recovered sufficiently to carry out in person
aU arrangements for the university convocation, 437

PRINCIPAL GRANT
and on April 27th conducted the devotional exer
cises preceding the baccalaureate sermon preached
by his friend, Professor Clark, of Trinity Univer
sity. The lesson was the fifth chapter of I Thes
salonians, and as he read the strangely fitting words,
his deep voice had a note of special tenderness,
as if he felt that for him "the day of the Lord" was
very near. On Tuesday and Wednesday he was un
able to attend the closing exercises, and on Mon
day, May 5th, his condition became so serious that
his only surviving son was sent for. Two speciahsts
hurriedly summoned from Toronto pronounced his
case hopeless, but thought that an operation might
give temporary relief. It was performed on Monday
afternoon, and a measure of consciousness returned.
So strong was he that for some days he seemed to
improve, and the doctors ventured to hope. On
Tuesday night the watcher by the bedside caught
the whispered prayer : " Give me a chance ; O my
God, give me a chance." But the long fight was
almost over. During Friday night he sank rapidly,
and on Saturday morning it was evident that the
end was near. His breath came slower and slower.
Once he seemed to rouse for a moment. " Get it
done, get it done quickly," he said, his thoughts
wandering amid former scenes of work and conflict.
After a moment he looked up into the face of his
son, smiled faintly, and then with his wife's name
upon his lips, he feU asleep.
On May 13th, just forty years after his induction
438

LAST DAYS
to the pastorate of St. Matthew's, his body was
carried to its last rest. The funeral service was con
ducted in Convocation HaU, the exercises being
read by Professor Ross, the senior member of the
theological faculty, and the sermon preached by the
Rev. Robert H. Warden, moderator of the Presby
terian Church in Canada. The throngs that filled the
haU and lined the streets showed how completely
he had won the respect and affection of his towns
men, of his province and of his country. Not even
at the death of Sir John Macdonald had Kingston
seen gathered together so many representatives of
different creeds and political parties and walks of
hfe. Beyond the city, on the sun-ht slopes of the
little hill which forms Cataraqui Cemetery, aU that
is mortal of him was laid to rest.

439

CHAPTER XXII
WITH THE STUDENTS
THE finest aspect of Grant's nature, the side on
which he touched true greatness, lay in his
deep love for his feUow-men, and in his confidence
that to aU reasonable appeals they would fuUy re
spond. This side of his character came out strongly
in his deahngs with his students. His love for them
was deep. He dealt with them often by way of ap
peal, seldom, if ever, by compulsion. They were in
a very real sense his " boys," as he fondly caUed
them, and he to them a father. When his wife
died, the only tears which he shed other than in
sohtude, were drawn from him by the sympathy
of the great councU of the students, the Alma
Mater Society. When the session of the medical
faculty began in the autumn of 1901, and their
new building was opened, he was too weak to raise
his head from the piUow ; but against the command
of his doctors, he insisted on gasping to his son a
few words of greeting " to my boys of the medical
faculty."1
1 "Ten days ago one of your professors told me to look into the
kingdom of darkness. I did so steadily and found nothing to terrify.
But several truths were impressed upon me, one or two of which I give
you. Never was I so much impressed with the advantage of having
distinct centres of medical education, or with the generosity of your
441

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Like all wise fathers and statesmen, he believed
firmly in letting well enough alone. The behaviour
of the student body at Queen's was a triumph of
democracy. They governed themselves and they
governed themselves weU. This tradition Grant did
not originate. Long anterior to his coming, it was
the chief secret of that fervid loyalty shown by the
students to their university in the darkest hours of
her history. But it was continued and broadened
under Grant's principalship, and guided by him
through the difficulties caused by increasing num
bers, and the separation of the various faculties in
the different buildings. Asked if he did not find it
difficult to control the youths who poured in annu
aUy from the farms and rural viUages, full of the
new-world distrust for constituted authority, he
replied, "We teach them to control themselves."
Very seldom was the influence of the senate directly
exerted upon the discipline of the university. Such
matters were left in the hands of the Alma Mater
Society, the yEsculapian Society, or the various

professors. The old pagan idea that matter is evil and the body worth
less is only now giving way to the Christian idea of the sacredness of
the body and the high duty of understanding its mystery. As to your
selves, for the sake of all that is noble and worthy, take your profession
seriously, as the students of divinity take theirs. If you cannot do that,
drop it and seek some honest way of making a living.- It is awful to
think that men, women and children should be at the mercy of irrev
erent and half-taught young doctors. I pledge myself that hereafter,
for your own sakes and for the sake of humanity, I shall try to let no
such student pass our examinations. God help you to lay this word to
your hearts."
442

WITH THE STUDENTS
Concursus. This apparent lack of supervision some
times led to outbursts which a doctrinaire or a
martinet would have felt constrained to resent;
but the general record of the students during
twenty-five years has justified Grant's confidence.
The only serious outbreaks originated on the rare
occasions on which his hot temper got the better of
him. Once his attempt at a university function to
keep order by the aid of two policemen was met —
rightly, as he soon came to admit — by the turning
out of hghts and the breaking of benches. There
after the maintenance of order in the students'
gaUery was entrusted to the iEsculapian Society
and to the Alma Mater, and trouble ceased. Once,
even his stentorian voice failed to roar down the
half-laughing, half-indignant gaUery. But in twenty-
five years of relations which both his own warm
nature and the necessities of the university rendered
speciaUy intimate, there were but two or three such
faUures. WhUe as far as possible he abstained from direct
interference in the discipline of the university, while
to the tales which were brought to him (some by
credulous freshmen, others by over-ardent members
of the staff) he almost invariably turned a deaf ear,
on the few occasions when acts of meanness or of
dishonesty necessitated his intervention, no culprit
ever craved the lash a second time. His eloquence,
his natural dignity, and his fine scorn for all that
was base or ignoble, made his occasional rebukes
443

PRINCIPAL GRANT
hve long in the memory of aU who heard them.
When compeUed to curtail the liberty of the whole
student body, his personal magnetism, his unflinch
ing courage, and his instinct for leadership carried
him through the most trying situations. An eye
witness gives the foUowing account of what threat
ened to be a serious quarrel : —
" In the old days when the medical coUege was a
separate institution, the Meds. used to have what
was styled a 'den.' The gatherings which took place
in the den had come to have a decidedly bad name,
and when the coUeges were affiliated, the principal
intimated that no more such occurrences were to
take place. This announcement was regarded by
the medical students as a trespass upon their pre
rogatives by a foreign court, to which they were
not disposed to submit ; and they proceeded to set
the fiat at naught. The principal informed the
president of the ^Esculapian Society that he wished
to address the medical students, and a meeting was
called. Everybody knew what it meant. RebeUion
was the word, and any one that wants to pit himself
against a mass meeting of medicals in such a frame
of mind is either a very brave or a very tactless per
son. Were there any cat-caUs? No, I don't think so,
though there may have been one or two before
he was introduced. Had he begun as some coUege
presidents might have done, there would have been
pandemonium in five minutes ; but with the usual
fairmindedness of students, they waited to hear
444

WITH THE STUDENTS
what he would say. He fooled them completely.
Instead of beginning in vituperation, he put them
off their guard by an unexpectedly complimentary
vein of interesting and flattering wit. Before they
knew it, they were applauding his remarks roundly
and had quite forgotten their proper hostile atti
tude. After a few minutes, when he had gained
complete control, he graduaUy and ingeniously
changed the form of his remarks, untU finaUy he
wound up by giving the whole medical student
body such a sound trouncing, metaphoricaUy speak
ing, as they had never imagined themselves capable
of experiencing. He concluded amid applause, and
the meetings in the den ceased."
So wide-spread and pervasive was his influence
that what was from one point of view a demo
cracy was from another a benevolent despotism.
He worked upon the students through their lead
ers. An after-dinner chat with the president of the
Alma Mater Society, a short conference in his
study with the officers of the Concursus, or ath
letic committee, originated many movements in
which the students httle suspected his guiding
hand. He was accessible to aU ; any who came for
advice received it gladly, often reinforced by an
anecdote from his own coUege days; though any
whom hesitation or mistaken pohteness prompted
to remain after the completion of their business
found the interview concluded with such celerity
that it became a joke among the undergraduates 445

PRINCIPAL GRANT
that none of them had ever closed a conversation
with him. At the beginning of a term his house was
always full of freshmen, who, coming in search of
advice, received an invitation to remain until they
had found suitable boarding-houses. Those from a
distance who were unable to leave the city during
the Christmas vacation found the door of the prin
cipal's house ever open. At such times his love for
Nova Scotia came out. Though he was too wise to
show favouritism, no Christmas passed without a
specially warm invitation to the lads from the east
to share his Christmas dinner. But during the ses
sion he confined his intimacy chiefly to his own
divinity students and to those of special influence
in the other faculties. His hold upon the leaders in
the social, athletic, and hterary world of the univer
sity was thus very intimate, and enabled him to
feel the pulse and to direct the counsels of a body
of students whose numbers and diversity of inter
ests were steadUy increasing. His natural character
istics fitted him to be popular with young men.
The old footbaU captain took the keenest interest
in their sports. He could often be seen dash
ing from the upper to the lower campus, so as to
see as much as possible of two games proceeding
simultaneously. To the last the current of joyous
life ran strong in his veins. In 1900 he spent some
days camping with a number of young people. He
won their swimming races, took a leading part in
their practical jokes, and joined lustily in their
443

WITH THE STUDENTS
camp-fire songs. In 1886, while in Cape Breton, he
entered into a foot-race, and, much to their chagrin,
outran, though in clerical attire, a number of young
feUows who were in training for the championship
of the county. Their equanimity was soon restored
by his hearty manner and frank good-humour.
To a very extraordinary extent he possessed the
pohtician's gift of remembering names, faces, and
anecdotes. Before Christmas he could caU by name
any student in any faculty, and in most cases dis
cuss with him the character of the leading men in
his section of the country. To his divinity students
entering upon work in the mission fields of the
church, or in a settled pastorate, he was a perfect
encyclopaedia, telling them from what coUeagues
they could expect help, which elders would require
delicate handling, on what shaUows and quicksands
their predecessors had made shipwreck, or to what
virtues they owed their special success. With all
graduates, and especiaUy those in theology, he kept
in touch to a wonderful degree. The foUowing letter
is one of many such which might be quoted: —
To the Rev. R. E. Knowles, February 19th,
1898. — "I heard to-day by a letter from Dr. Smith
of your caU to Gait, which, of course, you wUl ac
cept, and I must write you a line, not so much to
congratulate as to inspire you a httle with what I
conceive to be the spirit in which such a charge
should be undertaken.
"You are now at the real beginning of your
447

PRINCIPAL GRANT
career, and you need wisdom from God as you
never needed it before. I said recently that the
man who never made a mistake will never make
anything. If you see now any mistakes you have
made in the past, examine earnestly the cause
in yourself, and place a guard there. 'Experience
teaches fools' — no, that is a foohsh saying. Ex
perience teaches wise men. It is the characteristic
of fools that they wiU not be taught.
"I know enough of Gait to know that it is about
the most difficult, and, therefore, the most honour
able position in the church. You wiU be beset by
pitfalls on every hand. You can escape them by
being resolutely sUent, even when you think you
should speak. Do not attempt too much. Do not
trust to your readiness in extemporizing. Give a
definite portion of time to systematic and hard
reading. It is a splendid field that is before you,
and I am very anxious that you should be a suc
cess. But in such a field success cannot be pushed.
It can only be won by wise, patient, consistent,
faithful work, done always 'in the great Task
master's eye.' Popularity during the first year wiU
be a snare and no help. Oh, I beseech you, my dear
friend, cultivate humility, self-suppression to the
point of unconsciousness of self, and a passionate
desire for the highest good of your people.
"I will not say more, but I am earnestly praying
for you."
In spite of the other duties which prevented
448

WITH THE STUDENTS
him from devoting to his work as primarius pro
fessor of divinity the time which he would fain
have given, to many the hours spent in his class
room are among the most precious in their lives.
Many who had previously looked upon him with
suspicion, who had esteemed him unsound in the
faith, over-clever, Jesuitical, came there to feel how
essentiaUy sincere and candid he was. His heart
was in the work. Every student felt that he was
face to face with a man who thought far too
nobly of the work of the Christian ministry to be
other than sincere in directing the studies of those
who were to be its servants. They might agree with
his conclusions or not. For their agreement he cared
httle ; to proselytise he made no attempt; if a stu
dent could be led to approach his studies with
sincerity, with freedom from preconception, with
the determination to welcome light from whatever
quarter the God of hght might send it, Grant was
weU satisfied. More than one whose unsuccessful
career in arts had caused him to enter Divinity HaU
in the state of mind of a sulky apprentice, was
roused to zeal for better things by the principal's
unstinted praise for every man who was doing his
best, quite irrespective of his theological point of
view. His lectures were written with great care, and were
revised yearly tUl the book became almost unintel
ligible, when they were either re-copied, or whoUy
re- written. They show familiarity with the processes
449

PRINCIPAL GRANT
and the results of modern scholarship in Scotland,
Germany, and America, and are full of references
to the most recent authorities. Sometimes, how
ever, at the end of a course which had lasted during
three weeks or a month, his manifold occupations
would compel him to enter upon a week or a fort
night of marking time, after which another course
would be begun. These periods of marking time,
though rendered necessary by the demands of the
principalship, were not the least instructive part of
his work in the class-room. He held " quizzes," and
conducted unconventional oral examinations, read
them his latest theological article, or instituted a
class in "ordinances," and held rehearsals of the
various departments of the church's ritual The
terminal examination papers he set and read with
the greatest care ; the same care was given to read
ing essays, on whose regular composition he always
insisted. His examinations were unconventional,
and the questions often caUed more for common
sense or religious insight than for exact verbal
knowledge of his lectures.
While a competent scholar, widely read along
certain lines, and with his knowledge weU under
control, he had not the type of mind of the pure
scholar. Matters of no hving importance he was apt
to pass over. For the accuracy which busies itself
over trifles he was not without admiration, but he
had httle of it himself. On one occasion the class
were requested to write a note on Galatians ii. 3.
450

WITH THE STUDENTS
"But not even Titus who was with me, being a
Greek, was compeUed to be circumcised." Scholars
have long debated whether the verse imphes that
Titus underwent the operation of free wiU, or that
it was remitted by the wise hberality of the elders
at Jerusalem. Some of the students found out which
view Grant had taken during a previous session,
and without consulting authorities or taking any
further trouble, announced their decision. Promptly
seeing what had occurred, the principal adopted
and argued with great force for the other view,
evidently feeling that sincerity and hard work were
of more value than scholastic accuracy. But though
he could thus change his opinion on questions
which he considered trivial, he never used a doubt
ful text to support an argument without confes
sing that there was a varia lectio or that the MSS.
were obscure, or that on its meaning authorities
differed. Much as he loved dialectics he was too
sincere to take any undue advantage of those, who,
hke himself, were strugghng towards the truth.

451

CHAPTER XXIII
WITH THE STAFF
"TN CANADA" writes Professor Cappon, "we
J- are coining, as in the United States, to make
great demands on the principal or president of a
university. A mere scholar or phUosopher, however
great, such as used to adorn the office in the old uni
versities of Europe, would be of little use to us at
present. It is true the principal must be something
of a scholar stUl, or his touch with the inteUectual
and spiritual side of the university would be feeble
and mischievous; but he must be stiU more of an
administrator and man of business, or the whole
machinery of a modern university with its compli
cated and sometimes conflicting interests is in danger
of getting out of gear. But this is not aU. He must
be something more than the scholar and administra
tor combined, he must be something in the nature
of a great public man with a voice that reaches the
ear of the country on aU great questions, always
ready to lead, always ready to take the platform.
Even were he to profess himself nothing but an
educationist, his duties in our day, when everything
must be proven to the satisfaction of a democratic
and self-governing community, take him out into
the pubhc arena. It is his work at once to adapt the
453

PRINCIPAL GRANT
university to the real needs of the age, and to edu
cate the people into a proper sense of what those
needs are. And that is a very difficult task in a time
when educational ideas are so unsettled and the dif-
erent relations of scientific, technical and hterary
education so Ul-defined and so Ul-understood by the
pubhc in general. He must keep his head amongst
the many tempting and popular, but often super
ficial theories of the day. He must hold the balance
fairly between the claims of classical, philosophi
cal, hterary and poetic culture, pure and apphed
science, practical and professional equipment, and
know how to give each its place without injury
to the others; or if he does not, the university he
guides wiU soon show in the undefined and imper
fect type of student it sends forth the results of an
iU-balanced ideal of education.
" In carrying out this work, Principal Grant and
the senate were in hearty cooperation. He had no
pet subjects or theories, but judged everything with
a free mind. His training in a Scottish university
and his studies as a professor of divinity had given
him a keen appreciation of the old arts course in
classics, literature and philosophy, but this was
fuUy balanced by his natural tendency to take hold
of modern practical things and to move in the
environment of his time. He hked always to be on
the crest of the wave, and had more of the poli
tician's instinct to make use of a popular movement
than of the scholar's to criticize it. In this way aU the
454

WITH THE STAFF
different educational interests embodied in Queen's
senate were impartially appreciated and very suc
cessfully harmonized by him. He managed, in spite
of great pecuniary difficulties, to stimulate and de
velop the side of practical science in Queen's while
maintaining its humanistic studies in aU their pres
tige and vigour."
The success of an independent university, such
as Queen's, depends to an altogether exceptional
extent upon the merits of its staff. Grant's multi
farious labours would have been useless had he
not gathered around him a band of scholars, many
of them eminent in their departments of study,
and aU fiUed with his own spirit of devotion to
the university. Not only was their regular work
performed with zeal and efficiency, but when any
new department of academic life was to be devel
oped, he always caUed on them, and never in vain.
Their zeal combined with his to make the Alumni
Conference a success ; for ten years they have sup
ported Queen's Quarterly, the one exclusively hter
ary magazine in Canada ; since 1890, no winter ses
sion has been without a series of Sunday afternoon
addresses, in part delivered by eminent clergymen
from a distance, in part by the principal and the
staff; for years he and several of his colleagues
carried on in Ottawa and in other centres univer
sity extension work of the most thorough and sys
tematic type.
" He was not only very energetic himself," writes
455

PRINCIPAL GRANT
a coUeague, " but he was very successful in stirring
every one near him into activity. He was quick to
see what use might be made of any qualifications
or talent in the staff, and prompt in calling them
into service. He was sagacious too in his manner of
doing it, mostly managing to get the best service
out of his man by providing tempting opportuni
ties. He never sought to increase the day's task of
the professor, but he drew him into all kinds of
extra-official work, conferences, lecturing, editing,
writing, which he could be tempted to take. He
knew that in this way he did more to spread the
influence of the university and develop the energies
of its staff than if he had added six weeks to the
session. He did nothing by constraint, although he
would occasionaUy mildly bulldoze a lethargic pro
fessor into taking his share in Sunday afternoon
addresses, or something of the sort. ' The Queen's
government must be carried on,' was one of his
most frequent sayings. He gave a cordial support
to every kind of activity on the part of a professor,
even if it seemed to encroach on other departments.
'I am glad,' I once heard him say in answer to some
remonstrance, 'to find a man doing part of my work;
there is plenty for me to do.' "
Rarely, if ever, did any of them refuse a request
from the principal, however much labour it involved.
They knew they were never asked to lead, but only
to follow. The idea that he was asking a favour of
any man, requesting him to perform an act of self-
456

WITH THE STAFF
sacrifice, was never mentioned, and probably seldom
occurred to him. If he himself were the best fitted
to carry out the task he took it upon him, no mat
ter how many other irons were in the fire ; if not,
he handed it over to that coUeague whom he con
sidered fittest. All knew that he himself was doing
three men's work, and doing it with unfailing cheer
fulness ; and aU were proud to foUow such a leader.
Once any work was entrusted to a coUeague he
was given an almost absolutely free hand. In his
class-room the professor reigned supreme. In plan
ning the details of his course, in recommending
text-books, in the amount of attention devoted to
any special branch of his subject, each man was
free. Only once or twice in his whole career did
the principal interfere in such matters, and then
only when the whole sense of the senate1 was with
him in doing so.
In matters of administration, he kept the many
strings almost entirely in his own hand. In later
years the trustees, the finance committee, aU the
various departments of university administration,
were simply mouth-pieces for his wiU, and came to
have such confidence in his sagacity that even where
some secretly were doubtful, aU were pubUcly un
animous. The system worked smoothly, not so much
because of the perfection of the machinery, but be
cause it was so entirely transfused with the person
ahty of one man. In dealing with the students or in
1 In Queen's the senate consists of the professors alone.
457

PRINCIPAL GRANT
any matter which he considered to come within the
sphere of the senate, his policy was one of extreme
democracy ; in matters of administration it might
almost have been caUed Caesarian. Against this
benevolent despotism some of his coUeagues occa
sionaUy murmured ; but he felt it best to do the
work for which he was so eminently fitted, leaving
them free to devote their energies and scholarship
to their respective departments. Yet on questions
which lay distinctly within their sphere he bent
readily to their opinion, and even in matters which
lay more outside of their province he willingly con
sulted them, and seldom did anything which was
against their judgment. In educational pohcy par
ticularly, his wisdom was generally the final extract
and essence of the senate's. But the more general
development of the university and the methods by
which its hold on its constituency and the general
public was strengthened, owed their character and
much of their success to his own remarkable energy
and ability.
"At the board of Queen's senate," says Professor
Cappon, "he was an excellent chairman, showing
none of that impatience or brusque interference
which he would occasionaUy display at other meet
ings. He knew exactly the form and scope which it
was most advantageous to give discussion, and was
very quick to see the bearing and value of any sug
gestion. On the whole he preferred to conduct busi
ness in the senate by familiar and informal discus-
458

WITH THE STAFF
sion, aUowing members considerable latitude in
the way of explanatory interruptions and frequent
speech. But under him this method never degener
ated into anything hke disorder. He knew whom
to give rope to, and had his own way of suppressing
irrelevancy and undue expansiveness. Yet at times
he would let even these go with a friendly laugh.
The result was as quick a despatch of business as
the nature of the case allowed. Under his guidance
the senate invariably found its best reason without
much loss of time. He always gave his own opinion,
and if he had the matter at heart, aUowed it to be
known early in the discussion. The essential har
mony which existed between Principal Grant and
the senate was never permanently disturbed by any
difference of opinion which might arise in discus
sion, even if it came to something hke a conflict, as
on rare occasions it might do. Disagreements were
only the disagreements of the occasion, which never
tended to prolong themselves beyond the occasion.
He was never tempted to make a principal's party
out of the members who were readiest to agree with
him, and he never allowed an opposing member of
the senate to feel that his opposition had in the
least compromised his usefulness for the future. The
staff as a whole consisted of very independent men,
some of a dehberate temper that was unaffected by
anything but the reason that appealed to them, some
very free of speech when they thought the occasion
required it, but I never knew the principal to cherish
459

PRINCIPAL GRANT
resentment on that account. The senate was to him
as a family council, and he knew that there was no
malice, no personal ill-wUl in any opposition he en
countered." Much of this unanimity was secured by previous
arrangement. If he desired any change, the men
involved were always consulted in advance ; so that
often httle remained for the senate save to register
decrees already decided upon. If disagreement arose,
or an unexpected proposal were made, it was shelved
tiU another meeting, and settled in the interim.
Awkward questions were referred to committees,
in whose composition he showed rare skiU. But the
real solvent of disputes was the confidence which
all felt ahke in the wisdom and fairness of their
head. "He was rather fond of ceremonial on great
public occasions," writes Professor Cappon, "the
more imposing the better. At such times he had a
fine gravity and impressiveness, yet always gave a
sense of reahty. Forms he used most in self-defence,
and readily over-rode them when they stood in
his way. On one occasion, I remember, when the
senate would have passed by a majority of one a
measure he disapproved of, he voted against it from
the chair, remarking, 'I, too, am a member of the
senate.'" On one question, and on one alone, was his
policy towards the staff other than hberal and con
siderate. To aU representations regarding the neces-
460

WITH THE STAFF
sity for an advance in salaries he turned a deaf ear.
He would, at most, consider individual cases on
their merits, and these grudgingly. "Every tub
stands on its own bottom here," was his reply to
a coUeague who urged him to consider a general
scheme of advance. "When I want fifty doUars for
anything," he rephed to another, "I write an arti
cle." Save for a few individual cases, the salary of a
professor at Queen's stood at his death at the same
amount as at his coming. "The same old thing year
after year," broke out one irate professor, "it would
be some rehef to the monotony if they would even
reduce it." In this and simUar matters he had some
thing of the remorselessness of great practical men
who feel that they must carry through great schemes
without too much consideration for individuals. The
resources of Queen's were scanty and unassured,
and he had to choose between raising salaries and
increasing the number of the staff. He chose the
latter alternative. To it he was predisposed by the
simphcity of his own hfe. Of his own stipend over
one-half went annuaUy in subscriptions to the uni- j
versity, and he saw no reason why any professor
should desire more than was sufficient to maintain
a respectable livelihood.
His long struggle to keep the head of the uni
versity above water had left its traces on him in
an impatience with considerations which he thought
sentimental or of a kind in which only institutions
more opulently circumstanced than Queen's could
461

PRINCIPAL GRANT
afford to indulge. On one occasion when a trus
tee had been successful in persuading the board
to vote, much against the principal's will, an honor
arium, or something of the kind, to a professor
who was leaving, Grant's features contracted in
the sarcastic way which at times marked them,
and he almost hissed into the ear of one who sat
next him, "It is devilish easy for a man to vote
away money he has never had the trouble of col
lecting." But though this pohcy cost Queen's one
or two of its professors, it was not only necessary,
but had, as he weU knew, advantages outweighing
its defects. The staff came to look on the university
as an institution for which it was their duty and
their privUege to make sacrifices, not as a task
master to be importuned for higher wages. The
widespread reputation and the weU-known loyalty
of the professoriate of Queen's are the best justifi
cation of the pohcy of the principal.
That he gathered around him, and maintained
with so few alterations, so brUliant a group, is one
of many proofs of his skiU in the selection and in
the management of men. Not that aU appointments
were primarily thought of by himself. Some of the
best men on the staff were suggested to him by
members of the trustee board, others by coUeagues.
These suggestions he was quick to accept and to
carry out. Once the appointment was made, he
possessed a rare faculty of taking each man at his
best, and of getting his best out of him. From
462

WITH THE STAFF
petty jealousy he was entirely free, and the more
brilliantly successful a coUeague became, the more
Grant rejoiced in the renown which he reflected
upon the university. The senate of Queen's was
thus in a very real sense a band of brothers —
brothers who had their family jars and squabbles,
but who in aU important issues worked in noble
harmony and fellowship for the glory of Queen's
and the interests of the higher life which she so
well represented.

463

CHAPTER XXIV
PRIVATE LIFE
GRANT did not wish his biography to be writ
ten ; when his wife began to form a collection
of his pubhc utterances she was stopped with a
sternness admitting of no reply. His private life he
would have considered especiaUy his own, but the
curtain must to a certain extent be drawn, for no
picture of him would be complete without a sketch
of his daUy intercourse with his family and with his
friends. His home hfe was very beautiful. During his
frequent absences, his thoughts turned ever back
to his wife and chUdren. Committees might sit
late, or a sermon have to be finished before morn
ing; but, whether after midnight or before break
fast, time was always found for the letter to those
at home. When at sea he followed their daily life,
and was always anxious to know the difference in
time in order to make the proper aUowance in his
calculations. A deep affection underlay his half-
humorous protests that he would much rather be
the quiet pastor of a country vicarage1 than an
ecclesiastical and imperial leader.
1 To suppose that so brilliant a nature could have been satisfied with
any country vicarage, however idyllic, is of course absurd, and was
465

PRINCIPAL GRANT
The debt which he owed to the wise counseUor
at home he fuUy recognized. Again and again she
curbed his impetuosity, moderated his ambition,
and showed him where lay the path of duty and
of prudence. Their confidence in each other was so
deep that it seldom found expression in words.
Each had a horror of mawkish sentiment ; his trust
in and love for his wife was hke his faith in God,
too deep and sacred to be hghtly spoken of. "Neither
of us, I think, is much given to gush. 'Let the deed
show' has always been my deepest feeling. Talking
about yourself, even your affection, is a sign of a
weak and unrehable nature."
Yet sometimes in their private letters the love
burns through the Scotch reserve of the one, and
the womanly reticence of the other.
"Yes, honestly I confess that tiU I got your
letter this morning I had forgotten that fourteen
years ago you and I became one flesh, man and
wife, and that I had had the best of it ever since, I
being a much-from-home wanderer, and when at
home much engaged with distractions that kept
me from family duty, while aU the while you made
home and family and husband your one object,
known to be so by himself. When he spoke of how it grieved him to
leave home, and of the imperative voice of duty which dragged him
forth, his wife would frequently quote a letter written her by a small
friend aged eight who went into the country to stay with the Church
of England rector: "I will not be Presbyterian any longer ; I will be
Episcopal ; because I loves the Lord Jesus Christ, and because I likes it
better."
466

PRIVATE LIFE
thought and affection. So, since receiving your let
ter, I have been thinking over the past, and thank
ing God for His goodness in giving me such a true,
sweet, wise wife, whom I love more than aU other
beings in the world, and love better every year just
because each returning year proves more fully how
genuine she is, and makes me feel at the same time
how selfish a creature I am. The one thing that
makes me feel not so bad is, that you say you don't
think any less of me now than you did on our mar
riage day. Thank you, my own dear wife, that you
are able, just because of your love to take me into
your heart and keep me there. How long a period
fourteen years is, and yet it seems only a few short
days 1 In the nature of things, aU hfe must pass
away after the same strange fashion, and then the
place that knows us now wiU know us no more.
God grant that our hves may be hved so that we
shah not regret when the end comes."
She was taken from him on January 1st, 1901.
Of his loss he said httle, even to his son. But grief
struck the deeper for lack of power to teU it. " He
wUl find rehef in expressing his emotions," he wrote
soon after to his son of a bereaved friend. " This I
cannot do." The frenzy of work into wliich he
plunged was but a partial anodyne ; his old cheery
smUe grew tremulous ; and when he foUowed her
the last word on his hps was her faintly whispered
name. To his chUdren he was ever a wise and loving
467

PRINCIPAL GRANT
father, leaving their early training largely to their
mother, but taking a more and more important
part in their education as they grew. No letter was
without a message to the "real master of the
house," "the wee man," "the dear little feUow,"
and none ever ended without two round O's, a big
one for the elder, a smaU one for the baby, kissed
by the father before the letter was sealed and by
the children on arrival "How God must love us,
when we — being evil — love our chUdren so much,
and would do anything for them." The only in
stance in his life in which he could have been
accused of showing cowardice was that he could
rarely bring himself to chastise them. The necessary
punishment was sometimes almost culpably handed
over to the mother. On the few occasions on which
he steeled himself to the task he was compelled to
shut himself up in his own room, and pray for
strength to carry out so painful a duty.
The younger boy, born in 1878, was taken from
him in 1890. He had been one of those affection
ate, troublesome children, probably not unhke
Grant himself, whose very pranks make their loss
more keenly felt. From the bereavement the mother
never fully recovered ; hid away among her treasures
were the little toys and the clothes she herself had
made ; the father had his work to do, but he too
mourned deeply over the boy whose mental powers
were just beginning to ripen when he was taken.
" Oh poor wee Geordie 1 he is nearer to us than
468

PRIVATE LIFE
ever. I think of him far, far oftener than when he
was on earth, and with much more tender feelings,
and without fears of his future. God knows best.
We are poor bhnd creatures."
As his elder son grew, Grant watched more
and more carefully over his education. Books were
recommended, hours for study prescribed, habits of
order and neatness inculcated. Above aU, he sought
to train his moral nature. "My health is now excel
lent," he writes from Austraha, in 1888, "and I
feel fit for work of any kind. God has been very
good to me ; so good that I feel very humble. I
hope he wiU spare me to meet you aU again, and
do good work for His cause of righteousness and
mercy on earth ; and that tiU we meet you wiU feel
especiaUy bound to think of mother, and do every
thing in your power to help her, and to help poor
little Geordie too. You can do that only by learning
more and more to govern yourself, in what you say,
think, and do. Ask God to give you wisdom and
strength and He wiU do so. One man can help
another. Much more can God help us, by inspiring
us with high thoughts and holy purposes."
Of this family hfe religion was an integral part.
Morning prayers were an institution never omitted
on any plea, however urgent, and the reverent
solemnity of his appeals to the Creator had in
them the Celtic touch of sympathy and awe. In
reading he pursued a definite plan from day to day,
but would interrupt his course if any striking occa-
469

PRINCIPAL GRANT
sion seemed to call for a special passage. Some
times, as the melody of the words swayed him, he
would fall into a brooding tone, and, forgetful of
his audience, read on for some time in a voice
audible only to himself.
A striking feature of his character was the love
invariably displayed for him by animals and young
children, a love which he returned to the full.
Among the letters which he preserved are a num
ber from children whose parents he had visited,
telling of their joy in his presence, and their hope
for his return. Dogs and cats fawned on him with a
devotion rare in the latter animal. One large Tom
insisted on foUowing him to his lectures, tiU lack of
sympathy from the students compelled him to de
sist. The joy of his dogs when he returned from a
journey was pathetic, and he would fling himself on
the ground beside them, and join in a roaring romp
like a true play-feUow. " I remember one day,"
writes a friend who hved for some years in the
house, almost on the footing of a son, "after a
tedious university meeting, the principal came in
rather fagged out, and proceeded to his study
table. ' Now why don't you lie down and leave
your papers alone for a httle ? ' Mrs. Grant said.
But he wasn't going to work. He was looking in
the dictionary for the names of flowers to supply
the wants of a children's game that was in progress
out on the veranda. That was about the only kind
of rest I ever knew him to take.
470

PRIVATE LIFE
" Your father's study, as I remember it, was sel
dom used except as a reception room for students
to whom he wished to speak privately. All his cor
respondence, sermons and treatises were written at
the dining-room table, frequently with other people
reading and perhaps chatting in the room, though
talk was apt to cease when he began in an absent
and almost imperceptible undertone to think aloud
upon what he was writing. That was the signal for
sUence, and I generaUy found about then that I
had an engagement or something to do in my
study. If I didn't the principal would probably
notice some letters that had to be posted at the
general post-office.
"Absolutely the freest member of the family
circle was old Tom, the cat. He bore the marks of
ancient encounters, had no reputation whatever,
and was ahke devoid of modesty and manners. But
it mattered not what the principal was doing, if
Tom's unsavoury visage appeared in the doorway,
or, failing first notice, when he announced his pre
sence with a surly croak that may in his younger
days have been a purr, the writing or reading
would have to wait until his wicked old back had
been caressed between the principal's shppers, to
the tune of 'poor Tom! poor Tom!' Janet1 used
to say that Tom was gifted with second sight,
which enabled him to evade the wiles of the medi-

1 His Scottish servant, and, after Mrs. Grant's death, his house
keeper.
471

PRINCIPAL GRANT
cal students next door. At all events he lived to a
decrepit old age."
Not that even in his home life Grant was perfect.
Patience with him was not temperamental; little
jars over which he grieved, hot words better left
unsaid, were not unknown. The splendid control
which he showed in public was sometimes gained
by so stern an effort of will, that, on reaching
home, he would break out into "that nasty irrita
bility," of which he speaks in his letters.
" Few men get the long holidays, with attendant
pleasures — many of them only so-caUed — that I
get," he wrote from Australia. " I ought to be a
more grateful, and, therefore, a far better man than
I am. Yet with aU my preaching to others and to
myself, I seem to make httle or no progress, mor-
aUy or spiritually. Old weaknesses and temptations
seem still to have power over me. It is becoming
clearer to me as a fact of experience that it was not
enough for Christ or any one else to reveal the
Father to us ; — but that it was also necessary that
we should be redeemed from the guUt and power
of sin, and a new fountain of hfe and power opened
for us. Thank God that the gospel is redemption as
weU as revelation, and God grant that I may be so
redeemed and renewed as to become day by day
more hke the Master, and so in the end whoUy a
new creature. I feel my responsibility too for others
as weU as for myself. I must try to be more helpful
to the boys. But there I Would it not be better for
472

PRIVATE LIFE
me to wait tiU 1 get home, and then and there
show that I mean all this?"
Splendidly did he live up to his resolve. From
the time of his return there was all the old love and
tender consideration, joined to a new, unfailing
gentleness. The loss of his son, and the long iUness
of his wife brought on by grief, sanctified his nature
stUl more, and tiU her death the old warmth of
temper was practicaUy never manifested in the
home. His social relations with his friends, whether as
pastor with his people, or as principal with his staff,
were fuU of intimacy and affection. " I doubt if he
ever refused an invitation from any one of us, or
faUed to be present on a social occasion," says Pro
fessor Cappon. "At such gatherings, as at most
assembhes, he was a great contributor to the gen
eral animation and gaiety. His entrance was gener
aUy a httle bruyant; the ready hand and robust
laugh were characteristic of his stirring personality,
and his taU, thin figure circulated freely among the
guests, except when he had got hold of some one
who was of importance for any scheme he had in
hand. Then his firm clutch of the arm and suavely
bent head indicated that business was on foot. But
he was generaUy the centre of a group whose talk
and laughter were the gayest and the loudest in the
room, his own easUy bearing the beU in those re
spects." Of formal social calls he paid few, but was fond
473

PRINCIPAL GRANT
of dropping in unexpectedly on friends and col
leagues, and taking "pot-luck" with them. Such
meetings brought him within their guard, and
broke down formality. Conversely he liked nothing
so well as to seize on half a dozen friends or stu
dents, and bring them in to dinner or tea, a pro
ceeding which sometimes laid almost too great a
strain upon the household larder. This careless
ness sprang partly from a confidence in his wife's
resourcefulness, and partly from the little regard
which he himself felt for what he ate and drank. It
was also a sign of an unconventionality which he
weU knew how to restrain when necessary. For
manners and for deportment he had a high regard,
and usuaUy introduced his lectures on homUetics
with some caustic remarks, in which the necessity
of being a gentleman as weU as a Christian was
forcibly urged, and laws laid down as to the proper
use of handkerchiefs and the care of finger nails.
But for meaningless conventionahty he cared httle.
He was often to be seen in early days in Halifax
carrying home a loaf of bread wrapped up in brown
paper, and was once accused by a less successful
co-presbyter of "trying to curry favour with the
working-classes." Always, indeed, though so unre
strained, he had a natural air of dignity and of
breeding, and a rare fascination of manner.
With young men he was at his best. His heart
went out to them in their enthusiasm, their blind,
passionate striving, their high ideals, often so ludi-
474

PRIVATE LIFE
crously unfulfiUed. From the time he had a home
in Halifax, several students were usually his guests
during the session, either those whose resources he
knew to be scanty, or those to whom he was
bound by some tie of blood or of friendship. But
while he invited their confidence, he never con
strained or abused it. Two who had at the outset
of their careers chosen the ministry, decided while
under his roof to take up the study of medicine.
Both were lads of exceptional talent, and his disap
pointment was bitter, but he made no attempt to
influence their decision, and no less care and affec
tion were shown towards them than before. On the
affection of young men his love for athletics gave
him an added hold. At Glasgow he was known as a
fast and fearless captain of the football team; in
Hahfax he was for years one of the skips of the
curling club; in Kingston he was too busy for
much exercise beyond walking, though he became
a competent player at lawn tennis and at bowls.
But though ceasing to take part, his interest re
mained. No footbaU match ever lacked his pres
ence; if he was absent from the city, a telegram
with the result was invariably sent. AU his old
students remember him in the dressing-room at
half-time or at the finish, encouraging, exhorting,
consoling, pointing out the special pieces of play
which had struck him. Some years ago, in a hotly-
contested match at Kingston between Queen's and
Toronto University, the crowd surged over the
475

PRINCIPAL GRANT
field. "Put them back," urged Grant to a motion
less policeman. "I can't, sir." "WeU, I can," said
the principal, and seizing the fellow's baton, he
dashed into the crowd, hitting right and left, push
ing, shoving, and shouting in a voice heard far
across the field. The crowd was soon safely behind
the ropes, and the stick restored to its rightful
owner, accompanied by a strong hint as to the
virtue of efficiency.
He possessed in striking measure the gift of
being able, without being accused of cant or even
of preaching, to impress upon young men the ne
cessity of leading a moral life. On nothing did he
insist so much as on personal purity. Strong and
vigorous as was his manhood, fascinating as was
his personahty, he had for impurity a hatred that
amounted to physical loathing. Nowhere did he
give the appearance of more absolute candour, of
more personal intensity of feeling, than in his ad
dresses on this subject to the students in arts and
in medicine. Nothing more roused his indignation
than any attempt to pass over youthful impurity
as a mere peccadiUo, born of hot blood and im
pulses not ungenerous. "Not drink but dirt is the
greatest sin of Canada," he hotly told a prohibition
orator. " It is a question whether adultery or mur
der be the greater sin," was the opening of a sermon.
Only once did he take any notice of the numer
ous anonymous communications which he received.
A letter threatened that if he did not within two
476

PRIVATE LIFE
days send a named sum of money to an address
at the post-office, his sin with a member of the
congregation would be revealed. The letter was in
stantly placed in the hands of the police, and the
writer put behind prison bars. The poor wretch
pleaded that it was his first offence, admitted the
utter groundlessness of the charge, and so worked
on Grant's feelings that he interceded with the au
thorities, and the blackmailer was let off with the
minimum sentence.
"His manner was naturaUy animated, and readily
assumed a jovial tone in company that he liked,"
writes Professor Cappon, "but in any case he never
aUowed it to show depression. Even a grave de
meanour he reserved for ceremonial occasions. He
had much natural dignity, however, though it was
not usuaUy of the quiet or silent kind. In friendly
or caustic repartee he was not to be beaten, but
could generaUy find something that was good and
glanced at the heart of the matter; if not, worse
would do, as long as it carried off the occasion. He
was exceedingly clear and effective in stating a
case; his vigorous mind hked the exercise of de
bate, and he stated his points, often marking them
off on his fingers, with great confidence and readi
ness. He was apt to underestimate inteUigence
which was less ready and less lucid in expression.
He never wanted for argument any more than Dr.
Johnson, and like the great doctor he would some
times give good and bad with the same vigour and
477

PRINCIPAL GRANT
emphasis. His conversation ran most readUy on
questions of practical import, problems of adminis
tration or public policy and affairs of the day. On
literary subjects he would take his share, but not
with the same confidence or interest; metaphysics
he blessed from afar, and though he was a stimu
lating and interesting professor of divinity, his dis
course did not turn much that way. His psychic
world was much more that of the statesman and
publicist than that of the scholar or the theologian.
In serious talk his best vein was when drawing from
his own experience of men and things."
To this verdict it must be added that in his own
family, and with the two or three friends whom he
admitted into that inner circle, his talk ran much
more on rehgious matters, which were to him too
sacred to be discussed in pubhc, even with intimate
and trusted coUeagues. The one exception which
he made to this rule was that to those who came
asking advice his heart was ever open. But in
general he had a horror of talking shop, or of dis
cussing his own thoughts and emotions. Rarely,
even with his famUy, would he teU of his own
rehgious struggles, nor to those who came for ad
vice did he dispense ready-made Morrison's pills.
"Definite advice on inteUectual or moral questions
was not always easy to obtain from the principal,
who put not much value upon advice got cheaply,"
writes one of his old students. "He preferred that
a man should work out his own salvation, and not
478

PRIVATE LIFE
seek to bridge difficulties by accepting the dictum
of another. His answers seemed at times to be
framed in an enigmatical, almost equivocal, sense
that was designed to draw out and lead, rather than
to satisfy the mind. Occasionally, however, an un
expected Celtic glow would infuse into his words
meaning which mere repetition cannot disclose. One
instance of this made a lasting impression upon
me. I had been working hard and long at an essay
on phUosophy — I think it was on Kant's theory as
to the freedom of the wiU — and had got to that
point so common to beginners in philosophy where
I became dejected and seemed to be able to arrive
at no conclusion. I came downstairs and threw my
self into a chair, remarking that about aU I seemed
to have left in the way of behef of any kind was
that bad was bad, and good was better than that.
•If you have thoroughly learned that,' he said, 'you
have learned a great deal.' He rose from his chair
as he spoke, and the words were uttered with such
earnestness as imbedded them in my memory for
good." When it was a question of intellectual rather
than of moral doubt, he was easier to approach.
"I had an interesting day's work yesterday," he
wrote to his son. "Driving in with an inteUigent
mechanic, who had been putting in a furnace for
H. F., we talked together, and he told me that he
was reputed an atheist, because he did not attend
church, but that he was not that, though he did
479

PRINCIPAL GRANT
not know very weU what he beheved. I explained
to him that it mattered httle what he did not be
heve, but everything what he did beheve, as he
should hve up to that, if he wished to get more
hght ; as he said he beheved that Jesus was not only
the best and the wisest teacher he knew but some
thing more, though he did not know what, his duty
was to foUow Him as far as he did know. He as
sented, and without my inviting came to the church
yesterday evening, and at the close told me he in
tended to take my advice in future. This morning
another man caUed on me to say that my sermons
yesterday had touched his conscience and deter
mined him not to do something very reprehensible
in the way of deceiving others that he had intended
to do, and also to try and break off the habit of
drinking which was enslaving him. He is an edu
cated and gentlemanly man, aged about forty, and
I spent an hour or two with him, trying to direct
him to the source of aU strength, and giving him
practical hints that I hope may help him. He is to
caU on me and report next week."
His aim was, in his conversation as in his letters,
to suit his tone to the listener, though always re
taining his own point of view ; mingling herein, as
in pubhc hfe, singular cleverness and mental dex
terity with rare candour and sincerity.

480

CHAPTER XXV
RELIGIOUS LIFE AND TEACHING
"TTTHY should men study the Bible at aU?
* * Only in a minor degree for historical, lit
erary, or professional purposes. The all important
question to ask them is : Have you sought to find
God ? If not, you have missed the mark." So spoke
Grant in Convocation HaU in 1891. The necessity
of fighting the battle of the hour often made it
necessary for him to put forward in very plain
terms the just rights and privileges of criticism.
But he knew weU that true religion consisted not
in historical or critical learning, but in the com
munion of the individual soul with God. " TiU a
man beheves that God is a person, as truly as I
myself am, though His personahty includes infi
nitely more than the finite can comprehend, and
that the heart of that Being is love, and that Jesus
by the eternal spirit is reveahng Him, and is as
near to us as to the disciples when on earth, and
far more so, just as the internal principle is nearer
than any external being, he is not likely to find
God a source of heahng and health. Once that first
lesson in divine things is learned, we can enter into
relations with God ; we can become chUdlike enough
to have deahngs with Him, and to love, trust, and
481

PRINCIPAL GRANT
cast ourselves upon Him. I hope that you are
learning this lesson, lt is one that very young and
very simple people may learn, and yet it has been
too difficult for some ofthe wise and prudent."1
This trust in God came out pre-eminently in the
dark places of hfe, when sickness or suffering lay
heavy upon those dear to him. Writing to his wife
as she sat beside a sick bed from which the needs
of the university had caUed him, he says : —
" I was greatly comforted last night, when on
reading in course the Scripture lesson at prayers,
I came to the verse in the Psalms : ' Unto God the
Lord do belong the issues from death.' I felt that
wee Geordie was and is reaUy in His hands, that
He is, and is therefore the hving God, and that aU
wiU be weU for His chUdren. And so I was able to
look up to Him and commit you and baby to Him
and to say, 'Thy wUl be done.' After going to bed I
thought much on you, and on our relation to God,
and I felt that we had not cultivated sufficiently
the sense of His nearness to us, and that we had not
enough of the simple, childlike spirit of faith. He
would draw us to Himself by His varied provi
dences, His gifts, and warnings, and sickness, and
absence, and losses, and trials. My darhng wife, let
us look up to Him as httle chUdren, and doubt not
His presence and His love, even when sore trials
come upon us."
His attitude upon the question of the so-caUed
1 Letter to his son, 1893.
482

RELIGIOUS LIFE AND TEACHING
"higher criticism," with which in later years he
became so closely identified, was simple. The re
sults of criticism, he felt sure, could not shake the
fundamental truths of Christianity. "The great fact
of the world's history is Christianity, and the centre
of Christian thought, hfe, and power is the person,
and cross and resurrection of Jesus. Against this
fact aU scepticism beats in vain. When we read
such undoubted epistles as those of 1st Thessalon
ians, Galatians, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Romans,
and Philippians, aU admitted now to have been
written by Paul between A.D. 52 and 60, and after
he had been preaching and hving the same truths
for twenty years or more, and find that the only
key to his hfe, and the only key to the hves of the
apostles who had hved for years with Jesus, is a hke
faith in Him, and that peace of conscience comes
only through faith in Him, we have got what can
not be explained away, and, moreover, what has
been repeated in the lives of countless numbers in
every generation since, who have been the salt that
has kept society sweet."1
But though the results of criticism, however
valuable, are of secondary importance, the atti
tude of the church towards the critics is by no
means so, but reveals how far she has trust in
God, and in His holy spirit. If pharisaic ecclesias
tics, veihng their self-seeking and cowardice be
neath a mask of sanctity, " tremble for the ark of
1 Letter to his son, 1895.
483

PRINCIPAL GRANT
God," if persecution, whether physical, or the still
more subtle torture of the soul, be invoked to quell
the divine voice of reason and inteUect, then the
spirit shown by such men is not of secondary im
portance but a proof that they have not rightly
estimated God's patience, love, and charity, that
they wiU not understand the way in which He does
all " in His good time."
The phrase " higher criticism " was to him not a
title arrogated to a special hobby by consequential
scholarship, but a technical term, no more objec
tionable than "higher mathematics"; yet the mis
understanding which it aroused led him to feel that
a better phrase would be "historical criticism," or
"biblical introduction, i.e., a consideration of the
hterary and historical surroundings amid which the
unique literature of the Old and New Testament
grew up." God's revelation was given through
human instruments, and to suppose that the fuUest
study of that revelation by every power which God
had given to man would do aught save purify and
deepen our religious knowledge and conscience,
seemed to him to verge on blasphemy. Inspiration
was a subject on which he thought and read for
many years before coming to a consistent conclu
sion, but from the first he felt that "in everything
that man can discover by the right use of his facul
ties, the language of Scripture was according to the
scientific knowledge of the day. Only such language
would have been a fitting framework for the spiritual
484

RELIGIOUS LIFE AND TEACHING
truth revealed." To have used strictly accurate
language in these non-essentials, would only have
confused, as to the necessary revelations, those who
held the crude scientific ideas of the day ; though
even here the transfusing power of a great spirit
ual truth kept their thoughts of God from being
"identified with the fantastic mythologies and poly
theisms of their age."
Thus " while we beheve that there is a speciaUy
divine side to the Scriptures, evidently it must be
impossible to define it until we have exhausted the
human element. That cannot be done until scholar
ship and thought, investigation and criticism, have
spoken their last words." " There is a school now in
Britain and America whose position may be charac
terized as a resolute and scholarly attempt to com
bine the old faith with the new criticism. Accepting
every undoubted result of criticism, and admitting
that in consequence a fresh synthesis is required to
embrace aU the facts, they see in this nothing to
shake their faith in the inspiration of Scripture.
Their conception of inspiration is wider and deeper
than the old. They consider that the new criticism
brings out, much more fully than the old view of
the Bible did, the actual evolution of God's people
and the historical character of the record, and at the
same time gives us evidence of a continuous inter
course of Jehovah with his people to which the old
view was blind."1
1 Lectures to his students, 1891. Repeated in 1900.
485

PRINCIPAL GRANT
To him, in the words of Dehtsch, the histori
cal spirit was "the special charism of our age,"
and to neglect, or to show open hostility to the
wealth of knowledge revealed to us by linguistic
criticism, epigraphy, and the various branches of
archasology, to doubt that over the varied work of
reverent scholars brooded the sanctifying power of
the Holy Spirit, was to be hostile to the wisdom
and benignancy of God who had given such gifts
unto men. In their historical setting, how much
more real, inteUigible and precious became the
Hexateuch, the Psalms, the Prophets and the
Pauhne epistles. From the same point of view he
came to look upon the great confessions of the
church, and not infrequently expressed a natural
irritation at those who insisted upon adherence to
the letter of these formulas. " Our stringent sub
scription form is indeed an anachronism, and has
been the means of driving out of the church's min
istry many of various kinds of exceUence who loved
her sincerely," he wrote to his brother in 1871, and
in 1893 he told the World's Parliament of Relig
ions at Chicago that : " The Reformers believed in
publicly confessing their creed, or setting it forth in
formal statements from time to time. These confes
sions were testimonies not tests. A faith in the
Gospel made them comparatively indifferent to
formulas. What was originaUy a testimony has
since been made a test. It is the greatest error and
misfortune that the flower of the soul of one gen-
486

RELIGIOUS LIFE AND TEACHING
eration has been converted by a strange alchemy
into an iron band for future generations." With the
shallow radicahsm which sneered at the strenuous
doctrines of the confession he had stiU less sym
pathy. "The worst of it is that extreme views
about the exceUence of the Westminster confes
sion lead to the opposite extreme of depreciation
of it. The latter is the worse extreme of the two.
It not only argues an unhistorical spirit, as the
other view does, but indicates self-sufficiency, which
is generally the sign of superficiality. The West
minster divines were a noble body of men, but the
modern point of view is quite different from theirs,
and we can now only accept their work as the high-
water mark of the rehgion of that age. We have
developed since, but to discard such a document
would be to break the continuity of religious hfe.
Therefore we keep it, without pressing it in detail,
untU circumstances enable us to draw up such a
confession as wUl faithfully reflect the higher hfe
of our own day. The time for that is not yet, for
this is an age of criticism rather than construction,
and criticism has not yet done its work. We must
therefore be patient, unless we choose to break the
church into fragments, instead of uniting it, and I
am inclined to think that hasty utterances and one
sided language do harm."1
So keen a student of history naturally turned
with interest to face the dealings of God with
1 Letter to his son, 1893.
487

PRINCIPAL GRANT
universal humanity as manifested in the great
ethnic religions. During his college course one of
his chief prizes had been gained by an essay on
" Hindooism " ; throughout his Halifax ministry
his interest widened and broadened. His letters
are fuU of ideas which foreshadow his later and
more mature thought. More than once he came
near to following in his brother's footsteps. "If
ever I leave Halifax, it will be, I think, to go to
the heathen, but at present I feel that I am doing
Christ's work here."1 In 1894 the Guild Library of
the Church of Scotland published, The Religions
of the World in Relation to Christianity, and in
the next year an enlarged edition under the title
of The Religions of the World, in which he em
bodied the results of his thinking and lecturing. A
number of editions of both volumes have been pub
hshed, a translation into French was widely sold on
the continent, and in spite of the advances which
have been made in comparative rehgion in the past
ten years, it still remains the best introductory text
book on the subject. His breadth and his charity,
his conviction that " all these religions were bless
ings to the peoples among whom they originated,"
never degenerate into a hazy condonation of their
failures and short-comings. The chapters on "Israel"
and on " Jesus," he considered to be his best work
upon religious subjects; but his firm conviction that
in Christ alone was the full revelation of the God-
1 Letter to his brother, 1870.
488

RELIGIOUS LIFE AND TEACHING
head to be found, led to no pharisaic condemnation
of the lesser revelations made "at sundry times
and in divers manners," but to a belief that it was
" right and wise to call attention to their good fea
tures rather than to their defects ; to the exceUent
rather than to the bad fruit which they have borne;
in a word, to treat them as a rich man should treat
his poorer brothers, drawing near to them, getting
on common ground with them, and then sharing
with them his rich inheritance."
The fullest acceptance of the results of reverent
criticism was indeed for him the only way to save
Christianity, and to restore it to the supreme place
from which, in the minds of so many, it has fallen.
Many of his students were led by an acceptance of
his fundamental position through that very trying
period which arises in the soul when the traditional
faith proves inadequate to solve life's enigmas and
a new synthesis of the facts is required.
To his wife, July 31st, 1894.— -"The enclosed
from  you might return to me after reading.
I was somewhat surprised at getting it, because he
was always one of the Highland students who cling
to the traditional views of every doctrine, and to
literalism rather than to the ideal truth that the
letter is only the material vesture for. It is another
indication of the movement of thought when a man
of that type is dissatisfied with the old bald state
ments regarding the work of Christ, and sees that
His work must be viewed as an eternal process
489

PRINCIPAL GRANT
ever being accomplished in the making of men like-
minded with Himself. Of course, I have written
him that his thinking is along right lines, and that
he may go ahead boldly, as he is really not op
posed to the Confession of Faith, but to compara
tively modern exaggerations of the confession, and
to popular evangelical theology which is not war
ranted by the standards ofthe church."
A prominent Methodist clergyman, Professor
Salem Bland, of Winnipeg, writes on this point as
follows : " A third kind of influence which Princi
pal Grant exerted on me was felt of late years in
the annual sessions of the Alumni Conferences of
Queen's University. In these refreshing and stimu
lating gatherings — not one of the least of Principal
Grant's creations — the helpfulness of which some of
us feel we can never too gratefuUy acknowledge,
amid the contributions of the brilliant staff which
he had gathered around him and of some of the
most distinguished of the graduates, the principal
himself was the inspiring soul. Whether in biblical,
sociological, scientific or historical studies, he cre
ated the atmosphere, and it was one of fearlessness,
tolerance, and buoyancy. Never, it seems to me,
did young men in an age of transition find more
wholesome guidance, at once stimulating and re
assuring. " Especially in the dangerous waters of modern
biblical criticism was his spirit and teaching of
peculiar value. It was at these conferences that
490

RELIGIOUS LIFE AND TEACHING
some of us were first seriously introduced to these
questions, and so frankly and reverently and wisely
did he guide the study and the discussions that
soon to many of us, without pain or shock, the new
Bible had become immensely richer, more interest
ing and more inspiring than the old. In the altered
atmosphere of aU the evangehcal churches of Can
ada to-day, in regard to biblical criticism, Principal
Grant seems to me to have been one of the largest
factors." How far did he deem it possible to see the finger
of God in the events of daily life or in the course of
human history ? WhUe he was fuUy persuaded that
the Christian rehgion was the complete and final
answer to the riddle of the painful earth, he was
apt to grow a httle contemptuous of the theory
which explains hfe as a series of special providences.
" The moderator's minute acquaintance with aU the
purposes and plans of the Deity is very wonder
ful," he writes in 1872; and twenty years later, "Dr.
 's intimate acquaintance with the purposes of
God and of the devU would be comical were it not
revolting." Yet he was fuUy convinced that at the
great crises of history God's hand could be seen,
that it could be traced in the downfaU of Napoleon
I., or in the victory of Germany in 1870. Even in
smaUer things, hke every other man of imagination,
he was impressed with what are at least the marvel
lous coincidences of life, and thought that he caught
through the clouds glimpses of the divine purpose.
491

PRINCIPAL GRANT
Writing in 1858 of a class-mate, who was drowned
while on his way to take up a mission-station in
Nova Scotia, he says: "Time may not teU, but
eternity wiU, the secrets of the Eternal, and what
wise ends were subserved by this — to us — strange
ordering. And yet we have ghmpses. When I heard
that the sea had given up his written words ; that
my old acquaintance, Mr. Clark of Shelburne, had
preached them to souls for whom the writer had
never intended them, I could not help asking: Is
this one of the wise ends ? has he then died as a
Samson, doing more by his death than by his life ?
Is he one who, being dead, yet speaketh?" In 1895,
when one of his own students, just entering upon
his career, was suddenly taken away, Grant thus
addressed the students : " We know not aU the
purposes of the Divine Master, but along one hne,
at any rate, we can see His purposes. This death is
not normal. It is not intended that it should be the
rule that a man, youthful and fuU of vitality, should
be cut down as he was. Such a disaster must lead
to further investigation of the cause of that sudden
ebbing of life. And when the cause is discovered
we are near the remedy. This is the way in which
God stimulates the medical world in our day, when
medicine is studied as a science, to lengthen the
hfe and develop the full powers ofthe race."
Though so strong a believer in the rights of the
individual, he fully reahzed that " individual relig
ious sentiment does not express the whole rehgious
492

RELIGIOUS LIFE AND TEACHING
nature of man. Christ's kingdom must be not merely
an invisible church, but must be embodied in a
society." " When any one society arrogates to itself
the name of church, it sins against courtesy and
truth, that is, against the spirit of Christ. Every
society of believers that is based on the one founda
tion stone, and that is wilhng to be governed in
accordance with the principles of His word, has a
right to the name of church, no matter how simple
or how elaborate its organization may be. Organiza
tion belongs not to the esse but to the bene esse of
the church." Thus, while every man could realize
the fulness of his rehgious nature only in a society,
the form assumed by the organization mattered
comparatively httle, provided that it were one that
satisfied its members. Three centuries of experience
had proved that in Scotland Presbyterianism, in
England Episcopacy, in Ireland Roman Catholi
cism, best suited the spiritual needs of the nation.
The duty of each of these three great divisions of
the church universal was to do its own work, and to
extend to its fellow-members sympathy and friend
ship. The jangling and rivalries of the various de
nominations grieved him bitterly; with any body
which was doing more for Christ than for the world
and the devil, he was ready to cooperate. Once at
least he took the chair at a public meeting of the
Jews of Kingston, and at the Salvation Army he
was a frequent visitor.
"I am a poor churchman," he writes to his
493

PRINCIPAL GRANT
cousin in England in 1888, "for no church on
earth satisfies me. Better wiU come, no doubt, and
a better day, when, as Jeremiah saw in vision, man
should not say to man, 'Know the Lord,' for aU
should know Him. It is weU to do duty because it
is duty, but it is higher to do duty because we love
it, and we shaU come to that. I sometimes wonder
whether the church — as at present constituted —
helps or hinders us. lt seems to divide men and to
divide the nation instead of uniting men and giving
the nation inspiration."
When, in 1898, "The Canadian Society of Christ
ian Unity" was founded, largely through the efforts
of his friend, the Rev. Herbert Symonds, now rec
tor of Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal, Grant
took a prominent part in its inception, and his was
the first name on its council. The society includes
members of aU Protestant churches, and has done
much useful work. "The movement was success
ful," writes Dr. Symonds, " in bringing the subject
to the notice of a great many people, and it also
brought a number of clergymen of various denomin
ations together. The subject of unity was at that
time discussed at several alumni meetings, and
many sermons were preached upon it. Further, the
discussions which have taken place, leading to reso
lutions favouring closer relations between the Pres
byterian and Methodist Churches sprang, I beheve,
out of the interest provoked by the C.S.C.U."
But in spite of his desire for the formation of a
494

RELIGIOUS LIFE AND TEACHING
national church, that on which he laid most stress
was individual righteousness won by trust in the
hving God. While he fuUy recognized the glorious
heights to which man had attained independent of
Christianity, he considered that at their best the
ideal of the ethnic religions was imperfect, and
their fruit cankered at the root. Nothing could lift
humanity from futility and sin save the quickening
power of the love of God, touching to flame that
spark of the God-hke which burns, however dimly,
in every one of us. Faith in God, a faith not con
tradictory nor independent of, but supplementary
to the revelations of reason, and seen by reason to
be in fuU congruity with itself, could alone support
our courage in the hours of darkness and defeat.
This faith, reason and history alike showed him to
be necessary. So many tendencies of thought, so
many developments in universal history point to
God, that he could not refuse to beheve in Him.
And to this behest of reason was added the assur
ance given by grace, a grace at once imminent
and transcendent, the revelation of a spirit which
could touch ours because it was simUar in essence,
though far superior in perfection, to the highest and
the most reasonable in ourselves.
But though he had worked out along these lines
a metaphysic on which for many years he lectured
to his students, action rather than argument seemed
to him to afford the solution of hfe's enigmas.
To his cousin he writes in 1888: "WUl every
495

PRINCIPAL GRANT
one have a chance of knowing God's love person
ally, and so of attaining to blessedness ? What of
those born to an entail of suffering, and worse, —
born moral cripples, almost moral idiots, or deter
mined to sin by environment? What shall I say but
this: the Judge of all the earth wiU do right. Justice
is justice everywhere in earth and heaven. He is
just. Ah, He is so much more than that, that it is
never said in Holy Scripture, God is just. It is said,
God is love. We know what love is in us. ShaU
man love more truly than God? That would be
blasphemy. Yes, it will aU come right. Doubt it
not. In the meantime do your part. Fail not. And
what of the beasties ? I know not, but even regard
ing them I hope. And in so doing have I not on
my side that renowned piUar of orthodoxy — Bishop
Butler — who says in the first chapter of his An
alogy that the argument — apart from Scripture —
that proves man's continuance in life after death
proves also the continuance hereafter of the lower
animals ? Scripture is for man, and not being in
tended to gratify our curiosity — which is infinite —
says nothing about the lower creatures. But it tells
us that God made them, and that he cares for
them. Provision was made in the Jewish code for
merciful treatment to be extended to them, and
God tells Jonah what an awful thing it would be
to destroy a city that had in it so many babies and
so many cattle, and love shines far, far more pow
erfully in the New than in the Old Testament.
496

RELIGIOUS LIFE AND TEACHING
Everything is not revealed to us, but revelation
opens to us according as the Christian conscious
ness develops, and so we can see lines of light
streaming from pages that were dull to those whose
vision was more imperfect than ours. 'The thoughts
of men are widened by the process of the suns'; and
so is their vision clarified. Not that we have reason
to boast therefore. No : for a babe on tlie shoulders
of tlie giant wiU see farther than the giant, and
after all films are over our eyes too.
"Truth is mysterious — doubtless. Hence the fas
cination of searching for it. How it disciphnes us 1
* If tlie Almighty offered me in one of His hands
Truth, and in the other Search after Truth, I would
take the latter.' • I do not know myself,' you say.
True, I echo that. And therefore I say, how can I
dream that I know God ! But I know something of
myself; and — I say it reverently but joyfuUy — I
know something of God, something of the heart of
God. I know that love is at tlie heart of the uni
verse, and the knowledge makes me sing and leap,
makes me trust and hope, makes me young even
when my hail's are growing gray and few. I fall into
the slough of despond, and that knowledge lifts me
out of it, and puts my feet on a rock and establishes
my goings.
" And now. though I have only said a few words,
I must stop. Many words are not needed. Open
your heart to the ever-present Spirit. Cast yourself
on the ever-present Saviour. Fear not. We, poor
497

PRINCIPAL GRANT
chUdren of a day, are dear to the heart of God.
So are the miserable inhabitants of the fetid lanes
and closes. Let us never forget that those poor for
lorn ones are verily bone of our bone and flesh of
our flesh. Let us strive to abolish dens from our
cities, and sin from the earth, and begin by abolish
ing it from our own hearts."
In religion, as in every walk of hfe, it may be
said of him that he had not many behefs, but that
to those which he had he held with a tenacity which
was wUling to do and to suffer everything. Much
which others thought essential seemed to him de
batable; many things which they considered matters
of principle, seemed to him only matters of opinion ;
but to two great cables his barque was moored: faith
in a God of righteousness and of love, and faith in
the hving Christ who had been to him a personal
Saviour amid aU the vicissitudes of hfe. Specula
tions about the future interested him httle ; " they
that are the Lord's shah be with the Lord," was his
favourite quotation, and sufficient answer to aU his
doubts. The trials and losses of his later years only
served to deepen this faith. Just a fortnight before
the end, writing to his sister, he says : — " What a
scene this earth is of sad partings, and — so far as
earth knows — everlasting fareweUs. But we who
have faith, if only as a grain of seed, can take com
fort as we say : ' I believe in the resurrection of the
dead and the life everlasting.' "

498

CHAPTER XXVI
HIS PERSONALITY
"mO-MORROW I shaU be sixty-five years old,
-L and my heart is fuU of gratitude and hope.
Have I not seen much of what I prayed and
worked for come to pass? The rest will come.
Laus Deo! Here's a hand to you across one hun
dred and seventy miles. We each have a work to
do, and we dehght in doing it. Life has no greater
happiness. Clouds come and thick darkness. What
of it? They, too, are needed. We know that aU
things work together for good to the good."1
It is easier to state what Grant did than to tell
what manner of man he was. The preceding chap
ters have set forth his activities. Those activities
were extraordinarily numerous. The head of a uni
versity, he was keenly interested in politics ; a theo
logian, he was sensitive to the material development
of his country; a clergyman, he had singularly ac
curate views upon mUitary pohcy; a scholar, he had
superb administrative ability. Innumerable were
the channels in which his energy flowed. He be
queathed to his country a university; he aided in
its crucial days the union of Canada; he fostered
the sentiment of imperial organization; he had a
1 Letter to Mr. J. S. Willison, December 21st, 1901.
499

PRINCIPAL GRANT
large share in welding together the Presbyterian
Church; he exerted a rare influence upon public
opinion as the work of the development of Canada
was prosecuted; he was a leader in the spiritual
revolution which has made the rehgious atmos
phere of Canada clearer, more tolerant, more rev
erent. Behind these achievements was a man ; how
are we to estimate that nature, with its profound
human sympathy, its eager activity, its energy sing
ularly charged with sagacity and charm?
Eagerness is the word which perhaps comes most
readily to mind when one recaUs his aspect. Eager
ness was the secret of his great physical activity;
his long stride was that of a man with something
to do the moment he reached his goal. Eagerness
was the keynote of his conversation; his voice had
nothing of the level intonation affected to-day so
largely in the English-speaking world, but rose and
feU with Celtic vivacity, and who that once has
heard the rising inflection which so often closed his
sentence can forget it, or, with it, the absorbed in
terest with which he flung himself into the subject
of every conversation ?
Energy, boundless and absorbing, ran with the
eagerness. His propulsive power was enormous, and
it was harnessed to an organizing skiU, piercing in
its intuition, sober in its patient sanity. Exceed
ingly rare was the union of the sweeping impetu
osity with which he could rush at a project, and the
careful scrutiny which he gave to every detail. Rare,
500

HIS PERSONALITY
also, was the wary coolness with which he held him
self in poise, l'assion might run high about him, but
he could abstain from a fray which promised no
real benefit to tlie country, could in the heat of the
conflict distinguish between the aspects which were
permanent and those which were momentary.
Keenness was the secret of the poise which gov
erned his impetuosity. His mental vision was pierc
ing. With astonishing frequency his perception of
the ultimate meaning of events was accurate. The
union of the Presbyterian Church has borne abun
dant fruit, and the young clergyman, a member of
the body least inclined to merge itself in the great
church that was to be, committed himself instantly
to the cause of union. What has not confederation
done for British North America? The Grant of
1867, a son of the province which had least to gain
by it, and surrounded by friends who viewed the
change with deepest suspicion, had no hesitation in
fighting for it. We are aU imperialists now; im
perial organization was the keynote of his creed for
years. The same foresight appears in his conduct of
his university. A quarter of a century ago, when
equipment was meagre and the prospect narrow, he
insisted on acquiring grounds which twenty years
later were piled with buildings. University develop
ment in Ontario has taken the form of expansion
on the side of practical science; in 1884 he was
planning such a faculty, and the School of Min
ing coincided with rather than foUowed the burst
501

PRINCIPAL GRANT
of mining activity which has marked the last dec
ade in Ontario. Rapidity and accuracy of judgment
inspired his boundless energy, and sagacity ranked
with the keenness. His passionate prevision was held
firm by a grasp of underlying principles. His judg
ment was steady and clear; there was none like him
in counsel.
Energetic men, men passionately interested in
their work, are not always hked by others; often
their impetuous activity is resented by those whom
they are seeking to hurry into great schemes. Grant
aroused httle of this. Regard for his practical grasp
of affairs was very high. Yet more potent in dis
arming the antagonism of inertia was his suavity,
his sensitive adaptation of address to the man be
fore him. The result was a most remarkable in
fluence over aU who knew him. His fiery purpose
inspired their ardour, his strong wisdom compeUed
their respect, his personal charm engaged their
liking. This unusual combination of quahties was seen in
its hghtest side in his consummate cleverness. The
characteristic which made perhaps the strongest im
pression on those who knew him slightly was his
adroitness in the management of men. It was a gift
of nature. Impetuous, hot-tempered, not seldom
over-bearing, he yet had an instinctive knowledge
of how to handle the man with whom he was deal
ing, and he inevitably took the course that appealed
most to that man's peculiarities. In this deftness he
502

HIS PERSONALITY
was equalled by only one other Canadian publicist,
Sir John Macdonald ; and while the premier worked
in a more difficult field, he presented fewer of the
angles which strong convictions make necessary.
Grant had the great advantage of dwelling in an
atmosphere of idealism and self-sacrifice; none the
less, his circumstances were most difficult. His task
was to extract from a people by no means wealthy,
and under the disadvantage of having grown up in
a community scantily provided with facUities for
higher learning, the ever-increasing means for sup
porting an ever-growing university. In the work he
employed every quahty of his nature, and the quick
wit, the resourcefulness, the tact, which were his
surface quahties, were used as well as the force of his
commanding personahty. The precision with which
he laid his plans, the certainty with which he avoided
false moves, the mastery of every honourable mot
ive of the men to whom he appealed, made a deep-
impression upon the public. To many his superb*
handling of his material speUed craft. But no merely
crafty man would have flung himself athwart popu
lar passion, as he more than once did, dehberately
and of set purpose. Largely as his cleverness bulked
in the eyes of the world, it was a superficial charac
teristic. His influence upon others had its root in his
sympathy. InteUectual acuteness does not arouse
affection, and Grant had a mastery of men's hearts.
That mastery sprang from his love of them. He
503

PRINCIPAL GRANT
will rank in Canadian history as a profoundly sym
pathetic figure. That quahty showed in every aspect
of his pubhc hfe, for he loved men in the mass. It
showed exquisitely in his relations with his former
students, for he loved men individuaUy. He took no
pains to court undergraduate liking, but it is im
possible to number the men who in later life found
the principal a friend whose affection grew with
years. He spent himself for his graduates, whether
they had prospered or not. He was welcome in then-
homes, he was the friend of their chUdren. He
swayed men because he understood them, and he
understood them because he loved them.
Sympathy was the secret of his optimism. Most
men, on recaUing his qualities, wUl enumerate that
among the chiefest of them. It was a peculiar
charm of this eager, busy man that he was intensely
and spontaneously hopeful. Life was for him in the
finest sense a success. He was born a Nova Scotian
and a colonist; he died a Canadian and a citizen of
the empire. He was born to a land suffering from
the provinciality of pioneer days; he left to his
country a centre of vigorous inteUectual life. He
was a force in our national hfe, and more than a
force — an inspiration. Sorrow came to him as it
comes to aU, but it dimmed not the cheeriness of
his outlook. Happiness was a word httle on his lips,
for he was too busy. His own comment on it was
couched in his favourite quotation: "There is a
higher in man than love of happiness; he can do
504

HIS PERSONALITY
without happiness, and instead find blessedness.
Love not pleasure; love God. This is the Ever
lasting Yea, wherein aU contradictories are solved;
therein whoso works and walks it is well with him."

505

APPENDICES

APPENDIX "A"
LETTERS TO THE REV. JOHN CURRIE, 1853-8
Novembc?' ISth, IS 53. — "We reached Liverpool
after a very boisterous passage of twenty-three and
a half days. We had not left the shores of Nova
Scotia more than three hundred miles behind us,
when we encountered a violent storm of three days'
duration, in which we lost our mainmast. We were
then obliged to lay to, as we were almost a wreck,
and the wind was directly ahead of us.

"The misrepresentations which the Free Church
ministers have made in Nova Scotia respecting the
number which remain in tlie Estabhshed Church,
must have proceeded either from ignorance or dis-
ingenuousness. The Rev. Norman Macleod, Jr., told
me that there are never less than fourteen hundred
in his church (and I have found this to be true, as
I went myself) and that his father had rather more,
for that at tlie last communion he had eleven hun
dred communicants.
"I think that talent is not so generaUy diffused
among Scottish students as among Nova Scotians ;
but every now and then you meet with some ex
traordinary genius whose abilities have been cher
ished and most favourably developed by tlie numer
ous educational advantages for which Scotland is
so famous. They are a most respectable lot. Those
who say that they dress badly, etc., do not speak
509

PRINCIPAL GRANT
the truth ; by far the greater number dress like
gentlemen. "We read Horace with Mr. Taylor, assistant to
Professor Ramsay, and it is tremendous work.
Translation is weU attended to, but is not con
sidered of much consequence. Every pecuharity of
construction must be iUustrated by quoting paraUel
passages from Virgil, Horace, etc. If any word is
used in different meanings, we must teU where and
quote the passage. I was the first that was caUed
up in this class and translated very properly, and
answered historical questions pretty weU, but floun
dered at the paraUel passages: nevertheless I got a
' Thank you,' which not many get.
"I attend the Rev. Norman Macleod's ministra
tions, who gives me a seat in his own pew, as there
were four hundred applicants for seats who could
not get any, though his church has seating for
eighteen hundred. I lately had an opportunity of
hearing the great Mr. Caird, of Errol, Perthshire,
of the Established Church, aUowed by aU to be the
most eloquent preacher in Scotland. He is not more
than thirty years old, and when at Glasgow Uni
versity carried off some of the principal prizes. He
had one of the best churches in Edinburgh, but his
health failing, he was obhged to retire to the coun
try, and very seldom comes to Edinburgh or Glas
gow. He is considered by many to be fully more
eloquent than Chalmers. An hour before service
was to begin, hundreds were crowding around the
church, and they could scarcely be kept off by ten
policemen who were in attendance. After getting
my hat crushed, and my ribs terribly squeezed, I
managed to get in, and heard an orator. When
using language to represent lamentation, anguish or
510

APPENDIX "A"
pity, he was evidently a very Jeremiah : his voice so
deep, clear and melodious, now mournful, broken, and
bursting forth in convulsive and passionate entreat
ies. Look now towards the pulpit, and you see to aU
appearance an inspired prophet, his countenance
gleaming with the most intense earnestness, and a
perfect torrent of successive metaphors — glowing
imagery and impassioned appeals bursting from his
hps : thundering into the ears of his auditors the
terrible denunciations of the Law, the hardened
sin-stained nature of our souls and the blessed pro
mises of the Gospel. At one time I thought that his
action bordered too near upon the theatrical. But
scarcely had I thought so when his whole manner
changed; a plain young man occupied the pulpit,
distinguished in no degree from the ordinary class
of preachers except by the look of fervid earnest
ness wliich stUl sat upon his face. He addressed
himself to the understanding; his sermon was calm
but pathetic, his ideas logical and convincing, but
stUl interesting and original. The vast assemblage
that he addressed were hushed into the stiUest
sUence as he thus, with countenance unruffled as
the placid bosom of some mountain lake, expounded
unto them the words of everlasting life. I have heard
Dr. Macleod, Mr. Pollok, Macdonald from Comrie,
Brown of Edinburgh, Monro of Campsie, who is
one of the best, Dr. Glover of Edinburgh, etc.;
the celebrated Guthrie preach, and the deservedly
world-renowned Duff lecture.
"As boarding is cheaper in Edinburgh than in
Glasgow, you could get along comfortably enough
for seven shillings nine pence a week. Two suits,
one for ordinary wear and one for extraordinary,
would be quite sufficient, and Nova Scotia fashion
511

PRINCIPAL GRANT
suits here very weU, with the single exception — let
your pants be close reefed, i.e., much narrower than
commonly worn in Pictou. Do not come unless as
sured by some of the Glasgow or Pictou ship mer
chants that they can give or recommend you to a
cheap passage back. You would thereby get your
outward and homeward bound passages for, say,
twelve pounds currency."
February 3rd, 1855. — "This time let me be the
first of us to wish you a very happy New Year. It
seems indeed as yesterday that I received your
warm congratulations on the incoming of 1854.
But since that the mysterious wheel of time has
made another revolution, and passively, nay, almost
unconsciously, we have taken another tack in the
troublesome voyage of hfe. 'AU flesh is grass, and
aU the glory of man as the flower of grass.' Now
the blood courses joyously in my veins, my heart
beats high with expectation, and my hght swing
ing step teUs of unbounded animal spirits. But, O
my God, I thank Thee that it is Thy word alone
that endureth forever! After a very few more turn
ings at the most of our httle sand-glass the heart
will cease its throbbing, and our now soul-inspired
frame must return to its kindred dust. May we
then be wise, and consider weU our latter end; that
whenever Thou comest, we may welcome Thee
with joy, and enter into Thy glory. My dear Mr.
Currie, how much do we need to be often stirred
up by thinking upon the things which should, above
everything else, be our peace and joy. How much
do I wish to see you, to clasp your hand, to lay
aside the forms and conventionalities of hfe, to be
free from aU restraint and every shade of hypocrisy,
and by renewing personaUy our old intimacy and
512

APPENDIX "A"
palavers receive strength, firmer resolves, and more
vigorous and concentrated efforts to higher attain
ments in goodness. So much worldliness, so much
hollow-heartedness, so much striving to hve as to
displease neither God nor the world, do I find in
my own heart, and in most of those whom I even
love and admire; so much do I pant for earthly
honours, poring over books with the pale midnight
moon looking sorrowfully at me, so frequently do I
give way to the promptings of pride, vanity, selfish
ness, and evil passions, and so little inclination do I
find in myself or students generaUy to retain God
at aU times in our thoughts that I again and again
ask myself, Am I a fit and worthy person to preach
unto sinners the gospel of the salvation of Jesus
Christ? Should I go as one of Messiah's special am
bassadors to comfort and cheer the sick, to build up
the wavering, reclaim the backsliding, and to turn
from the error of his ways the hard of heart and
the daring sinner? The answer would immediately
be, No, were it not that I caU to remembrance that
there is none righteous, and that it is God who
says, 'My grace shall be sufficient for thee.'
"And now, many, many thanks for your long,
kind, amusing, instructive, and news-exhausting
letter. I did not deserve it. When I perused its
multitudinous contents and received congratula
tions instead of reproaches, I determined to make
some reparation in the shape of length, if not of
quahty. And so here goes — having made rather a
lengthy introduction. Mr. P  is, as you say, a
gentleman and a scholar; in addition to the regular
routine of coUege life and knowledge, he is an ex
ceUent German scholar and a first-rate musician.
Some narrow-minded persons, indeed, think that
513

PRINCIPAL GRANT
this latter accomplishment is one with which a
minister has nothing to do; that it is too smaU a
thing for him to be occupied about. Such also they
consider a good acquaintance with poets, such
games as backgammon, draughts, etc. My views
on these are that they are aU wisely and mercifully
ordained of God to help us not over the big hiUs,
but, as it were, the ruts of hfe; just as in the natural
world He has strewed the earth with lovely flowers.
The sight of a flower does not indeed give us great
help or lift from our breasts a load of sorrow, but
what little gushes of pleasure, what sermons of the
Creator's love and handiwork do these give us. 'To
the pure all things are pure.'. . .
"Already I feel that when I leave this, our father
land, it will be with regret and pain. For next in
my heart to the hiUs and dales, the mighty forests
and the grassy intervales of my childhood's days,
are the ruined castles, cathedrals, and abbeys, the
lovely streams, and classic lakes, the towering moun
tains and lonely wilderness spots of brave old Sco
tia. And were beauty of scenery, or gratitude for a
thousand kindnesses alone to be regarded, surely
the 'land o' cakes' must claim the preference. But
nescio qua dulcedine, the country of our birth has a
strange and powerful influence over us — a mystic
something there that is not here. Clansmen, kind
friends, the great proportion of my relatives, the
S raves of my forbears, the friends of college life, aU
ave their weight; but on the other side are my
parents, my boyish acquaintances, and the dearer
friends of my first college life.
"You ask me to tell you about my getting the
two prizes last session. Thus it was — there is a gold
medal given to the senior Latin class. I tried for
514

APPENDIX "A"
this ; but a Mr. Luke, the most celebrated classical
student that Edinburgh Academy has yet turned
out, beat me (he was dux in the academy for seven
years). The next prize was this — both sides of the
class have each one, and the first on my own side
was unanimously awarded me by the votes of the
students (they award almost aU the prizes). It is
very seldom that a student is unanimously voted a
prize. Had I entered the class as well prepared as
Mr. Luke, I would have given him a tussle. But
I had never previously written a stanza of Latin
verse, had never been accustomed to quote from
other authors, and had very httle acquaintance with
writing Latin prose or the principles of the language.
AU this and much more I had to acquire, and I did
acquire, but unfortunately and necessarily, it was
late in the session when I did. As it was I obtained
the first regular class prize.
"This session I am in the senior Greek and the
Logic classes. The senior Greek meets two hours a
day, and out of two hundred and seventy Greek
students in the three classes (junior, middle and
senior) it has only thirty-five. The Logic has been
taught by Professor Buchanan for the last thirty
years. I prepared myself in the summer by reading
carefully Reid, Brown and Mill, which last is the
hardest but one of the best nuts I ever got to crack.
The class is arranged in three divisions — the junior
containing all students under seventeen; the middle
those who are between seventeen and nineteen ; and
the senior all above nineteen. The senior this year
is very full, having over eighty in it, many of them
long-headed curmudgeons of over twenty-five years
of age.
"For the last two or three months I have been
515

PRINCIPAL GRANT
engaged in the evenings with private teaching,
preparing the sons of a rich gentleman for their
next day's lessons at the academy. But as it cuts up
my time terribly I intend to give it up next week.
"I get up at seven; between seven and eight I
dress, eat my breakfast, arrange my books, and find
my way to college ; from eight to nine at Greek
class ; from nine to ten at Logic lecture ; from ten
to eleven look over lessons for the next hour ; from
eleven to twelve, Logic. From twelve to two I go
home, read some work on Logic, eat my dinner, (I
take about fifteen minutes for this, and ten to my
breakfast), and find my way back to coUege. From
two to three at Greek class. From three to six find
my way home and learn my Greek. From six to
seven take my tea and go to my private teaching,
which is two miles distant, furnishing me with
exercise. From seven to nine with my pupUs. Get
home at half-past nine, and for the next hour at my
Greek exercises ; for the next half-hour at worship.
And from eleven to one at Logic. I commenced
this session by going to bed at twelve, but finding
that that would never pay, I had to curtail myself
of another hour. Now that I wiU quit this tuition, I
wih try to make twelve the hour.
"In the first week of December I was astounded
to receive from Mr. Patterson a letter dated Liver
pool. It was short, briefly stating that he was
thinking of soon calhng on me. I immediately
wrote, telling him what my address would be in
Edinburgh in the holidays. On the evening of De
cember 27th, when lolling in an arm-chair, I was
meditating whether I should take the trouble of
seeing home a young lady, howbeit she was sur
passing fair, and therefore one that I should be on
516

APPENDIX "A"
my guard against, who had been dining with us,
when a card was handed me, and oh, my head
swam, for my eyes read, Mr. Isaac Patterson. Oh,
his visit did me good! It was a renewing of old ties,
a re-drawing out of my heartstrings to the land of
my birth. The scenes of old were aU spread out
before me in their hohday dress and summer glory.
West River meandered down the vale ; the fohage
of the graceful elm and spreading wiUow, breathed
on by the breath of heaven, murmured in rustling
musical cadences; while loud above aU rang out the
clear voice and merry laugh of the light-hearted
student as he trudged down the dusty road, and
passed through the refreshing coolness of the or
chard." February 26th, 1858. — " You know, I suppose,
very little of my movements since the day you left
the Broomie Law in the spring of 1856 .... that
summer of 1856, as weU as last summer, I spent
with the family of a Captain Fairhe, who lives be
tween Ayr and Kilmarnock; had only two nice
gentlemanly httle boys to teach, a good deal of
travelling and amusement, nice times and a good
salary. During the summer of 1856 I saw a good
deal of the south of Scotland about Moffattdale
and Annandale. But last summer was the crowner.
I took four weeks' leave of absence while in the
West Highlands, and had a grand time; stayed
nearly a fortnight with the Macleods of Morven,1
exploring the whole country, drawing in health
from the mountain breezes, and inspiration from
the genius loci, the shade of Ossian .... we spouted
1 The Rev. Norman Macleod of Morven, uncle of Norman of the
Barony, and father of the Rev. Norman Macleod of Inverness, and of
the late Rev. John Macleod of Govan, both of whom were college
chums of Grant.
517

PRINCIPAL GRANT
poetry and talked love and metaphysics while the
murmuring waters sang sweetest music, and the
long shivering wave-light gave us a dim spiritual
idea that we were not on earth, but in ghostland.
.... Now, Glasgow, you will surely extend me
your hospitality for a night or two. That it does
right royaUy ; and along with nine or ten young
lawyers, writers, gentlemen of the press, etc., I
have the finest jolleamus recorded in my note-book.
Verily I had a most pleasant summer. The library
was my private sitting-room at Coodham, and
snugly ensconced in a large arm-chair it was JoUy
to skiff over a review, or pore over old tough treat
ises, or have a pleasant laugh with Horace, or write
an essay that would serve me for some society in
the winter. Very JoUy it was in the delicious sum
mer evenings to loU on the green sward, or roam
through the great garden ; to have a go at the lus
cious grapes, or the monster gooseberries ; or to
discuss some knotty Calvinistic point with the gar
dener; or to cut away up to the manse or some
gentleman's house and spend a happy evening —
especially if some darling young ' lady fayre ' was
to be found on the premises ; or better still to call
on the sick man and see his eye brighten as you
read to him the transcendent promises of Holy
Writ. "Three years hence, and God wUling, I'll stand on
Nova Scotian ground. . . . My time is sadly taken
up with meetings — societies — philosophical, debat
ing, political, missionary, etc., and as I am continu
aUy thrust into the secretaryship, the work entailed
on me is no joke. However, a feUow is never so
happy as when he has lots to do. Throughout this
session I have spoken very frequently at soirees
518

APPENDIX "A"
and such shines ; the United Presbyterian students
(about forty) held their annual tea-fight lately. They
kindly sent me a ticket with a request that I would
hold forth. I did so. It was the finest affair of the
kind I ever was at, and the upshot is, that we — the
Established Church students, — and they, are going
to have a grand joint tuck-out. I moved that we
should also ask the Free Church students to go in
with us. We asked them, but at their meeting — to
the astonishment of every liberal-minded Christian
man — they, with the most irrational bigotry, de
cided — twenty-one to twelve — to refuse to have
any dealings with such heathens as we, in their
eyes, are. I have also preached to small audiences
(from fifty to two hundred) at different times, and
find it by no means so difficult as I had expected ;
though the feeling of responsibility on one is very
awful ; — to think that we are presenting Christ to
men with eternal souls, and that the fault is ours if
they go away without having learned some good
lesson. "We had a respectable snowball row the other
day, from which I emerged with a black eye and
cut lip. It was great. I pitched into a few and no
mistake. Next session some of us intend pubhshing
a volume of essays1 ; and we intend to have some
great times at the election of our Lord Rector next
November. "What kind of spirit is abroad, old friend, in
Nova ? Any signs of a union ? Any hope of large-
hearted Christian views influencing the people at
large ? Any symptom of national and not party or
factious legislation ? "
1 Of this I can find no trace. — W. L. G. 519

APPENDIX "B"
LETTERS TO HIS BROTHER CHARLES, 1869-71
January 28th, 1869. — "As to myself, I feel more
in earnest with my grand work of preaching every
day. I am feeling greater freedom in speech, and
a nobler idea of the preacher's work is taking
possession of me, high as I always rated it. The
results are seen it seems to me already. Last night
I counted between fifty and sixty men at the
prayer-meeting ; and to-night I had sixteen soldiers
at my Bible class. To feel deeply and to speak
simply, that's what we have got to do — not to try
to utter a thing impressively, or to think of the
utterance at all, for that leads to artificiality or
mouthing, or affectation of some sort.
"Your plan of work is exactly what I had ex
pected it to be. Of course it will not all be plain
saihng. The longer I am in the work of the minis
try, the harder it seems to me to arouse people to
a sense of the deceitfulness of their hearts, their
ignorance of self, and their blind, besotted, aU-
absorbing love of self.
"What must it be with fast young Bengal— young
feUows with a smattering of European ideas and
civilization, but without the moral basis and back
bone that you may expect to find in a greater or a
less degree in Europeans. The work before you is
terrible. Even here, though of late I have had more
success than ever, in gloomy moments I ask myself
— have I done, am I doing the slightest good ? And
521

PRINCIPAL GRANT
this I am beginning to feel, that any good I may
have done is not what seems to me success, but
something that has not come under my own eyes.
Applause, crowds, noise, aU that is compatible with
vanity and delusion, indeed generaUy marks a min
istry of spiritual nothingness. To reaUy quicken a
soul, to unite it to the fountain of hfe, what a work
is that, and how seldom is it given to any of us to
accomphsh it ! God grant you faith unto the end,
for faith only wiU uphold you."
June 18th, 1869. — "Here we are moving but
slowly. We have something to cheer and much to
discourage. I am kept awfuUy busy with routine
work and petty duties. If it weren't for eight or
ten of my lay assistants, I would faint altogether. I
am getting good work out of some of them, and
there's always one or two new ones appearing to
help. I intend to take several short speUs of holi
day this year so as to be able to work in the winter
with vigour. What you say about my character and
its faults I accept as true, because in those things
outsiders see us better than we see ourselves."
July 28th, 1869. — "The synod was a great success
in many ways. We agreed to accept young Robert
son, of Aneiteum, as an evangelist to the New Heb
rides ; he will go out a year after GoodwUl, who
goes next month.  ,  , and  , made a
grand attack on the Home Mission Board, but
though they brought their three elders they were
beaten nine to twenty-two. AU the other presby
teries stuck by me to a man. Staid, broad-bottomed
old Pictou presbytery can't now carry all it chooses
as once it could, and they are beginning to see that.
The Home Mission Board was re-appointed, and
with fuller powers than before, even the malcontents,
522

APPENDIX "B"
after their beating, not objecting. Hereafter it has
the aUocating of missionaries and licentiates. On my
motion then, Philip and another were added to the
board, and aU ended smoothly.
" On Sunday next is my mid-summer communion.
I hope God wiU manifest Himself to us in His dear
Son very evidently. May He bless and sustain you
more and more. It is blessed indeed to trust, to
love, and to work for Him."
August 13th, 1869. — "I think that I am becoming
a perfect saint. Here is another letter to you, though
I wrote you last mail. WeU, I never expect to
be quite appreciated on earth. I must also confess
that you have developed as a correspondent in
a most extraordinary and effective manner. By the
time you receive this you wUl have received, I
hope, aU the Records up to and including August,
and have seen your own letters. They take well,
and under the present committee and staff of con
tributors, the Record wiU, I think, do. The only
nuisance is, that some men wUl send old sermons,
and some men wiU send mendacious addresses, and
so there is always more matter, such as it is, than
can be put in. This, however, obviates the necessity
for scissors matter.
"We have resolved to build a new kirk at Rich
mond. Thompson coUected six hundred doUars at
Richmond and Northwest Arm. He then began
on the Hahfax people; caUed on K. and M., and got
ten dollars each from them. I saw that he would ruin
the thing, so I burnt his hst and went to K. and
M. and told them that they must give a hundred
doUars apiece or nothing. They agreed, and put
down as they were told. I then went to the Chief
Justice, GD. and myself, and we aU did ditto.
523

PRINCIPAL GRANT
To-morrow I intend going to J. F. M„ etc., for
ditto. We must raise somewhere four thousand
doUars, and we can let another one thousand remain
on the building, as we are always capable of getting
sixty dollars a year of rent for the school-house.
"I have commenced a meeting for the married
soldiers and their wives. I have more soldiers to
look after than the two other chaplains together,
and two hundred and five famihes of civilians,
besides clerks, servant girls, public duties, etc., so
that I am driven half distracted by work of all
kinds. No time for study. I would cut and run did
I not feel that God was blessing the work.
"What you say of the general weakness of the
Scotch Church, go where you will, is too true. I
believe the reason to be that the church has not
dared to act out the principles on which it is
founded. It is democratic in origin, in genius, in its
history ; but its ministers are afraid of democracy,
and trim, or ape, or hold their hands. The F. C. and
U. P. cast themselves on the people ; are not afraid
of spiritual fervour, or excitement, and the people
see that they are in earnest, and mean what they
say, and so, of course, they support them. What
the future wiU produce it is difficult to say. A
cataclysm is coming, and mere cobwebs or finical
prettinesses or spiritual gentility, or gigmantUity
will go down in it in a mere moment."
September 24th, 1869. — "My living at the Arm
has its inconveniences, but also its great comforts.
HiU (of St. Paul's) and I meet every morning at
seven, or half-past six, under a bank that stretches
before our doors, for a regular swim. What would
you give for the sensation ? The Atlantic, sir, with
the water ranging from fifty-six to sixty degrees
524

APPENDIX "B"
Fahrenheit, and the air about the same. Comfort
number one, and number two is that I can take my
meals in peace, those of them, that is, that I eat out
there. No rings at the door, and no dread of rings.
It is perfect bliss to eat a meal undisturbed."
February 11th, 1870. — "Our circulation (of the
Record) wUl not be larger than last year, for its
liberal tone anent organs, the hymnal, union, and
general church policy, has disgusted a few here and
there through the country, and they have dropped
off. But I put up with their loss very patiently, for
a few of these obstructives ought to be taught
that they are not to rule on aU occasions, and be
aUowed to direct the whole course of the church.
The ' weaker brethren ' in too many churches rule
them absolutely, and it's time to let them know
that the stronger have some rights also."
May 17th, 1870. — "Last Sunday was the seventh
anniversary of my seven years here, and instead of
a sermon I gave a review of the past, and in so
doing lectured people terribly. I have decided to
remain with them, though Montreal was staggering
me a httle during the past three or four months.
At my last communion three hundred and six sat
down, thirty-four new ones included, and I felt
that I daren't leave."
September 9th, 1870. — "There is, I think, no fear
but that we shah accomplish a union, and our
delegates both here and in old Canada are so
superior to theirs, that it wiU be strange if we don't
hold our own in negotiations. Last Monday I got a
letter from the committee of patronage of St. An
drew's, Montreal, making me the formal offer of
the charge, stipend three thousand six hundred
doUars. I promptly dechned, although, I must con-
525

PRINCIPAL GRANT
fess, with a few misgivings, seeing that it is doubtful
if a fit man for the place can be had, and that if he
is not, then, that the congregation that could do
most for the cause generaUy is paralyzed. Its re
sources are enormous, if it were weU handled."
February 10th, 1871. — "Three weeks hence I am
to lecture to the Dalhousie students on university
education in Nova Scotia. I have been run to death
writing reports for the Presbyterian home mission,
the synod's home mission, the working society, the
dispensary, the industrial school, etc., etc., and my
time is so cut up that I can hardly get a calm hour
to read or digest what I read. My classes are too
numerous, I think, and yet I don't want to give
any of them up. The church never was so fuU as it
is, but there doesn't seem the same spiritual life in
myself or them as a year ago. I suppose progress is
like the tide, ebbs as weU as flows — in the indi
vidual, and in the congregation and in the church.
"I think I told you in my last that our choir had
resigned, and that the session had appointed a
precentor, Sergeant Cook of the 78th. The experi
ment is succeeding very well, as far as producing
congregational singing is concerned, and I think
that we'U try and keep it up. The people join in
wonderfully, and it's a great relief to be without a
choir. Everything else goes on much as usual. The
84th Regiment, which has lately come, has only
thirty or forty Presbyterians in it.
"I heard that Gordon had been caUed to the St.
Andrew's Church, Montreal, but it seems that it is
a mistake. They have sent to Dr. Norman to send
them one from Scotland. One writes to me that if
I would come they would at once caU me, but my
answer invariably is, ' I am well enough as I am.'
526

APPENDIX "B"
Frequent changes, especiaUy to 'better oneself
are very injurious in the minds of the people. But I
have resolved to visit Montreal in May or June,
when the synod meets this year, and get a little
acquainted with our ministers there. They seem to
have no rising young men but the two Pictonians,
Gordon and MacdonneU. Talent as a rule now
doesn't go into the church."
During the greater part of 1870-1 he had as
assistant the Rev. J. Fraser CampbeU, now a mis
sionary of the church in Central India. This was
rendered absolutely necessary by his having ac
cepted the chaplaincy of the 78th Highland Regi
ment, then garrisoning Halifax. But he by no
means got the fuU benefit of the services of his
assistant, as is shown by the foUowing extract : —
November 4th, 1870. — "Not being able to get any
one for Newfoundland, and it being in a shaky state,
owing to a three months' vacancy without the least
supply or prospect of it, I sent Fraser Campbell to
them last mail for two months, hoping that in the
meantime something would turn up. So that I have
on hand now four services on Sabbath, and week
meetings innumerable — Monday evening Bible class
of men and women, average attendance forty-five;
workers' meeting thereafter; Wednesday, ladies'
Bible class, average attendance fifty; prayer-meet
ing larger than ever; teachers' meeting, average
attendance forty; Friday evening's class at bar
racks ; besides four or five cottage meetings, a
superintendence of which I have to take."

527

INDEX

Alumni Conference, 465, 490
Annexation to United States, 249,
396
Anti-Burghers, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19
C
Caird, Rev. John, 510
Canadian Pacific Railway, 129, 137,
244, 245, 248, 251, 255
Carman, Rev. Dr., 386
Caven, Rev. Principal, 278, 365,
429,431
Chiniquy, Rev. Father, 174
Clark, Hon. Mortimer, 425
Conolly, Archbishop, 81, 103, 175
D
Dalhousie University, 61, 63, 183
Denison, Colonel G. T., 408, 410
E
Education, in Pictou, 13, 16; in
Scotland, 24 ; in Nova Scotia, 21,
60, 67, 89, 181 ; in Upper Canada,
189, 208, 272 ; for women, 237 ;
matriculation standards, 239, 315,
323 ; the Bible in, 362 ; in Mani
toba, 368 F
Fleming, Sib Sandford, 129, 224,
236, 251, 266, 412
Free Church of Scotland, 18, 34,
609, 519

G
Gordon, Rev. Principal D. M.,
146, 205, 217, 224, 429, 433, 626
Grant, Rev. C. M., 10, 95, 98,
177, 182, 521-7
Grant, Principal, early days, 6 ;
success at Glasgow, 23 ; his pro
fessors, 25 ; president of the Con
servative Club, 27 ; athletic skill,
29, 447, 475 ; views on Sunday
street cars, 33 ; influenced by Car
lyle, 41 ; tours the continent, 42 ;
advocates a native ministry, 51 ;
canonized, 55 ; comes to Halifax,
58 ; tries to found » theological
hall, 67 ; becomes unpopular, 74;
in society, 105, 474; marriage,
120 ; advocates a national church
of Canada, 155 ; views as to news
papers, 162; visits Scottish Assem
blies, 164; views on Franco-Prus
sian war, 178 ; advocates union of
Maritime Provinces, 181; collects
for Pine Hill Theological Col
lege, 186 ; installed as principal,
205 ; collects for Queen's, 218 ;
breaks down, 231 ; crosses Kick
ing Horse Pass, 251 ; fights Tem
poralities Case, 257 ; accused of
agnosticism, 259 ; declines to be
come minister of education, 261 ;
declines to become president of
Toronto University, 269 ; opposes
university federation, 286 ; col-
529

PRINCIPAL GRANT

Grant, Principal — Continued
lects Jubilee Fund, 290; visits Ox
ford, 295; opposes political control
of education, 325-7; refuses to
enter politics, 349; refuses to leave
Canada, 360 ; visits Manitoba
schools, 368 ; opposes exclusion
of Chinese, 370 ; opposes prohi
bition, 381 ; in the Assembly,
429; made C.M.G., 436; death
of, 438 ; views on higher criti
cism, 484 ; as a collector, 523 ;
edits the Record, 523; declines St.
Andrew's Church, Montreal, 525
Grant Hall, 345 H
Hong Lee, 372
Howe, Hon. Joseph, 91, 92, 99, 184

Jesuits' Estates Bill, 363
K
King's College, Windso*, 16, 62, 66

Lang, Rev. Gavin, 165, 257
Laurier, Sir W., 373, 376, 415
LeSueur, Mr. W. D., 172
Liddon, Canon, 297
Luther, 43 M
McCarthy, D' Alton, 409
McCulloeh, Rev. Thomas, 15, 17,
62
MeGill University, 233, 331
Macdonald, Prof. C, 65, 435
Macdonald, Sir John A., 90, 132,
205, 348, 402, 503
530

MacdonneU, Rev. D. J., 146, 161,
168, 217, 228, 266, 363, 527
MacKerras, Prof., 197, 199, 217,
224, 237
Macleod, Norman, 32, 47, 108
Machar, Miss A. M., 152, 156, 173,
233
Moody, D. L., 41, 73
Mowat, Sir Oliver, 261, 352, 366
Mulock, Sir William, 273, 321, 411
N
Nelles, Chancellor S. S., 232, 281

Parkin, G. R., 407, 412, 414, 417
Philip, Rev. W. M., 68, 523
Pictou Academy, 15, 17
Pictou County, settled, 2 ; immi
gration into, 5 ; education in, 13 ;
Grant's love of, 39 ; religious re
vival in, 171 ; religious feeling
of, 522
Picturesque Canada, 247
Pollok, Rev. Allan, 20, 63, 81, 169
Prince Edward Island, 56, 124
Prohibition in Canada, 383

Queen's University, 21, 53, 65 ;
early history of, 189 ; difficulties
of, 233 ; secures new buildings,
235 ; new professors appointed,
238, 292; establishes honour
courses, 240, 324; receives a
municipal grant, 344 ; in 1899,
421 ; proposed nationalization of,
428
Queen's Quarterly, 455

INDEX

R

Record, The, 35, 68, 86, 523
" Reformers of the Nineteenth Cen
tury," 83
Religions of the World, 488
River John, 65, 169
Rogers, Major, 253
Ryerson, Dr. Egerton, 262

Smith, Robertson, 154
Snodgrass, Principal, 187, 197, 199,
202, 217, 222
South Africa, 301, 414

Temporalities Case, 257
Tupper, Sir Charles, 61, 91, 92, 374

U

St. Matthew's Church, 15, 58, 81
St. John, fire at, 159
School of Mining, in Kingston, 284,
333-42
Scott, Rev. John, 59, 106
Smith, Goldwin, 236, 247, 263, 282, Willison, J. S., 255, 294, 354,
399, 403, 406 369, 375, 389, 391, 499

University of Toronto, 190, 195,
208, 240, 270, 272, 294, 314, 344
W

531