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The Struggle for Existence

ON July 7th, 1846, the Governors of McGill met at Government House to appoint a Principal to succeed Dr. Bethune. The meeting was attended by the Lord Bishop of Montreal, the Rev. Dr. Mountain; the Chief Justice of Upper Canada and the Governor-General. The seriousness of the situation that had developed was indicated by the presence of the two last named members, who had not attended a meeting for several years. It was resolved that pending a decision on the former acting-Principal's memorial to Her Majesty's Council, protesting against the disallowance of his appointment, a temporary appointment of Principal be made. The choice was Edmund A. Meredith, B.A., LL.B., a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. He was at once informed of the Governors' decision; he accepted the post and took his seat at the meeting. He was to receive no remuneration for his services. The condition of the College was reviewed by the Governors and was found to be critical. Dr. Holmes of the Medical School reported that no degrees had been conferred in the spring “in consequence of the disallowance by Her Majesty of the former election of Principal.” The Governors therefore changed the date for the conferring of Medical degrees from the 25th of May, previously fixed, to “a date to be agreed upon by the Governors on application from the Medical Faculty,” and the deferred Medical degrees were given at a convocation held on December 17th, following. It was found that the liabilities of the College amounted to over £3300, made up of £2300 for old unpaid bills and over £1000 for arrears of Professors' salaries. The revenue of the College was shown to be only about £900 a year, and the current expenses, exclusive of salaries, about £500 a year. The financial outlook, considering the large liabilities, was therefore not encouraging.

Edmund A. Meredith, L.L.D.
Principal of McGill University
1846-1849

The new Principal, Edmund A. Meredith, was the son of the Rev. Thomas Meredith, D.D., a Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and a mathematician of distinction. His mother was a daughter of the Very Rev. Richard Graves, also a Fellow of Trinity, Dean of Ardagh, and a theologian of note. He graduated in 1837 from Trinity College, Dublin, where he won the second classical scholarship, the prize for political economy, and the graduation medal in science. He then began the study of law, but before his course was completed he came to Canada in 1843. Here he resumed his legal studies, and on fulfilling the requirements he became a member of the Bar in both Upper and Lower Canada. When he was appointed Principal of McGill he was a lawyer in active practice in Montreal. In scholarship he was well qualified for his duties, as Lecturer in Mathematics and as Principal of the struggling College in which courses had to be arranged and the whole academic policy reformed. He was possessed, too, of unusual administrative ability and of legal knowledge of great value in that time of College chaos and disagreement; and he displayed uncommon tact and abundant patience and energy in his efforts to solve the delicate problems with which the University was then confronted. It was largely through his initiative that the movement was undertaken for the securing of a new Charter. In 1847 he accepted the post of Assistant Provincial Secretary, but as the seat of Government was then in Montreal he still remained Principal of McGill. After the burning of the Parliament Buildings and the violence in connection with the Rebellion Losses Bill, when the seat of Government was moved to Toronto, Mr. Meredith tendered his resignation as Principal on October 26, 1849. He was induced to retain the Principalship, however, although living in Toronto, until a successor could be found, and it was not until 1851 that he finally withdrew. His name appears as Principal in documents of that year. In recognition of his services the University conferred on him the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1857. When Thomas Workman gave the workshops to the Faculty of Applied Science he directed that a sum of $3000 be paid to the former Principal, Dr. Meredith, “inasmuch;” he said, “as I have long been convinced of the value of the services rendered to the University of McGill by Edmund A. Meredith, LL.D., during a very critical period of its history.” Dr. Meredith afterwards became Under-Secretary of State for Canada, and he was connected with the Civil Service until 1878.

The nine years between 1846 and 1855 were years of continuous financial perplexity during which the Governors had great difficulty in keeping the College in operation. There is little else to record than a discouraging battle with poverty and want. But in this period hope for ultimate success was not abandoned. The new Board of Governors had first to reorganize the teaching staff and make new appointments. In addition to his other duties the Principal undertook to conduct, as Lecturer, the classes in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. The Professor of Classical Literature, the Rev. W. T. Leach, was made Vice-Principal in September, 1846. It was also realised that in a country of two languages instruction in French was an absolute necessity. No funds were available for the purpose, but Monsieur L. D. Montier accepted the position of Lecturer in return for lodging and fuel and a portion of students' fees, on the understanding that he was to receive a salary of £30 a year as soon as money was available. But students' fees, because of the small number in attendance, gave but little reward, and as a result the new French Lecturer was apparently not always as zealous and enthusiastic in his unremunerative labours as the Caput desired. It frequently happened that for several days he gave no instruction, and soon after his appointment the Caput censured him for neglecting his work and for “conduct highly reprehensible and subversive of all College discipline.” In recognition of his services, however, and perhaps to keep him from becoming weary in well-doing, the Governors allowed him half an acre of land “in the northeast corner of the College grounds, to pasture his cow and make a garden,” from the products of which they hoped he might receive some slight return for his work. The Rev. G. F. Simpson, Headmaster of the High School, consented to act as Lecturer in Mathematics without any salary or fees. In March, 1847, the Hon. Justice Badgley, LL.D., was appointed Lecturer in Law without remuneration other than fees, and instruction in Law which later led to the establishment of the Law Faculty was commenced during the following term. In July, 1848, a Lecturer in Hebrew and Oriental Languages was appointed without salary. It was decided not to appoint a Professor of Divinity in succession to Dr. Bethune, not only because of the lack of funds, but because the clauses in the Statutes bearing on the nature of the theological instruction to be given had not yet been agreed upon by the Home Government.

But the gravest and most important duty of the new administration was in connection with the serious financial condition of the University, and with efforts to improve the situation. When the Governors met in July, 1846, the Professors and Lecturers, some of whom had already retired because of resignation or dismissal, appealed to them for payment of their salaries. They had worked without pay for several months, and in some cases for a year and a half. It was even difficult for them to obtain fuel and candles. The Governors expressed their “sympathy with them in their embarrassment and distress,” but regretted that they were unable to relieve them. The Vice-Principal was given land behind the College to enable him to make a garden, “on condition that he would not interfere with the Bursar's garden.” The Governors and the Board of the Royal Institution were unwilling to encroach upon the meagre capital to pay for ordinary running expenses. They believed that if the burden of debt which the College carried could be removed they could meet in some way all current obligations, and that there would be no doubt about the future success of the University. In liquidating the debt they hoped for assistance from the Government. In November, 1846, the Secretary of the Governors wrote: “The prospects of the College are now in so promising a state as to lead the Governors to entertain the most sanguine hopes, if they would but be relieved from their present embarrassments, of succeeding in carrying into full effect the great object its benevolent founder had in view.” But their hopes for direct assistance from the Government or the Home authorities were not early fulfilled.

It was soon evident that the removal of the burden of debt without Government assistance would be an arduous task uncertain of accomplishment, and that a problematical period doubtless lay ahead. Many of the debts were of ten years' standing. Some of them had been incurred with mechanics and tradesmen in connection with the construction of the College buildings. Professors had long been unpaid. Since July, 1845, no money had been placed at the disposal of the Governors to meet expenses. The Statutes for the government of the College were still unsanctioned by the Crown, and this fact and the dispute between the Board of the Royal Institution and the Governors continued to furnish an excuse, whether valid or not is questionable, for paying no money for several months out of College funds. The Governors had borrowed from the Banks on their own personal security, and had obtained small sums at different times on their own personal undertaking to pay for fuel and to meet the most pressing demands made by absolutely necessary contingencies. Were it not for this timely assistance it is probable that the College would have been closed; its fortunes at best were precarious.

The Royal Institution had meanwhile concluded to transfer to the Receiver-General of the Province all sums paid to them on account of the College. But the Receiver-General would not pay them to the College authorities, pending the Crown's decision on the Statutes. The Governors urged the Royal Institution to a hasty consideration of their embarrassment. They did not blame or censure the Board for the extraordinary situation in which they found themselves. In the question as to the cause of the situation they were not primarily interested. Debating on the responsibility for it and on bygone disputes would not improve it. The fact was plain that the College's existence was in the balance because of financial conditions, and that this fact must be faced. “The buildings are becoming dilapidated and useless,” they wrote, “and those who inhabit them will be frozen or starved unless the Governors contribute from their private means.” They likewise vigorously called the attention of the Home Government to their incongruous and lamentable plight. “We desire earnestly,” they said, “to impress upon Her Majesty's Government that the attainment of the benevolent and noble object of the founder of McGill College has been unfortunately if not culpably delayed.” Yet they insisted that the present problem “will work out and the whole income will soon be available for expenditure.” There would then be no difficulty, they thought, “in maintaining the College on a scale large enough to be of use in a colony of a million people without means for obtaining education for youth.” And they declared with astonishing optimism, “the Governors have great hopes that when once fairly put in action this Institution will speedily attract patronage and support and will expand with the wealth of the country.” This note of courage and faith is all the more remarkable when we realise the exact condition of the University, without money, without Statutes, a fact which was used as an excuse for withholding funds, with but little sympathy from Provincial Government or Home Government, with its few Professors unpaid and pleading even for fuel and light, with unfinished and poorly equipped buildings falling rapidly into decay, with grounds uncared for, and with a very small enrollment of students.

The Governors were determined, however, not to decrease the capital funds of the College and that payments, if any, must be made out of surplus revenue. In this they had the approval and co-operation of the Board of the Royal Institution. Nor did they wish to dispose of any of the land until it was absolutely necessary to do so, and then only with a unanimous consent. They made an effort first to increase the value of their real estate. A large portion of the land had been let for pasture and for grass, but the leaseholders were slow to pay the rent and many of them were several months in arrears. The Board of the Royal Institution now endeavoured to collect all rents promptly when due. They decided to discriminate between their own various debts. They would pay tradesmen first, in the order of the age of their bills. When the tradesmen had all been paid they would then pay the Professors, but not until all other debts had first been liquidated. The Professors must wait. An agreement was then entered into with the various creditors to pay their debts off in installments. In order to secure more revenue the students' fees were increased. They had already been raised from £3 to £4 6s. 8d., of which £2 13s. 4d. went to the House Fund, 6s. 8d. to the Bursar, the same amount to the Library, and £1 to the servants. The fees were now advanced to £10. Every matriculant was also to pay £1 5s. to the Bursar for his use and benefit, and all students were to deposit 10s. “caution money,” to cover breakages and damages to furniture, this deposit or the portion of it not used to be refunded in the spring. Expenses during this period were reduced to a minimum. In 1845 the large dining-hall or refectory had been given over to the Medical Faculty, and one of the small rooms had then become the dining-room. In 1847, however, because of the financial loss incurred even the small dining-room was closed and, as we have seen, the students boarded with Professors. In 1848, when Law students were first permitted to reside in the College, it was on the express condition that “Professor Leach would board them.”

The necessity for much needed repairs to fences and buildings and for fuel for the College rooms called urgently for funds. But there was no money to provide these necessities. Permission was asked and received by the Governors to pull down and remove an old wooden hut on the College grounds, “which had long been considered an unsightly object and a nuisance fast falling to decay.” It was arranged that “the boards of the roof and floor would mend fences and that the old logs would be used for fuel.” It was later decided to sell the surplus furniture in the College, scanty enough at best, and also the sand that had been taken from the excavations for the buildings, the money from the sales to be put to “repairs to the spouts of the buildings and to the fences, also to bring water from the spring near the bridge [in the present “hollow”], to put a railing on the bridge, and to make passable the road between the College and Sherbrooke Street.” But in the midst of all their financial worries the determination of the College authorities to encourage students is evident from their establishing two exhibitions of the value of £10 each, to be awarded yearly to the two students standing highest in the matriculation examination. Professors might starve or freeze and creditors might wait, but ambitious and meritorious students must be practically encouraged.

The Governors were at last given some slight relief by the receipt of over £1400, on account, from the Receiver-General, to whom the revenues arising from College funds and properties were being periodically transferred by the Royal Institution. Of this amount only £50 was voted for current expenses; the remainder was used to pay off a portion of the debts, among them the amount borrowed from the Bank by the former Principal and the Chief Justice of Montreal. A further sum of £280 was received by the Governors from rentals, of which £100 was paid to the Vice-Principal, £100 to the Bursar, Registrar and Secretary, £50 to the Professor of Mathematics and £30 to the Lecturer in French, in part payment of their long overdue salaries. But it was decided that in consideration of these payments “no fuel could be provided for the present for any College officer.”

The relief resulting from the above receipts was of but brief duration. In November, 1848, the Governors had only the sum of £54 at their disposal. They divided it between the Bursar and the two Lecturers in proportion to the amount of salary in arrears, and as a result the Lecturer in French, M. Montier, received £2 14s. as his share from January 1st, 1848, to November 29, 1848. That was the full amount of salary received by him during the year; but he still had his cow and his garden! As if to increase the worries of the College authorities the College buildings caught fire on January 24, 1849. Fortunately the damage was only small, but any damage, however trifling, could at that time be ill-afforded. To add to the embarrassment, several of the few students enrolled failed to pay their fees, and the Bursar could not collect them. In February, 1849, he was in urgent need of funds, and on the 13th he sent out to the student debtors appealing letters of which the following is typical: “I beg that you will pay your fees this week if possible, as I have a heavy College claim to meet on Saturday without the wherewithal to pay it.” He supported this appeal by letters to parents, “I beg that you would be good enough to pay your son's College fees on or before Saturday next, as I have a heavy College debt to pay on that day and not sufficient funds to meet it.” These appeals were not always successful, and the revenue from this source remained indefinite. In the spring the students who had paid their dues were not given back the caution money they had deposited because “no funds were available.” There is a record of one student, more persistent than the others, who was difficult to placate. He was finally promised that his “caution money would be refunded when possible,” and he was assured that “funds would soon be available because the Statutes would soon be ratified.”

The gross revenue available to the College in 1849 was £494, made up of £70 from the rent of Burnside House, £274 from rents of building lots and other lands, and £150 from the rent of a large stone building known as the King's Arms or Mack's Hotel, situated on Jacques Cartier Square, formerly Nelson's Market. The rent of this latter building was first £250 a year, but from depreciation in value because of the removal of the Market it had decreased by £100. After deducting the amounts required for insurance, etc., the net revenue was only about £440. Only thirteen students were in attendance; two of these had obtained exhibitions and were admitted free, and the income derived from the fees of the remaining eleven was £110. The salaries, which, however, were several months in arrears, amounted to £292 a year. The Principal received no remuneration. The salary of the Rev. W. T. Leach, Vice-Principal and Professor of Classical Literature, was supposed to be £100; that of T. Guerin, Lecturer in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, £50; the Hon. W. Badgley, Lecturer in Law, received no stated reward, but he was entitled to a fee of £2 per term from each student attending his lectures; the Rev. J. Abbott, Registrar, Bursar, Secretary, and Lecturer in Ancient and Modern History, Geography and Logic, was supposed to receive a salary of £100, and in addition several small fees from students, which amounted the previous year to only £4 5s.; L. D. Montier, Lecturer in French, received £30 a year, and the Beadle, F. Hewitt, was given £12; the Lecturer in Hebrew, the Rev. A. De Sola, received no salary. Later in the year a lecturer in Botany was appointed “without remuneration for the present.”

The Board of the Royal Institution endeavoured earnestly to relieve the financial situation of the College, and they requested the Receiver-General to make all possible payments to the Governors. But the liabilities far exceeded the assets. In January, 1850, the College officers urgently pleaded for their overdue salaries. It was decided to pay them 2s. 9d. in the pound. Accordingly, Vice-Principal Leach received £55 of the £404 in arrears; L. D. Montier, the Lecturer in French, was given £4 of the £34 due him, and the others were paid very small amounts in proportion for a year or, as in the case of the Vice-Principal, several years of work. A grant of £25 was asked for by the College authorities to purchase books for students, but it was of necessity refused. The supply of fuel for the year was reduced to “ten cords of maple wood,” and altogether the outlook of the College was not promising.

Meanwhile the Statutes, Rules, etc., which had been forwarded to the Colonial Office for Royal sanction in 1843, had been approved with some alterations, and the Royal confirmation was announced in a despatch from Lord Grey to Lord Elgin, the Governor-General, on September 27th, 1848. The Home Government had delayed their approval of the Statutes because they were not sure of the attitude of the Provincial Legislature towards the College. Remembering the political events of 1837 and realising as a result Canadian resentment of any semblance of dictation or coercion, they decided to proceed with caution. In this they followed the advice of the Governor-General, Lord Metcalfe, who, as we have seen, strongly urged delay and a careful consideration of the clauses bearing on religious instruction, in his despatch of September 6, 1843. To this despatch Lord Stanley replied from Downing Street on October 13, stating his approval of the suggestions and expressing his desire to meet first the wishes of the Provincial Assemblies. “It is evident,” he said, “that these questions cannot be decided without the intervention of the Legislature of Canada and that it must rest with the Provincial Parliament to determine whether pecuniary aid shall or shall not be afforded to the College.... It could answer no useful purpose, but may lead to a most embarrassing controversy if, by the confirmation of those Statutes ... Her Majesty should hazard a collision on such topics as these, between the Royal Authority irrevocably exercised and the future recommendation of both or either of the Houses of local Legislature. Consequently, until I shall be apprised of the results of their deliberations, the decision of the Queen will be suspended.”

There were rumours that a bitter attack against the College, its administration and its religious exclusiveness would be made in the Legislature, and that a Bill would be introduced which might possibly lead in the end to its abolition. Lord Metcalfe feared such a possibility. But no attack was made, and on January 17, 1844, the Governor-General wrote to Downing Street: “No attack was made on McGill College in the shape of a Bill during the late Session. The Institution perhaps owes its escape to the prudence of the French Canadian party, who, having several Roman Catholic Colleges that are exclusive, are not disposed generally to join in attacking other Institutions on account of their exclusiveness, lest the same weapons should be turned against their own. Under those circumstances McGill College being in Lower Canada appears to be in a safer position than it seemingly occupied before the late Session; and I do not consider the expediency of withholding confirmation of their Statutes to be so urgent as I then conceived it. Nevertheless, it is not certain that the Institution may not be attacked in any future Session, for the Presbyterians and Dissenters of all classes are bent on destroying the exclusive character which it has acquired in the hands of the Church of England.” Efforts were now renewed by the Royal Institutions to have the Statutes, in part at least, approved, but the Board was informed by the Colonial Office that “it does not appear to Her Majesty that the College has the means of sustaining itself on a reasonable scale of efficiency.” The closing of the College was looked upon by the Home authorities as a mere matter of time!

After much discussion and delay, when it seemed probable that the College would weather the storm, the Statutes were finally in part approved in the autumn of 1848. The time for action had come and the Home authorities realised that “further delay might issue in the ruin of the College.” As we have already seen, the clauses relating to the sectarian character of theological instruction and of the College prayers were not confirmed. In giving reasons for the vetoing of these clauses, Lord Grey wrote that in his opinion, based on the advice of Lord Metcalfe, “aid would not be granted [to the College] if the Royal confirmation of the Statutes should first have impressed indelibly on that Institution a character of exclusiveness in whatever relates to Theological degrees and studies and to the public worship of the place.... The Will and Charter are both silent on the subject of the peculiar religious tenets or ecclesiastical principles to be inculcated at the College, a silence very significant in the case of a Testator who was himself the member of a Christian Church, a silence not less significant in the case of the Sovereign ... a silence not to be explained by any supposed forgetfulness or intentional omission of the subject, since the inculcation of 'the principles of true religion' is expressly provided for by the Charter; a silence, therefore, apparently indicating a design that Christianity should be taught, not in any single or exclusive form, but in any and in every form in which its great fundamental truths and precepts could be imparted to the students.... The questions respecting the religious and ecclesiastical principles to be inculcated in the College will, therefore, for the present rest in the same state of indecision as that in which the Will of the founder and the Royal Charter have left them.”

With the approval of the Statutes, the Governors made an effort to reorganise the College on a better working basis. In December, 1849, the Principal forwarded to the Board of the Royal Institution suggestions for amendments to the Charter in order to provide a greater freedom of action which might render the management more efficient. This step resulted largely from a report sent to the Governors by the Board of the Royal Institution, setting forth the latter's observations on conditions found during their official Visit in 1848, and including an outline of the remedies they thought should be applied. The Board approved of their suggestions and urged immediate consideration of the question. Three months passed without action. Meanwhile a peculiar situation had developed. The Principal of the College had desired in October, 1849, to resign, as he was about to move to Toronto because of the change in the seat of Government. He was now Assistant Provincial Secretary. But as no successor was available he was persuaded to retain the office for the present, although no longer able, because of his residence in Toronto, to take a very active part in College affairs, or to exercise any direct supervision over the administration. The remaining Governors consisted of the Lord Bishop of Montreal, who resided at Quebec; the Chief Justice of Upper Canada, the Hon. J. Beverley Robinson, who, like the Principal, dwelt in Toronto; and the Governor-General, Lord Elgin, who, after he had been attacked by a mob in 1849 as a result of his attitude on the “Rebellion Losses Bill,” no longer resided in Montreal. None of the Governors was therefore able to exercise any oversight of the College of which they were the legal guardians. In April, 1850, a Committee of the Board of the Royal Institution was appointed to suggest a solution of the peculiar problem. They wrote to the Governor-General, setting forth the absurdity and the hopelessness of a condition which permitted the College to be controlled by Governors no longer resident in Montreal, and emphasising the necessity that existed for “a prompt application of remedies to relieve the College from its present unfortunate state of depression.” They urged an amended Charter as the first requirement. A long correspondence followed between the Board and the individual Governors, relating to the details of the Charter. In June the Board's Committee wrote again to the Governor-General, stating that if the Charter were amended according to the draft prepared “McGill College would speedily be relieved from the difficulties by which it has been so long surrounded.”

The Board desired to amend the original Charter rather than to abrogate it in order not to raise any question of the tenure of the estate through a lapse of possession. They feared that between the brief period of time which would necessarily intervene between the annulment of the old Charter and the passing of the new, the heirs-at-law of James McGill might, even at that late date, claim that the College no longer existed in fact, and that they were entitled to the estate. They therefore preferred an amended Charter, even if more cumbersome. One of the amendments provided that the members of the Board of the Royal Institution should henceforth be the Governors of the College, the members still to be appointed by the Crown. The number of Governors was left indefinite, but the Board suggested strongly that “the number should not be less than thirteen, and that they should be selected from the different Protestant denominations in the city and district of Montreal.” Later they suggested that the number should be nine or eleven, exclusive of ex-officio members. They pointed out that “so long as the Board of the Royal Institution and the Board of Governors are composed of different bodies of men exercising a co-ordinate and uncertain jurisdiction over matters very ill-defined ... it is impossible to expect either unanimity in the bodies themselves or harmony in the system.... The only means of imparting to these bodies unity of action and design will be found in making them identical.” Such an amendment would forever end the dual control which had brought about in the past disaster and depression.

Other clauses in the amendment provided that all Statutes and Rules of the College could be approved by the Governor-General at his discretion without transmission to England; and that the visitatorial power be transferred from the Royal Institution and vested in the Governor-General. The purpose of the amendments was to simplify the government of the College and to secure an efficient administration. The suggestions with reference to numbers and to the selecting of the Governors from the different Protestant denominations were not followed by the Government. There was much correspondence between the Board and the Governor-General and his Council over the proposals. But it was on the whole amicable. The objections of one side were always met with reasonableness by the other, and a harmonious agreement was finally reached. The Governor-General forwarded the amended Charter to the Colonial Office with his approval and his advice that it should receive Royal sanction. The Board of the Royal Institution, realising from past experience the slow methods of Downing Street, appointed an agent in London to hasten the passage of the Charter through the different offices of the Imperial Government. It was not until August, 1852, however, that the amended Charter was finally approved.

Between 1849 and 1852 very few meetings of the Governors were held, owing to the absence of the Governors from Montreal. The affairs of the College were largely in the hands of the Vice-Principal and his assistants. Conditions gradually became graver. The Lecturers in French and Mathematics were dismissed because no money to pay them was in prospect. By 1851 the buildings, which had not been completed and were uncomfortable at best, had fallen into a dilapidated state. Rain and snow fell freely through the cracks in the roof, and leaked to the rooms below. Windows and doors, which in the course of time had been shattered, were still unrepaired. There was not enough fuel to heat the broken and damaged structures, for an allowance of “ten cords of maple wood for the winter” was not sufficient to bring warmth. The College grounds were uncared for. Students who dwelt in the city tramped through snowdrifts to the cold College classrooms. Because of the discomfort, the lack of adequate accommodation, and the inconvenient distance from the Hospital and the city, the Medical classes, which had been held in the Centre building since 1845, were removed in 1851, as already recorded, to the building on CotÉ Street, built by three members of the Medical Staff, Drs. Campbell, MacCulloch, and Sutherland, and leased to the Faculty. A year later the City began excavations for the reservoir in rear of the College grounds. The blasting in connection with this work did not add to the peace or the safety of student life in McGill, and later serious breaks in the buildings were caused by heavy stones falling on the roof. For these various reasons it was ordered by the College authorities that all occupants except the Vice-Principal should withdraw from the College buildings. The chief excuse given was economy, but the real reasons were not then disclosed to the public. The Arts classes were afterwards carried on in part of the building used for the High School. The McGill buildings were abandoned, except by the Vice-Principal, and it was not until 1860 that they were reoccupied by the Faculty of Arts.

Several changes now took place in the administration of the College. In 1851 Principal Meredith resigned. His resignation was followed the next year by that of the Rev. John Abbott, who had been Secretary and Bursar and Registrar for several years. The Hon. Judge Charles Dewey Day was now President of the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning, and as such he assumed, in conjunction with Vice-Principal Leach, direction of the College management.

Charles Dewey Day was a native of Bennington, Vermont. While he was still a boy he moved with his parents to Montreal, and there he received his education. He studied law, and in 1827 he was admitted to the Bar. Ten years later he was made a Queen's Counsel. When the Rebellion of 1837 ended he was appointed Deputy Judge Advocate-General, and he consequently had an active part in the courts-martial appointed for the trial of accused insurgents. He was made Solicitor-General in 1839. At the election of 1841 he was chosen to represent the County of Ottawa, but he retired from political life in the following year and accepted a Judgeship in the Court of Queen's Bench. In 1849 he was elevated to the Superior Court. He was later appointed a member of the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning, of which he became President, and after the amended Charter of the University was approved in August, 1852, he became in virtue of that position a Governor of McGill. In 1857 he became Chancellor of the University, a position which he occupied until his death twenty-seven years later. He filled many important offices. In 1859 he was one of the Commission entrusted to prepare a Civil Code for the Province of Quebec; he subsequently served on Commissions appointed at different times to determine the amount of the Provincial debt to be assumed by the Dominion; to investigate the details of the Pacific Railway scandal; and to settle the amount of subsidy which should be paid to the railroads for carrying the mails. He also helped to prepare Canada's case in the negotiations for the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, and after his retirement from the Bench he assisted in prosecuting the Hudson Bay Company's claims against the United States under the treaties of 1846 and 1863. After his appointment as a Governor of McGill, Judge Day took, a deep and earnest interest in the activities of the College. He devoted his energy and his time to advancing the College's welfare, to removing the causes of its many troubles, and to giving it a place of power and usefulness in Canada. He died in 1884. He was referred to in the contemporary press as “one of Montreal's most upright, honourable and useful citizens”; and speaking a few days after his death, on his connection with McGill, Lord Landsdowne said, “In this University he leaves an irreparable void and an enduring memory.”

With the approval of the amended Charter in the autumn of 1852, efforts were made to reorganise the University, and to commence a forward movement. The new Board of Governors authorised and established under the amended Charter found the University in an unsatisfactory and almost hopeless predicament. It was struggling under lamentable deficiencies in its educational arrangements; it was faced by heavy pecuniary embarrassments and altogether inadequate resources. It was, in short, destitute of funds. Even its buildings had been abandoned, but it was hoped only temporarily. Conditions in the Faculty of Arts were particularly bad. Yet there was hope. It was evident to the Governors that an attempt at resuscitation must immediately be undertaken. An agreement was entered into with creditors for the making of small periodical payments with interest. Arrangements were made for the appointment of a competent Treasurer, and for the holding of regular meetings of Governors and of Corporation. A Committee on Ways and Means was selected, consisting of the President, Judge Day, and Messrs. Davidson, Ramsay and Dunkin. The Provincial Government was appealed to, and in December, 1852, the Legislature gave the College a grant of £1000 “to help liquidate the debts.” It was clear that a new era in the University's life was about to begin, but that persistent energy and determination would be required to guide the University through the night that still covered it.

In February, 1853, a Finance and Building Committee of the Board was appointed, consisting of James Ferrier, Benjamin Holmes, and T. B. Anderson. One of the first acts of this Committee was to take legal proceedings against the purchasers of lots, for the most part “persons of ample means” who had failed to make payments long overdue. In June, 1853, a sum of £75 was voted by the Governors to complete the portico of the Arts Building, “the Board being very desirous of correcting as soon as possible the present unsightly aspect of the Centre building.” They also called for estimates for “the putting up in front of the College on Sherbrooke Street of a fence of the same description as that of the new Cemetery.” To effect greater efficiency the office of the Secretary of the Royal Institution was moved to one of the rooms of the McGill buildings—the East wing—in July, 1853, and the Secretary became also Secretary of the Governors. The two offices became identical. Later, because of the cold and the general discomfort, the office was transferred for some time to a building at the corner of Dorchester and University Streets, known as Burnside Hall. But that conditions there were not ideal is evident from an appeal made in December, 1854, to the firm that had previously repaired the antiquated furnaces. The Secretary wrote: “Instead of imparting to us an equable and cheering warmth such as might reasonably be expected from their matronly development ... to me they are painfully and consistently cold. Do, then, come to our relief and save us from the horrors of frozen limbs, hospitals and amputations; or first, if you prefer it, pass a morning without overcoat, cap and comforter in my office with the thermometer at zero.”

In the summer of 1853 repairs were made to the College buildings in the hope of making them again habitable. The blasting in connection with the reservoir had caused much damage. Windows were wholly shattered and there were wide cracks and breaks in roof and walls. The contractor failed to make restitution, and the City Corporation was then urged to make the necessary repairs and to guarantee that there would be no further wreckage. The City authorities were slow to respond, but in the end they made reparation. Fences were also restored or newly built, and an effort was made to lay out the College grounds in some semblance of order. In September the lower part of the grounds was granted free for the holding of the annual Agricultural and Industrial Exhibition. In the spring of 1854 the City threatened to enter suit against the College for unpaid taxes, but the dispute was amicably settled. The total income from rents on which the taxes were based amounted to £182, of which the sum of £102 was derived from the rent of Burnside House and gardens, £60 from the Professor and £20 from two students who still occupied rooms in the College buildings. This income was exclusive of the rents of lots, which amounted to about £400. In the summer of 1854 the Governors gave to the city free of charge land for the opening of streets “on condition that all the College property shall be entirely exempt from every sort of assessment until it shall have been sold.” Land for the opening up of University Street had been given in 1851. The Streets now provided for were Union Avenue, between Dorchester and St. Catherine Streets; McGill College Avenue; Burnside Place; Victoria, Mansfield, St. Catherine, Cathcart, Dorchester, and Monique Streets. It was stipulated that Victoria Street and McGill College Avenue “should not be opened, for the present, higher than Burnside Place.”

But notwithstanding the Governors' efforts, the University was still far from adequate prosperity. It was not yet in a flourishing condition and its outlook while hopeful was not wholly auspicious. Greater co-operation on the part of the public was obviously needed, and the contemporary press frequently deplored the lack of public encouragement. There was peace and concord in its administration, but there was little advancement in its academic activities. It was clear that it had either to go forward or to cease to function. It was plain, too, that in addition to funds a new Principal and several instructors should be appointed as expeditiously as possible. The Governors, it was rumoured, were looking abroad for a Principal; they were also, it was said, considering the reorganising of the College on the plan of English Universities. Neither of these suggested procedures was popular, and neither was in the end followed. In August, 1854, one of the contemporary newspapers, the Sun, which has long since disappeared, in referring to the needs of the University voiced editorially the opinions of the people:

“All we need,” it said, “are persons at the helm who will take an active interest in the progress and advancement of the institution.... It won't do to sit idly down—to follow the dignified and majestic example of Cambridge and Oxford. Montreal is not in England—it is in Canada. We have a way of doing things for ourselves. It is not necessary in order rightly to accomplish an end to ask how they do it 'at home'; we can find out a mode ourselves. McGill College will never be anything until some exertion is made by those who have control of it. A languid indifference or a sickly half-dead interest will never secure to it a permanency among the institutions of the day”; and the writer added that “unless measures for its improvement are speedily undertaken there is a danger that McGill College will soon be numbered among the things that were.”

The Governors in the end decided to look nearer home for a Principal—a man of strong personality to take the helm in this critical period. They determined, if possible, to appoint a Canadian who was familiar with the country, its spirit, its temper and its educational needs. Down in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, they found him in the person of William Dawson, a native Canadian and a graduate of Edinburgh University. In 1855 they offered him the Principalship. He accepted the position and began his duties in the autumn of that year. In the thirty-four years that had gone since its establishment and the twenty-six years since its opening, the College had struggled through many vicissitudes and trials. It had frequently been on the border of extinction. But the crisis in its troubled history had at last been passed. A new era, more wonderful and more successful than even its most optimistic friends dared look for, was about to begin. The foundations had been laid, perhaps not always wisely, but at least firmly and hopefully. The College was now to go forward—for again, as in the past, its sign-posts pointed onward. The faith of its founder was at last to be justified. It remained for the new Principal, William Dawson, to guide it on its unwavering march to usefulness and to power, and by his tact, his judgment, his wisdom and his strength to impress his name upon its century story as the man who was greatest among “the makers of McGill” in the first hundred years of its existence.