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McGILL AND ITS STORY
[Illustration: _James McGill_
1756-1813
_Founder of McGill College_]
McGILL AND ITS
STORY 1821-1921
By CYRUS MACMILLAN
AUTHOR OF "CANADIAN WONDER TALES," ETC.
LONDON: JOHN LANE
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY
TORONTO: CANADIAN BRANCH
THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY
PRESS
MCMXXI
Copyright, 1921, by JOHN LANE
TO
MY McGILL COMRADES
WHO FELL IN THE WAR 1914-1918
We who remain shall grow old,
We shall feel the snows of cheerless winter;
But you shall be forever young,
With you it shall be forever spring,
Where you wander through the willows
Of the valley in your West.
PREFACE
The following pages give in general outline the century story of McGill
University. They have no pretension to the title of detailed History,
for it has been possible to chronicle only the circumstances which
shaped the University in its infancy and the important events of its
succeeding years. The story is one of struggle and disappointment, of
discouragement and controversy, and of ultimate success and triumph. The
men who made McGill were men of far and clear vision, of unfaltering
courage and unwavering faith. They never doubted the final breaking of
the clouds; they were baffled only to fight better in their forward
march on behalf of national enlightenment. They believed in the future
greatness of Canada, and of the place of education in moulding their
country's destiny. The students of to-day who enjoy the advantages of a
great seat of learning are not always conscious of the toil and the
anxiety, the weariness and the fret of their College's early years; they
perhaps do not always appreciate their glorious heritage and the efforts
and the sacrifices of those who scorned delights and lived laborious
days in order to leave that heritage behind. The author's hope is that
the story of struggle herein recorded may deepen our gratitude for our
privileges, and our reverence for McGill and the men who made it.
It has been impossible here to enter into minute details of
organization or administration or personnel. The book is a story of
epochs rather than of individuals,--but epochs in which the sign posts
ever pointed onward. Biographical material has, therefore, been reduced
to a minimum and no attempt has been made to give names or notices of
Professors, many of whom, the writer is well aware, should otherwise
receive appreciative reference as among the makers of McGill. With the
exception of the portrait of the present Principal, too, the photographs
include of necessity only those who are already numbered with the
University's past.
The writer's deepest thanks are here expressed to those without whose
assistance this story could not have been told. He is grateful to
Professor Stephen Leacock for advice and encouragement; to the
Principal, the Governors, and the Secretary of McGill, Mr. A. P. S.
Glassco (Science, 1901), for permission to examine letters and minutes;
to Dr. J. A. Nicholson, (Arts, 1887) for his valuable aid in locating
and obtaining access to documents; to the staff of the Redpath Library,
especially Miss D. A. Lomer, for their unfailing and patient help in the
search for records; to Mr. J. W. Jeakins, Secretary of the Graduates'
Society, and to Mr. E. Ardley of the Redpath Museum for kind assistance;
to the attendants in Archives for many courtesies; to George B. Fraser,
Esq., for permission to photograph prints; to the late Rev. Dr. Robert
Campbell whose knowledge and memory of old Montreal was wide and vivid;
and particularly to John Lane, Esq., of the Bodley Head for his personal
interest and experienced advice in the preparation of this volume.
Since the information concerning the ancestry of James McGill is at
present meagre, I should be glad if any reader possessing information as
to his ancestry and early career would communicate with me in Canada, or
with my publisher, Mr. John Lane, The Bodley Head, Ltd., Vigo Street,
London, England, so that this section of the book may be amplified in
future editions.
C. M.
MCGILL UNIVERSITY,
July, 1921.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE ROYAL INSTITUTION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 15
II. THE DAWN OF MCGILL 29
III. DELAY AND DIFFICULTY 44
IV. THE COLLEGE OPENED 73
V. ANXIOUS YEARS 102
VI. THE COLLEGE IN THE FIRST MCGILL BUILDINGS 155
VII. THE STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE 184
VIII. COLLEGE LIFE IN MID-CENTURY 212
IX. SIR WILLIAM DAWSON AND THE MAKING OF MCGILL 221
X. HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN 248
XI. THE LARGER MCGILL OF OUR DAY 256
EPILOGUE 271
APPENDIX A. (THE WILL OF JAMES MCGILL) 277
APPENDIX B. (THE CHARTER) 281
APPENDIX C. (THE DAWSON MEMORIAL ADDRESS) 291
APPENDIX D. (THE PETERSON MEMORIAL ADDRESS) 299
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
JAMES MCGILL, FOUNDER _Frontispiece_
_From painting attributed to Gilbert Stuart_
FACING PAGE
MONTREAL IN THE DAYS OF JAMES MCGILL 32
_From a print in the collection of Sir Frederick
Williams Taylor_
THE BURNSIDE ESTATE, JAMES MCGILL'S HOME 42
THE REV. DR. G. J. MOUNTAIN, PRINCIPAL 1823-1835 74
DR. A. F. HOLMES, THE FIRST DEAN OF THE MEDICAL SCHOOL 86
_Copy by R. Harris of painting destroyed in fire at Medical
Building. Artist unknown._
THE REV. JOHN BETHUNE, ACTING PRINCIPAL 1835-1846 102
PLAN OF MCGILL GROUNDS 118
PROPOSED ORIGINAL BUILDING 134
_H. B. Parry, Architect_
THE REV. ARCHDEACON W. J. LEACH, VICE-PRINCIPAL 1846-1886 180
_From a painting by Wyatt Eaton_
E. A. MEREDITH, PRINCIPAL 1846-1851 184
MCGILL IN 1855 212
SIR WILLIAM DAWSON, PRINCIPAL 1855-1893 222
_From a painting by Wyatt Eaton_
WILLIAM MOLSON 232
_From a painting by John Phillips_, 1861
PETER REDPATH 236
_From a painting by Robert Harris_
SIR WILLIAM MACDONALD 238
SIR WILLIAM PETERSON, PRINCIPAL 1895-1919 240
JOHN H. R. MOLSON 244
DEAN ALEXANDER JOHNSON, VICE-PRINCIPAL 1885-1903 248
PERCIVAL MOLSON 252
LORD STRATHCONA 254
DR. CHARLES E. MOYSE, VICE-PRINCIPAL 1903-1920 258
SIR ARTHUR CURRIE, PRINCIPAL 1920- 266
DR. FRANK D. ADAMS, VICE-PRINCIPAL 1920- 268
MCGILL IN 1921 272
_The photographs from which the prints were made are the
work of Norman and of the Rice Studios._
THE ROYAL INSTITUTION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING
CHAPTER I
THE ROYAL INSTITUTION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING
The Charter under which McGill University was established, was obtained
on March 31st, 1821. The century mark in the University's history has
now been passed. One hundred years is a long period in the life of a
nation or a country; it is a longer period still in the life of an
individual; but it is perhaps longest relatively in the life of an
educational institution, particularly if that institution had its birth
in struggling pioneer days. It is a period in university life which
sees, as a rule, an undreamed of growth and development from small
beginnings to unlimited influence, from scanty resources and great
disappointments to a large if not always adequate endowment and
equipment, from a merely local service to a national and even a world
educational power. This is distinctly true of the century of McGill
University's story. It began as a College, intended to minister to a
very small community. It has grown in one hundred years to serve the
world. It has graduated over twenty-five hundred Bachelors, over
thirty-three hundred Doctors of Medicine, over nineteen hundred
Engineers, over eight hundred Lawyers besides holders of higher or
graduate degrees; it has given hundreds of graduates to high positions
in the Church, the State, and industrial and educational institutions.
It has drawn its students from all lands, and it has sent its products
in trained men and women into every country on the globe. Long ago it
divested itself of the merely local, and to-day the old term, _Studium
Generale_, used in the middle ages to designate a University, may well
be applied to McGill,--"a School where students of all kinds and from
all parts are received."
The establishment of McGill University was but part of a more
comprehensive plan to improve educational conditions in Canada in the
beginning of the 19th century. After the peace treaty of 1763, which
ended the Seven Years' War and gave Canada to the British, immigration
to the colony was comparatively small, and little effort was made by the
Home Government to provide educational opportunities for the children of
those who sought happiness or fortune in the new land beyond the ocean.
Indeed, in that time the authorities were too busy trying to solve
difficult problems at home to devote much energy to the internal
problems of the colony. They had no time and perhaps they had even less
care for their colonists. The treaty of 1763 had not brought peace. The
advocacy for political change was causing deep anxiety and the new
radicalism under the plea for the new democracy was making a slow but
steady advance which troubled the statesmen of the age. Then came in
quick succession the American Revolution, the French Revolution and the
Peninsular War, all of which absorbed the attention of the Home
Government. By her steadfast attitude in 1776, Canada had proved her
right to expect and to receive sympathetic attention and encouragement
from the Home Government, but it is perhaps not to be wondered at that
in the circumstances of the troubled period the educational advancement
of Lower Canada was neglected or ignored, and that educational
opportunities were practically non-existent.
In other parts of Canada education seems to have received more
sympathetic interest. Particularly in the Maritime Provinces good
schools had been established, largely, however, through the efforts of
the colonists themselves. A new impetus was given to education by the
arrival of many settlers from the United States during and after the
Revolution. These settlers had enjoyed in New England excellent
educational advantages; they had lived close to great universities with
their beneficent influence, the Universities of Harvard and Yale, of
Williams and Dartmouth and Brown, and they determined to establish in
their new home the educational facilities which they had already enjoyed
in another land. It was felt in Lower Canada that similar opportunities
should be speedily provided for the English-speaking children of the
country. The majority of settlers in Lower Canada were of Scottish
origin. They were largely soldiers or the descendants of soldiers who
had fought in the Highland Regiments during the campaign of 1759, and
who after the Treaty of Paris in 1763 had taken up the land assigned to
them by the Crown. Many of these soldiers, too, later became fur-traders
and entered the service of the North-West Company. These settlers were
all eager that their children should have at least an elementary
education. It was felt, too, that in the unrest and the uncertainty of
the period immediately following the American Revolution it was not
advisable to send students in search of higher professional training to
the universities of the United States, which in the days of their
British allegiance had attracted Canadian students in large numbers. But
above all, the settlers realised the necessity for the establishment of
schools in which the children of the French-Canadians should be taught
English. It was declared that from the national point of view such
training would have a far-reaching influence on the future of Canada as
an integral part of the British Empire, and that without such
instruction, which would result in a bond of language, Canada could
never be a united land.
Efforts were accordingly made to establish a system of free schools,
with the hope that later a university might be founded. As early as 1787
the matter received the serious consideration of the Legislative
Council, and a scheme of education in the Province was actually
prepared. But the scheme met with vigorous and determined opposition
from one section of the community and it was in the end abandoned by the
authorities after a somewhat bitter controversy. Some years passed
without further action. In 1797 General Simcoe, the first Governor of
Upper Canada, and his Executive Council decided to establish a Seminary
for higher learning in that Province. They invited Mr. Strachan, a
graduate of St. Andrews' University, Scotland, to organise the College
but before he arrived in Canada General Simcoe was removed from office
and the establishment of the proposed university was long delayed. The
plans of Upper Canada in 1797 to establish a university, although their
fulfilment was long postponed, inspired the people of Lower Canada to
greater efforts on behalf of education. They continued their agitation,
but their efforts had little immediate success. The conditions in Lower
Canada were earnestly and anxiously set forth in the following appeal
made to the Governor-General, Sir R. S. Milnes, by the Rev. Dr. Jacob
Mountain, Lord Bishop of Quebec, on October 19th, 1799:
"There is so intimate and obvious a connection between the education of
youth and the general state of public morals, that I trust I shall not
be thought to deviate from the duties that are more particularly
assigned to me, if I presume to solicit your Excellency's attention to
the disadvantages under which the Province has long laboured from the
want of proper schools for the instruction of the children both of the
higher and of the lower orders of the community.
"In doing this, it is by no means my intention to enter into the
examination of these disadvantages so far as they are common to us with
every other society which is without proper institutions for the
education of youth; I shall take the liberty of mentioning such only as
appear to be in a great measure peculiar to ourselves.
"Let me be permitted, then, to suggest the danger which may result to
the political principles and to the future character as subjects of such
of our young men among the higher ranks as the exigency of the case
obliges their parents to send for a classical education to the colleges
of the United States.
"In these Seminaries, most assuredly, they are not likely to imbibe that
attachment to our constitution in Church and State, that veneration for
the Government of their country, and that loyalty to their King, to
which it is so peculiarly necessary in the present times to give all the
advantage of early predilection in order to fix them deeply both in the
understanding and the heart.
"To obviate this danger, it would seem expedient to found at least one
good Grammar School in this Province and to invite able Masters from
England by the liberality of the endowment.
"It may not be improper to state here that there is already at Quebec a
respectable school, which offers the means of instruction to those who
are designed for the more accurate professions, or for the pursuits of
Trade and Commerce in which, together with the lower branches of
education, are taught the Latin language, Mathematics, and Navigation,
by a master well qualified for the task he has undertaken. I would wish
to suggest the expediency of insuring the continuance of this advantage
(which has not hitherto been duly appreciated) by some mark of the
protection of the Government.
"But it is not only good Grammar Schools for the education of such young
men as are designed for the learned Professions or who from their rank
in society may hereafter fill situations of great political importance
in the Province that are wanted; a more humble but a not less important
branch of the community seems to call also for your Excellency's
benevolent attention.
"It is well known that the lower orders of the people in this Province
are for the most part deplorably ignorant; that the very slender
portion of instruction which their children obtain is almost entirely
confined amongst those, who do not live in the Towns, to the girls
alone; and more especially, it is notorious that they have hitherto made
no progress towards the attainment of the language of the country under
which government they have the happiness to live.
"This total ignorance of the English language on the part of the
Canadians draws a distinct line of demarcation between them and His
Majesty's British subjects in this Province, injurious to the welfare
and happiness of both; and continues to divide into two separate peoples
those, who by their situation, their common interests and their equal
participation of the same laws and the same form of Government, should
naturally form but one.
"If the evils are confessedly great which arise from this want of a
community of language, it should seem expedient to endeavour to provide
an immediate remedy for the defect, and it should also seem that this
can only be done by facilitating as much as possible the means of
acquiring the English language to the children of the Canadians.
"The plan which I would beg leave to submit for this purpose is simple
and I trust practicable. Its aim may appear to be humble, but its
effects, I am persuaded, would be in a high degree beneficial and
important.
"It is briefly this:--that a certain number of English School Masters,
to be hereafter determined, should be employed and paid by the
Government; that one of these should be placed in each of the cities and
towns, and in the most considerable villages for the purposes and under
the express obligation of teaching the English language _gratis_ to a
certain number of the Canadian children, and writing and arithmetic when
required, at an easy rate; that Trustees or Commissioners should be
appointed to manage the fund which the Government in its bounty may see
fit to appropriate to the end, to determine the number of Masters that
may be required, their respective salaries, and the number of children
they shall respectively teach _gratis_, to fix the rate at which Writing
and Arithmetic shall be taught on, and to have the power of removing the
Masters for incapacity or neglect of duty, and of promoting them
successively to the more lucrative situations for able and meritorious
conduct.
"I would barely hint, by way of a leading idea upon this subject, that
the salaries might perhaps extend from £20 to £60 per annum according to
the number of inhabitants in the Village, Town, or City in which the
Teacher should be placed, and that it might perhaps not improperly be a
condition that he who received a payment of £20, should be obliged to
teach English _gratis_ to _ten_ Canadian children, he who received £30
to fifteen children, and so on in proportion.
"The importance and extent of this subject demand, I am well aware, more
local information and better judgment than I have been able to apply to
it;--I presume only to suggest it as an object not unworthy of immediate
consideration to your Excellency's superior wisdom."
This appeal was submitted by the Governor-General to the Executive
Council of Lower Canada and was approved by that body. It was then
forwarded to the Colonial Office for further consideration. As a
result, on July 12th, 1800, the Duke of Portland, sent to the
Lieutenant-Governor a long despatch from which the following extracts
indicate that the Home Government sympathised with the Lord Bishop's
suggestion:--
"With respect to making a suitable provision for the education of youth
in Lower Canada, and more particularly for laying a foundation for
teaching the English tongue generally throughout the Province, I not
only fully coincide with the sentiments expressed by the Bishop of
Quebec and concurred in by the Executive Council on this point, but I am
of opinion that the proposed Free Schools for this purpose should be
established under the express condition of teaching the English language
_gratis_ to the children of His Majesty's subjects resident within the
district for which such schools are established, without any limitation
as to the number of such children.
"The Master should certainly be authorised to make a reasonable demand
for teaching Writing and Arithmetic or, what would be still better, the
terms may be settled from time to time by the Trustees or Governors of
such Free Schools in the appointing of which it is His Majesty's
pleasure that the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, or person
administrating the Government for the time being, the Bishop of Quebec,
the Chief Justice of the Province, and the Speaker of the Assembly
should always be of the number.
"In addition to the Free Schools for teaching the English language,
(which I consider to be of the first necessity, and for the
establishment of which you will consider yourself hereby authorised to
appropriate from the Provincial revenues such sums as may be necessary
to pay the salaries of the Masters who shall from time to time be
appointed by you), it will be necessary in one or perhaps two instances
to have recourse to others of the higher order and of the nature of our
Public Schools here, in order that neither the means nor the necessary
encouragement may be wanting to cultivate the study of the learned
languages. It appears to me that this establishment will be sufficient
for the present, although in due progress of time Foundations of a more
enlarged and comprehensive nature will be requisite for the promotion of
Religious and Moral Learning and the study of the Arts and Sciences.
With this view His Majesty, ever ready to manifest his paternal
consideration and regard for his subjects, and desirous to afford all
possible assistance and encouragement to his Province in carrying into
execution an object of such importance as the instruction and education
of youth, has signified to me his Royal pleasure that you should upon
consulting the members of His Majesty's Executive Council report to me
in what manner and to what extent it would be proper to appropriate a
portion of the Crown Land or revenues arising therefrom for this
purpose."
As a result of the agitation for the providing of educational
opportunities in Lower Canada, the Royal Institution for the Advancement
of Learning was established by Act of the Legislature in 1801. Under
this Act, the King gave directions for the establishment "of a competent
number of Free Schools for the instruction of children in the first
rudiments of useful learning; and also as occasion should require for
foundations of a more comprehensive nature." It was declared that "His
Majesty had further signified his intention that a suitable portion of
the Lands of the Crown should be set apart, and the revenue thereof
appropriated to these purposes." The Act provided that all property
which should thereafter be given, bequeathed or purchased for
educational purposes was to be vested in the trustees of the Royal
Institution, with the necessary powers of management. Provision was made
for the establishment of Free Schools at specified places throughout the
Province by the authority of the Government, and for the building and
repairing of schoolhouses, but not for the salaries of the masters.
Accordingly, elementary free schools were soon erected in different
parts of the Province, and several teachers were appointed by the
authorities.
Notwithstanding the passing of the above Act, educational advancement in
the Province for many years made but slow progress. There was no
adequate system of management. In 1803, Lord Hobart issued instructions
to the effect that a portion of the Crown Lands was to be set apart for
the promotion of education. These instructions were not carried out; at
best such a scheme would have been insufficient for the purpose;
subsequent experience in the case of the Clergy Reserves proved the
inefficacy of such an appropriation. There was a long delay in
establishing the Corporation which the Act of 1801 had in view. In 1815,
the Home Government directed the Provincial Government to proceed with
the election of trustees under the Act, but it was not until 1818 that
trustees were finally appointed. The trustees included the Lord Bishop
of Quebec as Principal; the Lord Bishop of Montreal; the Chief Justice
of Lower Canada; the Speaker of the Legislative Council; and the Speaker
of the Legislative Assembly.
It is unnecessary to enter here into the details of the early history of
the Royal Institution. Its first years were years of struggle. The
schools erected under its authority were one-room buildings of cedar
logs. Indeed, they were mere log-huts, but they provided the first free
English Education in Lower Canada, and laid the foundation for a
Canadian nationality. The records of the Royal Institution indicate the
determination with which teachers and officials battled sturdily with
poverty, and with discouraging conditions. The Secretary's salary was
always many months in arrears, and he frequently complained, with
unfortunately but little satisfaction, that not only had he given his
time for some years without remuneration, but that he had expended even
his own fuel and candles. In 1819, thirty-seven schools were in
existence in the Province; these were occupied by fifty-three Teachers;
the total expenditure for education was £883.10; the highest salary paid
was £100,--at Quebec and at Montreal; the lowest salary was £11.5; the
average salary was £18. It was pointed out by the authorities that these
salaries were not intended to be the sole support of the teachers, but
that they were meant "to operate as an aid and encouragement for the
exertions and contributions of the inhabitants themselves."
Although the salaries were small and the school-buildings and equipment
very poor and uncomfortable, the discipline of the Royal Institution
seems to have been surprisingly strict and exacting. Criticism of
teachers, their methods and the books they used, was plentiful and
continuous. It was not unusual for teachers to be censured "for not
keeping school at all," or for giving too many holidays, or for
tardiness in opening school in the morning and eagerness in closing it
in the afternoon. At least one teacher was warned that his arrears in
salary would not be paid, and that he would be instantly dismissed "if
he did not treat his wife with greater kindness." The teachers were
billetted among the inhabitants in their respective districts; after a
few days' sojourn in one house they moved on to another, thus making all
the settlers bear in turn the burden of providing their food and
lodging. In this way they managed to exist on their scanty salaries,
which were frequently unpaid for many months. The school-buildings were
used at times by travelling missionaries for religious services. This
seems to have been a source of much annoyance to the authorities; the
teachers rather than the inhabitants of the district were always held
responsible, and were frequently severely reprimanded for permitting
such use of the schoolhouses. It was not unusual for teachers to be told
plainly by letter from the Secretary that they would be dismissed or
"that no part of the salary hitherto granted by the Government would be
allowed, unless the Methodists were wholly and immediately excluded from
using the school-room as a place of worship."
The Royal Institution had many difficulties to contend with. Although
its methods were not always efficient and its management was not always
adequate, it is deserving of gratitude for laying the foundation of
English education in what was to be later the Province of Quebec. It not
only guided for many years elementary and grammar school education, but
it planned for the establishment of a State or Government College where
higher education could be obtained. But before the proposed plan was
carried into effect, provision was made by a citizen of Montreal for the
endowment of a College to bear his name. As a result, the Royal
Institution for the Advancement of Learning supervised the establishment
of McGill College and directed it in its infancy, for under the Act of
1801 all property and money given for educational purposes in the
Province of Lower Canada was placed under its control.