THE COLLEGE IN THE FIRST MCGILL BUILDINGS
The original College buildings were opened for the reception and
instruction of students on September 6th, 1843. Only twenty regular
students were in attendance during the first session, seventeen of whom
took the Classical course and three the Mathematical course. Steps were
at once taken to provide an adequate collegiate education as called for
in the founder's will, and to organise the teaching and administration
on as extensive and sound a basis as the available funds would permit. A
few books and some scanty school equipment were received from the Normal
School recently closed. The fees of students were fixed at £5 a year, of
which £1 13s. 4d. was assigned to the Senior Professor as his portion,
6s. 8d. to the Bursar, and the remaining £3 to the "House Fund." In
addition, each student paid to the Registrar who was also Secretary and
Bursar, a matriculation fee of 10 shillings which that official was
allowed to keep for his own use. The fees were reduced a few months
later to £3, of which the House Fund received £2 13s. 4d., and the
Bursar 6s. 8d. Students under fourteen years of age and over eighteen
were not allowed to matriculate into the ordinary classes except in very
exceptional cases. The matriculation examination was at first mainly in
Latin and Greek Grammar and the 1st Book of Cæsar's Commentaries.
Students who failed to pass this examination were allowed to enter the
College and were formed into a separate class. They paid an additional
entrance fee of 10 shillings and an annual fee of £2, for which they
were not to expect the attention given to other students. Students over
eighteen were permitted to enter as "Fellow Commoners," and were allowed
the special privilege of dining at "the high table." They paid a double
matriculation fee, and their ordinary fee was twenty-five per cent
higher than that of other students. For a brief time only there was a
common dining-room, but because of financial storm and stress and the
necessity for additional room this was in the end abandoned and the
students boarded with the professors who had rooms in the College.
Indeed, the willingness to accept students as boarders seems, in some
cases at least, to have been a condition of appointment, and little
choice in the matter was left to the professor. It was decided that all
examinations for degrees should be held "within the walls of the College
in the presence of all the officers of the University and College," and
that every candidate for a medical degree "must forward his inaugural
dissertation to the Principal before the last day of March."
Soon after the opening of the building, Principal Bethune and the
Governors looked about for additional professors or instructors or
tutors. In negotiating with prospective tutors it was pointed out that
"no gentleman would be elected to a Tutorship who was not able to
translate fluently the works of Horace, Xenophon, and Herodotus,
together with the other Classical authors of that stamp; and that an
examination of all candidates would be held." One candidate inquired
about rooms in the College for himself and his wife, but the
Vice-Principal replied, "I must inform you that there will be no
accommodation for your wife in the College at present, but that you will
yourself be expected to reside within the College. The Tutor is not
allowed his board during the long vacation." In February, 1844, William
Wickes, M.A., a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, was appointed
Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. He was promised £20 to
defray his travelling expenses "as soon as it can be paid." Mr. E.
Chapman was appointed Tutor, at a salary of £100 a year payable, it was
hoped, from students' fees, and his board and lodging; and the Rev. Dr.
Fallon was appointed Lecturer in Divinity.
Because of the shortage of funds it was decided that no further
appointments could then be made and that only absolutely necessary
expenses should be incurred. A valuable lot of scientific instruments,
which would be of use in the Natural Philosophy classes, was offered to
the College "for £70 if paid in six months, or £81 4s. 6d. if paid after
that time." The Secretary replied that "they would take the instruments
but they could not name any period of payment." The Governors were
sorely pinched for funds during this first year, and the anxieties of
poverty pressed hard upon the College authorities. In January, 1844, the
Governors made a formal demand for the payment of expenses incurred by
them amounting to £1,736, and also for the payment of all monies in the
Board's possession. The Board had but little money at their disposal and
they refused to grant the Governors' request. The gross annual income
was then scarcely more than £500, while the salaries and fixed charges
amounted annually to £730. The Board accused the Governors of having
made "wasteful and extravagant expenditures without precedent or
principle," some of which did not appear to have any connection with the
opening or the carrying on of McGill; many of these, they said, were
wholly unnecessary, and had never been authorised by the Board, whose
consent had not even been asked. The expenditures for contingencies
alone, it was pointed out, amounted in five months to more than the
total income of three years. "It is obvious," the Secretary added, "that
the Governors and the Board entertain views entirely opposite as to the
nature of the trust committed to the Board and to the duties which that
trust imposes.... There can be no proper understanding between the Board
and the Governors until it can be authoritatively settled which view of
the duties and the functions of the Board is right according to law. The
Board has no desire to retain funds to which they have no right." In
November, 1844, application was accordingly made to the Law Offices of
the Crown for a decision, but as usual the decision was slow in coming.
But pending the decision the Board agreed to liquidate the legal debts
as far as they were able and they did so to the extent of £1,550. By so
doing the Board reluctantly sacrificed a part of the capital of the
trust and thereby diminished by £90 the annual income, which was already
insufficient. But this payment was only a temporary relief; the debt was
in reality over £2,500; other and larger accounts remained unpaid, and
liabilities continued to increase.
In May, 1844, in order to make the academic management of the College
more democratic, the Governors made provision for the formation of a
College Board which should hold weekly meetings. As early as 1841 the
Board of the Royal Institution had recommended the formation of a
College Council "for the ordinary exercise of discipline," consisting of
the Principal, the Vice-Principal and Professors, the Rector of Christ
Church, Montreal, and the Minister of the Church of Scotland, Montreal.
This recommendation was not considered, pending the actual opening of
the College buildings. The College Board now formed consisted of "the
Principal, the Vice-Principal, Professors, and (until the whole number
of Professors in the University be increased to six) the Lecturers in
the Faculties in Divinity and the Arts, not under the degree of M.A.,
and of the person holding the office of Secretary, Registrar and Bursar,
provided he shall be a graduate of some University in the British
Dominions and not under the degree of M.A." This Board was called "the
Caput"; two of the members, with the Principal or Vice-Principal,
constituted a quorum. Its duty was to frame rules and regulations for
the discipline and internal government of Lecturers, students and
"inferior officers" of the College, to supervise the system of living
within the College, and to consider applications for degrees, except
honorary degrees. It had no jurisdiction over the Medical School.
The period that followed was a period of critical wrestling with
financial troubles. The College was suffering from lack of funds. Part
of the cost of the erection of the buildings was yet unpaid. An action
was instituted against the Governors on account of the College
furniture, the payment for which was long in arrears. Tradesmen and
workmen were pressing for a settlement of their bills, and lawyers'
letters threatening suits were daily coming in. The salaries of
Professors were not paid, and in January, 1845, only £250 was given by
the Board to pay the combined yearly salaries of Professors, Tutors and
Bursar. The Vice-Principal's allowance of fuel for the entire year was
reduced to "30 cords of maple wood and 2 chaldrons of coal." Frequently
appeals were made to the Home Government for assistance, but the
authorities disagreed in their opinions on the actual state of the
College. They had little first-hand knowledge of the facts, and their
attitude was one of indifference or at least delay. Lord Stanley wrote
from the Colonial Office: "I cannot but regret that the circumstances of
this Institution should have hitherto prevented the Province from
deriving the benefit which its founder contemplated; and as the chief
obstacle at present consists in the want of funds, I am of opinion that
measures should be taken to procure the requisite assistance from the
Legislature." On the other hand, Lord Metcalfe, the Governor-General,
replied, "The financial prospects of the Institution appear to be more
promising than was formerly anticipated." There the matter for the time
ended, and while the authorities waited and differed, the future
existence of the College was in grave doubt.
It was apparent, too, that internal dissension was growing within the
College itself. Charges in connection with the administration and with
the Principal's management were laid before the Royal Institution by the
Vice-Principal, who seems to have had the support of certain other
College officers, including Professor Wickes, and the Tutor, Chapman. As
a result of these charges, combined with the hopeless financial
situation in which the College was floundering, the Board of the Royal
Institution determined to exercise their visitatorial power and to make
an investigation. They would examine the entire working of the College,
its discipline, its administration and also the methods of collecting
and expending the rents and profits of the Estate of which no adequate
accounting had for some time been received. The visitation was made on
the 13th and 14th of November, 1844, and the meetings, not always
peaceful, were held in the council-room of the College. The Visitors
found that there were five Professors or Instructors, while only nine
students were enrolled in the college, that there was a lack of harmony
among the College officers, "some of whom were not on speaking terms
with each other," and that the outlook was not promising.
The following official report was forwarded to Lord Metcalfe, the
Governor-General, by the Lord Bishop of Montreal, the Rev. Dr. Mountain,
Principal of the Royal Institution, on December 11th, 1844:
"The Board of the Royal Institution, at the request of Professor Lundy,
Vice-Principal of McGill College, and in consequence of a variety of
circumstances leading them to believe such a step expedient and
necessary, met at Montreal on the 14th November, and, as Visitors of
McGill College under the Royal Charter, entered into an examination of
the whole affairs of that Institution.
"The general result of their investigation they are now desirous to lay
before Your Excellency, both because it is to Your Excellency's
interposition that the Board look for obtaining certain important
measures, which appear to them indispensable to the prosperity of the
College of which they are Visitors and Trustees.
"When the visitation of McGill College took place the Visitors found in
it nine students (fewer by half than at the same period last year, and
these, with one or two exceptions, boys) under the tuition of a
Principal, who is also Professor of Divinity, a Lecturer on Divinity, a
Vice-Principal, who is also Professor of Classical Literature, a
Professor of Mathematics, and a Classical Tutor; the establishment
having also the services of a Bursar, a Beadle and others. The regular
expenditure for the College Establishment in salaries and contingent
charges is two-fold of the income applicable to it; and the Governors
have contracted a debt of £1,550 in opening the College, the various
items of which expenditure appeared to the Board to be on a scale of
extravagance and wastefulness entirely unsuitable to the pecuniary
resources of the Institution. There is a great want of cordiality and
harmony among the Professors and Officers of the College; some not even
speaking to others. There are no Statutes in operation which are binding
in Law.
"The Principal refused to acknowledge the authority of the Visitors, or
to furnish them with any information. The united testimony of the
College Officers induces the Board to believe that one main reason of
the College having received so little support is that the
acting-Principal does not enjoy that confidence on the part of the
public of which an individual, standing in his position, ought to be
possessed....
"The Board also had the testimony of the College Officers that the
inefficiency and unpopularity of the College are also, in part, owing to
the general want of confidence, rightly or wrongly entertained, in the
Vice-Principal, Professor Lundy.
"The Bursar is the Rev. Mr. Abbott, who has a Salary of £100 a year, and
is permitted to do his duty by Deputy. He does not, he says, understand
accounts; nor do those of his Deputy appear to be regularly and
correctly kept.
"There are only two Governors resident in Montreal--the Chief Justice of
the District, and Dr. Bethune, who is a Governor in consequence of his
holding the interim appointment of Principal. The other Governors, who
occasionally act, are the Chief Justice of Upper Canada, and the Bishop
of Montreal, both too distant from the College to take much part in the
management of its affairs, and the latter having only very recently a
title to do so. The Chief Justice of Montreal is unwilling, as a Roman
Catholic, to interfere more than he can avoid in the government of a
Protestant Institution; and the practical result of this state of things
in the governing body is to throw almost the whole management of the
Institution into the hands of Dr. Bethune, the acting-Principal. Both
the resident Governors resisted the authority of the Visitors, and
refused to co-operate with them.
"Between the Governors and the Board of the Royal Institution certain
differences do also exist in respect of the possession of the funds of
the College, now held in trust by the Board. The Governors are of
opinion that such funds should be unreservedly handed over to them. The
Royal Institution, acting on the opinion of eminent Counsel, and holding
that in this course they are supported by manifest expediency, as well
as Law, decline to make such transfer. The knowledge of the Public that
such differences exist is also stated as one ground of the want of
public confidence in the Institution.
"A more full and accurate account of the whole investigation, contained
in the Minutes of the Board, is herewith respectfully submitted for Your
Excellency's information; but such, we have to state to Your Excellency,
is generally the disorderly and inefficient state of an Institution from
which the public looked, and were justly entitled to look, for great
benefits.
"The remedy for existing evils is, it appears to the Board of Visitors,
to be sought in various quarters. In part, it rests with the Board
itself to apply a remedy; and, in so far, they are prepared to act
without delay.
"The differences between the Board and the Governors may be settled by
an amicable suit in a Court of Law; or by the opinion of the Law
Officers of the Crown. The Board have repeatedly expressed to the
Governors their desire to have the matter so decided.
"And the debts of the Institution the Board are also prepared to
liquidate, though in doing so they must of necessity trench deeply on
the capital in their possession.
"And the changes of the Institution itself, which the Board consider
necessary, and which it is more immediately the province of the
Governors to effect, are these:
"1st. To obtain the services of an able and efficient Principal,
possessing the public confidence, who should reside in the College, and
take an active part in the education of the students.
"2ndly. To dispense with the Office of Vice-Principal altogether, which,
in that case, would be unnecessary, and to confine Professor Lundy's
duties entirely to the work of Classical Instruction.
"3rdly. To dispense with the Office of Bursar, and require the nowise
onerous duties thereof to be performed by some of the Resident Officers
of the College.
"4thly. To dispense with the services of a Classical Tutor till the
attendance of students render them necessary, which, at present, is
manifestly not the case.
"Preparatory, however, to these changes, and without which, indeed, they
cannot be carried into effect, there needs, the Board would humbly
represent, an interposition of Her Majesty's Government for the removal
of the present Principal, and for an addition to the number of Governors
resident in Montreal.
"The Board of Visitors believe they are by Law entitled to remove the
Principal from his Office on the sole ground of his contumacy in
refusing to appear before them; and they have restrained from depriving
him of his Office by their own authority, simply by a consideration of
the still greater disorder which must have been the result of the
College.
"The Board of Visitors would, however, represent to Your Excellency
that, in their judgment, such removal is indispensable to the well-being
of the College; and that as Dr. Bethune was never appointed, except
temporarily, and his appointment has never received the necessary
sanction of Her Majesty's Government; if that sanction were refused, the
office would be forthwith vacant, and it would be competent for the
Governors to appoint an able and efficient Principal in his stead.
"Even such removal, however, would serve but little purpose, greatly as
the Board believe it would contribute to restore public confidence,
unless an addition were made to the number of Governors resident in
Montreal. If three or four enlightened and intelligent men were united
in the government of this institution, who, from their residence in
Montreal, could give a fair share of their attention to its interests,
the most beneficial consequences might be expected; and the public
confidence would be greater if, in the selection of these Governors,
regard should be had to different Protestant bodies in the Provinces,
none of which (except by such limitation as may be conceived to be
included in the words 'sound religion') are, by any Clause, either of
Mr. McGill's will, or of the Royal Charter, excluded from the Offices,
Honours, or Benefits of the College.
"May it therefore please Your Excellency to use your influence with Her
Majesty's Government to refuse to sanction Dr. Bethune's appointment,
and to give, as speedily as possible, a Supplementary Charter, making an
addition to the number of resident Governors in Montreal. The Board are
persuaded that the result of such action on the part of Her Majesty's
Government would be to rescue the College from its present disorderly
and inefficient state, and to render it, according to the intentions of
the benevolent founder, a public benefit."
Against the justice of this report the Governors entered a vigorous and
emphatic protest. They denied the right of the Royal Institution as
Visitors to investigate College conditions. They contended that McGill
University was a private foundation, and as such might only be "visited
by the legal representatives of James McGill and not by the Sovereign
Lady the Queen, her heirs or successors, or by any person or body
appointed by the Crown as supposed and assumed in the Royal Charter
incorporating the College." As the Statutes had not yet been approved,
they forwarded at the same time a resolution to the Colonial Office
declaring that "the College being a private foundation has the undoubted
right and power as such to make its own Statutes, Rules, etc.," and that
they would therefore no longer wait for the Royal sanction. They also
made representations to the Legislative Assembly asking support for
their contention that "the provision of the Charter by which the right
of the Crown is reserved to disallow the appointments made by the
Governors is an assumption of power inconsistent with the very nature of
the Foundation and is absolutely null and void in Law." They sought
legal means for obtaining from the Royal Institution all rights and
titles to the properties and monies in their possession belonging to
McGill University. Their main argument was that the University was a
"private institution." But their protests were of no avail.
The Governors then summarily dismissed the Vice-Principal and Professor
of Classics, the Rev. F. J. Lundy, mainly because of the allegations he
had made before the Royal Institution. His dismissal caused further
trouble, not, however, without its lighter side. Dr. Lundy appealed to
the Royal Institution from the Governors' decision. In his petition he
suggested that the Governors who dismissed him were not a representative
body and that their action was illegal. He stated that "the Chief
Justice of Montreal and the Rev. John Bethune, _two_ of the Governors of
McGill College, did proceed to hold a special meeting in the parlor of
the residence of the Chief Justice and not at the College; that ...
without previous summons or notification he was there informed ... [on
being called in] that his further services were not required in the
College, and that he was accordingly dismissed ... without any semblance
of a trial or investigation. ... That on asking for an explanation he
was informed that no explanation would be rendered and that he would not
be allowed a hearing in the matter." With his appeal the Royal
Institution, in the absence of Statutes and Rules, was powerless to
deal. Dr. Lundy was dismissed on the 4th of January, 1845. He was
allowed to retain his rooms in the College until May 1st "because of the
inconvenience to his family of moving in winter," but he was considered
"as removed on and after the day of his dismissal." In June he was still
occupying his College rooms, and he was told by the Governors to vacate
them or he would be ejected in fourteen days. In July he was still
there, and the Governors again told him that if he was not out at the
end of two days they would remove him, "using no more force than might
be necessary for that purpose." He went; and the controversy ended.
Professor Wickes then became Vice-Principal, but he retired two years
afterwards. Chapman, the Tutor, became Lecturer in Classics, but he
retired a few weeks later. His salary was long in arrears and he could
not collect it, and when he left he had to be content with a return of
the money he had expended "in making a window into a door in his room."
The Beadle was also dismissed, and the entire personnel of the College
officers was soon changed. Other appointments were made and were
approved by the Royal Institution. In making the appointments provision
was made for "a Librarian," and the Rev. Joseph Abbott was selected as
the first Librarian of McGill at the beginning of 1845. The Royal
Institution considered the Governors' actions to be growing daily more
drastic and intolerable, and they urged the Home Government to take
steps to end the struggle between the two bodies. On January 13th the
Lord Bishop of Montreal, the Rev. Dr. Mountain, who had meanwhile become
one of the Governors of the University, again wrote to the
Governor-General, Lord Metcalfe, as follows:
"It is with extreme unwillingness that I obtrude upon Your Excellency,
with the purpose of their being submitted if you should see fit, to Her
Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, any
representation relating to the affairs of McGill College, in addition to
those which are already before you from other quarters; and it is with
feelings of a nature more seriously painful that I find myself compelled
to state to Your Excellency the conviction at which I have arrived, of
its being inexpedient for me to take my seat at the Board of Governors
of that institution so long as the Rev. Dr. Bethune, in virtue of his
acting as Principal of the College, is also a member of the Board.
"Your Excellency will readily believe that unless I had strong and what
I conceive to be imperative grounds for my proceeding, one of the last
things which I could possibly be prompted to do would be to bring under
the notice of Her Majesty's Government any disadvantageous exhibition of
the management of important public interests in the hands of one of my
own Clergy, and one who occupies so prominent a position in the Canadian
Church as the Rector of Montreal.
"I have, however, long felt that the College could never prosper while
presided over by Dr. Bethune. And I should have been impelled before
this day officially to submit my views upon the subject to Your
Excellency had it not been that I had no seat among the Governors till
after the passing of the Act of the last Session, which confers upon me,
as Bishop of Montreal, all the legal powers vested in the Bishop of
Quebec; and, moreover, that having all along regarded the appointment of
Dr. Bethune simply as an ad interim arrangement (in which I believe
there are abundant means of showing that I was perfectly correct) I
anticipated that his retirement would have taken place in time to save
me from the necessity of making official statements, from which it is
sufficiently obvious that I must desire to be spared.
"When, however, I consider the general character of Dr. Bethune's
proceedings in those matters connected with McGill College which it has
devolved upon him to conduct, or in which he has taken a leading part,
and more especially in the intercourse of business with the Royal
Institution for the Advancement of Learning; when I consider again his
too evident deficiency in very important points of qualification for his
office, such as academical experience (for he never studied at any
University), actual classical attainments of the nature and extent which
the case requires, and I am constrained to add, such temper, such
discretion, and such weight of personal influence and possession of
public confidence, as must be necessary on the part of the Principal, to
preside with effect over an infant University in a country like this, or
to execute his part in recovering it from the utterly inefficient and
discreditable condition in which it now lies, I am brought to the
unavoidable conclusion not only that his appointment ought not to be
confirmed, but that every delay in the disallowance of it opens a door
to some new mischief within the Institution; more particularly as the
powers committed to the body of Governors, in something more than their
mere ordinary exercise, are, from peculiarity of circumstances, in a
manner left in his hands. The long continued ill health and infirmity of
the Chief Justice of Montreal, the consequent seclusion in which he
lives, and the fact of his not having either the sort of interest in the
Institution or the opportunities of familiarly knowing the relations
subsisting between Dr. Bethune and other parties concerned which he
would naturally have if he were of the Protestant religion, appear, I
may venture to say it, to justify the conclusion that the proceedings of
the Governors resident at Montreal are to be regarded as little or
nothing more than the decisions and acts of the individual filling the
office of Principal, at the same time that they have in several
instances involved a result of which I can hardly be persuaded that two
Governors were sufficient to dispose. These proceedings have been
recently crowned by the summary dismissal, without a hearing, of the
Vice-Principal and Professor of Classical Literature, under
circumstances with which Your Excellency, as I am informed, has recently
been made acquainted. I feel that I am now called upon to state to Your
Excellency both as the Head of the Body of Governors, whenever you may
see fit to take part in their proceedings, and also as the Head of the
Government, that till Dr. Bethune shall cease to occupy a place at the
Board of Governors I must abstain from attending it, persuaded as I am
that I cannot do so either with the hope of advantage to the public or
with comfort to myself.
"With reference to the question intimated above, respecting the
competency of two Governors to dispose of some matters such as have
actually been disposed of by that number only, Your Excellency is aware
that the number to whom the wisdom of Government had originally within
their particular province confided the interests of the College was
seven, and comprised the highest functionaries of Upper and Lower
Canada: and I conceive it to be necessary for those interests, not to
say for the very existence of McGill College, that an efficient Body of
Governors should, as soon as possible, be given to the Institution.
"I have only to add, although it is not within the more immediate scope
of the representations here submitted, that the observations which I
have made with reference to the inexpediency of Dr. Bethune's retention
of the office of Principal, will manifestly suggest reasons of at least
equal force against the confirmation of his appointment to the
Professorship of Divinity."
This communication was forwarded by the Governor-General to the Colonial
Office, but over a year passed before definite action in connection with
it was taken by the authorities.
Meanwhile the Governors carried on the work of the University, harassed
always by debts and by insufficient revenue. The Medical School now
sought a closer union with the University. Its connection with the
College since the latter's establishment had been more or less nominal;
it was at least indefinitely hazy, other than in the mere fact that it
was "engrafted," and in the imprimatur of its degrees. Since its request
for a grant from University funds six years before was refused, there
was little actual intercourse or connection between the two bodies. They
worked, on the whole, independently, although the legal incorporation of
one with the other was recognized. The Medical School had carried on its
work in temporary quarters. It had begun its work in 1824 in a building
at 20 St. James Street, on Place d'Armes. Its Statutes, Rules, etc., had
been approved, as already seen, in 1832. About a year later the School
was moved to a larger building near the present Bank of Montreal, where
it remained for more than two years. It then was again moved to a
building on St. George Street, not far from the corner of Craig Street.
In 1843 the Medical Faculty applied to the Governors for a piece of
ground on the Burnside Estate, near the recently erected McGill
buildings, "for the purpose of erecting lecture rooms." The request was
granted and the giving of sufficient ground was approved by the Royal
Institution. But like the College, the Medical School had no funds. The
grant asked for from the Provincial Government by the Board of the Royal
Institution to help "in bringing the Faculties of Law, Theology and
Medicine into actual operation," and partly promised, had in the end
been refused. The Royal Institution, as we have seen, did not feel
justified in giving the Medical School assistance from the funds already
inadequate to provide for Collegiate education, as called for in the
bequest. As a result, although ground for a building was willingly
given, the erection of a building had to be indefinitely postponed. The
Medical Faculty then applied for permission to use any rooms that might
be available in the College buildings. On September 16th, 1845, the
Governors agreed--and the Royal Institution later approved their
action--to give the Medical School the refectory or dining-room for its
exclusive use--as the students were now for the most part boarding with
Professors or outside the College--together with the southwest
lecture-room as a lecture-room and museum, the private room of the
Bursar for the Professors' office, and two small adjoining rooms "for
anatomy and dissecting rooms." Medical students, too, were to be
permitted to reside in the College, on condition that they were to be
under the same discipline as the College students. The Medical Faculty
accordingly moved to these rooms provided in the McGill buildings, and a
closer contiguous connection with the University was thereby
established. There the Faculty remained until 1851, when because of its
growth and the inconvenient distance from the city and the Hospital, it
moved to the building at 15 Coté Street, erected for its use by three of
the members of its staff.
Efforts were made to increase the attendance in the College and students
from the French-Canadian Colleges were admitted to equal standing with
McGill students. The need for funds became gradually more acute. The
Royal Institution would not listen to the Governors' demands for the
payment of salaries and contingent expenses. In December, 1845, they
again appealed to the Governor-General, Lord Metcalfe, but he declined
to interfere, pointing out that the Royal Institution were the trustees
of the Trust; that all the Statutes, Rules, etc., of the College should
be confirmed by Royal authority before they became law; and that as the
statutes under the authority of which debts had been contracted by the
Governors of McGill had never received Royal sanction, these debts had
no effect in law. The Governors were therefore themselves liable. But
the Governors had already borrowed £500 from the Bank of British North
America to meet necessary and vital requirements. That amount had not
yet been paid off, and they naturally were not disposed to assume the
responsibility for further personal indebtedness.
All the correspondence in connection with the whole situation, in
addition to the various petitions and appeals, was forwarded to the
Colonial Office, with which the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone had meanwhile
become connected as Secretary of State for the Colonies. It was hoped
that Mr. Gladstone would display more interest and energy than his
predecessors, and that a decision would soon be reached. The College
authorities expected that the Provincial Legislature would be asked to
make an investigation by Committee. Accordingly, on April 15th, 1846,
they issued instructions "forbidding officers and members of the College
from answering any summons from a Committee of the Legislative Assembly
acting on the petitions of Chapman, Wickes or Lundy." The excuse for not
answering was that "McGill College was a private foundation and was
therefore not liable to the action of the Legislature." But their
expectations were not realized and no investigation was held by the
Assembly.
It was clear, however, that action was soon to be taken by the Colonial
Office; the Governors were not aware of the precise nature of the
action, but they felt that the Home Government would support the Royal
Institution. Before the decision was received, a final effort was made
to give to the University a more pronounced character of "religious
exclusiveness," a tendency which the Governor-General had already
deplored. In October, 1845, this desire had been indicated by the making
of a rule requiring that prayers in the College were to be said "by a
College Chaplain appointed by the Governors, or by any other person
appointed or approved by the Principal, he to be a member of the Church
of England"; a sum of £50 was voted for such Chaplain. On April 25,
1846, at a meeting attended by two Governors--the Chief Justice of
Montreal and the Principal, and two Fellows--the Rev. J. Ramsay and the
Rev. J. Abbott, it was resolved on motion of the Principal to ask that
the Charter be amended in the following particulars: "That the
Governors of the College consist henceforth of all the clergy of the
Church of England now holding or who may hereafter hold preferment in
the Parish of Montreal, and of a certain number of laymen of the Church
of England resident in the aforesaid Parish to be named in the Charter.
That vacancies occasioned by the death, resignation, etc., of any of the
lay Governors shall be filled up from time to time by the majority of
the Governors present at a meeting. That the Bishop of the Diocese shall
be the Visitor of the College. That appointments to office in the
College are not to be subject to disallowance by any other authority
than that of the Governors. That the Statutes, Rules, and Ordinances
made by the Governors are to be in full force and effect until
disallowed by the Judges of the Court of Queen's Bench for the District
of Montreal. That a committee be appointed to draft a petition to Her
Majesty the Queen with reference to this resolution, the Committee to
consist of the Principal, the Vice-Principal, and the Professor of
Classical Literature." The Professor of Classical Literature was then
the Rev. W. T. Leach, who had been appointed on April 4th preceding. The
Vice-Principal was the Rev. J. Abbott.
A few days later, and before this resolution could be acted on, however,
Mr. Gladstone's despatch disallowing Principal Bethune's appointment and
asking for his retirement was received. In forwarding it to the
Secretary of McGill on April 24th, 1846, the Civil Secretary wrote: "I
have only to add the expression of the hope that the Governors will
forthwith proceed to replace Dr. Bethune and that in so doing they will
anxiously endeavour to secure the services of a man in all respects
qualified for such important posts." Mr. Gladstone's despatch, which
embodied in the main the suggestions of the Lord Bishop of Montreal, the
Rev. Dr. Mountain, quoted above, was written on April 3rd, 1846, and was
as follows:
"I have had under my serious consideration your Lordship's confidential
Despatch of the 19th of February, on the subject of McGill College at
Montreal, and in connection with it I have reviewed the copious
correspondence which passed between your Lordship's predecessor and Lord
Stanley on this question. I have observed with great regret the state of
disorder and inefficiency in which the Institution appears to be.
"The question which has appeared to me to call for my immediate decision
is that of the continuance in the office of Principal of the College,
and in the Professorship of Divinity, of the present holder, the
Reverend Dr. Bethune, whose appointment it is still competent for the
Crown, according to the Charter of the College, to disallow.
"It is with regret that I have come to the conclusion that it is my duty
to recommend to Her Majesty to disallow this appointment.
"Into the various and somewhat complicated charges which have been
brought against Dr. Bethune, in his capacity of Principal of the
College, I do not find it necessary to enter; nor do I wish to state at
the present moment any decided opinion as to the extent to which the
present condition of the Institution is owing to the character and
position of its Principal. My decision is founded upon reasons which
are not open to dispute; the first, the weight of the Bishop's
authority, together with your own, independently of any reference to
that of the Board of Visitors, which may be considered to be to some
extent at this moment in dispute; next, the fact that Dr. Bethune did
not himself receive an University education, which I must hold to be,
unless under circumstances of the rarest occurrence, an indispensable
requisite for such a position as he occupies. To these I am disposed to
add, although I express the opinion without having had the advantage of
learning what may be the view of the Lord Bishop in this particular,
that I cannot think it expedient that the offices of Principal and
Professor of Divinity in McGill College should be combined with that of
Rector of Montreal. This latter circumstance is not much adverted to in
the papers before me; but I am strongly impressed with the incongruity
of this junction of important collegiate appointments with a no less
important pastoral charge in the same person; either the former or the
latter of which, especially considering the large population of the Town
of Montreal, I must, as at present advised, hold to be enough to occupy
his individual attention.
"I have, therefore, felt bound to advise Her Majesty to disallow this
appointment in both respects, in pursuance of the power vested in her;
and have only to add the expression of my hope that the Governors will
forthwith proceed to replace Dr. Bethune, and that in so doing they will
anxiously endeavour to secure the services of a man in all respects
qualified for such important posts.
"With regard to the general position of the College, there are indeed
many points as to its Constitution, its Laws, its Revenues, and its
Administration which obviously require a careful consideration and an
early and definitive settlement; among which perhaps the most prominent
is the confirmation, or otherwise, of the Statutes which have for some
time been awaiting the decision of the Crown. But adverting to the
course adopted by Lord Stanley, and to the information received from
your Lordship's predecessor, with particular reference to the Despatches
noted in the margin, I have resolved to suspend any active measure on my
part, at least till the conclusion of the present session of the
Canadian Legislature, thinking it not improbable that the proceedings of
that body may tend to throw some light on the questions connected with
the College, by which I may be guided in the consideration of my own
course in this important matter."
As a result of the above despatch, Dr. Bethune retired from the
acting-Principalship in May following. On July 3rd he protested in a
memorial to the Colonial Office against the legality of the act of the
Home Government in the disallowing of his appointment, but no action was
taken by the authorities, and there the matter dropped.
Dr. Bethune did not give up the acting-Principalship, which he had
filled for eleven years, without the regrets and the tributes of men who
had been closely associated with him during his term of office. The
Chief Justice of Montreal, the Hon. James Reid, one of the Governors of
the College, had already written to him on February 13th, 1845, not long
before his death:
[Illustration: From Painting in McGill Library Photo Rice Studios
_Venerable Archdeacon Leach D.C.L., L.L.D. Vice-Principal of McGill
University_ 1846-1886]
"I am enabled to say that after your appointment as Principal the
interests of the College, which had previously been much obstructed and
delayed, were more closely pursued and attended to, principally by your
exertions, your declared object being to bring the College into
operation as soon as possible, and to render all the means belonging to
it available for this purpose."
On May 11th, 1846, after Mr. Gladstone's despatch had been received, and
Dr. Bethune was about to leave the College, the Rev. John Abbott, the
Vice-Principal and Secretary, and E. Chapman, formerly Lecturer in
Classical Literature, whose relations with the Principal had not always
been harmonious, wrote as follows:
"We, the undersigned Officers of the University of McGill College, from
our personal knowledge, as far as we have been respectively connected
with it, do hereby certify that the Reverend John Bethune, D.D., has
performed the duties of his Office of Principal of this Institution with
a zeal, ability, and moderation only equalled by his patient and
enduring perseverance, under circumstances of great and harassing
difficulty; and that the opening and establishing of the College, and
consequently its very existence, are mainly to be ascribed, as we verily
believe, to his active and indefatigable exertions."
To this letter the Rev. W. T. Leach, who had been appointed Professor of
Classical Literature on April 4th preceding, added:
"My connection with McGill College has been of very recent date, and I
have no objection to add my testimony to the above."
It was also certified by the Bursar, the Rev. John Abbott, that the
Principal was jointly responsible with the Chief Justice of Montreal
for £500 borrowed from the Bank of British North America, and for £100
for outbuildings; that he was personally responsible for a debt of £120
for fuel, which "by his own individual means and credit he had obtained
and provided for the College while the funds belonging to it were
withheld during a considerable period." These liabilities, however, were
all liquidated later by the Royal Institution.
The eleven years that had passed since the acting-Principal assumed
office were among the most critical in McGill's history. They were
fraught with a hopeless misunderstanding arising from a dual control,
the causes of which have been made sufficiently clear in the documents
quoted. The Governors resented the interference of the Royal
Institution, which in those days of advocacy of political autonomy and
sensitive abhorrence of Downing Street coercion they could not easily
tolerate. It was contrary to the spirit of the age. Whether the
Governors helped their cause by their attitude or by their attempt to
give to the College a character of sectarian exclusiveness need not be
here discussed. They had, however, urged the actual erection and
equipment of a College, and it was in a large measure because of their
persistence and their faith that the original buildings were so early
constructed. They had the good fortune to see the buildings actually
opened, students enrolled and collegiate instruction commenced in
accordance with the will of the founder. They saw, too, the Medical
School made an integral part of the University.
And the controversy in which they had so prominent and at times so
painful a part, although unfortunate in many ways, had at least one
good result--it showed plainly and unmistakably the hopelessness of dual
supervision and divided authority. Nevertheless, by the dissension of
those bitter years of storm and stress the College had been brought
financially, at least, to a feeble and uncertain state, and many who
watched its progress were wondering if it could still endure. But again
it struggled forward. Those who were really interested in its existence
never doubted its ultimate concord and prosperity and growth. But to
bring it to its destined place of usefulness and power it needed
unfaltering strength and unwavering faith to guide it through the
troubled period that lay yet before it.