«>. 
 
 ^51^ 
 
 IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 /. 
 
 
 lo 
 
 Z 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 11.25 
 
 ■50 ■^" M^H 
 
 1^ 1^ 12.2 
 
 !!: 1^ 112.0 
 
 1.8 
 
 1.4 IIIIII.6 
 
 6" — 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^^> 
 
 <P 
 
 /2 
 
 ^A 
 
 
 '^ ^> 
 
 v: 
 
 5> 
 
 * 
 
 y 
 
 ^ 
 
 PhotDgraphic 
 
 Sciences 
 Corporation 
 
 23 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 
 
 (716) 872-4503 
 
 f\ 
 
 4 
 
 ^^ 
 
 <h 
 
 .V 
 
 <s 
 
 
 O^ 
 
 -^'l^v 
 
 ^'h 
 
 ri,f 
 
4io 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 
 Microfiche 
 
 Series. 
 
 CIHIVI/ICMH 
 Collection de 
 microfiches. 
 
 Canadian Institute for Historical MIcroreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 
 
Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques 
 
 The institute has attempted to obtain the best 
 original copy available for filming. Features of this 
 copy which may be bibliographically unique, 
 which may alter any of the images in the 
 reproduction, or which may significantly change 
 the usual method of filming, are checlted below. 
 
 L'Institut a microfilmd le meilleur exemplaire 
 qu'il lui a dt6 possible de se procurer. Les details 
 de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-dtre uniques du 
 point dri vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier 
 une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une 
 modification dans !a mdthode normale de tilmage 
 sont indiquds ci-dessous. 
 
 D 
 D 
 D 
 
 n 
 
 D 
 D 
 D 
 
 n 
 n 
 
 n 
 
 Coloured covers/ 
 Couverture de couleur 
 
 Covers damaged/ 
 Couverture endommagde 
 
 Covers restored and/or laminated/ 
 Couverture restaurde et/ou pellicul6e 
 
 Cover title missing/ 
 
 Le titre de couverture manque 
 
 Coloured maps/ 
 
 Cartes gdographiques en couleur 
 
 Coloured inl<: (i.e. other than blue or black)/ 
 Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) 
 
 Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ 
 Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur 
 
 Bound with other mate.'ial/ 
 Relid avec d'autres documents 
 
 Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion 
 along interior margin/ 
 
 Lareliure serr6e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la 
 distortion le long de la marge intdrieure 
 
 Blank leaves added during restoration may 
 appear within the text. Whenever possible, these 
 have been omitted from filming/ 
 II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout^es 
 lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, 
 mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont 
 pas 6t6 filmdes. 
 
 Additional comments:/ 
 Commentaires suppldmentaires: 
 
 I I Coloured pages/ 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 D 
 
 Pages de couleur 
 
 Pages damaged/ 
 Pages endommagdes 
 
 I I Pages restored and/or laminated/ 
 
 Pages restaurdes et/ou peliiculdes 
 
 Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ 
 Pages d6color6es, tachet6es ou piqudes 
 
 I I Pages detached/ 
 
 Pages ddtachdes 
 
 Showthrough/ 
 Transparence 
 
 I I Quality of print varies/ 
 
 Qualitd indgale de I'impression 
 
 Includes supplementary material/ 
 Comprend du materiel suppldmentaire 
 
 □ Only edition available/ 
 Seule Edition disponible 
 
 Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata 
 slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to 
 ensure the best possible image/ 
 Les pages totalement ou partiellement 
 obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, 
 etc., ont 6t6 filmdes d nouveau de faqon d 
 obtenir la meilleure image possible. 
 
 This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ 
 
 Ce document est film6 au taux de reduction indiqu6 ci-dessous 
 
 10X 14X 18X 22X 
 
 
 
 
 26X 
 
 
 
 
 SOX 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 J 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 12X 
 
 
 
 
 16X 
 
 
 
 20X 
 
 
 
 
 24X 
 
 
 
 
 28X 
 
 
 
 
 32X 
 
 
The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks 
 to the generosity of: 
 
 Library of the Public 
 Archives of Canada 
 
 L'exemplaire film* f ut reproduit grAce A la 
 gAn6rosit4 de: 
 
 La bibliothdque des Archiveti 
 publiques du Catiada 
 
 The images appearing here are the best quality 
 possible considering the condition and legibility 
 of the original copy and in keeping with the 
 filming contract specifications. 
 
 Las images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le 
 plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et 
 de la nettet6 de l'exemplaire filmi, et en 
 conformity avec les conditions du contrat de 
 filmage. 
 
 Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed 
 beginning with the front cover and ending on 
 the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- 
 sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All 
 other original copies are filmed beginning on the 
 first page with a printed or illustrated impres- 
 sion, and ending on the last page with a printed 
 or illustrated impression. 
 
 Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en 
 papier est imprim6e sont fiim6s en commen^ant 
 par le premier plat et en terrninant soit par la 
 dernlAre page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'illustration. soit par le second . 
 plat, salon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires 
 originaux sont film6s en commenpant par la 
 premiere page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par 
 la derniire page qui comporte une telle 
 empreinte. 
 
 The last recorded frame on each microfiche 
 shall contain the symbol -^ (meaning "CON- 
 TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), 
 whichever applies. 
 
 Un des symboles suivants apparaftra sur la 
 dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le 
 cas: le symbols — »> signifie "A SUIVRE ", le 
 symbols V signifie "FIN". 
 
 Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at 
 different reduction ratios. Those too large to be 
 entirely included in one exposure are filmed 
 beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to 
 right and top to bottom, as many frames as 
 required. The following diagrams illustrate the 
 method: 
 
 Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre 
 film6s d des taux de reduction d<ff6rents. 
 Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre 
 reproduit en un seul clich6, il est film§ A partir 
 de Tangle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, 
 et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre 
 d'images nicessaire. Les diagrammes suivants 
 illustrent la mdthode. 
 
 1 2 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
u 
 
 Wi 
 
T H E 
 
 ORIGIN, HISTORY, AND MANAGEMENT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF KING'S COLLEGE, 
 
 TORONTO. 
 
 Tros Tyriuave mihi nullo discrimine agetur." 
 
 " What we wa tt is Liberty — Absolute Liberty — Just and True Libirtt- 
 EquAL AND Impartial Liberty." — Locke. 
 
 TORONTO: 
 PRINTED BY GEORGE BROWN, 142, kING STREET. 
 
 MDCCCXHV. ' 
 
4 
 
 ■i 
 
 if 
 
 TO 
 THE HONOURABLE ROBERT BALDWIN, 
 
 LATE ATTORNEY-GKNERAL FOR UPPER CANADA, 
 
 WHOSE BILL 
 
 INTRODUCED DURI'TG THE LAST SESSION OF PARLIAMKJTT, 
 
 FOR OPENING TPIE UNIVERSITY OF KING'S COLLEGE 
 
 TO 
 
 ALL CLASSES AND DENOMINATIONS OF UER MAJESTY'S CANADIAN SUBJECTS, 
 
 ENTITLES HIM TO THE GRATITUDE 
 
 OF EVERY ENLIGHTENED FRIEND 
 
 OP 
 
 CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, 
 THE FOLLOWING PAPERS 
 
 ARE 
 
 RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. 
 
]V 
 iJni 
 
 ain 
 
 cry 
 
 ingf 
 
 Stan 
 
 part 
 
 shoi 
 
 oil 
 
 that 
 
 Uni 
 
 no 
 
 com 
 
 that 
 
 unj( 
 
 the 
 
 invi 
 
 are 
 
 sim 
 
 fum 
 
 Ma 
 
 ben 
 
 wh 
 wis 
 spii 
 the 
 pro 
 gov 
 and 
 sup 
 inl 
 see 
 and 
 abj' 
 
 I 
 
 clai 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Much as the public mind has been aroused to the urgent necessity of a thorough 
 iJniversity Reiorm, it is questionable whether the countiy is yet in possession of 
 all the facts upon which that necessity is based. It must be admitted that the 
 cry oi " vested rights," invigorated, as it has been, by the legal hypothesis of an 
 ingenious Counsel, has had some effect in diverting attention from the circum- 
 stances which sap that hypothesis in the foundation. But that the High Church 
 party should have had the sole benefit of this cry, is more remarkable than that they 
 should have made every use of it. For, if it can be shown that the endowment 
 of King's College was originally granted for the purposes of general education — 
 that the intention of the grant was to establish a public institution — and that the 
 University has been perverted to a private and sectarian purpose, by a party at 
 no period friendly to popular enlightenment, — there must be every reason to 
 complain that the " vested rights" of the people have been grossly infringed — and 
 that the monopoly of the Episcopal Church has been fraudulently acquired, and ia 
 unjustly maintained. The question at present before the country is not, whether 
 the exclusive claims of that Church, originally founded on justice, are to be 
 invaded by reason of a public necessity, and whether rights, honestly acquired, 
 are to succumb to purposes of general utility ; — but the true question at issue, ia 
 simply, whether the University, as a great national institution — endowed with 
 funds for general education — is to be opened to all classes and persuasions of her 
 Majesty's Canadian subjects — or whether it is to be a monopoly, for the exclusive 
 benefit and advantage of the members of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 Such is the principle involved in the contest which is now going on — a contest 
 which ought never to have been excited, and which would have been safely and 
 wisely averted, if just and reasonable claims on the one side had been met in a 
 spirit of enlightened justice and toleration on the other. In urging those claims, 
 the people have no desire to injure the Episcopal Church. Many of them are 
 proud to acknowledge their submission to its doctrine, its discipline, ami 
 government, and by some of its warmest adherents, is the cause of justice 
 and toleration nobly maintained Nor do the other denominations ask any 
 superiority or exclusive enjoyment — all that they desire is, equality of privileges 
 in this seat of learning and science ; and in pressing this equitable claim, they only 
 seek to have the University restored to the purposes of its original foundation, 
 and to have it adapted to the character and spirit of the present age, which 
 abjures monopolies and exclusions. 
 
 It cannot be denied, that recent events have given energy and directioi to these 
 claims, — and that the reckless conduct of the monopolists has invested with an 
 
VI. 
 
 imperious character the (It'mand to liavc the monopoly Lioken up. I'hr iact thai 
 the interests ot the I'nivor>ity have been sacriticcd to schemes of personal 
 ambition and private aggrandizement, and tliat a noble institution munilicently 
 endowed, has been plunged into irretrievable dilliculiics, by a system of gross and 
 glaring mismanagement— has excited a deep and general feeling of indignation 
 throughout the jjrovince in which the members of the Kpiscopal Church have 
 largely participated. 
 
 It has now become too obvious, that the i)eople must have some other security 
 for their chartered rights than the jiarchmcnt skins on which they are recorded — 
 and that Legislative enactments arc of little value, if their execution is to be 
 entrusted to individuals, whose object and interest arc to undermine the principles 
 upon which they are framed. It would be a mere mockery to ofler any measure 
 of delusive liberality, by which the governing power of the University was not 
 completely changed, and by which those who have violated faith with the 
 people, and with the crown, should not be made to sutler the consequences 
 of their derelictions. 
 
 Before King's College can exhibit a vigorous and healthy advancement, and 
 produce the fruits o/ a complete and generous education, it must at once be 
 freed from the system of despicable proselytism, which at present both fetters its 
 energies and degrades the morals of its youth, and relieved of the management ot 
 those individuals, who have so grossly perverted the objects of the institution, 
 and who are now clinging with convulsive tenacity to the power which they 
 have iniquitously abused. 
 
 There is every reason to believe that an attempt will be made by the High 
 Church party to defeat theprinciple of the University Bill, by bribing the leading 
 sects into silence. But to any such unprincipled scheme which would sacrifice 
 the permanent interests of the country to the temporary and ])ecuniary advantage 
 of particular sects, the people of Canada will assuredly ofler the most 
 uncompromising opposition. Full, free and unreserved participation in the 
 benefits to be derived from the University, is the Binxn-niGiiT of every individual 
 in this country, to whatever sect he may belong ; and if any man shall be found 
 base enough to sell the civil and religious privileges of the Canadian people, 
 which are the property neither of sect nor ot j.arty, for a sectarian or personal 
 advantage, his perfidy will be visited with the execrations of the country and 
 of posterity, and with the contempt of the party who may purchase his degradation. 
 
 The great feature of the University Bill was its avowed hostility to all sectarian 
 monopoly. Its object was to make the University a general and National 
 Institution; — an Institution in which the youth of all classes and persuasions 
 might freely mingle ; and where, by being combined in their amusements as well 
 as in their studies and pursuits, they might be permanently united in the bonds 
 of friendship and good feeling; — an Institution in which might be nurtured and 
 developed those generous feelings and affections which would mitigate the burning 
 animosities that the conflict of opposite interests might afterwards engender, and 
 which would divest future opposition of its acrimony and its bitterness. 
 
Vll. 
 
 It is time th;U this giv-.it subject .slioiild be viewed apart from all sectarian 
 nterests, ami that it should be contemplated exclusiively in its important bcarini? 
 on the destinies of this I'lovince. In a country .^o divided by religious opinions, 
 and where the influence and intelligence of the dillerent sects au so nearly 
 balanced, it is of the highest importance that its public instilutione should bo 
 suificiently comprehensive to permit of, and to encourage free and unreserved 
 intercourse between the cla.*ses. And where can such intercourse and communion 
 be so happily and eo completely efli.'c(cd as within the walls oi' a University 
 where all denominations of Christians would mingle and be educated under one 
 general system; and where, by associating together at the most interesting season 
 of life, they might lay the foundations of future intercourse and mutual good-will, 
 so essential to the well-being of all society, and which are by no means incom- 
 patible with dillerences either in religious failh or political opinion? By such an 
 amalgamation of classes in the combined education of the Canadian youth, we 
 mig't expect to see the asperities of religious and political diilerenccs softened 
 do\.n — the lines of division gradually obliterated — prejudices abated and adverse 
 feelings reconciled. 
 
 The grasping conduct of the High Church party has indeed perplexed this 
 subject with considerations extrinsic of its own merits; and on none of the 
 important interests of this country has the baneful influence of that party operated 
 to a more injurious degree, than on the progress of general Education and the 
 successful establishment of the University. Tt is abundantly evident that if King's 
 College be permitted to retain the sectarian and exclusive character which has 
 been falsely imposed on it, and if the other denominations are excluded from a 
 participation in its benellts — whether l)y their own self-abasement or by the 
 powerful opposition of unscrupulous foes — the various sects will either renew 
 their exertions to obtain the same benefits in other establishments instituted in 
 conformity with their own opinions, or largo numbers of the youth of the Province 
 will be driven for their education to foreign Seminaries. But will the country 
 submit to a compromise which will involve the necessity and danger of a separate 
 education for each section of its varied population, which will array them in a 
 hostile attitude one against another, each thinking the other an individual with 
 whom it would be unsafe to associate : the one claiming a superiority to which hd 
 is not entitled, the other struggling and resisting under an undeserved inferiority? 
 And has the country generally no interest in seeing that its youth are educated 
 within its own territories, and in taking care that their instruction is not such ad 
 may tend to alienate from its in.stitntions those in whose individual genius and 
 integrity it may repose confidence in the hour of difficulty and danger.' 
 
 Let not the party who would offer such a compromise imagine that the 
 acceptance of their unprincipled bribes by any of the sectarian leaders would set 
 this question finally at rest ; for even should the present generation basely barter its 
 rights, posterity will rise to reclaim them; and while a remnant of the endowment 
 is perverted to a sectarian purpose, the struggle for equality will be perseveringly 
 maintained. The purchase of temporary repose would be a transient delusion ; 
 
N 
 
 VUl. 
 
 renewed demands would be made upon the endowment — each successive demand 
 with as much justice as the lirst ; and the Institution would only be relieved 
 from assaults when participation in its benefits was no longer an object of 
 desire. 
 
 No compromise — no fraudulent settlement, nor base bartering of rights, will 
 terminate the struggle for principle, or diminish the resistance to a sectarian 
 Ascendancy. That resistance will not cease, till the portals of the University 
 Ahail be thrown open, and all classes and denominations shall, in the words of 
 Locke, have " liberty — absolute liberty — just and truk liberty — equal 
 
 AND impartial LIBERTY." 
 
 
 *■ ' 
 
 
 
 

 /^ • - 
 
 w • 
 
 CHAPTER I. . 
 THE ORIGINAL GRANT. 
 
 
 Thk first public movemenU in Upper Canada, towards obtaining a proyision far 
 educational purposes, was made in 1797, when the Legislative Council and Houa« 
 of Assembly concurred in a joint Address to King George III., <• imploring that hia 
 Majesty would be graciously pleased to direct his Government in this Province to 
 Appropriate a certain portion of the waste lands of *he Crown, as a fund for th« 
 establishment and support of a respectable Grammar School, in each District 
 thereof ; and also a College, or University, for the instruction of youth in the 
 diftrent branches of liberal knowledge." To this address a favourable answer 
 was transmitted, in a despatch from the Duke of Portland, to the Honourable 
 Peter Russell, then at the head of the Local Government, in which his Grace 
 communicated his Majesty's " most gracious intention to comply with the triahei 
 of the Legislature of his Province of Upper Canada, in such manner as shall be 
 judged to be most effectual." With this view, Mr. Russell was directed to consult 
 the members of the Executive Council, and the Judges, and Law-officers of the 
 Crown, in Upper Canada, and to report to his Majesty's Government, " in what 
 manner and to what extent, a portion of the Crown Lands might be appropriated 
 and rendered productive towards the formation of a fund for the above purposes.** 
 On the 1st December, 1798, the Executive Council reported to Mr. President 
 Russell, that an appropriation of 500,000 acres, or ten townships, after deducting 
 the Crown and Clergy sevenths, would be a sufficient fund for the establishment 
 and maintenance of the royal foundation of four Grammar Schools, and an 
 University, and that the proposed School fund should, when raised, be applied: 
 
 Ist. For the erection of the necessary buildings, 
 
 2nd. For the payment of the salaries of the Masters. 
 
 3rd. For keeping the buildings in repair, the purchase of books and 
 philosophical apparatus, and other purposes essential to places of education^ 
 but in general too costly to be provided by individuals. 
 
 The Council also reported that the towns of Cornwall, Kingston, Newark, and 
 Sandwich, were, at that t-me, the most proper places for the sites of the four Schools, 
 and that they considered York as entitled to the University, both as being 
 the Seat of the Executive Government, the Legislature, and the Courts of Justice^ 
 and as being by far the most convenient spot in the province for all general 
 purposes — its situation being nearly central, and besides its accessibility by water, 
 the then proposed high road from the one end of the province to the other 
 being necessarily to pass near it, or through it. The Council proposed that two 
 of the Schools — namely those at Kingston and Newark should be commenced 
 ftni't aad that, whenever the appropriated fund should be found sufficient* 
 B 
 
10 
 
 ife' 
 
 »^?;:- 
 
 the towns of Cornwall and Sandwich should each receire a similar mark of 
 the Royal munihcence. In this manner they conceived that the lands thiu 
 appropriated would not only be amply sufficient for the establishment and support 
 of the four Schools, but would be nearly, if not quite adequate to the erection ana 
 endowment of the University, whenever the advancemnnl of the Province should 
 call for such an Institution, and they recommended, that the provision for 
 th2 establishment and maintenance of the University should, at least, be equal io 
 that of the four Schools taken together. , • .. iv wr -vi<un; ;=5v • ^^r r 
 
 '^The precise details of the action which was taken upon this Report cannot 
 now be ascertained; but it will be observed that the original instructions are 
 Bufficiently indicative of the intention of the Home Government to place the 
 educational seminaries and their endowments under the control of the Local 
 Legislature, at whose suggestion the appropriation was made. 
 
 In consequence of the reckless profusion of grants which placed the wild lands 
 of the Province in the nominal possession of a few proprietors, who could neither 
 use them themselves nor render them subservient to the promotion of any public 
 purpose, the sale of lands and the advancement of the country were very slow, 
 and consequently for more than twenty years after the or'ginal appropriation, the 
 School Lands remained totally unproductive. In 1806, the Legislature, to 
 show that something more than Grammar Schools was required, did all ihtiir 
 limited means then permitted, in providing a small apparatus for the instruction of 
 youth in physical science, and in 1807, a temporary act was passed by the 
 Provincial Legislature, and mnde pcrTi^nent in 1808, providing for the 
 establishment of a School, answering to a Grammar School, in each District. 
 The School Lands, however, afforded no aid to the District Schools, which 
 were irrespective of the general endowment, and for the maintenance of which 
 the Legislature was compelled to provide otherwise. In 1816, a law was 
 passed for the further improvement and extension of Common Schools. This art 
 was limited to four years continuance, and when renewed in 1820, several 
 amendments were introduced which detracted very much from its value, 
 particularly one which greatly reduced the appropriation. 
 
 The reduction referred to was the consequence of the arbitrary and exclusive 
 views which had for sometime manifested themselves in the proceedings of the 
 E.vecutive Government. The High Church party had long monopolized all office 
 and influence, and it is rarely that that party have given a willing support Jo 
 any general system of Education. Least of all were they likely to afford any 
 countenance to a scheme by which its blessings would have been equally diffused 
 among all classes and denominations. Tliey foresaw that if so valuable an 
 endowment as the School Lends might eventually prove, were left to the disposal 
 of the Legislature, the country would in all probability receive a popular system 
 of Education, unfettered by party or sectarian restrictions, and that a favourable 
 opportunity would thus be lost, oi' placing the ascendancy of the Episcopal Church 
 on a solid foundation. In 1819, the growing importance of the School Lands 
 attracted the attention of the Government, and the attempt was then made, 
 
 i 
 
11 
 
 ar mftrk ol 
 lands thua 
 uid support 
 erection and 
 ince should 
 ovision for 
 be equal io 
 
 )ort cannot! 
 
 uctions are 
 
 > place the 
 
 the Local 
 
 •■. , »^. »,«..,f^*> 
 wild landfli 
 uld neither 
 any public 
 very slow, 
 nation, the 
 slature, to 
 1 all their 
 3truction of 
 led by the 
 J for the 
 h District. 
 •Is, which 
 of which 
 law was 
 This act 
 0, several 
 its value, 
 
 exclusive 
 igs of the 
 d all office 
 support Jo 
 adbrd any 
 ly diffused 
 iluable an 
 le disposal 
 ar system 
 iavourable 
 al Church 
 3oI Lands 
 len made, 
 
 infortunatdy too successi'ul, to defeat the object of the grant by fraudulently 
 diverting it from its original purposes. Without the consent, and indeed without 
 the knowledge of the Legislature, by whom the School Lands had been held in 
 trust, certain members of the Executive Government, among" whom was Mr. 
 Strachan (then a leading member of the administration), secretly planned and 
 effected an arrangement by which the people generally might be deprived of all 
 benetit from the endowment, by which the Legislature might be divested of its 
 comroul, and by which the erection of the Grammar Schools might be postponed 
 to an indefinite period in favour of an Episcopal University, established on such 
 exclusive principles as would benefit only the party to which the members of the 
 Government in those times invariably belonged. A fraud more disastrous to the 
 people has not been perpetrated in the worst periods of Provincial corruption, but 
 the secrecy with which it was devised and executed, effectually protected it from 
 the opposition of the Legislature. The scheme was not once mooted in Parliament, 
 and the robbery was consummated without a single voice being publicly i-aised in 
 defence of the people's rights. ' ' f-'^w 
 
 A Committee of the Executive Council, on 7th January, 1819, reported that no 
 trace of any answer to the Pteport ol the Council of Isl December, 1798, could 
 be found in the Council Office : — that as they were of opinion with the Attorney 
 General (Mr. Robinson) that the appropriatibn of land was not sufficiently 
 sanctioned to authorise a grant in other portions than limited by his Majesty's 
 Commission, they thought it proper to recommend that his Excellency Sir P. 
 Maitland should call the attention of his INIaj^^ty's Government to a formal, 
 sanction to " sell, lease, grant, and dispose of the iiOO.OOO acres of land for the 
 purpose of establishing a University, as provision for District Schools was not by 
 them thought necessary out of this fund, their establishment and maintenance 
 having been already provided for by the Legislature ; and that in order to construct 
 the necessary buildings, the sum of £10,000 would be required, with an endow* 
 ment of £4000 per annum for the payment of salaries; and that a Commission 
 should permanently attend, with large powers to sell and lease the land and 
 manage its revenues, under the direction of the Executive Government" It wa» 
 also considered, " that it would conduce much to the importance and utility of 
 the projected University, if its Constitution should be by a Rayal CLartcr," 
 
 If the necessity which existed for a University, at the time when the population 
 of Upper Canada did not exceed 145,000, and when private enterprise and public 
 improvement were checked by every species of jobbing and extortion on the part 
 of the Government, is it to be estimated by the criterion which the parties who 
 eoncetted the alienation of the School Lands must admit to be a reasonable one~ 
 namely, the success ot its opening after 24 j'ears of subsequent commercial and 
 agricultural improvement ; after the country has quadrupled its population ; when 
 the increased value of the lands has enabled the University to enlarge its annual 
 evpenditure from £4000, originally proposed by the E.vecutive Council, to nearly 
 415,000; when it has gone into operation with means munificent beyond all 
 piecedent in the early history of any literary institution in America, wid irid^td 
 
VI 
 Pi? 
 
 
 13 
 
 In the early hlitorjr of any country ; with a library, philosophical apporatiig, mi 
 an array of profesMors and officers, unsurpassed by any other educational seminary 
 en this continent; and when, after being all along under the fostering cart and 
 direction of the ve'^y individuals /*rho projected its establishment, it has not been 
 able to matriculate in its first an<, second terms more than 32 students, — it wili 
 appear suflSciently obvious that the Executive Government had other obj»»ct8 in 
 view in effecting the alienacion than the general diffusion of Education among 
 the people. If, however, the establishment of a University was then deemed 
 necessary, in consequence of the increased number of young men who were 
 turning their attention to the learned professions, the Government was bound to 
 l»ave sought the means from other sources than the School Lands, of which the 
 Legislature ' /ere undoubtedly the trustees, and even if the claim of the Executive 
 Council to the controul of the endowment had been well founded, its diversion 
 from the oiiginal object was a direct violation of trust, and of the stipulations 
 and agreements which had been expressly made when the appropriation wa» 
 first proposed. The Report of the Council in 1798 suggested the necessity of 
 establishing the Schools before the University should be proceeded with. It 
 expressly stipulated that in the iirst place the two at Kingston and Newark should 
 be placed on a permanent ai^d substantial foundation, and that " whenever the 
 circumstances of the Province should call for the erection of two oth»»r Schools, 
 and also that the appropriation fund should be sufficient not only to bear the 
 expense of the erection and endowment of those two Schools, but also to leave a 
 lesidue sufficient for the establishment and future maintenance of a Sf-'minary of 
 a larger and more comprehensive nature, the same steps should be pursued with 
 respect to such two Schools as have been already recommended with respect to 
 the two Schools at Kingston and Newark." But what steps had been taken for 
 &e erection of the Schools here proposed ? It is true that in 1S07 Uie Legislature, 
 finding it absolutely np''essary to make some available provision for ibe education 
 of the people, had established the District Grammar Schools, but the Executive 
 Government of 1819 were perfectly aware, and none knev/ iictter ihan Mr. 
 Strachan, their acknowledged leader, that however liberal the jirovision might 
 have been when the population did not exceed 50,000, it was quite inadequate to 
 ineet the growing necessities of the Province from its increased commercial wealth 
 aikd population. But if the Legislature, while the School Lands remained 
 nn^jro luctive, availed itself of the constitutional means for the diffusion of education 
 by di.vjct taxation, it is difficult to see that in consequence of this step the people 
 forfeited or surrendered their right to the endowment when the lands became 
 available. It was obvious, however, that a popular system of education did not 
 suit the views of the Executive Council, by whom every attempt to introdMce 
 it into the Province had been steadily resisted; and the establishment of the 
 University was anxiously regarded as an important feature in the great scheme 
 then contemplated by the High Church party to Episcopalize the Province, and 
 to incorporate the Church of Engl nd with the Government, as an appendage to 
 the State. . ., .. ■-, ,,yp»,, .,,-. .^t_^ -, 
 
 The acquisition of the School Lands offered proBpective benefits of too valuablo 
 
13 
 
 ft description to b« left long unimproved by the High Church party, tn 
 ecmsequence of a great portion of the endowment having been carelessly selected 
 from indifferent land in remote parts of the Province, it hai remained nearly 
 unsaleable. It was therefore proposed by the Council, that in order imm iiately 
 to place the University on a substantial foundation, the School Lanus now 
 appropriated to the University should be exchanged for an equal portion of 
 the Crown Reserves, which were looked upon as immediately markeiable. The 
 character of the proposed Institution was at the same time resolved on, and 
 the exclusive Universities of England furnisiied appropriate models for th« 
 erection of this bulwark of Episcopacy. The only danger to be apprehended wma 
 the exposure of this nefarious scheme at a time when popular opinion might 
 operate against its accomplishment ; but at once to silence popular discontent and 
 to protect themselves from future assaults, the High Church party formed 
 the design of entrenching their position by a Royal Charter, which would throw 
 upon the Crown the odium of this illiberal institution. It was, however, easy to 
 foresee that a Charter adapted to their design would not be obtained without 
 misrepresentations of so gross a character, that ordinary ingenuity and boldnesa 
 might fail in the attempt, and as His Excellency Sir Peregrine Maitland had 
 refused his consent to the exchange of the School Lands for the Crown Reserves, 
 without special instructions from the Home Government, the high and important 
 trust was reposed in Dr. Strachan of proceeding to England and soliciting in 
 person from His Majesty's Ministers the private transfer of the people's rights — 
 too sacred to be alienable even by themselves — and which, notwithstanding the 
 courage wiln which he is amply endowed, he would h-cfe shrunk from proposing 
 to the people's representatives. 
 
 The result of Dr. Strachan's mission to England is sufficiently kwcwn ; but his 
 proceedings while there, form too curious a chapter in the annals of the 
 University to overlooked in this place. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE ORIGINAL CHARTER. 
 
 ■i,>,l..«i,..r'<<^-'' '■ 
 
 When appl 'cation for the Charter of ivmg 3 College was made. Lord Bathurst 
 bigoted High Churchman, and odious for his exclusive principles — held 
 the seals of the Colonial Office. In him the High Church party of Canada 
 reposed implicit conftdence, and the most revolting proceedings were taken in 
 order that a plausible case might be laid before the Secretary and his colleagues. 
 The Dissenters of all denominations were calumniated and insulted in every shape 
 that thf; rancorous hostility of the Press, and alas ! the servility of the Pulpit, 
 could (Revise. They were stigmatized as Republican in their principles* and 
 
14 
 
 hi! 
 
 ii:;; 
 
 disloyal in their affectionit— t!iey were insultingly taunted with ignorant an* 
 idlcncM, and were even made the objects of systematic and direct persecution on 
 tha part of the magistrates. It was thought, that if his Majesty's Ministers could 
 be impressed with the idea that Dissenters generally were disaffected, measure*, 
 would be adopted in Canada similar to those which had formerly driven th« 
 Puritans from the British shores, and that the Episcopal Church would be secured 
 in those privileges and immunities which were enjoyed by the Establishment in 
 England. Not the least notable of the slandarous effusions of High Church 
 intolerance was a Sermon preached by Dr. Strachan, then Archdeacon of York, 
 immediately previous to his departure for England, on the death of Dr. Mountain, 
 the first Bishop of Quebec. On an occasion of such solemnity, it m ght have 
 been expected that the shafts of calumny and misrepresentation would have been 
 sparingly used, and that over the ashes of the dead, sectarian hostility would 
 have yielded to sadder and holier feelings. For the benelit of those who are 
 curious in High Church eloquence, we subjoin a specimen of the pioue 
 denunciations with which this Christian Archdeacon appeased the manes ol 
 his departed brother of Quebec : 
 
 •' Even when churches are erected, the minister's influence is frequently broken 
 or injured by numbers of uneducated itinerant preachers, who, leaving their 
 steady employment, betake themselves to preach the Gospel from idleness, or 
 a zeal without knowledge, by which they are induced without any preparation, 
 to teach what they do not know, and which, from their pride, they disdain 
 tolearn. 
 
 " When it is considered that the religious teachers of the other denominations 
 of Christians — a very few respectable ministers of the Church of Scotland 
 excepted — come almost universally from the Republican States of America, where 
 they gather their knowledge and form their sentiments, it is quite evident, that if 
 the Imperial Government does not immediately step forward with efficient 
 help, the mass of the population will be nurtured and instructed in hostility 
 to our Parent Church, nor will it be long till they imbibe opinions any thing but 
 favourable to the political institutions of England. 
 
 "It is only through the Church and its Institutions, that a truly English 
 character and feeling can be given to, and preserved in any foreign possession." 
 
 Previous to Dr. Strachan's arrival in England, the Colonial Secretary had 
 been carefully prepared for the extraordinary demand which was about to be 
 made. In a petition to his Majesty and the British Parliament, which he 
 transmitted through Lord Bathurst, the Rector of York announced the following 
 astounding facts : 
 
 ••That the population, now greatly increased, and embr-^cing in its bosom many 
 denominations of Christians, still retains its prominent feature of being attached to 
 the Church of England, the members of which, together with the Dutch and 
 German Lutherans, who join them in communion, comprising by far the most 
 numerous description of Christians in Upper Canada. ., v.^.niT- 
 
 " That the very little progress made by the other denominations, compared 
 to that of the Church of England, and the very recent establishment of their 
 scanty congregations, has generally created in the minds of the people a veneration 
 for it, as the established form of worship, a lieht in which it has always been 
 frtHnted [by the Doctor and his friends], to the inhabitants qf this Provinct, ,5 
 
 mig 
 
 mile 
 
from their iarliat yean. Such is now the state of the Prorince, and the desira 
 for religious instruction according to the forms and dittcipiine of the Church of 
 England, that many intelligent persons well acquainted \vith the Colony ar« 
 of opinion, that along the greater part of the main road passing from on* 
 ektremity of the Province to the other, a distance of nearly 600 miles, a Church 
 might be erected, and a Clergyman profitably placed at the distance of every ten 
 miles, and this exclusive of the parishes already established. 
 ;, •♦ That when new missions are planted in any quarter, not only those persona 
 readily join who are not particularly attached to any denomination, but even 
 Presbyterians and Congregationalists attend public worship with their families, so 
 that on many occasions the whole neighbourhood becomes united to the Church, 
 and not only are their dead buried according to its rites, but likewise the bodies of 
 th«;ir friends and relations are frequently collected from private places of interment, 
 and again consigned to their graves in the public burial ground, with the solemn 
 offices of the Church. Moreover their children are baptized and educated in th« 
 bosom of the Church, and the greater number at length confirmed by the Bishop* 
 and a congregation is thus in a few years formed, strongly attached to our 
 venerable Establishment ; and even in those remote parts of the country whera 
 Methodist itinerants are the most active, so soon as the population is sufficiently 
 compact to admit and require the ministrations of a regular Clergyman, he find* 
 his congregation increasing by the gradual accession of tfieir more respectabh 
 adfierents. 
 
 " That the Church is increasing so rapidly as to offer great encouragement t6 
 respectable families to bring up their children to the sacred profession : accordingly 
 a list of more than thirty stxidents now lies before your petitioners, and many 
 more young men than can possibly be provided for, are presenting themselvet 
 to the Lord Bishop as candidates for Holy Orders." 
 
 " No objection is made by parents against teaching their children the Church 
 Catechism and the service of the Church irom the Book of Common Prayer: on 
 the contrary, all denominations are desirous of obtaining both, for their own and 
 their families' eilificalion. The whole neighbourhood bring iheir children to the 
 resident Clergyman to be baptised, and submit in great numbers, both old and 
 young, to the rite of confirmation, send their youth to the Sunday Schools, 
 and allow them, after their tasks are heard, to walk in procession to the Church* 
 In fine, there evidently appears the fairest prospect that the Church of England, 
 from the favourable disposition that now exists towards it, will be able to collect 
 within its bosom the bulk of the inhabitant?, should no prospect of supporting 
 their Clergy be held out to the various Protestant denominations. 
 
 " That, with the exception of the Methodists, who have been deserted by their 
 brethren in England, and left for instruction to itinerants from the United States, 
 there appears no promineut denomination of Protestants in this Province, but the 
 Established Church, capable of exciting public attention. 
 
 " There is no appearance in any other part of the Province of a third • 
 congregation in communion with the Kirk of Scotland being formed ; nor is this 
 denomination popular, lor when the people leave the Established Church, they 
 claim the privilege of electing their minister from whatever quarter they please, 
 which the Kirk denies them. Indeed the Presbyterian form of discipline and 
 Church government is inconsistent with extension, as it cannot be complete out 
 of Scotland, nor can its clergy be placed in a distant colony under vigilant 
 Buperintendence." . ' .^< ^t?fr * 
 
 ~ Immediately on his arrival in England in 1826, Dr. Strachan placed himself 
 in communication with the leaders of the High Church party, from whom ha 
 •elicited contributions in aid of the funds of the University, and their influemce 
 
16 
 
 ftiUl sMistanc* in obtaining an excluiive Charter. In £ngland ha openly avowtd 
 the design which he dared not to have breathed in Canada. In a pamphlet, 
 which he published in London, entitled, " An Appeal to the Friends of Aeligion 
 in behalf of lue University of Upper Canada," he distinctly stated that it would 
 be essentially a Missionary College " for the education of Missionaries of th« 
 Church of England" — and, as an inducement to the members of that Church to 
 contribute towards the funds of the College, he maintained, that the effect of 
 establishing this University would be ultimately to make the greater portion of 
 the population of the Province members of the Church of England. • <> 
 
 * ■ To the various parties with whom the Reverend Doctor communicated 
 privately, he urged every variety of argument, and, without much regard to 
 consistency, he adduced every variety of fact. From the Society for the Propa- 
 gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts he claimed assistance on the ground of his 
 " having been instrumental in establishing a scheme in Canada, by which the 
 education of the whole population is virtually under the direction of the Church.'* 
 He informed them that there were in this Province " 300,000 British Protestants** 
 (meaning of course members of the Episcopal Church), and that the only 
 antagonising influence with which they had to contend, was the existence in 
 Lower Canada of 400,000 Catholics. To the Church Missionary Society ho 
 repeated much of this invaluable information, and by way of shewing that the 
 establishment of a University in Upper Canada was correlative to their zeal in 
 propagating Christianity among the heathen, he enlarged upon his own tender 
 and paternal feelings towards the Indians, and actually acceded to a proposal for 
 the Establishment of Scholarships, with suitable professors, for the exclusive 
 benefit of the Tribes. 
 
 '.V But the most elaborate information in regard to the Ecclesiastical Statistics of 
 the Province, was contained in a Letter and Ecclesiastical Chart, which he 
 transmitted to the Hon. R. J. Wilmot Horton, then Under Secretary of State* 
 upon which communicr.tion he grounded the exclusive claims of the members of 
 the Church of England to the benefits of the Clergy Reserves and the University. 
 In the Chart he stated that " in connection with the Established Church there 
 were 39 clergymen, 58 places where there was regular or occasional service, 
 exclusive of frequent journies taken by the missionaries to the new settlements 
 in their neighbourhoods, — 45 churches, and 31 regular parishes." That there 
 were 7 ministers of the Independent or Presbyterian order " assuming the appel- 
 lation of the Presbytery of the Canadas, but having no connection with the Kirk 
 of Scotland," — that there were two ministers in connection with the Kirk — and 
 "as the Methodists have no settled clergymen, it has been found difficult to 
 ascertain the number of itinerants employed ; but it is presumed to be considerable, 
 perhaps from 20 to 30 in the whole Province. The other denominations have 
 very few teachers, and those seemingly very ignorant. One of the two remaining 
 clergymen, in communion with the Church of Scotland, has applied to be admitted 
 into the Established Chuich." ., -.^t, j ,, . „. . ..,, .•.. t^,, ...frj^^y , 
 
 V Dr. Strachan's Letter to Mr. Horton, enclosing the Chart, furnishes so muck 
 
17 
 
 jjppoctfint evidence of the gross misrepreseiUalions upon which the Hoyal Cbartor 
 
 was obtained, that it is proper to quote it at length : ., -.;• art • ■ m k -n: ♦'w^^oiq 
 
 " Sir, — I take the liberty of enclosing, for the information of Lord Goderieh, 
 an Ecclesiastical Chait of the Province of Upper Canada, whicli I believe to be 
 correct, for the present year 1827, and from which it appears that the Church of 
 England has made coiisulerable progress, and is rapidly increasing. 
 
 " The {^eople are coming forward, in all directions, offering to assist in building 
 churches, and soliciting with the greatest anxiety the establishment of a settled 
 minister. Indeed, the prospect of obtaining a respectable clergyman, unites 
 neighbourhoods together: and when one is sent of a mild and conciliatory 
 disposition, he is sure in any settlement in which he may be placed, to form the 
 respectable part ol .he inhabitants into an increasing congregation. There are in 
 the Province 150 Townships, containing from 40 to 500 families, in each of which 
 a clergyman may be most usefully employed: and double this number will bf 
 required in less than twelve years. 
 
 ' '*" When contrasted with other denominations, the Church of England need not 
 be ashamed of the progress she has made. Till 1818, there was only one 
 clergyman in Upper Canada a member of the Church of Scotland. This gentleman 
 brought up his two sons in the Church of England, of which they are now parish 
 priests. After his death, his congregation was split in three divisions, which, 
 with another collected at Kingston in 1822, count lour congregations in all, which 
 are in jomm union with the Kirk of Scotland. Two are at present vacant, and of 
 the two Scotch clergymen now in the Province, one has applied for Holy Orders 
 in the Church of England. 
 
 " The teachers of the different denominations, with the exception of the two 
 ministers of the Church of Scotland, lour Congregational ists, and a respectable 
 English Missionary who presides over a Wesleyan Methodist meeting at Kingston, 
 art for the most part from the United States, where tliey gather their knowledge 
 find form their sentiments. Indeed the Methodist teachers are subject to the 
 order of the Conference of the United States of America ; and it is manifest that 
 the Colonial Government neither has nor can have any other control over them, 
 or prevent them from gradually rendering a large portion of the population, by 
 their influence and instructions, hostile to our institutions, both civil and religious, 
 than by increasing tlie number oftlie Established Clergy. -;- ,.„■ ;,.-r.,,r..,^. 
 
 •• Two or three hundred clergymen, living in Upper Canada, in the midst of 
 their congregations, and receiving the greater portion of their increase from 
 fiinds deposited in this country (England), must attach still more intimately the 
 population of the Colony to the Parent State. Their influence would gradually 
 spread; they would infuse into the inhabitants a tone and feeling entirely English, 
 jeukI acquiring by degrees the direction of education, which the Clergy of England 
 have always possessed, the very first feelings, sentiments and opinions of the youtH 
 must become British." 
 
 J,, Deceived by such representations, and unsuspicious of the veracity of th* 
 highest Episcopal Ecclesiastic of Upper Canada, the Colonial Secretary, in an 
 evil hour, affixed his signature and the Royal Seal to a Charter in the terms 
 required, and the Archde&con of York was rewarded with a sum of £1300 (or 
 his invaluable and meritorious exertions on behalf of the Episcopal Church. >, 
 f*. When a Royal Charter was first openly spoken of in this country, it was 
 genenally understood that, as it was then impracticable to have several appropriate 
 Colleges for the different sects, the University would be adapted to the exisliag 
 '«tatjR of t\fA Province, and to the wishes and wants of its mixed population* 
 C 
 
The consternation and disappointment then were proportionably great when the 
 provisions of the Charter became known, and it was ascertained that the University 
 had been converted i: to a purely Episcopal College. In his Speech at opening 
 the Parliament, on 16th February, 1828, his Excellency Sir P. Maitland said — 
 " I have much pleasure in announcing to you, that his Majesty has very graciously 
 provided for the establit?hment of an University in this Province, and has bestowed 
 means which will answer the early accomplishment of an object, long regarded 
 by me as among those most to be desired for the welfare of the Colony." But 
 to this part of the Address the House of Assembly replied with becoming caution 
 and reserve in the following words : 
 
 r. *' We shall be highly gratitied to find that His Majesty has very graciously 
 Morided for the establishment and endowment of an University in this Province, 
 if the principles upon which it has been founded shall, upon enquiry, prove to be 
 conducive to the advancement of true learning and piety, and friendly to the civil 
 and religious liberty of the people." „ , „ ,, : ,,-;jii.>.; tu 
 
 [: In the meantime, rumours of the exclusive provisions of the charter having 
 transpired, the indignation of the Province was eiTectually roused. It was 
 willingly believed that His Majesty's Ministers had been deceived by gross 
 misrepresentation, and that it they had been truly informed of the condition 
 of the Province, and the religious views and feelings of the people, the Royal 
 sanction would never have been given to a charter which denied their civil 
 and r'^ligious equality. Petitions from all parts of the country were poured into 
 the two Houses of Parliament, representing that the principles of the Charter 
 were inconsistent with the unimpaired preservation and maintenance of the civil 
 and religious rights and privileges of the people. It was thought that a 
 University, adapted to the character and circumf?1ances of the people, would be the 
 means of inestimable benefits to the Province ; but, to be of real service, the 
 principles upon which it was established should have been in unison with the 
 general sentiments of the country — that it should not be a school of politics 
 or sectarian views — and that it should have about it no appearance of a spirit of 
 partiality .or exclusion. That its portals should be thrown open to all, and 
 upon none who entered should any influence be exerted to attach them to a 
 particular creed or Church. That it should be a source of intellectual and motzX 
 light and animation, from which the glorious irradiations of literature and science 
 flight descend upon all with equal lustre and power. But if King's College 
 under the Charter, formed as it was for the exclusive advantage of a single 
 Church, and that a minor one, should be suffered to go into operation, without 
 ihaterial amendments in its provisions, and without another College being 
 "established for the general benefit of other religious denominations, the inevitable 
 consequence would be, that the native youth of the Province, receiving a 
 public education, would, with the exception of Protestant Epificopalians, be 
 getierally sent out of the Province, to obtain it at Colleges where they could 
 be taught classical learning, and the arts and sciences, without prejudice to their 
 religio«8 principles and feelings. Parents who were conscientious in their 
 |)rdfe«i0ii of religion would not willingly put their sons, in the unguanded season 
 
19 
 
 of youth, under a process of religious proselytism to a difTerent faith; and 
 the people felt that to be thus excluded from the offices and honours of the 
 only College in tho Province, and subjected to literary as well as ecclesiastical 
 domination, for no other crime than that of adhering to the dictates of their 
 conscience, was an unmerited degradation. It was at once perceived that the 
 grand policy of the High Church party to Episcopalize the Province had come 
 into operation, and that this was one great step towards the establishment of a 
 minor Church, with exclusive privileges and resources, over a dissenting majority 
 of the population — declaring her form of religion to be the established religion of 
 the Province, and her ministers the only Protestant Clergy, granting them civil 
 monopolies and immunities, and a control of the education of youth by means of 
 the University. It was felt that such a system would, as it had been in Ireland* 
 be a perpetual source of religious and political animosity — that it would give 
 one Church a permanent separate interest adverse to the other more numerous 
 Churches — and that all these other Churches, irritated by a baneful monopoly 
 and domination, would be induced to make common cause in their own defence 
 in opposition to the dominant Church. ... •, ,,.„,-^^-i» 
 
 • It was therefore thought that his Majesty's Government could never have 
 contemplated the limitation of its beneficence, by establishing the University upon 
 such terms as must either preclude from its benefits the greater pait of those iot 
 whom it was originally intended, or subject them at an age ill qualified to guard 
 against such attacks to the silent but powerful influence of a prevailing and- 
 r^ular system of proselytism ; and that they could not have been aware of the 
 insurmountable objections to which, from the circumstances of the country and 
 the sentiments of the people, some of the provisions of the Charter were liable. 
 
 Petitions were at the same time presented to Parliament by various denominations 
 of Christians, praying an inquiry into the truth of the charges and statements 
 made by the Archdeacon of York, relative to the character and instructions of the 
 respective clergy whom he had stigmatized as mixing up sedition with the Word 
 of God. These petitions, with the others, praying for inquiry into the principle 
 on which the University was established, were referred to a Select Committee of 
 the House of Assembly, with power to send for persons and papers, and to report 
 thereon. This Committee performed their duties with the strictest impaitiality. 
 Before proceeding to the examination of the Letter and Chart, the Chairman 
 transmitted to Dr. Strachan a copy of one of the petitions referred to them, and 
 informed him that they would be happy to receive from him any information 
 upon the matter submitted to their consideration. To this communication Tki 
 Strachan returned an answer, declining to avail himself of the Committee's offer 
 to receive explanations, but adhering to the statements which he had made in 
 England. " For my opinions," he wrote, " I am responsible to no one. I had 
 no desire to conceal them, and they were therefore publicly and openly expressed. 
 No consideration could have prevailed upon me to deny or mis-state them ; but 
 in applying them, every candid mind will feel that the general expressions used 
 admit the existence of exception. 1 desire it only to be borne in mind, that theij 
 
1}' 
 
 r 1 
 
 20 
 
 vere givtn from memory," a circumstance which Dr. Strachan took iAfeniioUB 
 care to conceal from Mr. Horton. The Commilfee framed a list of fourteen 
 questions, and examined in all fifty-two witnesses. Among the witnesses were 
 all the Members of the House of Assembly, whose testimony they could obtain ; 
 some Members ot the Honourable the Legislative Council of long residence, high 
 standing, and large possessions in the Province ; various Clergymen of different 
 denominations in York and its vicinity ; and a few other individuals of high 
 respectability. •. - ., ., ., . ■■.. ,....,.. ^ .....,>« 
 
 ■ The questions put by the Committee, related, among other things, to the 
 birth-place and education of the ministers of the various denominations; the 
 tendency of the instruction and influence of the Clergymen throughout the 
 Provinde; the asserted increase of the Episcopal Church, and the tendency of the 
 population toward it ; the wishes of the inhabitants of Upper Canada in regard 
 to the establishment of one or more Churches or Denominations in the Province, 
 with peculiar rights, privileges or endowments ; the interference in politics by the 
 Clergymen of the various denominations ; the proportion of the members of ihe 
 Episcopal Church to the whole population of the Province ; the opinions of the 
 witnesses as to which was the most numerous denomination of Christians in the 
 Province; the asserted ignorance of the teachers of the various Christiar. 
 Danomirtations ; and the accuracy of Dr. Strachan's Ecclesiastical Chart of the 
 Province. 
 
 - The interrc^.itorles elicited a mass of curious and interesting information as to 
 the early Ecclesiastical history of Upper Canada — and in every important 
 particular Dr. Strachan's statements were 'proved to be false by the most 
 irrefragable testimony. .. . - ;, 
 
 The assertion in Dr. Strachan's letter that " the people are coming forward in 
 all directions offering to assist in building Churches, and soliciting, with the 
 greatest anxiety, the establishment of a settled Minister," and that " the tendency 
 of the population is toward the Church of England, and nothing but the want of 
 moderate support prevents her from spreading over the whole Province," were 
 completely overthrown by the evidence. It was proved, that although the 
 Episcopal Church had always enjoyed peculiar advantages in Canada ; although 
 it had been the religion of those high in oflice, and had been supported by their 
 influence, and countenanced more than any other Church, by the favor of the 
 Executive Government ; that although its clergymen had possessed the exclusive 
 right of marrying persons of all denominatiors; and that although the clergymen 
 of the Episcopal Church had also been liberally supported, and their Churches 
 partly or wholly erected and maintained from the funds of a Society in England ; 
 still the number of members of that Church had not increased in the same 
 proportion as that of several other denominations, and the opinion of the 
 witnesses was decidedly expressed that the tendency of the population was not 
 toward that Church. On the other hand, the highest testimony was offered to 
 the disinterested and indefatigable exertions of the Methodist, Presbyterian, and 
 other clergymen who had been calumniated by Dr. Strachan's unfounded 
 
21 
 
 insinuations. Their influence and instruction, far from having (as VBB 
 represented in the letter) a tendency hostile to the religious and political 
 institutions of the Province, had been conducive in the highest degree, to thfl 
 reformation of their hearers from licentiousness, and the difl'usion of correct 
 ..lorals, the foundation of all sound loyalty and social order. There was no 
 reason to believe that, as religious bodies, they had failed lo inculcate, by precept 
 and example, as a Christian duty, an attachment to the Sovereign, and a cheerful 
 and conscientious obedience to the Laws of the country. -^ ■• .^ ,, ijt, 
 
 <Jompared Vith the vrhole population, the members of the Church of England 
 were found to constitute an extremely small proportion. On this subject the 
 Committee used every exertion to inform themselves with accuracy. Besides 
 obtaining answers from the witnesses to very minute questions, a Committee was 
 appointed to hold its meetings at York, called the Central Committee of Upper 
 Canada, and was dir^r^'^d to correspond w^ith the other parts of the Province, to 
 suggest the appointment of District Committees, and to request that they would care- 
 fully collect and transmit to the Central Committee at York, accurate information 
 respecting the number of persons belonging to the religious denominations in their 
 vneighbourhood. In consequence of these instructions, communications were 
 reeeived from tha various parts of the Province, containing correct and full 
 information upon this subject, obtained from personal knowled|';e or inquiry, and 
 authenticated by the signatures of respectable inhabitants. A Chart was framed 
 from the materials thus obtained, and presented, in the opinion of the witnesses 
 who spoke to it, a very complete and fair view of the number of ministers and 
 of the different religious denominations in the Province. The information 
 conveyed by this Chart so completely and satisfactorily contradicts and falsifies 
 Dr. Strachan's statements, and bears so materially on the question, whether a 
 Charter granted on false representations and calumnious insinuations, should not 
 be set aside and cancelled, that we think it right to subjoin abstracts of the Charts 
 framed by Dr. Strachan, and by the Committee of the House of Assembly 
 respectively: 
 
 ABSTRACT OF DR. STRACHAN'S ECCLESIASTICAL CHART, 
 
 FOR THE TEAR 1827. . - -^ ,-?' 
 
 DESIGNATIONS. 
 
 Clergymen. 
 
 Places of 
 Worship. 
 
 Churches buUt 
 or building. 
 
 Episcopalians, - . . . 
 
 '■\' ■• ^ ;■ ' ■ 
 
 Kirk of Scotland, - - - 
 
 Independents, - - - - 
 Methodists,* - - - . 
 
 39, and 1 under 
 consideration. 
 
 2, two others 
 
 vacant. 
 6 
 From 20 to 30. 
 
 58 places where 
 
 regular or 
 occasional service. 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 45, ten of them 
 building. 
 
 * "As the Methodists have no settled Clergymen, it has been found difficult to 
 ascertain the number of itinerants employed ; but it is presumed to be considerable — 
 perhaps from twenty to thirty in the whole Province. The other denominations have 
 very few teachers, and these seemingly very ignorant. One of the two remaining 
 Clergymen in communion with the Church of Scotland, has applied to be admitted 
 into the Established Church." — Dr. 8trachan's Note. -^.» 
 
r» P K 
 
 9> » 
 
 O -► 
 
 »^sr ® 
 
 S P ? w 
 •8 
 
 ^ 
 
 ? 
 
 W 
 
 s* 
 
 n 
 
 IS 
 
 o 
 
 »- 
 
 ^ 
 
 •< 
 
 D 
 
 a, 
 
 ':l 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 o 
 
 ft 
 3- 
 
 at 
 
 e- 
 
 H 
 
 ^ 
 
 1 
 
 1 1 
 
 cr 
 
 •S" m 
 
 a 
 
 i" a 
 
 o 
 K 
 
 a 
 
 •* 
 
 - 8 
 
 9> 0> 
 
 1-4 04 ^ 1-^ 
 
 0> I-' W -4 
 
 Number of 
 Preachers. 
 
 »- © rfk ^^ 
 
 I— to 00 
 
 >- o o 
 
 No. born in 
 Hia Majesty's 
 dominions. 
 
 o o 
 
 O lO O 1^ 
 
 SJ 
 
 No. born in 
 Foreign countries. 
 
 o o 
 
 iO 10 
 
 to ^ 
 O en 
 
 No. birth 
 unknown. 
 
 V- O rfk h- 
 
 t-- to 00 
 O 00 CO 
 
 No. educated in 
 His Majesty's 
 dominions. 
 
 O 60 
 
 to 
 
 M ►-• 00 
 
 No. educated in 
 Foreign countries. 
 
 o o to to 
 
 to t-- 
 
 o o> 
 
 No. educated 
 unknown. 
 
 o w 
 
 o •;>. w 
 
 No. naturalized. 
 
 o u 
 
 O O 9) 
 
 No. not 
 naturalized. 
 
 § ^ I 
 
 Si 
 o 
 
 p 
 
 S! 
 
 o ^ to 
 
 No. of Members 
 or regular 
 Communicants. 
 
 >- Cn 
 
 o 
 
 2. to 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 OS O) 
 
 00 W O) 
 
 No. of Churches 
 or Chapels. 
 
 3" 
 
 D 
 
 Si Si 
 
 o o 
 
 ■-« 
 
 D 
 
 3 
 
 CO 
 
 I— o» 
 
 OS 
 
 No. of places of 
 regular service. 
 
 ^ SI 
 
 o o 
 
 ►t •-« 
 
 c c 
 
 3 3 
 
 S! 5? 
 o o 
 
 3 
 
 I 
 
 Si 
 
 o 
 
 CO 2 
 
 o s 
 3 
 
 CO 
 
 o 
 
 No. of places of 
 occasional service. 
 
 ^ CO 
 O 00 
 O 00 
 
 S5 Si 
 
 o o 
 
 ? 
 
 3 3 
 
 55 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 g 5 ^ 
 
 No. of regular 
 hearers. ,..„,,, 
 
 r.Tfv. 
 
 OQ 
 
 O 
 H 
 
 M 
 
 e; 
 
 o 
 
 W 
 
 o 
 
 » 
 
 a 
 o 
 
 s 
 
 3 
 
 o 
 w 
 
 § 
 
 QD 
 
 M 
 
 O 
 QD 
 
 w 
 
 f 
 
 H 
 
23 
 
 '' That the grand policy of the High Church party was to Episcopalize the 
 Province by means of the University was now sufficiently obvious from the 
 undisguised sentiments of their acknowledged leader, who quickly saw that such 
 was ihe natural tendency and effect of putting into the exclusive hands of the 
 Episcopal Church, the only seminary of learning in the country where a liberal 
 education could be obtained. It was obvious, however, that there was in the 
 minds of the people generally, a strong and settled aversion to any thing like an 
 Established Church — the very attempt to invest the Episcopal Churclr with 
 peculiar rights and privileges, from which the other sects were excluded, excited 
 the greatest alarm and jealousy throughout the country'. It was felt that it would 
 be impolitic, as well as unjust, to exalt this Church, which embraced so small a 
 minority of the inhabitants, by exclusive rights above all others of his Majesty's 
 subjects, who were equally conscientious and deserving ; and that the jealousy 
 and alarm of the people were sufficiently well founded was but too obvious from 
 the exclusive provisions of the Charter itself, a copy of which was sent down to 
 the House of Assembly by the Lieutenant-Governor. ,-..., ■-, :*«./ 
 
 It appeared that the following were among its provisions : The Bishop of the 
 Diocese was to be visitor, and as such might disapprove of the bye-laws made for 
 the College by the Council, which thereby became void, unless His Majesty 
 in Privy Council afterwards reversed this order; the Governor, Lieutenant 
 Governor, or person administering the Government, was to be Chancellor, the 
 President was to be a Clergyman in holy orders of the Church of England : the 
 Honourable and Venerable Doctor Strachan, Archdeacon of York, was to be 
 the first President — the Corporation was to consist of the Chancellor, President, 
 and Scholars of King's College, and was authorized to take and hold real Estate, 
 not exceeding the yearly value of £15,000 ; the College Council was to consist 
 of the Chancellor, President, and seven other persons, who were to be Members 
 of the Church of England, and to sign the thirty-nine Articles of that Church, 
 previous to their admission into the Council: the Council, under certain 
 restrictions, were to make bye-laws for the College; one of these restrictions 
 was, that no religious test or qualification should be required of, or appointed for 
 any persons admitted or matriculated as Scholars in the College, exce])t that those 
 admitted to the degree of Doctor in Divinity should take the same declarations and 
 subscriptions, and take the same oaths as are required of persons admitted to any 
 degree of Divinity in the University of Oxford. The Chancellor, President, 
 and Professors of the College, and all persons admitted in the College to the 
 degree of Master of Arts, or to any degree in Divinity, Law, or Medicine, 
 ■who, from the time of such admission should pay the annual sum of 20b. 
 sterling, towards the support of the College, were to be members of the 
 
 Convocation. ■ --A ; > .Si.v^ti'.:- .;' . . .■••"■■: i ■' .'! 1 jr' .••*i"'L 1/> 
 
 ''Such were the exclusive constitution and government imposed upon an 
 Institution professedly designed for the promotion of science and learning among 
 the people of Canada ! That a Charter, so violently repugnant to the feelings 
 and convictions of the community, should have been received with joy by the 
 
 ;i 
 
24 
 
 High Church party, was of course to have been expected : but that the British 
 Government should, in a matter of this kinil, liave shown any disposition to plant 
 institutions in its transatlantic dependencies in accordance neither with the spirit 
 of the age, nor with the principles which had for som : time governed its domestic 
 policy, can only be attributed to the fact — of which abundant proof has been 
 given — thf t it was grossly deceived and imposed upon. And even were there 
 not in existence ample documentary evidence to eupport the charge of deception., 
 how otherwise is it possible to reconcile the policy of that Government, which 
 had uprooted intolerance at home, and wa? about to wage open war with all 
 yuonopolies and exclusions, civil, religious, und commercial: which had recently 
 lelieved the Dissenters of the odious Test and Corporation Acis: which waf 
 .4ifru8ing the blessings of a national education among the people of Ireland, 
 without distinction of creed; and was about to send joy and gladness into the 
 jbosoms of the Roman Catholics, with the acceptable boon of Catholic Emancipation ; 
 r— with the establishment, in a country buoyant with free principles, and in a 
 vast community composed of Christians of different faiths, and worshipping under 
 different forms, of a University unparalleled for its exclusive character and odious 
 distinctions by any educational Seminary on the continent of Europe ? Oxford 
 and Cambridge indeed formed exceptions to the universal abandonment of tests — 
 and even there, religious restrictions were only defended and maintained on 
 account of the intimate association and practical connection of these time-hallowed 
 Institutions with the National Church. Yet in Oxford and Cambridge themselves 
 religious distinctions wert comparatively new, and had been imposed at a period 
 — by no means the brightest in their annals, — when genuine freedom was almost 
 unknown, and when speaking of liberty, or expressing an opinion favouring 
 of schism was sufficient to bring a man within the fangs of the Court oi 
 High Commission. 
 
 But when the Char'er of King's jollege was obtained, such intolerant principles 
 'had been repudiated by every State in Europe, and exclusive distinctions on 
 account of religion had been abandoned in all the great National Universities. 
 In France, in Germany, and in Austria, persons of all religions were freely 
 admitted into the Professors' chairs. In the University of Bologna, where tlic 
 Papal authority was paramount, there wm no exclusion on the ground of 
 religion. In Pisa, no restrictions were r-scognized; and, in point of fact, 
 jMohammedans, Jews, Greeks and Turks were indiscriminately admitted, indeed 
 it frequently occurred that some of the Professors' Chairs were filled by Englie^ 
 j'rotestants ; and one circumstance sufficiently attests the total absence of that 
 fanatical intolerance which seemed to have been put to flight in Europe, to find a 
 refuge in the Academies of Canada. When a Mohammedan takes a degree 
 at Pisa, the Chancellor, who is gei>erally a Vicar-gcneral, or Archbishop, leaves 
 the chair, and the Vice-Chancellor, whose religious scruples are not necessarily 
 under the influence of Church preferment — presides at the ceremony. At P^ut^, 
 the chairs have been frequently filled by foreigners— by members of the Church oif 
 ^gliMid— by Presbyterians, and by Calvinists. Thus, in the Kpman, Venetiadj, 
 
25 
 
 aftd Austrian States, there was an absence of jealousy and religious exclusions at 
 the Roman Catholic Universities. Nor was there any disposition to interfere 
 with rational consideration and the rights of private judgment exhibited in the 
 Universities in any part of Protestant Europe. In Bonn, Baden, Breslau, 
 and Copenhagen, the Universities were open to all. In Leyden, the Professors 
 might be Roman Catholics; and in Copenhagen, one of the chairs was, at the 
 very time the Charter of King's College was obtained, filled by a Jew. In 
 the Scottish Universities, the Test Statute originated in the zeal of the anti- 
 patronage Presbyterians after the Revolution, and was enacted by the Scotch 
 Parliament for the sole purpose of excluding Episcopalians from the Colleges, at 
 a time when Episcopalians and members of the Society of Friends were conceived 
 to be alike unworthy of toleration. For many years, however, the Trtatute 
 had been evaded, and its evasion winked at by the constituted authorities; and it 
 is a somewhat remarkable circumstance, that a pretty liberal infusion of 
 Episcopalian Professors, Lecturers and Students into the Scotch Universities 
 seems to have been attended with no very fatal result. Indeed, while every 
 University m Europe was practically thrown open to persons of all religious 
 persuasions, Oxford and Cambridge alone were close ; and yet modelled upon 
 these exclusive establishments, in which High Cuurch principles have ever been 
 dominant, and a violent and bigotted host"'ity t' the claims of Dissenters, has 
 ever been maintained, — the attempt was made to establish a University, intended 
 to be the hotbed and nursery of intolerant prejudices, in a country whose 
 very atmosphere was freedom — whose infancy and growth, unlike that of the 
 European States, had not been stunted by oppression — but which had sprung 
 at once into the full manhood of liberty, and the possession of political rights ; 
 among a people who had ever evinced the most inveterate d'.jike of a dominant 
 Church, and a severe jealousy of religious distinctions, and whose proximity to a 
 land of free institutions, naturally made ^hem chafe under any galling ascendancy 
 which might expose them to the taunts of their ostentatious neighbours. 
 
 Were the character of Lord Bathurst less understood, or were the blind and 
 bigotted zeal of the High Church party in England, as well as in Canada, 
 less violent and headstrong, it would be difficult to conceive how the gross 
 and calumnious misrepresentations of the Archdi'acon of York, urged even though 
 they were with the reckless temerity for which he is remarkable, should have 
 escaped detection. Certain it is, that within the space of a few months, he 
 had published statements, not only at utter variance with the truth, but most 
 violently contradictory to each other. Thus, for instance, in his sermon on 
 the death of the Bishop of Quebec, he complained that, "sectaries of all 
 denominations are increasing on every side;" while in his "letter to Mr. Horton, 
 he affirmed, that " the Church of England is rapidly increasing," and that " the 
 tendency of the population is towards that Church." In the sermon he admitted, 
 that " even where churches were erected, the persons who gave regular attendance 
 are so few as g»"eatly to discourage the minister;" while in the letter he asserted 
 that, "the people arc coming forward in all directions, ofllering to assist in 
 D 
 
26 
 
 building churches, and soliciting with the greatest anxiety the establishment of a 
 settled minister." In the reckless statements which he poured forth in £ngland, 
 he unhesitatingly averred, that " the members of the Church of England were the 
 moat numerous of any religious denomination in the Province ;" hut when 
 examined on oath by a Parliamentary Committee in reference to the truth of that 
 statement, and confronted with persons intimately acquainted \rith the state 
 of the country, he admitted that " he never knew the number of rnembefs 
 belonging to the Church of England, and that he could not tell how numerous thef 
 were.*' Such are only a very few of the glaring inconsistencies and contradictiops 
 which graced tiie written and public assertions of this Episcopal dignitary : an4 
 yet so little in unison was the local Administration with the interests and feelings 
 -»f the people, and sc little were those interests and feelings known or understood 
 by the British Government, that his calumnies and mis-statements were implicitly 
 believed, and, without further inquiry having been instituted, were made the 
 ground for the establishment of an Episcopal University for the exclusiw 
 benefit of an unactcj.iable minority of the community. 
 
 It would be a matter for much curious and not uninstructive speculation^ 
 
 to inquire by what iiresi»iible arguments of a violent and bigotted partizan» a 
 
 Colonial Minister could h?. induced to insult the convictions, and to trample on the 
 
 liberties of a free people. It was impossible to mistaKe Dr. Strachan's reo/ object, 
 
 for that was openly avowed, and, in fact, it formed no part of his plan to conceal 
 
 his ultimate design. His undisguised and avowed object was to Episcopalize the 
 
 Province, and as the readiest means for attaining so desirable an end, he proposed 
 
 that a fund, originally appropriated for the purposes of general education, should 
 
 be applied to the endowment of "au essentially Missionary College, for the 
 
 education of missionaries of the Church of England," who, he trusted, Would 
 
 be afterwards supported in such numbers by means of the Clergy Reserves, 
 
 as would speedily reduce the Province to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of that 
 
 Church. And by what honeyed phrase and treacherous sentiment is this Colonial 
 
 Minister induced to give his Majesty's sanction and approval of a nefarious and 
 
 fraudulent scheme to rob the Canadian people of their birthright ? Does the A^erSK 
 
 cious Archdeacon inform the Colonial Secretary that there are three denominations 
 
 in the Province more numerous than the Church of England? Does he tell him 
 
 what, as a minister of Truth, he had but a few months before told the people of 
 
 Canada, from the pulpit, that " where churches are erected, the persons who gire 
 
 regular attendance are ,k) few as greatly to discourage the minister," and thai 
 
 «♦ sectaries were increasing on every side ?" Does he intimate that the means for 
 
 the diiFusion of general education are deplorably deficient, and that the 
 
 endowment originally set apart for that purpose had never become available i 
 
 Dr. Strachan has too ready a perception of the character with whom he had 
 
 to negotiate, to hope for success by revealing startling facts, but he at once reverts 
 
 to the old argument, practically carried out by the Stuarts, and which still had its 
 
 admirers among the High Churchmen of Englr.nd. He informs tne Secretary 
 
 that the dissenting preachers are few and ignorant, and that their bearers ait 
 
^7 
 
 disaffected. The dissenters were ignorant — and yet he would exclude them from 
 the best education which the country could alTord ! They were disaffected — and 
 3ret he would drive them for their education to foreign seminaries, where their 
 principles might be endangered ! Their ministers were placed ia situations 
 requiting the highest cultivation of the mind — and yet he would debar them from 
 the means of qualifying themselves for the discharge of those duties which their 
 situation imposed upon them ! He would exclude them from knowledge — and 
 yet punish them for ignorance ! He would rail against their disaffection, and 
 yet preclude them from the enjoyment of those civil privileges which were open 
 to others by partiality and favouritism ! Admirable High Church logic ! 
 Generous exuberance of High Church philanthropy ! It is not impossible that 
 the love of classical allusion which recently inspired the recondite Bishop of 
 Toronto, in his luminous comparison of the principle of University Bill 
 with the policy of "Pagan Rome, which, to please the nations she had 
 conquered, condescended to associate their impure idolatries wiih her own;"* 
 may also have felicitously suggested to the erudite Archdeacon of York, a parallel 
 illustration of High Church doctrine in the Emperor Julian's celebrated decree, 
 which prohibited all Christians from the study of heathen learning — foi, reasoned 
 this practical and precocious expounder of High Church policy — " they will 
 wound us with our own weapons ; they will overcome us with our own arts and 
 sciences." Alas J how fatal to the peace and prosperity of Canada — how 
 disastrous to the interests of true religion has it been, that this proselytising 
 Prelate, and the intolerant party with which he is associated, should never have 
 been able to discover that if the principles of Episco, acy are so conducive to 
 loyalty and good government, no more effectual metliod could be devised for 
 bringing the dissenters within the pale, as well of the constitution as of the 
 Church itself, than by admitting them to a full and unreserved participation with 
 its members in the privileges and benefits to be derived from the gener^ 
 institutions of the country. ' 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PROCEEDINGS IN PARLIAMEJ.T 
 
 Dr. Strachan's calumnious misrepresentations drew down upon him the 
 indignation of the whole Province. Numerous petitions from every part of 
 the country, and from Christians of all denominations, were addressed to the 
 Provincial and Imperial Parliaments, emphatically disavowing the disaffectioj\ 
 which had been libellously imputed to them. Many who had been previously 
 passive were now roused into active exertion. Public meetings were held at 
 
 ♦ See Bishop Strachan's Memorial to the Legislature, against the University gUI^ 
 
 (■ 1843. ' ' ' . ''■ ' 'in ,jfti\ 
 
 ^:< 
 
I 
 
 m 
 
 28 
 
 York and varicms other places, where expression was freely given to th« 
 indignation which was universally felt at the illiberal and exclusive provisions of 
 the Charter, and the base insinuations by which the character of the Clergy 
 had been stigmatized. This fresh attempt to trample on their civil rights was 
 viewed by the people as part of that system of religious intolerance under which 
 they had long groaned, and of which Dr. Strachan had been the chief promoter. 
 
 Year after year he had opposed a Bill to allow the Clergy of the various sects 
 to solemnize marriages among their own flocks ; and through his untiring 
 instrumentality, a Bill authorising the different denominations to hold lands, 
 which had been repeatedly passed in successive sessions by the Assembly, 
 WEB defeated in the Legislative Council. Irritated by direct injuiy, and 
 indignant at the manner in which their representations had been received by 
 the Local Administration, it was at length resolved to malce a solemn and direct 
 appeal for redress to the British Goverpment, and, at the same time, to call 
 the attention of the Imperial Parliament to the degrading position in which 
 the people of Canada felt themselves placed by the local Government. Accordingly, 
 at a Public Meeting, held at York, in the beginning of 1828, an Address to the 
 House 01 Commons was agreed upon, and, after receiving the signatures of 8000 
 Christians of all denominations, was transmitted to Mr. Hume for presentation. 
 In laying this Address on the table of the House, Mr. Hume ably exposed 
 Dr. Strachan's calumnious insinuations and mis-statements, and thus alluded 
 to the Charter of King's College : — ^ 
 
 " The Charter requires nil the Professors and C\Tii..,iS of the University to 
 subscribe the Thirty-nine Articles of tlic Cnurch of England. This is the spirit 
 in which the regulations are drawn up for a Public Seminary, at which the 
 youth of Upper Canada are to be educated. They are taught by Professors 
 who hold the tenets of a sw"\i minority only of those Provinces. 1 have reason 
 to believe that His Majesty's Government have been much imposec' upon by 
 Dr. Strachan, whose statements are completely exposed by the petition. That 
 reverend gentlemen has aroused all classes by his aspersions upon the Clergy 
 of all other denominations. He has thrown out the most vague accusations 
 and suspicions respecting their fidelity and loyalty, which he has addressed 
 especially to the Royal ear, with the view of poisoning it. Among other 
 misrepresentations. Dr. Strachan stated, that of all the Clergymen in Upper 
 Canada, not belonging to the Church of England, there were only five who w:;re 
 not from the United States, where, he said, they acquired opini'^ns at variance 
 with their duty as subjects of His Majesty. He asserts, also, that they are under 
 the i '.fluence of the American Conference, and that the Colonial Government 
 has no control over them. This is a gioss misrepresentation ; yet by means of it, 
 Dr. Strachan has persuaded His Majesty to increase the exclusive privileges of the 
 Church. What will the House say, when I telJ them that th<i members of 
 the Church of England form only a tenth part of the population, and when 
 Ihey hear how grossly Dr. Strachan has slandered the other Clergymen of Upper 
 Canada.' By the investigation which has b'^en instituted in consequence of 
 his misrepresentations, it appears that there are altogether three hundred and 
 twenty-live Clergymen in Upper C mada, of whom there are only thirty-one 
 Ministers of the Church of England. Yet, on the recommendation of the reverend 
 gentleman. His Majesty's Ministers were to establish three hundred Ministers 
 of the Church of England at the public expense, and had endowed an University, 
 
 the 
 
 m 
 
 the 
 
 a 
 
 ». 
 
29 
 
 for the education of all classes, where the Professors are required to belong to the 
 sect which comprises only a tenth part of the population. Of other Clergymen, 
 there are one hundred and seventeen Methodists, lorty-five Baptists, and about 
 forty or fifty of other denominations. So far from all of them having been 
 educated in the United States, one hundred and thirty-three of the Methodists and 
 Baptists, though only eleven of the Ministers of the Church of England, were 
 all born and educated in His Majesty's dominions. These were the slanderous 
 representations made by Dr. Sliachan against so respectable a body as the Clergy 
 of Upper Canada. The Clergy alone do not deem themselves aspersed by these 
 statements : their congregations also, and justly, considered themselves calumniated. 
 The petitioners object to any sect being particularly selected for preference and 
 ascendancy, and they beseech the House that Christians of all denominations may 
 enjoy the blessings of religious liberty, and, according to their talent, worth, and 
 knowledge, be encouraged and protected. How utterly false the statements 
 of Dr. Strachan are respecting the character and conduct of the Methodists, may 
 be inferred from the answer he has received as to his assertion, that a large 
 proportion of the members of the Assembly belong to the Church of England. 
 The Legislative Assembly ot Upper Canada have lately agreed to tliis effect — 
 • That the number of members of the Protestant Episcopal Church appears but 
 very small, in proportion to the number of other Christians, notwithstanding 
 the pecuniary aid received by that body fronj the Society in England, and its 
 pretensions to the monopoly of the Clergy Reserves.' This resolution was 
 supported by twenty-seven members out of the thirty who compose the Assembly. 
 It is a complete denial of the statements of Dr. Strachan, which are shown 
 to be unfounded in every respect, and unworthy of belief. The reverend 
 gentlemen, in his letter, said that there was a tendency among the people of 
 Upper Canada to follow the Church of England : and, on the faith of this 
 representation, he has obtained an annual stipend to build churches for the use of 
 only one- tenth of the population. He is acting altogether in a manner to excite 
 the strongest feelings of the Colony against him and the Establishment to which 
 he belongs. The peace of Upper Canada has been endangered by the conduct of 
 Archdeacon Strachan. His conduct has produced more discontent than any other 
 subject whatever. This reverend gentleman fills his letter with attacks upon 
 the other religious denominations, and what has been the consequence .' There 
 is not a county in the Province that did not declare the letter to be a slander ; and 
 the House of Assembly, by a majority of 27 to 3, declared it to be gross and 
 slanderous libel on the Province. And did the Government call this man to 
 account? No — this individual was allowed to remain, and no interference on 
 the part of the Attorney-General was made, although if a Dissenter, or any 
 person belonging to any other sect had written such a letter as that of this 
 Archdeacon, an ex-officio information would have been inevitable. This man 
 ought not to be allowed to go on and create discontent throughout the Province." 
 
 A copy of the Charter having been transmitted by the Lieutenant-Governor to 
 the Legislative Assembly, its provisions created much dissatisfaction, and were 
 severely animadverted on. The House ordered a copy of the Report of their 
 Committee, with the evidence which they had procured, and the Charts framed 
 in accordance therewith, to be transmitted to the Imperial Parliament; and, at 
 the same time, adopted the following Address to the King, which was passed by 
 a majority of twelve in a House composed of thirty members:— , , > •• 
 
 " TO THE king's MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTV. '' " 
 
 " Most Gracious Sovereign : 
 
 "We, your Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of Upper 
 Canada, in Provincial Parliament assembled, humbly beg leave to represant to 
 
30 
 
 your Majesty, that vre have seen, with equal surprise and regret, a Letter aaA 
 Ecclesiastical Chart, addressed by the Honourable and Venerable Doctor Strachan, 
 Archdeacon of York, a member of your Majesty's Legislative and Executive 
 Councils of this Province, to the Right Honourable R. J. Wilmot Horton, Under 
 Secretary of State for the Colonies, as they arc inaccurate in some important 
 respects, and are calculated to lead your Majesty's Government into serioua 
 errors. 
 
 " We beg leave to inform your Majesty, that of your Majesty's subjects in 
 this Province, only a small proportion are members of the Church of England ; 
 that there is not any peculiar tendency to that Church among the people, and 
 that nothing could cause more alarm and grief in their minds than the apprehension 
 that there was a design, on the part ot your Majesty's Goyernment, to establish, 
 as a part of the Slate, one or more Church or denomination of Christians in this 
 Provmce, with rights and endowments, not granted to your Majesty's subjects in 
 general of other denominations, who are equally conscientious and deserving, and 
 equally loyal and attached to your Majesty's Royal Person and Government. In 
 following honestly the dictates of their conscience, as regards the great and 
 important subject of religion, the latter have never been conscious that they have 
 vi<^ated any law or obligation of a good subject, or done any thing to forfeit your 
 Majesty's favour and protection, or to exclude themselves from a participation in 
 the rights and privileges enjoyed by your Majesty's other subjects. 
 
 " We humbly beg leave to assure your Majesty, that the insinuations in the 
 Letter against the Methodist Preachers in this Province, do much injustice to a 
 body of pious and deserving men, who justly enjoy the confidence, and are the 
 spiritual instructors of a large portion of your Majesty's subjects in this Province. 
 We are convinced that the tendency of their influence and instruction is not hostile 
 to our institutions, but on the contrary is eminently favourable to religion and 
 morality — that their labours are calculated to make their people better men and 
 better subjects, and have already produced in this Province the happiest effects. 
 
 " While we fully and gratefully appreciate your Majesty's gracious intention in 
 granting a Royal Charter for the establishment of an University in this Province, 
 we would be^ most respectfully to represent, that, as the great body of your 
 Majesty's subjects in this Province are not members of the Church of England, 
 they have seen, with ^rief, that the Charter contains provisions which are 
 calculated to render the mstitution subservient to the particular interests of that 
 Church, and to exclude from its offices and Honours all who do not belong to it 
 In consequence of these provisions, its benefits will be omfined to a favoured 
 few, while others of your Majesty's subjects, far more numerous and equally 
 loyal and deserving of your Majesty's paternal care and favour, will be shut out 
 from a participation in them. Having a tendency to build up one particular 
 Church to the prejudice of others, it will naturally be an object of jealousy and 
 disgust. Its influence as a Seminary of learning, will, upon these accounts, be 
 limited and partial. We therefore humbly beg that your Majesty will be pleased 
 to listen to the wishes of your Majesty's people in this respect, and to cause the 
 present Charter to be cancelled, and one granted, free from the objections to which, 
 emboldened by a conviction of your Majesty's paternal and gracious feelings to 
 your loyal subjects in this Province, as well as by a sense ot duty to the people, 
 and a knowledge of their anxiety upon the subject, we have presumed to advert. 
 
 '* Commons House of Assembly, 
 " 20th March, 1828." 
 
 " John Wilson, Speaker. 
 
 The universal excitement throughout the Province, caused by the arbitrary 
 attempt to establish a dominant Church, supported by a privileged University, 
 
31 
 
 »nong a people in the last degree hostile to their pretensions, at length aftractcd 
 the attention of the bi.tish Government, and, on the motion of Mr. Huskisson, 
 then Colonial Secretary, in compliance with tlie wishes expressed in the Cstnadian 
 petitions, a Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to investigate 
 the whole subject of the Civil Government of the Province. In the spinited 
 debate which took place on this motion, several distinguished members expresficd 
 their strong disapprobation of the principles of the Charter of King's College, and 
 inveighed against the absurdity of forcing the exclusive restrictions uf the English 
 Universities upon a people who had invariably opposed the intrusions of law into 
 the domain of conscience and religious opinion. Sir James Mackintosh the gifted 
 philnsopher, statesman, and historian, on that occasion, observed: 
 
 " Endowments may be sacred, when they are guarded by centuries of 
 existence, and by a long and well-known system of law; but I do not sec 
 any reason for making them now, in a new land, where the religion is different 
 from that of the Church to which they are granted. Neither do I understand 
 the regulations which have been made for the new College of Upper Canada. I 
 see with astonishment, that in a country where the majority of the people do not 
 belong to the Church of England, the Professors must all subscribe the Thirty- 
 nine Articles; bo that if Dr. Adam Smith were alive, he could not fill the 
 Professor's Chair of Political Economy ; and if Dr. Black were alive, he would 
 be excluded from the Chair of Chemistry. In short, these regulations would 
 exclude almost all the great teachers and illustrious men of the last age, were 
 they in existence, and that too in a country where no such thing as a Test Act » 
 known. I do not know what will be the consequence of such an arrangement 
 1 cannot see by what process of the human mind it can happen that the 
 inhabitants of Canada shall like a College which is foreign to the institutions of 
 America, which is in favour of a Church which is not of their religion. It is a 
 bad augury, I think, for the administration of the colony, and it confirms an 
 opinion that I have long entertained, that it is not fitting for us here to make 
 a charter for a colony which is some thousand miles distant from us. If a 
 faction in the colony should have made the regulations of which I complain, we 
 ought to interfere to prevent its operation." 
 
 On the same occasion, Lord Stanley, the present Secretary for the colonies, 
 thus expressed his views : 
 
 "I should be ready to contend, if I were now sitting on the committee, that if 
 any exclusire privileges be given to the Church of England, the measure will be 
 repugnant to every principle of sound legislation." " I will not enter further into 
 it at the present moment, except to express my hope that the House will carefully 
 '^uard Canada against the evils which religious dissentions have already produced 
 m this country and in Ireland, where we have examples to teach us what to 
 shun. We have saen the evil consequences of this system at home. God forbid 
 we should not profit by experience, and more especially in legitjlating for a people 
 bordering on a country, where religious intolerance and religious exclusions arc 
 unknown* It is important that his Majesty's Canadian subjects should not have 
 occasion to look across the narrow boundary which separates them from the 
 United tStates, and see any thing there to envy. We should bear in mind the 
 principles of a liberal and comprehensive policy, and be checked by none of those 
 considerations, which, at home, perhaps, it is necessary to observe with respect to 
 previous interests and existing prejudices. There we may begin de novo — there 
 we may follow the most unfettered liberality— the soundest and most prudent 
 policy we can adopt W« may thus preserve our friendly relations with Canadi^ 
 
 f; 
 
 |- 
 
m- '>: 
 
 32 
 
 both as the Parent State while she remains a Colony, and when, in the course of 
 ages, she be ;omes indepcmlcnt as au ally." 
 
 During the course of tlieir investit!;ations, the Charter of King's College was 
 brought under the notice of the Coni:nitlee, and, as a niodilication of its proviaions 
 had been \varrnly urged in all the petitions from the Upper Province, the 
 Committee took great pains lo ascertain accurately the Ecclesiastical Statistics of 
 the country. Proceeding upon the voluminous evidence which they collected 
 from persons of unquestionable character, they reported that the most impovtant 
 assertions of the petitions had been completely proved, and the result of their 
 general labours was to suggest many liberal views of policy and important changes 
 in the administration of affairs. On the subject of King's College they entered 
 cordially into the views of the petitioners, and as the Keport of this Committee 
 continued for many years to form the text-book by which the Colonial Ministers 
 professed to be guided in transmitting their instructions to the successive Governors, 
 it may be proper to quote from its recommendations in reference to the University : 
 
 " The attention of the Committee having been drawn to tlie establishment of 
 the University of King's College at York, they thought it their duty to examine the 
 Charter granted to that College. Of the great advantage which the establishment 
 of a College, for the purposes of general education in Upper Canada, is likely to 
 confer upon the Province, the Committee entertain the strongest conviction: they 
 Jament only that the institution should be so constituted as materially to diminish 
 the extent to which it might be useful. 
 
 " It cannot, they think, be doubted, as the guidance and government of the 
 College is to be vested in the hands of the Members of the Church of England, 
 that in the election of Professors a preference would inevitably be shewn to 
 persons of that persuasion ; and in a country where only a small proportion of 
 the inhabitants adhere to that Church a suspicion and jealousy of religious 
 interference would necessarily be created." 
 
 The Committee then go on to recommend the establishment of two Theological 
 Chairs for the Students of the Churches of England and Scotland respectively; 
 but with respect to the President, Professors, and all others connect-"d with the 
 College, no religious test whatever should be required. 
 
 " That in the selection of Professors no rule should be followed, and no other 
 object sought than the nomination of the most learned and discreet persons, and 
 that (with the exception of the Theological Professors) they should only be 
 required to sign a declaration, that as far as it was necessary for them to advert 
 in their lectures to religious subjects, they should distinctly recognise the truth of 
 the Christiau Revelation, but would abstain altogether from inculcating particular 
 doctrines." 
 
 It has often been urged by the High Church party that the people of Canada 
 being unable to appreciate the advantages of the religious and intellectual discipline 
 pursued at Oxford and Cambridge, any attempt by them to interfere with the 
 Constitution of King's College would be in the highest degree dangerous and 
 unbecoming. Some guarantee for the safety and policy of the modifications 
 demanded, may, however, be found in the names of thpse individuals by whom 
 this Report was framed, and as the foundation of much of their subsequent fame 
 •was formed at the revered Educational Institutions of England, it is probable that 
 
33 
 
 the meritorious parts of their system were not overlooked. Among the Committee 
 were Mr. Huskisson, Mr. Wynn, Sir James Mackintosh, Mr. Wilmot HortoHi 
 the Solicitor-General, Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald^ Mr. (now Lord) Stanley, Mr. Stuart 
 Worlley, Lord Francis Leveson Gower, Mr. Baring, Lord Viscount Sandon, and 
 Mr. Labouchere. 
 
 When the Report was laid before the House of Commons, Sir George Murray — 
 a consistent Conservative and a prominent friend of the Church — had succeeded 
 to the Colonial Department — and as he had personally visited Canada, and was 
 therefore in a position to form a fair judgment of the character of thejnstitutions 
 which might be best adapted <o the circumstances of the country, his opinion may 
 be entitled to some weight. .> .i. . :i 
 
 " It appears," he said, " that t'.ie Committee object to the Constitution of the 
 College, and recommend that in the selection of Professors no rule shall be 
 followed, and no other object sought than the nomination of the most learned and 
 discreet persons. In this view I concur. I think it would not at all interfere 
 with the religious opinions of the Students that Professors should be chosen 
 without reference to the Christian denomination to which they belong." 
 
 The opinion of the Colonial Secretary thus frankly avowed was acted upon 
 practically in his instructions to the Lieutenant-Governor, under whose notice he 
 brought " all the points recommended by the Committee." In his despatch to 
 Sir P. Maitland, dated 29th Sept., 1828, he observed,— "It would be deservedly 
 a subject of regret to his Majesty's Government, if the University, recently 
 established at York, should prove to have been founded upon principles which 
 cannot be made to accord with the general feelings and opinions of those for 
 whose advantage it was intended." At the same time he suggested that any 
 alterations in the Charter should be made through the representatives of the 
 people, and in the mean time he directed that its operation should be suspended 
 till such modification of its provisions was made. Further evidence of Sir George 
 Murray's views on the subject of the University, is obtained from a speech 
 which he subsequently, and after he had quitted office, delivered in the House 
 of Commons, and in which the subject of King's College is thus incidentally 
 mentioned: — ,. , ... .,j,, 
 
 '•I have been desirous to remove as much as possible every grievance which 
 pressed upon any portion of His Majesty's subjects, on account of their difTering 
 upon points of religious belief from the doctrines laid down by the Church 
 of England. I wish at all times to act upon the principles opposed to those 
 of exclusion on account of religious differences of opinion. I could quote an 
 instance indeed, in which, in my public capacity, I carried that principle into 
 effect. A short time before I came into office, as Secretary for the Colonies, a 
 Charter had been granted for founding a University at York, in Upper Canada, 
 which was to be established upon the exclusive principle of giving admission to 
 a share in the government of it only to members of the Established Church. 1 
 objected to this. The principle of exclusion once recognised in Canada under a 
 Charter of the Crown, I thought we would be sowing in the new world the seeds 
 of those very evils which had given rise to so many dissensions, and occasioned so 
 many conflicts in the old. I therefore urged, that instead of establi hing this 
 College at York, on exclusive principles, a College should be founded at Montreal, 
 
P; it ■ 
 
 34 
 
 in which no distinction should be made on account of religious dillercnces of 
 opinion. I was led to lix upon Montreal, partly on accuunt o) its central 
 situation, and partly because it ho happened that a sum of money had been left 
 by a benevolent individual, for the purpose of founin^ a Protcslant Seminary for 
 education at that place. This sum 1 wished to unite with the other for the 
 purpose of establishinf^ u College at Monircai, for all chifses of his Majesty's 
 Canadian subjects, without any exclusion on account of religious opinions."' 
 
 When Sir John Colborne assumed the administration, towards the close of the 
 year 1828, the excitement on the subject of the University had gathered strength 
 throughout the Province, and his Excellency soon perceived that it would be 
 absolutely necessary for the peace of the country to eflect some settlement of this 
 irritating matter. The College Council had, in the mean Vui.c, been formed under 
 the Charter, and as the materials of which it was composed, closely rellected the 
 character of those who then monopolized the patronage of the Crown, the most 
 determined resistance was made to the proposed modillcations. In carrying out 
 the instructions of the Colonial Secretary, to submit the Charter to the Legislature, 
 it appeared to the Lieutenant-Governor to be advisable in the first instance to 
 secure the co-operation of the College Coiuicil. The influence of that body in 
 the Legislative and Executive Councils b^ing paramount, it was easy to foresee 
 that any measure of a liberal tendency which might be passed by the Assembly, 
 would be defeated in the Legislative Council, — a majority of the members having 
 seats at the Council Board of the University. Accordingly on the 13th Dec, 
 1828, a few days after he had entered upon the administuition, his Excellency 
 convened the Collc;^ ; Council, and anxiously urged upon them the necessity of 
 surrendering the Charter, which had been obtained upon misrepresentation and 
 concealment of facts. He referred them to the Report of the Select Committee of 
 the House of Commons, which characterized the Charter as a grieviuice — alluded 
 to the positive instructions which he had received from his Majesty's Ministers 
 to submit the Charter to the Legislature — invited the co-operation of the Council, 
 in effecting the amendments; and he emphatically declared, that in the event of 
 their assistance being Avithheld, one stone should not be \mt upon another, and 
 that he would concur in no measure to further the Institution, while the obnoxious 
 provisions of the Charter remained unaltered. In his speech, on opening the 
 Parliament, 9th January, 1829, alluding .o his determination on the subject of 
 the University, he said: "Measures will be adopted, I hope, to introduce a 
 system in that Seminary, that will open to the youth of the Province the means 
 of receiving a liberal and extensive course of instruction." 
 
 In consequence, however, of the persevering resistance of the College Council, 
 and their powerful influence in the administration, no measure for the amendment 
 of the Charter was submitted to the Legislature, and the House of Assembly, 
 thus disappointed in their expectations, after some delay, addressed his Excellency 
 on the subject, and with the view of possessing themselves of the necessary 
 information, rec^uested to be furnished with a statement of the funds which had 
 been obtained and set apart for the erection of the University, and of the appro- 
 priations made from and out of these funds. On 20th March, 1829, a set of 
 
35 
 
 rcsolulion^, embotlying tl)c sentiments of the members, on the subject of the 
 
 ITniver.sity, were Kcvcnilly put and nnnnimouf^Jy carried. 
 
 The importance of these resolutions, as indicalinc: the wishes of the country at 
 that lime, is increased in consequence of the principles contained in them having 
 been, at a later period, adopted as the foundation of a legislative measure which 
 passed through the Assembly, but \vas defeated in the luCgislative Council. 
 
 " Resolved — That the thanks of this House are due to his Majesty lor his 
 gracious intentions in erecting and endowing a University in this Province. 
 
 " Resolved — That much eironeous information has been communicated to his 
 Majesty's (Tovernrnent upon that subject, under which misinformation this House 
 apprehends the Charter was granted, with provisions not suited to the conditions 
 and wishes of the people for whose beneiit it was intended. 
 
 " Rr.solved — -That the provisions requiring the President of the eaid University 
 to be a Clergyman in Holy Orders of the United Church of England and Ireland, 
 and to hold his office during pleasure, is highly inexpedient, because in the only 
 Seminary of general learning in the country all collegiate offices and literary 
 rewards should be conscientiously awarded according to moral and intellectual 
 merit, should be enjoyed under no dependant tenure, and should be held forth as 
 incentives to all candidates for academic honours, without making such honoura 
 subservient to favouritism. •.!'."' 
 
 " Resolved — That it is for the above reasons highly inexpedient that the 
 Archdeacon of York, for the time being, by virtue of his office, should be at all 
 times President of the said University. 
 
 " Resolved — That the ])rovision requiring the President and the seven 
 Professors constituting the College Council to be members of the said Established 
 United Church, and to subscribe the Thirty-nine Articles, is highly inexpedient. 
 
 " Resolved — That the Chancellor, President, and members of the Council, the 
 Professors and other teachers of the said University, ought, after the organization 
 of the same, to be elected by a Senate, composed of the members of the Council, 
 and others who have taken a degree in the said University above Bachelor of 
 Arts, having their names on the Books of the College, such election to be made 
 from the graduates from the said University, or from the graduates from the 
 Universities of England, Ireland, or Scotland, of sufficient standing in their 
 respective Universities to be candidates for such office or trust. 
 
 " Resolved — That it is inexpedient that the degree of Doctor of Divinily should 
 he confined to those who subscril)e to the Thirty-nine Articles of the said 
 Established and United Church ; but that it should be obtainable by all graduates, 
 who, professing the Christian faith, shall, after due and impartial public 
 examinations in the public Schools of the said University, evince the classical, 
 biblical, or other learning and qualifications, proper to be acquired by candidates 
 for such an honour. 
 
 " Resolved — That it would be expedient if the teaching of Doctrinal Divinity 
 were confined to the examination of the Students, by questions put by the 
 Professor out ot the Bible, in the same manner as the classics in the University of 
 Cambridge are examined upon, and taught any science out of standard authors, 
 leaving discretionary latitude to the I'rolessors, only, in lecturing on biblical 
 criticism, theology, evidences of Christianity, sacred history, and whatever 
 collateral branches of learning may be appointed for candidates for Holy Orders: 
 by which means would be obviated the principal difficulties apprehended from the 
 eame Professors being the instructors of Students professing the faith of difierCTit 
 denominations of Christians. 
 
36 
 
 " Resolved — That whatever in the said Charter in any depjree gives a sectarian 
 character to the (-aid University, ought to be wholly done away. 
 
 •• Resolved — That with the exception of the exclusive and sectarian principles 
 and unequal dif?tribution ot wealth prevailing in the Universities of Oxlord and 
 Cambridge, it is highly expedient to follow their institutions and modes of 
 instruction, making from time to time such modifications as exiericnce may loint 
 out. 
 
 " Resolved — That without the patriotic, disinterested, and impartial conduct of 
 those to whose wisdom and management the infancy of this Institution shall be 
 confided; without a strict observance of economy in the whole system; without 
 inducing from Great Britain and Ireland, Professors of acknowledged learning and 
 worth, liberally paid, but not with that extravagance which would merge 
 the rewards or honour in the sordid expectation of pecuniary gain, and without 
 making grandeur of schemes and appearance yield to immediate practical and 
 ostentatious utility, the University cannot gain public confidence, or realize the 
 gracious intentions of His Majesty." 
 
 / These llesolutions were |)resented to his Excellency with the following 
 Address: •• . / 
 
 ^' «« We, His Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of Upper 
 Canada, in Provincial Parliament assembled, humbly request your Excellency's 
 favourable attention to the Resolutions accompanying this Address, and we 
 farther humbly thank your Excellency for the interest your Excellency has 
 manifested for the promotion of education in this Province, in a way suited to the 
 wishes, feelings, and genius of the people." 
 
 if The Lieutenant-Governor thanked the Commons for this Address, and assured 
 them that he would not fail to give immediate attention to the Resolutions which 
 accompanied it. The Session having forthwith terminated, no farther proceedings 
 took place in reference to the University. 
 
 ' Before the opening of the next Session, Sir John Colbon pplied himself with 
 
 ehergy, in obedience to the instructions which he had received from His Majesty's 
 
 Ministers, to effect a modification of the Charter. Anxious still that this should 
 
 be done with the friendly co-operation of the College Council, and aware 
 
 that without that co-operation, any attempt to liberalize the Institution would 
 
 he defeated in the Legislative Council, he renewed his urgent entreaties to have 
 
 the Charter surrendered. His exertions, however, having proved unavailing, he 
 
 was at length compelled to suspend the operations of the Charter, and to direct 
 
 hia energies to such ameliorations in the defective system of Education, which 
 
 then prevailed in the Province, as would best remedy the evils which the obstinate 
 
 conduct of the College Council might inflict on the country. In opening the 
 
 Parliamentary Session, on 8th January, 1830, he thus cursorily alluded to the 
 
 opposition which he had received from that body, and to the defective state 
 
 pi Education throughout the Province : ♦ 
 
 ■>,•>• 
 
 " The delay that may take place in revising the Charter of the University, or 
 in framing one suitable to the Province, and to the intention of the endcumcnt, 
 must, in fact, under present circumstances, tend to the advancement of the 
 Institution, as its use depends on the actual state of Education in the Province." , 
 
or 
 
 37 
 
 The Address of the House of Assembly in answer to his Excellency's Speech, 
 thus met his allusions to Education : 
 
 " Wc are glal to tin'l that your Excellency still anticipates a modification 
 of the Charter of King's College, which, as at present constituted, is undeserving 
 of public patronage, and likely to Icrmcnt sectarian jealousies, and prove equally 
 injurious to the purity of our religion and to the liberties of our people. 
 
 •• While we are willing to support a College for instuiction in the professions, 
 and in the higher branches of science, we feel it to be a primary and more 
 imperative duty to proviJe for the general extension of the means ol Education 
 among the people in every township. But we concur with the opinion expressed 
 by your Excellency, that, dispersed as the population is over an extensive 
 territory, a general efficiency in the Common Schools cannot be expected, 
 particularly while the public salaries of the Masters, and the small remuneration 
 which their patrons, in the ])resent condition of the country, can afllinrd to 
 give, will not admit of their devoting their whole time to their useful calling. 
 
 " From these considerations we feel the increased necessity and duty of 
 securing, besides the sum already provided by law, a more equal and just 
 distribution of the proceeds arising fnim the lands reserved for Education, from 
 which resources the people have hitherto derived no advantage." ' -rt^iju 
 
 The House of Assembly, at the same time passed the following Resolutions, 
 declaratory of its determination to resist the exclusive policy which bad evinced 
 itself on the part of the High Church party composing tlic Administration : 
 
 " Resolved — That the Christians of various denominations In this Province 
 have been deeply wounded h\ their feelings by the false and calumniating 
 misrepresenlations, made for the j)urpose of establisiiiiig mi <xchisive and 
 proselyting system, which it has hitherto been attempted to strengthen and 
 extend, by rendering subservient to it the patronage of the Executive Government, 
 and the unjust api)roj)riatIon of the tSchool Reserves, ft)r the suj)port of a 
 University, against the sectarian character of which this House can never cea«e 
 solemnly to protest, as they already have done. . ^^ 
 
 " Resolved — That there justly is, in the minds of the people of this Province, a 
 strong and settled aversion to a dominant Church, connected with Government, 
 and upheld by that Government in a claim to a monopoly of the Clergy Reserves, 
 and to the enjoyment of peculiar ])rivileges, to the exclusion and prejudice of 
 various denominations in this Province." ,i .t ^ • • , •,.; ,-.,j 
 
 ■ Notwithstanding the symptoms of weakness and vacillancy which frequently 
 exhibited themselves in Sir John Colborne's administration of the Government, it 
 is but just to admit, that his personal views and designs, when unobstructed by 
 the influence of the baneful oligarchy which at that time incubated on the 
 Province, evinced a sincere desire for the prosperity of the country. To the 
 cause of education in particular he devoted much of his attention and energy, and 
 it is probable that he might have succeeded in effecting a considerable amelioration 
 of the defective system which then prevailed, had his plans not been frustrated 
 and overruled by the illiberal and fatal opposition of Dr. Strachan and his 
 intolerant party. The provisions which had been from time to time made by the 
 Legislature for the diffusion of instruction among the people were rendered 
 completely nugatory by " the scheme," which the Archdeacon of York, in a 
 moment of incautious vanity, divulged to the Society for the Propagation of 
 
 /-\ ; 
 
38 
 
 ithe Gospel. He had truly been " instrumental in catahlishing a scheme in 
 ^Canada, by which the education of the ivhole pojmlation v:as virtually under the 
 direction of the Church" — and from which, he might have added, the people 
 generally derived scarcely a lai-ger amount of henefit than the pleasant 
 gratification of seeing the pecuniary necessities of the Venerable President of the 
 ^ucalional Board relieved by an annual stipend of jESOO from the Parliamentary 
 .grant. It form.ed no part of " the scheme" of this disinterested patron of learning, 
 ito permit any of the classes who contributed so largely towards the mciintenance 
 <of the Schools to participate in their superintendence. The exclusive control was 
 monopolised by the members of the Episcopal Church, and the appointment 
 of Trustees from one communion alone had occasioned so much jealousy and 
 /.bitterness, that the Schools had sunk into a deplorable state of inefficiency which 
 reflected deep disgrace upon the Province. 
 
 Sir John Colborne was fully alive to the defects and corruptions under which 
 the system laboured, and to the absurdity of establishing a University for the 
 higher branches of learning, while the children of the yeomanry were exposed to 
 the evils and dangers of almost unmitigated i-jnorance. It was indeed abundantly 
 .apparent that the country, as it then existed, would derive a greater amount of 
 benefit from the general diffusion of the means of instruction, and that the objects 
 of the Royal Grant would be more effectually promoted if a liberal education 
 could be placed within the reach of the people, than if the endowment were 
 applied to the establishment of a great metropolitan seat of learning, for which 
 the youth of the Province were not fitted by a proper prepaiatory course. The 
 first efforts of the Lieutenant-Governor were therefore directed to an extension of 
 the Common and District Schools, and to a more liberal system of management 
 and tuition. But these benevolent designs did not meet the approval of Dr. 
 Strachan and his party, and his Excellency was compelled to succumb to their 
 superior influence. Unwilling, however, to relmquish his plans altogether, he 
 jtook an intermediate course, and submitted to the College Council a proposal for 
 jthe establishment of an Academy of a superior class at York, which might at 
 least prepare the children of the higher ranks for the advantages of the University. 
 This proposal having met with no opposition, his Excellency, by Message, 
 submitted his plt^m to the House of Assembly. j , .... ;,;... 
 
 " The Lieutenant-Governor has no doubt that it would be deservedly a subject 
 oi ^j^ret to bis Majesty'fi Government if the principles on which the University 
 is founded cannot be made to accord with the general feeling and opinion qf 
 those for whose advantage it was intended: and he believes that the first change 
 in the Charter which should be recommended, and which would conduce more 
 than any other to its >ecoming eminently useful to the Province, is the connecting 
 the Royal Grammar Sciiool with King's College, in such a manner that its 
 ^Exhibitions, Scholarships, and chief support may depend on the funds of that 
 endowment. 
 
 " The advantages that will result from an Institution conducted by nine or ten 
 able master", under whose tuition the youth of the Province could be prepared 
 for any profession are indisputable : and if such a School were permanently 
 ^stabiisj^ed, amd the Charier so modified that any Professor sJiall be eligtbU for 
 
39 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE AMENDED CHARTER. 
 
 the Council, and that the Students in the College shall, liave liberty and faculty 
 of taking degrees in the manner that shall hereafter be directed by the statute* 
 and ordinances framed by his Majesty's Government, the University must flourish,, 
 and prove highly beneficial to the Colony." ;, , . ;, 
 
 This proposal having been acceded to, the Royal Grammar School was super- 
 seded, and Upper Canada College was opened on 4th January, 1830, for the 
 purposes of tuition. An endowment of 60,000 acres was afterwards procured for 
 its support from the residue of the general School Lands, together with Ihe site of 
 the College, and some valuable town lots, and by means of the aggregate funda 
 that were expected to accrue from these sources, and from the fees payable by 
 the Students, it was fully expected that under a proper system of management, a.' 
 sufficient income would be derived for the proper maintenance of the Establishment. 
 How far these expectations have been realized will form a matter for futuro 
 
 enquiry. 
 
 ■ ■ ■ .i ' ;;■.'• II. • . . . . ■:,•,;,; i]/;, ^i t) 
 
 '■.■-•'-- ■' . ij:.'. -fiii,# 
 
 ' « '';■' 'jjijtfl 
 . •: -'■ --it^ 
 
 ' •■ ■ ■ ■-> -(i} 
 
 The reform of the University now became intimately connected with another 
 question which had already created much excitement and irritating discussion, 
 aiivj. which was destined to have a material influence on the future peace and 
 welfare of the Province. By the Imperial Act 31, Geo. III., ch. 31, one-seventh 
 of the granted lands in Upper Canada had been set apart for the support of- 
 a Protestant Clergy. This ecclesiastical provision had, under the phrase of 
 " a Protestant Clergy," been heretofore limited by the Government to the United 
 Church of England and Ireland. A claim was at length put in by certain 
 members of the Church of Scotland to a share of the provision, and this claim 
 was afterwards assumed and insisted on by the other Protestant denominations in 
 the Province. The a^jpropriation by the Government exclusively to one Churchy 
 or the extension of it to others, thus became a question of almost absorbing public 
 interest. The House of Assembly repeatedly offered strong remonstrances against 
 any favour or assistance on the part of the Government to one or more religious 
 denominations which was not equally bestowed upon all; and the principles 
 of religious supremacy and exclusion in favour of the Church of England, 
 contained in the Charter of the University, appeared to the members of that body- 
 as a part of a system conducive to the extension and perpetuation of an injurious' 
 policy, inconsistent with that perfect equality of rights and privileges to which it 
 was thought Christians of all denominations in the Province were entitled. In 
 conformity with these views the Assembly on 12th March, 1831, caused the 
 following address to be prepared and transmitted : ^ 
 
 " TO THE king's MOST £XCELIJ;NT MAJKSTY. ., ; , 
 
 " Most Gracious Sovereign, — .... ' 
 
 "We, your Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of ttppef 
 
 •.:;':;t.,i 
 
 ! i 
 
40 
 
 Canada, in Provincial Parliament assembleJ, beg leave most humbly to submit to 
 your Majesty, that by an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, 31st Geo. III., 
 one-seventh of the lands of this Province Avas set apart for the support of a 
 Protestant Clergy. ... . - ' . 
 
 '« That under that act appropriations have from time to time been made, and 
 which appropriations are, in this Province, known by the name of the ' Clergy 
 iieserves ;' — that these appropriations having been generally made in lots of two 
 hundred acres throughout the several Townships of this Province, the value of 
 the same has been much enhanced by the settlement ot the country, and 
 principally from the improvement of the lands in the neighbourhood of such 
 appropriations, by the labour of inhabitants composed of various denominations 
 of Christians; — that these Reserves being so interspersed with the lands of actual 
 settlers, have materially retarded the improvement of the country: — that by 
 an act passed in the reign of his late most gracious Majesty, provision was made 
 for the sale of a portion of these Reserves ; — that it is unjust as well as impolitic, 
 to appropriate the said lands to the support of any one Church exclusively, and 
 it is extremely difficult, if not altogether impracticable, to apportion or divide the 
 same among the Clergy of all denominations of Protestants; — that a large 
 majority of the inhabitants of this Province are sincerely attached to your 
 Majesty's person and government, but are averse to the establishment of any 
 exclusive or dominant Church ; — that this House leels confident, that to promote 
 the prosperity of this portion of your Majesty's dominions, and to satisfy the 
 earnest desire of the people of this Province, your Majesty will be graciously 
 pleased to give the most favourable consideration to the wishes oi your faithful 
 subjects; — that to terminate the jealousy and dissension which have hitherto 
 existed on the subject of the said Reserves — to remove a barrier to the settlement 
 of the country, and to provide a fund available for the promotion of Education ; 
 it is extremely desirable that the said lands, so reserved, be sold, and the proceeds 
 arising from the sale of the same, placed at the disposal of the Provincial 
 Legislature, to be applied exclusively for that purpose. We therefore humbly 
 
 Sray, that your Majesty will be graciously pleased to recommend to your 
 lajesty's Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland, to pass an act to authorise 
 a sale of the Clergy Reserves remaining unsold, and to enable the Legislature 
 of this Province to appropriate the proceeds thereof in such manner as may 
 be considered most expedient for the advancement of Education. 
 
 •♦ We also most humbly beg leave to submit to your Majesty, that while we 
 fully appreciate the gracious intention of our late revered Sovereign to promote 
 education, by granting a Royal Charter for the establishment of an University in 
 this Province, we feel it incumbent on us to represent, that, as the great majority 
 of your Majesty's subjects in this Province are not members of the Church of 
 England, it is matter of regret that the Charter contains provisions which are 
 calculated to exclude from its princi])al offices and honours, all who do not belong 
 to that Church. , 
 
 vivin consequence of these provisions, the benefits of the Institution will be 
 confined to a few individuals of one religious denomination, while others of your 
 iS'Iajesly's subjects, equally loyal and deserving, will be excluded from participat- 
 ing in advantages which should be open to all. Its infhience, as a Seminary of 
 learning, on this account, must be limited, and will he looked upon with jealousy 
 by a large majority of the inhabitants of this Province. We therefore humbly 
 pray that your Majesty will be graciously pleased to cause the Charter of King's 
 College to be cancel h'd, and to grant another, free from the objections to which 
 our duty to the people of this Province has induced us to advert." 
 
 This address was ti-ansmitted to the King by Sir John Colborne, who, on 
 
41 
 
 l-ecelving It, thus announced to the House his instructions on the subject of the 
 University. 
 
 " Gentlemen, — I will forward this Address to the King immediately. It may, 
 however, be satisfactory to you to receive the information, that I have reason to 
 I'^lieve that either the exclusive ;irovisions considered exceptionable in the Charter 
 of King's College have been cancelled, or that such arrangements have been 
 decided on by his Majesty's Government, as will render further application on this 
 subject unnecessary. 
 
 "A Charier, solemnly given, cannot be revoked without much delay and 
 circumspection ; but his Majesty's Ministers have long directed their attention to 
 the great advantages which the Province will derive from an University being 
 established on principles that may be approved of by every good and enlightened 
 person." 
 
 Meanwhile the excitement on the subject of the University continued unabated 
 throughout the cou-itry. At a public meeting held at York, on 10th December, 
 1830, a Petition to the British House of Commons was adopted, and before being 
 transmitted, received upwards of 10,000 signatures. This Petition embraced the 
 subject of the Clergy Reserves, and prayed a modification of " the Charter of 
 King's College, established at York, in Upper Canada, so as to exclude all secta- 
 rian tests and preferences, and to appropriate the proceeds of the sale of lands 
 heretofore set apart for the support of a Protestant Clergy, to the purposes of 
 general education and various internal improvements/' 
 
 An Agent was appointed to catty this Petition to London, and on the occasion 
 of its being presented to the House of Commons, Sir George Murray observed, — 
 
 ** I trust that the sentiments which I have always entertained upon the subjects 
 to which this Petition relates are sufficiently well known to the House. I con- 
 ceive that nothing can be more unfortunate for any State than that political 
 distinctions should be founded on differences in matters of religion. 1 believe 
 that those distinctions can never arise, except when religion has been made sub- 
 servient to the selfish interests and to the unholy passions of men. I agree entirely 
 in the objection which has been taken to that part of the Charter of King's 
 College, which introduces a distinction on the score of religion. While I was in 
 office I suspended the operations of the Charter, having it in contemplation to 
 abolish entirely that distinction ; and had I remained in office, I should certainly 
 have done so." 
 
 Copies of the Canadian petition to the House of Commons, and of the proceed- 
 ings and resolutions of the House of Assembly, tvere at the same time laid before 
 the Colonial Secretary. 
 
 These proceedings had the effect of turning the immediate attention of the 
 British Government to the danger of the exclusive policy which had been pursued 
 under the erroneous statements and evil counsel of the Archdeacon of York. His 
 Majesty's Ministers at once saw the necessity of concession, and endeavoured to 
 retrace the false step that had been made, by giving their formal sanction to the 
 modification which had been proposed by the Assembly. With this view hia 
 Excellency Sir John Colborne was instructed to bring the matter before the 
 College Council, and to insist upon a surrender of the Charter, in order that it 
 
42 
 
 might be modified by the Provincial Parliament, in such a manner as would adapt 
 it to the situation ot the country and the wishes of tJie people. , 
 
 Acting upon these instructions, the Lieutenant-Governor convened the College 
 Council on 2n(l November, 1831, and laid before them a Despatch from Lord 
 Goderich, then Colonial Secretary — in which his Lordship referred at considerable 
 length to the original purposes of the grant, and the design of the British Govern- 
 ment in establishing a University. He observed that " it is greatly to be regretted 
 that any thing in the constitution of the establishment should have tended io 
 counteract, if not defeat this laudable design, and practically deprive the Province 
 of the advantages anticipated" ** It cannot be denied," he continued, " thai the 
 exclusive and restrictive cfmracter given to King's College University has had 
 this effect." His Lordship then alluded to the suggestions of the Committee of 
 the British House of Commons in 1828s which had been iransmitted by his 
 predecessor in the Colonial Office, wilh the view of their forming the basis on 
 which the constitution of the University should be established, and he earnestly 
 recommended that the course then advised by his predecessor should now be 
 pursued. He also signified his approval of the Resolutions adopted by the House 
 of Assembly in 1829, quoted in the preceding chapter, and insisted that the 
 College Council should immediately surrender the Charter that it might undergo 
 such modifications as the Parliament of Upper Canada should determine ; bui in 
 requiring such surrender he pledged himself to the Council that the endowment 
 should be applied to no other purpose than that of education. 
 
 The advice thus frankly offered, and the request contained in the despatch of 
 of the Colonial Secretary, were obstinr.tely declined by the College Council, who, 
 in a lengthy report, framed in answer to the despatch, maintained their position 
 with a reckless temerity, which, at the present day, might excite surprise, were the 
 fact not sufficiently explained by the overwhelming influence which its members 
 possessed in the Executive anu Legislative Councils of Upper Canada. Hitherto 
 the obstacles interposed by the College Council — who had been long the prominent 
 leaders of the High Church party — to the diffusion of general instruction, had 
 proved most disastrous to the country. It was quite obvious to every one, that 
 the concentration of means accruing from a productive endowment on an exclusive 
 ^Seminary beneficial only to a few, so long as the elenientary Schools, owing to 
 Hut unproductiveness of tlieir endowment from causes beyond control, were in a 
 slate of comparative destitution, was a proceeding not only inverting the order of 
 the vCatire scheme, but eminently calculated to create a dissatisfied and invidious 
 feelisg on the jKirt of a large portion of the community. So long indeed as means 
 were »*anting to confer elenientary instruction commensurate with the increasing 
 demand« of the country, the prior formation of a metropolitan seat of learning, 
 irrespective of its exclusive character and constitution, was viewed with jealousy 
 and disfavour even by those who, under more pro^-.tious circumstances, would 
 hare hailed its establishment and would have been Avell satisfied to see it in 
 active operation. The functions of the General Board of Education — which for 
 jiearly eight j-ears had been a libel on the name that it bore — ceased in 1832, and 
 
43 
 
 Vfiik its demise the salary of the Venerable President, which daring the same 
 period had yielded him no less a sum than £2,250, also ceased to be exigible. 
 The Archdeacon of York, however, whose genius was ever fertile in expedients, 
 and whose zeal in the cause of education has always borne an affectionate 
 approximation to the pecuniary advantages which he has derived as a " Patron 
 of Learning," naturally directed his restless energies to the University, as a 
 compensating source of emolument. Holding the office of President, with the 
 exclupive honour of being the only salaried member of the Council, he regarded 
 W'lh dismay every modification of the Charter which could have the most remote 
 tendency to endanger his sinecure, an effect by no means unlikely to have 
 followed from the admission of the Dissenters to a share in the government, and a 
 conscientious administration of the affairs of the Institution. 
 
 So long as this serious oustacle remained, all conciliatory attempts to obtain 
 the consent of the College Council to the modifications required by the peojde of 
 Canada signally failed, and the Colonial Secretary at lengtL became convinced 
 that no concession would be made to which the Council were not driven by the 
 last necessity. The Archdeacon of York had previously distinguished himself as 
 an energetic and powerful opponent to the formation of the Canada Company, 
 and through his zealous interference its operations had been materially retarded. 
 It was at length, however, agreed, on the understanding that his personal 
 opposition to the Co ; any should cease, that an annuity of XI, 000 for 16 years 
 should be given from tue funds of the Company in aid of the University Buildings. 
 This grant had been paid for four and a half years, but was suspended by Lord 
 Goderich — who penetrated the design of the College Council to maintain <heir 
 position so long as they were provided with available funds, — until the Legislature 
 should pass a Bill amending the Charter. In the despatch of 5th July, 1832, by 
 which he suspended the grant from the Canada Company, iit placed the 
 remodelling of the University entirely in the hands of the Provincial Parliament, 
 whose claim he distinctly recognised "to exercise the management of the 
 territorial grants assigned for the purposes of education, it being assumed, from 
 their having in questions of this nature the deepest share of interest, that they 
 are therefore the most competent to judge of what is best adapted to the 
 progressive wants and wishes of the community which they represent." His 
 Lordship further observed, that *« when a clumf^e of this nature is desired by the 
 inhabitants themselves, and is called for byanaddress from tlieir representatives, 
 1 am of opinion that if there were nothing else to be considered than the 
 accomplishment of the immediate object, it would be desirable to comply with 
 wishes which have been so expressed." Beyond enjoining that the funds of the 
 endov/ment thus placed at the control of the Provincial Legislature should not 
 be diverted from their governing object — the promotion of education — Lord 
 Goderich did not think it expedient to prescribe any set regulations for the 
 prsctical application of those funds : his Lordship observing, " that it would be 
 worse than useless to destroy the grace of the concession which had been made, 
 by attempting to clog it with objectionable conditions." 
 
44 
 
 The Djspftch from which the above quotations haye been made, was marked 
 "Confidential;" but if any doubts remained as to the intention of the British 
 Government on the subject of the University, they were satisfactorily removed by 
 Lord Goderich's celebrated Despatch to Sir John Colborne, of 8lh November, 1832, 
 which was laid before the Provincial Parliament. In reference to a proposal 
 which \. d been made to place King's College on the list of constituent bodies 
 enjoying liie elective franchise, his Lordship thus expressed himself: "You 
 will observe that I do not here refer to an University constituted in the manner 
 proposed in the original Charter of Incorporation. Every man in Canada, 
 however, knows, that so far from any anxiety having been felt by the King's 
 Government to maintain that Charter against the wishes of the great majority 
 of the people, every possible measure has been taken to refer to their Represen- 
 tatives the decision of the question, in what form and upon what principles the 
 College should be founded." And in the same Despatch, after repudiating a 
 policy which would consign the children of the yeomanry to ignorance, lest 
 knowledge should render them independent in action and in thought, his Lordship 
 proceeds: *« On the contrary, there is no one object connected with every part of 
 his Majesty's dominions, which his Majesty has more at heart than the diffusion 
 of sound knowledge in the legitimate and most enla»j;ed sense of that term. This 
 is not merely the first and highest interest of society, but is essential to the right 
 use and peaceable enjoyment of every other civil and social privilege." And he 
 thus points to the constitutional remedy for the abuses of King's College, which 
 his Majesty's Ministers were now most anxious to see relieved of every sectarian 
 restriction : — 
 
 " Th? Legislature of Upper Canada have already heen invited to consider in 
 what manner the University can be best constituted for the general advantage of 
 society ; and His Majesty' has studiously abstained from the exercise of his 
 undoubted prerogative of founding and endowing Literary or Religious 
 Corporations, until he should obtain the advice of the Representatives of the 
 people for his guidance in that respect." "All minor distinctions should be 
 merged in a general union for this important end (the diffusion of Education), 
 and at the head of that union the local Government should be found encouraging 
 and guiding, and to the utmost of its power, assisting all the efforts which may be 
 made to create or to foster a taste for intellectual enjoyments and pursuits." 
 " Confident in your own concurrence, and in that of the members of the Legislature 
 in those views, I cheerfully remit to you and to them the office of originating the 
 necessary plans for reducing the general principle into a definite shape, requiring 
 of yourself in the first instance only, that you should quicken the attention of the 
 liCgislative Council and Assembly to this subject, should you have reason to 
 apprehend that it is in danger of being overlooked or forgotten." 
 
 In oDfning the Parliament on the 19th November, 1833, His Excellency 
 Sir John Colborne thus communicated his instructions to the Legislature : — 
 
 " The important subject of public Education, which has in several Sessions 
 ocjctjpied much of your attention, demands your early notice and consideration, 
 particularly the questions winch relate to the revision of the system of Township 
 Schpols-^the application of the proceeds of sales of School Lands for the support 
 of superior District Schools, and the requisite extension of the Royal Charter 
 
45 
 
 tmdcr which the University is at present establislied. With respect to these 
 points, and the immediate course which you may suggest to ensure the opening of 
 the Uiiiversit;y% sanctioned hy a Charter framed on more comprehensive principles 
 than that which has heen granted, there can be no doubt, that as the Province is 
 fully prepared to reap the benefits which were intended to be conferred on it by 
 the estai)lishment of King's College, — His Majesty will readily give effect to any 
 7nea<iurei proposed by //on regarding its future government, and the appropriation 
 of School Lands that may tend to promote the purposes of the Institution, or add 
 to the advantages which the Colony, under the blessing of Providence, enjoys, by 
 facilitating the diffusion of Education among all classes." 
 
 To this address, the House of Assembly answered that they would "use 
 diligence in considering and maturing the requisite extension of the Royal Charted 
 under which the University is at present established: and His Excellency's 
 assurance, that His Majesty will readily give effect to any measures proposed 
 by us regarding its future government, and the appropriation of the School Lands 
 to meet the purposes of Education, is an additional proof of His Majesty's paternal 
 care for the advancement of the most important interests of his subjects." 
 
 No Legislative measure afieoting the constitution of the University was 
 introduced into the Assembly during this Session : but at length in the Session of 
 1834-35, a Bill to amend the original Charter was framed upon the principles 
 contained in the Kesolutions of the House in 1829, which had received the 
 approval of the Colonial Secretary. 
 
 This Bill proceeded on the preamble that, " Whereas his present Majesty 
 has been graciously pleased to satisfy through His Majesty's principal Secretary 
 of State for the Colonies, Earl Ripon, by his dispatch of the 8th November, 1832, 
 communicated to the Legislature by His Excellency, by message, that so far from 
 any anxiety having been felt by His Majesty's Gorernment to maintain the said 
 Charter against the wishes of a great majority of the people, every possible 
 measure has been taken to refer to their Representatives the decision of the 
 question in w^hat form and upon what principles the said College should be 
 founded." The Bill then declared that from thenceforth it would not be necessary 
 for the President and Professors to be members of the United Church of England 
 and Ireland, or that they should subscribe the Thirty-nine Articles : — That the 
 Council should consist of twelve persons, one half of whom shoiild be nominated 
 by the Legislative Counc'i, and the other half by the Legislative Asse Tibly, and 
 that they should hold their office for four years: — That the College Council 
 should elect the Professors, Tutors, and Lecturers : — That the College Council 
 should make rules and ordinances for the government of the University, subject 
 to the approbation of the Chancellor : — That no rules or ordinances should be 
 passed by the Council imposing on the Professors, Tutors, Lecturers, Scholars, 
 Graduates, under-Graduates, Students, Servants, or others, any religious form or 
 mode of worship, or in any way whatever restraining them from attending on the 
 Sabbath whatever place of religious worship they chose : — That no religious test 
 or qualification whatever should be required of the Chancellor, President* 
 Professors, Tutors, Lecturers, Scholars, or other persons being candidates for any 
 situation or honour in the College : — That there should not at anytime be allowed 
 
46 
 
 m 
 
 to be within the College any public Professor, Lecturer, o? Teacher of Doctrinal 
 Divinity, according to the Articles of Faith professed by the Unilsd Church 
 of England and Ireland, or according to the Creed or Faith of any other Christian 
 or Religious Church whatever : — And that the College Council should not apply 
 any of the funds belonging to the University to the support of any public 
 Professor, Lecturer, or Teacher of such Divinity. 
 
 The Bill was carried through the House of Assembly by a majority of 33 to 6. 
 Among the majority were nine members whose views on other subjects were 
 directly opposed to those of the liberal party, but so strong was the feeling 
 throughout the country in favour of the measure, and so convinced were the 
 members themselves of the flagrant injustice of planting exclusive educational 
 Institutions among so varied a population as Canada contained, that the various 
 resolutions submitted to the House, in successive Sessions and Parliamento, had 
 been adopted with all but perfect unanimity. The delay that took place in 
 effecting their object was occasioned solely by the obstinate resistance made by 
 the College Council and total indifference of the local Government to popular 
 opinion. The influence of the Executive in the Legislative Council was such, 
 that thp persons composing the former could* at any time, either put a stop to the 
 most wholesome measures, or forward to the utmost extent the sinister interests 
 of any party whom they wished to favour. The Executive and Legislative 
 Councils were indeed two bodies in name, but one in fact — the persons composing 
 the one being the majority in the other — and each being alike irresponsible to the 
 country. Under such an administration and antagonism of principles and interests, 
 in the different branches of the Legislature, it was utterly impossible that the 
 system of Civil Government could effectually promote the prosperity of the 
 Province, or that wholesome measures could be passed suitable to the wants and 
 happiness of the people- The history of the University of King's College shews 
 that the British Government had no wish to govern Canada, but in accordance 
 with the wishes of the great majority of the people, where these wishes were 
 perfectly known and understood, but the proper influence of the British Govern- 
 ment was at that time comparatively unfelt, and the sucessive Governors, after 
 a brief show of resistance, tamely submitted to the absorbing influence of the 
 local oligarchy. In this manner the .Hill for opening the University to all 
 classes and denominations, although urgently and almost unanimously demanded 
 by the people, was destined to share the fate of almost every other measure of a 
 popular character. It was thrown under the table o' the Legislative Council, 
 and the ardent expectations of the country were disugarded with the reckless 
 indifference of a party long habituated to trample upon popular rights. 
 
 The arrival of Sit- Francis Bond Head in 1836, and the general tenor of his 
 instructions, again excited the hopes of the friends of popular Government. The 
 distinct recognition which these instructions contained, of the right of the Provincial 
 Parliament to legislate on the subject of the University, and the desire evinced 
 by the British Government to have the Educational Seminaries adapted to the 
 circumstances of the country, afforded the highest gratihcation to the friends of 
 
47 
 
 Education. Respecting the Collegiate Institutions of the Province — a complaint 
 having been made by the Assembly that Upper Canada ColJege was upheld at 
 great public expense, with high salaries to its principal Masters — Lord Glenelg 
 observed in his Despatch of 5th December, 1835 : — 
 
 " His Majesty's Government can have no wish to retain any charge for this 
 Establishment, which may be more than adequate to provide for the effective 
 performanc;5 of the duties of the Teachers. Any wise retrenchment of that 
 nature may, subject to the principles already mentioned, be immediately introduced. 
 That the Province derives little benefit from this College, is a fact of which the 
 explanation is to be found, not in the principle of the Institution itself, but in 
 some error of management, susceptible, as it should seem, of an easy remedy. 
 
 " On the subject of King's College, — an unfortunate difTerence of opinion exists 
 between the Council and the Assembly, which each of these bodies concurs in 
 pronouncing incurable. 
 
 " His Majesty commands me to tender, tV ^h you, his mediation on this 
 subject With the previous assent of bot' ouses, the King will cheerfully 
 resume the consideration of the question, in what manner a Charter could be most 
 conveniently prepred, so as to promote the interests of Science and Literature, 
 and the study ot Theology and Moral Philosophy, with a due regard to the 
 opinions which seem to prevail in the Province, respecting the proper constitution 
 and objects of an University. But after having distinctly referred to the Local 
 Legislature the duty of giving effect to their own wishes on the subject, m the 
 form of an Act of General Assembly, his Majesty cannot, at the instance of one 
 only of the two Houses, withdraw it from their cognizance." 
 
 Lord Glenelg's instructions to the Lieutenant Governor were laid before the 
 Assembly, but events of a more pressing nature soon absorbed the attention of the 
 Province, and the subject of University Reform was for a time la* I aside. The 
 contest between Sir Francis Head and the House of Assembly, respecting the 
 responsibility of the Executive Council, created a serious rupture, which ultimately 
 led to the refusal of the supplies, and terminated in the dissolution of Parliament. 
 Whatever the real merits of that contest may have been, it is certain that in 
 consequence of the extraordinary course then pursued by the Lieutenant Governor, 
 the tone and character of the next House of Assembly, did not reflect the true 
 state of popular feeling on many of the important questions which had previously 
 agitated the country. No change had exhibited itself in the sentiments of the 
 people on the subject c»f the University, but the elections had been decided on a 
 question of a more exciting character — visionary, indeed, of itself, but sufficiently 
 plausible to afford available capital for Government agitation. The question of 
 " British Connection" was represented as depending on the votes of the electors at 
 the Hustings — and so successfully was the country deluded by a mere election- 
 eering trick of the Government, that many individuals whose loyalty would 
 otherwise have been far above suspicion, were deprived of their seats on account 
 of their strenuous maintenance of popular rights. Notwithstanding the personal 
 aversion, however, entertained by the majority of the new Parliament to interfere 
 with the Charter of the University, the necessity of some alteration in its 
 constitution was forced upon them by the prevailing sentiments of the country, 
 and the modifications effected, however Reluctantly admitted and injudiciously 
 
48 
 
 made, at least settled the great principle for which the peoj)le had so long and 
 anxiously struggled — the right of all classes and denominations to a full and free 
 participation in the benefits of the Institution. 
 
 In November, 1836, a Committee consisting of Messrs. Diaper, Burwell, 
 Aikman, Sherwood and Cameron, were appointed to frame a Bill, which would 
 meet the demands of the country without being obnoxious to the illiberal principles 
 of the Legislative Council. The Committee accordingly reported a Bill to amend 
 the Charter of King's College ; and as the principle upon which this measure was 
 framed will claim some i.nportance in the argument which it is proposed, in a 
 subsequent chapter, to deduce from the historical sketch which has been given, 
 it is proper to quote the principal amendments. ^^ • 
 
 After reciting the original Charter, the Bill enacted that the Judges ot his 
 Majesty's Court of King's Bench shouidt for and on behalf of the King, be 
 Visitors of the College, in the place and stead of the Lord Bishop of the Diocese 
 of Quebec* for the time being, and that " the President of the said University, on 
 any future vacancy, shall be appointed by his Majesty, his Heirs and Successors, 
 without requiring that he should be the Incumbent of any Ecclesiastical office; 
 and that the members of the College Council, including the Chancellor and 
 President, shall be twelve in number, of whom the Speakers of the two Houses 
 of the Legislature of the Province, and his Majesty's Attorney and Solicitor 
 General for the time being, shall be four, and the remainder shall consist of the 
 live Senior Professors of Arts and Faculties of the said College, and of the 
 Principal of the Minor or Upper Canada College ; and in case there shall not at 
 any time be five Professors as aforesaid in the said College, and until Profesaora 
 shall be appointed therein, the Council shall be filled with members to be appointed 
 as in the said Charter is provided, except that it shall kot be necessary that 
 any member of the College Council to be so appointed, or that any member of 
 the said College Council, or any Professor, to be at any time appointed, shall be 
 a member of the Church of England, or subscribe to any Articles of Religion, 
 ether than a declaration that they believe in the authenticity and divine inspiration 
 of the Old and New Testaments, and in the doctrine of the Trinity : and further, 
 that no religious tests of qualification be required or appointed for any person 
 admitted or matriculated jxA Scholars within the said College, or of persons 
 admitted to any degree or faculty therein.'* 
 
 The Bill passed both Houses of the Legislature without opposition, and received 
 the Royal Assent on 4th March, 1837. 
 
 The principle of perfect religious equality among Christians professing the 
 doctrine of the Trinity, thus recognised by the Legislature in the abandonment of 
 the Episcopal test in the Amended Chatter, was supposed to have tetminated the 
 struggle for religious freedom in this great educaiional institution. The University 
 was satisfactorily divested of the tUpiscopal character imposed upon it by the 
 original Charter, and the special claim of any Religious denomination to exclusive 
 privileges and provisions was intetitiotially barred. Unfortunately for the 
 
49 
 
 Institution the individual, whose violent hostility to popular freedom and the rights 
 of conscience, will give to his name an unenviable prominency in the civil and 
 religious annals of this Province, was lelt by the Amended Charter at the head of 
 the management; and thus the struggle which the i)eople fondly believed to have 
 been terminated by the interposition of Parliament, was renewed and maintained 
 with hostility as determined, and zeal and energy as persevering as ever on the 
 part of those whose duty it was to carry the principles on which the University 
 was finally established into operation. The sup|X)sed termination of the public 
 contest for principle, which appeared to make a full recognition of the r'ghts of 
 all denominations of Trinitarian Christians was a mere truce, that the battle might 
 be fought on different ground. The scene of operations was merely changed from 
 the Parliament of the Province to the Council Board of the University. But 
 before we transfer the combatants to this new arena, in which some remarkable 
 manifestations of character have been made, it is befitting that we briefly review 
 the ground over which we have ti-avelled. ■ • - "• ^ 
 
 In a more discursive history of the University of King's College, the intimate 
 connection of that institution with the agitating questions in education and religion, 
 which have for so many years disturbed this Colony, should have been exhibited 
 more fully than the pretensions of the present sketch have permitted. And this 
 might easily have been done, by setting forth on the one liand the 
 contemporaneous struggles of the people to obtain for themselves absolute 
 freedom of thought and action in matters of faith anv^ government, with equal 
 advantages to Christians of all denominations, so far as education and civil rights 
 were involved ; and on the other the attempt rashly and sternly persisted in by a 
 dominant compact, to introduce and perpetuate in this Province a dominant 
 Church, and a negative persecution of what that Church chose to denounce as 
 heterodox. 
 
 When the Clergy Reserves were set apart, it is jTossible that the formation of a 
 dominant Church established on the model of the Church of England may have 
 been intended — and had such an intention existed it would appear to us only as 
 the natural offspring of the state of religious intolerance, which prevailed in most 
 nations of Europe, where for centuries past religious struggles were not for 
 equality, but for domination ; and where each sect, witliout even professing 
 toleration, sought either to maintain i.'self in the national Church, or to reform 
 (hat Church to its own modsl. The Presbyterian form of worship and discipline, 
 after a futile attempt to force itself upon England, retired into the Church of 
 Scotland, and left Protestant Episcopacy the national English religion. The same 
 Sovereign, from the necessity of the case, became the earthly head of two 
 antagonist Churches, sworn to preserve and maintain them both ; and when the 
 question arose as to what should stand in the place of a national Church in 
 this Province, the Church of England, as by law established, may have been 
 solely intended, or the national Church of Scotland as equally by law established, 
 may have been ccmtemplated as co-existent with the Church of England. At all 
 events the law in setting apart the Clergy fteserves for a " Protestant Clergy," 
 G 
 
50 
 
 \^f 
 
 left the matter entirely open. But the Church of England decided the question 
 for herself, that she had exclusive claim to a true Protestant Clergy, and thus got 
 possession of the appropriation. .. ,[-!.■•" - 
 
 The original claim of the Church of England to the School Lands did not 
 indeed rest upon the prima facie title by which she maintained her right to the 
 Clergy Reserves. For in this case the endowment was placed in the hands 
 of the Legislature for the purposes of general education — while in the former it 
 was granted with a restriction which seemed to favour her pretensions. ITcr claim 
 to the School Lands therefore could only be maintained on her assumed right as an 
 Established Church to have the exclusive direction of popular education. 
 
 The first attempt at resistance to her monopoly of the Clergy Reserves arose on 
 the part of the members of the Church of Scotland in Canada, who claimed that 
 their Clergy were Protestant — and not only Protestant, but actually so, as by law 
 established. Both the contending parties forgot that it was the people of England, 
 and the people of Scotland, respectively, who, after many years of bloody 
 contention, established their Churches in their respective kingdoms — and that 
 what should thereafter be the national Church in the American Colony, if it 
 should ever have one, depended, not upon the will of the Britis^h Parliament, but 
 upon the faith and doctrines which should be adopted by the future Colonists on 
 their own behalf. Happily, very happily for Canada, the claims of the Scottish 
 Church, though strongly advocated in England, were too weak to prevail against 
 the influence of the Archdeacon of York. The conflict between the rival Churches 
 created sufficient noise to a.vaken at length those who belonged to neither; 
 and these latter, naturally enough, asked themselves, whether they wanted a 
 national Church at all. The Scottish Church being considerably the weaker, was 
 baffled in the fight, and joined the independent sects in a combined attack upon 
 the supremacy of Episcopacy; and eventually a national religion, or in other 
 words a form of religion conferring exclusive rights or advantage's upon its 
 adherents, became to most intents and purposes a shadow or an empty name. ' 
 
 The High Church party among the Episcopalians, instead of maintaining that 
 the Church of England existed here as a national Church, and that therefore the 
 support granted by Parliament for a Protestant Clergy belonged to this Eslablish- 
 ment, contended that the Clergy Reserves were granted and consecrated inalienably 
 to the Church of England as such in this Colony — and for the Clergy they claimed 
 as grantees the whole benefit of the Reserves. The question was mainly debated 
 in this form — but in this shape the real point was avoided. And as the question 
 has an intimate bearing on the claim which the Episcopal Church has set up to 
 the exclusive control of the University, we shall endeavour to place it in its true 
 shape, with such illustration as may be necessary to shew our meaning. 
 
 We hold that any people may, by means adapted to their form of Government, 
 erect and endow a national Church. This national Church may be Roman 
 Catholic, and may become Protestant Episcopalian, or Presbyterian, or Methodist, 
 according to the will of the nation constitutionally expressed. And, by a parity 
 
51 
 
 of reasoning, as the Church may, in a legal point of view, change its doctrine 
 and still remain a national Church, so the same power which created it, may 
 create many co-exiatent national Churches, or it may do without any national 
 Church whatever. • . ;>..^ 
 
 At the Reformation in England, besides the confiscations of property appropriated 
 to the Church and taken for slate purposes — which confiscations we are not 
 obliged here to defend or condemn — the ecclesiastical benefices throughout the 
 nation were filled with Protestants in the room of Roman Catholics. The 
 appropriations were originally made for the national Church, — not for the Koman 
 Catholic Church ; — and the property being national and not Roman Catholic, it 
 continued without wrong in the national Church when it became reformed, and 
 with that reformation forsook the Church of Rome. This could not have been 
 the case had the property attached to the doctrine, or had it been considered 
 in the light of an estate vested in the Romish Church as once established in 
 England. i,.' ,r >, 
 
 In the same manner in Scotland Episcopacy and Presbyterianism held Church 
 benefices alternately, as either prevailed : but the benefices have continued national, 
 and have followed the Church to this day. 
 
 Now it is very plain that had England and Scotland contained so many religious 
 persuasions, upon terms of eqi ility, or nearly so, as regarded members and wealth, 
 as to make it impossible for any one to establish a supremacy, the national Church 
 property could not have continued with any one sect. There must, in fact, have 
 been many national Churches, or no national Church at all. 
 
 As regards this Province, it may have been the intention of King George III., 
 or of his Majesty's Parliament, or of his Ministers, that the people of Canada 
 should be all of the faith of the Church of England, or that some portions should 
 profess the doctrines of the Church of Scotland, and that the Canadian Protestant 
 Church should consist of one or both, as a National Church, but it is clear that 
 events did not fulfil the intention. The people of the country, through a diversity 
 of causes, became divided into many religious communities, no one of them 
 having sufficient predominance in numbers or influence to be t/i£ Church- The 
 Upper Canada Legislature repeatedly desired to have no such Church; and thev 
 prayed— as they had a right to do — that the Clergy Reserves should be appropriated 
 to secular education. - - • i- • 
 
 By the late division of the proceeds of Clergy Reserves among different religious 
 denominations, the principle has been established in Canada as regards state 
 support — not that there should be no Church, but that there should be many 
 Churches ; and as regards any exclusive privilege or monopoly of civil advantages, 
 we have not, thank Heaven, in Canada, a vestige of a dominant Church, except 
 in the University of King's College. 
 
 As all Church endowment from national funds is for the religious instruction 
 of the community — however their faith or doctrine may change or vary — so is 
 all public endowment for educational purposes liable to be modified lor the benefit 
 
of the people to be instructed : and as an endowment made in Romish times was 
 not one necessarily attached to the Roman Catholic faith, neither is a public 
 endowment for educational purposes — supposing even that it had originally 
 provided for religious instruction in a particular faith — a grant to the professors 
 of that faith, but a grant for a public purpose which must be liable to modiiication 
 so as to serve the end for which it was originally appropriated. 
 
 The University of Oxford once taught the Roman Catholic faith r it is now 
 the chief source ot religions education for a Protestant Church. Could this have 
 been so with any regard to justice had the endowment been held to be Roman 
 Catholic, and not national ? ■ ', f 
 
 The late Clergy Reserve Act is based upon the principle not merely of religious 
 toleration — but of perfect religious equality. Whatever inequality may exist in 
 the distribution of the funds, the principle is preserved in all its integrity. We 
 look upon the passing of that Act as a great event in the establishment of religious 
 freedom, not the less valuable btcause it was not accomplished through blood 
 and violence ; but there yet remains alter the wreck of Church predominancy — 
 the wretched attempt of the Council of King's College to invest the Episcopal 
 Church with the attributes of an exclusive education at the public expense — and 
 when that Institutiou is made public, and sacred for public purpose", and not a 
 nest in which a Clergy can hatch their schemes of Church predominancy — 
 Canada then» and not till then will have religious freedom with absolute religious 
 equality. 
 
 But in the settlement of what the character of King's College should finally he, 
 this strange anomaly exists. King's College de jure is unconditionally an 
 establishment for the education of the Canadian people. De facto it is an 
 exclusive institution for the education of a mere section professing the doctrines 
 of the Church of England. Abstractedly the principle of religious equality has 
 been determined by the law — while practically religious predominancy has beea 
 imposed by the Council. The obvious conclusion is -not that the principle 
 established^by the Legislature should be changed — but that the parties who have 
 inverted the law and insulted its majesty should be superseded. The remedy i» 
 one which the law, even without legislative aio> daily applies towards those who 
 have betrayed their trust and frustrated its purposes. In this case the principal 
 object of Parliamentary interference will be to restore public confidence to aim 
 institutiou whose purposes have been scandalously perverted by its Trustees. 
 
 ■ ■;'<■■ '"■ 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 THE ORIGInTl COUNCIL. 
 
 The original Charter ordained that the Corporation called or known by the 
 name of " the College Council" should consist of " the Chancellor and President 
 of Ihe CoUeg.e for the time being," and of ** seven of the Professors in Arts and 
 
53 
 
 Facnities ;** and in order to provide for the management of the University by the 
 formation of a Council previoas to the appointment of Professors, power was 
 given to the Chancellor '* to appoint seven discreet and proper persons resident 
 within our said Province of Upper Canada, to constitute jointly with him the said 
 Chancellor and President of omv said College, for the time being, the first or 
 original Council." It was also declared that such persons should vacate their 
 seats at the Council Bo^rd immediately on the Professors being appointed. 
 
 The proceedings of the Council under the original Charter, so far as connected 
 with the public history of the University, have been incidentally noticed in the 
 preceding chapters. To the members of that body are to be traced all the 
 obstacles which were thrown in the way of the Parliament and the people in 
 their long and arduous struggle for equality of rights in the University as a 
 national School of learning and science. Compelled at length to submit to a 
 partial modification of their exclusive system, the Council directed all the energy 
 and influence of which they were possessed to defeat the intentions of the 
 legislature in opening ihe institution to the various religious denominations in the 
 Province, and to place it permanently under an exclusively Episcopal manage- 
 ment. The Amended Charter did not in any rispect alter the mode in which the 
 Council was to be constituted, but it restricted the number of Professors who were 
 to have a seat at the Board to " the five senior Professors of Arts and Faculties,'* 
 and extended the number of the whole Council to twelve — the Speakers of the 
 Houses of Parliament, the Attorney and Solicitor General, and the Principal ot 
 Upper Canada College being members ex-officiis. 
 
 The design of the High Church party to defeat the principle of the Amended! 
 Charter was not long sufiered to lie dormant. Within a few weeks after the 
 Aoyal Assent to the modifications ot the Charter had been obtained. Dr. Strachan 
 enunciated to the Council another of his invaluable " schemes" for making the 
 University subservient at once to the interests of the Episcopal Church, and to aa 
 enlargement of his personal and pecuniary advantages. The new proposition*, 
 which he submitted to the Council on 26th April, 1837, affords a curiou» 
 specimen of the consummate art with which he attempted to ingraft his personal 
 influence on the subordinate departments of the institution, so as to render hi» 
 authority co-extensive with its most minute details. In other respects it presents. 
 a no less happy illustration of the confidence with which this " Universal 
 Doctor" was inspired in his own pre-eminent qualifications as a public teacher- 
 After a passing tribute to the High Church University of King's College, London^ 
 he thus proceeded t» place his intellectual resources at the disposal of his country r 
 
 " Besides general superintendance, it is proposed to make the services of the 
 President available for the Professorship of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, 
 with Christian Ethics and Political Economy. It will likewise be his duty to 
 instruct such Students as belong to the Establishment in Christian Theology." 
 
 It might be no easy matter to determine the precise amount of loss sustained by 
 the youth of Canada in being deprived of the services of Dr. Strachan as an 
 Academical Encyclopediar— but we have at least the guarantee of Dr. Strachaft's 
 
Ml...: 
 
 . ^ji<i- 
 
 54 
 
 modest assurance that the faculty of discoursing on such abstruse subjects as 
 
 Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, Political Economy, Christian Ethics and 
 
 Christian Theology, may be acquired in a less intellectual atmosphere than within 
 
 the walls of an University, For at what far-famed Academy did this " UaiYersal 
 
 Doctor," _ , • - " ;,,., I 
 
 " Qui tria, qui septem, qui omne scibile novit," ^ , 
 
 complete the cycle of universal study ? Truly we may felicitate ourselves on the 
 wonderful achievements of the Clergy since the times of an early English 
 Monarch who was wont to complain that not a single priest south of the Thames, 
 and very few on the north, could read either Latin or English. But our admira- 
 tion of Dr. SUachan's innate excellencies rises into adoration when he informs us 
 that " the labor will not be so great as on a slight view might be anticipated," 
 and that he does not intend to conline his services to the fluent discovery of those 
 illimitable stores of learning which would have delighted and instructed remote 
 posterity, but that he will also generously undertake the task of selecting the 
 Professors for the various departments of Art and Science which excessive 
 diffidence alone prevented him from pre-occupying. In this latter instance of his 
 enterprise it may have been that the bright forms of Crosier and Chaplains 
 floated before the prophetic vision of this learned Doctor, and that he w as sliiihtly 
 influenced by the consideration that another visit to England at the public experi&e 
 might place within his grasp the objects of his devout solicitude — but apart from 
 such motives of piety, it was highly proper that his learned colleagues and fellow 
 labourers in the Council and in the College should be men untainted by the 
 heterodoxy in politics and religion which was evidently diffiising itself over the 
 Province of Canada. He, therefore, proceeds in the developement of his scheme ; 
 
 " So soon as matters are in a proper train, it is submitted that the President be 
 authorised to proceed to England, to select the Library, Apparatus, &c., likewise 
 to assist in choosing suck ejjicient professors as are calculateij to live in thb 
 
 CLIMATE." 
 
 How interesting is the worthy Doctor's anxiety for the physical qualifications 
 of the professors ! Not a word escapes him of their due instruction in the 
 Thirty-nine Articles and the doctrine of passive obedience. Every orthodox 
 consideration is merged in a parental soii.itude for long life, and we are naturally 
 led to anticipate proposals for Policies of Assurance, or at least the sanatory 
 recommendation of a frequent and careful perusal of Sir John Sinclair's invaluable 
 Code of Health. It is doubtless a malicious exercise of ingenuity to trace under 
 this specious proposition, a well planned design for rivetting the fetters of an 
 Episcopal ascendancy on the University. For although the modihrations effected 
 by the Legislature were intended to deprive the Institution of the Episcopal 
 restrictions imposed on it by the Oiiginal Charter, yet it was sufficiently obvious 
 that if Dr. Strachan could succeed in lillmg the Council Board and the Profesf^ors' 
 chairs with individuals hostile to the rights of the other Christian denominations 
 and sufficiently subservient to his own authority, the intentions of the Legislature 
 might be clandestinely frustrated, and the University would speedily resume it» 
 
66 
 
 original character. The very absurdity of its pretensiona, however, destir.ed Ihc 
 scheme to defeat. A copy of the detailed proposition found its way into thft 
 public prints, and so agitated the country with merriment that Dr. Straclian found 
 it convenient to restrict his pretensions to the Chair of Theology. m /m ' r. ,-■; 
 
 The " scheme" was only abandoned to be re-proJuced in another shape. D:. 
 Strachan*8 ambition was at length gratified with the object of his devout aspira- 
 tions. The high dignity to which he had attained, as Episcopal Bishop of 
 Toronto, was incompatible with the humbler duties of a Professor's Chair: but 
 it became necessary, in such circumstances, to maintain, in the University, the 
 unbroken chain of Episcopal succession. 
 
 The Original Charter ordained that " the Reverend John Strachan, Doctor in 
 Divinity, Archdeacon of York," should be "the first President of our said 
 College," and that the President should be ex-qfficio a member of the Council. It 
 does not contemplate the exercise of any extraordinary power on the part of the 
 President beyond that of any other member, further than the right of presiding at 
 the meetings of the University, and exercising the usual functions of a Chairman. 
 His other duties necessarily begin and end in the Council, and his authority in the 
 University extends simply to matters as to which the Council may give him a 
 special delegation. As a recompense for these common duties as a Trustee in 
 the management o^ the property, he had contrived to appropriate for alout twelve 
 years the annual salary of JC250 sterling, which was regularly paid until Sii 
 George Arthur put a stop to this disgraceful misapplication of the funds. In 
 consequence of this untoward circumstance, Dr. Strachan's zeal for the University 
 appears to have experienced some abatement, but it was scarcely to be expected 
 that he would relinquish the influence which he had so long exercised without 
 making a violent effort to secure an identity of interest and disposition in his 
 successor. , , ...... ,. .. • • ,,-,«•£ 
 
 The political changes to which the Province was soon afterwards subjected, 
 afforded ample opportunity for putting in operation the new series of intrigues 
 which we are now to place before the public. The active interference of the 
 successive Chancellors, Sir George Arthur and Lord Sydenham, had some efl'ect 
 in placing the financial affairs of the University on an improved basis, but the 
 general system and the character of the Council remained unchanged , and, at 
 length, the removal of the Seat of Government from Toronto, by depriving the 
 Council of the only members from whom enlarged views were likely to emanate, 
 left the University entirely in the hands of an Ecclesiastical Compact, whose 
 extravagant and unscrupulous conduct has brought it to the verge of ruin. 
 
 In anticipation of the University being speedily opened f < . the purposes of 
 instruction, it became an object of paramount importance in the Council to make 
 arrangements for the change in its constitution consequent on the appointment 
 of Professors. The Charter distinctly recognised an order of precedence among 
 the Professors, and imposed certain duties upon " the Senior Professor," which 
 gave him rank and importance next to the President. In the aiiangemejits for 
 
ae 
 
 carrying the University into operation, a Professorship of Theolc^ was deter* 
 mined on, in direct opposition to the Amended Charter; and, following the 
 example of the older Universities, the Chair of Theology received the precedence 
 in a statute approved by the Chancellor, and passed by the Council. So long as 
 Dr. Strachan's claim to this Chair was preferred, this arrangement was, of course, 
 satisfactory to the parties by whom it had been planned ; but, on the abandonment 
 of that claim, it apijeared to the Council to be expedient — while any uncertainty 
 as to the individual who migh. receive the appointment existed — to defeat the 
 provisions of the Charter by a Council Statute better adapted to their sinister 
 purposes. Accordingly, favoured by the changes in the Head of the Govern- 
 ment, the Council framed a ne-^ Statute by which they determined the seniority 
 of the Professors on the principle of retaining in the Second Council the indivi- 
 duals who had been most prominent for their bigotry and High Church zeal in 
 the Original Council ; and thus ultimately succeeded in placing the University at 
 the most critical period of its existence — the commencement of its public opera- 
 tions — in the hands of parties who had never relinquished the intention of 
 converting it into an Episcopal College. 
 
 The new statute of the Council brought into existence an office unprecedented 
 in any i^cademic InsI itution in Europe. By concentrating an unlimited discretionary 
 power in one individual known to be favorable to their, designs, provision was 
 made for carrying out the schemes of the High Church' Party, without the solem- 
 nity of Statutes, which, if illiberal, might have received opposition either from the 
 Chancellor or the future Council. To guard against such a contingency the new 
 office of " Vice President," was created by a Council Statute — framed by a well 
 disposed Committee, of which the very individual for whose exclusive benefit it 
 was created was Chairman. The statute received the ready approval of his 
 spiritual colleagues ; and it swelled the brilliant series of retrospective " prefer- 
 ments," to which Dr. McCaul may have subsequently alluded in his brief for a 
 learned Counsel, by saddling the University with an annual burden of iC2oO 
 sterling — which it has been the means of conferring on Dr. McCaul, in addition 
 to the ample endowments he derives as one of the best paid Professors in the 
 University. The intention of the Statute obviously was to supersede the necessity 
 of a discretionary Council, and by placing in the hands of Dr. McCaul, already 
 notorious in the Province as a violent and bigotted High Church partizan, the 
 entire direction of the Institution, to reduce the Council itself to a nullity, or 
 at the best, a mere instrument for the gratification of his unbounded passion for 
 power. The office itself was not only repugnant to the spirit as well as the 
 letter of the Charter, but the powers and duties concentrated in the individual 
 whom the statute contemplated were directly at variance with the acknowledged 
 principles of law by which the functions of Trustees are regulated. 
 
 It will be afterwards a matter of some interest to enquire what were the nature 
 and extent of Dr. McCaul's proceedings under this appointment. At present it 
 is merely referred to in reference to its gross illegality. Not only is no such 
 officer contemplated by the Charter, but direct reference is made to the person 
 
m 
 
 who shall rank next to the President of the University, and who shall be entitled, 
 in absence of the President, to perform his duties, — namely, •* the senior member 
 bl the said Council present," and the precedence of this senior member is again 
 signiiicantly referred to in a subsequent part of the Ciiarter in which the Chan^ 
 cellor is enjoined " to consult with the President of our said College, and the 
 next senior member of the said College Council, respectint; all statutes^ rules and 
 ordinances to be proposed by him to the said Council for their consideration." 
 And the Charter further declared, that " the seniority of the ■members of the said 
 CoxmcUt otiier than the Chancellor and President, should be regulated according 
 to the date of tfteir respective appointments." Under these provisions it was 
 comipetent for the Council to have appointed Dr. McCaul a deaiv or proctor of the 
 UniTersrty — although the policy of conferring such office on one of the Professors 
 might have been questionable ; but in eiiher of these offices his duties would 
 harre been strictly ministerial ^ he would have been the servant of the Council, 
 hot its' dictator ; and his genius would have been applied to purposes for which 
 it was evidentiy intended — the enforcing a discipline which others more qualified 
 had projected, B»t it was obviously ultra vires of the Council to infringe the 
 ri^ts of *' the senior member," by the appointment of an officer who should 
 not only supersede him as one of the advisers of the Chancellor, and take 
 precedence ot him in the Council where his position was accurately determined 
 by the Chailer, but who should possess powers co-extensive with tliose of 
 the, Council itself.* 
 
 ^.* It is a well recognized principle in Equity, thai the office of Trustee being, one 
 of personal confidence it can in no case be delegated to another.- The existence of a 
 3iscTClionary trust is at variance with a delegation of ils execution to a stranger who 
 couM only be made responsible for ministerial acts. And it makes no ditierence that 
 the individual to whose instrumentality its execution is entrusted is a co-Trustee, 
 The authorised Trustees are not only personally answerable for all the mischievous 
 consequences of the delegation, but all the acts of the substitute which are of a 
 discretionary character are actvalhj void. It is notorious that under Dr. McCaul'a 
 disastrous management, the University incurred liabilities to an extent and of a 
 character far transcending the most profligate periods of the administration of the 
 University affairs. Valuable lands were recklessly disposed of to meet the pressing 
 exigencies caused by his frivolous and paerile extravagance and misapplication of the 
 trust property, and at this moment the University is struggling with pecuniary 
 difficulties which have already considerably impaired its efficiency, and actually 
 threaten its solvency unless immediately relieved by the sale of a large portion of the 
 endowment. An attempt is indeed being made to prevent a public exposure by 
 disposing of the University Lands,, but as the College Council has no authority under 
 the Charter to effect any such sales, so hazardous a speculation will scarcely tempt 
 purchasers whose rights will in all probability be defeated in a Court of Ecpity. 
 
 If the Statute itself was illegal ah initio, the manner in which the powers under it 
 have been executed has placed it far beyond the pale either of law or of reason. 
 Were the subject not associated with too grave considerations it would move to tears 
 of laughter to describe how 
 
 " Vaulting ambition hath o'erleaped itself," ' ' ''' 
 
 and to witness the misapplication of taleuts which might have m^de a pedagogue 
 respectable, but which re unhappily never designed by nature for the higher duties 
 of government in A University. The subject will, however, merit due consideration, 
 when the educational operations of the Institution fall to be detailed. 
 
 H 
 
58 
 
 ■•?5. 
 
 It IB certain tliat tlie appointment was considered to be illegal by the Law 
 Officers of the Crown — and that such is its effect will be sufficiently obvioM 
 from a summary of the discretionary powers ^vith which the Statute has invested 
 this anomalous officer. The statute proci Is on the preamble that the Te»idenc€i 
 of the President within the precincts of the University and his personal superiik- 
 tendance of its internal afiiiirs are incompatible with the discharge of his ecrleti* 
 astical duties. It therefore declares that there shall, during the Presidency of 
 the Bishop of Toronto, be a Vice-President, who shall be one of the Professori, 
 and who sltall have precedency and seniority next to the Presidait : that the Vice* 
 President shall reside within the precincts of the University: that be shall piesidt 
 at all meetings of the Convocation in absence of the Chancellor and President ; 
 (hat it sliali be his duty to examine Students previous to matrkulatioiiy to 
 maintain observance of the Statutes by the Professors, Scholars, and all oUier 
 members of the University — to enforce such observances and discipline by admoni- 
 tions and pimis/iments — to be the parent and guardian of the Students, to direct 
 them in tlieir studies — to promote by all means in his power their progress in 
 religion and learning — preside over College exercises — regulate inferior ojffieert 
 and servants— and inspect all the affairs of the College not appertaining to the 
 Bursafs office.* 
 
 The creation ol the office of " Vice-President," irrespective of its own meritf, 
 assumes an importance in the History of the University, from the circumstances 
 which followed the appointn^ent. It brought the rights of the respective Professora 
 ittto colliMon by involving the order of precedence in doubt, which was only 
 set at rest, after considerable delay, by the interposition of the authority of the 
 Chancellor, into whose hands the Professors deemed it necessary to sarrendei 
 their appointments. The authority of the Council was thus, for a time, placed 
 in abeyance, and during an interregnum of several months the favourable oppor* 
 tunity was seized by the Vice-President of gratifying his unsatiable passion foi 
 frivolous display and extravagance, with the zest to his disastrous Administration 
 that it was uncontrolled by any thing like personal responsibility. The absence 
 of responsibility during the abeyance of the Council affords, indeed, a striking; 
 ai^ument for the illegality of the office. It would be monstrous to suppose that 
 the guardians of a public triast could at any time throw off their responsibility to 
 the public by not only delegating the powers vested'eiiclusively in themselves toth* 
 instrumentality of an irresponsible officer — but actually bequeathing these powei» 
 -which could only be exercised — if they could be legally exercised by delegation at 
 all — duiing the existence of the original Trustees :— And yet to- whom was theViee* 
 President responsible ? Not, certainly, to the old Council, whose existence was 
 no longer recognized by the Charter; and, assuredly, not to the new Council, fot 
 he could possess no authority from them till his appointment had been confirmed' 
 And yet, during the interregnum, this officer usurped powers of administration 
 as ample as the first Council ever affected to possess, and signalised the period of 
 
 
 . * By another Statute of th« Council, the important concerns of the Bumw's officv 
 were confided to the parental care of the Bishop of Toronto. • ., 
 
59 
 
 \ki» usurpation by a daring violation of the provim'ons of the Legislative enactment 
 under which the University went into operation, by gross misapplication of the 
 funds of the Institution, and by the introduction of a discipline alike repugnant to 
 the feelings of the community and disastrous to the interests of tb' Jniversity. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 -J •■' THE OPENING OF THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 In June, 1843, under the Administration of the " Vice-President," the University 
 was opened for the purposes of Education. It is important to observe that this 
 step was taken while the authoK'y of the College Council v^as in abeyance, and 
 before a single statute had been passed for regulating and enforcing the govern- 
 ment and discipline of the Institution. All the preparatory arrangements seem to 
 have been made under the discretionary authority of Dr. McCaul, as Vice- 
 President; and as the same unlimited power extended over the whole of the first 
 term, his name may very justly be associated with tne singular details which 
 have given to the University its present tone and character. 
 
 The Council now felt themselves in a position to offer open violence to the 
 principles of the Amended Charter. Every eflbit was studiously made to impress 
 the public mind at the outset with their determination to defeat the intentions of 
 the Legislature by imposing an Episcopal character upon the Institution. Under 
 no authority from the Charter, but in flagrant violation of its spirit, a Theological 
 Chair had been established, from which the doctrines of the Church of England 
 were to be taught, by a Professor selected from the University of Oxford — the 
 fountain of orthodox illiberality and prejudice. With one exception, the Professors 
 bad been all taken from the bosom of the Episcopal Church, — a circumstance in 
 no respect detracting from their qualifications, but the result of something more 
 than accident, and certainly calculated to have a material influence on an 
 institution, which, in other respects, has been so carefully moulded to Episcopal 
 prejudices. A chapel had been fitted up at great expense for the exclusive 
 accommodation of the Episcopal members, in which every student was compelled, 
 unless favoured by the dispensation of the Vice-President, to worship daily 
 according to the ritual of the Church of England. In the most minute details of 
 dress and discipline, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which have been 
 ■o long distinguished for violent hostility to the Dissenters, were imitated with a 
 precision abundantly significant of the spirit in which the University of King's 
 College was to be governed. The frivolous taste of the Vice-President was amply 
 gratified with the mclo-dramatic efTect of caps, gowns, hoods, surplices, gilded 
 maces and baubles. Utterly destitute of that comprehensive grasp of intellect 
 whiph would have seized upon and incorporated those higher and nobler features 
 
I'. 
 I, 
 
 Wi'A .11' 
 ■1 
 
 % 
 
 
 60 
 
 which have rendered the ancient Universities of England venerable in spite of 
 their con-uptions, his genius p !oncd to soar no higher than the mere ia^Jrm'ng 
 department, in all the frivo. ^ea of which it revelled as if under the influence of 
 5 a miserable monomania, and of a silly anticipation that those venerable absurditios 
 which had grown up oa the banks of Isis and Cam, would impose upoa the 
 people of Canada, and would com})ensate lor the absence of all that was solid 
 and useful, and adapted to the position of the country, and to the genius and 
 wants of the people.* Undismayed by an Exchequer impoverished by its own 
 
 * We acknowledge a high respect for the Academic Institutions of England, but 
 jtione for the corruptions under which they labour. Nor has all the frothy declamation 
 of the Vice-President convinced us that England owes much of her renown to the 
 rystem upon which these exclusive Establisliments are conducted. It would be as 
 «bsurd to attribute the greatness of English literature to the course of Academic 
 instructions at the Universities, as it would be to trace the greatness of England's 
 commercial prosperity to the restrictions upon her trade. It is not, howevier, against 
 the Iftstitutions themselves that we are inclined to inveigh, but against the ^busea 
 which lie there permitted to flourish in exuberant rampancy. If we have formed an 
 unjust estimate ot their merits, we have at least the satisfaction of erring in company 
 with the greatest names of which English literature has to boast. Bacon spoke of 
 their constitution with reprobation. Milion condemned their injurious influence in 
 retarding the expansion of the mind. Dryden regietted the time which they had caused 
 him to misspend. Clarendon felicitated himself on his opcape from theih, Swifts 
 <jr»ay and Gibbon assailed them with the keenest shafts of their raillery '—and Juniua 
 described them as a " peaceful scene of slumber and thoughtless meditation." Jt 
 would be easy indeed to establish, by the testimony of a series of the most gifted 
 minds which Engle.ud eyer produced, that at no perio ' of their history have these 
 ancient Universities been free from gross corruptions anc defects, and we take advan* 
 tage of a note to quote a few of the authorities immediately at hand, and from whom a 
 more favourable representation might have been expected, if truth could have beea' 
 sacrificed for the sake of interest and inclination : , 
 
 *^ lu the Uoiversities they learn nothing but to believe ; first to believe that others 
 know that which they know not ; iand after, themselves know that which they know 
 not. They are like a becalmed ship ; they never move but by the wind of other 
 men's breath, and have no oars of their own to steer withal."— Bocore's Tract in 
 Praise of Knowledge, ^ ^ , ■. 
 
 " In the Universities, all things are found Oi^posite to the advancement of th^ 
 sciences ; for the readings and exercises are here so managed that it cannot easily 
 come into any one's mind to think of things out of the common road ; or if, here 
 ^nd there, one should venture to uae a liberty of judging, he can only impose the 
 task upon himself, without obtaining assistance from his fellows ; and if he could 
 dispense with this, he will still find his industry and resolution a great hindrance to 
 his fortune. For the studies of men in such places are confined, and pinned down 
 to the writings of certain authors ; from which, if any man happens to differ, he is 
 presently reprehended as a disturber and innovator." — Novuvi Organum, Ax. 90, lib. 1. 
 
 *' Such are the errors, such the fruits of misspending our prime youth at the Univer- 
 sities, as we do, either in learning mere words, or such things chiefly as were better 
 unlearned," — Milton's Tract on Education. 
 
 '♦ The two wells of learning, 0^ford and Cambridge, are dried up, students decayed,- 
 of which scarce an hundred are left of a thousand ; and if in seven years more they 
 should decay so fast, there would be ahnost none at all : so that the devil would make 
 a triumph, whilst there were none learned to whom to commit the flock."— D)"* 
 Bernard Gilpin's Sermons preached at Court, •.'atiii'^ 
 
 " The Universities, Oxford especially, have been unhappily successiul in corrupting 
 the p'Inciples of those who were sent to be bred at them ; so that few of them escaped 
 the taint of it ; and the generality of the Clergy were not only ill-principled, but iili 
 
61 
 
 |i(e of 
 ing 
 
 \\ce of 
 
 ri the 
 solid 
 
 i's and 
 own 
 
 reckless extravagance, a crowd of lacqueyed officials was employed to swell his 
 personal pomp, — as if to prove that an endowment for the public benefit was 
 to be administered as if nothing more was to be considered than the private 
 gratification of its Trustees.* ' • ■ ; ."iv-.i.i 
 
 tempered; they exclaimed against all moderation as endangering the Church ; though 
 it is visible, that the Church is in no sort of danger from either the numbers or the 
 interest that the dissenters have among us, which, by reason of the toleration, is now 
 so quieted that nothing can keep lip any iieat in those mattern, but the folly and bad 
 humour that the Clergy are possessed with, and which they infuse into alt those with 
 whom they have credit." " In those seats of education, instead of being formed to 
 love their country and constitution, the laws and liberties of it, they are rather disposed 
 to love arbitrary government, and to become slaves to absolute monarchy ; a change 
 of inierest, provocation, or some other consideration, may set them right again as to 
 the public ; but they have no inward principle of love to their country and of public 
 liberty ; so that they are easily brought to like slavery, if they may be the tools for 
 managing it." — Bishop BumcVs Hist. 
 
 '• Let him who is fond of indulging in a dream-like existence go fo Oxford, and stay 
 there ; let him study this magniticent spectacle, the same under all aspects, with its 
 mental twilight tempering the glare of noon-tide, or mellowing the shadowy moon- 
 light ; let him wander in her sylvan suburbs, or linger in her cloistered waifs ; but let 
 him not catch the din of scholars or teachers, or dine or sup with them, or speak o 
 word to any of the privileged inhabitants ; for if he t'oes, the spell will be broken, the 
 poetry and the religion gone, and the place of Hi^ enchantment will melt from his 
 embraces into thin air." "What has been the result of the system of education 
 pursued at the Universities ? During the last two centuries, one class of statesmen 
 has resisted all improvement, and their opponents have been hurried into intemperate 
 alterations ; whilst philosophy, lamenting these contentions, has, instead of advancing 
 the science of government, been occupied in counteracting laws founded upon erro- 
 neous principles ; erroneous commercial laws ; erroneous laws against civil and 
 religious liberty ; and erroneous criminal laws." — Montague's Life of Bacon. 
 
 *• Founded by priestcraft, closely linked with its professors in the earliest times, and 
 always in the hands of the ruling powers of the Church, the Universities have in every 
 age been most exclusively appropriated to the education and usages of the Establish- 
 ment and its members. The most rigorous compliance with its doctrines has always 
 been exacted ; the strictest exclusion of all Dissenters from it has uniformly been 
 practised. As long as Popery was the religion of the State, the Universities were 
 rigidly Catholic ; and indeed their endowments, in by far the greater part, proceeded 
 from the bounty and piety of Romanists, and were given for the propagation of the 
 Romish faith, and the inculcation of the Romish discipline. When the State threw 
 off its allegiance to the Pope, and became Protestant, the Universities followed, and 
 piously directed all the donations and bequests of their Catholic founders to the 
 destruction of the Catholic religion, embracing the reformed faith, with the intolerance 
 of their old profession, and transferring to Dissenters the hatred which they had 
 formerly borne to the doctrine and discipline of Protestants. But this hatred was very 
 cordial, if not very consistent; and no participation in their endowments could ever be 
 hoped for by any one who was not prepared to avow an implicit belief in the dogmas 
 of the Churcl and testify it by an outward observance of her ritual every day, as well 
 as by occasional declarations and signatures of a more solemn kind " — Edin. Rev. 
 Aug. 1825. 
 
 " One fortnight," observes Dr. Pusey, *' comprises the beginning and end of all the 
 public instruction which any condidate tor Holy Orders is required to attend, previously 
 to entering upon his profession." 
 
 " The University of Oxford," Professor Sewell confesses, '• is not an enlightened 
 body — we (its members) have little liberality in religion, andjwe study logic in a very 
 humble way." 
 
 * It is a deplorable fact that the number of salaried Oillcerp in King's College nearly 
 equals that of the Students who have matriculated during the three first terms. 
 
62 
 
 Its. 
 
 t 4'-. 
 
 the 
 
 The gross and anile attempt to establieili the Collegial residence and discipline 
 in all those unimpaircf' detormilit's which have caused the eniikience of Cambridge 
 to alternate in fearful oscillation between a School of Learning and of 
 Licentiousnesss, showed how little this Vice-President knew or understood 
 the history and character of those Institutions Uj n whose mechanism he seems 
 to have gaxed with a sort of savage bewilderment, without being able to com- 
 prehend any one of the principles \ipon which it had been set in motion or kept in 
 operation. Under his admini^itration, the first of a series of Monastic Establish- 
 ments has been completed at a ruinous sacrifice of the endowment, with no other 
 apparent object than ihat of giving the University the paltry monopoly of the 
 
 board and lods<ing of a handful of Students. 
 
 ... ...,,•■,. ,.1, ,,•■-» 
 
 It is, indeed, an undeniable fact, that such establishments, formed on 
 Monkish model, me to be found at Oxford and Cambridge, but it is no less true 
 th.\t they hove been the j)rincipul causes of the immorality which prevails to an 
 alarming extent at Ihe&e famous Schools, and they are now only tolerated as part 
 of an ancient system, — the necessities under which they were instituted having 
 long ceased to exist. In early times, the English Universities were not merely 
 national, but were, in every sensf,, osmopolite Institutions. During the middle 
 ages. Students flocked to them as the Schools of eminent teachers, from every 
 country in Europe. The vast concourse of Students occasioned a scarcity of 
 lodgings and t corbitant demands for rent in the towns where they were 
 established, and a serious difficulty was thus created to the poorer classes of 
 Students, whose means were unable to meet the demands which the increasing 
 celebrity of the Schools occasioned. The benevolence of individuals was 
 stimulated to relieve the Students of a burden, which many of them could ill 
 afford to bear, by providing them with free lodging during the progress of their 
 studies ; and the domestication of the Students consequently became a prominent 
 part of the system. Some oi the Colleges had, indeed, been founded solely for 
 the support of indigent Scholars, but the practice of domestication has been, in a 
 great measure, perpetuated at Oxford and Cambridge by the illegal monopoly 
 which the private Colleges have usurped over the national Universities. In every 
 other country in Europe the system of domestication has been gradually, but 
 certainly, relinquished, as altogether unsuitable to the character and not required 
 by the necessities of the times. The University buildings present nothing more 
 than an aggregation of class-rooms, in which the proper business of the University 
 is conducted with reference to the public benefit, and not as Normal Schools for 
 the trai ling of Vice-Presidents, at the pubLc expense. It was reserved, however, 
 for Canada to lead the way in a revival of those Monkish features of the ancient 
 Universities, as if the more sincerely to evince the Pu<ieyite tendencies of her 
 population by the adoption of a system to which she was constrained neither by 
 her necessities nor her interests.* 
 
 W- 
 
 * The oriijin of the Collegial system was almost contemporaneous with the nstablirii* 
 ment of the apcient Universities, and was adopted from the University of Paris, which 
 WEB the model upon which the English and most of the Continental Univ«.»«itieo 
 
 Hi 
 
|ipline 
 >ridge 
 [d of 
 rstood 
 eems 
 eom- 
 ipt in 
 ^lish. 
 I other 
 )f the 
 
 63 
 
 It is with the morale of the eyatem upon which the College Couiicil arc 
 proceeding that we have at present to do. Their eccentric taute for architectural 
 embellishments and economical arrangemen'i, and the adaptation oi their nricans 
 to the end proposed, will be more appropriately dibctissed in the subfiequent Chai'tcr. 
 But surely the people of Canada do not require to I)e warned against the 
 fearful demoralization and licentiousness, which the system of domestication will 
 inevitably introduce. We dare not stain our pages by more than a bare 
 reference to those immoral practices, which, notwithstanding the vigilance of an 
 extensive police, prevail to an alarming extent at Oxford and Cambridge. The 
 truth of the charges which have been frequently made against these Institutions 
 has been lately established in the Briiish Parliament by revelations from the 
 personal experience of some of its most distinguished members. The hopeless 
 insubordination that has hitherto attended Dr. McCaul's administration will 
 scarcely afibrd a guarantee for purity of morals at King's College under the 
 monastic system, and under an enlarged sphere of action. Nor can any plea of 
 necessity be adduced for so hazardous an experiment in a city where there exists 
 sufficient competition among Boarding Establishments and ample accommodation 
 for the largtBi mflux of Students that could bt anticipated, even were the 
 University to accomplish the purposes for which it has been established by iaw< 
 
 The only argument to which any weight can be ai'ached for retaining the 
 system of doniestication in the English Universities is, singularly enough, the 
 only one which the Trustees of King's College seem to )mve despised — namely, 
 the opportunities which it has aflbrded to indigent scholars of a complete course 
 of academic instruction. To the honour of England it should be acknowledged, 
 that she has offered facilities to persons from the very humblest walks in life for 
 rendering themselves masters of all the knowledge that it was in the power ol 
 the most learned Professors to bestow ; and it is a pleasing rellection that some of 
 the greatest names which have adorned her Universities thus owe their greatness 
 to her bounty. But to the ineffable disgrace of Canada, a noble endowment, which 
 was calculated to afiord to its youth a liberal education, adapted to the necessities 
 of a young country, has been so frittered down and wasted by wilful extravagance, 
 misapplication, and a base thirst for personal aggrandizement, that at the present 
 moment she has not wherewithal to educate a free scholar at her University, "• ' 
 
 were formed. In Germany, the Collegial Establishments never obtained a at. ' si 
 predominance over the functions of the Universities. In the older Universities of tlie 
 Empire, the system of Conventual Establishments only extended to the habitation, 
 aliment, and superintendence of the youth, and such institutions were no where called 
 into existence after the comnaencemettt of the sixteenth century. Prague, Vienna, 
 Heidelberg, Cologne, Leipsie, and a few others, all possegsed, in early times, sucb 
 establishments ; but since the revival of Letters they have been unable to maintain 
 «ny importance.. In England, where thev have long usurped the functions of the 
 Univeraitiea, the Colleges have owed their stability to their immense wealth. The 
 narrow system of tutorial instruction has accordingly predominated, and has tended, 
 in a remarkable degree, to impair the efficiency of the Universities. This is no vague 
 dbarge against these Institutions, but has been long a matter of complaint by tbeir 
 warmest admirers. 
 
64 
 
 I 
 
 !*•' 
 
 It would be unnecessary to waste argument on the system of general tlometti- 
 cation, when the (lc«igns ot its jirojectors are obnoxious to a more aggravated 
 charge than that of imbecility. Tlie attempt is subservient to the great scheme 
 which the Council have cherished with undying aflfction, — to convert the 
 University, by the instrumentality of domestic superintendence, into a nursery of 
 High Church prejudice and intolerance. And in pursuance of this design, another 
 purpose lavourable to the same object will be elFected. The buildings necessary 
 for the proposed domestic accommodation, and which can never be adapted to 
 any other purpose, will make such an inroad on the endowment as will efiiictually 
 silence all demands for a partici])ation in its benefits by the other Christian sects. 
 The modification of the system which has been introduced until the monastic 
 arrangements have been completed, has proved its perfect adaptation to the 
 purposes intended. The agf^regate fees of the Student? during the first and second 
 terms have been found just suliicient to cover the expeiise of their dinners; but 
 the practice has affiuded an admirable opportunity lor introducing those venerable 
 High Church toasts which lend their potent qualities to the small beer with which 
 the Students are regaled on these festive occasions. The Vice-President, unwilling 
 to put a stop to such virtuous ebullitions of youthful orthodoxy, has with much 
 liberality granted dispensations to such of the Students as have interposed their 
 prejudices to the general current of orthodox sentiment. ^ j , 
 
 It was an ominous circumstance that the first step which was publicly taken in 
 opening the llniversity, should have been chargeable with gross and reprehensible 
 deception. The Students were called upon to subscribe a declaration of obedience 
 to the Statutes, Rules and Ordinances, framed under the provisions of the charier ; 
 and the Vice-President gave the sanction of his authority to this solemn mocker)', 
 under the full consciousness that not a single Statute had been passed by the 
 Council which could in any respect aflect the discipline of the institution. The 
 Charter had indeed ordained that the discipline and government of the University 
 shottld be enforced through the operation of Statutes ^ but as the Council had 
 dete*mined that the Charter should only take eflect in so far as it favoured their 
 sinister designs, they foresaw that they could outrage the law with more perfect 
 impunity by transferring the government to an irresponsible officer, than by 
 placing that officer under the operation of illegal statutes, on the evidence of which 
 they might have been brought to punishment for a b'Jtrayal of their trust. 
 
 The design of subverting the law by a secret evasion of the provisions of the 
 charter was incautiously but strikingly disclosed in the Inaugural Address of the 
 President, whose literary prcd>^lictions have so frequently proved disastrous to the 
 " schemes" of his party. He alluded to the principles of the original charter in 
 terms expressive of the value he attached to his own exertions in behalf of the 
 Episcopal Church. He characterised it as " the most liberal that could be framed 
 on constitutional principles,"— and denounced those who had struggled for equality 
 of tights, and whose claims had received the sanction of a parliamentary modifi- 
 cation of its exclusive provisions, as " turbulent spirits," who " had taken much 
 pains by calumnies and misrepresentations to poison the minds of the i)eople 
 
kvated 
 theme 
 [t the 
 fry of 
 liother 
 ssary 
 ted to 
 ually 
 sects, 
 iiastic 
 the 
 cond 
 but 
 erabie 
 which 
 trilling 
 much 
 their 
 
 G5 
 
 against the charter." He referred in terms of warm admiration to the resistance 
 which the College Council had uniformly made to " the unchristian intrigues and 
 dissensions" by which their designs had at length been Irustrated. The London 
 University, to which in some respects the Amended Charter had assimilated the 
 University of King's College, he denounced as " an infidel attempt which had 
 signally failed, as all such godlcf^s imitations of Bnbcl ever must." " The same 
 considerations," he observed, " also convince me that had the University been 
 permitted to proceed under the lloyal Charter without alteration, it would have 
 been far more efficient for all the purposes intended, than in its present form." 
 And he defended a recurrence to the original system on the ground that the 
 Episcopalians were now entitled to an exclusive University, inasmuch as the other 
 sects had recently evinced their exclusive predelictions by the establishment of 
 Colleges adapted to the principles which they severally professed. ■ . .i,,v, ■» w,i*n 
 
 In such language did the highest Episcopal Dignitary in the Province ar.J the 
 Chief Executive Officer of the University, denounce the law under which the 
 Institution had gone into operation, and dnringly advocate its violation before the 
 youth who had assembled under the aniicipiition of receiving that "complete ard 
 generous education which fits a man to perform justly, skilfully, and magnani- 
 mously all the offices, both public and private, of peace and war."* Was it to 
 be expected that the law would be honestly acted on when its execution was left 
 in the hands of one who had thus openly avowed himself an enemy to its spirit 
 and principles — and who had resolved, within the limited sphere to which he had 
 at last been driven, to re-enact the deeds which had for so many years impeded 
 the progress of the country, and the moral and social advancement of its popula- 
 tion ? Was it to be tolerated that the same individual who had raised himself to 
 the dignity which he then enjoyed by a long course of indirect persecution, and 
 by resisting and trampling on the civil and religious rights of his fellow subjeci ; 
 who had, by the " leprous distillment" of calumny and misrepresentation poisoned 
 the ear of his Sovereign in regard to the loyalty of his countrymen ; who had 
 lived and l)attened on secret insinuations and charges of disaHection, should 
 commence the public discharge of his duties in a national University by incul-, 
 eating on the assembled youth disrespect and hatred of the law, and by avowing 
 his determination to subvert its authority. If privileged insolence may thus claim 
 protection in the possession of irresponsible power yielded by the slavish subser- 
 viency of his satellites, the law has been robbed of that majesty which gives it 
 its highest claim to obedience. ,,: • ^ .^> 
 
 The spirit in which the University was opened has already exhibited the fruits 
 which it was so well calculated to produce. The absence of Statutes for regulating 
 and enforcing a proper discipline has given an immunity to insubordination which 
 has been quickly appreciated by the students, and has at length made the institution 
 an object of unqualified scorn ^,nd derision. There is not a student within the 
 walls who is not well aware that no Statute exists under which he can be legally 
 
 Miltun. 
 
 J w 
 
 u/ fr:imiksq$ai 
 
U4 
 
 J": 8' 
 
 II': 
 
 1^ 
 
 i' ) 
 
 66 
 
 pvftishied for breach oi discipline. It may flatter the vanity of the Vice-Presidenl 
 to aesume the atiected power of issuing " dispensations," « inhibitions," and 
 •• rustications," but every youth is aware that neither legal indulgence nor legal 
 puiiishment is conveyed by these empty words — and that until Statutes have been 
 passed for regulating She studies preparatory for degrees the arbitrary infliction* 
 of the Vice-President cannot affect his claims to University honors. The absolute. 
 failure of the series of miserable expedients by which the Vice-President has 
 attempted .o- estaiblish an, exclusive personal authority ought to have convinced 
 him, if h'i* pievious experience was insufficient, that an University must be 
 governed on^ some settled principle, and not by the whims of a capricious temper. 
 The impotent attempt to sacrifice the legal authority of the College Council to an 
 inordinate passion for personal power has met with the fate which it merited, 
 and would be a source of gratification r if its disastrous influence on the character 
 of the Uixiversity did not excite the most anxious apprehensions. 
 
 The M«dical School, — ^ih many respects the most important department of the 
 University in the present position of the country, — has experienced to an alarming 
 extent the effects of this mismanagement. In a country where the opportunities of 
 acquiring Medical skill are so limited, it might have been expected that every 
 means should have been adopted to render the education of practitioners easily 
 accessible, and that in this department at least public necessity would have 
 prevailed over senseless bigotry. But here also has the fatal influence of the Vice- 
 President extended to blight the prospects of the country by an ignorant inter- 
 ference with the duties of the Medical Professors, and by the application of his 
 exclusive principles to a department whose free operation would have conferred 
 immediate and lasting benefit on the country. 
 
 Under the present arrangements the only real benefit which the public can 
 derive from the establishment of the Medical School, is the admission of " Occa- 
 eional Students" — who may attend the lectures of the various professors, but will 
 not be entitled to any of the honours. To entitle the Student to Medical honours 
 he must, previous to his professional course, have taken a degree in the Faculty 
 of Arts. The Medical Student may thns stwdy at King's CoUege^ — he may reach 
 tlic exact point of receiving Medical honours with advantage to himself and to 
 the community, and with credit to the University— but the stamp of ability and 
 knowledge to- which by his attainments he may be justly entitled, will be withheld 
 — he mfust practice in a low and subordinate position, or he must expatriate himself 
 for a time — he must go to a foreign land and ask from a foreign University that 
 degree fos which his literary and medical education may have eminently qualified 
 him — that he may be on a level with his fellow students who have gone through 
 the same professional course, but whose religious principles,, or it may be their 
 scruples, have not prevented from taking a degree at an Episcopal University.* 
 
 * No part of the conduct of the Vice-President has proved his incapacity for the 
 position which he has assumed, so much as his ignorant and injudicious interference 
 with the management of the Medical School ; and, as a necessary consequence, no 
 depwunent of the University has sufTered s» materially in its interests. We shall have 
 
pdeni 
 and 
 
 legal 
 
 [been 
 
 |tion» 
 
 lolute. 
 
 has 
 
 linced 
 
 |.st be 
 
 iper. 
 ■to an 
 (iked, 
 racter 
 
 no 
 
 67 
 
 The mismanagement of King's College affords a melancholy illustration o/ (he 
 disastrous policy of placing the administration of a law in th« hand»of parties 
 who have an imaginary interest in subverting it. Had the spirit and intentions 
 of the Amended Charter been fairly acted on — and had private interest not usurped 
 the place of public duty, notwithstanding its very obvious defects — the Charter 
 was sufficiently wide in principle to comprehend the advantages of a liberal 
 education ; but by its gross and fatal perversion a system has been introduced 
 neither in harmony with the free principles which prevail in the country, nor 
 consistent with the advantages of sound academic instruction. That dispensations 
 from the rights and ceremonies of the Episcopal Church have been granted, is no 
 answer to the charge of a recurrence to the original system — and of a betrayal 
 of trust in imposing on the University an essentially Episcopal character. The very 
 existence of dispensations is in itself at once an admission of .this fact, and an 
 assertion of superiority claimed in the University on behalf of the Church by 
 which they are granted. Is not the granting of dispensations as a matter of favour 
 an assertion that those who receive them are only entitled to the full privileges of 
 the University by sufferance — and does not sufferance in\ply Kunething of 
 degradation ? 
 
 But under what interpretation of the Amended Charter can any one -Chutch 
 claim an ascendancy in the University ? If the Episcopal Ch-urch has, a superior 
 right, upon what possible grounds were the amendments ^made ? The privileges 
 of that church were already recognised by the original Charter — was the amended 
 law< which was so strenuously iesisted by the Council, necessary for their further 
 security ? 
 
 It has become sufficiently obvious, that before the University can fulfil the 
 purposes for which it was intended, the parties who have grossly prverted the 
 law and frustrated its intentions must be removed. The necessities of the countr5% 
 the peace and prosperity of its inhabitants require that the majesty of the law 
 
 occasion in another place, to advert to his repeated attempts to degrade the position 
 of the medical professors — and to the gross breach of faith to which he was a party, in 
 the redttction of their salaries below the sums promised by a former Chancellor. But 
 we allude more particularly, at present, to the systematic opposition which he has given 
 to the arrangements proposed by Dr. Widmer and others in whom the country would 
 have gladly reposed its confidence. It was characteristic of the Vice-President that, 
 in opening the Medical School, he should have taken occasion to offer vulgar incense 
 to Dr. Widmer and the medical professors, at a time when all parties were disgustad 
 by his interference with matters regarding which he was profoundly ignorant. The 
 failure of the Medical School has been the result. 
 
 If it be thought that we have prematurely attacked the gysiem of exclusion before 
 the Statutes have !>^en passed, we have only to say, that we have proceeded on the 
 universal understanding in the University, in regard to the admission of medical 
 students. An application to the Bursar was made, at the commencement of the last 
 term, on behalf of the Presbyterian body, to ascertain the conditions on which Presby- 
 terian Students could be admitted to the privileges of the Medical School : — To this 
 application an equivocal answer was returned, after consultation with the Vice- 
 President, to the effect, that the Statutes would be published. The fact that thea*? 
 Statutes were not in existence was attempted to be concealed, but the fact that they 
 have not yet been passed proves ths deplorable mismanagement under which the 
 ' Institution is labouring, and by which its efficiency is impaired. 
 
68 
 
 «hall be vindicated by the pignul ])iii)iHhmeiit of the parties by whom it has been 
 outraged. If conformity to the Ei)iscopal Church were required by the law, 
 there miglU be some reason for giving it an ascendancy in tlie University, as a 
 national seminary of education. J^ut when, on the contrary, the great majority oi 
 the inhabitants of this Province diiler from that Church in doctrine, discipline and 
 worship — when the other denominations are powerful in numbers, in influence, 
 and in activity — embracing as they do nine-tenths of the enlightenment, the 
 ■wealth and the stamina of ihe population — when there exists no difference in the 
 civil rights, privileges and powers of the people on account of the religious 
 opinions which they entertain — why should the same equality not exist in this 
 seat of learning, by admitting all classes and denominations on the same principle 
 of equality to a free enjoyment of its benefits in their studies, and afterwards to 
 the reward and /ecord of their merits in the attainment of its offices and honours. 
 There is no monopoly of morals or good citizenship by any particular sect — why 
 should civil privileges be confined to one denomination which only enjoys a share 
 of the virtues that are equal' v diffused over all ? 
 
 It is a bitter mockery to say that the various denominations of Christians are 
 admitted by sufferance to enjoy the advantages of attending the lectures of learned 
 Professors, in the prosecuiion of their professional education, — that by sufferance 
 they may devote themselves to the acquisition of professional learning — that they 
 may toil and labour in the prosecution of those studies which will lit them for 
 attaining the honours that tiie University can bestow, — but, inasmuch as they 
 will not submit to Episcopal discipline, they must look to the other Universities 
 of America for conferring those titular distinctions which our own University 
 withholds from native intelligence and learning, on account of conscientious 
 convictions. Arc the civil rights of the Canadian people thus to be gauged by 
 the measure of their theological opinions ? Are the creeds of our fellow-subjects 
 again to revive a system ot negative persecution, and to be made a matter of 
 punishment or reward ? Is the great majority of the population to be placed 
 under a sense of personal injury and to sufli^r a positive evil, by which they are 
 to be retarded in the paths of professional life .' Are honours fairly won to be 
 refused on the ground of caste ? Are the people to be exposed to the feeling that 
 they are ill-treated by the laws of their country, and that they are precluded from 
 the enjoyment of benefits which are open to others by the illegal regulations of 
 an exclusive establishment ? And, are all these practical injuries to be inflicted, 
 not only without the sanction of positive law, but in flagrant and open violation 
 of an express legislative enactment — by parties who, having signally failed in 
 establishing a legal orthodoxy, seek to allure neophytes to Episcopacy by hiding 
 the iron s})irit of intolerance under the mask of dispensations and favours, which 
 they will refuse to confer the instant they can discover that there is inability to 
 demand? If the great purposes for which the University was established, have 
 been thus grossly and unjusliliably perverted — if the law under which its Trustees 
 were bound to act, has been thus scandalously violated — will it be said that there 
 exists no power in the Constitution to bring the guilty parties to punishment, 
 ^nd to reclaim the Establishment from the errors of a disgraceful prostitution? 
 
69 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 • :t- .../f 
 
 ADMINISTRATION OF THE ESTATE. 
 
 The Chancellor having returned their appointments to the Professors under 
 iuch dates as fixed the order of precedence, the authority of the new Council w as 
 called into existence in October, 1843. Before adverting to the proceedings which 
 have since taken place, it will be proper to give such a view of the administration 
 of the Estate as can be obtained from the materials to which we have had access. 
 The irregularities of the Bursar's office are not the only obstacles which exii^t to 
 prevent a thorough understanding of the University affairs. A long course of 
 maladministration has made the Council wary in furnishing details, and accordingly 
 the Returns which have been made to Parliament are studiously mystified and 
 defective. Sufficient materials may, however, be obtained to establish the character 
 of King's College as the very Paradise of Jobs, even in a country where unscru- 
 pulous waste and misapplication of the public treasure have imposed scarcely 
 any limits to cupidity and corruption. 
 
 The first general investigation which appears to have been made into the state 
 of the University affairs, was instituted by Sir George Arthur, as Chancellor, in 
 1839. In the course of that year an accountant was appointed to examine the 
 Bursar's Books, and to report on certain alleged irrregularities to whicli t]^e 
 Chancellor's attention had been directed. 
 
 It appeared that the Bursar's accounts of receipts and expenditure had been 
 made up from loose memoranda, at first monthly, and afterwards quarterly — that 
 the accounts themselves consisted merely of abstracts, and that the abstracts 
 constituted the only record of the management of the Estate. No care had br en 
 taken to test the accuracy of details by means of a balance sheet ; and, in fact, 
 no attempt had been made "either to present the accounts in a detailed form, or to 
 show the connection of income with expenditure. The books themselves had 
 been kept on no sort of system, and no connection existed between one book and 
 another. No rental had been kept, and no register of the tenants' leasehold lands 
 existed. Where complaints had been made by parties who had not received credit 
 for payments, arrangements unfavourable to the Estate had been frequently made 
 in order to conceal the absence of system. In fact, every thing appeared to be in 
 the most hopeless confusion, and evinced a degree of culpable negligence, which, 
 but for the active interference of the Chancellor, would have speedily brought the 
 Estate to ruin. 
 
 It further appeared that large sums nad been withdrawn from the funds of the 
 Institution, for the private accommodation of the President, at first without any 
 authority from the Council, and without any security having been given at the time ; 
 that, afterwards, notes of hand by parties in no way connected with the University, 
 and which had been given to the President in the course of a private transaction, 
 were deposited by him with the Council in security of the loan. In conneftion 
 
to 
 
 with this transaction, and as throwing light u(X)n the system of management 
 wliich existed previous lo the year 1840, a despatch from tlie Right Hon. C. 
 i'oulett Thomson to Lord John Russell is subjoined: — 
 
 ^ . ' «'Goveunmi;nt HoupE, Montreal, 
 
 " 2nd May, 1840. 
 
 ** My Loud, — I observe by the papers, that, on the 30th March last, Mr. 
 Pakington took occasion in the House of Commons, to ask your Lordship certain 
 questions in regard to the Bishops of Montreal and Toronto. With respect to 
 the latter, he is reported to have said, that Dr. Strachan had been deprived of hi.s 
 salary as President of King's College in consequence of his appointment as 
 Bishop, contrary to the agreement made with him when he accepted the Episcopal 
 office, a proceeding which he described as cruel and unjust 
 
 " It is evident, that if these expressions were used by Mr. Pakington, it must have 
 proceeded from his ignorance of the circumstances under which the salary oi the 
 President of King's College was discontinued. I feel it, therefore, my duty to 
 state those circumstances to your Lordship, as I gathered them whilst in the Upper 
 Province, as well as to bring to your notice some others relating to the connection 
 of the Bishop of Toronto with that establishment, which 1 had hitherto delayed 
 ■doing, from a disinclination to enter upon transactions which I cannot consider 
 creditable to the parties concerned. 
 
 " Your Lordship is aware, that many years ago, a Royal Charter was passed 
 for the establishment of a University in Upper Canada, and that by that instrument 
 the Archdeacon of York was appointed cx-officio President. 
 
 \ " From various causes which have, at different times, been fully reported to 
 your Lordship's predecessors, the institution, notwithstanding that it enjoyed a 
 considerable endowment, was not then, nor has it been smce, brought into 
 operation. Nevertheless, officers were appointed, principally tor the management of 
 the Estate, and salaries were assigned to ihem ; a salary of £250 sterling was also 
 attributed to the President. At what period Dr. Strachan first received this salary, 
 I am unable, without reference to Upper Canada, to state, but the re or'''^ of the 
 Colonial office wjl' supply the deficiency. From the enclosures, . '- "^r, io 
 Sir George Arthur's despatch to your Lordship, of the 8th June, 18o • .ill 
 perceive that, up to that date the Bishop had continued lo draw it. 
 
 " But in the course of last year an investigation having been instituu y 
 Ri' George Arthur into the management of King's College, the fact tha> .ne 
 President viras annually drawing from its funds anincome of ^"250 sterling, was 
 brought to his notice. Considering that no duties of any kind, beyond those of 
 other unpaid members of the Council, were attached to the office — that there was 
 no immediate prospect that the Institution would be put into operation — and that 
 -every shilling taken from its revenues was so much deduct<id *rom the means of 
 •education in Upper Canada, already most deficient : it appenred to him impossible 
 uny longer to permit such an appropriation of its funds. In ihis opinion I entirely 
 •concur; and I am confident that your Lordship will approve the course which 
 Sir George Arthur adopted. It is, indeed, difTicult to understand how the 
 ^considerations by which he was actuated, should so long have escaped the notice 
 of the Bishop himself. 
 
 " But the enquiry into the state of King's College, and the production of some 
 areturns called for by the Assembly, brought out other i:re,'^ularities in the 
 «nanagement of the Institution. Thus it appenred that the accounts of the Bursar 
 were very much in arrear, and it became necessary, therefore, to rniriove him and to 
 .appoint anoUier officer m hi.s place : and it was also shown, that a veiy considerabJe 
 
71 
 
 Iment 
 L C. 
 
 Mr. 
 lertain 
 
 ;ct 1o 
 lol' his 
 ]nt as 
 
 5copal 
 
 
 surti had beeu boirowed liom the lunds of tiie University b the President, for his 
 private purposes, on the security ol various notes ol hand, and that seveval of 
 those notes had not been paid when due. . , . ; .i^^ ^,,^^. ,{„.> 
 
 " Upon my entering on the duties of Chancellor of the Universitv, the finances 
 of that body naturally demanded my attcn.ti<)n, and I -vvas compelled to institute 
 some enquiries respecting tlie accounts which were rendered lo me. 
 
 " This correspondence I now enclose, and I have only to say, that it vvas not 
 without considerable hesitation, that I could satisfy myself with only recording 
 my opinion in the Minute to the Council, which closed it, instead of proceeding 
 to further measures. 
 
 «Ihave,&c, ..^v .^n„, 
 
 •« C. TOLT.ETT THOMSON. ^'^' 
 
 u='r 
 
 •♦The Right Honoarahle 
 
 " Lord Joirw Ritsseix, fcc. &c." ' - 't^ 
 
 The enclosure referred to in the despatch, was a letter to the Bursar in the 
 following terms : — 
 
 " Toronto, February 15, 1840. '"'' 
 
 "Sir, — Your letters of the lllh, 12lh, and 14th instant, have been faid before 
 the Governor General, together with the enclosnre. With reference to the 
 defalcation in the accounts of the Treasurer, and the omission to take security 
 from that officer, his Excellency is sorry to lind that no remedy now eeema 
 ix)ssible, and it is only to be hoped that the projierty of the late Treasurer may be 
 found sufficient to prevent ultimate loss to the University. 
 
 " With respect to the loan of money stated to have been made to the Bishop 
 of Toronto upon the security of certain notes of hand, and upon the subject of which, 
 in addition to your remarks, a letter has been transmitted addressed to yourcelf by 
 the Right Rev. Prelate, I am commanded to inform you that his Excellency the 
 Governor General feels himself compelled to record his opinion for the information 
 of the Council. 
 
 «' His Excellency wishes to abstain altogether from the consideration of the 
 circumstances under which the loan was sought, alluded to in the letter of the 
 Right Rev. Prelate, and upon which he had neither the desire nor the right lo 
 require any explanation. The points upon which he is called upon to express an 
 opinion, as Chancellor of the University, are the circumstances under which the 
 loan was made by the Council, and tiie action that has been taken upon the 
 securities given. 
 
 " It appears that a loan of a considerable sum was made by the Council to one 
 of the members of the Board ; such a proceeding his Excellency cannot by any 
 means view in the light of an ordinary money transaction. The employment of 
 the funds of a public trust by one of the irnstees for his own advantage, is a 
 proceeding which, in his opinion, is highly objectionable, and calculated to destroy 
 the confidence of the public in the management of the University.* With regard 
 to the second point, his Excellency regrets to be obliged to remark, ibat a proper 
 course has not, in his opinion, been pursued. It appears from the slaicment, that 
 no less than eleven notes of hand are over due, oi which three have been due 
 since the year 1837 ; three since 1838; and tlie remainder since the 24th December, 
 1839. In bu^^iness of this kind, punctuality should always be observed: but in 
 the affairs of a public trust, a scrupulous regard to it appears above all things 
 
 * In England, such a transaction would be vifcited with severity in a Court «f 
 Equity. (Note to the original minute.) 
 
^t 
 
 72 
 
 
 desirable. If a note of hand be no^ discharged at maturity by the party first liabtf, 
 the simple and ordinary course is to call upon the endorser (if any) to do so. No 
 suci) (iteps seem to have been taken, and the signatures of these bills have been 
 peitnitled to remain dishonoured, some of them for a very considerable time. 
 
 ; ., ;. .. . "I have, &c., 
 
 -^ •• T. W. C. MURDOCH, 
 
 t^ •. ** Chief Secretary. 
 
 "Dr. lUoYS, Bursar.'* 
 
 The Ifist returns to Parliament of the University's affair**, were prepared in May, 
 1843, and laid before the Legislative Assembly in October of the same year. 
 They professed to give " a statement of the affairs of the University of King's 
 College, and also of Upper Canada College, ^cr tlic years 1839, 1840, 1841, and 
 1842," — but the manner in which they were prepared, so successfully defeated 
 the objects of the Legislature in calling for them — that both Houses found it 
 necessary to appoint Committees for the purpose of making further investigations, 
 by the examination of books, papers, and persons. This examination was in 
 progress, and evidence of an extraordinary character had been elicited, when 
 the investigation was unfortunately arrested by the proceedings which terminated 
 the last Session. In these circumstances, our Financial statement must necessarily 
 be very imperfect; but we are fortunately enabled to throw such light upon some 
 parts of the statement of the College Council > as may enable the public to form a 
 fair judgment on the merits of their administration. 
 
 The original endowment of King's College amounted to - 
 Of which there have been sold, up to 31st December, 1842, 
 
 : IJVl'.iKr. i.i' it--\_ 
 
 Acres. ^ 
 225,944 
 110,610 
 
 ■^■■^ ■™" -■ 111 
 
 115,334 
 
 Leaving on hand, 
 
 ^KJi v^o Of which there were on lease, 95,334 
 
 * '» * ' And unoccupied, -.--. 20,000 
 
 The sales were commenced in the year 1828, and their number has amounted 
 to 909, in fifteen yeai-s. The number of acres sold has varied in different years 
 according to the exigencies of the trust. In some years the number of acres sold 
 did not exceed 350, while in another, and at so early a period of the trust as the 
 year 1835, no less than 18,088 acres were disposed of. In 1829, there were 
 11,863; and in 1833, there were 13,568 acres sold. The average price received 
 between the years 1828 and 1842, was 22s. 9d. per acre. 
 
 It thus appears that before the University had gone into operation considerably 
 more than one-half of the original endowment had been disposed of. A fact so 
 startling will naturally lead to the enquiry, under what authority did the College 
 Co\mcil proceed in the absolute disposition of lands which had been appropriated 
 for the purposes of education, and vhat extraordinary circumstances could warrant 
 a proceeding so repugnant to the well-known principles of law, and so inconsistent 
 with the purposes for which the endowment was made ? 
 
 tn a legal point of view, there cannot be a doubt that every sale which has 
 
fS 
 
 iablf, 
 No 
 been 
 
 ry. 
 
 been made is void. The Grant gives the Council no authority to sell* and the 
 
 Charter is equally silent. 
 
 The administration of the endowment must, therefore, be subject to the common 
 principles of law which govern similar foundations. Although the University of 
 King's College may, in some respects, partake of the nature of a civil corporation 
 — as, for instance, in respect of its Professors who have stij)ends annexed 16 theit 
 chairs p70 opera et labore — yet the purposes for which it was established give it in 
 some respects all the character ot an eleemozynary foundation. It was instituted for 
 the purpose of irr ^rting assistance to its members in the prosecution of Cheir studies; 
 and, in the administration of its estate it is, therefore, subject to the principles of 
 law w^hich regulate corporatiotis for charitable purposes. 
 
 Now, the Trustees of an eleemozynary foundation are not authorised by law to 
 make an absolute disposition of any part of the estate. The Covirt cannot 
 authorise such a disposition, and Parliament itself will not go so far. Acts of 
 Parliament have been sometimes obtained to authorise the exchange of an estate 
 belonging to a charity for another ; but in no instance, so far as we are aware, has 
 an act been passed for converting such estate into money. ; 
 
 ) The Court of Chancery has invariably declined to sanction a sale where the 
 authority to sell is not given by the instrument under which the Trust is constituted. 
 And even where an implied j»wer may exist, the Court will not interpose its 
 sanction without sufficient proof, as well that the sale is consistent with the 
 provident Administration of the Estate as that it is rendered necessary by the 
 situation and circumstances of the Trust 
 
 But what possible circumstances could arise consistent with a ocnscientions 
 Administration of the Estate under which the College Council was constrained 
 to dispose of a single acre of the Endowment ? The University did not go into 
 operation for fourteen years after the grant had been made ; a separate poovision 
 had been given for the erection of the necessary buildings; Isuids immediately 
 available and already under lease had been exchanged for the original Endowment; 
 an income of more than £1,000, per annum, was obtained from rents during the 
 first year of the Trust; the annual income, notwithstanding the dimiaution of tbe 
 Estate, had gradually increased to about £12,000— far exceeding 1t)e necessities 
 of the Institution— and yet, in spite of these advantages, the College Cowidi have 
 found it necessary to maintain their solvency by disposing of by far the taoA 
 valuable portion of their Endowment, immely, the lands under Crown leases 
 with all their valuable improvements, before a single lecture was delivered in the 
 University. 
 
 / . , The necessities under which the Council have suffered have not mewsly be*!i M 
 their own creation, but have been caused bya violation of trust of the most flagrani 
 and nefarious character. A sum of £250, per annum, was given for upwards of 
 12 years to one of their colleagues, in the dischargeof his duties as a Trustee — the 
 same Trustee was privately accommodated with loans to a large amount— an expenr 
 ^vebttt unnecessary establishment of clerks was kept up forthehenefitof theSunar, 
 
74 
 
 whose subservieney has been all along purchased by pickings and perquisites**- 
 the pretext for keeping up this establishment was sanctioned by the system 
 of sales of the Estate — the sales themselves being not only unnecessary, but 
 perpetrated in fraudulent breach of trust — and, notwithstanding the ruinous 
 diminution of the Estate, the Council have little more to exhibit of the proceeds 
 than a wretched boarding house for the accommodation of twenty-four students — 
 an avenue — and a I rge amount of irrecoverable arrears of rents and instalnlent«< 
 
 It is notorious that the manner of cohducting the sales has been no less illegal 
 than the principle upon which they vi^ere eflected. At various periods of the trust, 
 a determined opposition has been given to the sale of land by various Members of 
 the Council, who have succ hd J • ttinp an end in open Council to a practice 
 which has, notwithstanding^ -; ;: "eased in the Bursar's Office. A great 
 portion of the sales has ac ''if, / been made without authority of the 
 Council; and during the course ox the ia; "*ar nearly 10,000 acres were disposed 
 of when the authority of the Council was in abeyance. The sales have at no 
 time been made under statute of the Council as required by the Charter, and 
 indeed such have been the pressing necessities of the Council, that valuable lands 
 have been frequently disposed of, at prices greatly below their real value, for the 
 sake of an immediate instalment, and no great anxiety has been exhibited in 
 securing the bsilance of the purchase-money. 
 
 The disbursements of King's College, from the year 1828 to 3l8t December, 
 1842, were sis follows j — 
 
 Assistance given to Upper Canada College, in fourteen 
 
 yea.rs, exclusive of interest, amounted to - -X40,l30 4 4i 
 
 Purchase of the Site of the University, College Avenue 
 
 and Grounds, Improvements, &c. ... 13,148 19 
 
 UnivcTsity Buildings, &c. - . - - . 8,731 10 5 
 
 Management and Incidental Expenses, • • • 14,787 15 2) 
 
 
 
 .. , In all, .... -£76,797 11 9 
 
 In the Parliamentary Returns no details are given, from which the liabilities of 
 the University can be ascertained. It is certain, however, that at the date the 
 Returns were made the obligations of the Council were considerable, and under 
 the head of "University Buildings," &c., upwards of £10,000 were disbursed in 
 the course of the year 1843. In the absence of the details, which were necessary 
 to give any value to the accounts, it is difficult to make precise allegations of 
 mismanagement and misapplication, but we are greatly within the mark when 
 we say, that upwards of jE 100,000 have been disgracefully squandered out of the 
 Endowment, before a single lecture was delivered in the University. That no 
 part of this sum has in any respect benefited the Institution, will be sufficiently 
 obvious on an examination of the various heads of expenditure. 
 
 UppiR Canada College. — The origin of this Institution has been noticed in 
 the General History of the University. Its management having been placed in 
 the hudt of the College Council, it has participated, to a large extent, in the 
 
tei— • 
 stem 
 but 
 nous 
 :eed8 
 Its — 
 ent«. 
 
 m 
 
 eharacter which has attached itself to the University with which it waa 
 incorporated by the amended Charter. The minor College has been chiefly useful 
 as a school for providing education, at a cheap rate, to the children of the higher 
 classes. During the fourteen years in which it has been established, it has 
 received a Parliamentary grant of JCIOOO sterling, per annum, and although it has 
 also derived a considerable income from its own munificent endowment and from 
 the fees of the Students, during the same period it has drained the University to 
 the extent of £40,000, exclusive of interest. Although the dues had been fixed 
 at a very low rate, yet, owing to gross negligence m their collection and a system 
 of favouritism practised towards individuals, the sum of £6400, for dues, was 
 given up as in arrear on 31st December, 1842. So long as the College Council 
 have had the endowment of the University to fall back upon, the minor College 
 has been sustained with a profusion of external means without a parallel in any 
 school in Great Britain. The average number of pupils has for some years been 
 about 150, of which 100 have been day pupils, and 50 boarders. The Establish* 
 ment supports no fewer that 11 Masters, exclusive of visit' _. ""?cher8, giving an 
 average of 13 pupils to each. The salaries of the Masters ture follows: , 
 
 Principal of U. C. College, £666 \ 
 
 Three Classical Masters, at £333 each, • - • . 999 
 
 Mathematical Master, 333 
 
 French Master, - - - - - - - ' . « 222 
 
 ' Two English Masters, at £194 and £138, - - . ' " '- 322 
 
 Master of Preparatory School, - - - -.-191'*'* 
 
 Matron of Boarding House, - 75 
 
 Drawing Master, - - • - • • • - - 100 
 
 The dues for tuition are the only dues which are paid into the College funds. 
 The Boarding Establishment is in the hands of one of the Masters, and the 
 College Council is responsible to him for the deficiences arising either from 
 remissness or favouritism in the collection. The stationery. used by the pupils, 
 and the expense of keeping in repair the buildings, &c., have been defrayed by 
 the Council. The annual charges of the Establishment have amiounted, for 
 many years, to upwards of £4000. Taken on an average of the four years 
 preceding December, 1842, the dues for tuition have amounted to £1131 per 
 annum. The sum actually collected has, however, fallen far short of that amount. 
 It thus appear? that, independently of its own endowment and the College dues, 
 Upper Canada College has received assistance from Parliament to the extent of 
 £1000, and from the University to the extent of £2700 per annum. In the 
 evidence lately given before a Parliamentary Committee, by Dr. McCaul, who 
 was Principal of Upper Canada College for upwards of four years, and ex officio 
 a member of the College Council, he admitted that if an offer of £1000 per 
 annum, with a promise of keeping the buildings in repair and the grounds in 
 order, had been made, the inducement would have been sufficient for a highly 
 qualified Master to undertake the superintendence of Upper Canada College. The 
 exertions which he has made, however, either in the capacity of Principal, or afi 
 Trustee of King's College, to reduce the expenditure are unknown to ihe public, 
 
76 
 
 and, it is beliered, have not been greatly felt by either Institution. During the 
 course of !843, when a vacancy existed in the office of Principal, he attempted a 
 characieris^ie n^oditication of the system, which was intended to have the effect 
 of uniting the various offices of Principal, Vice-President, and Professor in his 
 own person. This attempt failed in the manner which will bf afterwards 
 adverted to. At present, it is sufficient to mention, that in the face of repeated 
 remonstrances to the late Sir Charles Bagot against the appointment of a Principal, 
 (HI the ground of the unnecessary expenditure, and the unfitness of any of the 
 Masters to fill the situation, in which the President of the University concurred, 
 with an emphatic denial of the Chancellor's legal right to make the appointment, 
 the same influence was used with Sir Charles Bagot's immediate successor, to 
 secure the office to the present Principal, whose superior qualifications, as a pliant 
 tool, were at length discovered to be available in carrying out the intrigues of the 
 College Council. : )M ("i ,. M., ^i.^ 
 
 University Buildings. — No portion of the buildings necessary for the proper 
 business of the University has yet been commenced. The buildings formerly 
 used by the Legislature of Upper Canada having afTorded temporary accommodation 
 for l€Cture-rooms, Library, &c. In pursuance of the design of reducing the 
 endowment, by the erection of Conventual Establishments for the domestication 
 of the Students, the Council have expended the sum of £10,000 in the erection 
 of a boarding-hftuse. This building is as yet unfurnished, so that no estimate of 
 the entire exptnse can at present be made. A sum of jC 1 500 has lately been 
 expended on a range of water-closets; yet the building, when completed, is 
 calculated for the accommodation of only 24 Students. The Council have it in 
 contemplation, should a speedy sale of the Endowment be eflected, to continue the 
 series of monastic establishments for the accommodation of Students aud Professors : 
 and have held out to certain members of the Council the prospect of superior private 
 9ccommodation as an inducement to vote the sale of lands. In the meantime, they 
 will proceed to erect ap Episcopal Chapel and Hall, in continuation of the present 
 building. The expense of buildings for the domestic accommodation of 1 00 Students 
 may be estimated at about £50,000, or about one-half of the remainder of the 
 uidowment. The great advantage expected to accrue from this scheme, will be 
 th« absorption of the available fv;nds for High Church purposes, in order to 
 frustTj.te any attempt to obtain a participation in the Endowment by the 
 other Christian sects. To enable the Council to accomplish this nefarious 
 scheme, they have lately opened up their sales, which can now be eifected in 
 the Bursar's office without the necessity of an application to the Council. 
 Whether parties will run the risk of purchases which are void in Equity remains 
 to be seen. There can be no doubt, however, that every purchaser will be guilty 
 of a participation in the fraud. The building already erected, is understood to 
 have been finished under the careful superintendence of the Vice-President, and 
 is a happy specimen of that peculiar style of architecture and internal economy 
 which affords the least possible accommodation at the greatest possible expense. 
 1^01 the purpose of giving external symmetry to a building utterly devoid .pf 
 
77 
 
 ; the 
 led a 
 e/Tect 
 
 his 
 irardfl 
 ;ated 
 ipal, 
 
 the 
 rred, 
 nent, 
 to 
 iant 
 
 the 
 
 architectural grace, the upper range of apartments have been so constructed that 
 the windows are exactly on a level with the floor — apauinents of a few feet 
 square have three of their walls constructed of cut stone, and a great portion of 
 the interior has been deprived of all the benefit of light. The building has, on 
 the whole, been regarded as a curious monument of the imbecility of the Council, 
 and is a striking instance of the impropriety of placing the administration of a 
 public estate in the hands of a few Clergymen, whose profound ignorance of 
 business is the most venial of their errors. The erection of this building was 
 accompanied by one of those disgraceful '< Jobs," without which the Council 
 seem to consider their schemes as altogether incomplete. For the purpose of 
 evincing their partiality towards a favourite contractor, the tenders were not 
 accepted till nearly tliree years after they were made. When the tenders were 
 made, labour and materials were high. When the work was commenced, the 
 price of labour had greatly fallen, and although it was known that the building 
 could have been finished for two or three thousand pounds less than the price 
 originally tendered, the tenders were then accepted and the contracts entered into. 
 An architect was employed to superintend the erection of this building, and hi» 
 services have been retained for an indefinite period, at a salary of j6200. The 
 labotirs of this individual, who may be regarded as a permanent officer of the 
 Establishmnet, seem to be principally dedicated to the amusement of the Vice-Presi- 
 dent,and to the gratification of his frivolous taste with pictures and plans of buildings, 
 for the erection of which there is, fortunately, neither necessity nor means. The 
 other buildings upon which the funds of the University havo been frivolously 
 squandered and misap]>lied, are an Episcopal Chapel and an Anatomical Theatre. 
 The chapel was fitted up by the Vice-President, when the authority of the Council 
 was in abeyance. Although only intended for temporary accommodation, the 
 sum of jESOO was devoted to this illegal purpose. The Anatomical Theatre cost 
 about JC300, and was also erected under the superintendence of the Vice-President, 
 whose versatile genius, " though equal to all things, for all things unfit," seems 
 to range, undismayed by its own ignorance, over every department. The object 
 of this building was to secure the domestic accommodation of the Burstir in the 
 University, and his co-operation in the schemes of his patrons. The Theatre 
 was otherwise wholly unnecessary, and its plan anu purpose were carried into 
 effect in opposition to the wishes of the Medical Faculty. ,^ .^ 
 
 Expenses of Management. — The principal feature under this head is tlie 
 Bursar's Office. The statement of the annual expense of this department is as 
 follows : — 
 
 Bursar's Salary, .».*»- 
 ■ First Clerk, - - 
 
 Second do. » »i • • « • • 
 -,, Extra do. . « . . ^ » . 
 
 Messenger, -.-»--• 
 
 Sundries, 
 
 £400 
 
 
 
 ■ ' ' 
 
 175 
 
 
 
 ..r-V? ; 
 
 150 a 
 
 
 
 ■(;f5> 
 
 13fl 17 
 
 6 
 
 . .i-t 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 
 288 3 
 
 6 
 
 
 t\.)i 
 
 ^ ^ i- -^ £1200 
 
 This estimate was made fo? the years preceding 1843 : the expcBse has since 
 
78 
 
 considerably increased. This Establishment has all along been a nest of petty 
 sinecnrists. The employment of Clerks has been almost solely occasioned by 
 the illegal sales of land. Were these sales put an end to, the Establishment 
 could at once be reduced. Although the Bursar enjoys other perquisites from his 
 patrons in the Council, yet his salary is extravagantly large, and is amply sufficient 
 of itself for the maintenance of the Establishment. Under the corrupt system of 
 management, which exists perhaps to a greater extent at the present moment, than 
 at any former period of the management, ail the important business of the 
 University is transacted in the Bursar's Office, without any consultation with the 
 Council. The Bursar, in a private consultation with one of his patrons in the 
 Council, may in one hour dispose of every acre of the endowment ; and it is 
 notorious that large sales have been frequently made at sums much below the 
 value of the lands. The real power of the Bursar is virtually worthless, but it is 
 raised into omnipotence when combined with the advice and instructions of the 
 President and Vice-President. It is an important fact, that at various periods of the 
 trust, the Bursar has kept private accounts between the funds of the University 
 and certain members of the Council, which accounts have not been patent to the 
 other Trustees. His subserviency and co-operation have been purchased by petty 
 favours at the expense of the trust. He has been appointed Steward for the 
 superin tendance of the Hall Dinners, with a salary of jC60 ; and for the purpose 
 of giving him a free house to which he had no claim, the Medical Faculty has 
 been deprived of Lecture Rooms and other accommodation in the University. 
 Perhaps the most corrupt feature in the management, is the Bursar's Ofllice. Under 
 colour of a pretended discretionary power, which would be illegal if it did exist, 
 but which is at all times at the service of two members of the Council, every 
 species of jobbing and intrigue is carried on. The entire management of the estate 
 seems, indeed, to be carried on upon a system of patronage. The other expenses 
 of management have increased to a ruinous extent since the opening of the 
 University. The Vice-President's expensive taste for lackeys and domestic officials 
 burdens the University with the annual sum of about £1000. The aggregate fees 
 of the Students, during the first and second Terms, amounted to about jCSOO. 
 This sum merely covered the amount paid to Dr. Boys, as Steward, and was 
 exclusive of attendance, &c., which yield the Bursar other emoluments. The 
 expense of keeping in repair the avenues and grounds amounts to £350 annually. 
 When the Monastic Establishment shall be placed in operation, the maintenance 
 of an efficient police may be expected to be a formidable item in the expenditure. 
 
 Investments. — One of the most flagrant instances of violation of trust of which 
 even the College Council have been guilty, occurred in their recent loan to the 
 Cathedral Church of Toronto. The unvarnished history of this transaction is as 
 follows : — The Churchwardens finding their resources utterly exhausted, and being 
 without the mear.s of raising an additional shilling on the security of the Church, 
 applied to their friends in the College Council for an advance of £4500. Such 
 an investment was of course illegal from the funds of a trust, but the College 
 Council being virtually composed of Episcopalian Clergymen, the affairs of the 
 
79 
 
 Cftlhedral were to them matters of much interest. Previous to this application 
 the greater part of the available assets of the University had been invested in 
 Crovernment Debentures bearing interest at six per cent. ; but as the desire to 
 bestow liberally on the Cathedral blended harmoniously with their own interests, 
 the means oi propping its declining fortunes were speedily discovered and most 
 unscrupulously used. The requisite amount of Debentures was tuuisferred from 
 the archives of the University to the hands of the Churchwardens, and as the 
 transaction was regarded as a pious accommodation to friends legal security was 
 neither asked nor obtained. But the enormity of this fraudulent transaction is to 
 be found in its connection w ith a collateral circumstance. On the very day that 
 the Debentures were fratisferred to the Churchwardens, a ncgociation was opened 
 and completed by the College Council with one of the City Banks for a loan of 
 X4000, to meet the pressing necessities of the University. 
 
 Income of the University. — In the Returns submitted to Parliament, the 
 College Council have estimated their annual income, as on the 31st December, 
 1842, at £11,859 Ts. 5d. In the particulars of Income the University is credited 
 with the interest on Government Debentures to the amount of £38,000, b«>t upwards 
 of £10,000 of Debentures have since been disposed of. There can be no doubt 
 that, under a proper system of management, the Endowment would yield the sum 
 stated ; and that if the Estate still in existence could be preserved, its increasing value 
 would keep pace with the educational necessities of the country. The estimate of 
 the Council has, however, been foimed on a wilful misrepresentation of their true 
 position. Arrears of rents have been allowed to accumulate to the amount of 
 £16,798, and the instalments of purchase money now due amount to no less a 
 sum than £51,747. It has been the practice of the Council to allow the 
 purchase money to remain in the hands of purchasers as long as they pay 
 interest, and in cases where the parties were considered sufficiently simple 
 to submit to the imposition usurious interest has been charged. As the 
 arrears of interest already amount to £18,000, some conception may be formed 
 of the improvident management to which the Estate is subjected. It is, indeed, 
 notorious that an immediate instalment will at any time tempt the Council to sell 
 at almost any price ; and the remainder of the purchase money is transferred to 
 the depository of arrears. The greater portion of these arrears are irrecoverable ; 
 but the Council credit their income with interest on large sums, the principal itself 
 being irret verable. No attempt, however, is made to reduce the expenditure to 
 the actual income — but an imaginary income is arranged by the Bursar, and the 
 heavy delicier '^ies caused by negligence and corrupt management, are filled up by 
 fresh attacks upon the capital. This system -s explained in a note to the last returns: 
 " In providing for the annual expenses of the University, we mvist avoid 
 entrenching upon the portion of these receipts (of proceeds of land sold, inter«»8t, 
 and rents) which should be reserved as capital ; on the olljer hand, we need i>ot 
 confine our expenditure to the amount of rent and interest act xally received ; iff, 
 from the mode in which we sell property by instalments, the interest on which is 
 receivable only as the instalment becomes due, and not annually upon the purchase 
 
80 
 
 money outstanding ; we may fairly expend part of the early instalments received, 
 in anticipation of the interest accruing on the more distant instalments, which, 
 when they become due, yield their accumulated interest." The introduction of 
 this note was intended to give an air of plausibility to a system of spoliation. No 
 attempt has ever been made by the Council to adapt their ex})enditure to the amount 
 of rent and interest either already received or anticipated. The expenditure has 
 recently borne a due reference to the available capital in the hands of the Bursar; 
 and were the same prcJuse expenditure to be continued, a very few years will be 
 sufficient to swallow up the Endowment. 
 
 The existing Constitution of the Council is in every respect favourable to the 
 designs of certain of its Members. Owing to the absence of the Law Officers of 
 the Crown, the management of the University has fallen into the almost uncon- 
 trolled possession of a few Clergymen, who, profoundly ignorant of their value, 
 are recklessly disposing of lands in various parts of the Province, and are binding 
 the Estate by contracts for buildings and imaginary improvements, to meet which 
 no available means exist. Since ail hopes of retaining exclusive possession of the 
 Endowment have been shut out, the rashness and extravagance of the Council 
 have known no bounds, — they have not concealed their design of impairing the 
 Endowment before Parliamentary interference can be eflected, — and there is every 
 reason to fear that their nefarious designs may, to a certain extent, be successfully 
 executed, unless measures are immediately adopted to put a stop to their reckless 
 proceedings. ;,'•;.) ,•; 
 
 Note. — It was our intention to have carried our narrative over the proceedings of 
 the new Council which haa been formed under the Charter ; but, for several reasons, 
 we abstain from doing so at present. The short period, however, that has elapsed 
 since the formation of this body^, has been sufficient to develop its true character, and, 
 as the whole of its recent proceedings are likely to be made the subject of parliamentary 
 investigation, we think it advisable not to anticipate the verdict of the country. 
 When that inTestigatiou shall have been made, we feel assured that the result will 
 warrant a Supplementary Chapter to our history. 
 
 In the mean time, it is due to the disinterested minority in the new Council to state 
 that the profligacy of the old management has not intruded itself upon the new, 
 without a strenuous and honourable opposition. It v/ill scarcely appear surprising 
 that persons, some of whom had recently arrived from England, and were in no degree 
 versant in the corrupt practices of the Colleg^e Council, should have shuddered at the 
 idea of commencing their Trusteeship with wholesale misapplication of the revenues 
 of an educational endowment, or that the check which they gave to a base syotem of 
 plunder should have aroused the vengeance of the perpetrators. We shall yet have 
 occasion to disclose some extraordinary circumstances in reference to these proceedings, 
 and in particular to the secret and Cowardly misrepresentation, by Dr. McCaul to the 
 Chancellor, of the manly conduct of two of his colleagues. Professors Gwynne 
 «nd Croft, by whose dismissal, without a hearing, he hoped to have put aji end to a 
 high-minded opposition to his designs upon the Institution. Signal as was his 
 discomBture, in the refusal of the Chancellor to be made a party, the attempt will form 
 « dark staiu upon the early history of King's College as a literary Institution. It 
 must be recorded that its Vice-President signalized the commencement of his usurped 
 power by an attempt to crush two of the Professors having seats in the Council, 
 because they had dared to exercise their rights as British Freemen, in representing to 
 the Legislature of their country that in consequence of the Union of the Provinces 
 and the consequent absence of four of the members of the Council, the Charter had 
 become partially Inoperative. This extraordinary Vice-President, with childish 
 impetuosity, seiz the first rumour of the retirement of the late Ministry to represent 
 
81 
 
 reieiveo, 
 i, which, 
 luction of 
 ion- No 
 
 le amount 
 liture has 
 e Bursar ; 
 s will be 
 
 lie to the 
 Ifficers of 
 St uncon- 
 eir value, 
 e binding 
 *et which 
 ion of the 
 ; Council 
 liring the 
 
 is every 
 icesBfully 
 
 reckless 
 
 edings of 
 reasons, 
 B elapsed 
 ter, and, 
 amentary 
 country, 
 suit will 
 
 I to state 
 
 the new, 
 
 urprising 
 
 \o degree 
 
 ed at the 
 
 revenues 
 
 yotem of 
 
 yet have 
 
 eedings, 
 
 lul to the 
 
 G Wynne 
 
 end to a 
 
 was his 
 
 kviil form 
 
 tion. It 
 
 \ usurped 
 
 Council, 
 
 enting to 
 
 rovinces 
 
 arter had 
 
 childish 
 
 represent 
 
 to the Chancellor that such a proceeding called for the signal punishment of the 
 petitioners, because, forsooth, it was imjjrecedciited ! Good lieavcns, Dr. McCaul the 
 arbiter of our civil privileges ! With what nice discrimination the shrewd wisdom ol 
 Bacon described a set of characters who seem to have ever had an owl-like propensity 
 to frequent the seats of learning — and who, " knowing little history, either of nature 
 or time, did out of no great quantity of matter, and inliuite agitation of wit, spin 
 cobwebs of learning, admirable for the fmeness of thread and work, but of no 
 substance or profit," If the leisure of frivolous pursuits wilt permit the investigation, 
 Dr. McCaul will find abundant precedent for an Academic Petition to the Lcgiblaturc 
 even in the Institutions which he affects to admire without the ability to understand. 
 We shall supply him with at least one remarkable iustance. 
 
 On 21st March, 1834, Petitions to both Houses of the English Legislature were 
 presented by Earl Grey and the Hon. Spring llicc respectively, from sixty-three 
 members of the Senate of Cambridge, all of whom were membens of the I^btablished 
 Church of England. They were signed by two Heads of Hou.si.'s, by tea Professors, 
 {among whom were some of the most eminent members of the University of 
 Cambridge,) and by eleven Tutors of the different Colleges. In reference to the 
 character of the parties by whom the Petition was signed, it will be suflicient to state, 
 that, among the Professors, were Airy, Musgrave, Lee, Hewett, Babbagc, and 
 .Sedgwick, the last of whom had the year before distinguished himself by an eloquent, 
 and by Cambridge-men thought to be a triumphant and unanswerable defence of the 
 character, studies, and pursuits of Cambridge. Among the Tutors were Messrs. 
 Peacock, Bowsted, and Thirkall — the latter one of tiie most eminent classical scholars 
 in Europe. The Petitioners in fact embraced the great majority of the intellect and 
 talent oi' the University. They complained generally of the system which exists at 
 Cambridge, and which they considered inconsistent with and prejudicial to the 
 interest of the University, and to the general interests of religion. They commenced 
 their Petition by declaring their honest and sincere attachment to the Established 
 Church, and to the University, but that " they are impressed with a conviction that no 
 system of civil or ecclesiastical po'icy was ever so devised by the wisdom of man, as 
 not to require, from time to time, some modification from the external circumstances, 
 or the progress of opinion. In conformity with these sentiments, they would t^uggest 
 to your Honourable House, that no Corporate Body, like the University of Cambridge, 
 can exist in a free country in honour or in safety, unless its blessings be communicated 
 Jto all classes as widely as is compatible with the Christian principles of its foundation." 
 The Petitioners then proceed to statf, that, "among the changes which they think 
 might be at once adopted with advantage and safety, they would suggest to your 
 Honourable House the expediency of abrogating, by legitilativc enactment, every 
 religious test exacted from members of the University before they proceed to degrees, 
 whether of Bachoior, Master or Doctor in Arts, Law, and Physic." "Your 
 Petitioners conscientiously believe, that if the prayer of this Petition be granted, 
 the great advantages of good academic education might be extended to many 
 excellent men, who are now, for conscience' sake, debarred from a full participation 
 dn them, though true friends to the Institutions of the Country ; and your Petitioners 
 are convinced, that this is the best way at o«ce to promote the public good, 
 iftnd'to strengthen the foundations of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Policy of this Realm. 
 The University is a body recog jzed by the law of England as a lay corporation, 
 invested with important civil privileges, and on that account resting on no secure 
 foundation which is not in harmony with the moral system of the State. Vour 
 Petitioners, therefore, humbly beg leave to suggest that as the Icyislaliye bodies of 
 the United Kingdom have repealed the Test Act,, and admitted Christians of all 
 denominations to seats in Parliament, and to places of dignity and honour, they think 
 it both impolitic and unjust that any religious Test should be exacted in the University 
 previously to cosferring tbe civil privileges in the degrees above enumerated." Such 
 was the change prayed for in a Petition to the Legislature, emanating from the very 
 bosom of the University of Cambridge — from men of the highest attainments in 
 iiterature and science — eminently distinguished for collegiate usefulness and University 
 honours, all of whom were deei)ly pledg.;d,"and deeply interested in the welfare of the 
 University, and responsible for the due administration of its affairs ; and yet a memo- 
 rial by two of the Professors of King's College, Toronto, simply representing that 
 
 h 
 
11^ 
 
 82 
 
 ■; It 
 
 political changes in the Province had rendered its Charter iu some respects inoperattivef 
 IS made the subject of a secret complaint to the Chancellor, by a weak, but arbitraryi 
 Vice-President, who vainly imagined that he had discovered in this constitutional 
 proceeding the source of vindicti.e triumph. Was utterance given to a maligaant 
 expression by the Duke of Gloucester, Chancellor of the University, when the 
 Cambridge Petition was presented to the House of f jcrds ? Was it thus that the same 
 Chancellor regarded a subsequent Petition to the Legislature from some of the 
 Undcrgradtiates of Cambridge ? The memorable words which the Royal Duke used 
 on the latter occasion, should speak daggers to the breast of the Reverend John 
 McCaul : " Young man," said his Royal Highness, to one of the Undergraduates 
 wh awaited on him privately with the Petition, " I disapprove of t/nderg'rad«ate5 
 sending Petitions to the Legislature ; but I cannot refuse, — admiring as I do the 
 religious feeling that has actuated the Bachelors and Undergraduates,— to act upon the 
 zeal with which 1 am urged, and the peculiarity of the case. / hare been an Under- 
 graduate myself, and am now your Chancellor — and I icill advocate your cause, and 
 present your Petition." In similar circumstances. Dr. McCaul secretly suggests to 
 the Chancellor the dismissal of two of his colleagues, because their Petition wa« 
 " unprecedented !" 
 
 If Professors Croft and Gwynne had prayed for a change in the constitution 
 of the University, as was done in the Cambridge petition, the fears of the High 
 Church party might have been justly alarmed ; or if the matter could have been 
 considered within the walls of the University with hopes of ultimate success, if 
 any power had been inherent, cither in the Chancellor or Council, to grant the prayer 
 of the petition, a Vice-President of too narrow intellect to grasp a constitutional 
 principle might have been pardoned for offering a remonstrance to his colleagues, tm 
 their passing over the legitimate and academic mode of attaining their object ; but bftd 
 he consulted the practice of those Institutions of whose internal government he seems to 
 be absolutely ignorant, he could never have hazard '?d the assertion that the proceeding 
 was '• unprecedented." From the earliest times, objections have been made by 
 members of the English Universities to the practices wh'ch prevailed ai them, and 
 charges of mismanagement have been brought in no verj' measured terms. In Acts 
 of Parliament, and in Letters from the Crown, complaints have been made of their 
 absurd regulations. The Preamble of an Act passed in the Reign of Edward VI., very 
 justly begins with declaring " that the ancient Statutes of the Universities are obscure, 
 unintelligible, and semi-barbarousj; and that others more intelligible, and fashioned 
 more according to the condition of the times, and to the practice of the new learning 
 have become requisite." (See Dyer's Academic Unity.) The Vice-President of 
 King's College, Toronto, only sees in such objections an insult to the Chancellor 
 and an " unpreceder*ed" proceeding ! 
 
 But the real grou i of complaint lay in the honourable opposiiion given by these 
 gentlemen to the disgraceful and ruinous system of mismanagement which has made 
 the University of King's College a by-word in the Province. Dr. McCaul found it 
 impossible to secure their co-operation in passing a Statute for the Vice-President's 
 agrandizement at the expense of the other Professors ; and nothing but dismissal 
 could attone for so serious a personal injury. An effort was privately, but ineffectually! 
 made to prevail on the other members of the Council to join in this mean and miserable 
 conspiracy ; but the proposal was indignantly spurned by all, except the Bishop of 
 Toronto, \\ ho readily shared the odium of the charge and the disgrace of its signal defeat. 
 
 During the Chancellorship of Sir Charles Bagot, a Schedule of Salaries and Duties 
 was laid before his late Excellency by Dr. McCaul, and which was professedly framed 
 in reference to a statement of the income of the University. In that Schedule Dr. 
 McCaul estimated his own services, as a Professor, at £400— while the sum o^ £250 
 was attached to the office of Vice-President. Sir Charles Bagot reduced the salary 
 of Vice-President to £150, and raised that of the Professorship to £500— thus Tieeting 
 in another form Dr. McCaul's own ideas of his importance. A Statute was prepared by 
 Sir Charles Bagot in accordance with this appropriation, and transmitted to the Council. 
 This statute was iv.tcrccptcd and cancelled — the Chancellor's severe illness having offered 
 a favourable opportunity for defeating his intentions. On the arrival of Sir Charles 
 Metcalfe, a new Statute was framed by the parties in Toronto, in which, taking 
 advantage of the addition made by Sir Charles Bagot to Dr. McCaul's salary, a» a 
 
83 
 
 pera[tive« 
 ibitrary, 
 litutiondl 
 lalignant 
 /hen the 
 the same 
 e of the 
 like used 
 md John 
 graduates 
 rraduates 
 I do the 
 upon the 
 n Under' 
 msci and 
 iggests to 
 tition was 
 
 msthutlon 
 the High 
 lave been 
 luccess, if 
 the prayer 
 stitutional 
 iagaeBf tm 
 
 ; but h(td 
 e seems to 
 jroceediag 
 
 made by 
 them, and 
 In Acts 
 de of their 
 iVL, very 
 re obscure, 
 i fashioned 
 V learning 
 resident of 
 ChanceUoT 
 
 Professor, the sum stated wag £500, and also taking advantage of Sir Charles 
 Metcalfe's ignorance of the former Chancellor's arrangement of the salary of Vice 
 President, the sum stated was £250. Will Dr. McCaul hazard an explanation of the 
 discrepancy ? 
 
 But as the original Schedule of Salaries had been affectedly predicated on a severe 
 analysis of the income, in adding £100 to one part of the expenditure, it became neces- 
 sary to subtract a like amount from another, and therelbre Dr. McCaul modestly and 
 ingeniously reduced the salary of the Professor of Law to £100 — being £50 less than 
 the salary of the Junior Clerk in the Bursar's Office. Will Dr. McCaul fairly estimate 
 the value which the public attach to the talents, attainments and efficiency of the 
 Professor of Law and the Professor of Literature respectively ? 
 
 The Statute of Sir Charles Bagot, which was clandestinely intercepted and cancelled, 
 predicated the salaries of the Medical Professors on a view of the duties attached to the 
 corresponding Professors in the most eminent Medical Schools in Great Britain : and 
 in accordance therewith the late Chancellor pledged himself to these salaries when 
 the appointments were made. The Statute transmitted to Sir Charles Metcalfe was 
 framed with the view of adapting the expenditure to an intermediate job perpetrated 
 by the Council, at a sacrifice to one Professor of £50, and to another of £150 yearly. 
 Will Dr. McCaul explain the circumstances attending the appointment of the Professor 
 of Materia Medica? Will he explain the ineffectual attempt to cajole the Masters of 
 Minor College into an approval of his conduct in a Memorial to the Chancellor, with 
 a view io the union of the offices of Vice-President and Principal — his interference 
 with the Statutes of the late Chancellor — the preparation of the present Statute and 
 eoncealment of the former— his effecting the passing of a Statute to add £100 to his 
 income, by getting the person through whose instrumentality he attempted to secure 
 the apparent approbation of the Masters — the tool whom he all along affected to 
 despise — foisted upon Upper Canada College, in violation of his own assurances to 
 Sir Charles Bagot, that he was unworthy of the appointment ? These and many other 
 questions of a still more serious character, will assuredly have to be answered by Dr. 
 HcCaul before the proper tribunal. The time has long gone past when a person in 
 his position could be permitted with impunity to trifle with the sacred rights of the 
 people of Canada, or to use them as commodity for his private aggrandizeijient. 
 
 sn by these 
 h has maMle 
 aul found it 
 •President's 
 t dismissal 
 leffe dually, 
 d miserable 
 le Bishop of 
 gnal defeat. 
 
 and Duties 
 ;edly framed 
 ;hedule Dr. 
 im o*. £250 
 i the salary 
 hup Tieeting 
 
 prepared by 
 the Council, 
 ivin goffered 
 
 Sir Charles 
 lich, taking 
 salary, as a 
 
 CHAPTER VIII, 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY BILL. 
 
 The introduction of a Bill, during the last Session of Parliament, for the more 
 efficient establishment and satisfactory government of the Collegiate Institutions 
 of Upper Canada, was hailed with all but universal delight by the country. Nor 
 was the intensity of the gralitication diminished by tlie consideration that a mea- 
 sure for the more liberal government of these Institutions had emanated from the 
 Local Administration, and that the Bill had ])een framed by the Attorney-General 
 for Upper Canada-^whose enlightened principles of civil and religions freedom — 
 perfect acquaintance witli the condition of the country — and ardent sympathy with 
 the feelings and wants of its population — alliirded a guarantee for its thorough 
 adaptation to the circumstances which had called loudly for its introduction. 
 
 The objects of this Bill were thus recited in the Preamble : — 
 
 " Whereas a University for the advancement of learning in that division of this 
 
84 
 
 rioviiice called U[)pei- Canada, established upon principles calculated to conciliate 
 the coiilidence and secure the support ot all classes and denominations of the people, 
 would, under the blessing of Divine Providence, greatly promote the best interesle — 
 reliyjious, moral, and intellectual — of the people at large : and vv^hereas, with a view 
 t J supply the want of such an Institution, his late Majesty King George the Fourth 
 was graciously pleased by lloyal Charter, tested at Westminster, the 15th day of 
 March, in the Eighth Year of his Reign, to establish a College at Toronto, under 
 the name of King's College, with the style and privileges ot an University, and 
 afteiwards to endow the same with certain of the waste lands of the Crown ; and 
 whereas, with a like view, certain other Colleges and Collegiate Institutions have 
 since then been established, in the sp.me division of the Province — one at the same 
 place, under the name of ' Ui)per Canada College,' endowed also out of the public 
 land; one at Kingston, under the name of * The College of Regiopolis,' endowed 
 by private means alone ; another at the same place, under the name of • Queen's 
 College,' or « The University at Kingston,' in like manner endowed by private 
 means alone; and another at Cobourg, under the name of ' Victoria College,' 
 endowed by private means, assisted by a Parliamentary Grant — the two latter of 
 such Cf)lleges having likewise the style and privileges of Universities: and 
 whereas the pcoi)le of Ujjper Canada consist of several and various denomination''!, 
 of Christians, to the members of each of which, without distinction, itis desirab/e 
 to extend the benefits of an University Education, and to maintain the just rights 
 and privileges of all, without offence to the religious opinions of any, by leaving 
 the teaching of Divinity and the education of the Clergy and Ministers of Religion 
 lo Collegiate Institutions incorporated into the University, but managed under thv *r 
 several Charters, in connection with the diffevenl Churches, or othsr jeligniui* 
 bodies contemplated by their Founders, as declared in such Charters resp^-ctivt' ;;' r 
 and whereas,^ by an act of the Provincial Parliament passed in the Seventh Y^r 
 of the Reign' of his late Majesty King William the Fourth, the Chavfrr t,' the 
 said lirst-mentioned College was in certain particulars altered and amended ir. ;».'0«r, 
 as the Preamble to the said Act recites, to meet the desire and ''ircumstances c the 
 Colony: and whereas, for the more complete accomplishment of ^h" ■■■/■. dc-. raffle 
 objects, it Is expedient to repeal the said Act, and to substitute some ot'.^r provjcjivns 
 in lieu thereof, for the purpose of provi'lirig for the separate and more efficient 
 exercise of the Collegiate and University f'.;)! tions of the said Institution : and 
 whereas, with a view to the same objects, it is iilao ^..'ledient to aller and amend 
 in several j)articulars certain other A:'" of Pr;;!i>une;r f this Province, Te/V.rring 
 to others of the said Colleges and Couegiate I":'i'.utiuns respectively; lo incor- 
 porate such Institutions with the said University, and to transfer to and vest in 
 such University the sole power of conferring Degrees in the several Arts aiid 
 Faculties in Up])er Canada, and to make some other provisions for the efficient 
 establishment and satisfactory government of the said University. Be it therefore 
 enacted, &c." . ■ . 
 
 It was, of course, to be expected that a measure subversive of the designs of 
 the High Church party in reference to the University should meet with consider- 
 able opposition; but, singularly enough, that opposition was confined to a 
 r.i un'itv of the College Council, and with the exception of a Memorial to the 
 Legitl.it'.i ' i'y the Episcopal Bishop of Toronto, and an argument by Counsel at 
 the Bar of the House, on behalf of the Bishop and two of his clerical co-adjulors, 
 n.'>t ri riUin^in cf dissent from the )rinciple of the Bill proceeded from any part of 
 the TVo' '-i-c And "fit for the singular events which abruptly terminated the 
 Se8r:i.::i, i\i<: Kill -would unqut ;lionably have become ihe law of the land. 
 
 The Id • -nni :n' ol Uie Hon. W. H. Draper, at the Bar of the Legislative Assenibly, 
 
 'S(M 
 
85 
 
 Claims attentive considemtion, not only on account of tlie eloquence and high 
 legal attainments of the speaker, but us embodying all the reasons thv- could be 
 eficctively urged in supnort of the claims of the party whom he represented. It 
 would be supererogatory to follow the learned counsel in his objections to the 
 details of a measure no longer before the country; but as there can be no 
 compromise of the in'inciplc contained in the University Bill, in whatever 
 shape it may again be submitted to the Legislature, it may not be improper lo 
 conclude this historical sketch with an examination of those constitutional 
 questions afifecting the prerogative of the Crown and the legitimate functions 
 and powers of the Provincial Parliament, which formed so considerable a portion 
 of Mr. Draper's argument. 
 
 As a question of constitutional law, the jurisdiction of Parliament in reference 
 to the University Bill must necessarily be ai-gued on the assumption that the 
 powers and functions of the Provincial Parliament in local matters are co-ordinate 
 with those of the British Legislature in matters affecting British interests. For if 
 this position be not conceded, the analogies and precedenli, which Mr. Draper 
 has drawn and adduced from British practice, must fail in iheir application, where 
 special rules for Colonial Government exist. 
 
 Assuming then that the Canadian Legislature has been endowed with powers, 
 or rather that there are inherent in its constitution powers, corresponding with 
 those exercised by the Legislature of England, what analogies and precedents are 
 furnished by British practice for the two leading propositions which Mr. P.aper 
 has laboured to establish ? First, " that the Legislature cannot, without inf'-ingng 
 on the prerogative of the Crown, erect a new Corporation with University lowers, 
 and, privileges;" and, second, "that it cannot (excepting as an act of will and 
 power unsustained by reason or principle) deprive a Corpora'ion of the rights ani 
 franchises which the Crown has legally granted to it, or in any way intcrn^re 
 with them without the consent of such Corporation." 
 
 The first of these propositions proceeds on an hypothesis — an assumed principle 
 which Mr. Draper has not attempted to prove — tho.t the Uii sity Bill asks the 
 Provincial Parliament to exercise a creative power, by c; ig into existence a 
 new University, with all the privileges, immunities, ani ights, which usually 
 belong to such corporations. But the Bill assumes no s'tIi position. It treats 
 the University as pre-existent and actually in operation mder a Royal Charter, 
 and it not only invades no privilege or franchise formt .ranted, but it actually 
 gives such privileges and franchises further protection .ui extension by adapting 
 them to an enlarged sphere of action. The Bill involves neither the destruction 
 of one University, nor the creation of another— it merely provides for a union 
 of the University privileges which had been previously granted by the Crown lo 
 separate Corporations, and, by the union and co-oi)eration of powers and privileges, 
 it attempts to infuse vigour into rival institutions, whose 'dtality had languished 
 under a separation of interests. If therefore there be ai^y privileges peculiar to 
 Universities which it is the prerogative of the Crown alone to confer— privilegeg 
 
so 
 
 which are unknown to Statute, and iridcpendent of Parliamentary aid — their 
 constitutional source has been amply recognised by tlie Bill. 
 
 But no such piivileges in relation to Universities are known to exist. Mr, 
 Draper has thvoughout his argument laboured to throw into the shade the creative 
 power of Parliament in ereciing rorpovations, and then by sk'Ht'uIly taking advan- 
 tage of the obscurity in which the origin of the ancient English Universities is 
 involved, he has attempted to draw an imaginary distinction between the corporate 
 character of literary and of other civil corporations, for which no constitutional 
 or legal analogy exists. 
 
 That the crown has the power to erect corporations, and to endow them with 
 privileges and franchises is undoubtedly correct — but Mr. Draper, and not the law 
 of England, has invested the Crown with the peculiar prerogative- Lord Coke 
 lays it down that, " corporations may commence and be established three manner of 
 ways, viz., by prescription, by letters patent, or by act of Parliament.^' — (1 Inst. 
 183,) and every institutional writer since his time has adopted the same enumeration. 
 Mr. Justice r>lackstone does indeed state, in the passage cited by Mr. Draper, 
 (aftei recognising the principle as enunciated by Lord Coke., but in terms still less 
 favoiJrable to an absolute or peculiar prerogative, for he merely requires as an 
 ingredient the King's consent, either express or implied), that =' it is observable, 
 till of late years, most of those statutes which are usually cited as having 
 created corporations, do either confirm such as have been before created by the 
 King, as in the case of the College of Physicians erected by Charter, 10 Hen. 
 Vni., wliich Chartei was afterwards confirmed in I .rliament; or they permit the 
 King to erect a corporatioii infuturo with such and such powers, as is the case 
 of the Bank of England, and the society of the British Fishery. So that the 
 immediate creative act was usually performed by the King alone, in virtue of his 
 royal prerogative." — (1 Com. 473.) But the passage as thus partially quoted by 
 Mr. Draper contains merel ' an historical and not a legal qualilicatioii of the 
 principle laid down in the first part of the ser.cence which the learned Counsel 
 has omitted to quote, that " By Act of Parliament, of which the Royal assent is a 
 necessary ingredient, corpoi-ntions may undoubtedly be created." And the reason 
 ihat till of late years the im.mediate creative act was wsitn//*/ performed by the 
 King alone in virtue of the prerogative is to be found in the circumstance that in 
 early times the nature and limits of Parliamentary jurisdiction as applicable to an 
 infinite variety of circumstances, had not been defined with perfect precision, and 
 that the facility of obtaining a Royal Charter was comparatively greater thrin by 
 Statute. On the other hand, before the sixteenth century, the prerogative was 
 supposed to extend to every public case, and was accordingly exercised with an 
 arbitrary disregard of these constitutional restrictions which render it wholesome 
 to public liberty. When Blackstonc wrote, the powers of Parliament and the 
 prerogatives of the Crown were both eqtially understood, and accordingly even 
 that " very orthodox Judge" — as ho is called by Gibbon, on account of his leaning 
 to arbitrary pov/er— claims for Parliament the general exercise of the power which, 
 tUl of late year-, was usually exercised by the Crown. And since the passage 
 
87 
 
 was written the greater number ol new Corporation* have leceived then- privileges 
 by Parliamentary Statute, in which the " Royarf aeseat is a necessary ingredient." 
 
 To withdraw the Universities from the ordinary operations ot the law, the 
 learned counsel linds it necessary to resort to an imaginary distinction between 
 collegiate and other corporations. But the law admits ol no such distinction 
 among Institutions in their corporate capacity. Although in early times the 
 Universities were considered to be ecclesiastical, they are now regarded strictly as 
 lay corporations. (Lord Mansfield in Ilex vs. University of Cambridge.) In Ihiu 
 character they seem to partake as well of the nature of civil as eleemosynary 
 foundations — civil in respect of their machinery and government, and eleemosynary 
 in reference to the tenure and administration of their Estate. In a question as to 
 their constitutional modification they must necessarily be treated as civil corpora- 
 tions, and in this character Mr. Draper regards them. 
 
 The learned Counsel has wisely refrained from stating the specific privileges 
 enjoyed by Universities which should withdraw them from Parliamentary 
 jurisdiction. That Parliament should exercise a control over their purposes and 
 objects is at least as clear as its undoubted right to control other civil corporations : 
 That Parliament has no power to create learning or talent, may be applied with 
 equal truth to the prerogative of the Crown : but that the power either of the 
 Parliament or of the prerogative, may foster and encourage, and give direction 
 to associations and institutions for the promotion of learning, is a matter of every 
 day experience and practice. 
 
 Now, the only privilege which distinguishes Universities from other 
 literary and scientific institutions, is the power with which they are endowed 
 of confening degrees, which, it may be said, must flow from the Crown, 
 as the fountain of honour. Assuming then that the University Bill really went 
 the length of erecting a new corporation with University powers and privileges, — 
 is the power of conferring degrees ullra vires of the Pailiament ? 
 
 • It is very obvious that the assent of the Crown being a necessary ingredient in 
 every legislative act — that assent obtained, the powers which would flow from 
 the single exercise of the prerogative, must form a part of the privileges which it 
 is the intention of the legislative measure to confer. But, although the power of 
 granting degrees may be admitted to flow originally from the Crown, as by 
 courtesy the fountain of honour, yet this power by no means forms a part of the 
 prerogative. It may be delegated to a subject — it may proceed from foreign 
 authority — it may spring spontaneously from, or it may be incidental to the 
 subject matter of the institution which assumes the power. In the argument ol 
 Mr. Attorney-General Yorke, in the case of Dr. Bentley, he observed, " If the 
 Crown erects a University, the power of conferring degrees is incident to the 
 grant. Some old degrees the Universities have abrogated ; some new they have 
 erected." Now the general lule of law undoubtedly is, that where a subject 
 matter is granted which has legal incidents belonging it, the incidents must follow 
 the subject granted. Tne power of conferring degrees was therefore conferred 
 on the Canadian Institution when the endowment was given and the Corporation 
 
! I 
 
 88 
 
 erected by lloyal Charter. No parliamentary modification, which does not by 
 express words deprive the Institution ot that power, can aflect its legitimate 
 exercise ; and the University Bill leaves this privilege unimpaired. 
 
 But even in the case of the English Universities, it cannot be maintained that 
 ♦he power of conferring degrees has, in every instance, flowed originally from the 
 Crown; and as the application of Mr. Draper's historical ai-gument mainly relies 
 for its strength on the obscurity in which the ancient history of these institutions 
 is involved, it may be proper to inquire somewhat more minutely into their origin 
 than it would have been prudent for bim to have done. 
 
 In reference to their early origin and peculiar privileges, the Universities of 
 England can scarcely be said to have come within the ordinary operations of 
 Engl'"^' law. The word itself and the thing meant were of European consuetude 
 and grovvth, and accordingly some of their privileges — such as that of the Vice 
 Chancellor's Court, which is governed by the principles of the civil law — could 
 only be conferred, or at all events must have been confirmed by statute, inasmuch 
 as the Crown could neither confer nor confirm privileges which were inconsistent 
 with the principles of the common law. The privileges attached to the 
 Universities of Oxford and Cambridge seem to have been similar to those held by 
 the Universities of Paris, Bologna, Salamanca, Louvaine, and other ancient 
 continental Universities. Their origin took place in circumstances common to 
 them all, and their perfect similarity in early times, raises a strong presumption 
 that they were all created in the same manner and by the same power. 
 
 The oldest Universities in Europe arose spontaneousbj during the twelfth and 
 thirteenth centuries, and there can be still little doubt that they were all of 
 ecclesiastical or'Tin. The fame of eminent teachers, such as Irneriusat Bologna, 
 and Abelard at 1 -s-is, attracted vast crowds of learners or students to the towns 
 where the Schools were instituted. At first the immunities which these Schools 
 enjoyed were merely of a local kind: they sought and had occasion for few 
 peculiar public rights. Their growing importance, and the vast concourse of 
 Students from all countries at length made it iiecessary lor them to be possessed of 
 «ummary powers of discipline and internal government, which were readily 
 conferred by the local authorities, and the Papal and Royal powers would appear 
 to have soon afterwards conceded the privileges which they had in the hrst 
 place acquired from more limited authority- Grants had been execuied in 
 their favour by pious and charitable persons for the purpose of maintaining 
 indig<!nt Scholars, and these Grants were, with the jjrivileges which the 
 Universities had assumed or acquired, confirmed some;imes by Royal Charter, but 
 more freqaently by Bull. The Pope, indeed, at fust arrogated to himself the right 
 of vesting them with all theii privileges; and prior to the Reformation, every 
 University in Europe conferred its degrees in all the Faculties by authority derived 
 from a Papal Bull. But after that event the Universities assumed to themselves 
 the power of creating degrees. The University of Paris, as well as those of 
 Oxford and Cambridge, existed at first only in the lay Faculty of Arts: the 
 
89 
 
 Facullies of Divinity, Canon Law, and Medicine, were afteivvards aissumcd b^ 
 themselves. 
 
 If then the Universities of England have the power of creatijig or abrogating 
 degrees at pleasure, what privileges exist which it is the jwculiar prerogative of 
 the Crown to create ? Their civil law jurisdiction could only be exercised under 
 the authority ot statute, lor if that privilege had been conferred by the Crown 
 alone, it would have been tantamount to making new laws, which tl»e Crown, 
 as one branch of the Legislature, cannot do without the aid of an Act of 
 Parliament ; and again their right to the enjoyment of their property may have 
 been, and actually was acquired by private grant or by prescription. 
 
 It IS certain that the greater part of the property held by the English Universities 
 was acquired from individuals, and in some instances the heirs of the founders, 
 notwithstanding their Royal confirmation, still possess a visitorial }x)wer by 
 virtue of the common law. Both at Oxford and Cambridge these establishments 
 originally consisted of two distinct foundations — the University proper ;ii\(l the 
 Colleges. The former was regarded as founded ; nd i)rivilegcd by public authority 
 for the general benefit, while the latter were founded and privileged by j)rivate 
 munificence for the interest of certain favoured individuals. The University 
 proper existed prior to the Colleges, the former having been instituted for the 
 purposes of education, and the latter principally for aliment and habitation. At 
 Oxford and Cambridge at present the Universities may be said to be in abeyance, 
 or at least to exist only through the Colleges ; and this fact has afforded ground 
 for argument to the High Church party in England against the admission of 
 Dissenters, that the Colleges being foundations private to their incorjwrate mem- 
 bers, the Legislature cannot deprive them ot their right of optional exclusion, 
 without a subversion of their constitution. But as admission to the Universities 
 cannot be obtained, without a previous entrance into one of the Colleges, the 
 dethronement of the Universities and the usurpation of the Colleges have both 
 been accomplished through an illegal su-spcnsion of some oi the University 
 privileges.* 
 
 • The peculiar constitution of the Englii»h Universities it is very important to keep 
 in view, when an attempt ia made to draw analogies unfavourable to parliamentary 
 jurisdictioo over the University of King's College in Canada. In an elaborate defence 
 of Oxford, its privileges are thus stated : — " There are, moreover, some points ia the 
 constitution of this place, which are carefully left out of sight by its revilere, but 
 which ought to be known and well considered before any comparison is made between 
 what we are and what we ought to be. The University of Oxford is not a 
 Nationai:. Institution. It is a congeries of foundations, and originating, some in 
 KoyeA munificence, biU more in pritatc piety and bounty. They are moulded indeed 
 into one corporation ; but each one of our twenty Colleges is a corporation by itself, 
 and has its own peculiar statutes, not only regulating its internal aflkirs, but confining 
 its benefits by a great variety of limitations." 
 
 The argument used by the High Church party in England, will, however, operate 
 powerfully against that urged by Mr. Draper in Canjulii. In England, the jurisdiction 
 of Parliament over the Universities has never been denied — its moral right to interfere 
 wiih the Colleges which arc private foundations has been questioned ; and although a 
 Bill for the admission of Disseatej's has been passed in the House of Commons by a 
 
90 
 
 a;; > 
 
 Tliat Ihe Eiii^lish Universities have received Ciiartcrs Irom llie Crown, may be 
 admitted, without vainly ascribing the foundation of Oxford to Alfred, or of 
 Cambridge to an earlier Prince, as has been done by their respective ])arti/ans.* 
 Edward I., we are aware, gave a Charter to the Universities, but tiiis was merely 
 a recital and confirmation of the Deeds of foundation previously given by private 
 persons — who, rvotvvithstanding the King's Charter, retained their visitorial powers 
 as founders under the common law. 
 
 The power, indeed, which the Trown appears to have exercised in lormer times 
 over the Universities was very considerable, and it certainly has not been 
 sanctioned by constitutional authorities. In 1519 Edward VI. sent down by 
 commission several visitors to Cambridge to alter and reform tlwj statutes of some 
 of the Colleges. This commission was issued, however, not upon the King's 
 general visitorial power which he exercises by virtue of the common law over 
 charitable foundations where no special visitor 1 as been ai)pointcd by the founder, 
 or where the right of visitation, in default of heirs, devolves upon the King, to be 
 exercised by the Great Isfeal, — but proceeded strictly and was derived from his 
 newly acquired spiritual jurisdiction established on the ruins of the pa])al authority 
 in England. The power of visitation conferred on the Crown by 25 Hem y VIII. 
 was also purely of an ecclesiastical nature, and indeed was a mere transference of 
 the power that had been- claimed and exercised before that time by the Pope as Heixl 
 of the Church. In those times Universities were considered to be ecclesiastical 
 foundations, but both the doctrine and the power have since been exploded. The 
 interference of Charles IL by Letteis Missive was an act of aibitrary dispensation 
 which cannot be supported at the present day. 
 
 When a proposal was made by William IIL of a Royal visitation, Lord Chief 
 Justice Holt denied the right of the Crown to interfere, and Lord Chief Justice 
 Wilmot expressed an opinion at once adverse to the right of the Crown and 
 favorable to Parliamentary jurisdiction. " I have long been a warm advocate for 
 our Universities," said Lord Chie) Justice Wilmot, "and for that reason, perhaps, 
 have been too rigid and severe a disciplinarian ; for their existence depends upon 
 the activity and honor of the tutors and heads ol houses, and whenever there was 
 
 large majority, yet, independently of other obstacles, the reluctance of the British 
 Legislature to interfere with rights and privileges privately acquired, may readily 
 account for its temporary defeat in the House of Lords. But in Canada the Endowment 
 and the University are undoubtedly public, and may therefore properly be made the 
 subject of legislation. 
 
 * The origin of the English Universities, as traced by the profound research of 
 Mr. Hallam, would appear to be invested with even a deeper fihade than that with which 
 antiquity generally enshrouds the early history of" literary institutions. " The earliest 
 authentic mention of Ca ibridge as a place of learning, if I mistake not, is in Matthew 
 Paris, who informs us, tliat, in 1209, John having caused three Clerks of Oxford to be 
 hanged on suspicion of murder, the whole body of scholars left that city, and emigrated, 
 some to Cambridge, some to Reading, in order to carry on dieir studies. But it may be 
 conjectured, witli some probability, that they were led to a town sc distant as 
 Cambridge by the previous establishment of academical instruction in that place. 
 The incorporation of Cambridge is iii 1231 (15 Henry III.) so that there is no great 
 difference in the legal antiquity of our two Universities." — Hallaiu's Middle Ages, 
 Chap. 9, Part 2. 
 
I, may be 
 ed, or of 
 
 tarlizans.* 
 IS merely 
 
 )y private 
 
 ial powers 
 
 mer times 
 
 not been 
 
 doAvii by 
 
 s of some 
 
 he King's 
 
 law oyer 
 
 e founder, 
 
 jng, to be 
 
 from his 
 
 authority 
 
 ;iny VIII. 
 
 erence of 
 
 )e as Heatl 
 
 lesiastical 
 
 led. The 
 
 spensation 
 
 ord Chief 
 ief Justice 
 rown and 
 vocate for 
 , perhaps, 
 snds upon 
 there was 
 
 lie British 
 
 ly readily 
 
 ndownient 
 
 made the 
 
 ?scarch of 
 /ith which 
 le earliest 
 I Matthew 
 cford to be 
 (migrated, 
 t it may be 
 distant as 
 liat place. 
 I no great 
 die Ages, 
 
 91 
 
 a total relaxation of ilisciplinc, if they either do not take care to know, or whenever 
 ihcy connive at idleness, flic Poylidineiit timst and oi -lit to take the rejonmitiim 
 of them in their OiCii liands, and attempt to rescue the rising generation from vice 
 and ignorance by some new system of academical government." Lord Mansfield, 
 in the very case from which Mr. Draper has quoted, admits that " the Crown 
 did formerly exercise a power over the Universities which cannot be supported 
 by any sound principles of law." — (Ilex v. University of Cambridge.) , 
 
 Over all corporate property the Legislature has always exercised a high and 
 special trusteeship : and the prerogative of the Crown is at the same time clearly 
 delined by the common law as consisting in a visitoriol ])ower to«ee whether in 
 the lapse of time the intentions of the founders have not been frustrated. I'arlia- 
 ment and the Crown are alike entrristed Avith the power of erecting Corporations 
 and giving them Charters, the only diil'erence in the practice being in the change 
 effected by the Revolution — that where the ])Ovve<r of tlie Crown was formeily 
 supposed to be sufficient of itself to meet all cases, the Royal authority must in 
 certain circumstances be exercised legally and constitutionally through the medium 
 of both Houses of the Legislature. There can be as little doubt of the power of 
 the Crown, thus constitutionally exercise^!, to erect and found new Corporations, 
 whether Universities or other civil foundations, as there can be of its constitutional 
 exercise in the abrogation of .such laws as have become unnecessary or ijic-xpedient. 
 But whenever a Charter has been conlirmed or altered by the Legislature, whether 
 that Charter was originally public or jjrivate, the power of llie Crown alone is 
 insufficient for its further modihcation,and hence the dictum of Lord Mansfield in 
 referring to certain new grants \vhi/:h had been made by Queen Elizabeth to the 
 University of Cambridge, subsequent to a Parliamentary interference, and which 
 Mr. Draper has twisted and triumphantly quoted for another purpose — that " tlie 
 validity of these new Charters must turn upon the acceptance of the University." 
 That learned Judge, iuJeed, lays it down, that the Cr^'wn alone cannot take away 
 their rights or give them Statutes or Charters without their own voluntary acce])- 
 tance, — as was the case between Charles I. and the University of Oxford ; — but it 
 may be doubted, notwithstanding the dictum of Lord Mansfield, whether the 
 voluntary acceptance of new Charters by the Universities would not be illegal, 
 and would not be tantamount to an alienation, wliich could only be effected by the 
 aid of a Parliamentary Statute. 
 
 If, however, we arc sent back to ancient usuages — if we are referred to the 
 wisdom and acts of our ancestors — we cannot doubt on historical grounds tiiat 
 Parliament has not only exercised the full and absolute power of interfering by 
 legislative enactment with the practice and regulations of the Universities; but 
 that the Universities of England are in fact great National Institutions, .supported 
 and maintained by acts of the L;;gislature— that their Charters, privileges and 
 rights are secured by Acts of Parliament— that some of their highest advantages 
 have been conferred on them by the same means — and that the most important 
 right which they legally enjoy— the right of possessing that which formerly 
 belonged to the Catholics— has been conferred by the very instrumentality which 
 

 IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-S) 
 
 
 
 1.0 
 
 1.1 
 
 1.25 
 
 ■tt m |22 
 
 uf 124 ^" 
 1^ |££ 12.0 
 
 1.4 
 
 
 71 
 
 
 C? 
 
 ^;; 
 
 / 
 
 s 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 Corporation 
 
 ly. -«s/<5, 
 
 
 23 WIST MAIN STRUT 
 
 WiBSTER.N.Y. 14580 
 
 (7U) •72-4503 
 
 
92 
 
 \t 
 
 the Advoca'e of " the chartered rights" o{ King's College repndiates and condemns. 
 In the reigns of Henry VIFl., Edwar^ VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, enqwiries took 
 place into the condition of the Universities by commission, and the resTilt of each 
 of the commissions was the alteration, by Parliamentary Statwtc, of the 
 regulations and proceedings of the Colleges constituting the Univer»itie». The 
 Statute parsed in 13th Elizabeth, ujon which Mr. Drajier has laid consideyabler 
 stress as having been «* framed by the authority of the Crown and probably 
 introduced by the Ministers," was m fact the result of one of these commisjjionp, 
 and besides embodying the spirit oi the Statnta Antiqua, or bye-laws of the 
 Universities, and of the various Acts of Parliament of the Reigns of Henry VHI., 
 Edward VI., and Mary, which have always been regarded as the ancient 
 constitution of the Universities, was also designed to effect various important 
 alterations on their constitution, and was framed not merely with the view of 
 protecting the government, but also of regulating the appropriation of the revenues 
 of the several Colleges. But whether it was " framed by the authority of the 
 Crown," or " introduced by the Ministers," will probably little affect its validity 
 at the present day. 
 
 The aigument of the learned Counsel as applied to the Irish and Scottish 
 Universities, is equally destitute ofjegal and historical accuracy. lie has passed 
 over Trinity College, Dublin, with th^i brief observation ihat it received its 
 Charter from Elizabeth, but had he enquired further into the history of that 
 Institution he would have discovered that it was pregnant with analogies and 
 precedents for the modifications proposed by the University Bill. Passing over 
 its early histoiy, — even so recently as 1785, an Act of Parliament was passed to 
 establisli in Trinity College three additional professorships. And in 1793, an Act 
 was framed by Mr. Pitt, and was passed by the Irish Parliament for the purpose 
 of modifying the University to an extent which was decried as subverting its 
 " Chartered Kights," and undermining its ancient constitution. 
 
 By ancient Statutes the Dissenters were admitted into the University of Dublin, 
 without religious tests, but the Roman Catholics had been all along excluded from 
 the offices and honours. Mr. Pitt's Bill was intended to aflbrd the Catholics 
 considerable relief, and merely excluded them from the offices of Provost and 
 Fellow. Two or three Catholics were accordingly, soon after the passing of the 
 Act, admitted to Scholarships, but as the Statute did not in express words take 
 away the oaths of supremacy and the declaration against the invocation of Saints, 
 the F'^Uows have thought tit to enforce their being taken and subscribed on 
 admission to Scholarship, and have thus prevented the Catholics from aspiring to 
 that honour. The Statute was however passed by a Parliament, of which the 
 Provost was a member, and the Representatives of the College were acquiescing 
 parties. So far indeed as the University itself was concerned there was but one 
 •bjoction and no opposition — and that objection was made neither to the jurisdic- 
 tion nor moral right of Parliament to legislate, but it was contended by the party 
 who urged it that no Roman Catholic should in future be excluded from any of 
 flie offices or honours. The amendment was proposed by John Claudius Bcresford 
 
93 
 
 Dublin, 
 ed from 
 Iholics 
 ost and 
 of the 
 ds take 
 Saints, 
 )ed on 
 ring to 
 ich the 
 ieecing 
 ut one 
 iriedic- 
 party 
 any of 
 resford 
 
 \ 
 
 f) 
 
 — a name of dreadful familiarity to Roman Catholic ears— and in the speech 
 vrhich he delivered on the occasion, he is reported to have said: — "God forhid 
 that I should ever see the pious intentions of the Royal Founders of the University 
 frustrated by any perversion of the privileges or revenues theireof. If it be 
 determined to open the Universities to Catholics, let the British Minister first 
 procure an Act of Parliament to open the English Universities, and then the bitter 
 potion may be more readily swallowed by the infatuated and betrayed protestants 
 of Ireland." 
 
 Mr. Draper has omitted any reference to the Roman Catholic College, at 
 Maynooth, which was founded in 1795, exclusively by an Act of Parliament. 
 
 Nor is the learned Counsel more fortunate in his reference to the Scottish 
 Universities. The University of St. Andrew's was founded by Henry Wardlaw, 
 Bishop of the Diocese, in 1411, and was confirmed by Papal Bull, in 1413. The 
 College of St. Salvator was founded by Bishop Kennedy, in 1456 ; that of St. 
 Mary, by Archbishop James Beaton, in 153T ; and that of St. Leonard, in 1512. 
 In 1747, the Colleges of St. Salvator and St. Leonard were united by Act of 
 Parliament.* 
 
 The University of Glasgow was established in 1450, by Bull issued by Pope 
 Nicholas v., and, it is worthy of remark, issued at the request of James 11. 
 More than one Act of Parliament has been passed in reference to this University-t 
 
 King's College, Old Aberdeen, was founded in 1494, by Bishop Elphinston, 
 Lord Chancellor of Scotland in the Reign of James III., and Lord Privy Seal in 
 that of James IV. The King afterwards claimed the patronage of the College. 
 Marischal College, New Aberdeen, was founded after the establishment of Pro- 
 testantism in Scotland, by William Earl of Marischal, and its deed of foundation 
 was confirmed by Act of Parliament within three months after its execution.^ 
 
 The University of Edinburgh was founded by the citizens who obtained a license 
 
 * " The University of St. Andrew's," says Maiden, •* was founded by Henry Ward- 
 law, Bishop of the Diocese, in 1411. The Kins, James I. of Scotland, the Bishop, 
 and the Heads of the Augustinian Priory, at St. Andrew's requested the Papal sanction, 
 and accordingly a Bull was issued in 1413, by Benedict XIII., by which it was made 
 a irniversity, and a general study for all the Faculties. It received other benefactions 
 from the Church, which were ratified by the King, in 1432, and he, at the same time, 
 granted to all its members an exemption from taxes — a privilege confirmed by his 
 successors. " 
 
 t " The University of Glasgow was established in 1450, by a Bull of Pope 
 Nicholas v., issued at the request of James II.— Authority was given for the institu- 
 tion of the general study of all Faculties, and the University was empowered to grant 
 Degrees, which should be valid throughout Christendom. In 1453, a Royal Charter 
 was granted by James II., with an exemption from taxes and all civil burthens."— IMi/. 
 
 \ '• Marischal College, in New Aberdeen, which claims to be a separate Univer- 
 sity, was founded in 1593. The Founder, William Earl of Marischal, directed the 
 Principal to confer the Degree of Master of Arts upon Students who deser"ed it ; and, 
 as the deed of foundation has been confirmed by more than one Act of Parhament, the 
 College is an authorised University. "—/Wrf. 
 
94 
 
 3Tf 
 
 from James VI. lor founding :\ College witliin the cily. Tn 1G21, an Act of Par- 
 liament was passed, ratifying its various grants, and among other things avthoris- 
 ing the University to confer Degrees.* 
 
 Mr. Draper's reference to the Scottish Universities thus completely fails. Not 
 one of these Institutions ov/ed its foundation to lioyal Charter, but they were all 
 founded ar.d created hy private grant, by I'apal Bull or by Act of Pari lament. All the 
 Scottish Universities were re-modelled under the auspices of Buchanan, at the time of 
 the lleformation, so as *o adapt them to the immediate wants of the community. In 
 the course of the last century, Faculties of JNIedicine and Law have developed 
 themselves; and in 18-^0-27, a commission of inquiry was set on foot, the result 
 of which has been the adoption of many practical reforms and useful alterations 
 in these Establishments,. f 
 
 * la 1581, the citizens of Edinburgh obtiiincd a license iioni James VI. for found- 
 ing a College within the city ; and in 15sJi, uided by various donations, they procured 
 a suitable site for it. The Provost and Town Council were empowered to repair and 
 build houses for the reception and habitation of Profesnors. The Town Council 
 proceeded to act upon this license, and opiuod an academy at 'lirst under a single 
 Regent, augmenting the number of teucln'is from time to time, according to the 
 increase in the number of Students. It 15!:<4, the King granted property, not to the 
 College, but to tlie ^Magistrates and Town Council, tor the benctit of the College ; 
 and in 1612, he gave a Charter confirming all that they had done. In 1G21, an Act of 
 Parliament was passed, ratifying the Royal Endowments, and the erection of the 
 College, as a College for the [jrofession of theology, philoso])by, and humanity, and 
 granting la ' favour of the burgh of Edinburgii, jiatron of the said College, and of the 
 rejents and students in the same, all t/ic li/jcrlica and pririlcgcs pcrtnining to any 
 College within the reahti.' On this authority it is that the University confers Degrees. 
 The College is in every respect subject to the Magistrates and Town Council of 
 Edinburgh. No constitution was given to it like those of other Universities. The 
 Town Council are the absolute patrons of the Professorships of their own Institution, 
 and of the ofhce of Principal. The College consists at present of twenty-six Profes- 
 sors, of whom twelve are appointed by the Town-Council, and eight are appointed 
 by the Crown. The Professor of I3ola:iy holds commissions under both. The 
 remaining five are of a mixed nature, but the Town Council has a voice in all. The 
 Senatus Acadeniicus consists of the Principal and all the Professors. 'J'his body is 
 not legally constituted by any of the original deeds, but takes upon itself to act only 
 by usage. By the entire subjection of the University of Edinburgii to the Town- 
 Council, the Professors are relieved from all care of the financial concerns, and of the 
 lands and buildings. It might be supposed antecedently to experience, that such 
 matters would not be well managed by bodies of literary men ; and the exi)erienco of 
 the other Universities, developed in the Report o{ the Royal Commission of Inquiry 
 into the state of the Universities of Scodand, amply confirms the suppofsition. The 
 Council not only fills the vacant chairs, and thus jireservees the l-'nivcrsity from the 
 abuses of a self-elected corporation, but it can at any time institute any new profess- 
 orship wliich it thinks to be for the advantage of science and general education ; nor 
 can the existing Professors maintain any monopoly of teaching, or close their society 
 against the new member. The Council has the discretion to leave all matters of 
 discipline and ordinary detail to the Principal and Professors, while by its superin- 
 tending power it can check any such practices as self-governed corporations are apt 
 to fall into, tending to the i)resent benefit of the individual nrenibers rather than to the 
 permanent benefit of the whole body. 
 
 t The Scottish Commissioners were empowered to enquire into the mode of 
 granting Degrees and of teaching, and were directed " to look narrowly into the 
 revenues of the said Universities, and the management thereof." Nor did the 
 Scottish Commissioners protect the donations of pious founders. It was one of the 
 
t of Par- 
 anthoris- 
 
 ils. Not 
 were all 
 All the 
 le lime of 
 iiity. In 
 lev eloped 
 he result 
 Iterations 
 
 for Ibund- 
 ■ procured 
 epair and 
 1 Council 
 r a single 
 iing to the 
 not to the 
 College ; 
 an Act of 
 ion of the 
 tnity, and 
 md of the 
 iig to any 
 Degrees, 
 ouncil of 
 es. The 
 istitution, 
 x Profcs- 
 appoiiitcd 
 ith. 'I'he 
 11. The 
 fs body is 
 act only 
 Tovvn- 
 nd of the 
 lat such 
 ricnco of 
 Inquiry 
 n. The 
 from the 
 profess- 
 on ; nor 
 society 
 lattcrs of 
 superin- 
 g are apt 
 n to the 
 
 inode of 
 
 I into the 
 
 did the 
 
 lo of the 
 
 05 
 
 The reierence to ihc University of Diuliimi, and the London University, is not 
 strictly applicable. These Universities aie privileged by Royal Charter, but it is 
 inaccurate to say that h\nn this source they derive their existence. Eotli Universities 
 are strictly private foundations, and on account of the tolerant principles upon 
 which they were established — •they were assailed with rancorous virulence by the 
 Academic pulpits. The characters and motives of Iheir fotnulers were maligned 
 and their objects misrepresented in every sha])e that High Church ingenuity could 
 devise ; and with the determincil and cordial opposition of the Bishops, the passing 
 of an Act for their Incorporation would have been a hopeless attempt. But the 
 reference to these Universities neither strengthens the one case, nor weakens the 
 other. That the Crown has power to incorporate a University, or other civil 
 Institution, may be admitted without admitting an intringement on the right of 
 Parliament to do the same. 
 
 In the two instances cited by JNIr. Draper from Canadian experience, unwar- 
 rantable inferences have been drawn from the facts. He says — " The University 
 of Queen's College at Kingston is founded by Royal Charter, the Act of the 
 Legislature erecting it having been disallowed." But the Act of the Legislature 
 was disallowed on the application of the Trustees of Queen's College, which is 
 strictly a private foundation, — not for the purpose of changing its constitution or 
 powers — not because it had been discovered that Parliament had no right to 
 legislate — but in order that the University might undergo a change in its name, 
 and that it might occupy a place in public estimation not inferior to the exclusive 
 University of King's College, from the privileges of which the Presbyterians had 
 been unjustly debarred. Upper Canada Academy, now Victoria College, was 
 incorporated by Royal Charter, in 1830, and was afterwards, />;/ Ad of the Colonial 
 Legislature erected into a College, with University privileges and powers. The 
 application for a Royal Cluuter, in the first instance, was occasioned, not by any 
 doubts of the powers and functions of the Canadian Parliament, but solely by 
 local circumstances, which shut out for a time every reasonable prospect of 
 obtaining an Act of Incorporation; and Lord GleneJg, then Colonial Secretary, 
 acting under the advice of English Counsel, hesitated as to the propriety of a 
 Royal Charier, on the ground that " the Crown ought not to create any Corpora- 
 tion in the Colony that it was competent lo the Legislature to create." The 
 Charter for the incorporation of the Academy was only obtained after a.ssurance 
 had been given to the Colonial Secretary, tliat the Institution was in harmony 
 with the views of the House of Assembly. !■ ' • ' >• ' ' .' 
 
 If then the question of University Reform depends upon historical and legal 
 precedent, the Canadian Legislature can scarcely hesitate to exercise those jjowers 
 which have been constitutionally vested in the respective Parliaments of England, 
 of Ireland, and of Scotland, which exist in supreme majesty in the Parliament of 
 
 subjects of special interest that an enquiry should be made into the ancient donations 
 or mortifications, as dicy are called in llie Scotch Law. The Commissioners had 
 also power to cnc|uire into elections ; and pdwer was given them to frame a Code rf 
 Laws and Regulations for all the Universities. , . . 
 
96 
 
 the United Kingdom of G: at Britain and Ireland, and which have been expressly 
 recognised by the Imperial Government, as existing in the Colonial Legislature, 
 with the fullest application to the establishment in question. 
 
 It surely cannot admit of doubt, that a power must exist in the constitution 
 to adapt laws to the ever-varying wants and circumstances which the moral and 
 physical elements of which society is composed are ever producing. If it be 
 beyond the power of the Crown to interfere with an Institution which has already 
 been made the subject of parliamentary legislation, are its defects, its corruptions, 
 and injurious tendencies at once to receive constitutional protection, and to escape 
 from constitutional control ? As there is a moral duty, so there is an inherent 
 power on the part of a government to make the laws of a country conducive to 
 the happiness of its inhabitants ; and no law can be properly maintained either 
 after its object has ceased .o exist, or after it has become positively injurious. 
 As society is progressive, so the laws which govern it must be adapted to the 
 changes to which it is exposed. 
 
 The right of parliamentary legislation over every other branch of the constitution 
 is recognised and proved in every page of the history of England. The attempt 
 would scarcely succeed at the present 'lay to set up divine right, legitimacy, and 
 prescription against the necessities which new interests and new opinions have 
 created. If the acknowledgment was wrung from Charles I. that *' the King's 
 prerogative is but to defend the people's liberties," it is scarcely to be denied that 
 the people, through their representatives, are the proper judges whether it should 
 be restrained when it proves hurtful. " My Lords," said Ilolborne in his noble 
 defence of Hampden. " whatever estate is in the king in the politic capacity, is 
 in him as rex, and not in him in his natural capacity ; and what is in him so is 
 for the benefit of the kingdom." 
 
 But how idle it must be to argue the constitutional right of parliamentary 
 control over a civil corporation in a country which has received a transcript of 
 the British Constitution, and among a people who inherit from their fathers the noble 
 legacy of England's history and laws. We have but to point to the maxim on which 
 the succession to the Throne of England depends to find that " the right oi 
 inheritance therein may from time to time be changed or limited by Act of 
 Parliament" (1 Black. 191), and to the instances in which that right has been 
 exercised, to be satisfied that when a moral necessity for change may arise, the 
 power to effect it will be found to exist in the Legislature. 
 
 ** A legislative Act," said Mr. Burke in his argument on the Middlesex election, 
 on the occasion of the expulsion of Mr. Wilkes from the House of Commons by 
 a simple resolution, " a legislative Act has no reference to any rule but these 
 two — original justice and discretionary application. Therefore it can give rights, 
 rights where no rights existed before, and it can take away rights where they 
 were before established. For the law that binds all others, does not, and cannot 
 bind the law-maker; he and he alone is above the law." The ultimate power 
 and jurisdiction being Uius ascertained to exist in the Parliament, it would be 
 
97 
 
 expressly 
 gislature, 
 
 nstiUition 
 loral and 
 
 If it be 
 ais already 
 rruplions, 
 to escape 
 
 inherent 
 ducive to 
 ted either 
 injurious, 
 ed to the 
 
 institution 
 e attempt 
 nacy, and 
 ions have 
 he King's 
 enied that 
 
 it should 
 his noble 
 pacity, is 
 
 lim so is 
 
 iamenlary 
 nscript of 
 the noble 
 on which 
 right ot 
 Act of 
 has been 
 airise, the 
 
 : election, 
 imons by 
 but these 
 -e rights, 
 lere they 
 id cannot 
 te power 
 v'ould be 
 
 difficult to discover any higher or stronger obligation on the consciences of 
 legislators than the consideration of the public benefit ; and therefore in reference 
 to the modihcations of a public endowment, the questions that require to be 
 satisfactorily answered, previous to parliamentary interference, are simply, — Is 
 the present system expedient ? and have the Trustees discharged their trust with 
 fidelity? ■ "" 
 
 The real question, then, before the people of Canada is the expediency — the 
 moral nece^^sity of a change in the present .system. And if at a particular period 
 of the history of Canada, when an Episcopal ascendancy was paramount in the 
 Councils of the country, it was deemed expedient to appropriate and set apart a 
 niagnilicent endowment for educational purposes, and to place that endowment 
 and the direction of education exclusively under Episcopal control, will it be 
 maintained, when the country has, from a diversity of causes, become divided 
 into many religious communities, each community being in the enjoyment of 
 perfect equality in civil and religious privileges, that every advantage from the 
 endowment shall be confined to the Episcopal members of the community, who 
 now form one of the least of the variety of sections — that the privileges attached 
 to the University must be perpetuated for the sole benefit of the original class, 
 and that new a^ipirants to civil privileges are to be refused a partnership in public 
 rights, either on the ground that their interests were not at one period contemplated 
 and recognised, or that the monopolists refuse their consent to a participation ? 
 If the University was intended to be a National Institution, can we look at the 
 numbers, the rank, the wealth, the character and intelligence of those who are 
 excluded under the present illegal system, and say that it is expedient to depiive 
 so large and influential a portion of the community of the benefits of a University 
 education— that it^is just or expedient to expose them to the feeling that they are 
 ill used by the laws of their country by being precluded from the enjoyment of 
 benefits which are open to others by the illegal regulations of any particular 
 Establishment ? What is the principle involved but the right of every man to 
 religious freedom and liberty of conscience — a right which none dare publicly 
 to controvert, but which the Trustees of King's College have dared to infringe by 
 a secret violation of the law ? Is it not enough to prove that the Institution only 
 accomplishes a small part of the purposes for which it was established by law, 
 to shew the propriety a,nd necessity of giving it more enlarged and national 
 usefulness .' And is it of no importance to t'.ie interests of the country that persons 
 differing in their religious opinions, but agreeing on other subjects, should not be 
 estranged from each other on the ground of creed— that instead of imbibing those 
 principles of tolerance and those feeling;? of Christian charity which a joint 
 system of education would produce, a spirit of hostility should be engendered, by 
 the influence of which they must become more estranged from each other in their 
 literary and scientific pursuits? Can it be expected that the youth, who have 
 been confined, during the progress of their education, in the choice of their 
 associates, to a particular Church, will be easily brought to believe, in their riper 
 years, that the Christian virtues and graces flourish and arc equally diffused 
 N 
 

 among Christians of aU denominations ? But, on the other hand, by a combined 
 system of education — by the ties of affection and good will, which would be 
 fostered, even the intolerant denunciations of their respective Churches, which 
 are the relics of other ages, when parties were brought into colliBion in the 
 struggle for their civil rights, and for religious ascendancy, would lose all the 
 power which they would otherwise have in perpetuating that negative ppecies of 
 persecution, which robs social life of its cordialities, and^ invests a public career 
 with half its animosity and bitterness. 
 
 Nor will any remedy less solemn than a declaration by Parliament of the 
 equal rights of all denominations to a full participation in the advantages of the 
 Institution, meet the exigency of the case, or restore public confidence to the 
 Institution, or satisfy the country. Were the A.mended Charter complete in 
 its details, and were the complaint confined to a mere perversion of trust, 
 the remedy — whether consisting in the restoration of the trust purposes, or 
 in the punishment or removal of the Trustees — might be found in an inferior 
 judicatory. But it must be recollected that the law, — notwithstanding its recog- 
 nition of the principle of equality, — ^was conceded and framed by the party 
 favourable to exclusion, and at a political crisis when the best friends of education 
 were unrepresented in the Legislature, and that its gross and glaring defects are 
 such as to render it in many respects useless and inoperative. The law must be 
 so framed as to prevent a corrupt administration — and, when badly administered, 
 it becc^ he diity of Parliament to remedy those defects, which have exposed it 
 to pern on. The principle of equality, as already recognised, must be guarded 
 by practical and efficacious rules and checks, to secure its healthy operation. 
 And it is no less the duty of the Legislature to watch, with a vigilant eye, ine 
 spirit of the age, and adapt its measures to the changes produced by ti ne, than to 
 exercise a strict surveillance over the administration of the laws, so as to protect 
 their principles from corruption or perversion. Nor does the existence of a 
 subordinate judicatory for enforcing the proper administration of the laws, deprive 
 the Parliament of its judicial adaptation to the least as well as the greatest objects- 
 Its powers and functions, as the supreme tribunal in the State, are applicable, in 
 all circumstances, whether in declaring the meaning of the law with greater 
 precision, or in correcting those mistakes which have occasioned either miscon- 
 ception of intention or corrupt administration. 
 
 The argument of the learned counsel assumes that the Bill " proposes to 
 interfere with and take away privileges, liberties, and franchises, which the 
 Crown has solemnly granted under the great seal of the Empire." But what 
 *• privilege, liberty or franchise," was enjoyed by the University which vas not 
 largely extended by the Bill ? No part of the corporation was changed but its 
 name — and what is more common than for a corporation to change its name and 
 retain its powers, rights and privileges ? The objects and purposes and subject 
 matter of the corporation remained the same, but an extension of its advantages 
 was proposed by the modification and adjustment of its machinery. It is 
 
I combined 
 would be 
 es, which 
 on in the 
 )se all the 
 species of 
 blic career 
 
 'nt of the 
 ^es of the 
 »ce to the 
 implete in 
 . of trust, 
 rposes, or 
 n inferior 
 its recog- 
 the party 
 education 
 efects are 
 ' must be 
 linistered, 
 jxposed it 
 e guarded 
 operation. 
 
 eye, ine 
 e, than to 
 to protect 
 nee of a 
 3, deprive 
 it objects, 
 cable, in 
 h greater 
 
 miscon- 
 
 poses to 
 hich the 
 3ut what 
 vas not 
 d but its 
 ame and 
 1 subject 
 vantages 
 i. It is 
 
 99 
 
 absurd to talk cf disfranchising a corporation, when every end ot its existence is 
 clearly recognised, and every power which it holds is legally maintained. 
 
 Now, the UNivKRsrry, as a corporation, was preserved in all its integrity, and 
 in the unimpaired possession of its *« privileges, liberties, and franchises." 
 The other Colleges asked for no separate lands, no distinct franchises — they did 
 not even aspire to participation in University privileges, for they surrendered 
 those which they held — they asked no extension of their charters — no new powers 
 which wcrfi adverse to the rights already established— all that they asked, and all 
 that the Biii proposed to give them, was, that their students might have the 
 privilege of attending the Lectures in Arts and Sciences established out of a public 
 endowment, and that that endowment might be so administered that such privilege 
 should be enjoyed without offence to their conscientious convictions. The separate 
 Colleges in the Universities of England have been endowed and privileged by 
 private individuals. Surely that which has been done legally in England by the 
 piety or munitieence of individuals, may be constitutionally accomplished in 
 Canada, without stretching, to an undue degree, the jurisdiction of the 
 Parliament 
 
 But the argument of disfranchisement can be maintained with little either of grace 
 or effect by the person who framed and introduced the amended law, which recog- 
 nised, to the fullest extent, the very principle which it is the object of the present 
 Bill to reduce more thoroughly to practice. By the introduction of the Amended 
 Charter, Mr. Draper, as a legislator, gave his solemn sanction and personal approval 
 of the principle which Mr. Draper, as of Counsel for the Trustees of King's College, 
 afterwards called upon the Commons of Canada in the name of their God, their 
 Queen, and their Country, to condemn. Was not the sole object of the Amended 
 Charter to deprive the Episcopal Church of the exclusive enjoyment of University 
 " privileges, liberties, and franchises ? " Did it not expressly recognise the equal 
 rights of all denominations of Trinitarian Christians to an unconditional partici- 
 pation in those privileges, liberties; and franchises ; and have not the Trustees of 
 King's College fraudulently disf ranch ised_.the people of Canada of the « privileges, 
 liberties and franchises" which Mr. Draper's own Statute conferred upon them? 
 And, moreover, did not Mr. Draper's Amended Statute, to the fullest extent, 
 recognise the power and jurisdiction which as an advocate he affects to repudiate? 
 True it is that the Crown gave its sanction to the amendments — true it is that 
 the Crown " invited the attention of the Legislature to the improvement of the 
 Charter." But will the invitation of the Crown invest the Legislature with power 
 and jurisdiction which are not inherent in its constitution ? Must the validity of 
 Acts of Parliament be tested by dragging from grim and musty obscurity uncertain 
 evidence of their having been "framed by the Crown," or of having been 
 " probably introduced by the Ministers" — or if the invitation of the Crown 
 invests the Parliament with its " omnipotence," is the Despatch of a Colonial 
 Secretary to work the charm which the Bill of an Attorney-General is impotent 
 to produce ? . ;; 
 
 But in what character do the Council of King's College appear at the Bar gf 
 
100 
 
 M 
 
 1 
 
 the lA?gislaturc to protest against a measure for the motlilication of a public 
 endowment ? If the Council of King's College have heen invested with franchises, 
 they are of a public nature, and they as well as the endowment to which they 
 are attached, arc held in trust for the benefit of the whole community. There is 
 an obvious distinction between private property vested in individuals as such, 
 and property vested in individuals in the character of public Trustees, and therefore 
 held by them only for the public benciit. There can be no claim on behalf of these 
 Trustees in their own persons, for the University was erected into a Corporation 
 purely for public purposes. Now a Corporation is an ideal being — a legal 
 fiction — as incorporeal shadow endowed with vitality and power solely by the 
 creation of the law for the purpose of holding rights in trust for the public interest. 
 If any of its Trustees are in the enjoyment of a life-rent, there is to that extent 
 a personal right, but otherwise there is simply a Trust which must be held 
 and exercised for the public benefit. 
 
 But as all Trusteeship pre-supposes confidence between the parties, when that 
 confidence is lost, the office of Trustee may be recalled. For the Trustee can 
 have no ri.rson.il interest in the estate in virtue of his office, and therefore the 
 interest is solely in the parties for whose benefit it is held. In the present instance 
 the beneficiary right is vested in the public, who must therefore be possessed of 
 the power to remove their Trustees. The resumption of tiie endowment would in 
 fact be nothing more than the removal of the Trustees, even were that endowment 
 to be applied to other than Academical purposes. 
 
 The distinction between the right to private property vested in individuals 
 either personally or as Trustees (or as in the case of the Collegiate 
 Institutions of Lower Canada, which are expressly endowed, not for national, 
 but for Roman Catholic purposes, and in that character are guaranteed by 
 the faith of the Empire), and property vested in individuals in the character 
 of public Trustees will always be recognised by the Legislature. Parliament 
 has the power — and it occasionally exercises the right of interference with either : 
 but on private property it will seldom legislate, unless where its existence or 
 purposes are positively injurious — or when it is taken collectively, as in case of 
 Parliamentary taxation — while over public and corporate property it exercises a 
 special trusteeship as to its management and direction. And if it be convenient 
 for the Parliament to recall or limit a public trust, are the Trustees to be entithd 
 to say that they ought to keep it for their own purposes ? Is a public reformation 
 not to be accomplished without bribing certain Trustees into connivance ? Or 
 does it follow that the Parliament are necessarily doing violence to adverse claims 
 and titles, simply because certain Trustees have not come voluntarily forward to 
 surrender a public trust which they have scandalously perverted ? 
 
 The learned Counsel must have internally smiled at the idea of alarming^ tlie 
 fears of the Legislature with an argument which he would not have ventured to 
 use in a far inferior Judicatory. If the obstinate resistance of the corrupt Council 
 of King's College is to impede the progress of Parliamentary legislation what ought 
 to have been the effect of a remonstrance from the ancient Buighs of Sarum and 
 
101 
 
 (Jatton on the course of Knglish Parliamentary Kefonn r And it a Parliament could 
 be lound base enouf2;h to disregard the protest of the Brethern of I.aud against all acts 
 passed in their absence as being the acts of a Parliament no longer free, whpt 
 amount of temerity will resist "the Memorial of John, by Divine Permission, 
 Bishop of Toronto" ? — Alas ! we fear Puch is the arbitrary power now vested in 
 and exercised by our Parliaments that the validity of their acts will scarcely admit 
 of a question, even though the whole Bench of Bishops should record their dissent 
 — or even, as in the case of the Act of Uniformity, the very name of the Lords 
 Spiritual should be dropped from every part of the Bill. If the only opponents 
 of a legislative measure are the unfaithful stewards who have betrayed their trust 
 what better argument could their exist for the legal and moral necessity of a 
 change ! 
 
 The betrayal of trust and subversion of the law by the College Council, 
 deprive Mr. Draper's argument of even the appearance of plausibility. The 
 contest is not r between the people of Canada and the vested rights of the 
 College Council — but between a corrupt Council and the vested rights of the 
 people. All those " privileges, rights and franchises," for which Mr. Draper has 
 so eloquently contended, were vested in the co munity : the College Council 
 have, in violation of the law, perverted them to private purposes : and have had 
 the effrontery to appear at the Bar of the Commons in defence of a contraband 
 traffic with a public endowment Those who talk of vested rights being 
 invaded or infringed by the University Bill, should look at the original grant — 
 its fraudulent appropriation — the deceptions practised in obtaining the Charter 
 — the long and arduous struggles by the people to reclaim their birthright — 
 the supposed termination of those struggles in the" Legislative Act restoring the 
 endowment to its legitimate purposes — and the defeat of those purposes by 
 parties who have neither the capacity nor the integrity — neither the ability 
 nor the inclination to promote any public good. If the system at present in 
 operation were carried on under the sanction of a law, however inexpedient — it 
 might in some respects be defensible as a right— but carried on as it is under a 
 a flagrant violation of positive law and on the strength of « a usurped power it 
 calls for immediate alteration as subversive of the legal constitution of the 
 Establishment, and inimical to the interests of the country. 
 
 Pi' the 
 
 ought 
 m and