w V^. In^ .0^. \^>%<, IMAGE EVALUATSON TEST TARGET (MT-3) h /. f/- 1.0 I.I 1.25 II IS 1.4 IM 1.6 <^ /^ V] /. '^ '/ iV -^^ ■<^ :\ \ ,^; :^- "^j. >> ■an CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 1980 Technical Notes / Notes techniques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Physical features of this copy which may alter any of the images in the reproduction are checked below. L'Institut a microfilm* le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6X6 possible de se procurer. Certains d6fauts susceptibles de nuire 6 la quality de la reproduction sont not6s ci-dessous. D D D □ D D D n Coloured covers/ Couvertures de couleur Coloured maps/ Cartes gdographiques en couleur Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages d6color6es, tachef6es ou piqudes Tight binding (may cause shadows or distortion along interior margin)/ Reliure serr6 (peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de la marge incdrieure) D D D D Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur Coloured plates/ Planches en couleur Show through/ Transparence Pages damaged/ Pages endommagdes Th( PO! of filr Th CO or ap Th fill in! M in uf be fo r—Ti Aoditional comments/ IV 1 Commentaires suppldmentaires Original copy restored and laminated. Bibliographic Notes / Notes bibliographiques Only edition available/ Seule Edition disponible Bound with other material/ Reli6 avec d'autres documents Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque Plates missing/ Des planches manquent Additional comments/ Commentaires supplAmentalres n Pagination incorrect/ Erreurs de pagination Pages missing/ Des pages manquent Maps missing/ Des cartes gdographiques manquent Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omittijd from filming. 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. Les images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et de la nettetd de I'exemplaire film6, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. The last recorded frame 01 each microfiche shall contain the symbol —»► (meaning CONTINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "EMD"), whichever applies. The original copy was borrowed from, and filmed with, the kind consent of the following institution: Library of tha Public Archives of Canada Maps or plates 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: Un des symboles suivants apparattra sur la der- nidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole —*- signifie "A SUIVRE", It symbole V signifie "FIN". L'exemplaire filmd fut reproduit grfice d la g6n6rositd de I'dtablissement prdteur suivant : La bibliothdque des Archives publiques du Canada Les cartes ou les planches trop grandes pour dtre reproduites en un seul clich6 sont film6es ^ partir de I'angle sup6rieure gauche, de gauche d droite et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n^cessaire. Le diagramme suivant illustre la m6thode : 1 2 3 1 2 3 456 THE RECENT MISTORY OF MCGILL UNIVERSITY. BEING THE ANNUAL UNIVERSITY LECTURE ; FOR THE SESSIOOSr OP' 1882-3. BY PRINCIPAL DAWSON, CMC. LL.D.. F.R.S. . lAB-^ y THE RECENT HISTORY OF McGILL UNIVEHSirV, BEIXa THE ANNUAL UNIVERSITY LECTURE, FOH THE SESSION OF 1882-3. BY • PEINCTPAL DAW80N, C.M.(i., LL.T)., F.R.S. Tho chai'tei- of McGill Univorsity dates from iho year 1821, so that it is roaliy sixty-two years of ago; but its actual history as a teaching institution begun somewhat hiter, and tho present is reckoned as its fiftieth session, in so far as its oldest Faculties, those of Medicine and Arts, ai-c concerned. Owing to protracted litigjitioM, tho property bequeathed by James AIcGill did not come into tho possession of the Board of Governors until 1820. On tho 29th of June in that year, tho Univert.ity was formally opened in the old residence of tho founder, Burnside House; tho Mon- treal Medical Institute, which had already been in existence for some years, was incorjioratcd with it as its Faculty of Medicine, and a little later its Faculty of Arts was constitutcni with a principal and three professors or lecturers. Manv untoward cir- cumstancos conspired to check tho gi-owth of the irifont institution, and it was not until the changes eticctod by tho amended charter in 1852 that it entered on a career of rapid progress. Of the men who were then prominent in its coun- cils, only throe, our Chancclloi' Judge Bay, Senator Ferrier and Archdeacon Leach, remain to witnoHS its more recent growtli. Witliin these thirty years its revenues have <^rown from a few hundred doUars to about $40,000 per annum, without jcckonitig the foes in pi'ofessional Faculties nnd the income of the moi-e recent benefactions. Its start' has increased from the original eight instructing officers to thirty-nine. The number of students has inci-cased to 415 actually attending college classes, or reckon- ing those of the Normal School and of aflfiliated colleges in Arts, to nearly GOO. Its Faculties of Law and Applied Science have been added to those of Arts and Medicine. It has two affiliated colleges in Ai-ts and four in Theology, and has under its management the Provincial Protestant Normal School. Its buildings, like itself, have been gi-owing by a process of accretion, and the latest, that in which we are now assembled, (the Peter Kedpalh Museum) is far in advance of all the others, and a presage of the college build- ings of the future. We have five chairs endowed by private benefactors, fourteen endowed scholarships and exhibitions, be- sides others of a temporary nature, and eight endowed gold medals. More than tliis, we have sent out about 1200 graduates, of whom more than a thousand are occupying positions of usefulness and lionour in this country. Two years ago, J issued cards of invitation to 850 graduates wliose addresses were known to me, and received more than GOO replies. Our friends sometimes say to us that we should rest content with what we have thus attained, and that an institution so great as McGill is quite in advance of the requirements of Canadian education. But if we measure our growth with that of the city of Montreal, or with that of the Dominion of Canada, we shall not find so much cause to congratulate ourselves, and if we compare our means of educational usefulness with those of the greater Universities of older countries, we shall have still less reason to boast. Here I would say that we should not regard McGill merely as an institution for Montreal or for the Province of Quebec, but for the whole of Canada. Primarily, no doubt, it was intended to subserve the interests of the English-speaking people of this province, but at this moment half of its students are from other pi'ovinces, and its founders and early supporters secured for it a Canadian status, in the connection with it of the Governor-General as its Visitor, which it still retains. At first ma Might it might BOom that its namo is too restrictive for such high chiims; but practically this is not the case. Had it boon named the Univoi-KiLy of Montreal, a stronger local colouring would have been given to it. In the United States, those Universities, which, like Harvard, Yale, Cornell and Johns Ilopkins, bear the names of individual men, have become, or are likely to become, the widest in their influence. In Canada, Laval, Dal- housie and McCrili Universities, and Morrin College, boar such individual names, and they are not likel}-, on that account, to have narrower fiekls of usefulness or to fail to attract to them- selves the benefactions of othoi- friends of education. On the contrary, every new benefactor justly regards it as an honour to connect his name with that of an eminent founder, and the benefactions of one man, perpetuated in his name, tend to stim- idate others to like good deeds, and thus to atti-act, as by a magnetic iniiuence, additional gifts. The truth of this is proved by the recent bequests and subscriptions to this University, to wdiich I shall have to refer in the sequel. Another principle, strikingly illustrated in our history, and connected with some of our recent acquisitions, is that small beginnings of any good thing are to be cherished and culti- vated. Our libraiy began in 1855 with the purchase of a small collection of historical and literary works, which the Governors, poor though the college was, ventured to make as a nucleus, and which occupic- few plain shelves in a small room of the old Burnside Hall, ^^hen at a later period Mr. William Molson presented us w tn our present library and its handsome book- cases, we w^ere asked what was the use of a quantity of empty shelves. The answer was that they were gaping for books, and they have long since had to be extended and enlarged; nay, an additional room has recently been added for our law books and public records, and for the library presented to us in the present year by one of the Governors, the Honorable Judge Mackay. Our philosophical appai-atus consisted in 1855 of a few instru- ments of antique pattern bequeathed to the University by the late Dr. Skakel, a man who both as the head of the Koyal Gram- mar School the predecessor of the present High School, and as a cultivator of science, deserves to be held in gratcftd remem- brance. These have been u.sed and cared for and added to until they have grown to the tine collection now in the care of Dr. 6 Johnson, which \h probably tho best of tho kind in thi« country. Our little observatory tower, built in faith when wo had no Icloscope, was to become tho homo of the Blackman toloscopo and ilH a('C'om])anyin^ apparatus for astronomical observations. Not very loujl, ago we had no chemical laboratory. Wo have now two laboratories capable of accommodating sixty-live Htu- dents in practical work, and they have grown up under the care of Dr. Harrington and Dr. Gird wood almost imperceptibly and with little cost to the University. We are i^till destitute of a ]jhysical laboratory, except in so far as our meteorological obser- vatory serves the purpose ; but this is a small beginning to which moi-e will be added. The observatory itself is a case in point. Originally built to aid the late Dr. Sniallwood in his work, it has grown under Prof. McLeod into an important Dominion institute, both for weather observations and for time, and was able to take an important part in the recent observations of tho transit of Venus. When in 1855 [ enquired as to tho museum of the Uni- versity, the Registrar informed mo that there werc«no collections of any kind, but on second thought he produced fr un a drawer a specimen of one of the most common fossil corals from our qiuirries, and said that this had been presented to the college — by whom, I know not. It was a small beginning, but it has gathered around it our present magniticent collections, and it still keeps its place in one of the cases of the Peter Jiedpath Museum. The recent history of our collections in Natural Science also reminds me of the fact that there have been not a few reverses and apparent failures in tho course of our etforts. In my first session in McGill the want of a museum was supplied by my private collection, which was somewhat valuable ; but in tho cala- mitous fire which destroyed J^urnsido Hall and which was in every respect a check to the University, tho greater part of this collection was destroyed, and neither 1 nor the University had the means immediately to replace it. At a later date we trusted to the Geological Survey collection as a moans of supplementing our work in geology, but this was unexpectedly taken from us, and we were thrown upon our own resources. These losses we have, however, more than retrieved, and possess to-day the most valuable collections in this country for educational uses. . Other and greater losses and failures we have had to encounter. In 18Y0, in an address similar to tho present, I was obliged to confess the suspension of our Scliool of Engineering in tho follow- ing terms : ••Our Scliool of Engiiioorinp, suctessful in tho number of pupils attracted to it, and calculated to confer great benefltK on the country, was worried with professional and official opposition ; and, unaided by the public, was at length suspended, owing to the temporary financial embarrassments of the Univer- sity. Our chair of Practical Chemistry, tiiough tilled by the most eminent Chemist in this country, has failed to attract our artisans or manufacturers to receive its benefits.' ' . " Some men may regard these efforts as failures, which should not be re- ferred to Jiere. For my own part I am not ashamed of them. Directly or indirectly, they have done good ; there is not one of tlusm which \h not impor- tant to tho material progress of tins country ; and there is not one of them which by tis, or others, will not be at length successfully carried out. I do not yet despair of any of them; and I am prepared, shordd I remain in this University, to watch for the opportunity to revive them when favourable cir- cumstances shall occur. In the; meantime, they remain as projects inchoate and so far matured in their plans and methods, as to be readily brought to completion by the aid of any one desirous of stimulating through us the de- velopment of any of those arts to which they relate. We wait for some Canadian Lawrence or .Sheftield to endow for us a Scientiiic School, like those of Harvard and Yale, which have contributed so g-.eatly to tho wealth and progress of New England." We have not yet found the Lawrence or Sheffield after whom to name our School, but wc have found many liberal benofactoi's. We have our Faculty of Applied Science iindci- Prof. Hovcy and his colleagues, instead of the little School of Engineering of former years ; and by the recent bequest of a lady of this city, our chair of Civil Engineering has been permanently endowed, under tho name of the William Scott chair. Wo have had tho honour to find our example followed by tho institution of similar schools in other parts of the Dominion, some at least of which are efiicient and formidable rivals. We are still looking for donors who will give their names to chairs of Mining and Mechanical Engineering, and to a science building to match the Peter liedpath Museum, on the opposite side of our grounds. At the close of the financial year of 1880-81, our income had ebbed in a most thretitening manner. Being derived mainly from mortgages on real estate, it had run some risks and experienced a few losses in the commercial crisis of the preceding years. But when the tide of commercial prosperity turned, a greater calamity befel us in the fall of the rate of interest, which reduced our rovoiHio by ncuily 20 per cent, and tliis at a time -vvlion no docroasc orexponditmo could bo mudo williout actual diminution of otHcioncy. Jn thcyo cii'cumstancoH tho Board of (iovci-nors found it nocossary to iiiHittt on most unwolcomo rctrenthniontH, injurious to our educational work, and which «orao of us would have boon glad to avert even by much personal sacrifice and ]»ri- vation. At lengtli on the 13ih of October, 1881, we convened a niocling, not happily of ouj- creditors, but of our constituentn, the Protestant citizons of Montreal, and our position and wants were laid before them most ably, and, 1 may say, even pathetically, t)y tho Chancellor, Judge Day, and the honorar}- Ireasuror, Mr. Ilamsa}'. The meeting was a large and influential one, and 1 shall never cease to bear in grateful remembrance the response which it made. There was no hint of blame for our extravagance, no grudging of the claims of tho higher education which wo represented, but a hearty and unanimous resolve to sustain the University and to give it more than the amount which it asked. Tho result of that meeting wae tho contribution of $28,500 to the endowment fund, besides $26,335 to special funds, including the endowment of Mr. W. C. McDonald's Scholarships, referred to in the sequel ; and of $18,445 in annual subscriptions, most of them for five years. But this was not all, for it was followed by two of those laigo and generous bequests of which this city may well be proud. Major Iliram Mills, an American gentleman, resident for twenty years in Montreal, and familiar with the struggles of the University, loft us by will the handsome sum of $43,000 to endow a chair in his name as well as a scholarship and a gold medal. On this endowment the Governors have placed the chair of clas- sical literature. More recently our late esteemed friend and fellow- citizen, Mr. David Greenshields, has added to the many kind actions of a noble and generous life the gift of $40,000 for the endowment of a chair, and which will probably be given to one of the more important scientific professorships in the Faculty of Arts. At a still later date, by the decease of Mr. Andrevy Stuart of Quebec, the University comes into possession of the bequest of his late wife, a daughter of the late Judge Gale of this city, who desiring to perpetuate the memory of her father in connection with tho profession of which he was long a leading member, left tho sum of $25,000 for the endowment 9 of a Samuel Galo chair in tho Faculty of Law. Adding to those sums the bequest of Mian Barbara S<'ott already roforrod to, we have a total sum of more than $200,000 given to tho Univer- sity by citizens of Montreal within two years. Ff wo add to this tho Peter Redpath Musoura and its contents, with other donations, we may acknowlodgo benefactions within two years to tho amount of about a third of a million. I have made no mention as yet of the endowment in prospect for our Faculty of Medicine. It is somewhat singular that this school, HO ably conducted and so useful, has drawn to itself so little of tho munificenco of benefactors. Perhaps tho fact of its self-supporting and independent character has led to this. But tho removal by death of its late Dean, Dr. Campbell, in connec- tion with its attaining to its 50th anuiversaiy. was well calculated to direct attention to its claims, and the occasion was most hap- pily taken advantage of by the Dean, Dr. Howard, in his opening lecture of the present session. Dr. Campbell was a man of raro • gifts and powers, combining professional eminence of tho highest order with great business capacity, and enlightened and earnest public spirit, he was at the same time a man of wide sympathies and warm and generous heart. Having frequently had occasion to ask his advice and aid in matters, not of a professional cha- racterj which gave me some concern and anxiety, I can bear testimony to his qualities botn of heart and head. The idea of commemorating the life and labors of such a man by sustaining and extending that medical education in which he took so warm interest, and for which he put forth efforts so strenuous, was ono sure to bear fi-uit. Accordingly, wo tind one of our large-hearted business men, who had known Dr. Campbell and who was well fitted to appreciate his worth, offering to give $50,000 toward a Campbell Memorial in the Faculty of Medicine, with the reason- able condition that a like sum shall be given by others. I consider this sum of $100,000 assured to the Medical Faculty, and I trust that it may enable it to strengthen and extend tho good work which it is doing. It is but right to add that while tho University has boon thus liberally dealt with, the past two years have been marked also by large benefactions to all its affiliated colleges — benefactions in which we cordially rejoice. Thus the hard experience of 1881 has been followed by the u prosporit}'' of 1883, and ha8 served to draw forth ovidenco of libe- rality most creditable to the pubic spirit of the citizens of Mon- treal, and to show in a convincing manner the cBtimation in which our work is held in that community in which it is best known. You need not, however, be surprised when I add that these gifts and bequests, liberal though they pre, will do little more than enable the University to carry on without abatement, and poi'haps with somewhat greater efficiency, the operations it has uh'cady undertaken. It must bo borne in mind that a largo deficit had to be covered, and that the Governors may feel it to be th :ir duty to provide adequately for the men alread}' employed before incref;:^ing their number, and also to make some provision for the contingencies necessarily occurring in a large institution. I may now proceed to notice some of the objects to which the additional means the University has obtained or may obtain can beneficially be applied, and the dii'cctions which, in my judgment, its moi"e immediate growth should take. The wants still unsup- plicd in the Faculty of Applied Science hava been already men- tioned. It is worlcing under great disadvantages in the absence of a suitable building, and we have even been under the necessity of considering the expediency of discontinuing one of it« courses of study, that of mechanical engineering, which is now provided for by extra labour on the part of professors having other duties. To place this Faculty on a secure basis, we need a building cost- ing at least ^60,000, and an additional endowment fund of at least 840,000. The Museum ei'octod for us by the bounty of Mr. R