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 REPORT 
 
 ON THE , 
 
 HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN. 
 
 Presented to the Corporation of McGill University, October, 1884. 
 By Principal Sir J. William Dawson, C.M.G., LL.D. 
 
 (Printed by onkr of the Corporation.) 
 
 In introducing this subject it may be well to reojiU the history 
 of the movement in relation to the higher education of women in 
 connection with the University. Our attention was first directed 
 to it at the time of the establishment of the McGill Normal 
 School in 1857, by which we were enabled to carry on classes for 
 the preparation of women for the highoi- positions in the profes- 
 sion of teaching, and which has undoubtedly given a great 
 stimulus to education generally throughout this Province. A 
 little later the attempt was made to render the benefits of the 
 Normal School and of our classes in the Faculty of Arts available 
 ^o ladies not intending to be teachers ; and at one time classes of 
 ladies from the school of the late Miss Lyman, regularly attended 
 my lectures in our old rooms at Burnside Hall. These efforts were, 
 however, very imperfect, and could not be expected to succeed 
 unless followed up with more definite provision for the work, and 
 were not long continued. In 1870, when the University appealed 
 to its friends for additional endowment, at a meeting held in the 
 College library, in February of that year, the Eev. Dr. WilUes 
 moved a resolution to the effect that the University should, as 
 early as possible, extend its benefits to women. The resolution 
 was carried unanimously, and our late Chancellor, Judge Day, 
 
2 
 
 pledged himself that it shviuld receive attention. It was in 
 pursuance of this resolution that on my return from England in the 
 autumn of the same year, I endeavoured to enlist the leading 
 ladies of the city and our college professors in the scheme for a 
 Ladies' Educational Association, similar to those then recently 
 established in the mother country. This association has since 
 that time been one of the recognized institutions of the city, and 
 has done an incalculable amount of good ; though in recent years, 
 more especially since the institution of the High School for Girls 
 and of the Examinations for the Associate in Arts and Senior 
 Associate established by this University in conjunction with the 
 University of Bishop's College, there has been a growing demand 
 for a more definite and systematic training, which those who had 
 been active in connection with the Ladies' Association and the 
 Examinations for women, felt must soon be supplied. As an early 
 indication of the feeling of thoughtful and educated ladies, I 
 should not forget to mention the Hannah Willard Lyman 
 Memorial Fund, founded by pupils of that eminent educationist, 
 and placed in the hands of this University, in anticipation of the 
 establishment of a college for women under our auspices. Fur- 
 ther indications were the endowment of the Trafalgar Institute 
 as a college for women by the late Donald Eoss, and the bequest 
 of the late Miss Jane Scott; though these were not in immediate 
 connection with this University. The means for carrying out 
 our wishes did not, however, appear to be available; and A^^hen, 
 last year, the Eev. Dr. Murray brought the subject before the 
 Corporation, by his resolution in favour of the admission of 
 women, there seemed no nearer prospect of effective action than 
 at any previous period. In these circumstances, the Corpora- 
 tion, after collecting by means of a committee a certain amount 
 of information, in my opinion wisely determined to wait for still 
 further facts and developments before committing itself to any 
 decisive action. There was the more reason for this, inasmuch 
 as very partial success had attended the admission of ladies to the 
 classes in some of the Universities in this country, while in the 
 University of Toronto the subject was actively discussed, and Dr. 
 Wilson, President of University College, had taken strong ground 
 against the method of mixed classes. Some of the best models 
 for imitation seemed also to be those in use in the mother country, 
 respecting which our information was very imperfect, and to some 
 
 ■ 
 
m 
 
 i '- .^' ', 
 
 8 
 
 extent contradictory. In connection with this decision, I proposed, 
 in visiting Groat Britain, to study in as great detail as possible 
 the methods in operation in that country, and to report on my 
 return as to their applicability to our circumstances. 
 
 Education of Women in Britain. 
 
 In Great Britain, there can be no question that the movement 
 for the higher education of women has become one of the most 
 popular of the day ; and in the interval between my visit of 1870 
 and that of 1883, the progress in this direction had rivalled that 
 in popular education connected with the institution of board 
 :i ^ schools, and that in technical education arising from the founding 
 
 of the numerous local colleges of science and art. All of these 
 are products of the last ten or fifteen years, and unitedly they are 
 effecting a stupendous educational revolution. Perhaps no indi- 
 cation of the importance attached to the higher education of 
 women in England could be more impressive than the character 
 of the meeting of the convocation of Oxford, in May last, for the 
 final vote on the admission of women to the higher examinations, 
 at which I had the pleasure of being present. The meeting was said 
 to be one of the largest on rocord, and the Sheldonian Theatre was 
 crowded with spectators of the highest class, who welcomed with 
 acclamation the declaration of the result of 464 votes in favour 
 of the new regulations to 321 against. Yet the question at issue 
 was merely that of extending to women the privileges already 
 granted by the Universit;y of Cambridge ; and the number of 
 students in the two Halls attached to the University of Oxford 
 does not exceed 50, though under the new arrangements it will 
 probably increase. 
 
 In considering from a practical point of view the provision for 
 the higher education of women, two subjects specially attract our 
 attention. First, the Means and Methods of Educational Train- 
 ing, and Secondly, the Examinations and Distinctions to which 
 education leads. These are no doubt closely connected, since 
 education without any examinations or degrees is deprived of its 
 most valuable tests and stimuli, and since examinations tend to 
 guide the efforts of educators ; while on the other hand examina- 
 tions without adequate means of genuine education become more 
 inducements to cramming. These two departments of the work 
 may, however, be considered separately, with some advantage in 
 80 far as the clearness of our conceptions is concerned. 
 
General Methods and Results in Britain. 
 The most general statement that can bo made with reference to 
 the educational side of the question in the mother country, is that 
 the training of women in the higher subjects is everywhere based 
 on the curricuhim of the colleges for men. At tirst sight it would 
 appear that courses of study still somewhat hampered with medi- 
 leval precedents, and largely controlled by the requirements of the 
 examinations for learned professions, would not be perfectly adapt- 
 ed to the education of women in our time. But though this may 
 be admitted in the abstract, in practice it is felt that it is better 
 for the interests of women that they should attain to the standard 
 established as the result of experience, and accepted as sufficient 
 in all cases of educational and other employment where a liberal 
 education is required. It thus happens that the ladies insist on 
 having the same course of study and being subject to the same 
 examinations with the male students. At the same time they 
 avail themselves fully of those exemptions and options which 
 are connected with honour studies, and which now give so 
 great a range of possible training to the senior student. In this 
 way there can be no doubt that experience will settle the precise 
 lines of study most desired by and suitable for women ; but the 
 experience is scarcely of sufficiently long duration fully to deter- 
 mine this, and in the meantime much of the discussion as to the 
 capacity of women for the intellectual work required of men, and 
 as to possible injury from their being subjected to it, may be set 
 aside as purely theoretical, or may be left to bo solved by the 
 judicious practical trials of experienced educato"s. and by the good 
 sense of the lady students themselves. The last report of 
 Girton College, Cambridge, which is one of the older colleges for 
 women, gives, however, some interesting figures on this point. 
 The number of students of this college who have taken Degree 
 Certificates of the University, since its establishment, stands as 
 follows: — 
 
 Mathematical Tripos 24 
 
 Classical Tripos 28 
 
 Moral Science Tripos 9 
 
 Natural Science Tripos 15 
 
 Historical Tripos 6 
 
 Theological Tripos 1 
 
 Ordinary Degree 24 
 
 Total 107 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
I 
 
 6 
 
 The report of Newnham College, which has not been so 
 long in operation, and reaching up only to 1883, is as follows : — 
 
 Mathematical Tripos 5 
 
 Classical Tripos 10 
 
 Moral Science Tripos 9 
 
 Natural Science Tripos 9 
 
 Historical Tripos , 11 
 
 Total 44 
 
 showing a somewhat larger ])roportion in favour of Natural and 
 Moral Science and History. 
 
 These lists show that the women distribute themselves over the 
 honour subjects in the same manner with men, and that their 
 tastes and capacities lead them quite as much to the older mathe- 
 matical and classical studies as to the more modern honour sub- 
 jects, the proportion of successful candidates for mathematical 
 and classical honours being in the Girton list, to those for all the 
 other subjects as 52 to 31, and in the Newnham list 15 to 29, or in 
 both 61 to 60. 
 
 It is worthy of note that no less than 4t of the ladies in the 
 Girton list had become professional teachers, and most of them 
 in high depaitiucnts of the profession, while only one is noted as 
 having entered any other profession. This is a fact which indicates 
 the prevailing determination of educated women to the profession 
 of teaching, and the probability that this profession will ultimately 
 fall largely into their hands. I have not the figures for Newnham, 
 but have reason to believe the proportion there is quite as large. 
 
 Separate or Mixed Education. 
 
 In Britain, as in this country, the question cf separate or 
 mixed education of the sexes has been much discussed; but in 
 this, as in other matters, the practical and free genius of the 
 English people has set itself to work out the problem in real life, 
 instead of debating it in a theoretical manner, and consequently 
 we find a number of experiments in progress. These may be 
 classified under three heads : First. What is sometimes called in 
 this country " co-education," or the education of both sexes in 
 mixed classes ; 2nd, Separate education in colleges specially for 
 women; and 3rd. Intermediate or eclectic methods, in which the 
 two first are combined in various proportions. The co-existence 
 
 M. 
 
of these diiferent methods has the good effect of enabling parents 
 and students to make a choice of systems, and to avail them- 
 selves of that which they prefer, without establishing anything 
 more than a friendly rivalry between the different kinds of 
 institutions. 
 
 I found the method of mixed classes in successful operation in 
 University College, London, and in University College, Bristol, 
 in both of which women are admitted freely into the ordinary 
 classes. I did not hear of any serious practical difficulty, except 
 in the case of the French class at Bristol, in which a separation 
 had become necessary, but this was attributed rather to the 
 number of students than to any serious failure in discipline. 
 
 In addition to the cheapness and facility of this method, it was 
 claimed for it by its friends that it fitted women better for the 
 struggle of life in competition with men, and was thus suited to 
 those who required this hardening process, because in the present 
 social condition of Engla;id they would have to earn their own 
 subsistence. It does not appear, however, to be commending 
 itself to the taste of women generall}-, as the number of women 
 availing themselves of it has of late years diminished rather than 
 increased, and in Owens College, Manchester, where it was 
 attempted under what seemed favoui-able circumstances, it has 
 been abandoned. In London its success has evidently depended 
 greatly on the prestige of University College, and on the exist- 
 ence of several good colleges for ladies alone, which allow those 
 who prefer the separate system to pursue their education in this 
 way. Some facts which came to ray knowledge would lead me 
 to infer that the education in mixed classes may be more danger- 
 ous to the health of young women than that in separate classes, 
 but this may depend rather on the circumstances of those who 
 enter these classes than on the system itself. 
 
 The method of education in separate colleges for women is 
 earned out in the great college of Cheltenham, which has as 
 many as 500 pupils and students ; in Bedford, North London and 
 Milton Mount Colleges and in the King's College classes in 
 London, and it is also to be pursued in the great college founded 
 by the late Mr. HoUoway, whose buildings are being erected at 
 Windsor. I had much pleasure in visiting the Cheltenham 
 College and in conferring with its principal, Miss Beale, one of 
 the most zealous and able of the educationists of England, and 
 
who has brought this institution into the highest state of effici- 
 ency almost without extraneous aid. The college has an admi- 
 rable building, wliich is eminent among English educational 
 structures lor the excellence of its arrangements for heating and 
 ventilation ; and in many respects it resembles the great Ameri- 
 can colleges like Vassar and VYellesley, except that it receives 
 3'oung girls and gives them a preparatory education, ho that it 
 embraces all grades of classes from those of an ordinary school 
 up to those preparing for the honour B.A. of the University of 
 London, to which its students go up for their degrees. The class 
 studying for the B.A. at the time of my visit was only twelve in 
 number, the greater part of the students being content to pass in 
 some of tlie previous examinations. Last year it sent up eight 
 successful candidates for the B.A. and fifteen for the interme- 
 diate, formerly known as the first B.A. examination. Its 
 teachers are ladies, some of them graduates of London, and the 
 whole establishment is pervaded with an air of refinement anu 
 Christian influence quite ditt'erent from that in ordinary colleges 
 for men. The students do not board together in the college, but 
 in separate houses, each under the care of a lady recognized by 
 the college, and capable of superintending the studies of the 
 students, or having a tutor for that purpose. Other colleges of 
 this kind, though not so large as that at Cheltenham, are con- 
 ducted on similar principles, and a large number of the students 
 who annually take degi-ees of the University of London are from 
 institutions of this class. 
 
 The thiid method, which maybe characterized as intermediate 
 or eclectic, is that pursued at Girt on and Newnham Colleges, 
 Cambridge ; Somerville and Lady Margaret Halls, Oxford, the 
 Women's Department of Owens College, Manchester, and the 
 classes of the Edinburgh Ladies' Educational Association. As 
 existing at Cambridge and Oxford, which have taken the lead in 
 this method, it is merely a development of the same system of 
 separate colleges attached to the University, which is pursued in 
 
 tne cuuv/<*Lioii <ji moil. 
 
 Golleffis ff^V Avornfin nomft in as an ordi- 
 
 nary feature in such an arrangement ; and as it is usual for male 
 students to pursue the greater part of their studies in their 
 colleges under tutors, and to take advantage of intercollegiate or 
 university lectures only to a limited oxtent, it naturally follows 
 that the same rule should apply to the colleges for women. 
 
8 
 
 I had tho pleasure of visiting Girton, Newnharo, Somerville 
 Hall and the Women's Depai-tmont of Owens College, and of 
 conferi-ing with Miss Louisa Stevenson, tho Secretary of the 
 Ladies' Association of Edinburgh. I am undoi- s])ecial obligations 
 also to Miss Bernard, the Principal of Girton, to Miss Helen 
 Gladstone, tho Vice-Principal of Newnham, to Miss Shaw Lefevre 
 and Miss Haigli, of Somerville Hall, and Miss Wilson, of the 
 Women's Department of Owens Coll ';e, for kindness in answer- 
 ing my (questions and in explaining ti i plans and regulations of 
 those institutions ; whilo f had also opportunities of discussing 
 their methods and results with leading memuers of the univer- 
 siti' i with which these colleges are connected. 
 
 Newnham College, which may be taken as an example, has two 
 halls, the South and North Hall, on tho opposite sid«s of a road, 
 at Newnham, a suburb of Cambridge. It is managed by a council 
 of ladi<is and gentlemen, and is sustained by an association known 
 as the Association for promoting the higher education of women. 
 The resident staff consists of a principal, vice-principal, three 
 lecturers and a secretary, all of whom are women. The Princi- 
 pal has special charge of the South and the Vice-Principal of the 
 North Hall. Besides tho resident staff there are a number of 
 teachers, some of them lecturers and fellows of colleges and others 
 ladies, engaged by the College to lecture to its students, and 
 representing the subjects of mathematics, classics, moral science, 
 natural science, history, divinity, English literature and modern 
 languages. Students must be eighteen before entering. The 
 course of study is based on the rcc^uirements of the University 
 examinations, and all students are advised to take honour sub- 
 jects. In pursuing some of these, it is expedient for them to 
 attend the public lectures of certain of the professors of the 
 University, and to this extent mixed education is allowed in the 
 senior years. The full course extends over 9 to 12 terms, that is 
 3 or 4 years, and all students in residence must take the regular 
 course, though certain courses of lectures are open to women, not 
 students of the Colleg'% on obtaining permission of the Council. 
 The buildings accommodate 80 students, and are plain, neat and 
 well planned. Each student has one room, with a curtained 
 recess for a bed. There are « Ji"ary, study-rooms, claas-rooms, 
 and chemical and physiological laboratory, and a garden nnd 
 lawn are attached to each hall for recreation. The students who 
 
 
 '^'-J^*;;; 
 
» 
 
 )« 
 
 
 attend classes in Cambridge, walk into town in all weathers, and 
 wear boots and garments suited to the work. I had the ])Iea8ure, 
 by request of my friend Prof Hughes, uf delivering u short 
 extempore lecture on the questions rcluting to Eozomi to a class 
 of about 20 Htu(^ents, one-third of them ladies, in the Wood- 
 wartliun Museum ; and f found that the lectures of Professors 
 Adams, Cayley, Dewar, Ilarcourl, Livcing, Lord Eaylcigh, Soeley, 
 Stuart and others, arc open to the students of the women's col- 
 leges in their senior years. 
 
 The ar angoments at Girton are in the lain simihii- to those 
 at Newnham, but Girton is at a greater distance (about two 
 miles) from' the town, and has a finer building than that of Newn- 
 ham with somewhat more luxurious accommodation for the 
 students, m«st of whom have two rooms ; and it is considerably 
 more expensive. 
 
 Owens College, Manchester, has now definitely provided sepa- 
 rate classes for women in the Junior years, and admits them to 
 the College lectures only after passing an examination equiva- 
 lent to our Intermediate. 
 
 With reference to the relations of the sexes, the principles of 
 all the colleges and halls connected with the English universities 
 seem to be — (1) the separate residence of the women in their own 
 colleges. (2) The supervision and tutorial help of lady-princi- 
 pals and tutors in the colleges. (3) The employment of lecturers 
 sanctioned by the universities to conduct separate classes for the 
 ladies in their own colleges. (4) Permission in the senior j^ears 
 and for special subjects to attend the public lectures of University 
 lecturers, with or without a chaperone. (5) The preparation of 
 the students for the University examinations, and as far as pos- 
 sible for honour certificates. 
 
 It is evident ^that education on these principles is different, 
 practically, from the system of "co-education" introduced in 
 University College, London, and in some colleges in the Western 
 States and in this country. It combines much privacy and seclu- 
 sion, and separate study under female influence of a high order, 
 with permission under certain conditions to attend public lec- 
 tures ; and it is to be observed that the student of Girton or Newn- 
 ham can, if she so pleases, complete her whole course of study 
 without attending any mixed classes. It seems to me that this 
 is quite as far as we should venture in the matter of mixed edu- 
 
10 
 
 cation ; and I think we could venture so far, provided that, at the 
 end of the second year, we find a number of lady students pre- 
 pared to go on with the work of the third and fourth years, and 
 that endow?nents sufficient to continue the whole work 
 separate classes are not provided. 
 
 in 
 
 Examinations, Deorees and Certificates. 
 
 In England the examinations for degrees are now everywhere 
 open to ladies, but under diiferent conditions. The Univeraity 
 of London and the new Victoria University admit ladies to the 
 degree of B.A. without any restriction ; and at London they 
 come up to receive their diplomas habited in gowns and hoods 
 in the same manner with the male graduates — an arrangement 
 which has at least the merit of producing uniformity in dress. 
 In the University of St. Andrews the degree given to women is 
 Licentiate in Arts, with the letters L.A., and this degree is 
 placed by the University on the same educational level with 
 B.A. The advantages of this expedient are that, while it gives 
 the lad}'^ graduates an equal starding with the men, it prevents 
 the apparent anomaly of the use of a term which has popularly 
 been restricted to men, and leaves the University free tc loal on 
 independent grounds with the question of advanced degrees, 
 should these be provided for women. The practical difficulties 
 connected with this last question, and with the privileges 
 accorded to graduates in reference to voting, to offices, etc., have 
 probably influenced the older English universities in withholding 
 the B.A. and merelj'^ giving a certificate of having passed the 
 examinations. Another difficulty of course occurs from the 
 change of name in case of marriage, which would require some 
 attention in the keeping of the University registers ; but this 
 could probably be avoided by exacting a small fee for keeping 
 the name on the University books with any changes which it 
 might undergo. 
 
 The point most insisted on by the ladies managing the 
 several colleges is, that the certificate or degree, whatever its 
 nature, should be understood to be equal to that accorded to 
 men. This is with them not merely a matter of sentiment, but 
 a practical consideration, since it is necessary to place the 
 women who graduate on an equality with other graduates in the 
 competition for educational employments. I was assui-ed by 
 
11 
 
 several ladies of much influence in the movement, that they 
 attached little importance to any letters after the names of the 
 graduates, provided their equality was practically acknowledged. 
 On the other hand it is certain that some colleges for ladies send 
 up their graduating classes to London by preference, in conse- 
 quence of its giving the degree of B.A., and I was informed that 
 the regulations of the Victoria University were likely to be of 
 such a character as to attract large numbers of ladies to its 
 examinations, which it is hoped will be managed in such a manner 
 as to avoid the evils alleged against the London Examinations, in 
 thfi matter of cramming, and of a hard and fast adherence to 
 certain text-books not always fitted to give scope to the most 
 practical and advanced teaching. 
 
 Action of McGill University. 
 
 As to our own action in this matter, I have felt that this must 
 practically be regulated, not so much by the theoretical views 
 which we might be inclined to favour, as by the demand on the 
 part of women for a higher education than that of the ordinary 
 schools, and by the means placed at our disposal to establish 
 classes for the purpose. On ray return from England last sum- 
 mer, I found that the first of these conditions was fulfilled by the 
 fact that as many as eight young women, who had passed as 
 Associates in Arts, wei-e prepared to proceed at least as far as 
 the examinations for Senior Associat and were very desirous 
 that the University should aid them in their studies. In en- 
 deavouring to meet this demand, in conjunction with Eev. Canon 
 Norman, the Vice-Chancellor of Bishop's College, and supported 
 by the voluntary offers of assistance made by several of the 
 professors, I was prepared to recommend to the corporation that 
 we should co-operate with Bishop's College and with the Ladies' 
 Educational Association in opening classes for women in the 
 first year in Arts, provided the means to pay for this, without 
 trenching on the ordinary income of the University, could be 
 secured. The scheme, which seemed to rest on the possibility of 
 such aid, had not advanced beyond provisional suggestions for 
 the course of study required, and for establishing it under the 
 auspices of the Ladies' Educational Association, when the finan- 
 cial difficulty was removed by the liberal gift of the Hon. Donald 
 A. Smith, who, > elieving that special classes for ladies should 
 
12 
 
 be established, placed at the disposal of the University for this 
 pui-pose the sum of $50,000 to be invested for the endowment of 
 a college and classes for women. Under this endowment the 
 classes have been commenced with the most gratifying prospects 
 of success ; the number of students entered being 24, of whom 
 11 desire to proceed to the Degree examinations. This I consider 
 a large number, when we make allowance for the fact that no 
 special preparation could be made for these classes in the schools 
 of last winter, and that the classes could be advertised only for a 
 few weeks before they were opened. 
 
 The arrangements for this session refer only to the work of 
 the iirst year in Arts, and are in every respect similar to those 
 for male students of that year, except that women are allowed 
 to take Gernian as equivalent to Greek. Three students, how- 
 ever, have entered for Greek, and it is likely that in subsequent 
 years the proportion may be larger. We have been enabled to 
 use for the present the new class-rooms in the Peter Eedpath 
 Museum, which are sufficient to accommodate the classes, and 
 will thus avoid any expense for rooms. These arrangements, 
 and the provisional regulations passed by the Faculty of Arts 
 under the resolutions of the Corporation accepting Mr. Smith's 
 benefaction, will suffice for the second year. Our students will 
 then be able to enter for the Intermediate examinations and 
 thos;3 for Senior Associate in Arts ; and the question will remain 
 how many desire to go on for the Degree examinations, and in 
 what way the work of the third and fourth years will be pro- 
 vided for. These questions will have to engage the attention of 
 the Governors and Corporation, and the manner of their solution 
 must depend on the means which may be placed at disposal of 
 the University for the work to be done. Provided that no addi- 
 tional endowment can be secured, it will be necessary to open 
 some of our present classes in the advanced years to women, 
 and even this will involve some expense in the provision of 
 proper waiting rooms and probably of a lady superintendent of 
 the classes, while it is not impossible that a portion of the stu- 
 dents may decline to go on under these conditions. If, on the 
 other hand, an additional endowment should be provided, sepa- 
 rate provision can be made for the ordinary work, and at least 
 for most of the honour studies, so that, as in England, a 
 choice may be offered of separate and mixed classes. It is my 
 
13 
 
 decided conviction that this choice will be necessary to enable us 
 fully to realise our wishes in this important work, though I am 
 quite prepared to consider the other alternative and to devise 
 means for carrying it out, should this be necessary. 
 
 Should the classes increpne in number of students, and separate 
 tuition be provided in the third and fourth years, additional class- 
 room accommodation will be required. But this subject will, in 
 any case, have to engage the attention of the Board very soon, 
 since the class-rooms used by the Faculties of Arts and Applied 
 Science are now overcrowded. The requisite accommodation 
 would, in my judgment, be best provided by the erection of a new 
 building adapted to the wants of the Faculty of Applied Science, 
 and whic'i might be sufficiently large to contain rooms for the 
 classes for women ; or a building, which need not be large or 
 expensive, might be erected for the Women's College. The classes 
 may, without inconvenience, remain for some time at least, as at 
 present, a Special Course under the Faculty of Arts ; and there will, 
 in the infancy of the scheme, be great advantage in this arrange- 
 ment, as tending to render more uniform the course of study for 
 both sexes, and to extend to the one any improvement which may 
 be introduced with respect to the other ; while giving to the 
 women the full benefit of the apparatus, library and museum of 
 the University, 
 
 Two subjects still remain for consideration : one is the relation 
 of our classes for women to those of the Ladies' Educational 
 Association, and another, our relation to colleges for ladies, as for 
 instance the Trafalgar Institute, which might become affiliated. 
 
 With respect to the first of these, it must be borne in mind that, 
 while some of the subjects usually taken up in the lectures of the 
 Ladies' Educational Association are similar to those in the college 
 course, others are ditterent, and that numerous ladies benefit by 
 these lectures who could not take a college course. The com- 
 mencement of college classes, therefore, affords no good reason 
 for the discontinuance of these lectures. It will, however, bo 
 possible to open such of the college lectures as may be suitable to 
 the members and studon^-^ of the Association, and in this way its 
 functions may be extended and its financial responsioilitios 
 diminished. This combination is carried on with great success 
 by the Edinburgh Association, which has thus been coming into 
 closer connection with the University, and has at the same 
 
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 14 
 
 time been instructing large classes of students not intending to 
 take a iull University course. 
 
 With reference to affiliated colleges for women, these might 
 either be altogether independent and situated beyond the limits 
 of Montreal, so that their students would merely come up for 
 examinations, or there might be colleges or halls in Montreal, in 
 which, as in the Cambridge and Oxford collages, the students 
 might reside and receive a portion of their tuition while attend- 
 ing the University classes. Such a foundation as the Trafalgar 
 Institute might in this way enjoy the benefits of connection with 
 the University in the diminution of expense, in extending its 
 eoui'se of study, and in obtaining for its students the University 
 examinations and certificates, without losing any part of its 
 distinctive character. 
 
 I think it quite possible also that the McGill Normal School 
 may, in connection with the classes for ladies, do much for the 
 greater elevation and improvement of its academy class. The 
 arrangements for this have already been under consideration of 
 the Normal School Committee and the Principal and Professors 
 of the school, and it is hoped that proposals for securing these 
 advantages may be presented to the Corporation of the Univer- 
 sity before the end of the session. 
 
 On the whole, I think the Corporation of the University has 
 reason to congratulate itself on having already attained to a safe 
 and progressive position in this important matter ; and that, by 
 continuing its work in the direction already pursued, it has an 
 assured prospect of taking a leading place among Canadian 
 universities in the great enterprise of providing for the higher 
 education of women. 
 
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