McGill and its Story, 1821-1921. Cyrus Macmillan

reference to the Jesuits' Estates was forwarded to the Colonial Office. Lord Bathurst was apparently meanwhile made acquainted with the conditions of the will and with the Act of 1801. A few weeks later, on March 14th, 1816, he again wrote to Sir Gordon Drummond, as follows:

      “My despatch of the 30th December will have informed you of the determination of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent to avail himself of the return of peace to forward the important objects of education and instruction in His Majesty's Dominions, and especially in the Provinces of Canada. When I then addressed you I had not had an opportunity of perusing the will of Mr. McGill which afforded by the liberality of his bequest such important assistance in carrying such an object into effect. I have since been furnished with a copy of the will of which an extract is enclosed for your consideration. You will no doubt observe that the mode in which the bequest is directed to be made, no less than the nature of it, superseded the necessity of carrying into effect the instructions conveyed to you on the 30th December under an erroneous impression of its contents. You will therefore consider that instruction to be recalled and in lieu of adopting any measures for enclosing a spot well fitted for the erection of the University, you will suspend all measures of such a nature till the necessary preliminary arrangements have been made in conformity with the Act of Parliament of the Province of Lower Canada passed in the 41st year of His Present Majesty, entitled 'An Act for the Establishment of Free Schools and the Advancement of Learning in this Province.' Those arrangements you will immediately carry into effect, by appointing under the Great Seal of the Province the following persons to be Trustees of the Schools of Royal Foundation in the Province in the manner and for the purposes specified in the Act and constituting them a Body Corporate by the name of the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning. The persons to be nominated in the first instance are the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, or person administering the Government for the time being; the Right Reverend Jacob Mountain, Bishop of Quebec; Jonathan Sewell, Esq., the Chief Justice of the district of Quebec; James Monk, Esq., the Chief Justice of the district of Montreal; the Reverend J. O. DuPlessis, Superintendent of the Romish Church.

      “As soon as this preliminary arrangement shall have taken place you will call upon the persons named in Mr. McGill's will for the execution of the trust reposed in them, and you will by an early opportunity receive detailed instructions for your future proceedings.”

      Three weeks later, on the 9th April, 1816, Lord Bathurst forwarded to Sir Gordon Drummond the following despatch containing the names of additional Trustees and cancelling for obvious religious, political and racial reasons which would prevent criticism the former appointment of the Governor:

      “In my despatch of the 14th ult., I conveyed to you the instruction of His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, to nominate and appoint under the Provincial Act of 1801 a Body Corporate for the Advancement of Learning, and I communicated to you the names of several persons who appeared best qualified for such a duty. It has since appeared more advisable to increase the number of Trustees to eight in order to obviate the inconveniences which if the number were less might arise from the non-attendance of individual members. It has been deemed proper also in order to obviate all objections which might be grounded on the circumstances of the peculiar situation in which with regard to this commission the Governor is placed, to withdraw from that commission the name of the Governor or Officer administering the Government. You will therefore take the necessary measures for inserting in the Patent the following names in lieu of those which I have previously specified, viz.—Jonathan Sewell, Esq., Chief Justice of the district of Quebec; James Monk, Esq., Chief Justice of the district of Montreal; the Right Rev. Jacob Mountain, Bishop of Quebec; Rev. J. O. DuPlessis, Superintendent of the Romish Church; the Rev. Dr. Alexander Sparke of the Church of Scotland; John Richardson, Esq., of Montreal, a member of the Executive and Legislative Councils; William Bachelor Coltman, Esq., of Quebec, a member of the Executive Council; and John Reid, Esq., of Montreal, one of the Judges of the Court of King's Bench.”

      Notwithstanding the above instructions the Provincial Government was slow to act, for reasons already specified. Opposition to the establishment of the Royal Institution continued to be powerful and somewhat bitter, and two years passed before trustees were finally appointed. The Rev. J. O. DuPlessis, the Superintendent of the Romish Church, objected to becoming a member of the Board, and later declined. Meanwhile vigorous efforts were made to have the grants for schools and the McGill bequest augmented by the Crown, through the use of Crown Lands or the revenues of the Jesuits' Estates as partly promised in Lord Bathurst's letter of December 30, 1815.

      As a result of these persistent efforts by some members of the Legislature and by church authorities interested in education, the Home Government realised that the funds devoted to educational institutions were lamentably insufficient and that additional means should at once be provided for the better equipment of schools and for the engagement of a greater number of teachers. They seem to have realised, too, that the bequest of James McGill was not in itself sufficient to provide for the erection of College buildings and for a subsequent endowment. They therefore decided after much consideration to make use of the estates of the Jesuits which had reverted to the Crown on the extinction of the order. For several years the assigning of the revenues of these estates to educational and religious purposes under Protestant control had been advocated and by the strange irony of history this was in time brought about. Indeed, as early as February 10th, 1810, Sir Gordon Drummond, then administering the Government of Lower Canada, wrote from Quebec to the Colonial Office stating that the Anglican Cathedral in Quebec “was badly in need of repair and that for the purpose of repair there was little hope of obtaining from the inhabitants of Quebec any contribution worthy of consideration.” He therefore asked that the Home Government should authorise him to devote to the purpose part of the revenue arising from the Jesuits' Estates, the whole of which “to the amount of more than £4,500 annually has hitherto been transferred to the Military chest.” And he added, “I beg leave to suggest my opinion that this is the most proper source from which the means of repairing the cathedral can be drawn, and indeed, that this fund might with propriety in the future be applied to the general support of the places of worship of the Established Church throughout the Province.”

      In answer to this request, however, no immediate action was taken, for although the Home Government had a legal right to dispose of the Estates as they saw fit, they naturally wished to proceed slowly and tactfully in order to avoid religious friction or bitterness within the Province. In 1815, when, as already pointed out, it was intimated by the Colonial Office that the Jesuit Estates might possibly be appropriated in aid of the McGill bequest, there seems to have been no intention to limit the assistance which should be provided by this increased revenue to McGill College alone. On the contrary, the object appears to have been to use the additional funds in order that, irrespective of race or creed, the benefits of education might be diffused as widely as possible throughout the country. But delay again followed, and it was not until the next year that definite instructions were issued by Lord Bathurst for the transfer of the Jesuits' Estates to the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning. These instructions were contained in the following historic letter, destined to have so large a part in the establishment of McGill College and in Canadian education, and forwarded to the Officer Administering the Government of Lower Canada by Lord Bathurst from Downing Street on May 10th, 1816:

      “I have already expressed to you the gracious intention of His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, to forward the extension of education in the Provinces of Canada and I have pointed out the preliminary measures necessary on your part to give effect to that intention. In furtherance of this object, I have received the commands of His Royal Highness to instruct you to transfer to the Trustees of the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning all those estates which formerly belonged to the Society of Jesuits, which, since the abolition of that order, have been vested in the Crown, in order that the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning may possess present means for establishing and maintaining the Seminaries which it may be necessary to found and may possess the revenue which cannot fail progressively to increase in proportion to the improvement of the Provinces and the consequent demand for additional means of instruction.

      “In transferring, however, those estates to the management of the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning, you will retain for the future disposal of His Royal Highness the accumulation of the