the bills to a future session. The majority on the division was 40 to 20, Mr. Baldwin voting for the postponement.

Bishop Strachan, by way of supplement to the action taken by the Council of King's College, and to the official memorial of the Visitors, protested personally against the attempts made to mo tify the constitution of the University during the years 1843-46. He addressed a letter to Governor Metcalfe in 1843, and sent the same year a still more elaborate memorial to the Legislative Assembly. In 1844 he wrote again to Governor Metcalfe, protesting in advance against the threatened legislation of 1845. In 1846 he discussed the whole question very fully in a letter to Governor Cathcart. What he thought of Mr. Draper's university bills of 1845 and 1846 may be gathered from his "Brief History of King's College," published in 1850. After characterizing in vigorous language the Baldwin bill of 1843, he says*:

"The party favorable to this measure lost the management of public affairs, and their opponents, who professed to be Conservatives, became the administrators of the Government. It was now hoped that King's College would be left in peace, and be allowed to win its way, as it was rapidly doing, in the affections of the people. But, instead of permitting it to proceed in its onward course, the new Ministry, as they were called, yielded to the clamour of a most insignificant faction, and introduced a measure in 1845, respecting the institution, little better than that of their opponents. The Conservatives made another attempt in 1847,† which, though in some respects better, because there are degrees of evil, was nevertheless liable to the most serious objections.'

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*This quotation is made from a copy in the possession of Dr. Hodgins, Librarian to the Education Department of Ontario. + This should be 1846.

CHAPTER III.

THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO.

The long and acrimonious struggle over the sectarian charter of King's College came, for all practical purposes, to an end with the passage of the University Act* of 1849, which completely secularized the institution and changed its name to "The University of Toronto." Lord Elgin succeeded+ Lord Cathcart as Governor-General of Canada and ex officio Chancellor of the University of King's College. Like his predecessor he made an effort to obtain, in the latter capacity, independent and trustworthy information respecting a question that had been so frequently discussed in Parliament, and that must sooner or later come up again for settlement. In July, 1848, a statute was passed by the Council of King's College, and assented to by the Governor, appointing a Commission to examine into all accounts and other fiscal affairs" of the University and of Upper Canada College," and into all matters in any way connected with such affairs," and to report as soon as possible "in order to enable the Legislature the sooner to come to a final determination thereon." The Commissioners appointed under this statute were John Wetenhall, Joseph

*12 Vict., cap. 82.

The Earl of Elgin and Kincardine was appointed to office late in 1846 and arrived in Canada early in 1847.

D

Workman, and Robert Easton Burns.* Though the Report of the Commission was not completed till 1851, and was not printed till 1852, enough of light was by its early investigations thrown on the state of the University to prove beyond controversy the necessity for legislation. Accordingly in the session of 1849 a University bill was introduced into the Legislative Assembly by Mr. Baldwin. The motion for its second reading was, after several amendments had been voted down, carried by a majority of 42 to 2.§ The motion for the third reading was carried by a majority of 43 to 14, after another unsuccessful attempt to secure an aniendment of the measure. The bill was passed by the Legislative Council without amendment. King's

* Mr. Wetenhall was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Canada for the County of Halton. Joseph Workman was the late Dr. Workman, for many years Superintendent of the Toronto Lunatic Asylum. Mr. Burns, who had been a law partner of Mr. (now Sir) Oliver Mowat, was at this time Judge of the Home District. In 1850 he was appointed a Judge of the Queen's Bench. Owing to the death of Mr. Wetenhall soon after the Commission began its labors, and to the frequent absences of Judge Burns on circuit, the chief part of the labor fell to Dr. Workman, who was, by his colleagues, appointed "visiting Commissioner."

For a summary of this valuable document see Appendix D.

This motion was seconded by Mr. Wetenhall, one of the King's College Commissioners.

§ The two were Mr. W. H. Boulton of Toronto, and Mr. W. B. Robinson of the County of Simcoe.

Made by Mr. (afterward Sir) John A. Macdonald. His amendment proposed to repeal the University Act of 1837, and to invest the endowment of King's College (increased by an appropriation of public lands) in a General Board," for the purpose of (1) endowing the four colleges already in existence and any thereafter established by any Christian denomination in Upper Canada, (2) establishing Grammar Schools, and (3) establishing an Agricultural School in each District.

College Council was not on this occasion represented at the bar of the Assembly, but an energetic protest sent to Parliament by Bishop Strachan was treated with the utmost consideration, one thousand copies having been printed and circulated by order of the Assembly. The bill received the Royal Assent on the 30th of May, and was not disallowed by the Imperial Government though memorials* were addressed to the Queen praying that it should not be permitted to go into operation. In the following session a supplementary statutet was passed, mainly to clear up misapprehensions as to the effect of the Act of 1849, and in any attempt to comprehend the new constitution then given to the Provincial University these two statutes must be read together.

Preamble to the University Act of 1849.-The general character of the changes effected by the statutes of 184950, as well as the objects in view in enacting them, are indicated in the Preamble to the Act of 1849, the text of which is as follows:

Whereas a universi y for the advancement of learning in that division of the Province called Upper Canada, established upon principles calculated to conciliate the confidence and insure the support of all classes and denominations of Her Majesty's subjects, would, under the blessing of Divine Providence, encourage the pursuit of literature, science and art, and thereby greatly tend to promote the best interests, religious, moral, and intellectual, of the people at large; and Whereas, with a view to supply the want of such an institution, His late Majesty King George the Fourth, by Royal Charter bear ing date at Westminster, the 15th day of March, in the eighth year of his reign, was pleased to establish at Toronto, then called *See Dr. Strachan's "Brief History of King's College," 1850. +13 and 14 Vict., cap. 49.

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York, in that division of the Province, a Collegiate institution with the style and privileges of a university, and was afterwards pleased to endow the said institution with certain of the waste lands of the Crown in that part of the Province; and Whereas the people of this Province consist of various denominations of Christians, to the members of each of which denominations it is desirable to extend all the benefits of a university education, and it is therefore necessary that such institution, to enable it to accomplish its high purpose should be entirely free in its government and discipline from all denominational bias, so that the just rights and privileges of all may be fully maintained without offence to the religious opinions of any; and Whereas, the Legislature of the late Province of Upper Canada, having been invited by His late Majesty King William the Fourth "to consider in what manner the said University could be best constituted for the general advantage of the whole Society," as appears by the despatch of His Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, bearing date the eighth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two*, the Parliament of that Province afterwards, by an Act passed in the seventh year of the reign of His said late Majesty King William the Fourth, chaptered sixteen and intituled "An Act to amend the Charter of King's College," did alter and amend the said Charter in certain particulars in order, as the preamble to the said Act recites, "to meet the desire and circumstances of the Colony ;" and Whereas such alteration and amendment have been found insufficient for these purposes, and therefore, as well for the more complete accomplishment of this important object, in compliance with His said late Majesty's most gracious invitation, as for the purpose of preventing the evil consequences which frequent appeals to Parlia nent on the subject of the constitution and government of the said University are calculated to produce, it has become expedient and necessary to repeal the said Act, and to substitute other legislative provisions in lieu thereof: Therefore, etc.

*Lord Goderich was then Secretary of State for the Colonies. He had sent a previous despatch on the subject of King's College, dated Nov. 2, 1831. See above, page 26.