Should Your Excellency incline to the appointment of such a Commission as has been suggested, the College Council would willingly surrender their own opinions and suggestions to its undance and decision, because they feel convinced that, aided by its report, a Royal Charter might be framed to meet every difficulty.

The whole of this University Question would thus be drawn from debate in a popular Assembly, to a more tranquil, and, for this purpose, a more competent tribunal; without the excrcement of those feelings which animate, and occasionally discompose, the deliberations of the Representative Branch of the Legislature. It would, we trust, be settled on such a basis as To convidate the feelings, satisfy the judgment, and promote the interests of all classes, as far as such results are attainable in affairs of this nature.

All of which is respectfully submitted.

TORONTO, 24 h of March, 1846.

Passion from that part of the foregoing Report which acquiesces in the exclusion of all religious beats, excepting a declaration of belief in the Inspiration of the Scriptures and the Doctrine of the Trinity, required from the Members of the Council and Caput:

TORONTO, 24th of March, 1846.

JAMES BEAVEN,

Professor of Divinity in King's College.

Profcasor William C. Gwynne's made a number of objections to this Report. They are too many and choborate to quote here; but they will be found appended to the Report itself in Appendix D. D. to the Journals of the House of Assembly for 1846. Professor Henry H. Croft also dissented from that part of the Report which suggests that the Chancellor should be elected by Convocation, on the ground, as stated by Doctor Gwynne, that such an election held annually "is calculated to create an excitement, and to produce a spirit of party rivalry prejudicial to the interests of an Educational

lictitution. “

PERSONAL LETTER FROM DOCTOR STRACHAN TO THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL.

In addition to this Report from King's College Council, embodying the views and opinions of the Council, as a whole, including the suggestions of its Membora, as to modification in the Charter, the Reverend Doctor Strachan addressed the following elaborate and personal Letter to the Governor-General on the subject, which His Excellency, as Chancellor, had brought before the Council* in the Letter from his Private Secretary dated the 5th of March, 1846.

In that Letter, Doctor Strachan takes a comprehensive view of the Univerity Question, as it then presented itself to the public men of the times. His criticism on the character of the opposition to the University, as then constituted, was, on the whole, from his standpoint, not more severe then the facts of the case, as he viewed them, and as he honestly felt, warranted. Although a man of strong convictions, and full of earnestness and zeal for the cause which he had espoused, he was, nevertheless, as fair and honest in his criticism, as he felt that the facts and circumstances of the case justified him in being.

The Bishop's Letter is a valuable contribution to the history of the discussions on the memorable University Question of Upper Canada during the years, from 1843 to 1849.

*I have had access to the original draft of this Letter in Doctor Strachan's own handwriting, with his alterations and emendations marked on it by himself. It is given by Doctor Henry Melville in his "Rise and Progress of Trinity College, Toronto," 1852, pages 67-70. Doctor Melville gives the date of this Letter as "March 2nd," instead of " April 2nd," 1846.

The answer given by the Council of the University of King's College, on the 24th ultimo, to your Lordship's reference upon the subject of the Charter, will have put your Lordship fully in possession of their opinions.

Concurring as I do in their opinions, I do not desire to submit to your Lordship any views, or suggestions, varying from those embodied in the Council's Report; but, considering my position in the University, and the part which I had in obtaining the original Charter, in 1827, I beg to be allowed to supply the want of opportunity of a personal conference with your Lordship, on this highly interesting subject, by submitting, to your Lordship's attention the following explanations and statements :

THE GREAT IMPORTANCE OF THE UNIVERSITY QUESTION TO UPPER CANADA.

It is perhaps superfluous to remark, that the subject, to which your Lordship has thus early given your earnest attention, is one of the most important, if not the most important, that can engage the public consideration. Indeed, it is not possible to estimate too highly the degree in which the future prosperity and happiness of Upper Canada may be influenced by the manner in which, what has been long familiarly called " the University Question," shall be finally disposed of.

The public character of the people, the soundness and permanency of their civil institutions, -in short, the probability of their pursuing hereafter the course most conducive to their prosperity and happiness, and to the welfare of those, with whom they are by any relation connected.-must depend mainly upon the Education and training of those who are to fill the several professions, the Halls of Legislation and the Courts of Justice, and upon whom, from their position in society, the interests of Religion, Commerce and of the Arts, and the maintenance of a just and free government must always chiefly depend.

A GENEROUS AND EXTENDED OUTLOOK OF THE FUTURE OF UPPER CANADA.

Upper Canada is at present in a condition to avail herself very largely of the benefits of a good and comprehensive system of Collegiate Education. The population is large, and is increasing in wealth; the prospects of the learned professions are most rapidly expanding, and they must soon possess an influence in society which, except in times of violence and confusion, must always attend superior knowledge and intelligence.

The interest, too, which is attached to these considerations is much enhanced by the fact, which every one must see, and should feel very forcibly, that it is in this generation the foundations are to be laid in Upper Canada of a state of things which must operate favourably, or unfavourably, at no distant period, upon some millions of people.

WHAT HAS BEEN DONE FOR UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN OTHER COUNTRIES.

Looking at the exertions which have been made in other Countries for founding and endowing Universities,-and often by means, which can only be gradual in their operation, and which have been long in producing the desired effects,-it cannot but be considered a most fortunate circumstance for Upper Canada, that, from the provident attention of the Imperial Government to this object at an early period, and by an arrangement afterwards happily suggested and concurred in by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, an ample and magnificent endowment has been erected for the support of an University, upon a liberal scale, and by means, which it is easy to shew, most plainly and conclusively, cannot, in the slightest degree, have affected, except, indeed, beneficially, the provision made for other educational purposes.

OUR UNIVERSITY FUTURE, IF THE ENDOWMENT BE HUSBANDed.

This endowment, which may, at this moment, be regarded as ample for the present purposes of the University, is sure to rise in value, if judiciously husbanded, as the condition of the Province improves, and it is impossible that anyone, who takes a sincere interest in the welfare of this Country can reflect, without the most grateful emotions, that, without depending on the uncertain resources of private benevolence, or relying upon support from public charges, which might be borne with impatience, this Province is now, at a comparatively early period of its history, secured in the means of maintaining an University upon such a scale that, while it opens inestimable advantages to constitute the greatest ornament of the Country, and the most powerful means of attracting to it that description of emigrants from the United Kingdom, whose wealth, intelligence, enterprise and sound principles make them invaluable settlers in a new Country.

CHOVACHER OF THE ORIGINAL CHARTER OF KING'S COLLEGE, AS A ROYAL FOUNDATION. Tehas been very often repeated, but seems, nevertheless, to be generally forgotten, that e Sovereign bestowed this noble gift upon the Country and incorporated the University, His Royal grant was to support, he conferred upon it a Charter of a less exclusive han any that had before been granted to any University endowed by the Crown.* It 460, a known and religious character, the intention being that religious instruction dispensed there, as in all other Universities of Royal foundation, and according to the chica and discipline of the National Church. any in the conducting the Institution, it was required, that the Members of the College doped mould all be Members of the Church of England. Such Professors, therefore, as To ensure this, and to lay the best foundation at you belong to that Church could not be Members of the Council; but, except the ProTesions of Divinity, they might all have been Members of any other Church, and, to the youth of all Religious Denominations, the College was freely open for instruction in the sciences, no Deal whatever being required at their matriculation, or for obtaining any but Divinity Degrees.

STATUTORY ALTERATIONS IN THE ROYAL CHARTER BY THE LEGISLATURE IN 1837.

The was the Charter, as it originally stood; and, therefore, when the Legislature of Upper Canada, by their Statute, 7th William IV., Chapter XVI., enacted that it shall not be necessary that any Members of the College Council, or any Professor, shall be a Member of the Church gland, or subscribe to any Articles of Religion, other than a declaration that they believe the Divine Inspiration of the Old and New Testaments, and in the doctrine of the Trinity †; And when they further enacted that no Religious test, or qualification, shall be required of cholars admitted, or matriculated, within the College, or of persons admitted to any Degree, or Faculty, therein, they, in fact, enacted what was clearly superfluous, except as it regarded the Members of the Council, and the single Faculty of Divinity, for, with these exceptions, no tests were required of Professors, or Scholars, by the Charter, as it stood. the Statute did, in fact, make was in requiring a declaration, (very vague certainly,) of Religious belief, where none whatsoever was required before. And the alteration which

NEGATIVE CHARACTER OF THE LEGISLATIVE AMENDMENTS TO THE CHARTER.

Still, notwithstanding, this public appearance of having abolished, by a Legislative measure, what had never in fact existed, so little have any enlightened knowledge of facts, and a calm and dispassionate consideration of them, seemed to have prevailed in most of the discussions which the University has given rise to, that, up to the moment, it may be observed, that, in the Rosolutions passed at Public Meetings, and, in the petitions which are circulated for signature, it is, in general, most earnestly insisted upon that there shall be no tests and no exclusion, when the Charter is already perfectly open and free, and has been so for nine years past, except as to the Declaration, which the Legislature a'one has required by their Act, respecting a belief in the Scriptures and in the Trinity; and, it is difficult to understand how any Charter could be made more open than it now is,-or less bound by any obligation to religious truth, unless, indeed, it should contain a public invitation to infidels to come and take charge of an Institution endowed by our Sovereign, and founded, as the Charter expresses it, for the Education of Youth in the principles of the Christian Religion.'

When it is seen how easy it is to incite people to clamour for changes, as being indispensable to the public peace, some of which very changes were made many years ago—(in 1837)— by an Act of Parliament and others never could be made, because the state of things complained of have never existed, it must appear to be a hopeless expectation that the University can ever be placed upon such a footing as that it shall be no longer found fault with and attacked.

INSTITUTIONS TO BE SUCCESSFUL MUST BE IN HARMONY WITH ENLIGHTENED PUBLIC OPINION.

I can see very clearly, my Lord, that it must be essential to the success of any Institution that the principles on which it is based should be regarded with confidence and favour by those who would be likely to participate most largely in the advantages it offers; and that it would be most unwise not to defer to the opinions of those who, by their intelligence and knowledge, are most capable of judging soundly upon such questions; and also, by their dispositions, are inclined to seek and maintain what is best, rather than to look for relief from a little present trouble, by sacrificing for ever inestimable interests.

*See the testimony on this point, printed on page 221 of the First Volume of this Documentary History, and page 280 of the Fourth Volume.

See the remarks on this "new and indefinite" test by Lord Stanley in his Despatch of the 12th of November, 1845, in Chapter V., page 95.

WHEN PUBLIC OPINION IS WARPED, CORRECT JUDGMENT IS OF A DOUBTFUL QUALITY.

But the misfortune is, that there can always be brought to bear upon these questions strong expressions of opinion from large classes of persons, who are not well informed of the actual condition of things which they are encouraged to attack; and of whom it may be said, without injustice, or unkindness, that they are, from various causes, unable to estimate rightly the nature and value of objects which the Universities are intended to promote, or to judge soundly of the best means of attaining them.

TOLERANCE AND CONCILIATION ARE ESSENTIAL IN SUCH A CASE.

Still, to conciliate the good will of this large class of the community is, by no means, a matter of indifference; but the occasion for regret is, that this is not always practicable, or, at least, that it often requires much patience and time to accomplish it. It is happy thing, when the efforts of those, who possess more knowledge and experience, are employed in attempting to lead the multitude to think rightly, but when they are, on the contrary, industriously exerted to mislead them, the consequences may be more, or less, disastrous, according to the wisdom and firmness of those, upon whom the duty rests of withstanding, to the utmost, any mischievous popular delusion.

"UPON A SATISFACTORY FOOTING," WHAT IS MEANT BY THE PHRASE?

Throughout the discussions that have taken place respecting King's College, strong convictions have been expressed on all sides of the necessity of putting it, without loss of time, "upon a satisfactory footing;" and, if by that is meant the placing of the Institution upon such a footing as will best insure its usefulness and success, it is certain, that there can be nothing more desirable. But, if by a "satisfactory footing be meant such a footing as every one will declare himself satisfied with, so that none can any longer be brought to complain of the University Charter, under the influence of any motive, or for the furtherance of any design, then I fear that all that is valuable in the Charter may be sacrificed, in the vain hope of arriving at an impossible result. It might indeed, without much difficulty, be contrived to strip the College so effectually of every attribute of a seat of sacred Academical learning, that it would be difficult for those, whose prejudices are enlisted against whatever appears to be most excellent, to find any thing to condemn; and, by such means, an unreasonable clamour might be silenced,-if that were all that it was important to accomplish And, so, indeed, might the same end be attained, even more certainly and speedily, if all the means of such an Institution could be irrecoverably sunk in the ocean, which would be a proceeding much the same in principle, though more direct in its operation, and such as all mankind would be competent to judge of, if it were plainly proposed to them.

Your Lordship, I am sure, will agree in the opinion, that, in order to enable this University to answer the great purposes for which it was founded, it must be so conducted, as to attract the respect and confidence of such fathers of families as can alone be expected to send their children there to be educated, among whom there would probably not be found one .n five hundred of those who, for mere paltry purposes, are stimulated to sign intemperate petitions respecting matters of which they have no knowledge, and into which they will not take the trouble to enquire. Its being popular with those who disclaim, as much as possible, the preference of any one religious doctrine to another, -as if they were all equally false, or all equally indifferent.—will be no recommendation to the generality of parents, who desire to give their children a University Education.

Again, if its system and discipline do not, in a great degree, correspond, in essential matters, with those of the time-honoured Institutions of our Parent Country, and do not appear to be such as afford a reasonable prospect of an harmonious and respectable state of things within the walls of the Institution, we shall assuredly desire in vain to obtain the services of eminent men of other Universities; for they will not commit their fortunes to the chance of succeeding in any fanciful experiment, which their judgment and feelings will condemn. And there is this farther consideration, that if it is desired to make the University as useful as possible to the youth of Canada, by opening the way to honourable distinctions in the pursuits of science, then it is necessary to place it on such a footing, that we can hope to find its Degrees and honours respected in other Countries.

The loss of such advantages would be poorly compensated by purchasing, if it could be done, in exchange for them, an immunity from such opposition and prejudices, as it is the common lot of whatever is excellent to encounter for a time.

I will forbear troubling Your Lordship with particular comments upon the suggestions made by the Council; but there are one or two points, on which I will take the liberty of remarking.

QUESTIONABLE WISDOM OF MAKING THE GOVERNOR CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY.

Your Lordship's only act, in connection with the University, having been one of great consideration and kindness, in inviting the College Council to a free expression of their wishes and opinions, it need not, I am satisfied, be apprehended that any unfriendly construction can be placed upon their motives, in stating their opinions unreservedly upon a point, with which Your Lordship happens to be personally connected. I mean that provision in the Charter which makes the Governor of the Province the Chancellor of the University.

This has proved, I am persuaded, a very injudicious and unfortunate arrangement; the effect of it has been to produce inevitably a connection between the University and the political feelings and movements of the day, which every one must have seen to be most injurious, as, indeed, it could scarcely fail to be. This must, I am persuaded, have been on many occasions embarrassing to the Government, as it certainly has been most detrimental to literature and science. If it had not been for the direct and immediate control which the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, had, in his capacity of Chancellor, over all the proceedings of the Corporation, so that he could, at his pleasure, prevent all those powers from being exercised, which the Royal Charter had conferred, those impediments could not have been thrown in the way which rendered the Charter for many years a dead letter; and not only withheld from hundreds of the youth of Upper Canada advantages which, to them, have been lost forever; but it had the effect of furnishing an argument, (though a very unreasonable one,) for attacks upon the very existence of the Institution. It was ungenerously urged that the Charter was evidently impracticable and useless, because, for so many years, no use had been made of it, when nothing had, in fact, impeded the Corporation from carrying the beneficial design of the Royal Founder fully into effect, but the avowed determination of the Lieutenant-Governor that not a step for that purpose should be taken, till all questions about the Charter were satisfactorily settled ;-in other words, till the well-informed, and ill-informed, the reasonable and unreasonable, should all cease to complain either of their own accord, or at the bidding of others; and until sects and parties, that agreed in nothing else, should agree in their views of an University.

As the Charter directs that no bye-law, or Regulation, of any kind can be passed, which is not proposed by the Chancellor. it was utterly impossible to move a step towards the organization of the College, so long as the Chancellor declined to act.

I am not, my Lord, acknowledging that the Chancellor would warrantably make use of the authority which the Charter gave him. I am only relating the fact, that the Corporation was thus disabled from exercising its legal powers, and enjoying its legal rights, and it may, with perfect truth, be remarked, that if the Government of Upper Canada could, by a higher authority, have been restrained in the same manner from performing its functions, whensoever a violent clamour was raised against it, that Government must, throughout the same period, have been perfectly in abeyance; and it might as justly have been argued that, because it had been so long inactive, it was clear that it was incapable of acting efficiently.

The immediate connection of the College Corporation with the Civil Government has led to other inconveniences, which the University deeply feels, and which could not have happened, if the Chancellor had stood in such a position as left him free to act upon his own judgment, unembarrassed by considerations which are elsewhere carefully excluded from the Halls of learning, and which can never be allowed to influence their arrangements, without being fatal to their best interests.

DIFFICULTY OF DETERMINING WHAT SHOULD BE DONE IN REGARD TO RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.

But the question, what should be done, as regards Religion and Religious Instruction within the College, is that which, no doubt, will appear to Your Lordship the most difficult to determine. The College, being liberally endowed, possessing a very eligible site, in the centre of the Province, and, having objects in view, which cannot but recommend themselves to every virtuous and enlightened mind, there can hardly be any serious difficulty in settling upon a reasonable footing, whatever regards Management, Discipline and Patronage.

Whether what the Council have recommended on the subject of Religious Instruction and Worship shall meet with Your Lordship's approbation and support, I shall be very anxious to learn.

If the College had been allowed to go into operation under its original Charter, then the state of things would have been this: It would have been understood and known to be a seat of learning, in connection with the National Church, and in which only the doctrines of that Church would be taught, and its form of Public Worship maintained. To prevent division, and any danger of those intrigues and struggles for ascendency, which the rivalry of opposing Religous Sects is apt to engender, the Council were required to be of one Church, as the governing bodies in the other Colleges in this Province, which have been since chartered, are expressly required