s 8 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



University of Upper Canada, of which King's College, Queen's and Vic- 

 toria were on the surrender of their university powers to become col- 

 leges. It also vested the endowment in the new institution and provided 

 for it, in some measure, a representative government. In other points it 

 made important concessions to the Church party. It transferred the 

 faculty of King's College, \\ith the exception of the professors in Divin- 

 ity, to the new university. It repealed the amending Act of 1837, restor- 

 ing Tving's College to its old form as a church institution. It also made 

 permanent grants to the colleges, not out of any fund set apart for reli- 

 gious purposes, but from the university endowment. 



The debate on this bill is most interesting as an exposition of the 

 views of the very able statesmen who composed the Parliament of that 

 day. Mr. Draper, Mr. Baldwin, and Mr. Merrit were the leaders, and 

 John Hillyard Cameron, who appeared at the bar of the House as coun- 

 sel for King's College, presented a lengthy and argumentative addresg 

 against the measure. The result was that, after the second reading, the 

 bill was dropped. 



This bill was the occasion of an extensive literature on the univer- 

 sity question. Bishop Strachan proposed a " plan of settling the Univer- 

 sity Question." Dr. JfcCaul issued a pamphlet under the nom. de plume 

 of " A Graduate " ; the Eev. Peter Colin C-ampbell, of Queen's prepared 

 another; and yet another on " The Origin, History and Management of 

 King's College" printed by George Brown, may be taken as represent- 

 ing the new Presbyterian body. It is said to have been written by John 

 McAra. These documents indicate most clearly the nature of the con- 

 test. On one side, the Council and the Anglican Church were stre- 

 nuously contending for the continued possession of the charter, the col- 

 lege and the endowment. On tlie other an opposing party sought the 

 establishment of a university upon a broader basis in which all sections 

 of the community should have part and of which the denominational 

 colleges should be members. The concessions made to the Church con- 

 stituted the essential difference between this bill and its predecessor; to 

 these Mr. Baldwin in his speech before the House on the second reading 

 of the bill took very strong objection. 



In 184G ^Ir. Draper's University bill with some changes, none of 

 them of great importance, was introduced by Mr. Hall, and followed by 

 two supplementary liills by Mr. Draper. When this bill came up for a 

 second reading, King's College was heard through counsel at the bar of 

 the House; and once more the claims of the Church of England to both 

 charter and endowment were presented by Mr. Boulton. .^Mr. Draper, on 

 the other hand warned the opponents of the bill that when the subject 

 again came before the House, it would come up under a very different 



