94 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



insufficient resources it detracts from the highest perfection of work. 

 The expencTiture referred to has given us, for a population of two mil- 

 lions, a second university doing good work. But it may fairly be 

 questioned if it has added either to the total number of young men 

 seeking and receiving a university education or to the perfection of their 

 intellectual training. We believe the same work would have been done 

 and with greatly enlarged facilities by Queen's in Toronto. The work 

 of Victoria has nearly tripled since coming to Toronto and the addition 

 of the intellectual streugth as well as the political influence of Queen's 

 to the cause of a strong common provincial university would have 

 greatly helped to give Ontario a university second to none of the great 

 universities of the United States, and would have met the wants of 

 scores of our most gifted sons and daughters who now seek post gra- 

 duate advantages on the other side of the line. 



But it would have done more. It would have kept before the minds 

 of our youth the highest ideal of a true university course, and have left 

 no temptation to lowering that course as an attraction to students. If 

 in the arts curriculum of Queen's there were elements of superiority, it 

 would have made these obvious to the whole province as they were 

 brought into direct contrast with those hitherto prevailing in Toronto. 

 And it would have done the same for the methods of instruction of 

 Queen's. Any candid observer may see that the University of Toronto is 

 more complete and richer to-day for the incoming of Trinity and Vic- 

 toria. 



But while we may not yet be at the end of our university problem, 

 while once more as in the past we may be called to wait or to accept 

 less than was once within reach, because we were not willing to pay the 

 full price when our sibylline book of fate was proffered, 5^et we have 

 achieved substantial progress, and if we should find that the best once 

 offered is irretrievably beyond us, we shall find ourselves at least far in 

 advance of our old-time position of half a dozen struggling institutions 

 with no hope of any one attaining to even an approximation to first 

 class rank. At least three-fourths of the population of the province 

 have united their interests in higher education in the provincial univer- 

 sity. Of 6151 graduates in Arts who have passed through the univer- 

 sities of Ontario, é735 are now enrolled in the University of Toronto. 

 Whenever McMaster may desire to unite, her geographical position 

 makes it perfectly easy for her to do so without any material sacrifice. 

 Even now she may use for her students any of the advantages of the 

 provincial university on the most liberal terms. She can do this also 

 without sacrifice of her most cherished principle of the independence of 

 church and state, for her students are citizens of Ontario and as such 

 have full right individually to all the privileges of the provincial uni- 



