[RAYMOND] UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK 103 



daily more democratic in their ideals. The animus against King's 

 College in the legislature and in the press was not entirely because it 

 was a Church of England institution. It was further claimed that 

 the discipline was very lax, the curriculum not suited to the needs of 

 the people, and the cost of keeping up the college out of all proportion 

 to the benefits conferred. It is at least certain that previous to the 

 reorganization of the college in 1860, and the appointment of Brydone- 

 Jack as President, the institution had an abundant share of trials and 

 troubles and had even to undergo the throes of a death struggle. 

 During this period the situation of the unfortunate professors was 

 far from enviable. Harassed by suspense and filled with anxiety for 

 the future of their families, it is not to be wondered at if their ardor 

 was damped and even their vigor and health impaired so that several 

 of them became prematurely aged. The college doubtless suffered 

 from this impaired vigor, as well as from the fact that many people 

 were unwilling to send their sons to an institution whose existence 

 could not be depended on for a single year. 



On the 9th of April, 1851, a leading St. John paper urged the 

 legislature to "cut the head off of King's, College"; "we mean," adds 

 the editor, "the £1,100 per annum taken from the pockets of all 

 denominations that the sons of a particular denomination may 

 graduate." 



This, says Professor Jack, was by no means the worst of the 

 attacks made upon the college, and ere long its existence was trembling 

 in the balance. 



Governor Head at this time proved a staunch friend of the cause 

 of higher education. He declined to accede to a request of the House 

 of Assembly to withhold the warrant payable out of the provincial 

 treasury towards the maintenance of the College, because the grant 

 in question was secured by an act which up to that time was unre- 

 pealed. Next year His Excellency sent a lengthy communication to 

 the College Council urging the necessity of doing something to popul- 

 arise the institution, and pointing out what he conceived to be the best 

 way of making it more generally useful and acceptable to the province 

 at large. The agitation in the legislature, however, continued to 

 grow in virulence, and in 1854 a bill was introduced into the House 

 of Assembly to repeal the section of the Charter granting £1,100 per 

 annum from the provincial trasury to the maintenance of the college. 

 To this an amendment was moved by Hon. John Ambrose Street, the 

 attorney-general, that a commission be appointed to inquire into the 

 state of the college, its management and utility, with a view of improv- 

 ing the same and rendering the institution more generally useful; and 

 should such commission deem a suspension of the charter desirable, 



