MATERIAL WANTS OF THE PROVINCE. 187 



pressing business of material life for the refinements of 

 classical learning, or the beautiful subtleties of pure 

 mathematics. Besides, the fathers of the growing pro 

 vincials had already become ruder men themselves, and 

 the system of Oxford, when transplanted to Fredericton, 

 never secured either their sympathy or their support. 

 It is just possible that, under the direction of very pru 

 dent heads, the kind and mode of instruction might have 

 been so moulded to the special wants of such a commu 

 nity as to have attained the ends its founders had in 

 view ; but it must have been a delicate and arduous task 

 in even the most liberal and enlightened hands. 



At present, it is objected that the expense to the 

 province is too great ; that the habits which the students 

 acquire in the society of Fredericton unfit them for the 

 ruder life of the rural districts that the education is not 

 sufficiently positive ; and that, with a bishop at its head 

 having a known Tractarian bias, it is still of a sectarian 

 character. If any university is to be supported at the 

 expense of the province, it must, I think, be so framed 

 that the government shall be vested equally in all 

 Protestant sects, in some proportion to their respective 

 numbers ; and that the instruction and degrees given 

 shall be only in arts arid philosophy, leaving to each sect 

 to establish and maintain schools or lectureships in 

 theology for the students of its own body, if it shall see 

 fit to do so. To something like this, from what I have 

 seen of the growing public sentiment in the province, the 

 organisation of King s College and University must come, 

 if it is to continue to obtain a larger share of support 

 from the public revenues than other schools of learning 

 in the province. 



Looking at a still young and undeveloped province like 

 this, it must appear of great importance that its inhabit 

 ants should entertain a correct idea of its true and per 

 manent natural resources those which must be regarded 



