282 PECULIAR OBJECTION. 



anything they have been accustomed to do, has been 

 done in a wrong way, or that, by any other way you 

 can describe, the same thing could be done cheaper, 

 sooner, better, or with more profitable results. 



Another objection made to this bill I mention, because 

 it is one which I think would not have been made in 

 this country. I have already alluded to the rotation of 

 office which has become almost a rule of the State, on 

 the principle that the right of all being equal, an equal 

 division should be made of all the State can bestow. Now 

 as the erection of one large college would cause a great 

 expenditure, in the locality where it was fixed, would 

 in various ways benefit the neighbourhood, and would 

 especially improve the quality and raise the market- 

 value of the land, I was assured that there were 

 scarcely any of the country members who would have 

 refused to vote for the bill, if they had been assured 

 beforehand that the college was to be planted within 

 their own electoral district, while many others, if the 

 place were fixed, would, for the same reason, be as sure 

 to vote against it. A scheme at once larger and smaller 

 was therefore advocated by some ; that, instead of one 

 large and efficient college, ten or twelve small colleges, 

 or academies, should be planted in different counties of 

 the State, that thus the anticipated benefits of all kinds 

 might be more equally divided, and a larger number of 

 supporters conciliated to the general measure for improv 

 ing the agriculture of their common country. In favour 

 of a system of schools so dispersed, in subordination to a 

 well-organised central college, very much maybe said, and 

 it will be very creditable to the State should it hereafter 

 be enabled to establish them but the central school must 

 first be in active operation, that men may be trained up 

 who shall be qualified to preside over and prudently 

 direct them. 



But, numerous as are the small and often selfish cur- 



