McGEE 



3559 McGILL COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY 



McGEE, ma gee', THOMAS D'ARCY (1825- 

 1868), a Canadian poet, orator, journalist and 

 statesman, one of the most brilliant of the 

 group of leaders who shaped the course of 

 events in the years immediately preceding Con- 

 federation. Mc- 

 Gee was most ef- 

 fective in protest. 

 He held office 

 several times, 

 but in his career 

 the offices were 

 subordinated to 

 the principles for 

 which he stood. 

 He was not the 

 type of man who 

 could sit quietly THOMAS McGBE 



in an office and perform routine duties. He 

 was a born reformer, a fiery orator who was 

 constantly stimulated to speech by more or 

 less revolutionary doctrines. His speeches ad- 

 vocating Confederation were perhaps the 

 strongest emotional appeals in support of that 

 movement, and the very last speech of his life 

 was a plea for mutual kindness and good will 

 to cement the lately-formed union of the prov- 

 inces. 



McGee was born in Ireland, and to his death 

 was an ardent lover of his native country. At 

 seventeen he emigrated to Boston, Mass., where 

 he speedily won fame by a Fourth of July 

 oration, delivered, so one commentator says, 

 "in such a transporting way that the multitude 

 became entirely enchained." Even with due 

 allowance for exaggeration, this is remarkable 

 praise for a boy of seventeen. Some days 

 later he was given a position on the Boston 

 Pilot, and when he left it, at the age of twenty, 

 he was editor-in-chief. In the Pilot appeared 

 many of the poems which gave him a wide 

 reputation. In 1845 he returned to Ireland, 

 largely through the influence of Daniel O'Con- 

 nell, who enlisted his literary ability in the 

 struggle to free the Roman Catholics from 

 political disabilities. After a year or two Mc- 

 Gee became identified with the "Young Ire- 

 land" movement, but the danger of arrest led 

 him to leave Ireland in 1848 and return to 

 America. 



For two years McGee then edited the New 

 York Nation, in which he expressed himself 

 so vigorously at the action of the clergy in dis- 

 suading the Irish from rebellion that the Ro- 

 man Catholic archbishop of New York secured 

 the suppression of the paper. McGee then 



edited a newspaper in Boston for several years, 

 his views meanwhile becoming less revolution- 

 ary. In 1857 he moved again, this time to 

 Montreal. There he established a journal 

 called The New Era, made a reputation as an 

 orator, and almost at once obtained a seat in 

 the Canadian assembly. He was president of 

 the council in 1862, and minister of agriculture 

 in 1864, and in 1867 was elected to the Do- 

 minion House of Commons. He strongly de- 

 nounced the Fenians, but his mature judgment 

 was bitterly criticized by some of those who 

 had supported the schemes of his youth. One 

 of these men shot him dead after he had de- 

 livered a brilliant speech, already mentioned 

 above, on the subject of cementing the union 

 of the provinces. 



In addition to numerous poems and articles 

 on political topics, McGee wrote a History of 

 the Irish Settlers in America, which is still a 

 standard book; History of Attempts to Estab- 

 lish the Protestant Reformation in Ireland; and 

 Popular History of Ireland. G.H.L. 



McGILL, magil', COLLEGE AND UNI- 

 VERSITY, an institution of higher learning 

 situated in Montreal, Canada. It was founded 

 by the will of Hon. James McGill, a Canadian 

 fur trader and statesman, and received a char- 

 ter in 1821. The school when first opened, in 

 1829, had two faculties, arts and medicine. 

 Since then, departments of law, applied science, 

 engineering and agriculture, the graduate school 

 and departments of music and dentistry have 

 been added. A course in military instruction 

 is given which prepares for commissions in the 

 imperial army or the Canadian Permanent 

 Corps. Graduates from the engineering courses 

 readily find government employment. Stu- 

 dents attend McGill from every part of the 

 British Empire. For the convenience of pro- 

 spective English students, entrance examina- 

 tions are held each spring in London. 



Women are admitted only to the arts courses 

 at McGill, but courses in arts and science, 

 given 'by professors and lecturers of the uni- 

 versity, may be pursued by them at the Royal 

 Victoria College for Women, established in 

 1899 in the same city. Macdonald College of 

 Sainte Anne de Bellevue, Quebec, with its Agri- 

 cultural School, Teachers' Training School and 

 School of Domestic Science ; McGill University 

 Colleges of British Columbia, Vancouver, B. C., 

 and Victoria, B. C., are known as incorporated 

 colleges affiliated with McGill. Mount Alli- 

 son University at Sackville, New Brunswick, 

 and Acadia University at Wolfville, Nova Sco- 



