90 SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY 



to face with an annual deficit. This was the case at 

 Bristol, and in the report of the Annual Meeting in 

 November 1884 the treasurer announced that there 

 was a balance on the wrong side of the account amounting 

 to about 500 and that there was a prospect of similar 

 deficiency in the following year. By the year 1885 the 

 Council found it necessary to retrench, and in view of 

 the difficulties Ramsay offered to allow a reduction in 

 his salary as Principal. In the report presented on 

 17th November, 1886, it was announced that " The 

 Council have had under consideration a proposal that 

 Government should be memorialised for aid to Metro- 

 politan and Provincial Colleges." The history of this 

 movement is given briefly in the following pages. The 

 course of events was followed by Professor Hicks, F.R.S., 

 who, as the former Principal of Firth College, Sheffield, 

 and subsequently Vice-Chancellor of that University, 

 played a leading part in the work necessitated by an 

 appeal for governmental assistance. To him the writer 

 is indebted for many facts which were essential to a 

 continuous record of events. 



In 1884 the British Association for the first time met 

 outside the British Isles. Among the party returning 

 from Montreal in the Peruvian were the late Professor 

 J. Viriamu Jones, Principal of University College, 

 Cardiff ; Professor W. Ramsay, Principal of University 

 College, Bristol ; and Professor W. M. Hicks, Principal 

 of Firth College, Sheffield. The Welsh colleges had 

 recently obtained grants from Parliament of 4000 a 



