THE CANADIAN JOURNAL. 



NEW SERIES. 



No. LXXVIIL— MAY, 1873. 



MERTON COLLEGE AND CANADA 



BY HBNRT SC ADDING, D.D. 



Rtad it/ore the Canadian Insiitutc, January 11, 1873, as the President's Address for the 

 Session 1872-3, 



During my stay for sonie weeks at Oxford, a few years since, I 

 was led to take a peculiar interest in Merton College, in that Univer- 

 sity ; and had circumstances rendered it in any way advisable for 

 me to become an incorporated member of the University, I should 

 certainly have asked to have my name entered on the boards of 

 Merton. As it was, the minor privilege of ad'jnissio comitatis causd 

 sufficed for every purpose I had in view, and that did not require 

 the selection of a college as a quasi-home or house, but gave, during 

 the remainder of life, whenever resident in Oxford, without any 

 such limitation, all the advantages of degree and rank, the 

 franchise alone excepted, which my position in the sister University 

 of Cambridge could claim for me there. And I cannot refrain from 

 confessing that even the semblance of affiliation with ancient and 

 venerable Oxford which a mere admissio comitatis causd creates — form- 

 ally conferred by the Vice-Chancellor in the Convocation-house, and 

 duly enregistered, and printed in the Calendar of the day — was vastly 

 enjoyed by me as a small incident of romance occurring unexpectedly 

 in one's experience. But more than this, the positive benefits accru- 

 ing from the privilege were found to be of very great value. Besides 

 giving the right and the pleasure on any occasion of assuming in the 



