MERTON COLLEGE AND CANADA. 473' 



And once more, to the same correspondent, writing from '' York," 

 on the 28tli of February, 179G (the year of his recall), he says : 



"I have scarcely the smallest hope of this Government being 

 supported in the manner which I cannot but think proper for the 

 national interests, and commensurate with its established constitu- 

 tion. In particular, I have no idea that a University will be estab- 

 lished, though I am daily confirmed in its necessity. I lament these < 

 events, from the duty I owe to my King and country, and have only 

 to guard, that no opinion of mine be interpreted to promise beneficial 

 effects, when the adequate causes from which they must originate are 

 suffered to perish or are withheld." 



It will be seen, I think, from the tone of the extracts given, that 

 Governor Simcoe, the founder and orgaaizer of Upper Canada, either 

 consciously or unconsciously, was a genuine son of Walter de Merton : 

 (1) in his desire to secure in perpetuity an enlightened training in 

 matters of religion, in manners, in science and practical knowledge, 

 for the community which he had initiated; and (2) in his anxiety to 

 make the institution of education which was mainly to help forward 

 the great work, in the generations that should follow after him, com- 

 prehensive and national, aiming, with this object in view, to bring to 

 an end, so far as in him lay, among the people over v/hom he presided, 

 religious feuds, and irritating, clashing interests. 



II. — I turn now to Lord Elgin, Governor-General of Canada from 

 1847 to 1855 ; who, be'^ore succeeding to the title by the unlooked-for 

 death of an elder brother, was a Fellow of Mex-ton College in the 

 University of Oxford. 



I have not been able to lay my hand on any reported speeches of 

 his, having direct reference to the University of Toronto. I have 

 been obliged on this occasion to content myself with portions of 

 other productions of his, shewing his views in regard to high educa- 

 tion. It will be seen from these that in a Canadian Governor again 

 Walter de Merton had a genuine representative. 



Even while yet a student, but one very near his degree, we have 

 him offering in a private letter to his father a criticism of great 

 weight on the working of the English University system as he found 

 it at Oxford in 1832. His conviction, like that of Roger Bacon of 

 Merton before him, was that education should be no thing of seeming, 

 but as real as j)ossible. His remarks may with advantage be borne 

 in mind 



