MERTON COLLEGE AND CANADA. 483 



to accomplish in promoting the progress and, I hope, in consolidating 

 the foundation of this great institution. But although," he added, 

 " the Y ice-Chancellor has overi-ated my merits in connexion 

 with the institution, he has not overrated my inclination to aid it. 

 That inclination has ever been strong, and will ever continue strong." 

 Then in exactly the strain Avhich we can well conceive Walter de 

 Merton himself adopting, when contemplating the condition of the 

 rising generation of England, in 1264, Sir- Edmund continued thus : 

 " I have a thorough conviction that academical institutions, such as 

 are calculated to afford the means of acquiring a superior education, 

 are of the highest value, especially in new countries. They are of 

 lvalue in all countiies. They are of A^alue in old countries. But in 

 new countries, which are beset with peculiar difiiculties, these results 

 are of great importance to the whole community. Such institutions 

 are doubly important," he said, " v/here the rougher constituents of 

 society are called upon at an early age to go into the wilderness, 

 there to earn their daily subsistence — they are doubly important in 

 every case where it is necessary that the young men of the country 

 should go forth with those resources which may enable them to pass 

 their leisure free from vice and in a manner befitting a Christian and 

 a gentleman. You have to contend with circiimstances which make 

 it doubly difficult to apply a remedy for the softening down of that 

 surface which is necessarily more or less roughened by contact with 

 the world, because in new countries, such as this, men are called into 

 active life at an earlier period than in old countries, and they have 

 not therefore the means of receiving the fullest benefit of a Univer- 

 sity education. 



" It is also clear," he then went on to say, " that however sound 

 may be the basis of classical learning — that however much you may 

 wish to refine those with whom your lot is cast — you must rear an 

 enduring superstructure, or the mass of the community will not be able 

 to receive at your hands the instruction which you desire to put 

 before them. 



"I consider," he next observed, "that the instruction inculcated 

 in a University ought to extend a practical influence over a man's 

 life, to enable him to go forth a better citizen and more able to earn 

 his own bread in whatever walk of life he may be placed. In order 

 to discharge these important duties successfully, all kinds of appli- 

 ances are necessary. I accordingly felt a deep conviction that 



