MERTON COLLEGE AND CANADA. 487 



men wlio once had tlieir habitation temporarily within its venerable 

 walls, but who now have become inseparably associated with the 

 history of Canada, from having been the means of transferring hither 

 traditions and ideas and solid institutions which, by an imperishable 



link, will in all future time unite Canadian scholars with Oxford 



with the Oxford of to-day, and strangely likewise with the Oxford 

 of 1264. 



We may possibly have had other rulers in Canada who were once 

 membei-s of Merton, or members of some other of the twenty-five 

 colleges or halls of Oxford ; but we are not aware of any who have so 

 fully delivered themselves, as the three spoken of, on the subject of 

 University education as adapted to Canada. 



Sir Charles Bagot was a member of Christ Church in the Univer- 

 sity of Oxford; and his was the hand that actually laid the founda- 

 tion-stone of King's College, out of which University College and 

 the University of Toronto have grown. But we doubt whether his. 

 views • on University education were quite of a character adapted to • 

 the condition of this particular country. He certainly in no way 

 qualified his approbation of the charter of the Canadian National 

 University as it read in 1842. Perhaps it was not his business to do 

 so. He said : " I have ever considered the two Universities of 

 Oxford and Cam.bridge as the breasts of the mother-country. From 

 them has been derived," he rather sweepingly observes, "all the 

 comforts of pure and social religion — all that is useful and beneficial 

 in science— all that is graceful and ornamental in literature. These 

 same blessings," he then adds, " unless I greatly deceive myself, we 

 have, under Providence, this day transplanted into these mighty 

 regions. There may they continue from generation to generation ! . 

 There may they serve to instruct, enlighten and adorn your children's 

 children through ages yet unborn, as they have for many ages past 

 the childi'en of our parent state." 



And on the plate inserted in the foundation-stone it was set forth 

 in admirable Latin, that " It was the desire of our illustrious Chan- 

 cellor (i. e., Sir Charles Bagot) that the youth of Canada should, 

 within their own borders, enjoy without delay, and transmit to 

 posterity, the benefits of a i*eligious, learned, and scientific education, 

 framed in exact imitation of the unrivalled models of the Biitish 

 Universities." (Yoluit vir egregias ut Canadse statim esset ubi 

 Juventus, Religionis, Doctrinse, Artiumque Bonarum Studiis et. 



