488 srERTON COLIEGE AND CANADA, 



Disciplina, prfestantissimum acl exemplar Britannicarum iTnlversi-- 

 tattim imitando expressis, ipsa jam frueretur, eademqtie posteris; 

 fruenda traderet.) 



The Charter, indeed, of King's College, in 1842, was held and 

 declared by its friends to be an unusually liberal one, considering 

 the time in which it Was granted, and the source whence it emanated. 

 On the day of the opening of the Institiition, it was stated by the 

 President, Dr. Strachan, that "the Charter of the University of 

 King's College was not hastily settled. It was riearly a whole year" 

 under serious deliberation. It was repeatedly referred to the Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury, Dr. Manners, who doubted the propriety of 

 • assenting to an instrument so free and comprehensive in its provi- 

 sions. It was considered," the President proceeded to say, "not 

 only the most open Charter for a University that had ever been- 

 granted, but the most liberal that could be framed on constitutional 

 principles ; and His Majesty's Government declared that in passing' 

 it they had gone to the utmost limit of concession." The unprece- 

 dented liberality of the Poyal Charter consisted in the declaration : 

 " No religious tesi; or qualification shall be required of, or appointed 

 for, any persons admitted or matriculated as scholai'S within our said 

 College, or of persons admitted to any degree in any Art or Faculty 

 therein, except Divinity." 



That it should have been thought, however, that this concession" 

 would suffice to i-ender all the other provisions of the Charter accept- 

 able to a community like that of Canada, fills the mind with amaze- 

 ment. The President was at all times to be the Archdeacon of York 

 ex-officio. The Council was to consist of the President and seven 

 Professors, who were also, for all time, to be members' of the Estab- 

 lished United Church of England and Ireland. 



I am not now saying anything to the contrary but that all these 

 arrangements would have resulted in a system very efficient ; I am 

 simply expressing astonishment, that with a perfect knowledge of the 

 composition of the Canadian people, recruited annually from complex 

 commu.nities like those of the British Islands, it should have been for 

 a moment supposed that in all future time such arrangements as 

 these could be maintained in an institution held to be provincial and 

 quasi-national. 



The cautious terms in which the House of Assembly of Upper 

 Canada returned their thanks to' the Grovemor, Sir Peregrine Mait- 

 land, when he announced to them the Royal boon of a University 



