140 ■ Canadian Record of Science. 



ISTearl}^ forty years later, Sir William, in reviewing the 

 progress of the University in one of the Annual University 

 Lectures, spoke as follows : — 



" When I accepted the Principalship of McGill I had 

 not been in Montreal, and knew the College and men 

 connected with it only by reputation. Materially, it was 

 represented by two blocks of unfinished and partly 

 ruinous buildings standing amid a wilderness of excavators' 

 and masons' rubbish, overgrown with weeds and bushes. 

 The grounds were unfenced and pastured at will by herds 

 of cattle, which not only cropped the grass but browsed on 

 the shrubs, leaving unhurt only one great elm, which 

 stands as the " founder's tree," and a few old oaks and 

 butternuts, most of which had to give place to our new 

 buildings. The only access from the town was by a 

 circuitous and ungraded cart-track almost impassable at 

 night. The buildings had been abandoned, and the 

 classes of the Faculty of Arts were held in the upper 

 story of a brick building in the town, the lower part 

 of which was occupied by Lhe High School. I had been 

 promised a residence, and this I found was to be a portion 

 of one of the detached buildings aforesaid, the present 

 east wing. It had been very imperfectly finished, and 

 was destitute of nearly every requisite of civilized life, 

 and in front of it was a bank of rubbish and loose stones, 

 with a swamp below, while the interior was in an 

 indescribable state of dust and disrepair. Still we felt 

 that the Governors had done the best they could under 

 the circumstances, and we took possession as early as 

 possible. 



So far out of town were the College grounds at that 

 time that the tradesmen in town frequently declined to 

 send to the College goods purchased from them, stating 

 that they " could ]iot be ex^^ected to deliver goods in the 

 country." 



The teaching staff of the University as he found it 



