86 QUEEN'S QUARTERLY. 



oueen's and the general assembly. 



At the request of the editor of the Quarterly, I undertook be- 

 fore I left Kingston to send back a report of the discussion con- 

 cerning the relationship of Queen's to the Presbyterian Church. The 

 pressure of business during the actual sitting of the Assembly does, 

 not leave much time for this kind of work, and to attempt it in the 

 brief intervals between the stages of my journey is not very satis- 

 factory, so that I repented of the promise so easily made ; however, 

 when a promise is once given the task, small or great, must somehow 

 be accomplished. I shall try then to furnish the outline of the de- 

 bate in a spirit of fairness and with whatever skill in the line of re- 

 portiHg that I may possess. 



In the first place it may be said that Queen's men ought to ap- 

 preciate the kindness of the Assembly in setting apart for our use 

 two of -its earliest sessions, on the afternoon of Thursday and the 

 morning of Friday, June 3rd and 4th. The subject was thus brought 

 before the supreme court at a favourable time, when its members 

 were fresh and energetic, able and willing to give an attentive and 

 patient hearing to the arguments on both sides. The atmosphere 

 was on the whole clear and cool ; the speakers were well received and 

 their strong points appreciated on one side or the other. Remarks 

 were heard afterwards that the debate had been kept on a high level. 

 We may borrow an introductory note from the Hamilton Even- 

 ing Times. These quotations may serve the twofold purpose of re- 

 cording the facts and giving a specimen of the kind of treatment that 

 the local press gave to the Assembly's important debates : 



If the Assembly is to go its full Marathon distance, and without 

 doubt that is the course, the pace already set is an unusually " hot 

 one." To dash off the first afternoon, with the Queen's men leading, 

 as was witnessed in the debate on the proposed changed relations to 

 the church, looks as if the Hamilton Assembly is to make history. 



Principal Gordon looks better and seems a little more certain of 

 his ground than when, in Winnipeg a year ago, he saw the enemy, not 

 a foreign one, but within the " gates of Queen's." This University 

 with its splendid history has fought its way to victory. It has never 

 been afraid of a struggle, yet unhappily the old text has meaning, "A 

 man's foes are they of his own household." It seems to be that from 

 the fountain of rare loyalty to one another, there have sprung up two 

 opposite streams of policy, which have wrestled at the fountain head 

 for mastery and, failing, shifts the whirlpool where the friend and 

 stranger alike stand by in sorrow. No one is at liberty to charge the 

 other with having destroyed the harmony of the University or not 

 being a friend of Queen's. It may be mistaken judgment, but not 

 treachery. The whole thing is unfortunate; the pity is the problem 

 is not one where the slate might be wiped off and start dc novo. 



Principal Gordon made out a case for a judge, but both Dr. R. 

 Campbell, and especially Mr. G. M. Macdonnell, captured the ma- 

 jority of the jury. As a pleader it would be hard to find the equal of 



