88 QUEEN'S QUARTERLY. 



would be glad to get it, but they had small need for old light. It 

 was a remark proper and a propos, and the house applauded. The 

 moderator has his own sort of humor and it is good, but when the 

 door slams and the members chat in impolite chorus here and there 

 in the house it is not a genial humor that suffuses his face. Nor can 

 he be at all blamed, for he has a boisterous crowd to handle. 

 ****** 

 The present reporter must, however, express his conviction that 

 some of the remarks just quoted appear to reflect the feeling of last 

 year rather than the temper of the present time. 



The Principal presented the request of the Trustees in an able 

 speech that lasted just one hour ; it was a clear statement of the his- 

 tory of Queen's relation to the church, the present situation and the 

 nature of the changes now required in the charter, with reasons for 

 the same. It would be impossible to give an adequate report of this 

 speech in our brief sketch. It was given in a restrained manner, 

 there was no attempt to make " points " against real or imaginary 

 opponents ; the aim was to carry the whole house the one step of 

 granting the reasonable request of the Trustees for a commission 

 to deal with the case. The resolution presented was as follows : 



" The trustees of Queen's University, having expressed their 

 deliberate judgment that further changes in the constitution are 

 necessary for the welfare of the university, the Assembly resolve to 

 appoint a commission to confer and co-operate with the trustees re- 

 garding the changes suggested, to consider all the interests involved, 

 and to report their judgment on the whole question to the next 

 General Assembly." 



The speech in support of it gave the history of the relations of 

 Queen's to the church, sketched the modifications made at various 

 times, such as the creation of the Council and the permission to elect 

 Trustees .from other denominations, with a view to showing that the 

 present movement is the outcome and completion of all that has gone 

 before. The speaker proceeded to show that a few years ago when 

 the whole university question was likely to be reopened the Trustees 

 were seeking to place themselves in such a position that the claims of 

 Queen's would receive fair consideration, wlien the movement was 

 arrested by the action of the Vancouver Assembly. One important 

 point was that Principal Gordon refused to admit that all the re- 

 sponsibility for the working of the endowment movement was to be 

 placed upon the leaders of the present movement; the action of the 

 Assembly in sanctioning other similar movements must be considered 

 as tending in the same direction. In fact, under the circumstances 

 it is difficult to believe that the church seriously desires to retain 



