CURRENT EVEXTS. 89 



Queen's as an arts college under the control of the church and re- 

 lying upon the church for maintenance ; " we are faced with the al- 

 ternative that either the church must assume the responsibility for 

 the maintenance in a way she has never done before, or accede to the 

 request of the Trustees, who are responsible for the financial condi- 

 tion, and who know the students, and desire a modification which 

 would enable them, as they believe, to handle the financial situation 

 more completely." The three changes required, liberty in regard to 

 the election of the Principal, removal from the charter of the demand 

 for a majority of Presbyterian Trustees, and the change of corpora- 

 tion, were briefly outlined in their nature and eflfects. The conclu- 

 sion of this strong speech may be given in the words of the Globe: 

 ■' There had grown up within the church what might be re- 

 garded as a real corporation of benefactors, men who had justified 

 their claim to the name, ^^'ould it be harmful, he asked, if the cor- 

 poration were made to consist of friends and benefactors of the uni- 

 versit}' and graduates? ^^'hat would this mean? It would mean 

 giving the universit}- a larger degree of self-government, and the 

 church would admit that every extension of self-government that 

 had been granted had been wisely exercised. The university had 

 moved along the lines cherished as its ideal. Further, it would mean 

 an increase of revenue. They could not hope to receive aid from 

 the Government of the Province in their present condition, and yet 

 there were many who recognized that the work of Queen's was such 

 as to justify any Government in granting aid from the Provincial 

 treasury. Still further, it would secure, in some degree at least, the 

 unifying of the university. It would not mean any weakening of the 

 control that the church exercised over the theological faculty and 

 over the training of young men for the ministry. It would not mean 

 anything deserving of being called separation from the church. It 

 would be a readjustment of the relations behveen the church and the 

 university in such a way that the vital and spiritual connection would 

 still be fully maintained. The life of Canada to-day was freer and 

 showed more self-government than at any time in the past, and j^et 

 with the removal of restrictions by the mother country Canada had 

 never before been so loyally attached to the mother country or the 

 mother country so proud of Canada. He believed the same would 

 be the result if a larger measure of freedom and self-government 

 were given to Queen's by the church, if she were allowed to develop 

 a little more fully than hitherto along lines by which the attachment 

 of the university to the church would continue, not by formal or 



