149 



of all their Canadian brethren. Besides these 

 principal seats of learning, wherein the French 

 language is the vernacular idiom, there are in 

 Montreal some good English schools, conducted 

 by gentlemen of exemplary morals and talents, 

 who by their exertions supply in some degree 

 the want of an English college. It is certainly 

 a subject of surprise that no such establishment 

 has yet been formed, considering how eminently 

 serviceable it would prove, by contributing to 

 bring the language of the parent country into 

 more general use. I feel a confident hope, how- 

 ever, that such a foundation will not much 

 longer be a desideratum, particularly as a basis 

 has been laid for it by the late Hon. James 

 M'Gill, who died in 1814, and by will be- 

 queathed a very handsome country-house and 

 lands appertaining thereto, at the mountain 

 near Montreal, with the sum of ten thousand 

 pounds, for the purpose of endowing an English 

 college, provided it be applied to that use within 

 ten years after the bequest, or in failure thereof 

 the property is to revert to his family. The first 

 steps towards insuring to the colony the benefits 

 of so munificent a donation have already been 

 taken. In giving full effiect to which it cannot 

 be doubted but that the provincial, and, if ne- 

 cessary, the imperial legislature, will aid with 

 its accustomed liberality the testators praise- 



