Sir John William Daivsofi. — Ami. 3 
career in that province, that the eminent fitness of Mr. Dawson 
became known to the governors of McGill College. They 
v.ere in need of a principal, and had set certain desiderata be- 
fore them as essential. The new principal must be a layman 
and besides this, they were determined, that the University 
should, though Protestant, be entirely undenominational. 
The principal must nevertheless be a religious man, one who 
would be a positive influence on the side of godliness. He 
must be capable and modern, and must of course be young, 
with his life before him. All these conditionswere found in the 
young Nova Scotia geologist and in nothing were those who 
invited him disappointed. 
When Sir William assumed the principalship of jMcGill 
University, it was a day of small things. The financial condi- 
tion of that institution at that time made it necessary for him 
to undertake the duties of several laborious professorships 
along with those of administration. The revenue then amount- 
ed to only a few hundreds of dollars. There were only eight 
instructing ofBcers, and with the exception of the faculty of 
medicine, the courses were most unsatisfactory. Under his 
guidance, however, the institution steadily advanced, and has 
long since over grown the effects of the depressing influences 
under which it labored when he was appointed. One of the 
great drawbacks to the success of the university was the lack 
of sufficient schools to prepare pupils for matriculation. With 
the co-operation of Sir Edmund Head, and of the superintend- 
ent of public instruction for the province of Quebec, in 1875 he 
secured the establishment of a normal school for Montreal, af- 
filiated to McGill University, for the training of Protestant 
school teachers. 
He was principal of McGill normal school for a period of 
thirteen years, in addition to his university duties. In 1858 he 
succeeded in establishing a school of civil engineering and 
surveying, which, however, after a severe struggle, succumbed 
at the end of five years to unfriendly legislation. Eight years 
later, however, he resuscitated this faculty of the university 
and placed it on a firm basis, so that to-day the faculty of ap- 
plied science in McGill University is recognized as one of the 
best equipped and most thorough institutions, an object of 
pride not only of Montreal, but of the whole of the Dominion. 
