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- \ AN EPISODE IN THE -HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO*·. D. G. CREIGHTON·oN Frid,ay, June 7, 1889, in a crowded Convoewn distinctive interestand abilities. Although' he was Re~eiver­ General, although· he held office at the very time when the repeal of the Corn Laws was apparently shattering the whole framework of British North American commerce, he \appeared to take relatively little interest in these vast .problems of the economic order. He concentrated upon something else--something equally profound and general in its significanceupon the difficult rivalries of the churches, the obscure contreversies of college councils, the whole tangled and mysterious confusion of legal claims, religious convictions, denominational bigotries, and humane aspirations which made up the religious and cultural life of the province. Inevitably he was interested in the university question. When he accepted office, he described the problem as the most serious stumbling-block in the Tory path-~s the issue, controversial above all others, which must be ~ettled before the next ge.neral election. In his view, a_s in that of Draper,. the first step was to prove to the party and the com!l).unity that the old Tory philosophy of education could be reconciled wit.h" the circumstances of Canadian life. He and his friends evidently pressed their point of view ·in the reconstituted ministry; and for some reason or other, whi,ch we do not know and can only guess at, he was given the chance, pstensibly at least, · to work out his solution of the problem.· Macdonald's university bills-the only important bills which he presented during his first brief term of office-differed from all previous legislation, on the subject both in the simplicity of their terms and in the striking originality of their ideas. The principles of unity and secularization upon whi~h even Drapet>s bills had been based to a considerable extent were . now abandoned for the novel and contradictory principle of colle'giate autonomy and sectarian control. All the colleges-King's, Queen's, Victoria, ·and Regiopolis-were maintained as- independent centres of. secular as well as religious instruction. King's College, which was to have its old charter of 1827 restored to it almost unchanged, was to become more , than ever a strictly Church- of England institution. And all that remained of the grand concept of a provincial university was a provincial university endowment board, in which all the colleges were equally represented and "\vhich was empowered to distribute the annual income of the endowment, giving £3000 yearly to King's and £1500 to each of the other colleges. The meaning of this remarkably astute piece of legislation was quite evident. Macdonald had preserved a large portion of the King's College endowment and he had maintained intact the Tory philosophy of edu- · ' I • \ 254 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTER~Y· c'ation by the simple but effective means of enlisting the other Christian com~unions in their defence. ' For a while the success of the bills looked comfortably certairi: the qualified acceptance of the Presbyterian organizations, the still less qualified acceptance of the Methodist organizations, th~ enthusiastic approbation of the Christian Guardian-all these were highly · gratifying. King's College Council, to be sure, objected to ,the new measure in a series of somewhat tiresome criti~isms; but on July 9 when Macdonald introduced the bills ' in parliament the old defenders of the exclusive rights and privileges of King's were discovered to have changed their tune. It was true that th'ere was a ~ertain-perhaps ominous-lack of enthusiasm in the support which the Toronto Tories gave Macdonald's measure. William Boulton, though he had a good word to say for the plan, reminded the house th~t he was opposed i·n· principle to the division of the endowment; and Sherwood apparently did little more than recapitulate drily the chief provisions of the bills. Outwardly, however, the Tory front s~emed unbroken. Th~ bills were laid by for a while, but only in accordance with normal procedure; and· they were. due to come up again on July 26. On- that day, to the consternation of all waiting and interested parties, the...

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