An Introduction to James Cappon’s 1889 ‘Address’

PAUL MILTON An Introduction to James Cappon's 1889 'Address' James Cappon's career, both as a pedagogue and as a critic in the late nineteenth century, encompasses a number of firsts in the history of the academy in Canada. He was both the first professor of English language and literature (appointed in 1888) and the first dean of arts (appointed in 1906) at Queen's University. He was also one of the founders of the Queen's Quarterly and an influential voice on its editorial policy from its inception in 1893 until his retirement in 1919. As a literary critic, Cappon produced the first monograph devoted to the work of a Canadian author, his Charles G.D. Roberts and the Influences of His Time (1905). Consistently through his critical writings, he promoted the civilizing values of the British Empire, philosophical idealism, and liberal humanistic education based on the study of literature. Cappon arrived at Queen's in 1888 after an endowment campaign raised enough to fund two new professorial chairs. His hiring was seen as a victory for the independent Presbyterian institution over the provincially administered University of Toronto, which would not name its first professor of English until a year later. Cappon obtained his MA at the University of Glasgow in 1879 and taught in Glasgow and in Genoa before taking up the position at Queen's. He came highly recommended by Glasgow idealist philosopher Edward Caird, who had also placed another of his students, philosopher John Watson, at Queen's sixteen years earlier. Cappon won the position over Canadian contenders Archibald MacMechan, who would attain the George Munro Chair in English Language and Literature at Dalhousie in 1889, and Charles G.D. Roberts. Roberts felt that his failure to obtain preference at Queen's had more to do with nationality than with any objective measure of merit: 'Yea, the Glaskie man hath got ahead of the Canadian to the Canadian's great disgust' (letter to W.O. Lighthall, 30 Sept 1888). Roberts's allusion to the Scottish connection need not be read as pure frustration after losing the competition for the job. Queen's, a Presbyterian institution modelled on the University of Edinburgh, openly sought its faculty in Britain. When Daniel Gordon was principal (1902-17), he 'preferred graduates of a Scottish university who had done further work at Oxford, and this was no mere fad. When he was urged again and again, during the Endowment Campaign and at other times, to appoint UNlVERSITY OF TORONTO QUART~RLY, VOLUME 64, NUMBER 3, SUMMER 1995 INTRODUCTION TO JAMES CAPPON 463 more Canadians to the staf( his answer always was that he was glad to appoint Canadians when they were as well qualified as other candidates' (Gordon, 233). Some faculty members referred to Gordon's regular recruiting trips to Scotland by the slogan JBritish Brains for Canadian Colleges' (233). Perhaps the magnitude of commitment at Queen's to British scholars can be measured by the difficulty the university experienced in replacing Cappon after his retirement in 1919. In the seven years between his retirement and the appointment of George Herbert Clarke, four men occupied the Siege Perilous, three of them Canadians. W.E. McNeill and John Ford MacDonald each held the position on a temporary basis until the university made what it had hoped to be the permanent appointment of Englishman Thomas Seccombe. But Seccombe's health forced him to resign before he had held the position for a year, and the university then hired B.K. SandweIl, who had been teaching economics at McGill. That appointment proved to be controversial, since Sandwell had never taught English literature, and it resulted in MacDonald's resigning indignantly and taking up a position at Toronto. Sandwell also left after a year. Clarke, a Canadian, was then hired (after a search in Great Britain by two trustees failed to turn up a willing candidate) and held the post for sixteen years (Gibson, 55). On Clarke's retirement, the competition for the position came down to a decision between Canadian poet A.J.M. Smith and British academic G.B. Harrison. In the words of Principal R.C. Wallace, 'I think that in...