ient aid to an Institution, founded, as we believe, on the only
principles of which reason and religion can approve,--namely, the
principle of giving it a known and acknowledged religious character. At
all events, we have not refrained from adopting that course which our
judgment has led us to prefer; we have had no difficulty in resting in
the conclusion which we have come to, and no difference of opinion among
ourselves. It now rests with Her Majesty to dispose of these measures,
which we humbly submit to the Royal consideration."

Her Majesty's Government, however, on the advice of the
Governor-General, ultimately withheld their assent from the
controversial clauses referred to.

Before the College was opened the Governors made a final effort to
curtail the powers of the Board of the Royal Institution. They
considered that with the erection of College buildings the duties of the
Board in connection with the McGill bequest were at an end and that with
any other buildings which might later be erected the Board was not
concerned. They wrote to the Royal Institution and to the
Governor-General setting forth their views. "If the Board's power is
what is stated and assumed," they said, "it will not be possible for the
Governors to attain the object of the Charter." They deplored the spirit
in which the authority of the Board had been exercised. They assumed
that James McGill intended his bequest to be administered by the Board
only until buildings were erected and a Charter granted to a Corporate
body, for the Board's control was primarily over grants from the Crown
and not from private individuals. The Board had now, therefore, no legal
existence, for the objects for which it had been created were gone. It
was clearly apparent, in their judgment, that when he gave control of
his bequest to the Board, James McGill thought public funds would be
added to his gift; this, they believed, was proved by the stipulation of
"ten years" after his death as the required term for the erection of the
College; hence he had given his bequest to the Board simply and solely
because they controlled public funds given for education. But
practically no public funds had been regularly given; hence the Board's
control automatically ceased.

It is unnecessary to follow here the Governors' subtle reasoning. They
seem to have forgotten the Provincial funds granted from the Jesuits'
Estates, and to be unmindful of the fact that they were at that v