ty's
Government would be to rescue the College from its present disorderly
and inefficient state, and to render it, according to the intentions of
the benevolent founder, a public benefit."

Against the justice of this report the Governors entered a vigorous and
emphatic protest. They denied the right of the Royal Institution as
Visitors to investigate College conditions. They contended that McGill
University was a private foundation, and as such might only be "visited
by the legal representatives of James McGill and not by the Sovereign
Lady the Queen, her heirs or successors, or by any person or body
appointed by the Crown as supposed and assumed in the Royal Charter
incorporating the College." As the Statutes had not yet been approved,
they forwarded at the same time a resolution to the Colonial Office
declaring that "the College being a private foundation has the undoubted
right and power as such to make its own Statutes, Rules, etc.," and that
they would therefore no longer wait for the Royal sanction. They also
made representations to the Legislative Assembly asking support for
their contention that "the provision of the Charter by which the right
of the Crown is reserved to disallow the appointments made by the
Governors is an assumption of power inconsistent with the very nature of
the Foundation and is absolutely null and void in Law." They sought
legal means for obtaining from the Royal Institution all rights and
titles to the properties and monies in their possession belonging to
McGill University. Their main argument was that the University was a
"private institution." But their protests were of no avail.

The Governors then summarily dismissed the Vice-Principal and Professor
of Classics, the Rev. F. J. Lundy, mainly because of the allegations he
had made before the Royal Institution. His dismissal caused further
trouble, not, however, without its lighter side. Dr. Lundy appealed to
the Royal Institution from the Governors' decision. In his petition he
suggested that the Governors who dismissed him were not a representative
body and that their action was illegal. He stated that "the Chief
Justice of Montreal and the Rev. John Bethune, _two_ of the Governors of
McGill College, did proceed to hold a special meeting in the parlor of
the residence of the Chief Justice and not at the College; that ...
without previous summons or notification he was there informed ... [on
being called in] that his further servic