the Board of the Royal Institution and the Governors
continued to furnish an excuse, whether valid or not is questionable,
for paying no money for several months out of College funds. The
Governors had borrowed from the Banks on their own personal security,
and had obtained small sums at different times on their own personal
undertaking to pay for fuel and to meet the most pressing demands made
by absolutely necessary contingencies. Were it not for this timely
assistance it is probable that the College would have been closed; its
fortunes at best were precarious.

The Royal Institution had meanwhile concluded to transfer to the
Receiver-General of the Province all sums paid to them on account of the
College. But the Receiver-General would not pay them to the College
authorities, pending the Crown's decision on the Statutes. The Governors
urged the Royal Institution to a hasty consideration of their
embarrassment. They did not blame or censure the Board for the
extraordinary situation in which they found themselves. In the question
as to the cause of the situation they were not primarily interested.
Debating on the responsibility for it and on bygone disputes would not
improve it. The fact was plain that the College's existence was in the
balance because of financial conditions, and that this fact must be
faced. "The buildings are becoming dilapidated and useless," they wrote,
"and those who inhabit them will be frozen or starved unless the
Governors contribute from their private means." They likewise vigorously
called the attention of the Home Government to their incongruous and
lamentable plight. "We desire earnestly," they said, "to impress upon
Her Majesty's Government that the attainment of the benevolent and noble
object of the founder of McGill College has been unfortunately if not
culpably delayed." Yet they insisted that the present problem "will work
out and the whole income will soon be available for expenditure." There
would then be no difficulty, they thought, "in maintaining the College
on a scale large enough to be of use in a colony of a million people
without means for obtaining education for youth." And they declared
with astonishing optimism, "the Governors have great hopes that when
once fairly put in action this Institution will speedily attract
patronage and support and will expand with the wealth of the country."
This note of courage and faith is all the more remarkable when we
realise the exact co