, as a
matter of personal experience, my entire sympathy with those who hold
that the education of women should be conducted, as far as possible, in
separate classes." The hope here expressed was again to be realised--and
Principal Dawson lived to see the accomplishment of his plans. Sir
Donald Smith, then Lord Strathcona, was again appealed to. He increased
his endowment fund for the erection and equipment of a building such as
the Principal had in view, and the building of the Royal Victoria
College was begun in 1895. On September 4th, 1899, two months before Sir
William Dawson's death, the Royal Victoria College for women was opened,
and the women students of McGill had at last a home and lecture-rooms of
their own, "provided," as Sir William had dreamed, "with all modern
improvements and refinements for educational work."

[Illustration: _Lord Strathcona_]

Since the opening of the Royal Victoria College the opportunities for
the education of women in the University have been greatly enlarged and
developed. To-day women students are enrolled on equal terms with men,
not only in the Faculty of Arts, but in the Faculties of Law and
Medicine, and in the Departments of Commerce and Physical Education.
Indeed, women students are admitted to all Faculties and Departments of
the University with the exception of the Faculty of Applied Science.
Women graduates of McGill have continued to go out for thirty-three
years to fill important posts and to take a prominent place in the
building up of Canada and in service to humanity. In the half-century
that has passed since the formation of the "Women's Educational
Association of Montreal," with its humble beginnings and its scanty
courses for "Associates in Arts," the higher education of women has made
undreamed of progress. In McGill it owes its guidance and its growth to
the tolerance in a time of prejudice, the determination in a period of
opposition, and the patient faith in a day of discouragement, of Sir
William Dawson, who believed in the greatness of women's sphere and
influence in his country and in the world.

CHAPTER XI

THE LARGER MCGILL OF OUR DAY

In writing of the final epoch in McGill's first century, and the larger
McGill of our day, we must of necessity be brief. We are too close to
that epoch justly to judge its significance, or to give to the events
and the incidents of which it is made up the fair and adequate reference
which they doubtless deser