e made to have the grants for schools and
the McGill bequest augmented by the Crown, through the use of Crown
Lands or the revenues of the Jesuits' Estates as partly promised in Lord
Bathurst's letter of December 30, 1815.

As a result of these persistent efforts by some members of the
Legislature and by church authorities interested in education, the Home
Government realised that the funds devoted to educational institutions
were lamentably insufficient and that additional means should at once be
provided for the better equipment of schools and for the engagement of a
greater number of teachers. They seem to have realised, too, that the
bequest of James McGill was not in itself sufficient to provide for the
erection of College buildings and for a subsequent endowment. They
therefore decided after much consideration to make use of the estates of
the Jesuits which had reverted to the Crown on the extinction of the
order. For several years the assigning of the revenues of these estates
to educational and religious purposes under Protestant control had been
advocated and by the strange irony of history this was in time brought
about. Indeed, as early as February 10th, 1810, Sir Gordon Drummond,
then administering the Government of Lower Canada, wrote from Quebec to
the Colonial Office stating that the Anglican Cathedral in Quebec "was
badly in need of repair and that for the purpose of repair there was
little hope of obtaining from the inhabitants of Quebec any contribution
worthy of consideration." He therefore asked that the Home Government
should authorise him to devote to the purpose part of the revenue
arising from the Jesuits' Estates, the whole of which "to the amount of
more than L4,500 annually has hitherto been transferred to the Military
chest." And he added, "I beg leave to suggest my opinion that this is
the most proper source from which the means of repairing the cathedral
can be drawn, and indeed, that this fund might with propriety in the
future be applied to the general support of the places of worship of the
Established Church throughout the Province."

In answer to this request, however, no immediate action was taken, for
although the Home Government had a legal right to dispose of the Estates
as they saw fit, they naturally wished to proceed slowly and tactfully
in order to avoid religious friction or bitterness within the Province.
In 1815, when, as already pointed out, it was intimated by the Colonial