he following extract from his letter indicates that the
outlook was not entirely hopeful:

"The judgment of the Court of King's Bench at Montreal in favour of the
Institution in suit against Mr. Desrivieres has been confirmed by the
Court of Appeals; but a further appeal has been made to the Privy
Council; the sum of L300, advanced by way of Loan, by order of His
Excellency, the Governor in Chief, in consequence of the address above
referred to (in addition to L200 before received), from the proceeds of
the Estates heretofore belonging to the late Order of Jesuits' has been
subsequently expended. Your Excellency is likewise aware that not only
is a question arising out of these complicated legal proceedings now
pending in the Court of Appeals, but also that the action for the
L10,000 which promises to be at least as expensive to the Institution as
that for the Estate of Burnside, is as yet undecided in the Court of
King's Bench at Montreal. Of the final result of these proceedings no
doubt can reasonably be entertained; but the Institution have before
them in the meantime the prospect of protracted Litigation without any
means whatever of meeting the heavy expense attendant upon it,--or even
of defraying their ordinary contingent expenses, however trifling their
amount. In these circumstances of unexampled difficulty, the Institution
once more humbly pray that your Excellency in transmitting their
Memorial to His Majesty's Government, will be pleased to accompany it
with such representations as to your Excellency may seem best calculated
to relieve them from the extreme embarrassment of their situation; from
which, if it is not speedily extricated, not only must all hope be
relinquished of the actual establishment of McGill College, already
erected by the Royal Charter, but their operations must be suspended
altogether and their very existence as a Corporation virtually cease."

The reply to this letter was unfavourable, or at least indifferent, and
on November 14, 1824, an appeal was made for a grant or a loan of L50
from the revenues of the Jesuits' Estates. Finally, towards the close of
1828, the judgment previously given in favour of the Royal Institution
was confirmed by decree of the Privy Council in Appeal, and early in
1829 the Burnside Estate was given into the Board's possession. The suit
in connection with the endowment fund was still pending. Because of the
judgment given in the first suit, there was no doub