convenient buildings be erected, by which means the wishes of the
Governors to have the College established and in operation before the
29th of June next will be met, and that the Board will take into
consideration the claim of Dr. Bethune arising out of expenses incurred
by him on the estate of Burnside while in his possession on his vacating
the premises and rendering an account." Meanwhile the Governors'
meetings had dwindled to two, and sometimes to one member. There was
criticism that their meetings were no longer representative, and to
these statements, because of their own objection to the alleged Downing
Street methods of the Royal Institution, the Governors were sensitive.
To meet this criticism they established the "Corporation" of the
College, to include not only the Governors, but a number of the members
of the teaching staff, and certain citizens selected because of their
interest in education. The first meeting of this body was held on
November 27th, 1838. There were present Sir John Colborne, the
Governor-General; the Principal; Drs. Robertson, Stephenson and Holmes
of the Medical School, and the Hon. George Moffat. It was at this
meeting that the resolution of the Board above referred to was
considered.
The resolution was not received with applause nor with delighted
approval. The Governors doubted the efficacy of the plan. The Principal
was not eager to vacate Burnside House. The Professors in the Medical
School resented the suggestion that the "actual working of the College"
had yet to be commenced. In answer, it was resolved that "in the opinion
of Corporation it is expedient that a College be _built_ before the 29th
of June next on the Burnside Estate as the surest means of securing the
bequest of the late Mr. McGill." But the bequest had already been
secured; it had been paid over to the Royal Institution in December,
1837! Notwithstanding the Board's decision, the Governors insisted on
the erection of a building before the 29th of the following June. The
amended Charter had not yet been approved. There was still provision
only for four professorships, and these had been filled by the members
of the Medical School. Only one of them was now vacant. Until the
Charter was approved, then, and provision made for the appointment of
more professors, the building erected could only be occupied mainly by
Medical teachers. In December, 1838, the Royal Institution again
recorded their opposition to the Governors' desire for "the hasty
erection in a few weeks of a building adapted only for instruction in
Medical Science." They expressed their belief "that the first proper and
most pressing measure to be adopted in execution of the plain expression
of the testator's will and of the Charter is to commence forthwith a
course of general instruction in the ordinary branches of a learned
Collegiate education in the buildings now erected on the Burnside
Estate." They added that "they see no difficulty in accomplishing this
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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