The Governors then devised an ingenious scheme to secure possession of the premises. The Principal proposed to the Board in May, 1842, that they lease the estate to the Governors for a period of 99 years. This the Board refused to do. They had obviously no desire to allow the Governors to get control. An endeavour to secure a lease was then made by a Mr. Pelton, and his application was recommended by the Principal. The Board replied that there were legal and insuperable objections to the granting of such a request and that they had no power under the law to give a lease for a longer period than 21 years. They agreed to give Pelton a lease for that period, and they guaranteed "that the same shall be renewed for each subsequent term until the whole period of 99 years shall be accomplished." The lease seems to have been actually entered into, but because of difficulty over the security offered, combined with legal obstacles, it was cancelled soon afterwards. It transpired later that Pelton was merely the agent of the Governors and that in order to secure possession of the property, they had engaged him to act on their behalf, on the understanding that he was to transfer the lease to them when he received it. Of the Governors' connection with this plan the Board was obviously not aware at the time. The details were frankly and clearly outlined in an interesting letter written by acting-Principal Bethune to the Hon. R. A. Tucker, Principal of the Royal Institution, on November 4th, 1845, when Pelton tried without success to establish a claim to some of the property. Extracts from this letter give further indication of the bitterness and hopelessness of the controversy: