Governor Simcoe, having received a higher appointment in the colonial service, left soon after. The Bishop of Quebec, however, acted upon his suggestion and wrote to the Colonial Minister on the subject, in June, 1796. In November, 1797, the Legislature of Upper Canada addressed a memorial to King George III, asking: "That His Majesty would be graciously pleased to direct his Government in this Province to appropriate a certain portion of the waste lands of the Crown as a fund for the establishment and support of a respectable grammar school in each district thereof, and also of a college, or university, for the instruction of the youth in the different branches of liberal knowledge." To this memorial the King directed a gracious answer to be sent. The duke of Portland, Colonial Minister, therefore instructed the acting Governor, President Russell, to give practical effect to the prayer of the petitioners. In doing so he used the following language: [His Majesty] being always ready ... to assist and encourage the exertions of his Province in laying the foundation for promoting sound learning and a religious education, has condescended to express his [desire] to comply with the wishes of the Legislature ... in such a manner as shall be judged to be most effectual-- _First_, by the establishment of free grammar [classical] schools in those districts in which they are called for, and-- _Secondly_, in due process of time, by establishing other seminaries of a larger and more comprehensive nature, for the promotion of religious and moral learning, and the study of the arts and sciences. Such were the terms in which the King, through his Colonial Minister, intimated his desire that classical and university learning should be promoted in this Province. The very comprehensiveness and express terms of the duke of Portland's dispatch on this subject gave rise to a protracted controversy in after years, especially as the controverted expressions were embodied in substance in the royal charter for a university obtained in 1827 by Rev. Dr. Strachan (afterwards first Church of England Bishop of Toronto). Around the expressions--"religious education," "religious and moral learning," and "other seminaries of a larger and more comprehensive nature," etc., a fierce war was waged for many years, which, though virtually over now, has yet left traces of the bitter conflict. The result of the instructions to President Russell was, that 549,217 acres of crown lands was set apart for the twofold purpose set forth in the Colonial Minister's dispatch. Of these acres, 225,944 were, in 1827, devoted to the university that was virtually established, on paper, in that year, and by royal charter in 1828.