As these lands thus set apart were, in those early days, unproductive of revenue, nothing could be done to give practical effect to the gracious act of the King. A principal for the proposed university was, however, selected in Scotland. The position was first offered to the afterwards justly celebrated Rev. Dr. Thomas Chalmers, but declined. It was then offered to a successful parish schoolmaster, Mr. (afterwards so distinguished in this Province as the Rev. Dr.) Strachan. THE REVEREND DOCTOR STRACHAN AS AN EDUCATOR. Rev. Dr. (afterwards Bishop) Strachan, though not a versatile man, was in many respects a many-sided one. In his day he had to do with all of one great public questions which came before the country. On many of them (and in their settlement), he has left the impress of his active mind and persistent will. This was particularly the case in regard to those questions which more deeply touched the best interests of Canadian life, in its religious and social aspects. And it was a singular yet characteristic fact, that the more he was opposed by those who differed _in toto_ from the policy of his acts, the more strenuously he persevered in his purpose--even against the wiser counsels and calmer judgment of many leading public men of his time. But this opens up a question which it is not my purpose to discuss. Dr. Strachan, as I have said,--although not versatile,--was a many-sided man. And this was quite true in regard to that department of his career which I desire to illustrate. He was both an educator and an educationist. In the former capacity he was successively the parish schoolmaster, near St. Andrew's, and at Kettle, (Scotland). He had there as a pupil the afterwards celebrated Sir David Wilkie. In Canada, he was first a tutor in the family of the Hon. Richard Cartwright, at Kingston; then master of the Cornwall Grammar School, at which most of the distinguished public men of the Bishop's later years were educated. Subsequently he was Chairman of the Provincial Board of Education at York. He was named by the late Hon. Peter McGill as first Principal of McGill College, Montreal--although he never was in a position to undertake its duties. He was afterwards President of King's College, Toronto, and subsequently President of Trinity College University.