The foundation-stone of the new College buildings was laid on October 23, 1877, by the Archbishop of York. As architect the Council had secured the services of the late Mr. Alfred Waterhouse, R.A., whose experience and success in the erection of Owens College seemed to them the highest possible qualification. By the generosity of the Clothworkers’ Company, who had voted the sum of £10,000 for the purpose, the authorities were enabled to take in hand without further delay the buildings designed for the Textile Industries Department. The publicity given to these proceedings greatly strengthened the position of the College in the county, and especially in the West Riding. These events were no doubt such as must have come naturally and in the fullness of time, but their advent at this particular juncture was possibly accelerated by the action of Owens College in seeking for university powers. This movement on the part of Manchester had already engaged the attention of the Council of the Yorkshire College and was watched by them with no little apprehension. They realized that it was certain to have an important bearing upon the question of higher education in Yorkshire, both directly and indirectly, and that the future of the Yorkshire College was intimately bound up with it. It was therefore all the more necessary to prove to the world that Yorkshire men, in their own interests, were very much in earnest about their young institution; that they were determined to secure for it the fullest possible freedom of development and to extend and consolidate its position, unhampered by limitations to which it might conceivably be subjected by the presence of a relatively rich and powerful university close to its own area. In the next chapter we purpose to indicate briefly the steps which led immediately to the foundation of the new university in Manchester and to show how the action of the Yorkshire College resulted in modifying its Constitution as originally contemplated. CHAPTER V THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY At the time of this movement in favour of the creation of a university in Manchester the writer of this memoir was, as already stated, a member of the teaching staff of the Yorkshire College, and was then, as for some years previously, in constant friendly communication with Roscoe. A letter informing him of the feeling in Leeds and the district concerning the action of Owens College, and the desire of the authorities of the Yorkshire College that its interests should in some way be safeguarded, brought the following reply under date January 31, 1877: