"The Venerable Archdeacon Mountain then rose, and stated that as the individual named to fill the honourable office of Principal of the new College, it became his duty now to say a few words. He could not but express his sense of his own unworthiness for such a distinguished office, and he firmly hoped that he would be succeeded by a long line of eminent and learned principals. He had it in charge for his colleagues to state their anxiety to put the College into immediate operation, and he might urge as a proof of their wish that they had not been idle in this respect. With the assistance of the Honourable Mr. Cochrane then present, they had been engaged in preparing and modelling a constitution and rules for the government of the Institution. Although it was not necessary to detail at present their precise nature, yet he could take upon himself to state that they were liberal in every sense of the word, imposing no test upon Professors or Students. In thus applying the term liberal he wished it distinctly to be understood that he was not conveying the charge of illiberality against those noble and venerable Institutions of the Mother Country, in which a test was properly exacted of conformity to the National Religion, but there were local circumstances which required local adaptation; and according both to the terms of the will and the provisions of the Royal Charter, all offices whatever in McGill College were left freely open either to Protestants or Roman Catholics, and Students of all denominations would be permitted to attend. He deemed it necessary for him to explain how the present Professors happened all to be members of the Church of England. When found necessary to name Professors in virtue of the Charter of the College, his late father, then Bishop of the Diocese, had submitted several names to His Excellency the Earl of Dalhousie for these offices, among which those of the Rev. Archdeacon Strachan and the Rev. Dr. Harkness, having been proposed as eligible, either one or the other, to the same Professorship, His Excellency, whether swayed by a feeling of delicacy and desire to avoid the appearance of partiality, on account of his being himself a member of the Church of Scotland, or from whatever cause, decided in favour of the former gentleman. This circumstance was mentioned in proof that the original as well as the present intention of the Governors was in all respects to shew due respect to the intentions of the will of Mr. McGill and the terms of the Charter. It had been deemed necessary for the present to declare that the Professors should be graduates of some British University, but that a preference should hereafter be shown to those who had graduated within its walls. The Governors would feel it to be their duty under all discouraging obstacles to push on the great undertaking, and never to cease in their exertions for its prosperity. They hoped they would meet with general