The Domesday Book Of Queens University (Volume 1)1839-1900 p1-248

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subscriptions would be payable by instalments, one-fourth on first of May next and the remaining three-fourths by equal annual instalments.

List of names mentioned in report in British Colonist of 11th of December, 1839, as having been present or as having been appointed members of the Committee to recieve subscriptions.

The next public meeting in response to the appeal of the Commission was held in St. Andrew's Church, Kingston, 18th December, 1839. The Rev. Dr. Machar delivered an admirable address. Three men, destined afterwards to achieve high distinction, and all belonging to Dr. Machar's congregation, Mr. J. A. Macdonald, now Premier of the Dominion; Mr. Alexander Campbell, now Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, and Mr. Oliver Mowat, now Premier of the

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Province, were present at this memorable meeting. Mr. Macdonald, then a young man of 24 years of age, seconded the first resolution, deeply regretting the limited means afforded to the youth of this country of acquiring a liberal education, founded on religious principles. Mr. Macdonald also moved the last resolution, seconded by the Rev. Mr. Reid (now the Rev. Dr. Reid, Church Agent of Toronto), appointing the members of a committee to collect subscriptons and otherwise promote the establishment of the proposed institution. Mr. Campbell and Mr. Mowat, though yet scarcely of an age to occupy a prominent part, being both somewhat younger than Mr. Macdonald, took a lively interest in the proceedings. * One thousand seven hundred pounds

* For report of the Kingston meeting, see the Kingston Chronicle and Gazette" of December 21, 1839, copied into the Jubilee Number of the Queen's College Journal, January, 1890.

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were subscribed in Kingston on the day of meeting and the following day. Similar meetings followed in Quebec, where the Rev. Dr. Cook made an able and impressive appeal, in Toronto, Montreal, Hamilton, Cobourg and other places throughout Upper and Lower Canada, and up to 7th July, 1840, £ 15,000 had been subscribed for the endowment of the College, and £ 5,000 of the amount has been already recieved by the treasurer.

The Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Canada had from the beginning been in frequent communication with the Colonial Committee of the Church of Scotland and had received their cordial approval of the establishment of such an institution in Canada, for the education of youth in the principles of the Christian religion and the various branches of science and literature. The Colonial Committee further promised to provide, for a limited period, for one professor in

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Theology at a salary of £ 300 sterling a year, on condition of another professorship of equal value being endowed by the Synod.

By the close of 1839, the initial steps had thus been talen to establish in Kingston a College and University by "the Presbyterian Church of Canada in connection with the Church of Scotland." The following article on "The state of elementary education in Ontario before 1839," by Dr. Wiliamson, is sufficient to show that the founders had grave educational, as well as financial difficulties to encounter. They did not underestimate these, but having faith in the future of the country, being men of liberal education and feeling above all the necessity of an educated native Ministry, they determined to proceed.

"When Queen's University was founded in 1839 one of the chief difficulties with which it had to contend

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was the almost total want of any public provision for the elementary education of the people of the country. In 1798, indeed, His Majesty George III, had authorized the appropriation of a portion of the waste lands of the Province in the following terms: "To assist and encourage the operations of this province in laying the foundation for promoting sound learning and a religious education.

"First by the establishment of free Grammar 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" (Universities) "for the promotion of religious and moral learning, and the study of the arts and sciences."

"Accordingly, on the receipt of this authority, 459.217 acres of Crown lands were set about by the Legis-

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