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not the jurisdiction to warrant them giving the legislation
which the Synod of the Kirk of Scotland in Canada
had obtained prior to the Union.
The decision implied that the
legislation should have been obtained from the Dominion
Parliament. The Board of Trustees felt that, by
inference, the Ontario Act, under which Queen's was
declared to be in the same relation to the United Church
in which it had been to "the Kirk" in Canada, could
also be declared unconstitutional. They therefore app-
lied to the Dominion Parliament for a Bill which was
in substance a reproduction of the Provincial Act.
The Principal appeared before the Private Bills
Committees of the House of Commons and the Senate,
where representatives of the Anti-Unionists opposed him with
warmth. The Bill however passed the Committees, and
subsequently both Houses of Parliament unanimously.
By the act of the last General
Assembly a Common Fund had been established for the
benefit of its Theological Colleges in Ontario and Quebec.
The appeal was responded to by the Church, and during
this year Queen's received nearly $3000. $4000 was
delcared to be the smallest contributon from the source on
which the Theological Department could be maintained,
even in its then imperfectly-equipped state. But the
growing needs of the University imperatively

1881-82
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