Rev. Dr. Strachan, the Founder of Two Universities in Toronto.
In the Rev. Dr. Scadding's most interesting sketch of the "First Bishop of Toronto,—a Review and a Study"—occurs the following striking passage in regard to the founding of the "Twins of Learning" in Toronto:—
The results of the life of the first Anglican Bishop of Toronto are tangible realities.... He built the principal church edifice appertaining to his own communion four times.... "Twins of Learning" witness for him; he founded two universities in succession (1842 and 1852), both invested with the character borne by such institutions as originally instituted, by Royal charter—procured in both instances by his own personal travail; the later of the two by an individual and solitary effort, to which it is not easy to find a parallel. He saw both of them in operation, investigating, conserving and propagating truth, on somewhat different lines indeed, but probably with co-ordinate utility, as things are. The very park, with its widely renowned avenue, the Champs Elysées of Toronto, in which the bourgeoisie of the place love to take their pastime, are a provision of his—that property having been specially selected by him, as President of King's College, with the same judiciousness and the same careful prescience of the need of amplitude for such purposes which guided him also in choosing the fine site and grounds of Trinity College.