Meanwhile, the case against the Desrivières heirs, James McGill Desrivières, Henri Desrivières, Francis Desrivières, and Alex McKenzie, had proceeded. Every effort was made to have the suit settled. On December 21, 1833, the Governors authorised the Medical Professors to join them in a Memorial on the subject to the Home Government. The Board of the Royal Institution persistently urged haste, but delay followed delay. At last, on February 7th, 1835, the Order in Council deciding the case in favour of the Board was issued, but it was not forwarded until the 21st of May. But notwithstanding the decision of the Privy Council the heirs of James McGill were slow to accede to the demands of the Royal Institution. On March 8th, 1836, the Secretary of the Board wrote “as to Burnside we are extremely perplexed by the pertinacity of the heirs in resisting and threatening further resistance to the payment of any money on account of the debt due to the Royal Institution unless terms are granted them ... which ... members of the Board think that we could not accept without rendering ourselves personally liable if any further loss should accrue thereby to the College. I should be strongly disposed to try and borrow money to begin with, if I knew what tangible security we could offer.” A further delay resulted, and even after the suit was settled the executors of the will hesitated to transfer the money to the Board or the Governors until the Home Government fulfilled certain promises which they understood to have been made. It was not until October, 1837, that the case was brought to final conclusion. As a result of delays, negligence, and unsatisfactory communications, the Governors appointed a special agent in London to conduct their business, with the frank comment, “If documents are sent through the Public Offices to Great Britain by way of the Colonial Office, there will be no end to the delay.”
In July, 1835, two months after judgment was given in favour of the Board, Principal Mountain retired from office in order to proceed to England. Now that the possession of the endowment fund was assured he believed that the College would soon be without difficulties and that its infant days of helplessness had passed. The Principalship was offered to the Rev. S. J. Lockhart, M.A. (Oxford), Chaplain and Secretary to the Bishop of Quebec. He seems to have accepted the post, but he never assumed the duties of his office. A meeting of Governors was held in Quebec on November 18, 1835, attended by Lord Gosford, who had meanwhile become Governor in Chief of Lower Canada, the Lord Bishop of Quebec, and the Chief Justice of Montreal. It was there resolved “that the Rev. John Bethune, Rector of Christ Church, Montreal, be appointed Principal of the College pro tempore; and that it be conveyed to him that his appointment shall not interfere with any future appointment which the Governors of the College may see fit to make.” The office of Principal was accepted by Mr. Bethune on November 24th, 1835, in the following letter:
“I cordially accept the appointment which the Governors of McGill College have done me the honour to confer on me, of Principal of the Institution pro tempore, under the explanation given to me by the Chief Justice of Montreal of the following passage in your Lordship's communication 'that the appointment shall not interfere with any future appointment that the Governors of the College may see fit to make,' viz., that if the funds of McGill College should at any future period enable the Governors to offer the Principal a sufficient emolument to secure his exclusive services to the Institution the present nomination shall not interfere with any such future appointment—but that the present nomination is not to be cancelled to make room for any future pro tempore appointment.”
During the six years that had passed since the formal opening of the College definite progress had been made. But apart from the activity of the Medical School, which did not owe its origin to the University and had merely changed its name, the progress was connected only with laying plans for the future and with securing adequate resources and a definite habitation. The Governors were harassed by litigation and by not a little uncertainty; they were dismayed at times by the evident lack of sympathy and the discouraging indifference of officials of the Home Government. But they did not cease to hope, and they did not dream of abandoning their educational scheme. They would struggle on to the fulfilment of the founder's vision. It was the task of the newly appointed acting-Principal to carry out these plans and to take up the administration of the University in one of the most difficult and critical periods of its existence. The years that followed were to be troubled years of poverty, anxiety and controversy, not unmixed with bitterness, during which, at times, extinction and oblivion threatened the University's life.
CHAPTER V
Anxious Years
THE Rev. John Bethune, appointed acting-Principal of McGill in temporary succession to Principal Mountain on November 18th, 1835, was a Canadian by birth and education. His father, the Rev. John Bethune, a native of the Island of Skye, Scotland, and a graduate of King's College, Aberdeen, emigrated to America before the War of Independence. At the beginning of the Revolution he served as Chaplain of a militia regiment fighting in the Carolinas on the British side; he was taken prisoner by Republican troops, and after his release by exchange he moved with other British Empire Loyalists to Canada. He lived for a short time in Nova Scotia, became Chaplain again of a Highland Regiment fighting in defence of Canada against Montgomery's Army, and when the War ended he settled in Montreal. Here he organised, as we have seen, the first Presbyterian Congregation in the City, and ministered to it from March, 1786, until May, 1787. He then removed to Williamstown in the county of Glengarry, where he became minister of the Church of Scotland.
