| From Painting in McGill Library | Photo Rice Studios |
Venerable Archdeacon Leach
D.C.L., L.L.D.
Vice-Principal of McGill University
1846-1886
“I am enabled to say that after your appointment as Principal the interests of the College, which had previously been much obstructed and delayed, were more closely pursued and attended to, principally by your exertions, your declared object being to bring the College into operation as soon as possible, and to render all the means belonging to it available for this purpose.”
On May 11th, 1846, after Mr. Gladstone's despatch had been received, and Dr. Bethune was about to leave the College, the Rev. John Abbott, the Vice-Principal and Secretary, and E. Chapman, formerly Lecturer in Classical Literature, whose relations with the Principal had not always been harmonious, wrote as follows:
“We, the undersigned Officers of the University of McGill College, from our personal knowledge, as far as we have been respectively connected with it, do hereby certify that the Reverend John Bethune, D.D., has performed the duties of his Office of Principal of this Institution with a zeal, ability, and moderation only equalled by his patient and enduring perseverance, under circumstances of great and harassing difficulty; and that the opening and establishing of the College, and consequently its very existence, are mainly to be ascribed, as we verily believe, to his active and indefatigable exertions.”
To this letter the Rev. W. T. Leach, who had been appointed Professor of Classical Literature on April 4th preceding, added:
“My connection with McGill College has been of very recent date, and I have no objection to add my testimony to the above.”
It was also certified by the Bursar, the Rev. John Abbott, that the Principal was jointly responsible with the Chief Justice of Montreal for £500 borrowed from the Bank of British North America, and for £100 for outbuildings; that he was personally responsible for a debt of £120 for fuel, which “by his own individual means and credit he had obtained and provided for the College while the funds belonging to it were withheld during a considerable period.” These liabilities, however, were all liquidated later by the Royal Institution.