“And we do by these presents for Us, Our Heirs, and Successors, will, ordain, and grant that the Governors of the said College, or the major part of them, shall have power and authority to frame and make statutes, rules and ordinances, touching and concerning the good Government of the said College, the performance of Divine Service therein, the studies, lectures, exercises, and degrees in Arts and Faculties, and all matters regarding the same, the election, qualification, and residence of the Principal, Professors, Fellows, and Scholars; the salaries, stipend and provisions for the Principal, Professors, Fellows, Scholars, and Officers of the said College; and touching and concerning any other matter or thing which to them shall seem good, fit, useful, and agreeable to this Our Charter: provided that no such statutes, rules and ordinances shall have any force or effect until allowed and confirmed by Us, Our Heirs or Successors; and also, from time to time, to revoke, augment or alter the same as to them or the major part of them shall seem expedient, subject always to Our allowance and confirmation as aforesaid, provided that the said statutes, rules, and ordinances, or any of them, shall not be repugnant to the laws and statutes of this Our Realm, and of Our said Province of Lower Canada; and We do hereby for Us, Our Heirs, and Successors, charge and command that the statutes, rules and ordinances aforesaid, subject to the said provisions, shall be strictly and inviolably observed, kept, and performed, so long as they shall respectively remain in force and effect, under the penalties to be thereby or therein inflicted or contained. And we do by these presents for Us, Our Heirs and Successors, will, ordain and appoint, that the Members of the Royal Institution aforesaid, for the time being, shall be Visitors of the said College. And we do further will, ordain, and grant, that the said College shall be deemed and taken to be an University, and that the Students in the said College shall have liberty and faculty of taking the degrees of Bachelor, Master and Doctor, in the several Arts and Faculties, at the appointed times, and shall have liberty within themselves, of performing Scholastic Exercises, for the conferring such degrees in such manner as shall be directed by the statutes, rules, and ordinances, of the aforesaid College; and we do, by these presents for Us, Our Heirs, and Successors, grant and declare that these Our Letters Patent, or the enrolments or exemplifications thereof, shall and may be good, firm, valid, sufficient, and effectual, in the law according to the intent and meaning of the same, and shall be taken, construed, and adjudged in the most favorable and beneficial sense for the best advantage of the said Governors, Principal, and Fellows, and Scholars of the said College of Montreal aforesaid, as well in all Our Courts of Record, as elsewhere, and by all and singular Judges, Justices, Officers, Ministers, and other subjects whatsoever, of Us, Our Heirs and Successors, any misrecital, non-recital, omission, imperfection, defect, matter, cause, or thing whatsoever, to the contrary thereof, in anywise notwithstanding, without fine or fee, great or small, to be for the same in any manner rendered, done, or paid to Us in Our hanaper, or elsewhere, to Our use. In witness whereof we have caused these our letters to be made Patent. Witness Ourself at Westminster, the thirty-first day of March, in the second year of Our Reign. (1821.)
“By Writ of Privy Seal,
“(Signed)
Bathurst.”
And whereas it is deemed expedient for the interests of the said College, and for the augmentation of its funds, and for the better and more easy management of its affairs and the government of the said College, to make certain alterations in the provisions of the said hereinbefore recited and existing Letters Patent, which said alterations are and have been assented to by the said Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning and by the said Corporation of the said College:
Now Know Ye, that We, of Our special Grace, certain Knowledge and mere motion, have willed, ordained and granted, and by these presents do, for Us, Our Heirs, and Successors, will, ordain and grant that henceforth from the date hereof, the members of the Royal Institution aforesaid for the time being shall be and remain Governors of the said College, and shall have and exercise all and every the powers, authority and jurisdiction given and granted unto the Governors nominated and appointed in and by the said Letters Patent, save only in so far as the provisions of the said Letters Patent in that behalf are or may be by these presents altered; and shall also have and exercise all and every the powers, authority and jurisdiction given and granted under and by virtue of these presents;
And We do further by these presents for Us, Our Heirs and Successors, will and ordain, that henceforth from the date hereof, the Governor of Lower Canada, the Lieutenant-Governor of Lower Canada, the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, the Bishop of Quebec, the Chief Justice of Montreal, the Chief Justice of Upper Canada, and the Principal of the said College, shall not, nor shall any or either of them, as such Governor of Lower Canada, Lieutenant-Governor of Lower Canada, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, Bishop of Quebec, Chief Justice of Montreal, Chief Justice of Upper Canada, and Principal of the said College, be Governor of the said College, or use or exercise any power, authority or jurisdiction in or over the same in any manner or way whatsoever.
And We do further, by these presents, for Us, Our Heirs and Successors, will, ordain and grant, that the said College shall consist of one Principal, of such and so many Professors in the various Arts and Faculties as from time to time may be judged necessary and expedient by the said Governors, and of Fellows, Tutors and Scholars, in such numbers and at such Salaries, and subject to such provisions, rules and regulations as shall be appointed by the Statutes, Rules and Ordinances of the said College; that save and except for the purposes hereinafter specially mentioned and excepted, three of the said Governors shall be a sufficient number to be present at any meeting for the transaction of the ordinary business of the said College; that the determination of all questions, matters and things submitted to the said Governors at their meetings shall be made by the votes of the majority of those present, including the vote of the Governor presiding at such meeting, who shall have a double or casting vote in the case of an equality of votes thereat; that the President or Principal for the time being of the said Royal Institution, in all cases when present, shall preside at the said meetings, and in his absence the member of the said Royal Institution first or senior in order of appointment of those present at the meeting, shall preside thereat; that the Principal and all the Professors of the said College shall from time to time be elected by the said Governors or the major part of them present at a meeting specially convened and holden for the purpose of such election, and shall and may hold their respective offices subject to the right and power of a motion by the said Governors for the time being, at a meeting specially convened and holden for the said purpose; provided always that no less than five of the said Governors shall be present at every such special meeting for the purpose of election or amotion, and that special notice in writing of the time, place and object of every special meeting, by the Secretary of the said College, addressed to each of the said Governors, shall have been delivered by the said Secretary into the Post Office of the said City of Montreal at least fifteen days before the time appointed for such meeting; that within forty-eight hours after every such election or amotion, notice thereof in writing, sealed with the College Seal, signed by the Secretary of the said College or in his absence by the Governor who shall have presided at the meeting whereat such election or amotion shall have been voted, and addressed to Our Visitor of the said College hereinafter mentioned, for the time being, shall be delivered into the Post Office of the said City of Montreal; that every such election or amotion shall be subject to the review of Our said Visitor, whose determination thereon being signified in writing to the said Governors within sixty days after such delivery as aforesaid at the said Post Office of the City of Montreal, of the said notice of such election or amotion, shall be final and conclusive, unless the same by any order or orders to be by Us, Our Heirs or Successors made in Our or Their Privy Council shall be altered, revoked or disallowed as hereinafter is provided; that during the said last-mentioned period of sixty days the said election or amotion, as the case may be, shall have no force or effect; and that failing such signification within the said last-mentioned period, such election or amotion shall be and be held and taken to be by him approved and confirmed;
And We do further by these presents for Us, Our Heirs and Successors, will and ordain, that henceforth from the date hereof such election shall not be required to be notified to Us, Our Heirs and Successors, in the manner provided and required in and by the said Letters Patent, or in any other manner or way whatsoever;
And We do further by these presents, for Us, Our Heirs and Successors, will, ordain and grant, that the said Governors, Principal and Fellows, and their Successors forever, shall be one body politic and corporate, by the name of “The Governors, Principal and Fellows of McGill College,” and by the said name shall have perpetual succession, and a common seal, and shall by the same name sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded, and answer and be answered unto, in every Court of Us, Our Heirs and Successors, henceforth from the date hereof, and shall no longer be known by the name in the said Letters Patent mentioned, and shall retain all and every the property, franchises, rights and privileges granted under and by virtue of the said Letters Patent, and belonging to the said Corporation immediately before the date hereof, and shall be and remain liable to all claims and duties to which immediately before the date hereof they were subject, save only in so far as by these presents may be otherwise specially provided;