such, the contiguity of a number of the most perfect educational systems in the world will not save us. We shall still be seeking for perfect results. The popular conscience seems to be awakening, however, and it is to be hoped that Dr. Roddick's Bill, The Canada Medical Act, 1902, will soon become law. As it marks a significant departure from the existing order of things, we give a portion of its text:

"The persons from time to time appointed or elected, or otherwise being, under the provisions of this Act, members of The Medical Council of Canada, are hereby constituted a corporation under the name of 6 The Medical Council of Canada,' hereinafter called 'the Council.' The purposes of the Council shall be to promote and effect

(a.) the establishment of a qualification in medicine, such that the holders thereof shall be acceptable and empowered to practise in all the Provinces of Canada;

(b.) the establishment of a register for Canada of medical practitioners and students, and the publication and revision from time to time of such register;

(c.) the determination and fixing of the qualifications and conditions necessary for registration, including the courses of study to be pursued, the examinations to be undergone, and generally the requisites for registration;

(d.) the establishment and maintenance of a board of examiners for the examination of such persons and for the granting of certificates of qualification."

We imagine that the provincial note will be heard from disputants who appeal to the British North America Act. But constitutional measures are not made for eternity; they have to bow to circumstances. What is constitutional may be inexpedient, unfair and not by any means compatible with the growth of the country. Conservative as law is, the constitutional historian soon becomes familiar with the legislation of reforms that sometimes establish measures infinitely more drastic than those which Dr. Roddick's Bill contemplates. To proclaim the sanctity of the British North America Act is no argument, in the true sense of the word; it is simply another retreat to the refuge of past legislation, to which those who look on any change as mischievous, are always prone to flee.

To the practice of medicine, then, our argument applies with more force, perhaps, than to anything else. The welfare of the country is,

we repeat, to be thought of before the prejudice of local sentiment which cannot be brought to recognize that the unfettered play of the best medical knowledge, wheresoever found, is a thing on which a country should insist; nor ought it to be difficult to invent some method of determining the highest efficiency in candidates. To turn elsewhere, a significant movement is taking place among the engineers of Canada, who naturally enough wish to see only properly qualified men in their profession. Whether or not any one class of engineers can be entrusted with the administration of regulations that apply to all, is a question which must be left to those immediately concerned. In the discussions which are being held we notice with pleasure advocates of ultimate professional recognition as wide as the Dominion itself. With regard to the recognition of Degrees in Arts we are coming into the possession of some rather unexpected facts which must be discussed in another editorial.

The reader will find in the present number an address by Dr. Parkin on Imperial Federation. The Undergraduates' Literary Society of McGill University did well to ask him to lecture on a subject which he can present with so much force. In our opinion there is no question of greater moment to the younger generation than that of British Imperialism, and it is the duty of every thoughtful young man to make himself acquainted with its bearings on that part of the Empire in which he lives. Whether he agrees with Dr. Parkin or not, is really a secondary matter, provided that he knows the great outlines which the problem presents and can support the opinion he holds by arguments based on well-digested reading and thought. How the scale will decisively turn is not so clear, but it cannot remain long in equipoise. Something has to be done gently it may be, and without offence it must be something or-nothing, and so letting the vision which Burke saw pass into the unattainable. The McGill University Magazine is, we need hardly add, politically colourless, and its pages are equally open to Little Englanders and Imperialists. If we are asked personally, "Under which king, Bezonian? speak or die!" we answer in the mode of Shallow, "Under King Imperialism," and without the faintest hesitation. Before leaving the subject we may remark that we are not unduly impressed with the melancholy which is very much in evidence in certain places. The wail of the present day pessimist is quite feeble compared with that of his ancestor in the times of

Henry VIII. and Elizabeth; indeed we cannot remember a period in which England has not been declared lost beyond recovery, by some one or other. Conditions are changed, so we are told for the five-hundredth time in as many years, and we admit it; change they must, yet not in one particular. The pessimist we always have with us. If the contracting parties wish, in unselfishness, to have an empire vitally connected by the political representation of its democracies, they can establish one. The wit of man has not been baffled by harder things.

We turn from such large issues to the University, which, as the contents of the Magazine show, has been playing its part bravely in the struggle in which the Empire is still engaged. What new signs of academic progress will be visible before we begin our new volume at the close of the year? If the incubus who has been troubling us lately had but the gift of prophecy, we might be able to stimulate those who desire to see a livelier growth of the university spirit. From the remarks he made in the last number, it is clear that he possesses a fair amount of knowledge and shrewdness. But prophecy is his weak point "the twilight of dubiety never falls upon him." We did, indeed, ask him once about the realization of some of the desires of the University, and he replied that such things lay in the laps of the gods, a sentiment with which he seemed immensely pleased, and which he had apparently just caught when wandering through college halls. Still, we hope that the day is not very far off when the undergraduates will have some convenient place in which they can meet and get to know one another. An attractive and commodious gymnasium would effect much-a hall of residence with a superfluously large dining room, more. For some reason or other, societies which might be thought to appeal equally to all Faculties, take their colour from one or two. Over against them stand societies definitely connected with the special work of the professional Faculties, and these tend to lessen the interest with which students whose time and energies are largely absorbed in technical studies, regard associations of a general charac

Certain prejudices and misconceptions necessarily exist in every large community, and the only way to dispel them is intercourse. But to bring about social life among students drawn from various parts of the country constitutes a problem not easily solved. Professors, even if they are able to entertain, can do so only fitfully and within a limited range, and, generally speaking they have neither the means nor the con

veniences for doing so. The day is not very far distant, we hope, when some institution will be established in which the students of every Faculty can meet and enjoy easy intercourse without any separating elements of classification.

The editorial board has decided that a chronological series of portraits would make the Magazine more attractive to the academic constituency of the University than one which presents in irregular and, as some might think, invidious order, those whose names occur at once when the development of the University is considered. Accordingly we give the portrait of Dr. William Robertson, the first Professor of the Faculty of Medicine, as the frontispiece of this number. A short article, to be found elsewhere, gives an account of Dr. Robertson's career. Could he visit McGill now he would find that the seeds he sowed have brought forth abundantly, and he would view with pride the buildings and equipment of a Faculty which is, we believe, regarded as distinctly the strongest in Canada and one of the strongest on this continent.

One matter remains to be spoken of before we close our editorial. From time to time we have received requests from the editors of various magazines for copies of The McGill University Magazine in exchange. Could we afford to do it, there is nothing we should like better than to seize every chance of reciprocity, but the cost of publishing The McGill University Magazine renders it impossible for us to set aside an appreciable number of every issue for gratuitous distribution. Our action in this matter will, we trust, not be regarded as discourteous, but, rather, as determined by conditions which we have to observe if the magazine is to rest on a sound financial basis. Thanks to the support we have received from advertisers, we close the first year of its publication in solvency. Whether or not it is possible to make The McGill University Magazine a quarterly, will depend on the financial and literary help we receive.

DR. WILLIAM ROBERTSON.

The name of Dr. William Robertson, whose portrait appears in this number of the magazine, will always occupy a prominent place among those associated with the early history of McGill University, and of that grand old charity, the Montreal General Hospital.

Dr. Robertson was the Nestor of that famous quartette of physicians, Robertson, Caldwell, Stevenson and Holmes, who formed the first medical staff of the Montreal General Hospital, who established the Montreal Medical Institution, and who were later the chief members of the Faculty of Medicine, when that Faculty was the only teaching body in the University.

At the age

William Robertson was the second son of James Robertson, Esq., of Kindrochet, Perthshire, Scotland, who belonged to one of the oldest families in the Highlands, their small estate having been in the family for eleven generations. He was born in 1784, and led the life of a Highland lad, receiving his early education in the country school. of thirteen he was an ensign in the Perthshire Highlanders, and with his cousin, Robertson of Jude, was in 1798 stationed in Galway; he was in action during the Irish Rebellion. He afterwards studied medicine in Edinburgh, graduating before he was of age, and soon after obtaining his degree, took the position of ship surgeon for a voyage to New York and New Orleans, where he made a study of yellow fever. On his return he was appointed Assistant Surgeon to the 49th. Regiment, then stationed in Canada. On the way out in 1806 the ship was wrecked off the coast of Nova Scotia, and William Robertson was taken care of by William Campbell, afterwards Sir William Campbell,