THE ROYAL VICTORIA COLLEGE.

Sir William Dawson once wrote in allusion to the Convocation of 1888, when for the first time in McGill women received the degree of B.A.: "This work is not complete. We look forward to a College for women, either a College of the University, co-ordinate with McGill College, or affiliated to the University. With the united staffs of two colleges, working in harmony, the course of McGill, whether for men or women, will be stronger, more complete and more varied than that of any other University in the Dominion." This passage indicates that, to a great extent, the existing College was anticipated in the first action taken by the University in connection with the education of women, though little idea of the shape it has actually assumed could be entertained before Lord Strathcona expressed his intention of founding the building now known as the Royal Victoria College. The sequence in the history of women's university education in Montreal is apparent, a consistent purpose in those under whose auspices it originated, a natural development, corresponding to the increase of the need and demand on the part of the constituency. It is hardly necessary to do more than briefly recall the main events of the movement. "The Ladies' Educational Association," formed in 1870, carried on till 1884 (when it was rendered superfluous by the next step taken in advance) the work of securing for women teaching of a University character, by members of the McGill Faculties, but wholly independent of the University in constitution. Meanwhile, how deeply the question had entered the mind of the University was

revealed by the Resolution of the Rev. Dr. Clark Murray, October 25th, 1882, to the effect that "the educational advantages of the Faculty of Arts should be thrown open to all persons, without distinction of sex." In the autumn of 1884, two girls from the High School having obtained very high places in the list of Associates in Arts, a deputation of women Associates appealed to the Principal, Sir Wm. Dawson, for admission to the examinations for degrees, if means of education could be provided. Very shortly after, the Hon. Donald Smith (Lord Strathcona), came to the Principal with the offer of $50,000 towards the establishment of Collegiate classes for women. Sir Wm. Dawson described the coincidence of this opening of resources with the appeal of the candidates, as seeming to him "to constitute one of those rare opportunities for good....which are to be followed up with earnest effort." The classes for the first two years were at once organized, according to the system of duplicated lectures. When, in due time, the provision for the third and fourth years had to be faced, the method was not rigidly laid down, but room was left for elasticity in the arrangement of classes, whether held separately or together. the Honour classes, however, the lectures have never been duplicated. Such was the condition of Women's University Education in Montreal, of which a steadily increasing number availed themselves, up to September, 1899, when, under the auspices of the present Principal, Dr. Peterson, the building, begun in 1895, first opened its doors to the Warden, three other Members of the Staff, and the three pioneer resident students, whose numbers had augmented to ten by January, 1900.

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Lord Strathcona had, some years previously, contemplated the institution and endowment of this College. It was intended, in the first place, to be a residential building, to furnish a home for those women, attracted to McGill from various parts of Canada and lacking other centre in Montreal. This constituency already existed. Before the opening of the Royal Victoria College, such students had come from British Columbia on the one hand, and Prince Edward Island on the other. The desideratum of a home for them, in the arrangements of which the fact of their mental work and interests should be the main consideration, was very evident. It was also naturally expected-an expectation which is being fulfilled-that should a residential building be founded, more students from a distance would take

advantage of the opportunities furnished by the "Donalda" department, and McGill become a University for Canadian women in a sense hardly possible before. Again, certain questions of perennial agitation, in the matter of women's education, have here a field for fruitful experiment. There is, for instance, the question as to the relative advantages of the full course, and of a modified or special course. For, whereas the Partial students attending University classes from homes in the city have probably many other interests and occupations which deflect their attention, and thus are, in general, marked off from Undergraduates as less complete students, those for whom the College is their Montreal home, must equally with Undergraduates, regard the pursuit of knowledge, whether for use, or culture, or for both these ends, as their main "raison d'être." Grouping ing together courses according to their ability and preference, they have it in their power to be special rather than partial students, in a more honourable sense than the term has otherwise acquired, and so to ennoble its significance. The College, in the second place, aims at making a considerable difference to the Day students of the Donalda department, who promise to be a body of constantly growing numbers, and for whom there are schools in the City, furnishing an excellent preparation. Here should be their intellectual centre, their rooms for society meetings, review clubs, study in intervals between lectures, besides the lecture halls in which all the lectures of the first two years (exclusive of those in Science) take place. These needs not having been contemplated in the arrangement of the Arts building, such a centre was greatly required, and those earlier students who had created and kept vivid the College social spirit under the former conditions, certainly demonstrated its keen vitality.

The history of the College, apart from that of the University, has not many striking events to record. Though actually open in September, 1899, it was, so to speak, a body unknown to the constitution till November 1st, 1900, when the very picturesque formal opening took place. On that evening, Their Excellencies, the GovernorGeneral and Lady Minto, having signified their willingness to be present, Lord Strathcona gave a large reception in the College, to the University and friends of the University. The statue of Queen Victoria was unveiled by Lady Minto, standing on the gallery below the brilliantly illuminated building, in the sight of a crowd of inter

ested citizens, and to the sound of the National Anthem sung by the choir of the College, to the words "God Save the Queen" for the last time.

As regards growth, the number of resident students is larger each session, being at present twenty-three, as also that of women students of McGill generally, undergraduates being in a decided majority. Including students conditioned in one subject, these number now sixty-seven, whilst the classes of students in the first year taking English (the favourite subject for Occasional students) contain over fifty. The fact that the original nucleus in the house was so small has assisted in the giving of that atmosphere of home which has always prevailed, as also in the establishment of an unwritten custom and tradition. The visits of the revered Founder, when in the City, and his unvarying personal interest, help to remind the latest comers that their tradition goes back behind the institution of the "R.V.C." to the foundation of the Donalda department in 1884. It should be noted that the words said by Lord Strathcona on the occasions of his visits, have expressed the large hopes which he bears for the College as a factor in giving Canadian women the finest intellectual opportunities, as women who may feel themselves to be citizens of no mean country. He has also, at these times, emphasised his desire that the place should be a home in the best meaning of the term, and that here should be conditions under which high ideals should be set, and nourished. Certainly in external surroundings the aim of the house is made clear, "that our youth may grow up, as it were, in a good place, whence, through things seen and heard, there may blow upon them the breeze that brings health to the mind," to paraphrase Plato. In his last visit, Lord Strathcona also showed by the earnestness with which he spoke of the work of the Alumnæ, in the Girls' Club, how strongly he felt that an effort should go out from a Women's College towards service of lives unblest.

Perhaps the fact that the University authorities have, on several occasions, chosen this building as the place for University functions, has demonstrated to the imaginations of students and public, more swiftly than could the steady routine, and the pronouncements of Corporation, the character of the institution as a constituent part of McGill. Here took place, February 2nd, 1901, the Memorial Service to the great Queen Victoria, with whose name the College is for ever

associated. Here took place the reception of Degrees by the future King and Queen, the young Victoria, September 19th, 1901. Another typical event was the delivery of a lecture before the University and the public, in the College Assembly Hall, by M. Gaston Deschamps, the well-known French "littérateur." The occasion was expressive of the true character of a University, which aims at uniting all sections of the community on the basis of intellectual interest. The preponderating element in the audience was that of our French-speaking compatriots, who came at the invitation of the English-Canadian University, to listen to a scholar of old France. Their own appreciation and the thanks of the Royal Victoria College were expressed to the stranger by a member of the staff of the College, woman-student of the University of France.

In other ways the fact is emphasised that the relation between the College and the University is one familiar to the English educated world, though less known in this continent, analogous to that subsisting between Balliol College and Oxford, Trinity College and Cambridge, if we may compare small things to great. These instances are mentioned rather than Girton at Cambridge, or Somerville at Oxford, because these Women's Colleges are not constituent parts of their Universities, nor are their members eligible for the degree. In other respects there are important analogies between the character of the Women's College in Montreal, and the larger institutions of Oxford-to speak of the University best known to the writer. Except in the case of one College at Oxford, and one or two lecturers, the Honour lectures in Arts at any College are thrown open to women, and as it is unusual for a woman studying at Oxford to confine herself to a Pass course, this means that the women students are in general attending such College lectures as they choose, or are advised to attend by the tutors. This is, of course, a matter of privilege, not right. Lectures in the Modern Language School are only for women, there being at present no such school organized for the University. There is no duplication of lectures at Oxford, though that system has not yet died out at Cambridge. As Oxford still, for so many, even in England, spells prejudice, conservatism, rigid etiquette, a word may be said "en passant," of the spacious sense of freedom felt by the woman-student who arrives there to find the ancient doors roll back to admit her to the greatest opportunities,