Montreal Hospital, having solicited the aid and protection of the Royal
Institution, and expressed a desire to become a branch of McGill
College, it is conceived that the gentlemen of that Institution might be
willing (in consideration of being so associated with a legally
constituted establishment) to execute gratuitously the duties of one or
more Professorships in the College, connected with the Faculty of
Medicine. The Professorships being limited to _four_, it is obvious that
there can be only _one_ Medical Professor, and I am happy to inform you
that Dr. Fargues, having been solicited to resign, has consented to do
so with the utmost readiness, and it is accordingly open to the
gentlemen of the Montreal Medical Institution to recommend for the
consideration of the Governors of the College any one of their members,
being a graduate in Medicine, as his successor."

As a result of this decision the Governors of the College agreed to
appoint one of the Lecturers in the Montreal Medical Institution to the
Professorship of Medicine vacated by the resignation of Dr. Fargues.
Meanwhile there was a misunderstanding between the Governors and the
Board over the number of Professors already appointed in 1824. The
Charter provided for a Principal and four Professors; the Governors made
these appointments, but also made the Principal Honorary Professor of
Divinity. The Board contended that five Professorships had thus been
created and filled, contrary to the provisions of the Charter. On April
22nd, 1829, Dr. Stephenson wrote to the Board on behalf of the Medical
Institution urging that the number of Professorships in the College be
increased to enable all the Medical Lecturers to be attached to McGill
College. The Secretary replied on May 19th, 1829, as follows:

"Your letter of the 22nd ult., was duly submitted by me to the Board of
the Royal Institution, and I am directed to inform you in reply, that
the Board having carefully considered the subject, are of opinion that,
as the matter actually stands at present, it is not in their power to
procure an augmentation of the number of professorships. They conceive,
however, that the Medical Professor of the University might deliver
Lectures in one particular branch of the Science, and that the other
Departments might be conducted by gentlemen, who should be named
Lecturers in the College, as is the case with respect to the different
branches of Learning and Science, which are ta