But apart from the activity of
the Medical School, which did not owe its origin to the University and
had merely changed its name, the progress was connected only with laying
plans for the future and with securing adequate resources and a
definite habitation. The Governors were harassed by litigation and by
not a little uncertainty; they were dismayed at times by the evident
lack of sympathy and the discouraging indifference of officials of the
Home Government. But they did not cease to hope, and they did not dream
of abandoning their educational scheme. They would struggle on to the
fulfilment of the founder's vision. It was the task of the newly
appointed acting-Principal to carry out these plans and to take up the
administration of the University in one of the most difficult and
critical periods of its existence. The years that followed were to be
troubled years of poverty, anxiety and controversy, not unmixed with
bitterness, during which, at times, extinction and oblivion threatened
the University's life.

CHAPTER V

ANXIOUS YEARS

The Rev. John Bethune, appointed acting-Principal of McGill in temporary
succession to Principal Mountain on November 18th, 1835, was a Canadian
by birth and education. His father, the Rev. John Bethune, a native of
the Island of Skye, Scotland, and a graduate of King's College,
Aberdeen, emigrated to America before the War of Independence. At the
beginning of the Revolution he served as Chaplain of a militia regiment
fighting in the Carolinas on the British side; he was taken prisoner by
Republican troops, and after his release by exchange he moved with other
British Empire Loyalists to Canada. He lived for a short time in Nova
Scotia, became Chaplain again of a Highland Regiment fighting in defence
of Canada against Montgomery's Army, and when the War ended he settled
in Montreal. Here he organised, as we have seen, the first Presbyterian
Congregation in the City, and ministered to it from March, 1786, until
May, 1787. He then removed to Williamstown in the county of Glengarry,
where he became minister of the Church of Scotland.

[Illustration: _Rev. Dr. John Bethune
Actg. Principal of McGill University_
1835-1846]

The future acting-Principal of McGill, the Rev. John Bethune, the
younger, was born at Williamstown, Glengarry County, in January, 1791.
He received his education at the school of the Rev. Dr. John Strachan
at Cornwall, already referred to. After serving in