n the express condition that "Professor Leach would
board them."

The necessity for much needed repairs to fences and buildings and for
fuel for the College rooms called urgently for funds. But there was no
money to provide these necessities. Permission was asked and received by
the Governors to pull down and remove an old wooden hut on the College
grounds, "which had long been considered an unsightly object and a
nuisance fast falling to decay." It was arranged that "the boards of the
roof and floor would mend fences and that the old logs would be used for
fuel." It was later decided to sell the surplus furniture in the
College, scanty enough at best, and also the sand that had been taken
from the excavations for the buildings, the money from the sales to be
put to "repairs to the spouts of the buildings and to the fences, also
to bring water from the spring near the bridge [in the present
'hollow'], to put a railing on the bridge, and to make passable the road
between the College and Sherbrooke Street." But in the midst of all
their financial worries the determination of the College authorities to
encourage students is evident from their establishing two exhibitions of
the value of L10 each, to be awarded yearly to the two students standing
highest in the matriculation examination. Professors might starve or
freeze and creditors might wait, but ambitious and meritorious students
must be practically encouraged.

The Governors were at last given some slight relief by the receipt of
over L1400, on account, from the Receiver-General, to whom the revenues
arising from College funds and properties were being periodically
transferred by the Royal Institution. Of this amount only L50 was voted
for current expenses; the remainder was used to pay off a portion of the
debts, among them the amount borrowed from the Bank by the former
Principal and the Chief Justice of Montreal. A further sum of L280 was
received by the Governors from rentals, of which L100 was paid to the
Vice-Principal, L100 to the Bursar, Registrar and Secretary, L50 to the
Professor of Mathematics and L30 to the Lecturer in French, in part
payment of their long overdue salaries. But it was decided that in
consideration of these payments "no fuel could be provided for the
present for any College officer."

The relief resulting from the above receipts was of but brief duration.
In November, 1848, the Governors had only the sum of L54 at their
disposal. They d