60 that they were reoccupied by
the Faculty of Arts.

Several changes now took place in the administration of the College. In
1851 Principal Meredith resigned. His resignation was followed the next
year by that of the Rev. John Abbott, who had been Secretary and Bursar
and Registrar for several years. The Hon. Judge Charles Dewey Day was
now President of the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning,
and as such he assumed, in conjunction with Vice-Principal Leach,
direction of the College management.

Charles Dewey Day was a native of Bennington, Vermont. While he was
still a boy he moved with his parents to Montreal, and there he received
his education. He studied law, and in 1827 he was admitted to the Bar.
Ten years later he was made a Queen's Counsel. When the Rebellion of
1837 ended he was appointed Deputy Judge Advocate-General, and he
consequently had an active part in the courts-martial appointed for the
trial of accused insurgents. He was made Solicitor-General in 1839. At
the election of 1841 he was chosen to represent the County of Ottawa,
but he retired from political life in the following year and accepted a
Judgeship in the Court of Queen's Bench. In 1849 he was elevated to the
Superior Court. He was later appointed a member of the Royal Institution
for the Advancement of Learning, of which he became President, and after
the amended Charter of the University was approved in August, 1852, he
became in virtue of that position a Governor of McGill. In 1857 he
became Chancellor of the University, a position which he occupied until
his death twenty-seven years later. He filled many important offices. In
1859 he was one of the Commission entrusted to prepare a Civil Code for
the Province of Quebec; he subsequently served on Commissions appointed
at different times to determine the amount of the Provincial debt to be
assumed by the Dominion; to investigate the details of the Pacific
Railway scandal; and to settle the amount of subsidy which should be
paid to the railroads for carrying the mails. He also helped to prepare
Canada's case in the negotiations for the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, and
after his retirement from the Bench he assisted in prosecuting the
Hudson Bay Company's claims against the United States under the treaties
of 1846 and 1863. After his appointment as a Governor of McGill, Judge
Day took, a deep and earnest interest in the activities of the College.
He devoted his energy and his time