University, where he completed his course in 1847. It was in
one of his summer vacations in the Maritime Provinces that he first met
Sir Charles Lyell, the distinguished geologist, and Sir William Logan,
who later originated the Geological Survey of Canada. In 1847 he married
Margaret Mercer of Edinburgh and with his wife he returned to Pictou.
For a time he gave a special course of extension lectures at Dalhousie
College, Halifax. In 1850, Joseph Howe, for whom he had a deep
admiration, and with whom he had formed a friendship early in life,
offered him the Superintendency of Education in Nova Scotia,--a newly
established office. He accepted the post with many misgivings; and for
the next few years he devoted all his efforts to bettering the
educational conditions of the Province, addressing school meetings
throughout the country and stimulating improvements.

In 1853 while he was still Superintendent of Education, his old friend,
Sir Charles Lyell, revisited Nova Scotia and the friendship formed a few
years before was renewed. On the same ship with him was Sir Edmund Head,
then Governor of New Brunswick, who, on this first meeting, was deeply
impressed by Mr. Dawson's views on educational reforms. As a result he
appointed him the following year to the commission formed to report on
the re-organisation of the University of New Brunswick, which was then
in a precarious state.

In 1854, the Governors of McGill, on the advice of Sir Edmund Head who
was about to become Governor-General of Canada in succession to Lord
Elgin, offered the Principalship to William Dawson. He accepted the post
and began his duties in the autumn of 1855. The outlook of the
University when he arrived was not encouraging. The College buildings
were not used for classes, but part of them was occupied by professors
and students; Medical classes were held in the Cote Street building;
classes in Arts and Law were held in part of the High School building.
The conditions of James McGill's will were not being carried out; there
was a College building on the Burnside Estate, it was true, but it was
not in operation.

But nevertheless the call for educational opportunities was urgent. One
hundred and ten students registered at the commencement of the session
in all departments of the University, of whom fifteen were in Law,
thirty-eight in Arts and fifty-seven in Medicine. The Faculty of Arts
consisted of five professors and one lecturer; the Faculty of