ath, Sir Donald Smith, afterwards Lord Strathcona; Thomas
Workman, and William C. Macdonald. Without their aid and their generous
gifts the expansion of the University, needless to say, would not have
been possible.

But greater perhaps than the material and numerical growth which he
accomplished, was the spirit of service William Dawson brought to
McGill, and the influence of that spirit on the men and women who went
out from the University to help in the development of Canada. It is
difficult briefly and adequately here to outline the ideals which shaped
his policy in guiding the University and the students over whose
instruction he presided. They are found in his addresses on various
occasions. Perhaps they are best summed up in his farewell message to
the students in December, 1893, when he was leaving the University to
pass a few months in the South in a vain effort to restore his already
shattered health:

"I had hoped, in the present session," he said, "to be among you as
usual, doing what I could, officially and personally for your welfare,
but was suddenly stricken down by a dangerous illness. In this, I
recognised the hand of my Heavenly Father, doing all things for the
best, and warning me that my years of active usefulness are approaching
their close, and that it is time to put off my armour and assume the
peaceful garb of age, in which perhaps I may yet be spared to be of some
service in the world.

"For the time being, I must be separated from the work that has always
been to me a pleasure, and you will excuse me for addressing to you a
few words, on topics which seem to me of highest moment to you as
students. I may group these under the word 'Loyalty,' a word which we
borrow, with many others, from the French, though we have the synonym
'leal,' which if not indigenous, has at least been fully naturalised
both in English and Scottish. These words are directly associated with
the idea of law and obligation, and with the trite, though true, adage,
that we who would command must first learn to obey.

"I need scarcely remind you of that loyalty which we owe to the
sovereign lady the Queen, and to the great Empire over which she rules.
I have had frequent occasion to note the fact, that this sentiment is
strong in the rising generation of Canadians, and nowhere more so than
in McGill. It is indeed not merely a sentiment, though, even in a time
which boasts of being practical and utilitarian, the feelings o