od of freedom from his administrative
duties it was to the libraries of America and Europe that he gravitated
in the scholar's quest for old documents that would yield the scholar's
joy of new discovery; and on his last holiday visit to Scotland,
deprived by the war of access to the libraries of the Continent, he
happened upon an unpublished document of the seventeenth century by what
he modestly called 'a lucky chance.' We know, however, that these happy
finds come only to those who have the genius of the literary discoverer,
and characteristic of the textual critic is his parting message to us in
his delightful description of his new-found treasure given in a magazine
article under the prophetic title--'A Last Will and Testament.'

"As an educationalist Sir William Peterson was a mediator between the
champions of pure learning and the advocates of the practical sciences.
To him the University had a two-fold function; first 'to make good
citizens,' and second 'to hand on the torch of knowledge to successive
generations of students.' He believed that in order of teaching pure
learning should precede applied science, that classical subjects should
precede professional; but in spite of his Oxford training he could never
be accused of sacrificing the practical in the University to the
disciplinary. He recognised that the development of the pure sciences
was effected in history by the practical needs of life and that the
marvels of modern scientific activity are based on abstract and
theoretical learning. He found a place for the classical and the
specialised, the humanistic and the utilitarian, and his ideal was that
the University should give practical men a sound training in theory and
also keep theory in touch with practice. It was a blessing to McGill and
to education in Canada that we had as our guide a believer in the
humanities at a time when our youthful enthusiasm for the practical was
in danger of blinding us to the ideal of our educational ancestors that
the function of the school is to develop men and women of character.

"Principal Peterson was widely known as an ardent champion of
Imperialism, although here he failed to carry with him some of his
warmest Canadian friends; but it is not so generally known that he did a
great and needed work on this Continent in the interests of Anglo-Saxon
unity. He frequently visited the United States and gave addresses to
universities, learned societies, Canadian clubs and s