the professional knowledge of the students. Still, not a few of our
young men show their appreciation of the need of even a wider knowledge
and experience than is afforded in the necessarily limited field of
Canadian study, by spending some time in the great schools and hospitals
of Europe. Of course, in a new country, where there is a general desire
to get to the practical work of life with as little delay as possible,
the tendency to be carefully guarded against is the giving too large
facilities to enter professions where life and property are every day at
stake. It is satisfactory, however, to know that the tendency in Canada
is rather in the other direction, and that an institution like McGill
College, which is a Medical College of high reputation, is doing its
best with the materials at command, to perfect the medical knowledge of
those who seek its generous aid. No doubt the time is fast approaching
when the State will be obliged to give greater assistance to Toronto
University so as to enable it to enter on a broader and more liberal
system of culture, commensurate with the development of science and
literature. Unless the State makes a liberal effort in this direction,
we are afraid it will be some time before University College will be in
a position to imitate the praiseworthy example set by Columbia College,
which, from its situation in the great commercial metropolis, and the
large means at its command, seems likely to be the great American
University of the future. It must be remembered that the intellectual
requirements of the Dominion must continue to increase with great
rapidity, since there is greater wealth accumulating, and a praiseworthy
ambition for higher culture. The legislature and the public service are
making very heavy requisitions on the intellect of this much governed
country, with its numerous Parliaments and Cabinets and large body of
officials, very many of whom are entrusted with the most responsible
duties, demanding no ordinary mental qualifications. [Footnote: It is a
fact worthy of mention in this connection, that in the English House of