Address in Praise of Founders

"Honorary Degree for Lord Byng Who Lays Corner Stone of New Memorial Building at U.N.B. ..." The Daily Gleaner (3 July 1923): 4.

May it please Your Excellency, Your Honor, Mr. Chancellor, Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I am sure that we are all delighted that the University of New Brunswick is being honoured, as it is to-day, by this timely visit from His Excellency The Governor General of Canada in the distinguished person of Lord Byng of Vimy, whose name will always live, not only in the hearts of the gallant soldiers of this loyal Dominion of the British Crown who fought under His Excellency's command in the Great War, but in the hearts of all the loyal people of Canada.

It is indeed an auspicious circumstance that the construction of the Memorial Hall, to which the sons and daughters and all friends of this University have looked forward since the close of the war, and which is designed to perpetuate the honoured memories of her heroic sons who fell in the great conflict, should have been commenced almost simultaneously with the announcement of His Excellency's first visit to Fredericton, so as to permit of the laying of its corner stone at this time by the hands of the distinguished victor of Vimy, the honoured commander of the famous Canadian Corps, in whose ranks so many of them died so gloriously.

It is interesting in connection with the important event which we are about to witness to recall the fact that 97 years ago--in the summer of 1826--the corner stone of this noble edifice, in which we are now assembled, was laid by the hand of another great British soldier, Major General Sir Howard Douglas, Bt., who, at that time represented his beloved Sovereign, King George the Fourth, as the Lieutenant Governor of the Province of New Brunswick and Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's troops in this Province, as well as those in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Bermuda, and who in another great conflict of arms,-the Peninsular War--had previously performed illustrious military service for the Great Empire, of which New Brunswick is still so proud to form a part.

Although it had its genesis in the historic petition, which hangs on the wall yonder, signed by seven of the cultured leaders of the United Empire Loyalists, who in the summer and fall of 1783 settled in the wilderness covering the area that now forms the Province of New Brunswick, which petition was presented to Governor Carleton in December, 1785, and led to the establishment of the Provincial Academy of Arts and Sciences which was merged by Provincial Charter in the college of New Brunswick in 1800, Sir Howard Douglas has been generally regarded as the real founder of the University of New Brunswick, as it exists to-day.

It was he, who selected this classic site in 1825. It was he who laid the corner stone of this building in 1826. It was he who secured from his Sovereign, King George the Fourth, the Royal Charter of Dec. 15th, 1827, establishing King's College, New Brunswick, as a state University, on the surrender of the charter of the old College of New Brunswick. It was he who became its first Chancellor and presided as such at the historic opening of the new and larger institution in this building on Jan. 1st, 1829.

I have thought that there is nothing which will give us a fuller and deeper appreciation of the importance and significance of the ceremony, which we are about to witness, than to reflect for a moment or two before we leave this auditorium upon the thought and feeling which animated the mind and the heart of Sir Howard Douglas, 93 years ago, as he contemplated within these walls the future and the far-reaching, beneficent influence of the institution which he was then formally called into existence.

"Never," said he in opening his inaugural address on assuming the Chancellor's chair, "in the course of a much diversified public life, in which I have been called to act in many different situations and in several capacities, have I been more completely satisfied on the accomplishment of any public purpose, never more highly gratified on the attainment of public station, never so sensible of the value of official influence, as now, on the completion of this noble edifice and in the capacity of Chancellor of this Royal University meeting you within these walls on this interesting occasion."

Twice did he revert in short but impressive sentences in the course of that historic and inspiring address to the great pride and satisfaction he felt at having been enabled to witness the successful consummation of his great purpose and ambition.

It will take but a moment to quote them:

"I shall ever reflect," said His Excellency, "with infinite pleasure and satisfaction that the opportunity has presented itself to me to take up and begin in principle this important work at the earliest period of my Government, so early indeed, as to form the first, as it was the greatest object of my ambition."

And again he said:

"Proceeding to the execution of this great work, I shall ever rejoice that it has fallen to my lot to lay, not only figuratively, but absolutely with my own hand, the corner stone of this building; that I have been spared to witness its completion; and that I am now called upon, nominally, by the King in that Royal Deed, to proceed in person to form the great moral superstructure which we are now about to raise."

I shall quote one other sentence from the address which Sir Howard Douglas delivered on that historic occasion--his fervent prayer for the future of the institution, whose career he was then inaugurating:

"Firm many this institution ever stand and flourish--firm in the liberal constitution and Royal foundation on which I have this day instituted it, enlarging and extending its material form and all its capacity to do good, to meet the increasing demands of a rising, prosperous and intellectual people; and may it soon acquire and ever maintain a high and distinguished reputation as a place of learning and useful knowledge."

These impressive words, which discover the enlightened character and the far seeing vision of the founder of this University, ought at all times, and more especially in these materialistic, levelling days through which the world is now passing, to be an inspiration to all the men and women of New Brunswick, who believe that education is the first necessity and the highest duty of the state--the service, indeed, upon which the value and efficiency of all government depends.

That Sir Howard Douglas was able so successfully to achieve in the foundation of this stately institution the first and greatest object of his ambition in the administration of the Government of New Brunswick, to which he was so happily commissioned at so early and crucial a period in this history of the Province, and that the high hopes, which he so warmly cherished for its future, have been so fully realized, is surely a reflection that must gladden the hearts of all of us with a heightened sense of gratitude and pride on this auspicious day, as we see it, "still standing firm in the liberal constitution and royal foundation," on which it was established, once again "enlarging and extending its material form and all its capacity to do good, to meet the increasing demands of a rising, prosperous and intellectual people."

It must never be forgotten, however, that the fine Memorial Hall, the laying of the corner stone of which this afternoon by the illustrious hand of Lord Byng of Vimy will mark a new era in the progress of the University of New Brunswick, is primarily and above all else a monument to the inspiring heroism and self-sacrificing devotion of her thirty three noble sons, who died so gloriously for their King and Country, and have thereby shed fresh and imperishable lustre upon their "dear Alma mater standing half way up the Hill."

"Lover of our boyhood, we love, we lover her still."