The First Scientific Concept of Rockets for Space Travel by Robert Godwin Part 10
From The Space Library
Back to Canada to Stay
In December Leitch returned to Canada aboard the Cunard liner Europa travelling from Liverpool to Boston.[1] That same month a newspaper story announced that he was being considered for the prestigious position of Chair of Divinity at Glasgow University.[2] It must have been a post that he was seriously considered accepting, but he was not scheduled to return to Scotland until the following summer. His two children still remained there and he had never purchased a home in Kingston, preferring to rent accommodation and operate his business from an office at Queen’s. Despite never really establishing roots in Canada Leitch continued to press as hard as he could to pull Queen’s out of its political travails and establish some sort of order to the flow of students, examiners, honours and money in the Canadian school system.
Between March and May of 1863 the battle continued to rage. Despite his efforts of the previous year there was still an entrenched group who preferred the status quo and Leitch’s gentle articulate nature made him an easy target.[3] On April 17th 1863 Leitch wrote to Ryerson to say that he had just concluded a meeting with John A. Macdonald and Alexander Campbell about the University question and he had been advised to back down. Macdonald thought it impolitic for him to take the time to fight their cause because, “We are on the eve of an election contest which may determine the future of Canada—and whether it will be a limited Constitutional Monarchy or a Yankee democracy.” [4] A few weeks later while Leitch was in Quebec the latest in a series of votes brought an end to Ryerson and Leitch’s cause. [5] However, a generation later many of their proposals would be adopted.
It isn’t known for certain if Leitch returned to Scotland again in the summer of 1863 but all indications suggest that he probably didn’t. His book had sold out and in September of that year a second printing of another thousand copies hit the streets in Scotland and England.[6]
In November Leitch pushed for further reforms when he arranged to put the power of hiring and firing into the hands of the school’s Board of Trustees (over which he presided) so that no professor could slander the school’s reputation with impunity. He followed this with the approval of a publication entitled “Defence Of The Plan Of University Reform” which outlined all of the logical reasons why Canada’s institutes of further education should share the bounty of the endowment and how this would be to the benefit of all the denominations, including atheists. [7] In the autumn he travelled to synods in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and then spent Christmas with friends in Montreal. It was probably during this trip that noted pioneer and royal photographer William Notman evidently took a photograph of Leitch for inclusion in his book, published in 1865.[8]
The Final Months
In February 1864 Leitch suffered a heart attack.[9] He was in his late 40s. His contemporaries maintained it was the stress of the university fight which had brought him to ill health. He struggled to return to work and attempted to fulfill his duties, but stepped down as the teacher of Metaphysics and Ethics on April 26th 1864. [10]
He died on May 9th 1864, a few days before his 50th birthday. The obituaries spread from Canada to Scotland were universally kind to him. Even the Globe and Mail which had spared no effort to publish anonymously-scribed articles damning his efforts on behalf of Queen’s College were willing to grant him a generous departure. His death was attributed to heart disease. When he died his friend and editor Norman Macleod would write, “I have lost a dear friend in Principal Leitch. Poor dear Boss! I cannot think of the world as henceforth without him—so simple and true, so loyal, so genuine! I have, with very few exceptions, no such friend on earth—none who knew my failings as he did, none to cover them as he did, none to love me in spite of them as he did. Well, he is another portion of my treasure in heaven!” [11] Click here for Part 11
Footnotes
- ^ Glasgow Herald, Jan. 28, 1863
- ^ Globe, Toronto, Dec. 8, 1862
- ^ Ibid. May 14, 1863
- ^ Egerton Ryerson His Life and Letters, C.B. Sissons, Clarke Irwin and Co, 1947
- ^ Documentary History of Education in Upper Canada by J. George Hodgins, Vol 18, Cameron, Toronto, 1907
- ^ The Bookseller, London, Sept. 30, 1863
- ^ Globe, Nov. 13, 1863
- ^ Portraits of British North Americans by William Notman, Montreal, 1865
- ^ Globe. Feb. 13, 1864
- ^ Documentary History of Education in Upper Canada by J. George Hodgins, Vol 18, Cameron, Toronto, 1907
- ^ Memoir of Norman Macleod by Donald Macleod, Worthington, N.Y., 1876
