WHAT IS OUR IDEA
OF A UNIVERSITY?1
TWO Gulfs have attracted the attention of the world
since the pioneering days of North America. They
are both the outlet of two mighty streams and, at the same
time, the entrance to the hinterland of an immense continent.
The Gulf of Mexico is northerly bordered by five of the
largest states of this republic; the Gulf of St. Lawrence ex-
pands its green and icy waters between Newfoundland, the
Province of Quebec, and the three Maritime Provinces of
the Realm of Canada.
Quebec and the Gulf of Mexico, despite a distance of two
thousand miles separating them, have had much to do with
one another in the early days. It is quite impossible for a
Quebecer, for a Montrealer in particular, not to recall the
deeds of the two LeMoynes, founders of Mobile and New
Orleans; above all, not to ponder over the heroic travels
and death of Cavelier de La Salle in the wilds of Texas.
This tragic end of a wonderful enterprise did not, however,
discourage Canadians from attempting again to reach your
Imperial State. Your Canadian River appears to have been
so called after one of them and we know that your neighbor-
ing city of Galveston was founded on the land of Michel
Menard, a native of St. Denis-Sur-Richelieu, near Montreal.
It also appears that in 1845, when the United States of
1Baccalaureate discourse of the twenty-fourth annual commencement of the
Rice Institute, delivered by Monsignor Olivier Maurault, P.D., D.C.L., LL.D.,
Rector of the University of Montreal, in the Court of the Chemistry Labora-
tories, at nine o’clock Sunday morning, June 4, 1939.
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