The twenty-nine-year-old lawyer Edmund Allen Meredith, graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, was appointed the third Principal of McGill College in 1846.
His appointment was not only as Principal, but also as lecturer in mathematics and natural philosophy. In October 1847 he was named assistant Provincial Secretary for the Province of Canada, at which point he resigned his lectureship while continuing in office as Principal. Edmund's principalship was during a period of disorganization of the affairs of the governors and the country; for this reason there was no one around when he sought to relinquish the position of Principal on 26 October 1849. When the government of the Province of Canada moved to Toronto in 1849, Meredith went with it. For the next four years it was not clear whether McGill had a principal or not. Not until 21 June 1853 did a competent body formally accept his resignation.