the truth that systems of popular education are, so to speak, the
gift to the people of the Colleges and Universities. His relations
to the higher education enabled him to grasp all the elements
involved in the great problem he undertook to solve for Ontario,
and to bring all parts of the educational system into helpful and
sympathetic relations. Our Universities must always be sources of
stimulus and enrichment to the schools of the Province at large, if
they discharge in any original and adequate measure their functions
to society.
In attributing so important a share to Egerton Ryerson in the
establishment of our school system, I am not, of course, unmindful
of the public men who seconded his efforts, and above all, of the
teachers and inspectors by whose self-sacrificing toils educational
advance was rendered possible, and has been sustained. Were he whom
we honor in our midst to-day he would be the first to speak thus,
and especially of his friend, Dr. Hodgins, who for so many years
was his able assistant and valued confidant. This bronze memorial
is well--may it long testify to the patriotic virtues of a noble
man--but it is as nothing, I trust, in comparison with the living
and imperishable memorials of enriched and ennobled human lives.
As time witnesses the increasing development of the material and
spiritual forces of the present and coming generations of our
people, as our social and national institutions are more fully
perfected and widely recognized, we shall have hereby and herein
perennial memorials of the founder of the school system of Ontario
throughout all coming time.
CHAPTER IV.
EDUCATION IN ONTARIO--PAST AND PRESENT.
AN HISTORICAL RETROSPECT BY J. GEORGE HODGINS, M.A., LL.D.,
BARRISTER-AT-LAW, AND DEPUTY MINISTER OF EDUCATION FOR ONTARIO.
To-day will long be memorable in the educational history of
Ontario--for to-day has been unveiled the first statue ever erected
in this province to one of its own sons.
It will be still more memorable from the fact that that special
subject of public interest and national concern which has been
signally honoured to-day, is the pre-eminently important one of
popular education. These two facts combined give to the celebration
and pleasant incidents of the day a peculiar significance and a
special interest.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE EVENT OF TO-DAY.
One of the first indications of a growing national life and a
patriotic national spirit is the erection of statues to noble
sons who have rendered such valuable services to the state as are
recognized and honoured here to-day.
It is a most hopeful sign, as well as an assuring and happy augury
for the future of a country, when its patriotism takes the grateful
and graceful form of doing honour to those who have aided in laying
the foundation of its future greatness and prosperity. This, we all
rejoice has been done by Ontario to-day in the unveiling of the
statue of the distinguished founder of her educational system. She
has reared to-day to one of the sons of her soil a noble monument,
expressive of grateful acknowledgment for services of the greatest
importance and value to her and to the thousands of her sons and
daughters yet unborn.
The erection of this statue emphasizes in a striking manner a
notable fact, chronicled by John Milton, which the mature judgment
of the nineteenth century has everywhere endorsed, that--
"Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war."
That is, that it is not heroic deeds of valor alone which call
forth a nation's gratitude. It further shows us that unswerving
devotion to duty in any of the departments of the public service, or
professional or private life, which have to do with matters which
concern a nation's progress and welfare, is equally recognized, if
not more signally honoured, than were deeds of prowess in the days
gone by. We have, at all events on this continent, many notable
examples of distinguished honour being done to literary men, to men
of science and to noted educationists. Any one who has visited the
chief city of Massachusetts cannot fail to have seen, on the broad
terrace in front of the capitol, a massive bronze statue to Horace
Mann, the well-known Founder of the Public School system, not only
of Massachusetts, but practically of the New England States.
THE ONTARIO SYSTEM OF EDUCATION--ITS INFLUENCE ABROAD.
So, in like manner we unveil to-day the statue, not only of the
Founder of the School System of Ontario, but of one, the impress
of whose hand, and the practical suggestions of whose mature
experience, may be recognized in the systems of education of some
of the Maritime Provinces, and in those of Manitoba and British
Columbia. The first Superintendent of British Columbia, and the
second of Manitoba were trained in the schools of Ontario, and were
thus experienced pioneers in the new Provinces of their educational
systems. Also in the West Indies the educational example of Ontario
was felt to be of some value by Sir Francis Hincks, when Governor of
the Windward Islands.[12]
[12] In a letter from Barbados, dated 31st May, 1856, he said: As
to education, in which you will take the greatest interest, all I
can say is that my own hopes are centered in getting a good Normal
School in humble imitation of yours. I think with that all will be
well. If we could train good teachers we would have an admirable
system. There have been some attempts, but not to much effect. I
want your advice as to the establishment of this school. Tell me
how to go to work to get good men, etc. I must have your plan of
boarding the Normal School pupils at the public expense, which I
think essential. I also want to introduce the national books (as you
did). Any advice or information will be conducive to good results.
Even the grand old Mother Country has not failed to acknowledge her
indebtedness to him whom we honour to-day, for practical suggestions
in the solution of the educational problems which confronted her
public men, notably the Duke of Newcastle and the Right Hon. W. E.
Forster,[13] during the years reaching from 1860 to 1870.
[13] Full information in regard to the working of our system of
education was communicated from time to time to the Privy Council
Committee on Education in England. This was of great practical value
(as he assured us) to the Right Hon. W. E. Forster, promoter of
the noted English School Bill of 1870. In 1875 Mr. Forster visited
the Education Department of Ontario. The _Journal of Education_ of
April, 1876, thus refers to Mr. Forster's visit:--
"During the recent visits of the Right Hon. W. E. Forster and
Hepworth Dixon, Esq., to the Ontario Education Department, they were
kind enough to explain and discuss some of the new problems in the
English Educational system, and made enquiries as to the success
of our attempts at a practical solution of the same question. The
two principal subjects referred to by Mr. Forster were compulsory
education and denominational schools, and on these two points
full explanation of our Ontario system were given."--_"Journal of
Education," Province of Ontario, Volume xxviii., page 49._
In 1860, at the request of the Duke of Newcastle, who accompanied
the Prince of Wales to Canada, Dr. Ryerson prepared an elaborate
sketch of the system of education in Upper Canada, and contrasted
it with the English and other European systems of education. This
report was embodied in a letter to the Duke, dated 12th October,
1860.
As to the appropriateness of our erecting a Statue to Egerton
Ryerson in Ontario, as was done to Horace Mann, in Massachusetts,
I may here quote a reference to the equal value of the labors of
those two noted men which was made twenty-five years ago by that
acute observer and experienced educational commissioner, the late
well-known and distinguished Bishop Fraser, of Manchester. He said:
"What Education in New England owes to Horace Mann, Education in
Canada owes to Egerton Ryerson."
To-day we honour ourselves by seeking to discharge that obligation,
at least in part.
There is one circumstance connected with the erection of this statue
which, to my mind, gives it a peculiar value and significance. The
erection of statues by popular vote, or by the Legislature, gives
a _quasi_, if not a real national character to such erection,
but, a statue erected from the proceeds of thousands of small
contributions, as in this case, shows that deep down in the hearts
of the people of this country there must have been genuine regard
for the man whom they thus seek to honour. When a memorial takes
such a form as that we may well regard it as more enduring and
precious than either the bronze or marble which constitute the
material of its structure.
COMPREHENSIVE CHARACTER OF THE ONTARIO EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM.
It devolves upon me, as Chairman of the Committee having charge of
this work, and at the kind request of my colleagues,--no less than
as the life-long friend and fellow-laborer of him whose deeds and
memory we honor to-day--to trace back to their source the origin and
underlying principles of our system of education, and to show that
these underlying principles and other vital forces were so combined
by a master-hand an to form the groundwork, as they have, in their
combination, become the charter of our educational system of to-day.
And here, in this connection, a thought or two strikes me; and each
thought contains for us a moral and a lesson.
The first is that educational systems are essentially progressive in
their character and purposes, and truly they "never continue in one
stay."
The second is that the earliest sources of what might be called our
educational inspiration are now uncertain guides, and, as such, are
to-day of doubtful authority.
No one will venture to affirm that even--as it was then
considered--the broad and comprehensive scheme of public education
sketched by Dr. Ryerson in 1846, should be considered as the acme
of our educational achievements of to-day. Nor would any one at all
conversant with the condition and progress of education on this
continent alone be content to draw his inspiration from, or limit
his range of observation to, the New England States as formerly. The
examples to be seen, and the experience to be consulted, and the
systems to be studied, must to-day, so far as the United States is
concerned--be sought for in the far-off Western States.
In this matter I speak of what I know; and I speak, therefore, with
the more emphasis on this point, because of the primary importance
of keeping this Province and the Dominion educationally abreast of
the most advanced States of the American Union--our near neighbors,
and our energetic and actively progressive educational rivals.
As an illustration of these notable facts, I may state that having
been selected by the United States Bureau of Education to act as one
of the seven international educational jurors, at the New Orleans
Exhibition in 1885, it was, during six weeks, my duty with others,
to examine into and report upon the condition and results of the
various state systems of education in the Union, and in other
countries.
CHARACTER OF SYSTEMS OF EDUCATION ABROAD, AND LESSONS THEREFROM.
I need not more than state, what you likely anticipate, that France,
by her enlightened educational legislation of 1881--providing for
manual, or industrial, training in all of her schools--and Germany,
by her earlier and more systematized educational legislation, stand
at the head of European States, as does Japan at the head of the
whole Eastern World. But, in this connection, the interest to us
should be to note the fact that the educational centre in the United
States has within the last few years been gradually shifted from the
east to the west. As an illustration, I may say that the highest
award for the extent, variety and completeness of its educational
system in all its details, was unanimously made by the jurors to
Minnesota, while Massachusetts and other New England States, with
New York, Pennsylvania, etc., were entitled to only second and third
class honors. France and Japan justly received first-class honors,
while England and other countries (omitting Germany) had to be
placed in the second and third class ranks as educating countries.
A revelation of these and other suggestive facts in regard to
the progress of education in countries outside of our own, more
than ever convinced me of the wisdom of Dr. Ryerson's policy of
observation while head of the Education Department. He laid it down,
not so much an educational axiom, as a wise dictum--the result of
his educational experience, that--
"There is no department of civil government in which careful
preparation, varied study and observation, and independent and
uniform action, are so important to success and efficiency,
as in founding, maturing and developing a system of public
instruction."
He, therefore, wisely devoted a large portion of his time to this
"careful preparation," as well as to "varied study and observation"
of systems of education in Europe and America. And this fact
largely accounts for the "success and efficiency" of his efforts in
"founding, maturing and developing" our system of public instruction.
In a reply to a resolution from the Council of the County of
Norfolk, in 1851, Dr. Ryerson thus referred to this subject:--
"There is no poetry in the establishment and development of a public
school system; it is a matter-of-fact-work from beginning to end;
and its progress, like the growth of body and mind in an individual,
is gradual, and is the joint result of time and labour. I am happy,
however, to know that our school system has already become so far
developed in its principles, objects and character as to command the
attention and almost unanimous approbation of the country. I have
laid it down as a first principle to educate the people through the
people themselves, by their own voluntary co-operation and exertion,
through the usual elective municipalities and other acknowledged and
responsible organs of a free people."
EDUCATIONAL LESSONS TO BE LEARNED OUTSIDE OF ONTARIO.
When we reflect upon the fact of the immense growth, and the
comprehensive character of the educational machinery in operation
on this continent alone, and the vast sums expended to keep it
in motion, we cannot fail to be profoundly impressed with the
serious and grave responsibility which is constantly imposed upon
our educational leaders, of being forever on the watch-tower of
observation, to note the changes, improvements and advances which
are continually taking place in the educational world outside. We
are too apt to be content with our own progress, and to measure
ourselves by ourselves. In this connection the words recently
addressed to the Kingston Board of School Trustees by the Very Rev.
Principal Grant, are of special value as an apt illustration of my
meaning:--
"During my absence I have studied the school systems of many
countries, and have learned lessons that ought to assist me in
coming to right conclusions. The world is wider than Canada,
or than America. The British Empire itself is wider than
this continent, and within its boundaries there are so many
educational systems and methods that a man who travels with eyes
and ears open cannot help learning many things that confirm
opinions previously held, and suggest improvements on what he
may have thought perfect, or the necessity of revising his
former judgments. He gets new points of view, and that of itself
is a great matter."
Our American neighbors became fully alive years ago to the evils of
the fluctuating and uncertain character of the prevailing system
of educational administration in vogue amongst them. They saw that
new and officially untrained men, of merely local experience and
knowledge, were constantly being elected to take charge of the
administrative department of the schools of a state. Such men were
often able educators, but by no means experienced educationists,
or masters of systems of education. The American people, shrewd
and practical as they are, felt the absolute necessity, therefore,
of furnishing such men, and the vast army of their educationists
and educators, with full and accurate information on systems and
plans of education all over the world. With this object in view,
they established a central observatory, or Bureau of Education at
Washington. I need hardly say how ably the work of this Bureau was
systematized and most efficiently performed under the direction
of the Hon. John Eaton, Commissioner of Education. His successive
reports and periodical circulars of information are mines of
educational wealth. Their fullness and comprehensiveness have been
a marvel. They have aroused and stimulated educational workers
everywhere. They are largely welcomed, and are highly prized in
these Provinces and elsewhere, as suggestive, and as invaluable
storehouses of information, and of the practical details of
education all over the world. They have, therefore, largely supplied
the place of personal inquiry and research, and yet have greatly
stimulated both.
It was Dr. Ryerson's ideal that sooner or later a similar Bureau
would be established by the Central Government at Ottawa, the object
of which would be, not only the supplying of abundant and reliable
information to each province on the subject of systems and plans
of education, but also, by intercommunication, to secure a general
harmony of aim and purpose. And that further, without attempting any
interference in local administration, the Bureau would be the means
of keeping up an active yet friendly intercolonial rivalry; and
thus, on Dominion and national lines, to build up the confederacy,
and to stimulate and encourage the efforts made in each province for
the promotion of substantial educational progress, combined with
efficiency and economy.
THREE EDUCATIONAL PERIODS IN THE HISTORY OF ONTARIO.
The educational history of Ontario naturally divides itself in three
periods, viz.:--
1. The early settlement, or United Empire Loyalist period.
2. The period preceding the union of Upper and Lower Canada in 1840.
3. The period since that union, and including the administration of
the Education Department by the Rev. Dr. Ryerson, down to 1876.
The United Empire Loyalists period takes us back to a period
antecedent to that of their historical prominence as a factor in the
events of the war of the American Revolution. In order, therefore,
to estimate the value of the educational influence of those times
on the future of the provinces in which the U. E. Loyalists settle,
we must take a glance at the Colonial chapter in the History of
American Education.
COLONIAL CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN EDUCATION.
It is, therefore, interesting in taking note of our educational
progress to give a brief glance at what was done by our fellow
colonists at a corresponding early period in the history of the "old
thirteen colonies," which formed the nucleus of the present American
Confederation.
It has been the custom, probably unwittingly, but chiefly on the
part of certain American writers, to exalt every good in their
political and social condition, as of revolutionary origin, and
reluctantly to admit that anything which was really excellent in
both, in the early colonial times, was of British origin. One
unacquainted with the processes and progress of civilization
in America would, on consulting such writers, suppose that,
Minerva-like, the young Republic had sprung from the head of
Revolutionary Jove, fully equipped, if not fully armed for the
battle of life, into the arena of the new world, and that this
phenomenon happened just at the extinction of British power in the
old colonies, and as the result of it. The policy of these writers
has been either to ignore the facts of history, or to keep entirely
out of view the forces which had been operating in the British
colonial mind, before and at the time of the Revolution. They have
never stopped to enquire as to the source whence they derived their
idea of political freedom, but have attributed it to their own
sagacity, or regard it as the outgrowth of their own enlightened
speculations and thinkings when emancipated from British control.
There never was a greater mistake as to fact, or a greater wrong
done to the memory and example of such noble English patriots as
Hampden and his compeers, who laid down their lives for political
principles which, considering the times in which they lived, were
even more exalted and ennobling than those which were professed by
the American revolutionists of 1776. In fact, no proper parallel can
be instituted between them. John Hampden, in our humble judgment,
was as far superior to John Hancock, "President of the Continental
Congress," in the purity of his political motives and aspirations,
as Cromwell was above Jack Cade.[14] However, it is not our purpose
to discuss this question, but rather to vindicate the sagacity
of the old colonists, who (at a time when loyalty was the rule,
and not the exception), laid the foundation of those educational
institutions, which to this day are the glory of the American
Republic.
[14] Thus, in regard to the chivalrous destruction of tea in Boston
harbour, in 1773, an American historian says:
"The object of the mother country in imposing a duty of three
pence per pound on tea imported by the East India Company into
America, while it was _twelve_ pence per pound in England, was
mainly to break up the contraband trade of the colonial merchants
with Holland and her possessions."... "Sons of the merchants [of
Boston] had become rich in the traffic, and a considerable part
of the large fortune which Hancock [President of the Insurgent
Congress] inherited from his uncle was thus acquired."... "It was
fit, then, that Hancock, was ... was respondent in the Admiralty
Courts, in suits of the Crown, to recover nearly half a million
of dollars, ... should be the first to affix his name to the
[declaration of independence] which, if made good, would save him
from ruin."...--_Sabine's American Loyalists_, Vol. I. (Boston,
1865), pages 8, 9, 13.
So much for the much-valued patriotic act, which was a vast
pecuniary gain to Hancock and other contraband tea merchants of
Boston.
Nor were the British colonists into those early times peculiar in
their zeal for the promotion of Education. The Dutch, Swedish, and
Irish colonists who settled in Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland
did their part in his great work, and on the whole did it well,
according to the spirit of the times.
In 1633, the first schoolmaster opened his school in the Dutch
Colony of New Amsterdam; and in 1638, the "articles for the
colonization and trade of New Netherlands," provided that, "each
householder and inhabitant shall bear such tax and public charge
as shall hereafter be considered proper for the maintenance of
schoolmasters." General Eaton, the United States Commissioner of
Education, in his valuable report for 1875, says:
"We find, in numerous instances, the civil authorities of these
Dutch colonies acknowledging, (1) The duty of educating the
young, (2) The care of the qualification of the teacher, (3)
Provision for the payment of his services, and (4) The provision
of the school-house. When, in 1653, municipal privileges were
granted to the New Amsterdam [New York], the support of schools
was included."
In 1642, the instruction sent to the Governor of New Sweden
[Pennsylvania], was "to urge instruction and virtuous education of
youth and children." In 1693-6, large numbers of primers, tracts
and cathechisms were received from Sweden, for these schools on the
Delaware. This was the educational state of the Swedish settlement
in what was afterwards known as Pennsylvania, on the arrival of its
noble English founder, William Penn. His views on education were
well expressed in the following declaration:
"That which makes a good Constitution must keep it, viz.: men
of wisdom and virtue; qualities which, because they descend
not with worldly inheritance must be carefully propagated by
virtuous education of youth, for which spare no cost; for by
such parsimony, all that is loved is lost."
The first real systematic efforts to promote popular education began
in New England, from thence it has spread in all directions. In 1635
the first school was opened at Boston, Massachusetts, and brother
Philemon Purmount was appointed schoolmaster by the Town Committee.
Thirty acres of land were given for his support. In 1642 the General
Court, (or Legislature) passed a resolution enjoining on the local
authorities:
"To keep a watchful eye on their brothers and neighbors, and
above all things to see that there be no family in so barbarous
a state, that the head thereof do not himself, or by the help
of others, impart instruction to his children and servants,
to enable them to read fluently the English language, and to
acquire a knowledge of the penal laws, under a penalty of twenty
shillings for such neglect."
Speaking on this subject, in his inaugural address in 1853,
President Walker of Harvard University said:
What most distinguishes the early settlers of Massachusetts, is the
interest and care they took in education, and especially in the
institution of a system of common schools, to be sustained at the
public charge.
Here they were first. In other things they thought wisely and acted
nobly; but in this, and perhaps in this alone, they were original.
Honor, immortal honor to the men, who, while still struggling for a
scanty and bare subsistence, could yet find the means and the heart
to do what had never been done or attempted before: placing the
advantages of a competent instruction within the reach of all. By
taking this course, what a noble confidence they manifested in the
truth of their principles and in the justice of their measures....
But the founders and early settlers of Massachusetts did not limit
their views of education to common schools. Many of their leading
men had studied at the English Universities and were imbued with,
or at least, could appreciate the highest scholarship of that day.
They also knew, on general grounds and as practical men, that the
public good requires the advancement, as well as the diffusion, of
knowledge; in short, that both must go together; that the streams
will soon cease, if the fountains fail.--Pages 33, 34.
To be brief on this point I may state that in 1847, the first
legislative enactment in favor of schools was made in Massachusetts;
and in 1670, the Governor of Connecticut declared that "one-fourth
of her revenue was devoted to schools."
* * * * *
General Eaton in his comprehensive report of 1875 says:
"History, with hardly a dissenting voice, accords to the English
Colonists of New England, the credit of having developed those
forms of action, in reference to the education of children,
which contained more than any other the distinct features of the
systems adopted in this cuntry."
In the early colonial times, before the revolution, there were nine
colleges established in seven out of the thirteen colonies.
These colleges, with the date of their foundation, are as follow:--
1. Harvard--Massachusetts, in 1638
2. William and Mary--Virginia, in 1693
3. Yale--Connecticut, in 1700
4. Nassau Hall (now Princeton)--New Jersey, in 1748
5. Kings (now Columbia)--New York, in 1754
6. Brown--Rhode Island, in 1765
7. Dartmouth--New Hampshire, in 1770
8. Queen's (now Rutgers)--New Jersey, in 1771
9. Hampden--Sydney, Virginia, in 1775
The Legislature of Massachusetts, aided by the Rev. John Harvard,
founded Harvard Congregational College, in 1638, and the colonists
of Connecticut, established the Yale Congregation College in
1700.[15]
[15] "The project of founding a College in Connecticut was early
taken up (in 1652), but was checked by well-founded remonstrance
from Massachusetts, who (sic), very justly observed that the whole
population of New England was scarcely sufficient to support one
institution."--President Dwight's _Travels in New England_, vol. I.
p. 168.
The Legislature made a grant of £50 a year to Yale College, from
1701 to 1750, when "it was discontinued on account of the heavy
taxes occasioned by the late _Canadian_ War."--C. K. Adams, in
_North American Review_ for October, 1875, p. 381.
The New Hampshire colonists endowed the Congregational College at
Dartmouth with 44,000 acres of land in 1770. The Episcopalians of
the English colony of New York, aided by the Legislature, founded
King's now Columbia College, in 1753. Indeed, so true were the
English colonists to the educational instincts of the mother land,
that when the Dutch Province of New Netherlands fell into their
hands in 1644, the King's Commissioners were instructed "to
make due enquiry as to what progress hath been made towards ye
foundaçon and maintenance of any College Schools for the educaçon of
youth."--(Colonial History of N. Y., Vol. III. p. 53.)
The English Province, _par excellence_, of Virginia made various
praiseworthy efforts to promote education. In 1619, soon after the
settlement of Jamestown, Sir Edwin Sandys, President of the Virginia
Company, had 10,000 acres of land set apart for the establishment
of a University at Henrico for the colonists and Indians. The
churches in England gave £1,500 sterling in the same year to aid in
the education of the Indians. In 1621, 1,000 acres of land as an
endowment, and £150 were granted to establish a school at Charles
city. Other efforts were made in the same direction in 1660 and
1688. The colony also nobly determined to establish a University;
and in 1692-3, the project was practically realized by the founding
by the King and Queen, under royal charter, of the Church of England
College at Williamsburgh, of William and Mary. To this College the
King gave nearly £2,000, besides 20,000 acres of land, and one penny
per pound on all the tobacco exported from Maryland. The Legislature
also gave it in 1693, the duty on skins and furs exported, and on
liquors imported.[16] The plans of the College were prepared by
Sir Christopher Wren. Among the first donors to the College was
the celebrated Robert Boyle.[17] Of all the colonial Colleges few
exercised a greater educational influence among the leading men than
did this royal college. Jefferson, Munroe, Marshall (afterwards
Chief Justice of the United States), the two Randolphs, and Governor
Tyler, of Virginia, received their education here.
[16] Circular of Information, U. S. Bureau of Education, No. 1,
1887, page 15.
[17] General Eaton, United States Commissioner of Education, in an
educational retrospect in his Report for 1875, speaking of this
college, says:--"The first commencement, in 1700, was a noted event.
Several planters came in their coaches, others in sloops, from New
York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Even Indians had the curiosity to
visit Williamsburgh," the seat of the College.--Page xix.
The Irish Roman Catholic Province of Maryland was not, at least in
purpose, much behind her English sister. In 1671 an Act was passed
by one of the Houses of the Legislature for the establishment of
a School or College, but owing to religious differences the other
House did not concur. In 1692, the Legislature passed an Act for the
encouragement of learning; and in 1696, King William's Free School,
Annapolis (afterwards St. John's College), was established.
New Jersey was one of the colonies which early promoted higher
education by founding the Presbyterian College at Princeton, under
the name of Nassau Hall, in 1746, and the Dutch Reformed College
at New Brunswick (N.J.), under the name of Queen's, now Rutger's
College, in 1770.
The little colony of Rhode Island did not fail in its duty to higher
education, for in 1764 it founded the Rhode Island College, now
Brown University.
The Quaker colony of William Penn, following the example of the
Anglicized Dutch colony of New York, established the University of
Pennsylvania at Philadelphia--the metropolis of the colonies in 1755.
Of these nine ante-revolution Colleges, Harvard, Yale, Columbia
and Princeton maintain an equally high reputation, while Brown
University, the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers, William and
Mary and Dartmouth Colleges are more or less about the average
standard of American Colleges.
Governor Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia, was a graduate of
Oxford. He, with other English University colonists, conceived
the idea of a College for this, the then youngest of the English
colonies. The project of his friend, the Irish Bishop Berkeley, of
Cloyne, of founding a College in the Bermudas having failed, he
secured £10,000 of the Bishop's funds to aid him in his settlement
of the colony. The seed sown by Oglethorpe bore fruit; and while
Georgia was still a colony, provision was made for a generous system
of education.
D. C. Gilman, Esq. (President of the John Hopkins' University,
Baltimore), in his admirable sketch of the growth of education in
the United States during the last century, pays a high tribute to
the nine Colonial Colleges to which we have referred. He says:--
"These nine Colleges were nurseries of virtue, intelligence,
liberality and patriotism, as well as learning; so that when
the revolution began, scores of the most enlightened leaders,
both in council and upon the field (on both sides) were found
among their graduates. The influence of academic culture may be
distinctly traced in the formation of the Constitution of the
United States, and in the political writings of Adams, Hamilton,
Jefferson, Madison, Munroe and many other leading statesmen of
the period. A careful student of American politics has remarked
that nothing more strikingly indicates the education given at
Cambridge than the masterly manner in which different problems
of law and government were handled by those who had received
their instruction only from that source."[18]
[18] In illustrating the fact that college-bred graduates are
considerably less numerous and less conspicuous in the professions
and in political life than were men of a similar education 50 or
100 years ago, Mr. C. K. Adams, in the _North American Review_ for
October, 1875, says that, "of the 56 signers of the Declaration of
Independence, 36 were college-bred, and 15 of the 26 Senators in
the first Congress; while now there are only 7 of the 26 Senators
'college-bred.'" He thinks that the comparison, if extended to the
House of Representatives and the State Legislatures, would be still
less favorable as to the number of college-bred men in these bodies.
Prof. Charles Sprague Smith, A.M., (of Columbia College) in his
essay on _The American University_, read June, 1887, thus refers to
the character of these colonial colleges:--
"In New England the higher system at general education, brought
over from Old England, was divided here, as there, into the
two studies of the College and the Grammar School; the latter
being superceded in quite recent times by the so-called Academy.
The curriculum of the American (or Colonial) College was, in
the main, modelled upon that of the parent country, special
consideration being given to theological science, etc."--Page 13.
A recent American publication on revolutionary topics, thus deals
with the question of the superior education of the British colonists
who formed the first American Congress:--
"An examination of the Continental Congress, composed as it was
of leading men of all the colonies, affords some light upon
the topic of popular education at that period. The Congress,
whose sessions extended through some ten years, comprised in
all some three hundred and fifty members, of whom one-third
were graduates of colleges. A recent writer in one of the most
intelligent and accurate of American journals has[19] taken
pains to collect and array a paragraph of important statistics
upon this subject, which we have taken leave to insert here,
though without verification, that, however, being hardly
necessary for our present purpose.
[19] New York _Evening Post_, January, 1876.
"There were in the Continental Congress during its existence,
350 members, of these 118, or about one-third of the whole,
were graduates from Colleges. Of these, 28 were graduates from
the College of New Jersey in Princeton, 23 from Harvard, 23
from Yale, 11 from William and Mary, 8 from the University of
Pennsylvania, 4 from Columbia College, 1 from Brown University
and 1 from Rutger's College, and 21 were educated in foreign
Universities. These 118 graduates were distributed in the
Colonies as follows:--New Hampshire had 4 College graduates
among her delegates; Massachusetts had 17; Rhode Island had
4 graduates; Connecticut had 18 graduates; New York out
of her large delegation had but 8 graduates; New Jersey
had 11 graduates; Pennsylvania had 13 graduates; Delaware
had 2 graduates; Maryland had 7 graduates; Virginia had 19
graduates; North Carolina had 4 graduates; South Carolina had 7
graduates; Georgia had 5 graduates. We find that Princeton had
representatives from 10 of the colonies; Yale from 6; Harvard
from 5; the University of Pennsylvania from 3; William and Mary
from 2; and Columbia, Brown and Rutger's from 1 each. Fifty-six
delegates signed the Declaration of Independence. Of these, 28,
or just one-half, were College graduates."
Incidentally, and as illustrative of the influence of college-bred
men in the Legislature, Mr. Adams, speaking of the great liberality
of South Carolina in founding a college in that State, says:--
"But no State ever made a better investment. During the first
part of this century the general accomplishments and political
ability of the statesmen of South Carolina were the just pride
of the State, and would have been the pride of any State. In
forming this high standard of intellectual and political power
the influence of the College was immeasurable."--_North American
Review_, January, 1876, pages 215, 216.
It is gratifying to us, British Colonists, and to the descendants
of the U. E. Loyalists, thus to have from so important a source, an
acknowledgment so candid and so honorable to men, many of whom were
the founders of Ontario and the Maritime Provinces of the Dominion.
It is an historical fact of equal significance, and an element of
social and political strength to us in these British provinces,
to know that it was to the thoroughness and breadth of culture
which the American "Revolutionary heroes" received in early days
in British colonial institutions which fitted them afterwards to
take so prominent and effective an intellectual part in the great
struggle which took place when they were in the prime of manhood.
Another gratifying reflection arises out of the fact that the high
place which the United States has taken in later years as a great
educating nation is due to her following out the traditional policy
of the Colonists of ante-revolution times.
This fact is clearly brought out by Mr. Gilman in the _North
American Review_ for January, 1876. We only quote the following
remarks on this point, he says:--
"When the new constitution of Massachusetts was adopted in 1780
public education received full recognition. An article (the
spirit of which was fully in accordance with the legislation
of 1647 [more than 200 years before]) was adopted, and _still
remains the fundamental law of the State_.... The constitution
of New Hampshire, as amended in 1784, transcribes very
nearly the same words of that section of the constitution of
Massachusetts already quoted," etc.--Pages 198, 199.
Thus Andrew Ten-Brook, Esq., in his _American State Universities_,
says:--
"The introduction of an educational system into the New England
Colonies may be deemed substantially contemporaneous with
their settlement. It was of such a character, too, and so
energetically prosecuted, that education suffered little if
any deterioration in passing from Old to New England. It was
even more on this side than the other side of the ocean....
Thus Common School instruction at least was provided for all.
Higher schools, too, had an early beginning. What afterwards
was Harvard College was established but six years after the
settlement of Boston.... Every town [township] of fifty families
was obliged to support a school, and the same general state of
facts existed throughout New England. Classical schools followed
in regular succession. These were modelled after the Grammar
Schools of England, in which the founders of the Colleges had
themselves received their first classical training.... As early
as 1701, the law of Connecticut required every parent to see
that he had no child or apprentice in his household who could
not read the Word of God, and 'the good laws of the colony.'
The system embraced a High School in every town [township] of
seventy families, a Grammar School in the four chief county
towns to fit pupils for college, and a College to which the
general court [Legislature] made an annual appropriation of
£120."--Pages 1-3.
Mr. Ten-Brook, speaking of these New England schools, which were
afterwards transplanted to each of Western States, says:--
"They were the elements of that noble system out of which has
grown the present one, by the natural laws of development,"
etc.--Page 18.
Mr. C. K. Adams, in his interesting paper on State Universities in
the _North American Review_ for October, 1875, in speaking of the
educational policy of the colonies, "pursued up to the time of the
Revolution, says:--
"In general terms it may be stated that, through all the dark
periods of our Colonial history, the encouragement of higher
education was regarded as one of the great interests of the
State. It was no doctrine of the Fathers that higher education
was less entitled to the fostering care of the commonwealth than
was the education offered by the Common Schools."--Page 374.
The "Free School" idea, of which we hear so much as the outgrowth
of "modern American civilization and enlightenment," was due to
Colonial thought and foresight. It was first broached by Jefferson,
three or four years before the treaty with Great Britain was
signed by which the United States became a nation. His plan was so
comprehensive that we reproduce it here. In a letter to the veteran
philosopher, Dr. Priestley, he thus unfolds it:--
"I drew a bill for our [Virginia] Legislature, which proposed
to lay off every county into hundreds, or townships, of five
or six miles square. In the centre of each of them was to be a
free English School [to be supported, as his bill provided, "by
taxation according to property."]
The whole Commonwealth was further laid off into ten districts,
in each of which was to be a college for teaching the languages,
geography, surveying, and other useful things of that grade, and
then a single University for the sciences. It was received with
enthusiasm (he goes on to say), but as he had proposed to make
the Episcopal College of William and Mary the University, "the
dissenters after a while began to apprehend some secret design,"
etc.--_Ten-Brook's American State Universities_, pages 9, 10.
A writer in the _North American Review_ for October, 1875, in
referring to Jefferson's scheme, says:--
"The view entertained by Jefferson was by no means exceptional.
Indeed, a similar spirit had pervaded the whole history of our
Colonial life."--Page 379.
Thus this comprehensive scheme of public instruction for Virginia
unfortunately failed; and that noble "Old Dominion" is in
consequence to-day immeasurably behind even the youngest of her then
New England contemporaries in the matter of public education.
As to the abiding influence of the old Colonial ideas in regard to
higher education, we quote the following additional remarks from Mr.
Gilman, in the _North American Review_, he says:--
"In reviewing the history of the century, it is easy to see
how the colonial notions of college organization have affected
... the higher education of the country, even down to our own
times. The graduates of the older colleges have migrated to the
Western States, and have transplanted with them the college
germs ... and every Western State can bear witness to the zeal
for learning which has been manifested within its borders by
enthusiastic teachers from the East."--Page 217.
Mr. Ten-Brook, in his _American State Universities_, also says:--
"The New England colonists left the mother country in quest
of greater religious freedom. Their religious system was put
first, and carried with it a school system as perfect in
organization, and administered with equal vigor. This formed an
active leaven, which, at a later day, was to spread to other
parts.... Everywhere there was a considerable infusion of men
who had received in the European universities a liberal culture,
which they desired to reproduce on those shores. Early action
was full of promise. Probably, at a period from just before
the Revolution to the end of it, the average position of the
colonies in regard to lighter education relatively as to age,
and to the population and wealth, was quite as good as it is at
the present time."--Pages 16, 17.
This opinion of the writer is a virtual admission that in reality
higher education in the United States has not advanced in quality,
though it has in quantity. To be in 1876 merely where education
was "relatively" in 1776, is no advance at all, but rather
retrogression. The cause of this declension, the writer thus
incidentally admits:--
"Most of the colonies established, or aided, the
(ante-revolution colleges named). The principle of the State
support to higher learning was not merely accepted, but was the
prevalent one."--Page 17.
Mr. Gilman, President of the Johns Hopkins' University, touching on
the same point, says:--
"There was a civil as well as an ecclesiastical element in
most of these foundations. Harvard and Yale were chartered,
and, to some extent, controlled by colonial government of
Massachusetts and Connecticut, and were for a long time nurtured
by appropriations from the public chest....--Page 215.
"These institutions were colleges of an English parentage and
model, not Scotch nor continental universities.... They were
disciplinary in their aim, and had more regard for the general
culture of large numbers, than for the advanced and special
instruction of the chosen few. They were also, to a considerable
extent, ecclesiastical foundations--finding the churches and
ministers their constant, and sometimes their only efficient
supporters. Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth were controlled by the
Congregationalists; Princeton was founded by the Presbyterians;
and New Brunswick, N.J. (Queen's, now Rutgers) by the Dutch
Reformed; William and Mary was emphatically a child of the
Church of England; and King's College (now Brown University) was
under the patronage of the Baptists....
"The declaration of the original supporters of these colleges
indicate a desire to train up young men for service of the
State, not less distinctly and emphatically than to desire to
provide an educated ministry. Individual aid was also expected
and invited, and the names of Harvard and Yale perpetuate the
remembrance of such generous gifts."
Then follows a eulogy upon these colonial colleges, and a tribute to
the intellectual vitality of their teaching, as shown in the mental
equipment and breadth of culture exhibited by men who took part in
the perilous and stormy times of the American revolution. To this we
have already referred. Mr. Gilman, in following up his remarks in
the extract which we have just given, says:--
"Hence these nine colleges were nurseries of virtue,
intelligence, liberality and patriotism, as well as of learning;
so that when the revolution began, scores of enlightened
leaders, both in council and in the field (and on both
sides), were found among their graduates. The influence of
academic culture may be distinctly traced in the formation of
the Constitution of the United States, and in the political
writings of Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Munroe, and many other
leading statesman of the period. A careful student of American
politics has remarked that nothing more strikingly indicates the
influence of the education given at Harvard, 'than the masterly
manner in which difficult problems of law and government were
handled by those who had received their instruction only from
that source.'"--Pages 215, 216.
THE UNITED EMPIRE LOYALIST PERIOD IN UPPER CANADA.
We might pursue this branch of our subject further, were it
desirable. But that is not necessary. Our object was to show that
to British Colonial foresight, zeal, and self-sacrifice, was due,
not only the foundation of the best colleges and universities on the
continent, but the introduction and diffusion of the principle of
"free and universal education for the masses of the people." This
we have done on the authority of American writers themselves. We
might multiply examples on the subject; but the fact is already
sufficiently established. We should rather seek to draw lessons of
instruction from the noble example of the devotion to education on
the part of our British colonial progenitors, whose descendants have
shed such a lustre of heroic self-sacrifice and patriotism on the
history and exploits of the United Empire Loyalists of the thirteen
colonies. To the Americans they have left a rich legacy from the
colonial times in such universities as Harvard, Yale, Columbia and
Princeton--of which the descendants of the expatriated Loyalists,
no less than those of the victorious revolutionists, are so justly
proud. Let us, as worthy representatives of these clear-headed and
far-seeing Loyalists, bequeath to our children as noble a heritage
as the fathers of the founders of this Province did to New England,
and indeed to the whole Republic.
Trained in such an educational school, and animated with the
educational zeal of these old colonial times, the "United Empire
Loyalists" brought with them into Canada their love for education
and their devotion to the sovereign.
In order to keep up the historical sequence of this Retrospect, I
shall now refer to the early beginning of Educational life in Upper
Canada, and then take up the thread of the narrative at the point
where the educational forces--afterwards directed by the Rev. Dr.
Strachan and the Rev. Dr. Ryerson--took practical form and shape.
(See page 59.)
GOVERNOR SIMCOE'S EDUCATIONAL VIEWS IN 1795.
Lieutenant-General J. Graves Simcoe, the first Governor of Upper
Canada, arrived here in 1792. He was a man of comprehensive
views and noble impulses in regard to university education.
He was educated at Eton College and partly at Merton College,
Oxford, but entered the army before taking his degree. He served
with distinction under Wolfe at Quebec, and during the American
revolutionary war.
In April, 1795, Governor Simcoe addressed a letter to the Protestant
Episcopal Bishop of Quebec.[20] In that letter Governor Simcoe uses
the following striking language in describing the social condition
of the people in the rural parts of Upper Canada, and the utter
absence of schools and churches, as contrasted with their existence
on the United States side of the lines. He said:--
"There was nothing, in my late progress, that has given my equal
uneasiness with the general application of all ranks of the most
loyal inhabitants of the Province, that I would obtain for them
churches and ministers. They say that the rising generation
(of the U. E. Loyalist settlers) is rapidly returning into
barbarism. They state that the Sabbath, so wisely set apart for
devotion, is literally unknown to their children, who are busily
employed in searching for amusements in which they may consume
the day. And it is of serious consideration that on the approach
of the settlements of the United States, particularly on the
St. Lawrence frontier, these people, who, by experience, have
found that schools and churches are essential to their rapid
establishment (as a nation), may probably allure many of our
most respectable settlers to emigrate to them, while in this
respect we suffer a disgraceful deficiency."
[20] For fuller details on this point, see the section on the
universities, page 61.
The remedy which Governor Simcoe suggested for the state of things
which he so graphically described is thus set forth in the same
letter to the Bishop of Quebec. It was, as will be seen, entirely
general in its character:--
"Nothing has happened since I left England, in the least, to
invalidate, to my own conception, the policy of the measure I
then proposed. And as far as may be now in the power of His
Majesty's ministers, I most earnestly hope that what remains to
be effected--that is by giving the means of proper education in
this Province, both in its rudiments and in its completion, that
from ourselves we may raise up a loyal, and, in due progress, a
learned clergy."
EARLY BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION IN UPPER CANADA, 1785-1805.
A few particulars as to the kind of schools which existed in Upper
Canada before and after the date of this letter may be interesting.
For instance, the first school opened (so far as I have been able
to learn) was by the Rev. Dr. John Stuart, a Protestant Episcopal
clergyman, and a United Empire Loyalist, who had been chaplain to
the provincial volunteers, and came into Upper Canada with them as a
refugee.[21]
[21] Rev. John Stuart. D.D., was born in Virginia in 1736. In 1769
he went to England to be ordained, and returned to Philadelphia in
1770. For seven years he labored as a missionary among the Iroquois
Indians at Fort Hunter. He was then aided by the famous Brant in
translating the New Testament into Mohawk. In 1781 he came to Upper
Canada and labored in this province as a missionary among the
refugee loyalists and Iroquois. He subsequently became rector of
Cataraqui (Kingston), and chaplain to the Legislative Council. He
died in 1811, aged 75 years. One of his sons was the late Archdeacon
Stuart, of Kingston; another was the late chief Justice, Sir James
Stuart of Quebec.
In the year 1785 Dr. Stuart opened a select classical school at
Cataraqui, (Kingston); and a Mr. Donovan taught the Garrison school
there. In 1786, Mr. J. Clarke taught a school in Frederickburg,
and Mr. Smith one in Ernestown. In 1789, Mr Lyons kept school in
Adolphustown. In the same year, Deacon Trayes, a Baptist, opened
one at Port Rowan. In 1792, Rev. Mr. Addison, an Episcopalian,
opened a school at Newark (Niagara), then the seat of government.
In 1794, the Rev. Mr. Burns, a Presbyterian, (father of the late
Judge Burns) opened a school at the same place; and in 1796, Mr.
Richard Cockrel opened an evening school in Newark; Mr. Cockrel
shortly afterwards transferred his school to the Rev. Mr. Arthur
and removed to Ancaster, where he opened another school. A notice
in the _York Gazette_ in 1796 stated that "as schools were now
opened, ignorance would be no longer tolerated." In 1797, Mr. James
Blayney opened a school at Niagara. In 1798, Mr. Wm. Cooper opened
a school in George St., little York, (Toronto). In 1800, the late
Bishop Strachan opened a private school at Kingston, and in 1804,
one at Cornwall. In 1802, Mr. and Mrs. Tyler opened a school near
Niagara; and in the same year, Dr. Baldwin, (father of the late Hon.
Robert Baldwin) opened a classical school at York, and in 1803, the
first school in Prince Edward district was opened at "High Shore,"
Sophiasburgh; another at "Grassy Point," was taught by John James.
Rev. Wm. Wright, (Presbyterian) kept the first school at Meyer's
Creek, (Belleville) in 1805. He was followed by Mr. Leslie. In that
year, Rev. Mr. Strachan held the first public examination of his
school at Cornwall.
STATE OF EDUCATION IN UPPER CANADA, 1795-1799.
As to the actual state of education in Upper Canada at this time, we
get a brief glimpse from the travels of the Duc de la Rochefoucauld,
who visited Kingston in July, 1795. He says:--
"In this district there are some schools, but they are few in
number. The children are instructed in reading and writing, and
pay each a dollar a month. One of the masters taught Latin, but
he has left, without being succeeded by another instructor in
the same language."
As to the character of the private schools thus established, and the
facilities of education which they afforded, we learn incidentally
from letters and early books of travel, what they were. In a "_Tour
through Upper Canada, by a Citizen of the United States_," published
in 1799, we learn that the policy of the government of that day, was
to exclude "schoolmasters from the States, lest they should instil
Republicanism into the tender minds of the youth of the province."
FIRST OFFICIAL EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENTS IN UPPER CANADA, 1797, 1798.
As the result of the correspondence between the Governor and Bishop
Mountain, the question of a University and free grammar schools was
discussed. The Governor referred the matter to the Upper Canada
Legislature, which, in 1797 memorialized King George III, soliciting
a grant of land for the endowment of a grammar school in each
district, and a University for the whole Province. To this request
the King gave his assent, and, in 1798, the "chief civil officers"
in Upper Canada recommended that "500,000 acres of land be set apart
for the establishment of a grammar school in each district and a
central University for the whole Province." They also recommended
a grant for the erection of a "plain but solid and substantial
building for a grammar school in each district, containing a school
room capable of holding 100 boys without danger to their health
from too many being crowded together, and also a set of apartments
for the master, large enough for his family and from ten to twenty
boarders."
The salaries proposed to be given were: £100 for the head master,
£50 for the assistant master; and £30 for repairs, etc., Kingston
and Newark (Niagara) were recommended as eligible sites for schools;
after which, when the funds were sufficient, schools were to be
established at Cornwall and Sandwich. York (Toronto) was recommended
as entitled to the University, and for the establishment and support
of which a sum at least equal to that granted to the four schools
was named.
In 1799, an act was passed by the Upper Canada Legislature "to
provide for the education and support of orphan children."
It authorized the township wardens, with the consent of two
magistrates, to bind and apprentice, until they became of age,
children deserted by their parents. In the same year an orphan
school was opened near St. Catherines.
EDUCATIONAL PIONEERS IN UPPER CANADA.
Governor Simcoe authorized the Hon. Messrs. Cartwright and Hamilton,
to select a person to take charge of the proposed college. The
celebrated Rev. Dr. Chalmers having declined the appointment, it was
accepted by Mr. (late the Right Reverend Doctor) Strachan (Bishop of
Toronto) then a schoolmaster at Kettle, Scotland; but his arrival at
Kingston, on the 31st of December, 1799, he found that the project
of a college had been abandoned, Governor Simcoe, in the meantime,
having left for England.
It was soon discovered that half a million of acres of land would
endow but few grammar schools, land being then only worth a shilling
per acre: the schema had, therefore, to be abandoned. Meanwhile
the Hon. Mr. Cartwright made an arrangement with Mr. Strachan to
instruct his sons, and a select number of pupils for three years. In
1804, Mr. Strachan, having been ordained, removed to the mission of
Cornwall, where, at the request of the parents of his former pupils,
he opened a private school.
For several years this school was the only one of any note in
Upper Canada; and in it and in Mr. Strachan's school at York, were
educated many of those gentlemen who have filled some of the most
important positions in the province. Subsequently Mr. Strachan's
school was constituted the grammar school of the Eastern district.
In 1806, a temporary act was passed by the Legislature and made
permanent in 1808, establishing a classical and mathematical school
in each of the eight districts into which Upper Canada was then
divided. In the same year(1806) at the suggestion of Dr. Strachan
an Act was passed, granting £400 for the purchase of apparatus for
illustrating the principles of Natural Philosophy, which were to be
deposited in the hands of a person employed in the instruction of
youth. In 1807 an appropriation of £800 a year for four years was
made to provide for the salaries of masters in the Grammar Schools
to be maintained in each of the districts into which Upper Canada
was divided. These masters were to be engaged by trustees appointed
by the governor, and the governor's sanction was also necessary for
the teacher's appointment. There is still in existence the letter,
dated, April 16th, 1807, signed by Governor Gore, appointing the
Rev. George Okill Stewart, D.D., Archdeacon of Kingston, first Head
Master of the Home District Grammar School at York (Toronto).
North of what is now Adelaide Street (formerly Newgate Street),
bounded westward by Church Street, and eastward by Jarvis Street,
was a large field, almost square, containing about six acres--for
many years the playground of the District Grammar School.
In the south-west corner of it, some hundred feet or more from the
street boundaries, was elected the plain wooden building, about
fifty-five feet long by forty wide in which, on the first Monday
of June, 1807, when the population of the town was only about five
hundred, the Grammar School was opened. It was attended by the sons
and daughters of the well-to-do citizens of York, and on the few
existing records may be found many a well known name.
In 1812, the Rev. John Strachan. D.D., was appointed Rector of
York, and succeeded the Rev. Mr. Stewart as Head Master of this
school.[22] Mr. Barnabas Bidwell (father of the late Hon. M. S.
Bidwell) kept a good Latin School at Bath, on the Bay of Quinté, in
1811. In 1813, he removed to Kingston, where he taught for twenty
years until he died in 1833.
[22] _Canadian Educational Monthly_, February 1889, page 58.
In 1820, the "Central School at York" was opened under the
mastership of Mr. Joseph Spragge, father of the late Chief Justice
Spragge. Lieutenant-Governor and Lady Sarah Maitland took a special
interest in the success of this school.
In a _View of Upper Canada_, published at Baltimore in 1814, by Mr.
M. Smith, (who resided in the Province from 1808 until the breaking
out of the War in 1812) he said:--
"The greater part of the inhabitants are not well educated,
for, as they were poor when they came to the Province and the
country being but thinly settled for a number of years, they
had but little chance for the benefit of schools. But since the
country has become settled, or the inhabitants rich, or in a
good way of living, which is almost universally the case, they
pay considerable attention to learning. Ten dollars a year is
the common price given for the tuition of each scholar by good
teachers."--Page 52.
In 1813, Rev. John Langhorn (a Church of England missionary at
Earnestown and Bath from 1787 to 1812, and teacher of a school)
made a present of his library to the inhabitants of the Bay of
Quinte district. In 1814 Rev. Robert Baldwin was appointed Grammar
schoolmaster at Cornwall, vice Rev. John (afterwards Dean) Bethune
resigned. In 1815 the Midland District School, so-called, was
incorporated.
Dr. Strachan resigned the head mastership of the District School
on July 1st, 1823. He was succeeded by Mr. Samuel Armour, M.A., a
graduate of Glasgow University, who afterwards became a clergyman
of the English Church, and officiated many years in the township of
Cavan.
The Rev. Thomas Phillips, D.D., an accomplished scholar, came out
from England in 1825 to take charge of the school, and remained in
the position of headmaster, much honored and beloved by his pupils,
until, in 1830, chiefly by the exertions of the Governor, Sir John
Colborne, Upper Canada College was established and the work of the
college began in the old District Grammar School building. Classes
were opened in the new buildings erected in another part of the
city for the college in 1831, and the Grammar School was closed,
the building being removed from its original site to the line of
Nelson street (now Jarvis street), and fenced into a plot about 70 ×
120 feet. The remaining portion of the six acres was handed over to
Upper Canada College.
On the active remonstrance of the citizens living in the eastern
part of Toronto, the school was re-opened and secured to the city,
Mr. Charles N. B. Cosens being appointed headmaster in 1836, and
succeeded by Mr. Marcus C. Crombie in 1838.[23]
[23] _Ibid._, page 59.
EARLY EFFORTS TO ESTABLISH COMMON SCHOOLS 1816-1820.
In 1816, seven years after the establishment of District Grammar
Schools, a praiseworthy effort was made to provide for the
establishment and maintenance of common schools."[24] A liberal
grant of $24,000 a year, for four years, was made as an experiment.
Whether the experiment was a success, or not, does not appear, but
in 1820, the grant was reduced to $10,000 a year.
[24] In 1816, an Act was passed granting £800 for the purchase
of a library for the use of the Legislative Council and house of
Assembly.
STATE OF EDUCATION IN UPPER CANADA, 1784-1819.
In regard to the state of education of Upper Canada in 1817, and
the fluctuating character of its progress since the settlement of
the Province, in 1784, up to that time, Mr. Gourlay, a well-known
Canadian politician and author, writes as follows:--
"There is no college in Upper Canada, but there are said to be
several townships of land set apart for the purpose of endowing
such institution, when the population and circumstances of the
Province shall require it.
"No provision is made by law for free schools. The inhabitants
of the severe! townships are left to a voluntary support of
schools, according to their own discretion.
"An Act of the Provincial Legislature, in 1807, granted a
hundred pounds a year to the teacher of one school, in each
of the eight districts under the direction of trustees. In
some districts the school thus provided for is made a free
school; but in other districts the salary is considered as a
public encouragement to a teacher of literary eminence, in
addition to the compensation received for the tuition of each
scholar."--_Statistical Account of Upper Canada, etc., by Robert
Gourlay, 2 vols., London, 1822._
The Rev. Dr. Strachan became a master of one of these schools, and
Rev. George Ryerson and his brother, Egerton, master and usher of
another.
As to the state of feeling in the rural parts of the oldest settled
portions of Upper Canada, we make the following extracts from a
letter written to Mr. Gourlay from the township of Grimsby, in 1818,
by a highly respected resident there, William Crooks, Esq. Mr.
Crooks remarks:--
"The state of education is at a very low ebb, not only in the
township, but generally throughout the [Niagara] district;
although the liberality of the legislature has been great in
support of the district (Grammar) schools, (giving to the
teachers of each £100 per annum), yet they have been productive
of little or no good hitherto, for this obvious cause, they
are looked upon as seminaries exclusively instituted for the
education of the children of the more wealthy classes of
society, and to which the poor man's child is considered as
unfit to be admitted. From such causes, instead of their being
a benefit to the Province, they are sunk into obscurity, and
the heads of most of them are at this moment enjoying their
situations as comfortable sinecures. Another class of schools
has, within a short time, been likewise founded upon the
liberality of the legislative purse, denominated common, or
parish, schools, but like the preceding, the anxiety of the
teacher employed, seems more alive to his stipend than the
advancement of the education of those placed under his care:
from the pecuniary advantages thus held out, we have been
inundated with the worthless scum, under the character of school
masters, not only of this, but of every other country where
the knowledge has been promulgated, of the easy means our laws
afford of getting a living here, by obtaining a parish school,
which is done upon the recommendation of some few freeholders,
getting his salary from the public, and making his employers
contribute handsomely beside.
"It is true, rules are laid down for their government, and the
proper books prescribed for their use; but scarcely in one case
in ten are they adhered to, for in the same class you will
frequently see one child with Noah Webster's spelling book in
this hand, and the next with Lindley Murray's. However prone
the teachers are to variety in their schools, much blame is to
be attributed to the trustees, who are in many instances too
careless and I might almost add too ignorant to discriminate
right from wrong, in the trust they have undertaken for the
public benefit. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at why
the parish school system should meet with almost universal
reprobation from most discerning men.
"Of these parish schools, we are burdened with a liberal share,
having no less than three of them. If the establishment of this
system was meant by the legislature to abbreviate the present
enormous price of education, they have been miserably deceived;
for I can see no alteration or reduction from the charge made
before the passing of the act. The price then was 12_s._ 6_d._
[_i.e._ $2.50,] and is now the same, per quarter."
In July, 1819, provisions was made for an additional district
grammar school; for holding annual public examinations; for
reporting the condition of the schools to the governor, and for
educating ten common school pupils, free of charge, at each of the
nine public grammar schools already established; but the provincial
allowance to teachers of grammar schools was reduced to £50 in all
cases where the numbers of pupils did not exceed ten.
FITFUL EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS FROM 1822 TO 1829.
In 1822, Sir Peregrine Maitland, the Lieutenant-Governor, submitted
to the Imperial Government a plan for organizing a general system of
education, including elementary schools; and, in 1823, he obtained
permission from England to establish a Board of Education for
the general superintendence of this system of education, and for
the management of the university and school lands throughout the
Province. The members of this Board, with Rev. Dr. Strachan at its
head, as chairman, were: Hon. Joseph Wells, Hon. G. H. Markland,
Rev. Robert Addison, Hon. J. B. Robinson, and Thomas Ridout, Esq.
This Board prepared some general regulations in regard to the
schools and proposed a plan by which to exchange 225,944 acres of
the less valuable of the school lands for the more productive
Clergy Reserve lands. The plan having been approved by the Home
Government, was carried into effect by the Governor soon after. In
1824, the first attempts towards providing the public with general
reading books, in connection with the Common and Sunday schools,
were made. The sum of £150 was annually appropriated for this
object, and authorized to be expended by the Provincial Board of
Education in the purchase of "books and tracts designed to afford
moral and religions instruction," and distributed equally among all
the districts of Upper Canada.
Thus were presented the dim outlines of a system of public
instruction which it was clear the necessities of the country
required, but which for want of a vigorous and systematic
supervision was gradually permitted to languish, and the legislative
enactments themselves were suffered to become almost obsolete on the
statute book.
In January, 1824, the Common School Act was made to apply "to all
schools that are now or may hereafter be established and kept among
the Indians who shall be resident within the limits of any organized
county or township within this Province, excepting such schools as
shall or may be otherwise provided for."[25] Provision was also made
for the examination of Common School teachers by County Boards of
Education.
[25] All the Indian schools of the Province, which are chiefly
sustained by various religious bodies are now under the control
of the Indian Department at Ottawa. The following is an account
of a typical Indian school at the Credit in 1830: The school room
in a large and commodious apartment with tiers of raised benches
in the rear: on one division of which sit the girls, and the boys
on the other. There are also desks, and slates for ciphering and
copy-books and copper-plate lines for whose who write. The Bible
and Testaments, and some of the other books, are English printed
and some American. No sectarian intolerance prevails in that way.
Among the school furniture are a handsome map of the world, the
arithmecon, attractive alphabets in pasteboard, regular figures
illustrative of geometry, some of them cut out of wood and some
of them made of pasteboard: the picture of Elijah fed by ravens,
figures of birds, fishes and quadrupeds on pasteboard, coloured,
accompanied with the history of each animal: the figure of a clock
in pasteboard, by which to explain the principles of the time-piece.
The walls are adorned with good, moral maxims; and I perceived that
one of the rules was rather novel, though doubtful in place here. It
was, "No blankets to be worn in school." The attendance is about 50
Indian children. The girls are taught by Miss Rolph, sister of the
late Member of Middlesex: the boys by Mr. Edwy Ryerson, a younger
brother of the late editor of the _Christian Guardian_, Rev. Egerton
Ryerson. The translating office is occupied by Mr. Peter Jones, the
Indian minister.
STATE OF EDUCATION IN UPPER CANADA, 1827-1829, FROM THE OFFICIAL
REPORTS, ETC.
The number and condition of the Common and other schools in Upper
Canada in 1827 may be gathered from "An appeal to the Friends of
Religion, and Literature, in behalf of the University of Upper
Canada," published in London in 1827 (of which I have an original
MS. copy). Dr. Strachan says:--
_School in Upper Canada, 1827._--"In about 340 Common Schools
in Upper Canada from 12,000 to 14,000 children are taught
reading and writing, the elements of arithmetic, and the first
principles of religion. The people, scattered as they are
over a vast wilderness, are thus becoming alive to the great
advantage of educating their children ... insomuch so, that
schools supported by subscriptions are more in number than
those established by law. Provision is made by statute for the
translation of some of the more promising scholars from the
Common to the District Schools, where the classics and practical
mathematics are taught. In these schools (eleven in number)
there are at present 300 young men acquiring an education to
qualify them for the different professions....
_Niagara District Board of Education, 1828._--"It must be
admitted generally that after the approval and appointment of
teachers by the Trustees the Board have not rejected teachers
however incompetent, from a regards to the wishes of their
employers, the terms for tuition being so very low as not to
induce men of sufficient qualifications generally to engage in
the humble and ill-requited duties.
Reading, writing and arithmetic have been uniformly taught
in all schools. Grammar and geography in a few. Religious
instruction has not been overlooked. Upon the whole, the system
of education in this district may be considered as efficient as
can be expected upon the footing on which it is placed."--_Rev.
Thomas Creen._
_Provincial Board of Education, 1828._--The number of District
Grammar Schools in operation in the Province is 11; pupils in
attendance, 372. Number of Common Schools, 401; number of pupils
in attendance, 10,712--increase over 1827 of nearly 2,000 pupils.
The President of the Board (Rev. Dr. Strachan) last summer
visited in person all the districts of the Province, and not
only inspected the grammar schools, but examined minutely the
systems of management adopted by their respective teachers.
In order to produce a greater uniformity of the system to
supply, in some measure, the want of experience to younger
teachers, the President has submitted an outline of study for
the grammar schools, the adoption of which, the board cannot but
think would be highly beneficial, and produce a higher standard
of education throughout the Province.[26]
[26] This course of study is appended herewith on the next page.
In some places girls are admitted to the district schools,
for want of good female schools, but the admission of female
children interferes with the government which is required in
classical seminaries.
In a population of nearly 200,000, at least one-fifth, or
40,000, is composed of children between the ages of 5 and 15
who should be going to school. Taking the number of those who
are benefited in the Common and Sunday schools at 15,000, then
the expense to the Province is about 3_s._ 9_d._ each. In
some districts the salaries allowed to the schoolmasters of
the Common Schools are exceedingly small. They range from £12
10_s._ downwards. In some little more than £5, and in one less
than that trifling sum. Many schools continue only six months;
others eight months in the year. The natural consequence of this
state of things is that superior teachers desert the Common
Schools as soon as they can procure any other employment, and
many persons resort to the occupation of teachers merely as a
temporary expedient. These latter are without experience, which
is all-important to an instructor of youth and can have little
desire to establish a reputation in an employment to which they
have only recourse for present convenience.
In the sister Colony of Nova Scotia, the sum of £1,000 is
annually appropriated to the Common Schools and divided among 12
counties, not equally, but in proportion to population. One law,
by giving the same sum to each district, whether populous or
not, in that particular requires alteration.
The Board would submit that in addition to the public allowance,
a power should be given to the townships to assess themselves
for the schools. In Nova Scotia it is provided in the statute
that two-thirds of the freeholders may, under certain
conditions, tax themselves according to their ability for the
support of education, and that no school of 30 scholars shall
be entitled to the stipulated aid of £20, unless the teacher
receives _bona fide_ from his employers £10, together with this
sum, exclusive of and in addition to board, etc.; and that no
school of 15 scholars shall be entitled to the stipulated sum of
£15 unless the teacher receives from his employers £25 per annum
as aforesaid. The Board had distributed to the Common Schools a
large quantity of useful school books including Mavor's Spelling
Book. They have also contracted for 2,000 copies of this
excellent work to be executed on cards for the township schools.
There appears to be a great scarcity of arithmetic books in
the Province, and those in use are in general too difficult
or deficient in matter, etc. The President has, therefore,
undertaken to draw up a short manual on the subject, suitable to
the state and business of the country.
Neither the sick nor the destitute have higher claims upon the
public than the ignorant. The want of knowledge brings all other
wants in its train; and if education be regarded as a charity,
it is a charity of which the blessings are without alloy. It
demands no jealous scrutiny of the claims of its applicants,
nor does it require to be so stinted as not to multiply their
number.--_Rev. John Strachan, President, York, 5th February,
1829._
* * * * *
_Midland District Grammar School, 1829._--It is to be lamented
that so few of the wealthy farmers of the Midland District
avail themselves of the means of giving their sons that degree
of education which the public school can readily afford, which
would qualify young persons to discharge the duties of the
magistracy and other public situations with credit to themselves.
The trustees regret that no poor children are educated gratis
under the patriotic and very benevolent provision of the
statute, in consequence of no returns being made to them of the
most promising scholars from the Common School. The trustees,
therefore, submit, whether in order to encourage native genius
in humble circumstances, some means might not be devised of
maintaining all the 10 children whom the statute authorizes the
trustee to select for gratuitous instruction.--_Rev. George
O'Kill Stuart, Thomas Markland and John Macaulay, Kingston,
December 30th, 1829._
* * * * *
NOTE.--The local reports for the succeeding year are chiefly
statistical and explanatory and contain no general remarks. From
a report signed by the Rev. Dr. Strachan and Hon. Wm. Allan in
1839, it would appear that things had for years remained in
_statu quo_. They say:--
"For many years elaborate reports were sent from this (Home
District) Board of Education detailing what were believed to be
the alterations necessary to render the present Common School
Act efficient. In consequence of these, and like reports from
other districts, a measure for the establishment of such schools
has been for more than six years before the Legislature, which
purposes to provide remedies for the defects which are met with
in the working of the present system."
COURSE OF STUDY SUGGESTED BY REV. DR. STRACHAN AS SUITABLE FOR THE
DISTRICT GRAMMAR SCHOOLS THROUGHOUT THE PROVINCE, 1829.
In a "letter from the Rev. Dr. Strachan to Rev. A. N. Bethune,
Rector of Cobourg," dated October 6th, 1829, he thus sketched a
course of study for Grammar Schools:
_First Year--Boys from 7 to 9._
1st. _Latin._--Eton Grammar; Vocabulary; Corderius; Selectæ e
Profanis.
2nd. _English._--Mavor's Spelling Book; Enfield's Lessons; Walker's
Lessons; Murray's Lessons; Blair's Class Book; English Grammar;
Writing; Arithmetic, chiefly mental.
_Second Year--Boys from 9 to 11._
1st. _Latin._--Grammar; Valpy's Delectas; New Testament; Daley's
Exercises; Exampla Minora; Entropius; Phædrus; Cornelius Nepos.
2nd. _English._--Grammar and Reading, as before; Writing and
Arithmetic (mental and mixed); Geography; Civil and Natural History
and Elocution.
3rd.--To commence French.
_Third Year--Boys from 11 to 13._
1st. _Latin_--Grammar; Bailey's Exercises; Cornelius Nepos; Cæsar;
Ovid's Metamorphoses; Nonsense Verses; Psalms into Latin Verse;
Exampla Moralis; Versions or rendering English into Latin.
2nd. _Greek_--To commence about the middle of the third year: Eton
Grammar, or Nelson's edition of Moore's Grammar; Greek Vocabulary;
New Testament; Greek Exercises.
3rd. _English._--Grammar; Writing; Elocution; Civil and Natural
History; Geography, Ancient and Modern; English Composition.
4th. _Arithmetic._--And to commence Algebra.
5th. _French._
_Fourth Year--Boys from 12 to 14._
1st. _Latin._--Grammar; Terence Virgil; Horace; Sallust; Cicero;
Livy; Latin composition, verse and prose; Grotius de Veritate
Exampla Moralia.
2nd. _Greek._--Eton Grammar; Græca Minora; Greek and Latin
Testament; Xenophon; Homer.
3rd. _English._--Grammar and Composition; Civil and Natural History;
Geography, Ancient and Modern, use of the globes; construction of
maps.
4th. _Mathematics._--Arithmetic; Book-keeping; Algebra; Euclid.
5th. _French._
_Fifth Year--Boys from 14 to 16._
1st. _Latin._--Virgil; Horace; Livy, Juvenal; Tacitus; Composition,
in prose and verse.
2nd. _Greek._--Græca Majora; Homer; Thucidides; Composition, in
prose and verse.
3rd. _English._--Grammar and Composition; Elocution; Civil and
Natural History; Geography, Ancient and Modern; use of the globes;
construction of maps.
4th. _Mathematics._--Algebra; Euclid; Trigonometry, Application to
heights and distances; Surveying; Navigation; Dialling; Elements of
Astronomy, etc.
5th. _French._
REV. DR. STRACHAN'S SYSTEM OF SCHOOL MANAGEMENT.
Rev. Dr. Scadding, in his sketch of Dr. Strachan, "The first Bishop
of Toronto--a Review and a Study," says:
"The system pursued in Dr. Stachan's school at Cornwall and
afterwards at York, exhibited features that would have gratified
the advanced educationists of the present age. In that system
the practical and the useful were by no means sacrificed to the
ornamental and theoretical, or the merely conventional. Things
were regarded as well as words.... In regard to things--the
science of common objects--we doubt if in the most complete of
our modern schools there was ever awakened a greater interest
or intelligence in relation to such matters. Who, that had once
participated in the excitement of its natural history class,
ever forgot it? Or in that of the historical or geographical
exercises? We venture to think that, in many an instance, the
fullest experience of after life, in travel or otherwise, had
often their associations with ideas awakened then; and often
compared satisfactorily and pleasurably with the pictures of
places, animals and persons given, rudely it may be, in text
books, ransacked and conned in a fervour of emulation then.
The manner of study in these subjects was this: each lad was
required to prepare a set of questions, to be put by himself
to his fellows in the class. If a reply was not forthcoming,
and the information furnished by the questioner was judged
correct the latter 'went up' and took the place of the other.
This process, besides being instructive and stimulating to the
pupils, possessed the advantage of being, as it often proved,
highly diverting to the teacher."
On this system Dr. Strachan himself remarks:
"The method of instruction by question and answer possesses
many advantages over any other, and is not only the very best
and shortest, but the most satisfactory. In this system the
deficiencies of each scholar becomes manifest, and the teacher
knows to what particular points he must direct his explanations.
There is no time for inattention or wandering; the question
and necessity for reply compel attention and recollection. The
children, if the teacher proceed with conciliatory firmness,
acquire lively interest in the lesson, for each is particularly
addressed and brought forward with action."[27]
[27] The _Christian Recorder_, edited by Rev. Dr. Strachan, York,
1830, vol. 1, page 182.
The late Bishop Fuller, who was also one of Dr. Strachan's pupils,
also states that:--
"He had a remarkable talent for interesting boys in their work;
and, by taking a deep interest in it himself, he led them to
do the same. He was very original in many of his plans for
promoting the good of his school. Amongst others, which I never
met with elsewhere, was one of making the boys question one
another on certain of the lessons. This made the boys quick at
seizing on the leading points in the lessons, ready at shaping
questions, and deeply interested in the questions and answers.
The Bishop took as deep an interest in the questioning and
answering of the boys as they did themselves; and thus this
plan, whilst it was of great service to the boys in various
ways, tended strongly to bind master and scholars together."[28]
[28] Sermon on the Death of Bishop Strachan, _Journal of Education_
for U. C., vol. xx. (1868), page 182.
As to his method of teaching arithmetic, he explains it in the
following words:
"In a new country like this, a variety of branches must be
taught in every respectable school. Young men ... are anxious
to get forward as fast as possible, and even those destined for
the learned professions are seldom allowed the time requisite
for acquiring the knowledge previously necessary. These
considerations induced me to turn my thoughts to the discovery
of some sure, and at the same time, expeditious method of
teaching arithmetic. This object I have accomplished with a much
greater degree of success than I dared to promise myself.
"I divide my pupils into separate classes according to their
progress. Each class has one or more sums to produce every
day, neatly wrought upon their slates. The work is carefully
examined, after which I command every figure to be blotted out,
and the sums to be wrought under my eye. The one whom I happen
to pitch upon first gives, with an audible voice, the rules and
reasons for every step, and as he proceeds the rest silently
work along with him figure for figure, but ready to correct him
if he blunder that they may get his place. As soon as this one
is finished, the work is again blotted out and another called
upon to work the question aloud as before, while the rest
proceed along with him in silence, and so on round the whole
class.... This method of teaching arithmetic possesses this
important advantage, that it may be pursued without interrupting
the pupils' progress in any other useful study. The same
method of teaching Algebra has been used with equal success.
Such a plan is certainly very laborious, but it will be found
successful, _and he that is anxious to spare labor ought not to
be a public teacher_."[29]
[29] Preface to "A Concise Introduction to Practical Arithmetic, for
the use of Schools: By the Rev. John Strachan, Montreal. Printed by
Nahum Mower, 1809."
Desiring to give a local interest to the exercises in his book,
Dr. Strachan gave several examples from Canadian subjects. Thus a
question is addition reads:--
"From Quebec to Montreal is 180 miles--from thence to Kingston
200--from thence to York 149--from thence to Niagara 78
miles--from thence to Detroit, 210. Required the distance from
Quebec to Detroit. _Answer_--317 miles."
Again a question in multiplication reads:--
"The distance from Quebec to Montreal is 180 miles, supposing
the road 17 yards broad, how many square yards does it contain?
_Answer_--5,385,600 yards."
As to his diligence as a student, while yet a teacher. Dr. Fuller
remarks:--
"The late Bishop said to me on one occasion: 'I had to study
every night quite as hard as the boys; for I was not much in
advance of the highest class in school. These and parochial
duties demanded sixteen hours every day,--and yet these nine
years were the happiest years of my life."
REV. DR. STRACHAN'S CAREER AS A TEACHER.
Having been appointed Minister at Cornwall in 1803, Dr. Fuller
states that there he was:--
"Induced to resume his school, at the solicitation of the
parents of those boys who had been in his school at Kingston,
and of others, both in Lower and Upper Canada, who were desirous
of placing their sons under a master so practical, wise and
successful, as he had proved himself to be. Thus he commenced
the school at Cornwall, which afterwards became so celebrated,
and at which were educated the first men that Canada has
produced, and of whom she may well be proud--such men as the
late Sir J. B. Robinson, Judge Maclean, Sir J. B. Macaulay, Sir
Allan MacNab, Judge Jones, Mr. Stanton, the Bethunes (Alexander,
John and Donald), Sir James Stuart, and his brother Andrew
Stuart, besides many others who have reflected credit on our
country.
"The Bishop had a great faculty for not only attaching his
scholars to him, but also for inducing them to apply themselves
most assiduously to their studies. He told me he made it a rule,
during the time he kept school, to watch closely every new
boy, and at the end of a fortnight, to note down in a book his
estimate of the boys who had passed through his hands.
"He was never afraid of having his dignity lowered by liberties
taken with him, and he always felt every confidence in his
position and entered warmly and personally into many of the
boys' amusements, and thus gained an immense influence over
them. The influence over his pupils has been shown in the
fact, that almost all of them embraced his principles; and the
love and affection for him of his celebrated Cornwall school
was shown many years ago, when the surviving members thereof
presented him with an address[30] and a most beautiful and
costly candelabra. Nor did his more recent scholars entertain
less affection for him, though they never proved it so
substantially as did those of his Cornwall School.... He was
an excellent teacher. His scholars were well grounded in their
work. The grammar was well mastered, and every rule thereof
deeply impressed on the memory. Every lesson was thoroughly
dissected, and everything connected with it thoroughly
understood, before we passed on to another lesson."[31]
[30] The principal signers of the address were Sir J. B. Robinson,
Sir J. B. Macaulay, Very Rev. Dean Bethune, Right Rev. Bishop
Bethune, Hon. Chief Justice McLean, Hon. Justice Jones, Hon. W.
B. Robinson, Hon. G. S. Boulton, Rev W. Macaulay, Judge (George)
Ridout, Surveyor-General Chewett, Col. Gregg, Capt. Macaulay, R.A.,
Inspector-General Markland, Sheriff McLean, Messrs. T. G. Ridout,
P. Vankoughnet, S. P. Jarvis, J. Radenhurst, R. G. Anderson, R.
Stanton, and others.
[31] _Journal of Education_ for U. C., Vol. xx. (1868), page 183.
For further reference to Dr. Strachan's educational efforts see the
sections on universities, page 59 _et seq._
MR. JOSEPH HUME'S ESSAY ON EDUCATION EDITED AS A CATECHISM BY MR.
WM. LYON MACKENZIE IN 1830.
In 1830 Mr. Mackenzie republished at York (Toronto), in pamphlet
form, the first part of a Catechism of Education, prepared by Mr.
Joseph Hume, M.P., in England. The pamphlet in my possession is
worn and weather-stained. It is inscribed to David Thorburn, of
Queenston, and extends to 46 pages. In his preface Mr. Mackenzie
says:
"To Mr. Joseph Hume.--The compiler is indebted for an Essay on
Education, which lays down and explains principles of vital
importance to the best interest of the Canadians, the perusal of
which first suggested the design of this catechism.
"In the first parts, under the heads Domestic, Technical, Social
and Political Instruction, it has been attempted to shew chiefly
what the means are by which the human mind may be endowed with those
qualities on which the generation of happiness depends."
VICISSITUDES OF EDUCATION IN UPPER CANADA, 1830-1839.
For many years subsequently spasmodic efforts were made from time to
time by progressive and earnest men in the Legislature to establish
a system of schools. Enquiries were instituted and reports made,
chiefly but not wholly, by the House of Assembly. A vigorous contest
was maintained between that body and the Legislative Council on
the subject. Bills were passed by the Assembly and rejected by the
Council. The contest continued until the Rebellion occurred, and
this event turned all men's thoughts into another channel for the
time.
Of the able and zealous men who, almost single handed, fought the
battle of elementary education in the Legislature, prior to the
rebellion of 1837, I may refer to the efforts in this direction of
Dr. Charles Duncombe and Mr. Malhon Burwell, who did good service in
the cause, as also did Archdeacon Strachan, Hon. William Morris and
others for higher education.
In the light of the growth and educational progress of to-day,
the miserable condition of public education in the days of the
educational pioneers to whom I have referred, can hardly be
credited. And were it not on record in the proceedings of the
Legislature, the statements there made would appear to apply to some
other country rather than to ours.
There were in the House of Assembly in those days (as I have
intimated) men of rare power and ability, who did noble service
in the popular cause, and in behalf of general education. They
passed school bills, founded on elaborate reports, year after
year, only to see them defeated by a majority in the Legislative
Council. This state of things continued for some years, and with
disastrous effects on the intellectual life of the country. This
fact is illustrated in the proceedings of the House of Assembly. For
example: In a petition of the United Presbytery of Upper Canada,
presented to the House in 1830, the signers say:--
"It is with deep regret that your petitioners (in their
ministerial capacity, connected with a very large portion of
His Majesty's subjects in this Province) are compelled to say
that the state of education is, in general, in a deplorable
condition."
The reason for this state of things is thus clearly set forth by the
House of Assembly in an address to the Lieutenant-Governor, adopted
in the same year:--
"We the Commons of Upper Canada, in Parliament assembled,
most respectfully represent that there is in this Province a
very general want of education; that the insufficiency of the
school fund to support competent, respectable and well-educated
teachers, has degraded common school teaching from a regular
business to a mere matter of convenience to transient persons,
or common idlers, who often teach school one season and leave
it vacant until it accommodates some other like person, whereby
the minds of our youth are left without cultivation, or, what
is still worse, frequently with vulgar, low-bred, vicious or
intemperate examples before them, in the capacity of monitors."
EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS OF MR. MAHLON BURWELL IN THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY,
1831-1836.
Few men exerted themselves more or to better purpose in the cause of
education than did Mr. Burwell during the time he was a member of
the old Upper Canada Legislature, in 1831-1838.[32]
[32] Col. Mahlon Burwell was born in the State of New Jersey, but
early in life came to Upper Canada. He settled first at Fort Erie,
then at Long Point, and finally removed to the Talbot Settlement. He
was near neighbor, and for a long time, right-hand man of the noted
Col. Talbot, of Port Talbot. He was a surveyor by profession, and
in 1810 surveyed the townships of Malahide, Bayham, and part of the
then village of London.
Amongst the many motions relating to education which were moved by
Mr. Burwell in the House of Assembly from time to time, was the
following important one, which was concurred in by the House in
February, 1831:--
"That a standing committee be appointed on the subject of
education generally in this Province....
"That it be a principal duty and business of the committee to
enquire whether an appropriation of 500,000 acres of land was
not made, in virtue of a joint address of both houses of the
Provincial Parliament, adopted at their session of 1797, or
1798, and whether the same is not subject to the control of the
Legislature of this Province; to enquire if anything, and what,
has been done with the lands or any part of them, and what is
their present situation.
"That the said committee do enquire in what way the several
district schools of the Province can best be endowed with
portions of the said lands, so as to render them more efficient
and fitting for the improvement of the rising generation than
they are at present."...
Such were the comprehensive terms of a motion which gave to the
subject of education a status in the House of Assembly at the time
by making a committee on the subject a Standing Committee of the
House, and clothing it with important powers. Mr. Burwell also, of
the same month, moved for the production of all the despatches,
reports, and other documents relating to the royal grant of lands
by George III. for grammar schools and colleges in Upper Canada.
In response to this latter motion, the Lieut.-Governor, Sir John
Colborne (Lord Seaton), sent down to the House a mass of papers
of great value, showing what steps had been taken by the Imperial
and Provincial Governments during the intervening years for the
promotion of public education. These papers were printed at the
time, but little is now known of their contents.
In April, 1831, Mr. Burwell, as chairman of the Quarter Sessions
of the London District, presented to the Lieut-Governor a memorial
setting forth the advantages to that locality of endowing a college
at London. Amongst the reasons given are the following:--
"Your memorialists are aware that education of a superior kind
cannot be brought to every man's door, and that under any
arrangements, the inhabitants of the Province generally must
send their children a short distance from home; but such is the
extent of the several districts, that the school can seldom be
a day's journey from any part of them; and the scholars can
return to their homes without expense during the holidays; and,
if sick, they can be visited by their parents in a few hours,
and removed to their habitations without difficulty. Added to
all this the cheapness at which board can be obtained in country
places, and the easiness with which, in most cases, it can be
paid for by produce from their farms."
These reasons are somewhat primitive in their character; but they
throw light on the social condition of the people in these days, and
illustrate the common practice then of paying even for education
"in kind," or by "produce from the farms." The object of the
memorialists was to obtain such an endowment for the London District
Grammar School--
"As shall render it efficient as a classical seminary, and a
nursery (as such schools are intended to be) for the University
of King's College....
"The endowment should be such a one as would furnish a good
school-house, a commodious residence for the head master--to
enable him to keep boarders and produce an income of four or
five hundred pounds."
In the following June a similar, but a much longer and more strongly
worded, memorial was presented to the Governor from the trustees
of the Kingston "Royal Grammar School," protesting against the
withdrawal from that school of an extra grant of £200 a year and
giving it to Upper Canada College, thus reducing the rank of the
Kingston "Royal Grammar School" to that of a district grammar school.
EFFORTS AT EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION BY DR. CHARLES DUNCOMBE,
1831-1836.
As one of those who took a prominent part in the troublesome events
of 1837-38, in Upper Canada, Dr. Duncombe acquired considerable
notoriety. He was, nevertheless, a man of broad views, of
comprehensive aims and large sympathies.[33]
[33] Dr. Charles Duncombe was an American by birth, and win born
in the State of New Jersey in or about the year 1796. He came to
Upper Canada with his parents during the progress, or immediately
after the close, of the war of 1812-15, and settled in the "London
District." Charles Duncombe studied medicine and surgery, and in
1827 and 1828 began to practice his profession on the town line
between the townships of Burford and Brantford, near Bishopsgate. He
soon obtained a large practice and with it an extended influence.
During the rebellion of 1837-8, Dr. Duncombe took part and went to
the United States, and remained there until 1843, when he received
a pardon from Sir Charles (afterwards Lord) Metcalfe. He did not,
however, remain long in Upper Canada after his return, but soon
left for the Western States, whence he subsequently removed to
California, and died there.
From his first entry into the House of Assembly, Dr. Charles
Duncombe, M.P.P. for the county of Norfolk, took up warmly the cause
of popular education. In this he was actively supported by two other
medical gentlemen--Dr. Thomas D. Morrison and Dr. Thomas Bruce--who
were also members of the House of Assembly at that time.
Dr. Charles Duncombe's first motion in the House of Assembly (on
the 13th December, 1831) was for an address to the Lieut.-Governor
urging the setting apart of a sufficient quantity of the public
lands of the Province to form a permanent fund for the support and
maintenance of common schools. His motion was, however, defeated.
As Dr. Duncombe's motion is of historical interest, so far as the
facts which it alleges are concerned, I give some extracts from it.
The motion stated:--
"That there is in this Province a very general want of
education; that the insufficiency of the Common School Fund
to support competent, respectable and well-educated teachers,
has degraded common school teaching from a regular business to
a mere matter of convenience to transient persons, or common
idlers, who often stay but for one season, and leave the schools
vacant until they accommodate some other like person, whereby
the minds of the youth of this Province are left without
due cultivation, or, what is worse, frequently with vulgar,
low-bred, vicious and intemperate examples before them in the
persons of their monitors," (_i.e._, teachers).
The motion goes on to say that:--
"If provision were made for the liberal and punctual payment of
common school teachers ... the teaching of common schools would
soon become a regular and respectable calling, gentlemanly,
well-educated persons would not be ashamed to take charge of
youth, the schools would be no longer vacant, nor the scholars
ignorant. Upper Canada would then form a national character that
would command respect abroad and ensure peace, prosperity and
happiness at home, perpetuate attachment to British principles
and British institutions, and enable posterity to value, as they
ought, the inestimable blessings of our glorious constitution."
The motion went on to urge the Lieut.-Governor to represent to the
Colonial Secretary the important necessity--in view of the facts
cited--of entreating
"That His Majesty, William IV., be graciously pleased to place
at the disposal of the Provincial Legislature a portion of the
waste lands of the Crown as a permanent fund for the support of
common schools within the same."
Dr. Charles Duncombe, with a prescience of the future, and of the
necessities of the case, (which were not then recognized, nor for
many years afterwards,) strongly urged, as did other members of
the Assembly, that at least one million acres of the "waste lands"
of the Province should be set apart for the support of common
schools.[34]
[34] It is gratifying to know that, although defeated at the time,
Dr. Duncombe's efforts bore fruit nearly twenty years afterwards--in
1850--when Hon. Wm. Hamilton Merritt, then President of the Council,
introduced and had a Bill passed by the Legislature setting apart
1,000,000 acres of the Crown Lands for the permanent endowment of
public schools in United Canada.
The motion was negatived. Dr. Duncombe was, however, determined not
to be beaten. Mr. David Burn and other friends of his in the county
of Oxford--no doubt on his suggestion--got up a petition to the
Legislature on the subject, and on the 21st December--a week after
his motion was defeated--Dr. Duncombe read this petition and had it
referred to a select committee for report thereon.
On the 26th December an elaborate report on the petition was
brought in by Dr. Duncombe himself, as chairman of the committee.
In that report the whole subject was gone into fully, and a scheme
elaborated by which the 1,000,000 acres of land were proposed to
be hypothecated in advance, so that by the issue of debentures for
$500,000, redeemable in ten, fifteen and twenty years, a sufficient
sum would be at once realized on the prospective value of these
lands to form a permanent fund for the support of common schools.
This report (as did the rejected motion) placed on record a few
facts and principles which are interesting in the light of to-day.
The report stated that--
"The common schools of this Province are generally in so
deplorable a state that they scarcely deserve the name of
schools."
It recommended that the common school law of the Province be so
amended that hereafter the school grant be paid only to--
"Organized schools, taught by a person who had a certificate
from the District Board of Education, or school inspector, of
his or her ability to teach a common school."
It also urged that the Common School Fund should be large enough,
with the local contributions, to provide an ample stipend for good
teachers, instead of "transient persons" and "common idlers" then so
often employed as teachers--
"So that common school teaching, instead of being a mere
matter of convenience to transient persons, or common idlers,
would become a regular, respectable business in the hands of
gentlemanly, well-educated persons. For surely the foundation of
the minds of our children (on which must depend the happiness or
misery we are to enjoy with them) and their own success in life,
is a business worthy to be respectable, worthy of the patronage
of men in the highest walks of life."
The report then laid down an important principle in regard to
the necessity for a certain and permanent endowment for public
education. It said:--
"Funds and appropriation for the support of education should
be permanent. They should not depend upon the annual vote of
the Legislature, nor on any other casualty that might, by
possibility fail, and thereby check the regular progress of
education."
Dr. Duncombe, in stating this principle, had no doubt in view the
example (then well known) of the fickleness of the Legislature in
the matter of school grants. In 1816 the vote for the support of
common schools was $24,000. In three subsequent years the same vote
was repeated; but, in 1820, it was reduced to $10,000--closing
schools here and there all over the Province, and inflicting
grievous hardship on many worthy (and, in the language of the day
and of the report, unworthy) teachers. This miserable state of
things continued for many years, and, as I stated on this subject in
1863--
"Thus ebbed and flowed, without a master hand to stay the
current, that tide which, in other lands, is regarded as the
nation's life's blood; and thus was permitted to ensue that
state of living death by which Upper Canada, in the significant
and popular metaphor of the day was likened to a 'girdled tree,'
destitute alike of life, of beauty, or of stately growth."[35]
[35] Historical Sketch of Education in Upper Canada, by J. George
Hodgins, M.A., LL.B., F.R.G.S. in "Eighty Years' Progress of British
North America," 1863.