_EDUCATION IN UPPER CANADA FROM 1783 TO 1844._
Immediately after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1783,
United Empire Loyalists began to make homes in Upper Canada. The Great
Lakes and larger rivers were the natural highways. It happened,
therefore, that the earliest settlements were along the St. Lawrence,
the Niagara, and Lakes Erie and Ontario.
For a few years these settlers were too busy to think very much about
schools. Man's first wants are food, clothing, and shelter. But just as
soon as rude homes were built and a patch of forest cleared upon which
to grow grain and vegetables, these Upper Canadian Loyalists began to
think of schools. It was natural that they should do so. They were
descendants of an intelligent stock, people who had good schools in New
England and of a people whose forefathers had enjoyed liberal
educational advantages in the old world.
Governor Simcoe reached Upper Canada in 1792, and almost immediately
took steps to establish schools. He was an aristocrat who firmly
believed in such a constitution of society as then existed in the old
world. He naturally wished to see a reproduction of that society in the
new world. Hence we are not surprised to find that his educational
schemes were intended for the classes rather than for the masses. In a
letter[10] written by Simcoe, April 28th, 1792, to the British Secretary
of State, he urges grants of L100 each for schools at Niagara and
Kingston. He also proposed a university with English Church professors.
[10] See D. H. E. ("Documentary History of Education," by Dr. Hodgins),
Vol. I., p. 11.
In 1797, the House of Assembly and Legislative Council adopted an
address to the King praying him to set apart waste lands of the Crown
for the establishment of a respectable grammar school in each District,
and also for a college or university. In answer to this petition, the
Duke of Portland wrote saying that His Majesty proposed to comply with
the request and wished further advice as to the best means of carrying
it out.
The Executive Council, the Judges and law officers of the Crown met in
consultation in 1798 and recommended that 500,000 acres of waste Crown
lands be set apart to build a provincial university, and a free grammar
school in each of the four Districts. Grammar schools were to be built
at once at Kingston and at Niagara, and, as soon as circumstances would
permit, at Cornwall and at Sandwich. The university was to be at York.
It was estimated that each grammar school would cost L3,000 to build and
L180 a year to maintain. The schools were to accommodate one hundred
boys each, and have a residence for the master, with some rooms for
boarders.[11] No steps were taken to carry out these plans until after
1807.
[11] See D. H. E., Vol. I., p. 21.
Several private schools were opened prior to 1800. The chief of these
were at Newark, York, Ancaster, Cornwall, Kingston, Adolphustown, St.
Catharines, and Belleville. Some were evening schools. All were
supported by fees. Many were taught by clergymen. The principal subjects
were reading, writing, and arithmetic.
On December 17th, 1802, Dr. Baldwin, of York, the father of Hon. Robt.
Baldwin, issued the following notice;--[12]
"Understanding that some of the Gentlemen of this Town have
expressed much anxiety for the establishment of a Classical School,
Dr. Baldwin begs leave to inform them and the Public that he
intends, on Monday, the third day of January next, to open a school,
in which he will instruct twelve boys in Reading, Writing, the
Classics, and Arithmetic.
"The terms are for each boy, Eight Guineas per annum, to be paid
quarterly. One guinea entrance and one cord of wood to be supplied
by each boy."
[12] See D. H. E., Vol. I., p. 33.
John Strachan, afterwards Bishop Strachan, opened a private school at
Kingston in 1799. Later he opened one at Cornwall, and still later one
at York. Attempts to open a public school in each District were defeated
in the Legislature in 1804 and 1805. In 1806 the sum of L400[13] was
appropriated to purchase scientific apparatus.
[13] This L400 worth of apparatus was promptly handed over to Mr.
Strachan by the Lieutenant-Governor. Mr. Strachan at this time had a
private school at Cornwall. It seems quite evident that the apparatus
was purchased purposely for his school and at his suggestion. See D. H.
E., Vol. I., p. 155.
In 1807, the Legislature took steps to carry out the plan proposed in
1797. There were by this time eight Districts in Upper Canada--Eastern,
Johnstown, Midland, Newcastle, Home, Niagara, London, and Western. The
sum of L800 was fixed as an annual appropriation to support "a Public
School in each and every District in the Province." This meant L100 for
each school or teacher. The Legislature also fixed the places where the
schools were to be held. The Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council was to
appoint not less than five trustees[14] for each District school. These
trustees were given almost absolute control over the management of the
schools.
[14] See D. H. E., Vol. I., p. 61.
It must not be supposed that these schools were public schools in the
sense we now attach to that term. Their founders had in mind the great
English public school, whose curriculum was largely classical and whose
benefits were confined to the wealthy. These schools were not in any
sense popular schools. It would seem that Governor Simcoe's proposal in
1798 was to have "Free Grammar Schools."[15] But those established by
the Act of 1807 levied considerable sums in fees. They were designed to
educate the sons of gentlemen. They were to prepare for professional
life. They were essentially for the benefit of the ruling classes. They
were largely controlled by Anglicans,[16] and in many cases the teachers
were Anglican clergymen.
[15] See D. H. E., Vol. I., p. 20.
[16] In 1830, when the United Presbytery of Upper Canada petitioned the
Legislature against appointing so many Anglicans as trustees of grammar
schools, the only reply was that Anglicans had not always been
appointed.
If these schools were not public schools as we now use the term "public
school," neither were they high schools as we now use that term. The
curricula had no uniformity. Each school was a law unto itself and
depended almost wholly upon the teacher. If he were scholarly and
earnest the school would accomplish much. Often very young boys who
could scarcely read were admitted. In some schools a fine training in
classics was given; in others even the elements of a common education
were neglected.
But although these schools were not for the mass of the people, their
establishment was none the less an event of far-reaching importance. It
was a decided advantage to the mass of the people that their rulers
should have some educational advantages. No one can read the lists of
names of men educated in these schools and afterwards prominent in
Canadian public life without recognizing that their establishment was a
blessing to the whole of Canada. They were caste schools, but they kept
alive the torch of learning and civilization. Being founded out of
public funds, there was created an interest in their welfare among the
members of the Legislative Assembly. As years went on and the members of
the Assembly came to really represent the people of Upper Canada, they
were led to extend to all of the people such educational advantages as
had been granted to a section of the people in 1807.
Several efforts were made to repeal the Act of 1807 and substitute for
it one of a more popular nature. These efforts were baffled either by
the Legislative Council or through the influence of that body in the
Assembly itself. A petition[17] presented by sixty-five residents of the
Midland District to the Legislature of 1812 will give a fair idea of
the state of feeling throughout Upper Canada in regard to education:
"Your petitioners ... feel themselves in duty bound to state that 'An
Act to establish Public Schools in each and every District of this
Province' is found by experience not to answer the end for which it was
designed. Its object, it is presumed, was to promote the education of
our youth in general, but a little acquaintance with the facts must
convince every unbiased mind that it has contributed little or nothing
to the promotion of so laudable a design. By reason of the place of
instruction being established at one end of the District, and the sum
demanded for tuition, in addition to the annual compensation received
from the public, most of the people are unable to avail themselves of
the advantages contemplated by the institution. A few wealthy
inhabitants, and those of the Town of Kingston, reap exclusively the
benefit of it in this District. The institution, instead of aiding the
middling and poorer class of His Majesty's subjects, casts money into
the lap of the rich, who are sufficiently able, without public
assistance, to support a school in every respect equal to the one
established by law.... Wherefore, your petitioners pray, that so much of
the Act first mentioned may be repealed, and such provisions made in the
premises as may be conducive to public utility."
[17] See Journals of Legislature of Upper Canada for 1812.
A repeal bill of the Act of 1807 was passed by the Legislative Assembly
of 1812, but thrown out by the Legislative Council. The Act of 1807
limited the schools to one for each District. This was unsatisfactory
even to that class for whom the schools were especially designed. As the
country made progress and became more thickly populated, eight schools
were a wholly inadequate provision for the education of those requiring
it. But the Legislative Assembly steadily resisted any attempt to
enlarge the scope of these class schools. Perhaps it was owing to their
resistance that in 1816 they secured the consent of the Legislative
Council to a really forward movement in elementary education.
But it would be a serious mistake to infer that the educational
machinery of Upper Canada previous to 1816 was limited to these eight
District Grammar Schools. What the Government failed to provide, private
enterprise secured. More than two hundred schools were certainly in
operation in 1816. These schools were maintained partly by subscriptions
from well-to-do people and partly by fees collected from the pupils. In
many cases they were private ventures, conducted by teachers who
depended wholly upon fees. In some cases these schools were of a high
order, perhaps superior to the District Grammar Schools; in other cases,
probably in the large majority of cases, they were very inefficient.
The average fees paid by pupils in the elementary schools were about
twelve shillings per quarter.
William Crooks, of Grimsby, writing to Gourlay, in January, 1818,
says:[18] "The state of education is also at a very low ebb, not only in
this township but generally throughout the District; although the
liberality of the Legislature has been great in support of the District
Grammar Schools (giving to the teachers of each L100 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 as 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 schoolmasters, 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."
[18] See Gourlay's "Statistical Account of Upper Canada." Pages 433-434
of Vol. I. Published by Simpkin & Marshall, London, Eng., 1822.
The Common or Parish Schools referred to in this letter were the result
of the legislation of 1816, a red-letter year in school affairs because
it saw the first attempts in Upper Canada to give schools under public
control to the common people. The sum of $24,000 a year was appropriated
for four years to establish Common Schools. The law provided that the
people of any village, town or township might meet together and arrange
to establish one or more schools, at each of which the attendance must
be not less than twenty. Three suitable trustees were to be chosen to
conduct the school, appoint teachers, and select textbooks from a list
prescribed by a District Board of Education. The Legislature authorized
payments to each of these schools of a sum not exceeding L100. The
balance needed to maintain the school had to be made up by
subscriptions.
In 1819 the Grammar School Act of 1807 received some slight amendments.
The grant of L100 per school was reduced to L50 for new schools, except
where the number of pupils exceeded ten. A new school was authorized
for the new Gore District, at Hamilton. Trustee Boards were required to
present annual reports to the Lieutenant-Governor and to conduct an
annual public examination. But the most important change was provision
for the free education of ten poor children at each District Public
School. These children were chosen by lot from names submitted by
Trustee Boards of Common Schools.
In 1822 the Governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland, on his own responsibility,
had established in Toronto a school known as the Upper Canada Central
School, formed on the plan of the British National Schools, which had
been established in Britain by Rev. Dr. Bell. These schools were
decidedly Anglican in tone, and that established in Toronto was at the
instigation of Rev. Dr. Strachan.[19] In a despatch to Earl Bathurst,
Colonial Secretary in 1822, Governor Maitland said:[20] "It is proposed
to establish one introductory school on the national plan in each town
of a certain size. It is supposed that a salary of L100 per annum to the
master of each such school would be sufficient. The number of these
schools may be increased as the circumstances of the Province may
require and the means allow."
[19] See D. H. E., Vol. I., p. 176.
[20] See copy of despatch in D. H. E., Vol. I., p. 179.
In answer, the Earl of Bathurst, under date of October 12th, 1823,
says:[21] "I am happy to have it in my power to convey to you His
Majesty's consent that you appropriate a portion of the Reserves set
apart for the establishment of a University for the support of schools
on the National [Church of England] plan of education." This action
established one school, and had in contemplation the establishment of
others under the direct control of the Governor and his Council. The
Legislative Assembly naturally resented the action, and for two reasons.
They objected to the disposal of any Crown property other than upon
their authority. They objected to anything being done that would lessen
the resources of the proposed University.
[21] See copy of despatch in D. H. E., Vol. I., p. 179.
A side-light upon education in Upper Canada is furnished by Mr. E. A.
Talbot, who published a series of letters upon Upper Canada in London,
1824. I quote from Letter XXX: "The great mass of the [Canadian] people
are at present completely ignorant even of the rudiments of the most
common learning. Very few can either read or write; and parents who are
ignorant themselves, possess so slight a relish for literature and are
so little acquainted with its advantages, that they feel scarcely any
anxiety to have the minds of their children cultivated.... They will not
believe that 'knowledge is power,' and being convinced that it is not
in the nature of 'book-learned skill' to improve the earnestness of
their sons in hewing wood or the readiness of their daughters in
spinning flax, they consider it a misapplication of money to spend any
sum in obtaining instruction for their offspring. Nothing can afford a
stronger proof of their indifference in this respect than the
circumstance of their electing men to represent them in the Provincial
Parliament, whose attainments in learning are in many instances
exceedingly small, and sometimes do not pass beyond the horn-book. I
have myself been present in the Honourable the House of Assembly when
some of the members, on being called to be Chairmen of Committees, were
under the disagreeable and humiliating necessity of requesting other
members to read the bills before the Committee, and then, as the
different clauses were rejected or adopted, to request these, their
proxies, to signify the same in the common mode of writing."
In 1823 there was established a General Board of Education, consisting
of: The Hon. and Rev. John Strachan, D.D., Chairman; Hon. Jos. Wells,
M.L.C.; Hon. G. H. Markland, M.L.C.; Rev. Robert Addison; John Beverley
Robinson, Esq., Attorney-General; Thomas Ridout, Esq., Surveyor-General.
The same session of the Legislature set apart L150 as an annual grant
for purchasing books and tracts designed to afford moral and religious
instruction.
By the creation of a General Board of Education, Rev. Dr. Strachan
became very prominently identified with education in Upper Canada. No
man was better qualified through zeal, practical knowledge, and a
genuine interest in higher education. He had been made an honorary
member of the Executive Council in 1815, and an active member in 1817.
In 1820 he was appointed a member of the Legislative Council. Being a
prominent Churchman, an experienced and successful teacher, and residing
at York, he was naturally consulted by successive Governors on
educational matters. Strachan was an uncompromising Churchman with
ritualistic tendencies, and in politics a Tory of the George III.
school. He had neither faith in, nor sympathy for, a democracy. He
accepted things as he found them, and wished to preserve them so. He
could conceive of no more perfect state of society for the new world
than that which he left behind him in the old. He firmly believed in
education of the most noble kind for gentlemen, but it is doubtful if he
recognized the right of every man to the highest possible cultivation of
his intellectual powers. He would have looked upon such a plan as
subversive of the existing orders of society. At any rate he never
evinced any passion for popular education except that moral and
religious education given under the aegis of an Established Church. On
the other hand, no man in Canada had a more sincere desire to foster
higher institutions of learning, and it had from the very first been
Strachan's plan that the District Grammar Schools should be feeders for
a Provincial University, and now, in 1824, when he became virtually head
of educational affairs in Upper Canada, he determined to carry his
scheme to a successful issue.
There were serious difficulties. An endowment had been provided for a
university by the Crown grant in 1797, but it was at this time almost
worthless. It consisted of blocks of land, containing several townships,
in remote parts of the Province. The lands were good, but so long as the
Government had free lands to give incoming settlers, the school lands
were not in demand. Besides these school or university lands, there were
other lands in possession of the Crown. The original surveyor reserved
two-sevenths of all land. One-seventh was the reserve for a "Protestant
Clergy," which eventually caused so much strife and ill-feeling. The
other seventh was known as the Crown Reserve. In many cases this Crown
Reserve was becoming valuable, even in 1824, because of the labour of
settlers who owned adjoining farms. Much of the Crown Reserve was under
lease and giving a more or less certain revenue. Strachan conceived a
bold and successful plan. He suggested to Sir Peregrine Maitland that
for grants to new settlers the school lands were worth as much to the
Government as the Crown Reserves. Why not exchange school lands for an
equal area of Crown Reserve land? The matter was put before the Home
Government, and in 1827 a favourable reply was given. The result was
that the University got 225,944 acres of land, distributed throughout
every District in Upper Canada, but having more than one-half its total
area in the Home, Gore, and London Districts, the wealthiest and most
populous parts of Upper Canada. The Commissioners, appointed in 1848 by
Lord Elgin to enquire into the affairs of King's College, state (pages
16 and 17): "The Crown Reserves thus converted into the University
Endowment, consisted of lands in various parts of Upper Canada in actual
or nominal occupation under lease, at rate of rental fixed by a certain
scale established by the Provincial Government, and a large proportion
of the lots were in an improved or cultivated state."
In March, 1826, Rev. Dr. Strachan submitted to the Lieutenant-Governor a
very able and comprehensive report[22] showing why a university ought at
once to be established. The report gives an interesting and authentic
summary of the state of education in Upper Canada at that time. "The
present state of Education in this Province consists of Common Schools
throughout the Townships, established under several Acts of the
Provincial Legislature, and which are now, by the exertions of Your
Excellency, placed on an excellent footing, requiring no other
improvements than the means of multiplying their number, which, no
doubt, will be granted as the finances of the Province become more
productive. In about three hundred and forty Common Schools established
in the different Districts of the Colony, from seven to eight thousand
children are taught reading and writing, the elements of arithmetic, and
the first principles of religion; and when it is considered that the
parents commonly send their children in rotation--the younger in summer
when the roads are good, and the older in winter--it is not too much to
say that nearly double this number, or from twelve to fourteen thousand
children, profit annually by the Common Schools. The consequence is that
the people, scattered as they are over a vast wilderness, are becoming
alive to the great advantage of educating their children, and are, in
many places, seconding, with laudable zeal, the exertions of the
Legislature, and establishing schools at their own expense.
[22] See copy in D. H. E., Vol. I., pp. 211-213.
"Provision is made by law 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 upwards of 300 youth acquiring an
education to qualify them for the different professions; and, although
they can seldom support more than one master, several of the young
gentlemen who have been brought up in them are now eminent in their
professions, and would, by their talents and high principles, do credit
to seminaries of greater name. But the period has arrived when the
District Schools [Grammar Schools] will become still more useful by
confining themselves to the intention of their first establishment,
namely, nurseries for a University--an institution now called for by the
increased population and circumstances of the Colony, and most earnestly
desired by the more respectable inhabitants.
"There is not in either Province any English Seminary above the rank of
a good school, at which a liberal education can be obtained. Thus the
youth of nearly 300,000 Englishmen have no opportunity of receiving
instruction within the Canadas in Law, Medicine, or Divinity. The
consequence is that many young men coming forward to the learned
professions are obliged to look beyond the Province for the last two
years of their education--undoubtedly the most important and critical of
their lives. Very few are able on account of the great expense to go to
England or Scotland; and the distance is so great and the difficulties
so many that parental anxiety reluctantly trusts children from its
observation and control. The youths are, therefore, in some degree,
compelled to look forward to the United States, where the means of
education, though of a description far inferior to those of Great
Britain, are yet superior to those within the Province, and a growing
necessity is arising of sending them to finish their education in that
country. Now, in the United States, a system prevails unknown to, or
unpractised by, any other nation. In all other countries morals and
religion are made the basis of future instruction, and the first book
put into the hands of children teaches them the domestic, social, and
religious virtues; but in the United States politics pervade the whole
system of instruction. The school books from the very first elements are
stuffed with praises of their own institutions and breathe hatred to
everything English. To such a country our youth may go, strongly
attached to their native land and all its establishments, but by hearing
them continually depreciated and those of America praised, these
attachments will, in many, be gradually weakened, and some may become
fascinated with that liberty which has degenerated into licentiousness
and imbibe, perhaps unconsciously, sentiments unfriendly to things of
which Englishmen are proud....
"The establishment of a University at the seat of Government will
complete a regular system of education in Upper Canada from the letters
of the alphabet to the most profound investigations of science.... In
regard to the profession of medicine it is melancholy to think that more
than three-fourths of the present practitioners have been educated or
attended lectures in the United States.... There are, as yet, only
twenty-two clergymen in Upper Canada, the greater number from England.
It is essential that young men coming forward to the Church should be
educated entirely within the Province, but for this there is no
provision.... But the wants of the Province are becoming great, and
however much disposed the elder clergy may be to bring forward young men
to the sacred profession, they have neither time nor means of doing it
with sufficient effect. There can be nothing of that zeal, of that union
and mutual attachment, of that deep theological and literary enquiry and
anxiety to excel, which would be found among men collected at the
University, and here it is not irrelevant to observe that it is of the
greatest importance that the education of the Colony should be conducted
by the clergy.
"Nothing can be more manifest than that this Colony has not yet felt the
advantage of a religious establishment. What can twenty-two clergymen
do, scattered over a country of nearly six hundred miles in length? Can
we be surprised that, under such circumstances, the religious benefits
of the ecclesiastical establishment are unknown, and sectaries of all
descriptions have increased on every side? And when it is further
considered that the religious teachers of all other Protestant
denominations, a very few respectable ministers of the Church of
Scotland excepted, come almost universally from the Republican States of
America, where they gather their knowledge and form their sentiments, it
is evident that if the Imperial Government does not step forward with
efficient help, the mass of the population will be nurtured and
instructed in hostility to all our institutions, both civil and
religious.... From all which it appears highly expedient to establish a
university at the seat of Government, to complete the system of
education in the Colony at which all the branches requisite for
qualifying young men for the learned professions may be taught.... The
principal and professors, except those of Medicine and Law, should be
clergymen of the Established Church; and no tutor, teacher, or officer
who is not a member of that Church should ever be employed in the
institution."
I have given this long quotation from Rev. Dr. Strachan's report for
several reasons. It shows very clearly the point of view of a remarkable
man who had much to do with educational affairs in Upper Canada for a
period of nearly seventy years. It shows his zeal for higher education,
his belief in the efficacy of a religious establishment, his narrow
bigotry and intolerance of all outside of an establishment, his
old-world belief that the clergy should control education, his loyal
attachment to British institutions, and above all, to those who read
between the lines, his lack of real interest in elementary education. He
is perfectly satisfied with the state of the Common Schools, although
they were then accommodating less than one in twenty of the total
population. The schools of which he says, "which are now, by the
exertions of Your Excellency, placed on an excellent footing, requiring
no other improvements than the means of multiplying their number," were
conducted in rude buildings, without any apparatus, with a motley
assortment of textbooks, and taught in many cases by ignorant itinerant
schoolmasters who were of no use at any other occupation, and who
received from $80 to $200 a year! Little can ever be expected in the way
of improvement from those who are wholly satisfied with present
conditions, and it is safe to say that any improvements that took place
in the Common Schools of Canada under the _regime_ of the Rev. Dr.
Strachan were owing to other causes than the efforts put forth by that
gentleman. The Common Schools of Upper Canada had to wait for a new
birth--until Ryerson breathed life into them.
Rev. Dr. Strachan's Report is interesting for another reason--it deals
with the proposed King's College and its relations with what Dr.
Strachan calls the "religious establishment" in Canada. This "religious
establishment" was to have as its basis the one-seventh of all lands in
Upper Canada as provided for by the Constitutional Act of 1791. Now
these two things, the Clergy Reserves and King's College, caused more
trouble to the Canadian Legislature and engendered more bitter feeling
among the people of Upper Canada than any other two questions that ever
were debated in the Parliament of Upper Canada, or in the Parliament of
the united Canadas. In the Parliamentary struggle over both these
questions the Rev. Dr. Strachan was an active and valiant leader of the
party of privilege, and among those who led the opposing forces to a
final victory none was more courageous or more successful than Dr.
Ryerson.
Dr. Strachan went to England in 1826 to use his personal influence
towards securing a Royal Charter for a University. He there issued an
appeal to the English people for aid on the ground that the proposed
College would be largely occupied in educating clergymen for the
Anglican Church.[23] A Royal Charter, making the proposed university a
close corporation under the control of Anglican clergymen, was obtained.
Besides granting the charter the British Government made a grant toward
buildings of L1,000 a year for sixteen years.
[23] See "An Appeal to the Friends of Religion and Literature in behalf
of the University of Upper Canada." By John Strachan, Archdeacon of
York, Upper Canada, 1826.
When the Legislative Assembly met in 1828 several members presented
numerously signed petitions praying for definite information about the
newly granted charter of King's College. The Governor sent down a copy
of the charter which was referred to a select committee. The committee
protested against the nature of the charter in that the university was
to become an Anglican institution, supported out of public funds. This
they thought unjust, inasmuch as only a small proportion of the settlers
of Upper Canada were Anglicans.[24] The committee also drafted an
address to His Majesty the King. This address was adopted by the
Assembly, and immediately despatched to His Majesty by the Governor. The
address was courteous and loyal in tone, but the exact condition of
affairs in Canada was made clear. The King was petitioned to cancel the
charter to King's College, and grant one that would make possible a
university for all classes. This address to His Majesty and the protest
of the Assembly of Upper Canada attracted the attention of a select
committee of the Imperial Parliament. This committee[25] reported
against that part of the Charter which required religious tests. George
Ryerson, of Canada, gave valuable evidence before this committee
relative to Canadian affairs. It seems doubtful whether His Majesty's
advisers, when the King's College charter was given, were really made
aware of the conditions of society in Canada. Those Canadians who had
the ears of His Majesty's advisers were, for the most part, interested
in forming and strengthening an Anglican Establishment.
[24] See Journals of House of Assembly for Upper Canada, 1828.
[25] See Report made 22nd July, 1828, by Select Committee of House of
Commons, appointed to inquire into the State of Civil Government in
Canada.