_CONCLUSION._
How are we to sum up the work of this man who moulded the schools of
Ontario during a period as long as the life of a single generation?
Would the schools of 1876 have been what they were had there been no
Ryerson? We think not.
No doubt the people of Upper Canada would, without Ryerson, have worked
out a good school system, because a school system must in the end
reflect the average intelligence and the fixed ideals of a people. But
in Ryerson, Upper Canada had a man who, by his dogged determination and
his hold upon the affections of the people, was able to secure
legislation somewhat in advance of a fixed public opinion. To a
considerable extent he created the public sentiment which made his work
possible. He knew what the people needed and persuaded them to accept
it. This we conceive to be the work of a statesman.
Ryerson was neither a demagogue nor a constitutionalist. He had none of
the arts of one who wins the populace by flattering its vanity. He was
too sincere and too deeply religious to appeal to the lower springs of
human action. On the other hand he had no real sympathy with popular
government. He would let people do as they wished, only so long as they
wished to do what he believed to be right. He never could believe that
he himself might be wrong. Even had he wished to do so, he never could
have divested himself wholly of the character of priest and pedagogue.
He was always either shouting from the pulpit or thumping the desk of
the schoolmaster.
His environment after 1844 strengthened and developed his natural
tendency to be autocratic. He worked like a giant. He created the
Education Department, appointed his subordinates, was his own finance
minister, established a Normal School and appointed its instructors,
nominated members of a Council of Public Instruction who often did
little more than formally register his decrees, organized a book and map
depository and an educational museum, edited an educational journal in
which he published his decrees, and prepared legislation for successive
Legislatures having comparatively few members competent to criticize
school administration. He administered one of the largest spending
Departments of Government, and ruled somewhat rigorously a score of
subordinates, and yet, for many years, was not subject to any check
except the nominal one of the Governor-General, and later of the
Governor-General-in-Council.
When he visited District or County Conventions he came as a lawgiver,
either to explain existing regulations, promulgate new ones, or obtain
assent to those for which he wished to secure legislation. Only after
the Grammar Schools had become efficient did Ryerson meet at Teachers'
Conventions men who were intellectually his equals and who were ready to
criticize his policy, and, when necessary, give him wholesome advice.
Had Ryerson been a responsible Minister with a seat in the Legislature,
either his nature would have been modified or he would have failed,
probably the latter.
This would seem to lead to the conclusion that Ryerson after all was not
a statesman, since a statesman must, in our age, carry out his measures
and at the same time retain the confidence of his colleagues and the
electors. But this is just what Ryerson did, although he did not do it
directly through the Legislature. He appealed to a Court beyond the
Legislature--the whole body of intelligent men and women of Upper
Canada--and this Court sustained him in his work for thirty-two years,
during which time it is doubtful if any single constituency in the
country would have elected him to two successive Parliaments. If this be
true we may safely assume that it was a happy chance which gave us a
non-political Education Department during our formative period.
Ryerson's greatest admirers can scarcely claim that he was a scholar.
This was his misfortune and not his fault. He never failed to embrace
whatever opportunities for intellectual improvement came in his way. His
reading of history was broad and discriminating. He had little interest
in anything that did not bear somewhat directly upon the problem of
human virtue. Consequently his interests centred largely in civil
government and theology.
Nor can we claim for Ryerson that he introduced original legislation.
Hardly anything in our system of education was of his invention. New
England, New York, Germany, and Ireland gave him his models, and his
genius was shown in the skill with which he adapted these to suit the
needs of Upper Canada. Even in the details of his school legislation,
especially that relating to High Schools, Ryerson adopted suggestions of
men more competent than himself to form a judgment. To say this in no
way detracts from the man's greatness. Little after all in modern
legislation is actually new, and to say of a man that he is successful
in using other men's ideas is often to give him the highest praise.
In one department of work Ryerson stood in a class by himself. He was
without a peer as an administrator. His intensely practical mind was
quick to discover the shortest route between end and means. His energy,
his system and attention to details, his broad personal knowledge of
actual conditions, his capacity for long periods of effort, his thrift,
his courteous treatment of subordinates, and even his sensitiveness to
criticism were factors which enabled him to administer the most
difficult Department of the Government with ease and smoothness.
The history of Upper Canada during a period of nearly sixty years is as
much bound up with the labours of Egerton Ryerson as with the work of
any other public man. He gave us lofty ideals of the meaning and purpose
of life, and he had an abiding faith in the power of popular education
to aid in a realization of these ideals; he fought for free schools in
Upper Canada when they needed a valiant champion. Let the present
generation of men and women honour the memory of the man who wrought so
faithfully for their fathers and grandfathers.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Documentary History of Education in Upper Canada. 28 vols. Dr. J.
Geo. Hodgins.
Story of My Life. Egerton Ryerson. Edited by Dr. J. Geo. Hodgins.
Egerton Ryerson. Chancellor Burwash.
Loyalists of America. 2 vols. Egerton Ryerson.
Ryerson Memorial Volume. Edited by Dr. J. Geo. Hodgins.
History of Upper Canada College. Principal Dickson.
Journals of Assembly of Upper Canada, Legislative Library, Toronto.
Journal of Education, 1848-1876. 29 vols. Library of Parliament,
Ottawa.
Ryerson's Special Reports on European Schools. Library of
Parliament, Ottawa.
Ryerson's Annual School Reports, 1845-1876. Library of Parliament,
Ottawa.
Gourlay's Statistical Account of Upper Canada. 3 vols. Published by
Simpkins and Marshall, London, Eng., 1822.
Sketches of Canada and the United States. William Lyon Mackenzie.
Published by Effingham & Wilson, London, Eng., 1833.
Reminiscences of His Public Life. Sir Francis Hincks.
Ryerson's Controversy with Rev. J. M. Bruyere on Free Schools.
Canadian Pamphlets, vol. 50. Library of Parliament, Ottawa.
Ryerson's Letters to Doctor Strachan, on Education. Canadian
Pamphlets, vol. 83.
Ryerson's New Canadian Dominion. Canadian Pamphlets, vol. 418.
Ryerson's Defence Against Attacks of Hon. George Brown. Canadian
Pamphlets, vol. 418.
Ryerson on the Separate School Law of Upper Canada. Canadian
Pamphlets, vol. 416.
Ryerson on a Liberal Education in Upper Canada. Canadian Pamphlets,
vol. 416.
Ryerson on the School Book Question. Canadian Pamphlets, vol. 416.
Ryerson, a Review and a Study. J. A. Allen. Canadian Pamphlets, vol.
667.
Bishop Strachan, a Review and a Study. Rev. Doctor Scadding.
Canadian Pamphlets, vol. 169.
Report on Grievances in Upper Canada. William Lyon Mackenzie.
Library of Parliament, Ottawa.
Bound Volumes of Toronto _Globe_, 1844-1876, in Legislative Library,
Toronto.
_British Colonist._ Published by H. Scobie, 1838-1854. Library of
Parliament, Ottawa.
_Kingston Chronicle and Gazette_, 1840-1842. Library of Parliament,
Ottawa.
Courier of Upper Canada, 1836-1837. Library of Parliament, Ottawa.
_Weekly Colonist_, 1852-1855. Library of Parliament, Ottawa.
Ryerson's Correspondence with Provincial Secretaries, 1844-1876.
Canadian Archives, Ottawa.
Transcriber's Note: Inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation (e.g.,
school-houses/schoolhouses) have been resolved in all cases where it was
possible to divine the author's intent with a reasonable degree of
certainty.