Chapter IV: Education in Ontario--Past and Present (1)

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."