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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Egerton Ryerson and Education in Upper
+Canada, by J. Harold Putman
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Egerton Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada
+
+Author: J. Harold Putman
+
+Release Date: October 12, 2011 [EBook #37739]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EGERTON RYERSON, EDUCATION--UPPER CANADA ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Garcia, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Julia
+Neufeld and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+For this text version passages in italics are indicated by
+_underscores_. Small caps have been replaced by ALL CAPS.
+
+
+
+
+  EGERTON RYERSON
+
+  AND
+
+  Education in Upper Canada
+
+
+  BY
+
+  J. HAROLD PUTMAN, B.A., D.Paed.,
+
+  Inspector of Public Schools, Ottawa, Ont.
+
+  (Formerly in charge of the Departments in Psychology and
+  English, Ottawa Normal School)
+
+
+  TORONTO
+  WILLIAM BRIGGS
+  1912
+
+
+
+
+  Copyright, Canada, 1912, by
+  WILLIAM BRIGGS
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The object of this volume is to give a succinct idea of the nature and
+history of our Ontario School Legislation. This legislation is so bound
+up with the name of Egerton Ryerson that to give its history is to
+relate the work of his life.
+
+It would be useless to attempt to show how our school legislation
+developed under Responsible Government without some understanding of its
+history previous to the time of Ryerson. I have, therefore, devoted
+three chapters to a brief account of education in Upper Canada previous
+to 1844.
+
+No attempt has been made to give the history of our schools since
+Ryerson's retirement, partly because no radical changes have been made,
+and partly because it would involve criticism of statesmen and teachers
+who are still actively engaged in work. Nor has any attempt been made to
+trace the history of University education after 1845. To do so would
+require a complete volume. But, as University education prior to 1844
+was so closely connected with Common and Grammar Schools, it seemed
+necessary, up to a certain point, to trace the course of all three
+together.
+
+The introductory chapter on the biography of Ryerson is only indirectly
+connected with the other chapters, and may be omitted by the reader who
+has no interest in the man himself.
+
+It is hoped that this volume may encourage teachers in service and
+teachers in training to acquire a fuller knowledge of their own
+educational institutions.
+
+                                                    THE AUTHOR.
+
+OTTAWA, July 1st, 1912.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                 PAGE
+
+     I.  Biographical                                        7
+
+    II.  Education in Upper Canada from 1783 to 1844        33
+
+   III.  Education in Upper Canada from 1783 to 1844--
+              (_Continued_)                                 58
+
+    IV.  Education in Upper Canada from 1783 to 1844--
+              (_Continued_)                                 83
+
+     V.  Ryerson's First Report on a System of Elementary
+               Instruction                                 110
+
+    VI.  Ryerson's School Bill of 1846                     123
+
+   VII.  The Ryerson Bill of 1850                          144
+
+  VIII.  Ryerson and Separate Schools                      173
+
+    IX.  Ryerson and Grammar Schools                       204
+
+     X.  Ryerson and the Training of Teachers              232
+
+    XI.  Ryerson School Bill of 1871                       257
+
+   XII.  Conclusion                                        264
+
+         Bibliography                                      269
+
+
+
+
+Egerton Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+_BIOGRAPHICAL._
+
+
+Egerton Ryerson was born in 1803, in the township of Charlotteville, now
+a part of the county of Norfolk. His father was a United Empire Loyalist
+who had held some command in a volunteer regiment of New Jersey. After
+the Revolution the elder Ryerson settled first in New Brunswick, coming
+later to Upper Canada, where he took up land and became a pioneer
+farmer. The young Ryersons, of whom there were several, took their full
+share in the laborious farm work, and Egerton seems to have prided
+himself upon his physical strength and his skill in all farm operations.
+
+He received such an education as was afforded by the indifferent Grammar
+School of the London District, supplemented by the reading of whatever
+books he could secure.
+
+At an early age he was strongly drawn toward that militant Christianity
+preached by the early Methodist Circuit Riders, and at the age of
+eighteen joined the Methodist Society. This step created an estrangement
+between Ryerson and his father, who already had two sons in the
+Methodist ministry. Ryerson left home and became usher in the London
+District Grammar School, where he remained two years, when his father
+sent for him to come home. After some further farming experience, the
+young man went to Hamilton to attend the Gore District Grammar School.
+He was already thinking of becoming a Methodist preacher, and wished to
+prepare himself by a further course of study. During his stay in
+Hamilton under the instruction of John Law, he worked so eagerly at
+Latin and Greek that he fell ill of a fever which nearly ended his
+career.
+
+When barely twenty-two years of age he decided to travel as a Methodist
+missionary.
+
+In a letter written about this time to his brother, the Rev. George
+Ryerson, we get a glimpse of the young preacher's ideas upon the
+preparation of sermons. "On my leisure days I read from ten to twenty
+verses of Greek a day besides reading history, the Scriptures, and the
+best works on practical divinity, among which Chalmers has decidedly the
+preference in my mind both for piety and depth of thought. These two
+last studies employ the greatest part of my time. My preaching is
+altogether original. I endeavour to collect as many ideas from every
+source as I can; but I do not copy the expression of anyone, for I do
+detest seeing blooming flowers in dead men's hands. I think it my duty
+and I try to get a general knowledge and view of any subject that I
+discuss beforehand; but not unfrequently I have tried to preach with
+only a few minutes' previous reflection."[1]
+
+[1] See "Story of My Life," by Ryerson, edited by Hodgins, page 42.
+
+
+After being received into the Methodist connection as a probationer,
+Ryerson was assigned a charge on Yonge St., which embraced the town of
+York and several adjacent townships. It took four weeks on horseback and
+on foot over almost impassable roads to complete the circuit. During
+this time the probationer was expected to conduct from twenty-five to
+thirty-five services. The accommodation furnished by the pioneers was of
+the rudest kind, but the people gave the travelling preacher a hearty
+welcome. Young Ryerson was acquainting himself with conditions in Upper
+Canada at first hand by living among the people. At a later time, when
+the opportunity came, he made use of his intimate knowledge to secure
+for these people the advantages of better schools.
+
+During this first year of his missionary ministry, Ryerson was drawn
+into the Clergy Reserves controversy. The Methodist Society in Upper
+Canada was an offshoot of that body in the United States. This
+connection had come about in a very natural way. Upper Canada was
+largely settled by United Empire Loyalists. The Methodist circuit-riders
+naturally followed their people into the wilds of Upper Canada. In many
+districts no religious services of any kind were held except those of
+the Methodists.
+
+In May, 1826, a pamphlet was published, being a sermon preached by
+Archdeacon Strachan, of York, on the occasion of the death of the Bishop
+of Quebec. This pamphlet contained an historical sketch of the rise and
+progress of the Anglican Church in Canada. The claim was made that the
+Anglican Church was by law the Established Church of Upper Canada. The
+Methodists were singled out and held up to ridicule. They were
+represented as American and disloyal. Their preachers were declared to
+be ignorant and spreaders of sedition, and the Imperial Parliament was
+petitioned to grant L300,000 a year to the Anglican Church in Canada to
+enable it to maintain the loyalty of Upper Canada to Britain.
+
+To Ryerson, the son of a Loyalist, this was more than could be borne,
+and he immediately crossed swords with the Anglican prelate by writing a
+defence of Methodism and calling into question the exclusive demands
+made by Strachan on behalf of the Anglicans. The contest waxed warm and
+then hot. The whole country was convulsed. Within four years the
+Legislature of Upper Canada passed Acts allowing the various religious
+denominations to hold lands for churches, parsonages, and
+burying-grounds, and also allowing their ministers to solemnize
+marriages. Besides these concessions, the Legislative Assembly was
+forced by public opinion to petition the Imperial Parliament against the
+claims of the Anglican Church to be an Established Church in Canada and
+to a monopoly of the Clergy Reserves.
+
+During his second year in the ministry, Ryerson spent part of his time
+on a mission to the Chippewa Indians on the Credit River. While there,
+he showed himself to be very practical. He encouraged the Indians to
+build better houses and to clear and cultivate the land.[2] "After
+having collected the means necessary to build the house of worship and
+schoolhouse, I showed the Indians how to enclose and make gates for
+their gardens. Between daylight and sunrise I called out four of the
+Indians in succession and showed them how, and worked with them, to
+clear and fence in, and plow and plant their first wheat and corn
+fields. In the afternoon I called out the schoolboys to go with me and
+cut and pile and burn the underbrush in and around the village. The
+little fellows worked with great glee as long as I worked with them, but
+soon began to play when I left them."
+
+[2] See "Story of My Life," by Egerton Ryerson, edited by Hodgins, page
+60.
+
+
+A letter written by Rev. William Ryerson to his brother, the Rev. George
+Ryerson, on March 8th, 1827, after a visit to the Indian Mission, shows
+Egerton Ryerson's practical nature and incidentally gives us his method
+of instruction. "I visited Egerton at the Credit last week.... They have
+about forty pupils on the list, but there were only thirty present. The
+rest were absent making sugar.... Their progress in spelling, reading,
+and writing, is astonishing, but especially in writing, which certainly
+exceeds anything I ever saw. When I was there they were fencing the lots
+in the village in a very neat, substantial manner. On my arrival at the
+Mission I found Egerton, about half a mile from the village, stripped to
+the shirt and pantaloons, clearing land with between twelve and twenty
+of the little Indian boys, who were all engaged in chopping and picking
+up the brush."[3]
+
+[3] See "Story of My Life," page 69.
+
+
+At the Methodist Conference of 1827, Ryerson was sent to the Cobourg
+Circuit. During his term there he was again drawn into a controversy
+with Dr. Strachan, who sent to the Imperial Parliament an Ecclesiastical
+Chart, purporting to give an account of religion in Upper Canada.
+Ryerson claimed that this chart contained many false statements and
+that it was peculiarly unfair to the Methodists. The real point at issue
+was whether the Anglican Church was to become the Established Church of
+Upper Canada.
+
+In 1828, Ryerson was appointed to the Hamilton and Ancaster Circuit,
+which reached from within five miles of Brantford to Stoney Creek. On
+September 10th, 1828, he married Hannah Aikman, of Hamilton.[4]
+
+[4] Died in 1832. In 1833, Ryerson married Mary Armstrong, of Toronto.
+
+
+The Methodist Conference of 1829 determined to establish an official
+newspaper to be known as _The Christian Guardian_. Ryerson was elected
+as the first editor and was sent to New York to procure the plant. The
+paper started with a circulation of 500, which in three years was
+increased to some 3,000. Besides defending Methodist principles and
+institutions, the paper made a strong stand for civil liberty,
+temperance, education, and missionary work. It soon came to be looked
+upon as one of the leading journals of Upper Canada. Ryerson gave up the
+position of editor in 1832, and the following year made a trip to
+England to negotiate a union between the Canadian Methodist Conference
+and the Wesleyan Conference of England. The union was consummated.
+Ryerson returned to Canada and was re-elected editor of the _Guardian_.
+
+While in England, he had interviews with Earl Ripon, Lord Stanley and
+other public men, to whom he gave valuable information concerning
+Canadian affairs, especially those connected with the vexed question of
+the status of the Anglican Church.
+
+On his return to Canada, in 1833, Ryerson published in the _Guardian_
+"Impressions Made by My Late Visit to England." In this article he gave
+his estimate of Tories, Whigs, and Radicals. He saw much to admire in
+the moderate Tories, little to praise in the Whigs, and much to condemn
+in the Radicals. His strictures on the latter called down upon him the
+wrath and invective of William Lyon Mackenzie. To some extent Ryerson's
+articles led the constitutional reformers in Upper Canada to separate
+themselves from those reformers who were prepared to establish a
+republican form of government in order to secure equal political and
+civil rights. To many of his old friends it seemed that Ryerson had
+given up championing liberty and had become a Tory. Many were ready to
+accuse him of self-seeking in his desire to conciliate the party of
+privilege. One reverend brother,[5] writing to him, says: "I can only
+account for your strange and un-Ryersonian conduct and advice on one
+principle--that there is something ahead which you, through your
+superior political spy-glass, have discovered and thus shape your
+course, while we landlubbers, short-sighted as we are, have not even
+heard of it." Hundreds of subscribers gave up the _Guardian_ as a
+protest against the views of its editor, but as the crisis approached
+which culminated in the Rebellion of '37 and '38, the tide of public
+opinion turned in Ryerson's favour.
+
+[5] Rev. Jas. Evans, of Niagara District. See part of letter in "Story
+of My Life," page 131.
+
+
+In 1835, Ryerson gave up the _Guardian_ and took a church at Kingston.
+Scarcely was he settled when he undertook a second visit to England. The
+Methodists had, in 1832, laid the corner-stone of the Upper Canada
+Academy at Cobourg. They had no charter, although an unsuccessful
+attempt had been made to have the Trustee Board incorporated by the
+Legislature of Upper Canada. Extensive buildings were under way and the
+trustees were in financial difficulties. Ryerson was sent to England to
+beg subscriptions and also to attempt to secure a Royal Charter. The
+work was distasteful to him, but he persevered, and after more than a
+year and six months spent in England he accomplished three ends. He
+secured enough money in subscriptions to relieve the most pressing
+immediate needs of the Trustee Board. He secured an order from the
+Colonial Secretary directed to the Governor of Upper Canada, authorizing
+him to pay to the Upper Canada Academy, from the unappropriated
+revenues of the Crown, the sum of L4,000.[6] Last, and most important,
+he secured a Royal Charter, although up to that time no such charter had
+ever been issued to any religious body except the Established Church. To
+Ryerson, the visit to England was of prime importance. It gave him a
+broadened view of British institutions and English public men. It gave
+him a political experience that was of great value to him in later
+years. It gave him an opportunity to appeal to his fellow men upon the
+subject of education and educational institutions.
+
+[6] Later, in 1837, Ryerson secured this money only after a petition to
+the Legislature.
+
+
+While in England, Ryerson contributed a series of letters to the London
+_Times_ on Canadian affairs. There was a prevalent feeling in England
+that a very large part of the Upper Canadian people was determined upon
+a republican form of government. Ryerson's letters did something to
+remove this impression.
+
+After the Rebellion of 1837 was crushed, the constitutional reform party
+was apparently without any influence. It seemed that the Family Compact
+oligarchy would have everything in their own hands. Prospects for
+equality of civil and religious liberty were not bright, and it is
+significant of the Methodists' appreciation of Ryerson's ability that
+they immediately planned to make him again editor of the _Guardian_.
+His brother John, writing to him in March, 1838, said: "It is a great
+blessing that Mackenzie and radicalism are down, but we are in imminent
+danger of being brought under the domination of a military and
+high-church oligarchy which would be equally bad, if not infinitely
+worse. Under the blessing of Providence, there is one remedy and only
+one: that is for you to take the editorship of the _Guardian_ again."[7]
+
+[7] See copy of letter in "Story of My Life," page 200.
+
+
+Ryerson did take the position, and in his first editorial in the
+_Guardian_ of the 11th July, 1838, says: "Notwithstanding the almost
+incredible calumny which has in past years been heaped upon me by
+antipodes-party-presses, I still adhere to the principles and views upon
+which I set out in 1826. I believe the endowment of the priesthood of
+any Church in the Province to be an evil to that church.... I believe
+that the appropriation of the proceeds of the Clergy Reserves to general
+educational purposes will be the most satisfactory and advantageous
+disposal of them that can be made. In nothing is this Province so
+defective as in the requisite available provisions for an efficient
+system of general education. Let the distinctive character of that
+system be the union of public and private effort.... To Government
+influence will be spontaneously added the various and combined
+religious influences of the country in the noble, statesmanlike and
+divine work of raising up an elevated, intelligent, and moral
+population."
+
+Dr. Ryerson clearly saw that religion, politics, and education could not
+at this period be separated, and for the next two years he did his
+utmost, through the _Guardian_, to prevent the Anglican Church from
+securing undivided possession of the Clergy Reserves. The difficulties
+of his task were increased by the fact that there were in Canada several
+British Wesleyan missionaries who were not unwilling to see an Anglican
+Establishment. They were cleverly used by some of the Anglicans and
+their friends to cause ferment and sow discord among the Methodists in
+Canada. From 1838 until 1840, when he finally gave up the editorship of
+the _Guardian_, Ryerson fought strongly for equal religious privileges
+for all the people of Upper Canada. Nor were Ryerson's efforts in this
+direction confined to the columns of the _Guardian_. He addressed
+several communications to the new Colonial Secretary, Lord Normanby.
+
+Lord Durham and his successor, Lord Sydenham, received the cordial
+support of Ryerson in their efforts to give a constitutional government
+to Canada. Largely through Ryerson's suggestion there was issued at
+Toronto, in 1841, the _Monthly Review_, which was to be a medium for
+disseminating the liberal views of Sydenham. Ryerson wrote the
+prospectus and contributed some articles. Probably as a recognition for
+this work, Sydenham sent him a draft for L100, which he promptly
+returned.
+
+In May, 1840, Ryerson paid a fraternal visit to the American General
+Conference at Baltimore. At this time he fully purposed to take a church
+in New York City for one or two years. He even thought it quite possible
+that he might make the United States his permanent home. On his return
+to Canada from the Baltimore visit he was elected Secretary of the
+Conference. Charges were made against him by a British Wesleyan which
+determined him to visit England. This visit led to a rupture between the
+Canadian and British Methodist Conferences. When Ryerson and his brother
+returned to Canada, a special meeting of the Canada Conference was
+convened to consider the break with British Methodism. The result was a
+rupture in the Canadian Wesleyan Conference itself. Many blamed the
+Ryersons for the quarrel with the English Conference, and Egerton again
+thought seriously of going to the United States or of withdrawing from
+ministerial work. The truth seems to be that Ryerson was more than a
+preacher. He lived in stirring times, when the nascent elements of
+constitutional government were in process of crystallization. He
+unconsciously felt that he must have a part in directing the destinies
+of his native country. He saw clearly that the Canadian Methodist Church
+must ultimately be independent and that its ministers ought not to adopt
+a policy dictated to them by the English Conference, many members of
+which were wholly ignorant of Canadian conditions.
+
+During the next two years, 1841 and 1842, Ryerson was in charge of the
+Adelaide Street Church, Toronto. He seems to have given himself up
+wholly to his pastoral work and to have taken little active part in
+passing events.
+
+On the 27th of August, 1841, Lord Sydenham signed a bill which made
+Upper Canada Academy a college, with university powers. The name was
+changed to Victoria College. In October of the same year, Ryerson was
+appointed the first principal of the new college. He did not give up his
+church work until June, 1842. On the 21st of that month he was formally
+installed in his new position. On the 3rd of August the Wesleyan
+University of Middletown, Conn., conferred upon him the degree of Doctor
+of Divinity.
+
+Lord Sydenham died in 1841. It seems that shortly before his death he
+had some communication with Ryerson regarding the latter's appointment
+as Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada. Ryerson claimed that
+the Governor actually promised him the appointment but that there had
+never been any official written record. Sydenham was succeeded by Sir
+Charles Bagot, who in May, 1842, made the Rev. Mr. Murray Superintendent
+of Education. Sir Charles Bagot died in May, 1843, and was succeeded by
+Sir Charles Metcalfe. It was a critical period in the history of Canada.
+The people were supposed to be in possession of the enjoyment of
+responsible government. But as a matter of fact, very few had any
+definite ideas as to what was meant by responsible government. Lord
+Metcalfe refused to accept the advice of his Council regarding an
+appointment. Instead of resigning at once as a protest they attempted to
+secure from him a promise that he would in future accept their
+recommendations. He refused. Later the leading members of the Council
+resigned. Party feeling ran high, and the Governor had few friends.
+
+Ryerson had been upon familiar terms with Lord Durham, Lord Sydenham,
+and Sir Charles Bagot. He now had several communications and one or more
+interviews with Lord Metcalfe. He made direct and positive offers of his
+services to the Governor. He then wrote a series of nine letters in
+vindication of the Governor's course. These letters caused much
+excitement and won for Ryerson the lasting enmity of the advanced
+Reform party, who openly accused him of toadyism and of selling his
+support to Lord Metcalfe in return for the promise of office. Whatever
+may have been the effect of Ryerson's letters, Lord Metcalfe's party won
+a temporary victory and Ryerson himself was appointed Superintendent of
+Education for Upper Canada in October, 1844.
+
+To show how the political opponents of Lord Metcalfe viewed Ryerson's
+appointment, the circumstances connected with it and his fitness for the
+position of Superintendent, I quote from the Toronto _Globe_, the editor
+of which was an out-and-out opponent of Ryerson and an unsparing critic
+of his early educational legislation. In the _Globe_ of May 28th, 1844,
+there appeared a letter signed "Junius," protesting against Ryerson's
+appointment. The writer insinuates that Ryerson was won over by
+receiving some notice from Lord Metcalfe, and that the Governor hoped by
+winning over Ryerson to win a united support from the Methodists. He
+calls Ryerson a violent political partisan and taunts him with having
+only a superficial education. He says: "Nor is it flattering to the many
+learned men of the country that one represented to be of slender
+attainments in a few common branches of English education, and totally
+ignorant of mathematics and classics, should be entrusted with the
+education of the country, many of whose youthful scholars have attained
+higher knowledge than their chief."
+
+In a _Globe_ editorial of June 4th, 1844, in commenting upon Ryerson's
+first letter in defence of Lord Metcalfe, the writer says: "If the Rev.
+Mr. Ryerson's appearance in the political field is indecorous and
+uncalled for, the manner in which he has begun his work is in perfect
+keeping with that appearance. A more presumptuous and egotistical
+exhibition from a man of talents and education has never been brought
+under the public eye. The first column alone of his Address [preface to
+letters in defence of Lord Metcalfe] contains fifty repetitions of the
+little insignificant word _I_, to say nothing of _me_ and _my_.... We
+may be permitted to express our utter astonishment, however, to find a
+minister of the Gospel embarking with so much eagerness in the sea of
+politics."
+
+That Ryerson had a very good understanding with Lord Metcalfe as to the
+position of Superintendent of Education before writing the famous
+letters is apparent to anyone who reads the correspondence. That there
+was anything discreditable to either party in that understanding has
+never been shown. On the contrary, it seems quite certain that Ryerson
+honestly believed the Governor was right. It is certain he made out a
+strong case and likely won many supporters for the Metcalfe party. This
+was especially galling to the party who called themselves _Reformers_,
+because they had looked upon Ryerson as one of their champions. But
+Ryerson never had been, and never became, a mere party man. He fought
+for great principles, and if up to 1844 he had generally found himself
+with the Reformers, it was because they were championing what Ryerson
+believed to be the right.
+
+To taunt him with being half-educated was the mark of a small mind.
+Every man must be judged according to the way he makes use of his
+opportunities, and by such a standard no man in Canadian public life has
+ever measured higher than Egerton Ryerson. He may have known "little
+Latin and less Greek," he may have been wholly ignorant of the binomial
+theorem, and he may not have been able to write as smooth and graceful
+English as the classical scholars of Oxford, but he knew that thousands
+of boys and girls in the backwoods of Upper Canada were growing up in
+ignorance; he knew that the secondary schools of Upper Canada were
+scarcely more efficient than they had been thirty years before, and he
+knew that the country had ample resources to give reasonable educational
+advantages to all. More than this, he must have felt that, given
+reasonable freedom and support, he could in a short time change the
+whole system of education.
+
+Dr. Ryerson, in accepting appointment, stipulated that he should be
+allowed to make a tour of Europe before taking up the active duties of
+his office. He left Canada for Europe in November, 1844, and returned in
+December, 1845. He made an elaborate report[8] based on personal
+investigation into the schools of Great Britain and Ireland, France,
+Holland, Germany, Switzerland, and other European countries, besides New
+York and the New England States. Perhaps the systems of Ireland,
+Germany, and Massachusetts gave Ryerson more practical suggestions than
+those of any other countries. In Prussia he saw the advantages of
+trained teachers and a strong central bureau of administration; in
+Ireland he saw a simple solution of religious difficulties and a fine
+system of national textbooks; in Massachusetts he saw an efficient
+system managed by popularly elected boards of trustees.
+
+[8] See Chapter V.
+
+
+During his absence Ryerson was again attacked and held up to ridicule by
+the _Globe_. In an editorial of April 29th, 1845,[9] we find the
+following: "The vanity of the Deputy Superintendent of Education demands
+fresh incense at every turn. He has doffed the politician for the moment
+and now comes out a ruling pedagogue of Canada. What a pity that he was
+not a cardinal or at least a stage representative of one! At what a rate
+would he strut upon the boards as Wolsey and rant for the benefit of his
+hearers and for his own benefit more especially! He beats all the
+presumptuous meddling priests of the day.... Doubtless the Rev. Mr.
+Ryerson is preparing to astonish the world by his educational researches
+in Europe and the United States. It will be a subject of no small
+amusement to watch his pranks. We shall no doubt hear of his visiting
+all the most celebrated Continental schools and are astonished he did
+not call at Oxford and Cambridge. He could no doubt have given them some
+excellent hints!"
+
+[9] See bound volumes of _Globe_ in Legislative Library, Toronto.
+
+
+In a _Globe_ editorial of December 16th, 1845, when the Draper
+University Bill of that year was yet a topic of public discussion, we
+find this reference to Ryerson: "It is now more than twelve months since
+the Province was insulted by the appointment of Dr. Ryerson to the
+responsible situation of Superintendent of Public Instruction. To hide
+the gross iniquity of the transaction, Ryerson was sent out of the
+country on pretence of inquiring into the different systems of
+education. After being several months in England this public officer,
+paid by the people of Canada, has for the last eight months been on the
+Continent on a tour of pleasure.... Let the people of Canada rejoice
+and every Methodist willing to be sold throw up his cap. Ryerson is here
+ready to dispose of them to the highest bidder, the purchase money to be
+applied to his own benefit with a modicum for Victoria College."
+
+Ryerson's report of 1846 was favourably received, and the Government
+asked him to draft a school bill based on his report. This he did, and
+the Bill of 1846 became the basis of our Common School system. After
+Lord Metcalfe's departure from Canada and the election of a Reform
+administration, there was a clamour from strong party men that Ryerson
+should be removed. The Toronto _Globe_ led in the attacks against him.
+It is a tribute to his ability and to the system of education which he
+proposed, that these attacks all failed and that Dr. Ryerson came by
+degrees to command the confidence of both political parties.
+
+As soon as possible after his return from Europe in 1845, Ryerson moved
+from Cobourg to Toronto. When appointed in 1844, his rank was that of
+Deputy or Assistant Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada, the
+nominal head of the Department being the Provincial Secretary. The
+School Bill of 1846 made a change, and on June 17th of that year Ryerson
+received his commission as Superintendent of Education. One of his first
+acts was a proposal to found a journal of education, which should be a
+semi-official means of communication between the Superintendent on the
+one hand and District Superintendents, Trustees, Municipal Councillors,
+and teachers on the other. The "Journal" was established in 1848 and
+regularly issued until Ryerson gave up office in 1876.
+
+In the autumn of 1847, Ryerson spent nearly three months visiting County
+School Conventions, where he explained the new School Act and delivered
+a lecture upon "The Importance of Education to an Agricultural People."
+In 1850, Ryerson began a struggle for free schools which lasted until
+1871. About the same time he obtained permission from the Legislature to
+establish an Educational Depository in connection with the Education
+Department. He visited Europe and some American cities and made very
+advantageous arrangements for securing in large quantities books, maps,
+globes, and other school appliances. These were supplied to School
+Boards at 50 cents on the dollar. The Depository was continued in
+operation until 1881 and handled in all $1,000,000 worth of supplies. In
+1853 Ryerson spent three months in attending County Conventions and
+addressed thirty meetings. During this tour he visited his native county
+of Norfolk, and at Simcoe was presented with an address by the School
+Board. On his return to Toronto he was presented with an address and a
+silver tea service by the officials of the Education Department and the
+teachers of the Normal School.
+
+In 1853, Ryerson took advantage of an annual grant made by the
+Legislature in 1850 to establish public libraries throughout the
+Province. Before the end of 1855 no less than 117,000 volumes were
+distributed. In 1854 Ryerson was one of the Commissioners to prepare a
+report on a system of education for New Brunswick. In June, 1855, being
+in poor health, he got leave of absence to travel in Europe and to
+purchase objects of art for an educational museum. He was appointed
+Honorary Commissioner to the Paris Exposition by the Government. During
+his tour he visited London, spent several weeks in Paris, and made brief
+visits to Antwerp, Brussels, Munich, Florence, and Rome.
+
+In 1857, a new system of audit was adopted by the Government. Previous
+to this time the total money voted for schools for Upper Canada had been
+paid over to Ryerson. He gave bondsmen as security for the money and
+deposited it in the Toronto banks. Interest allowed on unexpended
+balances was credited to his personal account. This system seems to have
+been universal among officers in charge of public money at that time.
+But in 1857 the new auditor called in question Ryerson's right to this
+interest. After much wrangling, Ryerson paid over to the Government
+L1,375, being the amount he had received for interest. He then put in a
+claim of about the same amount for his expenses to Europe in 1844, and
+for amounts paid a deputy during his absence. The Government paid his
+claim, thus showing that they believed him morally entitled to the
+interest which he had repaid.
+
+In 1860, Ryerson made a three months' educational tour, addressing
+County Conventions. In all, he attended thirty-five meetings, giving
+addresses on the subjects of "Vagrant Children," "Free Schools," and
+"Public Grammar Schools." He was given a public dinner by the teachers
+of Northumberland and Durham on the occasion of his official visit to
+Cobourg. In 1866 he made a similar tour, addressing forty meetings in
+seven weeks. His chief object was to create public opinion in favor of
+legislation on compulsory attendance, public libraries and township
+Boards of Trustees. Later in the same year he again got permission to
+visit Europe for the purpose of adding to the museum and collecting
+information on schools for the deaf, dumb, and blind. He visited New
+York, London, Paris, Rome, Venice, and Geneva, returning in 1867. On his
+return he presented to the Legislature an elaborate report on education
+in Great Britain and European countries. In December, 1868, Ryerson
+tendered his resignation, suggesting that a responsible Minister of
+Education should be appointed and proposing that he himself should be
+superannuated. The resignation was not accepted.
+
+In 1869 he held another series of County Conventions. In the same year
+he wrote a letter to the Provincial Secretary, Hon. M. C. Cameron,
+reflecting on the action of Treasurer E. B. Wood in regard to a proposed
+change in the financial management of the Education Department.
+Ryerson's letter was indiscreet and would have led to his dismissal had
+he not withdrawn it. In 1872 the long-smouldering dissatisfaction of the
+Reform party with Ryerson's administration came to a head. The
+Honourable Edward Blake was Premier, and his Government disallowed some
+of Ryerson's regulations, questioned the authority of the Council of
+Public Instruction, and sought in many ways to curtail the
+Superintendent's power. Ryerson showed very little desire for
+conciliation and wished to refer the dispute to the Courts. He had so
+long and so successfully wielded an arbitrary power that he could not
+acquiesce in the system which made his Department subordinate to a
+responsible Cabinet. In 1873, Oliver Mowat became Attorney-General, and
+he, too, found Ryerson obdurate. Finally, as a result of this agitation,
+the Council of Public Instruction came to be composed partly of members
+elected by various bodies of teachers and partly by members appointed
+by the Cabinet. These latter were not recommended by the Superintendent,
+as had formerly been the custom. Friction over the Council continued
+during 1874 and 1875.
+
+In 1876, Ryerson was retired on his full salary of $4,000 a year. The
+following May he went to England to consult documents in the library of
+the British Museum bearing on his work, "The Loyalists of America." He
+enjoyed fairly good health until within a few months of his death, which
+occurred on February 19th, 1882. The Government recognized his valuable
+services by a grant of $10,000 to his widow. On the 24th of May, 1889, a
+statue to his memory was unveiled on the grounds of the Education
+Department, the scene of his labours for nearly forty years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+_EDUCATION IN UPPER CANADA FROM 1783 TO 1844--(Continued)._
+
+
+Late in the year 1828, Sir Peregrine Maitland was replaced as
+Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada by Sir John Colborne. About the same
+time Sir George Murray, who had acted as Administrator of the Government
+of Upper Canada in 1815, and who consequently knew something of Canadian
+affairs, became Colonial Secretary in the Imperial Parliament. In
+acknowledging receipt of the petition to His Majesty of the Assembly of
+Upper Canada protesting against the King's College charter, Sir George
+Murray, in a communication to Sir John Colborne, said:[26] "It would be
+deservedly a subject of regret to His Majesty's Government, if the
+University, recently established at York, should prove to have been
+founded upon principles which cannot be made to accord with the general
+feelings and opinions of those for whose advantage it was intended.... I
+have observed that your predecessor (Sir Peregrine Maitland) in the
+Government of Upper Canada differs from the House of Assembly as to the
+general prevalence of objections to the University founded upon the
+degree of exclusive connection which it has with the Church of England.
+It seems reasonable to conclude, however, that on such a subject as this
+an address adopted by a full House of Assembly, with scarcely any
+dissentient voices,[27] must be considered to express the prevailing
+opinion in the Province upon this subject.
+
+[26] See copy of Sir George Murray's letter in D. H. E., Vol. I., pp.
+257 and 258.
+
+[27] The vote stood 21 for and 9 against.
+
+
+"In the event, therefore, of its appearing to you to be proper to invite
+the Legislative Council and House of Assembly to resume the
+consideration of this question, you will apprise them that their
+representations on the existing charter of the University have attracted
+the serious attention of His Majesty's Government and that the opinion
+which may be expressed by the Legislative Council and House of Assembly
+on that subject will not fail to receive the most prompt and serious
+attention."
+
+Shortly after the receipt of this communication Sir John Colborne, as
+Chancellor of King's College, convened the College Council and declared
+that no immediate steps were to be taken toward active University work,
+and that not one stone should be put upon another until certain
+alterations had been made in the charter.
+
+In 1829 the Chairman of the General Board of Education, Rev. Dr.
+Strachan, presented to the Legislative Assembly his first annual report.
+It is an able and very suggestive document. It showed 372 pupils[28] in
+the eleven Grammar Schools, and 401 Common Schools with 10,712 pupils.
+Dr. Strachan had personally visited each Grammar School during 1828, and
+had incidentally learned something of the Common Schools. Referring to
+Grammar Schools he says:[29] "It will be seen that in some places girls
+are admitted.[30] This happens from the want of good female schools, and
+perhaps from the more rapid progress which children are supposed to make
+under experienced and able schoolmasters. It is to be wished, however,
+that separate schools for the sexes were established, as the admission
+of female children interferes with the government which is required in
+classical seminaries; it is, nevertheless, an inconvenience of a
+temporary nature, which will gradually pass away as the population
+increases in wealth and numbers." This "inconvenience of a temporary
+nature" persisted until 1868, when girls were formally admitted as
+pupils in Grammar Schools.
+
+[28] In 1827 there were 329 pupils, of whom 8 in the Cornwall School
+were girls.
+
+[29] See copy of Report in D. H. E., Vol. I., pp. 266 and 267.
+
+[30] The Report for 1828 showed 25 girls in the eleven District
+Schools.
+
+
+Dr. Strachan pointed out very clearly in this Report that the Common
+Schools could never improve very much until the teachers were better
+paid. He also made an excellent practical suggestion.[31] "The
+Provincial Board, therefore, would submit with all deference, that in
+addition to the public allowance, even if increased beyond its present
+amount, a power should be given to the Townships to assess themselves
+for this special purpose."
+
+[31] See original Report in Appendix to Journals of Assembly, U. C., pp.
+16 and 17 of Appendix on Education.
+
+
+Here we have laid down the correct principle of support for public
+schools, and one cannot but feel that had Dr. Strachan followed up this
+suggestion by pressing it upon the Legislature, and by discussing it
+with school-managers and the general public, he might have secured its
+early adoption.
+
+When the Legislature convened in 1829, Sir John Colborne in the Speech
+from the Throne[32] made direct reference to education as follows: "The
+Public [Grammar] Schools are generally increasing, but their
+organization appears susceptible of improvement. Measures will be
+adopted, I hope, to reform the Royal Grammar School [the District School
+at York] and to incorporate it with the University recently endowed by
+His Majesty, and to introduce a system in that Seminary which will open
+to the youth of the Province the means of receiving a liberal and
+extensive course of instruction. Unceasing exertions should be made to
+attract able masters to this country, where the population bears no
+proportion to the number of offices and employments that must
+necessarily be held by men of education and acquirements, for the
+support of the laws and of your free institutions."
+
+[32] See Journals of Assembly for U. C. for 1829, p. 5.
+
+
+This message from the Governor may require some explanation. In the
+first place let us note that Sir John Colborne was an able and
+enlightened man, sincerely desirous of giving to Upper Canada a
+government that would be acceptable to the mass of the people. He seems
+to have realized clearly that the Assembly was a fairly accurate
+reflection of public opinion, and that no policy could ultimately
+prevail unless it was in harmony with its wishes. His action in
+arresting the working of King's College was one proof of this, although
+his subsequent action in founding Upper Canada College solely on his own
+responsibility showed his belief in the power of the Crown to take
+independent action. He saw that the District Grammar Schools were very
+inefficient and were touching the lives of an insignificant proportion
+of the people of Upper Canada. He foresaw that for some years the
+revenue to be derived from the endowment of King's College would not
+support a very pretentious institution, and that for such an
+institution, even if it were in operation, there would be very few
+students prepared by previous study to profit from its courses. In his
+opinion the immediate wants of the country would be better served by a
+high-class school than by a university. Hence his proposal to reform the
+Royal Grammar School at York and incorporate it with King's College.
+
+The Assembly of 1829 contained many eminent men, of whom it is
+sufficient to mention Marshall Bidwell (the Speaker), William Lyon
+Mackenzie, W. W. Baldwin (father of Hon. Robert Baldwin), and John
+Rolph, the latter a graduate of the University of Cambridge. The
+Assembly appointed a select committee on Education. This committee made
+an extensive report[33] upon both District Grammar and Common Schools.
+In regard to the former they were pronounced in their condemnation and
+recommended their abolition. The report claimed that the District or
+Grammar School Trustees, appointed by the Crown, were chosen to promote
+the interests of the Anglican Church; that in many cases the schools
+themselves were merely stepping-stones for the clergy of the Anglican
+Church; that they were under no efficient inspection; that they were
+quite as expensive to those parents who did not live immediately beside
+them as much better schools in the United States; and finally that as
+only 108 pupils in the whole Province were studying languages in these
+schools, that their work could be done equally well by really good
+Common Schools. The report lamented the low salaries of teachers in
+Common Schools and suggested that no Government grants should be given
+unless the managers of schools themselves raised by subscription equal
+amounts. The report also protested against the payment out of public
+funds of L300 a year to Rev. Dr. Strachan, as Chairman of the General
+Board,[34] and against his assumption that reports of District Schools
+should be made to him instead of to the Lieutenant-Governor. The report
+expressed a hope that something might be done to encourage the
+publication of textbooks in Canada, and concluded with expressing
+approval of the Governor's plan to found a seminary of a high class,
+which should be free from sectarian influences and afford advanced
+instruction to the youth of Canada.
+
+[33] See Report in Appendix to Journals of Assembly for 1829, p. 42.
+
+[34] The General Board of Education had been organized by Sir Peregrine
+Maitland wholly on his own authority and that of the Home Government.
+The Assembly naturally refused to acknowledge any obligation to support
+it with public funds.
+
+
+Later in the session of 1829 this select committee on Education prepared
+a series of resolutions which were adopted by the Assembly. The
+following are the chief points in the resolutions:--[35]
+
+1. That the Governor, or Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, not being
+amenable for his conduct to any tribunal, ought not to be Chancellor of
+King's College.
+
+2. That it ought not to be required that the President of King's College
+be a clergyman of the Anglican Church, and that he ought to be elected
+or appointed for a stated term.
+
+3. That the Archdeacon of York ought not by virtue of his clerical
+office to become President of King's College.
+
+4. That the President and Professors of King's College ought not to be
+required to subscribe to the Thirty-nine Articles.
+
+5. That the Degree of Doctor of Divinity ought to be conferred by King's
+College upon any professing Christian who passed the required
+examinations in Classical, Biblical, and other subjects of learning.
+
+6. That wherever the charter of King's College is in any way sectarian
+it should be amended.
+
+[35] See Appendix to Journals of Assembly of U.C. for 1829, pp. 72 and
+73.
+
+
+The Governor asked the Legislative Council to consider in what way the
+charter of King's College could be amended to make it more acceptable to
+the people of Upper Canada. The Council in reply recommended that
+instead of the Archdeacon of York any Anglican clergyman should be
+eligible for President. They also recommended that tests for the Council
+be dispensed with.
+
+Having the sanction of the Home Government, and feeling sure of the
+active support of the Assembly, Sir John Colborne immediately put in
+execution his plan of forming a high-class school to replace the Royal
+Grammar School at York. He caused advertisements to be inserted in the
+British papers for masters. The head master was to have a house, L600
+per annum, and the privilege of taking boarders. The classical and
+mathematical masters were to receive L300 a year and similar privileges.
+The Assembly had suggested that the new school should be known as
+Colborne College, but the name adopted was Upper Canada College. The
+school opened in 1830 with a staff of seven specialists, nearly all
+chosen in England. The work was carried on in the buildings of the old
+Grammar School until handsome and elaborate buildings were erected on
+Russell Square, north of King Street. An endowment of some 60,000 acres
+from the School lands was given the new institution. It was generally
+felt that the new school would, for the present, supply the want of a
+university, and also make it unnecessary for Canadian youths to complete
+their education in the United States.
+
+Before Upper Canada College had been working a year a very
+numerously-signed petition was presented by some York patrons of the
+school praying for some modification of the exclusively classical nature
+of the programme for those boys destined for commerce and mechanical
+pursuits. The Governor's attempt to give Canadians a high-class
+collegiate school seemed only partially successful. The error was in
+attempting to adapt to a new country a form of school that suited the
+requirements of a select class in an old and highly civilized country.
+Latin and Greek must be crammed into boys whether or not they had any
+natural aptitude for language study, and quite irrespective of their
+future occupations in life.
+
+The founding and liberal equipment of Upper Canada College had one
+effect that might easily have been foretold. Petitions came from almost
+every Grammar School District praying for endowed and well-equipped
+schools similar to Upper Canada College. The petitioners resented the
+concentration at York of two important institutions, Upper Canada
+College and King's College, deriving support from an endowment
+originally set aside to give educational facilities to the whole of
+Upper Canada.
+
+The Assembly of 1833, through a select committee, made a minute
+examination into the affairs of Upper Canada College, and passed a
+resolution recommending that it be incorporated with King's College. I
+give here quotations from two writers on Upper Canada College, showing
+how differently things appear when viewed through different eyes. The
+first is from a letter written in 1833 by Rev. Thomas Radcliffe.[36]
+"Future generations will bless the memory of Sir John Colborne, who, to
+the many advantages derived from the equity and wisdom of his
+government, has added that of a magnificent foundation [in Upper Canada
+College] for the purposes of literary instruction. The lowest salary of
+any of the professors of this institution is L300 per annum, with the
+accommodation of a noble brick house and the privilege of taking
+boarders at L50 per annum."
+
+[36] See copy of letter in D. H. E., Vol. II., pp. 120 and 121.
+
+
+The next is from "Sketches," published by William Lyon Mackenzie,
+London, 1833. "Splendid incomes are given to the masters of the new
+[Upper Canada] College, culled at Oxford by the Vice-Chancellor, and
+dwellings furnished to the professors (we may say) by the sweat of the
+brow of the Canadian labourer. All these advantages and others not now
+necessary to be mentioned, are insufficient to gratify the rapacious
+appetite of the 'Established Church' managers, who, in order to
+accumulate wealth and live in opulence, charge the children of His
+Majesty's subjects ten times as high fees as are required by the less
+amply endowed Seminary at Quebec. They have another reason for so doing.
+The College (already a monopoly) becomes almost an exclusive school for
+the families of the Government officers, and the few who, through their
+means, have, in York, already attained a pecuniary independence out of
+the public treasury. The College never was intended for the people, nor
+did the Executive endow it thus amply that all classes might apply to
+the fountain of knowledge."[37]
+
+[37] See volume in Library of Parliament, Ottawa, pp. 190 and 191.
+
+
+As time passed the College founded by Sir John Colborne did good work as
+a secondary school for people of wealth, but all attempts to make it
+popular with the mass of the people proved ineffective. The Legislature
+gave it an annual grant somewhat unwillingly.[38] The buildings were
+erected, and part of the annual expenses paid from advances made by the
+King's College Council.
+
+[38] See D. H. E., Vol. III., p. 123.
+
+
+By an Act passed in 1839[39] there was an attempt made to raise the
+College to the dignity of a temporary university. This action displeased
+the Council of King's College because it tended to delay the opening of
+lectures in that institution. In 1849, when the Baldwin University Bill
+made an independent corporation of Upper Canada College, that
+institution was indebted to the University for nearly $40,000, which was
+never repaid.[40]
+
+[39] See D. H. E., Vol. III., pp. 170 and 171.
+
+[40] For the later history of Upper Canada College see "History of Upper
+Canada College," by Principal George Dickson.
+
+
+In 1831 the Methodists began to build at Cobourg the Upper Canada
+Academy, which was to be open to all religious denominations. They felt
+that although Upper Canada College was non-sectarian in a legal sense,
+yet, inasmuch as the principal and professors were Anglican clergymen,
+the institution was essentially an Anglican College.
+
+At this time the Rev. Egerton Ryerson was editor of _The Christian
+Guardian_ newspaper, the official organ of the Methodist Conference. In
+an editorial, April, 1831, he thus refers to the proposed Upper Canada
+Academy: "It is the first literary institution which has been commenced
+by any body of ministers in accordance with the frequently expressed
+wishes of the people of Upper Canada. The Methodist Conference have not
+sought endowments of public lands for the establishment of an
+institution, contrary to the voice of the people as expressed by their
+representatives.... Desirous of promoting more extensively the interests
+of the rising generation and of the country generally, we have resolved
+upon the establishment of a Seminary of Learning--we have done so upon
+liberal principles--we have not reserved any peculiar privileges to
+ourselves for the education of our children; we have published the
+constitution for your examination; and now we appeal to your liberality
+for assistance.... On the characteristics of the system of education
+which it is contemplated to pursue in the proposed Seminary, we may
+observe that it will be such as to produce habits of intellectual labour
+and activity; a diligent and profitable improvement of time; bodily
+health and vigour, a fitness and relish for agricultural and mechanical,
+as well as for other pursuits; virtuous principles and Christian morals.
+On the importance of education generally we may remark, it is as
+necessary as the light--it should be as common as water, and as free as
+air.... Education among the people is the best security of a good
+government and constitutional liberty; it yields a steady, unbending
+support to the former, and effectually protects the latter. An educated
+people are always a loyal people to good government; and the first
+object of a wise government should be the education of the people. An
+educated people are always enterprising in all kinds of general and
+local improvements. An ignorant population are equally fit for, and are
+liable to be, slaves of despots and the dupes of demagogues; sometimes,
+like the unsettled ocean, they can be thrown into incontrollable
+agitation by every wind that blows; at other times, like the
+uncomplaining ass, they tamely submit to the most unreasonable
+burdens.... Sound learning is of great worth even in religion; the
+wisest and best instructed Christians are the most steady, and may be
+the most useful. If a man be a child in knowledge he is likely to be
+tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, and
+often lies at the mercy of interested, designing men; the more knowledge
+he has the safer is his state. If our circumstances be such that we have
+few means of improvement, we should turn them to the best account.
+Partial knowledge is better than total ignorance; and he who cannot get
+all he may wish, must take heed to acquire all that he can. If total
+ignorance be a bad and dangerous thing, every degree of knowledge
+lessens both the evil and the danger."[41]
+
+[41] See copy of letter in D. H. E., Vol. II., pp. 7 and 8.
+
+
+Ryerson wrote this when he was only twenty-eight years of age, but it
+foreshadows the fundamental principles upon which he later attempted to
+base a national system of education.
+
+It is interesting to note that in this same year the United Presbytery
+of Upper Canada were discussing the establishment of a Literary and
+Theological Seminary at Pleasant Bay, in Prince Edward County. This
+seminary never was established, but the agitation for it led to the
+founding of Queen's University, at Kingston.
+
+While Methodist and Presbyterian clergy were forming plans for
+academies, the members of the Legislative Assembly were debating a
+series of resolutions on the School Reserves and the failure of the
+people of Upper Canada to secure the free Grammar Schools for which the
+Crown Lands were appropriated in 1798. Several things are made plain in
+these resolutions regarding the attitude of the popularly elected branch
+of the Legislature. The following stand out prominently:--
+
+1. That the existing Grammar Schools were wholly inadequate to perform
+the work for which they were created.
+
+2. That the real intentions of the Crown in setting apart the immense
+School Reserves in 1798 had never been carried out.
+
+3. That the successive Canadian Administrations had been largely
+concerned in appropriating the lion's share of these Reserves for
+University education.
+
+4. That the School Reserves of 1798, with proper management, would be
+now (1831) sufficiently productive to give great assistance to education
+if applied in accord with the real wishes of the people.
+
+5. That the money received from these School lands from time to time
+ought to be paid in to the Receiver-General and disposed of only by
+vote of the Legislature.
+
+Further protests were made against the exclusive nature of King's
+College charter, and the Assembly was assured by Sir John Colborne that
+some changes would be made. As a matter of fact, on the 2nd of November,
+1831, Lord Goderich, the British Colonial Secretary, in a lengthy
+communication to Governor Colborne, showed that His Majesty's Government
+was fully seized of the situation in regard to the charter of King's
+College. Lord Goderich said,[42] "I am to convey through you to the
+Members of the Corporation of King's College, at the earnest
+recommendation and advice of His Majesty's Government, that they do
+forthwith surrender[43] to His Majesty the charter of King's College of
+Upper Canada, with any lands that may have been granted them." Lord
+Goderich then proceeds to intimate that a new charter will be granted by
+the Legislature of Upper Canada. Lord Goderich further proceeds to give
+some very sound advice concerning the necessity of mutual forbearance
+among a people of diverse religious creeds.
+
+[42] See copy of despatch in D. H. E., Vol. II., p. 55.
+
+[43] This the College Council positively refused to do.
+
+
+In the Assembly there was shown an intelligent grasp of the educational
+needs of the country and a determination to secure better schools. Had
+the Executive Council and Legislative Council been equally zealous in
+the cause of education, the fathers and mothers of the generation which
+profited from Ryerson's reforms might themselves have had the advantage
+of good schools.
+
+The following extracts from an address to His Excellency, Sir John
+Colborne, will show the temper and wishes of the Assembly: "We, His
+Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the Commons of Upper Canada in
+Provincial Parliament assembled, most respectfully beg leave to
+represent that there is in this Province a very general want of
+education; that the insufficiency of the Common School fund [the total
+Government grant for schools in 1831 was $11,200] to support competent,
+respectable, and well-educated teachers, has degraded Common School
+teaching from a regular business to a mere matter of convenience to
+transient persons, or common idlers, who often teach the school one
+season and leave it vacant until it accommodates some other like person
+to take it in hand, whereby the minds of our youth are left without
+cultivation, or, what is still worse, frequently with vulgar, low-bred,
+vicious, or intemperate examples before them in the capacity of
+monitors."[44] The address proceeded to state that there was urgent need
+of a Government fund to secure larger grants for teachers' salaries, and
+asked His Excellency to lay before the Colonial Secretary a plan to set
+aside one million acres of waste land in Upper Canada for the support of
+Common Schools.
+
+[44] See Journals of Assembly, U. C., 1831, p. 40.
+
+
+In this Address the Assembly virtually said to the Crown, "Give us some
+fixed capital as a source of revenue and we will speedily reorganize our
+schools." The Assembly knew what was needed and knew how to remedy the
+existing conditions, but was powerless because the Crown revenue was
+subject only to the control of the Executive Council.
+
+The session of 1832-33[45] was very active from an educational point of
+view. The Assembly was informed by His Excellency that the Crown had
+consented to give over to the Legislature, for the support of Grammar
+Schools, control of the 258,330 acres of School lands, being the balance
+of the original grant of half a million acres made in 1798, and from
+which had already been made extensive grants to endow King's College and
+Upper Canada College. Much of the remainder of this land, which was now
+vested in the Legislature, was not of a superior quality. It had also
+been selected in township blocks and naturally had very little value
+until settlements were made in surrounding townships.
+
+[45] The previous session, William Lyon Mackenzie had been expelled from
+the Assembly because of his criticism of the Governor, in his newspaper,
+the _Colonial Advocate_. It is interesting to note that Mackenzie's
+criticisms of the Governor were largely based on His Excellency's
+actions in regard to education.
+
+
+The Assembly prepared an Address to His Majesty praying for a grant of
+one million acres of Crown lands for the establishment and support of
+Township Common Schools. As a measure of immediate relief for these
+schools, a bill was passed by the two branches of the Legislature, and
+assented to by His Excellency, providing for two years an additional
+grant of $22,000. This sum was allotted to the several Districts,
+approximately in proportion to population, but no Board of Trustees was
+to receive any of this grant unless they secured for their teacher a sum
+equal at least to twice the Government grant.
+
+The most significant feature of the session, however, was a Common
+School Bill, introduced into the Assembly by Mr. Mahlon Burwell, and
+read a first time. The bill proposed to repeal all previous Common
+School legislation; to establish a General Board and also District
+Boards of Education; to grant L10,000 to Common Schools as a Legislative
+grant and to assess a further L10,000 on the rateable property of the
+Districts.
+
+This bill, had it become law, would have anticipated Ryerson's
+legislation by nearly twenty years, and it is interesting to note the
+comments made upon it by that gentleman, who was at this time editor of
+the _Christian Guardian_. The _Guardian_ of January 15th, 1834,
+expressed a general approval of the plan of taxation but was totally
+opposed to the _appointment_ of Boards of Education. After showing that
+the principle of local taxation was borrowed from the New England
+States, where it was working satisfactorily, Ryerson says: "The next
+leading feature of the bill is the appointment of a General Board of
+Education and also District Boards of Education. This is proposed to be
+left to the Governor, or person administering the Government, a
+proposition, in our opinion, radically objectionable. It makes the
+system of education, in theory, a mere engine of the Executive, a system
+which is liable to all the abuse, suspicion, jealousy and opposition
+caused by despotism; and it withholds from the system of Common School
+education, in its first and prominent feature, that character of common
+interest and harmonious co-operation which, as we humbly conceive, are
+essential to its success, and even to its acceptance with the Province.
+Education is an object in which the Government, as an individual portion
+of the Province, and the people at large possess, in some respects, a
+common interest, consequently they should exercise a joint or common
+control.... And in an equitable and patriotic administration of
+Government, the more its agents and the people's agents are associated
+together in promoting the common weal, the more strongly will mutual
+respect and confidence and co-operation between the people and the
+Government be established, the less room there will be for Executive
+negligence, or partiality, or popular or local abuse; and the less
+opportunity there will be for either despotic oppression or demagogue
+misrepresentation."
+
+In 1834 there was a General Election, which resulted in the return to
+the Assembly of a large majority in favour of reform principles, and
+wholly opposed to the arbitrary and aristocratic ideas of the
+Legislative Council. Bidwell, Rolph, and William Lyon Mackenzie were
+three leading spirits in the new House.
+
+When the Assembly opened the Governor laid before the members a despatch
+from the Colonial Office, stating His Majesty's readiness to transfer
+240,000 acres in the settled townships in return for the School lands
+which were in township blocks and not then saleable.
+
+A bill was passed by the Legislature renewing for two years, 1835 and
+1836, the increased grant of L5,650 for Common Schools.
+
+A grant of L200 was also made to Mechanics' Institutes at York and a
+grant of L100 to one at Kingston.
+
+Considerable time was spent in the Assembly upon two bills which were
+rejected by the Executive Council. One was a bill to regulate Common
+Schools which would have given them a thorough organization and made
+them subject to popular control by elected Boards and Superintendents.
+The Executive Council had no faith in control by the people. They
+doubted whether "the respectable yeomanry of the country" were capable
+of choosing suitable Superintendents. The other was a bill to amend the
+charter of King's College. These amendments were designed to remove all
+religious tests and to have the College governed by a Council, half of
+whom were to be appointed by the Assembly and half by the Legislative
+Council. The only reasons given by the Council for rejecting these
+amendments were that they knew of no university so governed and that a
+university must have as a basis some established form of religion. In
+the meantime, while the hide-bound worshippers of European traditions
+who made up the Council were delaying the active work of King's College,
+the youth of Upper Canada, preparing for the learned professions, were
+compelled to seek university advantages in the United States or Great
+Britain. More than this, owing to the lack of advantages in their own
+country, many who could otherwise have afforded it were wholly deprived
+of the higher education and training necessary for the professions they
+had in view.
+
+The Legislative Council at this time, and for many years afterwards,
+made boasts of their loyalty to the Crown, and upon some occasions
+arrogated to themselves and their friends a monopoly of all loyal spirit
+in Upper Canada, and yet they firmly refused to surrender the charter
+and endowment of King's College when requested and even urged to do so
+by His Majesty's Colonial Secretary[46]. From 1831 to 1835, the Council
+refused to accept any substantial amendments made in that charter
+suggested by the Assembly, although Lord Goderich had, in 1831, made it
+quite clear that His Majesty's Government wished the question of the
+charter to be settled by the Upper Canada Legislature.
+
+[46] See letter of Lord Goderich of Nov. 2nd, 1831, to Sir John
+Colborne.
+
+
+When, upon the 6th of May, 1835, Sir John Colborne sent to the Colonial
+Secretary the King's College Charter Amendment Bill passed by the
+Assembly, he urged the immediate opening of King's College, although he
+had declared to the College Council that "not one stone should be placed
+upon another" until the charter was amended. It may also be gathered
+from this despatch to Lord Glenelg[47] that Sir John Colborne
+accompanied it with a draft of amendments which he thought would be
+acceptable to both branches of the Legislature of Upper Canada. His
+Lordship was too astute a politician and too thoroughly informed
+concerning Canadian public opinion to be easily misled. Sir John
+Colborne, as a concession to the Assembly, proposed that five out of
+seven of the governing body should be permanently of the faith of the
+Church of England. The other two members were to be the
+Lieutenant-Governor and the Archdeacon of York! Lord Glenelg, in reply,
+says: "I cannot hesitate to express my opinion that this plan claims for
+the Established Church of England privileges which those who best
+understand and most deeply prize her real interests would not think it
+prudent to assert for her in any British Province on the North American
+Continent.... I would respectfully and earnestly impress upon the
+Members of both these Bodies [Assembly and Council] the expediency of
+endeavouring, by mutual concessions, to meet on some common ground.
+Especially would I beg the Legislative Councillors to remember that, if
+there be any one subject on which, more than others, it is vain and
+dangerous to oppose the deliberate wishes of the great mass of the
+people, the system of national instruction to be pursued in the moral
+and religious education of youth is emphatically that subject."[48] Lord
+Glenelg concludes by referring the question of amending the charter back
+to the Legislature of Upper Canada and states that His Majesty will act
+as mediator only if the two branches of the Legislature fail to agree
+and then only upon their presenting a joint Address.
+
+[47] See D. H. E., Vol. II., p. 214.
+
+[48] See copy of letter in D. H. E., Vol. II., pp. 213 and 214.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+_EDUCATION IN UPPER CANADA FROM 1783 TO 1844--(Continued)._
+
+
+During the Legislative session of 1836, Sir John Colborne was replaced
+by Sir Francis Bond Head as Lieutenant-Governor. It would seem that the
+difference of opinion between Sir John Colborne and Lord Glenelg of the
+Colonial Office was responsible for the former's asking to be recalled.
+His last official act as Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, and one
+intimately connected with educational controversy at a later date, was
+to sign patents for the endowment of forty-three Anglican rectories out
+of the Clergy Reserve lands.
+
+In the Legislature no real progress was made in education, although a
+lengthy report[49] and a draft School Bill were presented by a member of
+the Assembly, Doctor Charles Duncomb. This report was based on a visit
+paid by Doctor Duncomb to the Eastern, Middle and Western United States.
+It is interesting and emphasizes the importance of a suitable education
+for women.
+
+[49] See Appendix to Journals of Assembly of U.C., 1836. See also
+Assembly Journals for 1836, pp. 213 and 214.
+
+The most important event of the year in its after effects upon education
+in Upper Canada was the formal opening of Upper Canada Academy[50] at
+Cobourg, under a Royal Charter secured by Egerton Ryerson.
+
+[50] See Chapter I.
+
+
+In resigning his position as editor of _The Guardian_, the official
+organ of Methodism, Ryerson referred to the condition of education in
+Upper Canada, emphasizing the supreme importance of elementary
+instruction for every child in the country. It is also interesting to
+note that at this date, when he had probably never dreamed of having any
+official connection with elementary education, he should have touched
+the very root of the problem by pointing out the utter impossibility of
+making any real progress without a body of educated and trained
+teachers.
+
+The Legislature of 1837 set at rest for a few years the vexed question
+of an amendment to King's College charter. The majority of the
+Legislative Council were stoutly opposed to any modifications that would
+lessen the control of the Anglican Church, but they saw that public
+opinion was strong enough to prevent the opening of the college until
+amendments were made. They also saw that they were running a risk of
+having the charter cancelled and a new one granted by the Crown. They
+accordingly accepted certain amendments proposed by the Legislative
+Assembly. These amendments[51] gave _ex-officio_ seats on the College
+Council to the Speaker of the two branches of the Legislature and to the
+Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General of Upper Canada; they removed
+from members of the Council and from professors every semblance of a
+religious test except the following declaration: "I do solemnly and
+sincerely declare that I believe in the authenticity and Divine
+Inspiration of the Old and New Testaments and in the Doctrine of the
+Holy Trinity"; they removed absolutely from religious tests all students
+and candidates for degrees; they made the Judges of His Majesty's Court
+of King's Bench visitors instead of the Lord Bishop of Quebec, and
+vested the appointment of future presidents in His Majesty instead of
+conferring that office _ex-officio_ upon the Archdeacon of York.
+
+[51] See Journals of Assembly of Upper Canada for 1837, Legislative
+Library, Toronto.
+
+
+Steps were taken at once to place the college in a position to begin
+work. A very able and comprehensive scheme[52] of studies and courses
+was drawn up by the President, Dr. Strachan, and everything promised
+favourably, when the Rebellion broke out and all operations were
+suspended.
+
+[52] See D. H. E., Vol. III., pp. 93-98.
+
+
+The following sketch of the Common Schools of this period, written by
+Mr. Malcolm Campbell, an old teacher of Middlesex, is inserted because
+it is believed to be typical of Upper Canada conditions. Mr. Campbell
+began to teach in 1835:--
+
+"The School Houses, during the time I taught, were built of round logs
+about 14 x 16 ft., with clapboard roofs and open fireplaces. A window
+sash on three sides for light, a board being placed beneath them, on
+which to keep copies and slates. There were long hewn benches without
+backs for seats. There were no blackboards or maps on the chinked walls.
+There was a miscellaneous assortment of books, which made it very
+difficult to form classes. Cobb's and Webster's Spelling-books
+afterwards gave place to Mavor's. The Testament was used as a Textbook,
+a supply of which was furnished by Rev. Benjamin Cronyn, afterwards
+Bishop of Huron. The English Reader, and Hume and Smollett's History of
+England were used by the more advanced classes. Lennie's Grammar, and
+Dilworth's and Hutton's Arithmetics, and the History of Cortez' Conquest
+of Mexico were used, also a Geography and Atlas, and a variety of books.
+Goose-quills were used for pens, which the teacher made and mended at
+least twice a day. The hours of teaching were somewhat longer than at
+present, and there was no recess. The number of scholars varied from 15
+to 30, and school was kept open eight to ten months in the year with a
+Saturday vacation every two weeks. Teachers, after having taught school
+for some months, underwent a pretty thorough oral examination by the
+District Board of Education, and were granted First, Second, or Third
+Class certificates according to their merits, real or supposed. They had
+the Government grant apportioned to them according to their standing.
+Mr. Donald Currie, in the section west of me, drew annually $120 on the
+ground of his high qualifications as well as his teaching Latin. My
+share of the grant was $80. Mr. Benson east of me drew $50.... The
+Government grant was what the teacher mainly depended on for cash. The
+rest of his pay, which varied from $10 to $16 a month, Government grant
+included, was mostly paid in "kind," and very hard to collect at that.
+
+"The Trustees in these early days assumed duties beyond what they now
+possess. In engaging a teacher, they examined him as to his
+qualifications in the three R's and as much farther as any of themselves
+knew. They fixed the rate bill which each scholar should pay, usually at
+a dollar and fifty cents a quarter; and any family sending more than
+three scholars should go free, as well as the children of widows.... The
+teacher was expected to 'board round' at that rate of pay. He usually
+boarded in one or two houses near the school, doing chores morning and
+evening. The Trustees assessed each scholar with half a cord of wood
+during winter, which was scantily supplied; sometimes the teacher and
+bigger boys went with an axe to the woods to make up the deficiency. The
+trustees were to examine the school quarterly, and sign the Quarterly
+Reports so that the teacher might draw the Government grant."[53]
+
+[53] See D. H. E., Vol. III., pp. 131, 132.
+
+
+The following "Rules for the Government of Common Schools" prescribed by
+the Board of Education for the Niagara District is taken from Gourley's
+"Statistical Account of Upper Canada, 1817-1822," Vol. II.; Appendix,
+pp. 116-119:--
+
+    "1. The Master to commence the labours of the day by a short prayer.
+
+    "2. School to commence each day at 9 o'clock and five hours at least
+    to be given to teaching during the day, except on Saturdays.
+
+    "3. Diligence and Emulation to be cherished and encouraged among the
+    pupils by rewards judiciously distributed, to consist of little
+    pictures and books, according to the age of the scholar.
+
+    "4. Cleanliness and Good Order to be indispensable; and corporal
+    punishment seldom necessary, except for bad habits learned at
+    home--lying, disobedience, obstinacy and perverseness--these
+    sometimes require chastisement; but gentleness even in these cases
+    would do better with most children.
+
+    "5. All other offences, arising chiefly from liveliness and
+    inattention, are better corrected by shame, such as gaudy caps,
+    placing the culprits by themselves, not permitting anyone to play
+    with them for a day or days, detaining after school hours, or during
+    a play afternoon, or by ridicule.
+
+    "6. The Master must keep a regular catalogue of his scholars and
+    mark every day they are absent.
+
+    "7. The forenoons of Wednesday and Saturday to be set apart for
+    Religious Instruction; to render it agreeable the school should be
+    furnished with at least ten copies of Barrows' 'Questions on the New
+    Testament,' and the Teacher to have one copy of the key to these
+    questions for his own use; the teacher should likewise have a copy
+    of Murray's 'Power of Religion on the Mind,' Watkin's 'Scripture
+    Biography,' and Blair's 'Class Book,' the Saturday Lessons of which
+    are well-calculated to impress religious feeling.
+
+    "Note.--These books are confined to no religious denomination, and
+    do not prevent the Masters from teaching such Catechism as the
+    parents of the children may adopt.
+
+    "8. Every day to close with reading publicly a few verses from the
+    New Testament, proceeding regularly through the Gospels.
+
+    "9. The afternoons of Wednesday and Saturday to be allowed for play.
+
+    "10. A copy of these Rules to be affixed up in some conspicuous
+    place in the School-room, and to be read publicly to the Scholars
+    every Monday morning by the Teacher."
+
+No doubt much good teaching was done in schools nominally governed by
+similar codes of instruction. The teacher is always the real force in a
+school and good teachers are never slaves to mechanical rules.
+
+These "rules," however, suggest a form of punishment that was largely
+used in those days even by good teachers and has not yet been wholly
+banished from the schoolroom--ridicule. Here we see it offered as an
+improvement upon corporal punishment. It may have had its advantages
+over the brutal punishments sometimes inflicted in the old days, but I
+think Dr. Johnson was right in saying that a reasonably severe corporal
+punishment was better for both teacher and pupil than either "nagging"
+or ridicule. No doubt the systems of Bell and Lancaster were responsible
+for the use recommended of ridicule in the Niagara District in 1820.
+
+One important Bill, "An Act to Provide for the Advancement of
+Education,"[54] became law during the session of 1839. This Bill set
+apart 250,000 acres of waste lands for the support of District Grammar
+Schools, made provision for additional schools in districts where they
+were needed, and provided for the erection of new buildings and
+assistant masters. The Bill also placed the revenue and management of
+these schools under the Council of King's College. In this way King's
+College, Upper Canada College, and the District Grammar Schools--all the
+machinery of higher education--were brought under central authority.
+
+[54] See Journals of Legislature of Upper Canada for 1839. Legislative
+Library, Toronto. See also copy of bill in D. H. E., Vol. III., pp. 170,
+171.
+
+
+From a careful reading of a despatch[55] sent by Sir George Arthur to
+the Colonial Office, in connection with the Act referred to above, it
+seems quite clear that the land grant of 250,000 acres now set apart for
+District Grammar Schools was the balance of the original 549,217 acres
+granted by the Crown in 1798 for the endowment of Free Grammar Schools
+and a University. Thus, after forty years, the intentions of the Crown
+regarding Grammar Schools were to be realized. But only in part, because
+the Act of 1839 did not make the Grammar Schools free.
+
+[55] Reprinted in D. H. E. See Vol. III., pp. 173-183.
+
+
+It was confidently hoped by many of the King's College Council, and
+especially by the President, Rev. Dr. Strachan, that when the college
+charter was amended in 1837 nothing would interfere with the immediate
+execution of plans for building and opening King's College. Elaborate
+plans and models of a building were prepared and sent out from England,
+an architect was employed, advertisements for tenders for a building
+were inserted in various newspapers, and the contract was about to be
+awarded, when Sir George Arthur hurriedly convened the Council and
+ordered an investigation into the finances of the College.
+
+His suspicions had evidently been awakened by some returns on College
+affairs presented in response to an Address by the Assembly. The report
+of the special audit committee[56] appointed by the Council revealed a
+startling condition of affairs and incidentally a strong argument
+against allowing any body or corporation to handle public funds without
+an annual audit by someone responsible to Parliament.
+
+[56] See proceedings of King's College Council, 1837-1840.
+
+
+The Bursar, the Hon. Joseph Wells, a prominent member of the Legislative
+Council, had diverted to his own use and that of his needy friends some
+L6,374, and the sum of L4,312 had been loaned to the President, Dr.
+Strachan. There was in use a very primitive system[57] of book-keeping,
+and on the whole just such management as might have been expected from
+the close corporation which had, up to 1837, made up the King's College
+Council. There was also much mismanagement of the financial affairs of
+Upper Canada College. These revelations delayed building operations
+until 1842.
+
+[57] See Report of T. C. Patrick, Vol. II., manuscript Minutes King's
+College Council, pp. 68-73.
+
+
+On December 3rd, 1839, the last session of the Legislature of Upper
+Canada was opened by Charles Poulett Thompson, afterwards Lord Sydenham.
+A Bill was passed granting a charter to the "University of Kingston."
+When the Bill was introduced into the Assembly, the name was to be the
+"University of Queen's College."[58] Why the change was made does not
+seem very clear, but perhaps it was because the promoters of the Bill
+were not certain that Her Majesty had given her consent to the use of
+her name in the Act. The Act placed the College largely under the
+control of the Presbyterian Church and wholly under control of
+Presbyterians, but no religious tests were to be exacted from students
+or graduates except in Divinity. The 15th section of the charter
+authorized the representative of Her Majesty in Canada to pay from the
+revenues of King's College a sum sufficient to establish a Chair in
+Divinity. This arrangement doubtless was the result of a despatch from
+the Colonial Office some years previous to the effect that any
+modification of King's College charter should provide for a Divinity
+Professor of the Church of Scotland. Some readers of the present day may
+ask, Why not also for other religious denominations--Methodists,
+Baptists, and Congregationalists? The answer is simple. The Churches of
+England and Scotland were national churches in Great Britain and
+Ireland. The Anglican Church in Canada in 1840 claimed to be an
+Established Church, and as the Clergy Reserve controversy was then
+unsettled, her claim had reasonable expectation of realization. Had her
+claim been allowed, it would have strengthened any claim the
+Presbyterian Church might have made also to rank as an Established
+Church.
+
+[58] See D. H. E., Vol. III., Chap. XVI., pp. 284-299.
+
+
+This Canadian charter to the "University of Kingston" was cancelled by
+the Crown with the consent of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, and a
+Royal Charter issued to the "University of Queen's College." By this
+Royal Charter, Queen's lost the Divinity Professorship which, by the
+Canadian charter, was to be established out of King's College
+foundation. The Crown had power to grant a charter but no power to
+interfere with the funds of King's College, which were subject to the
+Canadian Legislature.
+
+The Commission[59] appointed by the Legislature in 1839 to prepare a
+report[60] on education gave a comprehensive account of the condition of
+schools, but without throwing much new light upon them. The total number
+of pupils in the District Grammar Schools was still about 300, but the
+number in the Common Schools was estimated at 24,000, or about one in
+eighteen of the total population. As to the nature of the schools
+attended by these 24,000, there is abundant evidence to prove that they
+were very inefficient. The Rev. Robt. McGill, of Niagara, says: "I know
+the qualifications of nearly all the Common School teachers in this
+district, and I do not hesitate to say that there is not more than one
+in ten fully qualified to instruct the young in the humblest
+department." The London District Board for 1839 says: "The Masters
+chosen by the Common School Trustees are often ignorant men, barely
+acquainted with the rudiments of education and, consequently, jealous of
+any school superior to their own."[61]
+
+[59] The members were: Rev. John McCaul, Rev. Henry Grasett and
+Secretary Harrison.
+
+[60] See D. H. E., Vol. III., pp. 243-283. Also Appendix to Journals of
+Assembly for 1840.
+
+[61] See D. H. E., Vol. III., p. 266.
+
+
+The Grammar Schools had been gradually improving since their
+establishment, but were still very far from supplying the real needs of
+the people. They had no uniformity in course of study or textbooks, and
+were under no inspection. In fact, lack of supervision was the weakest
+spot in the whole school system.
+
+Lord Durham, in his famous Report,[62] refers to education in Upper
+Canada thus: "A very considerable portion of the Province has neither
+roads, post offices, mills, schools, nor churches. The people may raise
+enough for their own subsistence and may even have a rude and
+comfortless plenty, but they can seldom acquire wealth; nor can even
+wealthy landowners prevent their children from growing up ignorant and
+boorish, and from occupying a far lower mental, moral and social
+position than they themselves fill.... Even in the most thickly peopled
+districts there are but few schools, and those of a very inferior
+character; while the more remote settlements are almost entirely without
+any."
+
+[62] See Lord Durham's Report, p. 66.
+
+
+The Committee recommended better salaries, normal schools for training
+teachers, British textbooks, an Inspector-General of Education, and a
+Provincial Board of School Commissioners. Looking at the matter
+three-quarters of a century later, we can see that really good schools
+were not then immediately possible. Schools, like everything else,
+cannot be created at command. They are the result of evolution. Upper
+Canada College illustrates this. Expensive buildings were erected and
+capable masters secured in England, and yet the school was not really
+efficient for many years. The country was largely a wilderness. The
+people were comparatively poor and their first care was to provide the
+necessities of life. The sad side to the picture is that there was among
+the mass of the people so little real interest in education and so
+little appreciation of its worth. People will never struggle to acquire
+that of which they feel no need. It seems quite clear, too, that the
+struggle for civil and religious freedom and equality hindered the
+development of a good school system. The latter could scarcely be
+possible before the former had triumphed. The natural leaders of the
+people and those who by superior attainments and education were fitted
+for leadership were straining every nerve and mustering every known
+resource to overthrow a corrupt oligarchy. Even among the spiritual
+leaders of the people there was no unity of purpose. Instead of working
+shoulder to shoulder with one another for the moral and intellectual
+growth of their people, they were in many cases sapping their strength
+through acrimonious and recriminating discussions of state church,
+sectarianism, Clergy Reserves, endowment and grants. When once it was
+finally settled that Upper Canada was to have responsible government and
+that all races and all creeds were to enjoy equal civil, religious and
+political rights, it was much easier to lay a solid foundation for the
+development of efficient schools.
+
+To this nothing contributed more than the Municipal Act of 1841. It
+supplied the necessary local machinery, working in harmony and in close
+connection with a central government. It seemed to leave almost
+everything to local initiative and local control, thus appealing to
+local patriotism. In reality it gave a central authority power to direct
+by laying down broad general principles, and it stirred up a maximum of
+local self-effort by distributing Provincial grants.
+
+Sydenham's first Speech from the Throne to the Legislature of the United
+Canadas in 1841 referred to the necessity of a better system of Common
+Schools. During the session the Legislature passed an elaborate Act for
+this purpose, and although it proved not to be of a practical nature it
+showed an earnest desire on the part of the Legislature to improve the
+Common Schools. The Act appropriated L50,000 per year to be distributed
+among the Common Schools in proportion to the number of pupils between 5
+and 16 years of age in each district. It provided a Superintendent of
+Education for the United Canadas and prescribed his duties. It
+established popularly-elected Township Boards and passed certain rates
+to be assessed on the ratepayers.
+
+The most significant feature of the Bill was that it contained the germ
+which later developed into our elaborate system of Separate Schools.
+Early in the session, forty petitions were presented asking that the
+Bible be used in the schools. There was also a petition from Rev. Dr.
+Strachan and the Anglican clergy asking that Anglican children be
+educated by their own pastors and that they receive a share of public
+funds for support of their schools. The Roman Catholics also petitioned
+against some principles of the Common School Bill then before the House.
+
+These things will probably explain why the Bill as passed contained a
+clause allowing any number of dissentients (not necessarily Roman
+Catholics) in Township Schools to withdraw and form a school of their
+own, and also a clause which created for cities and incorporated towns a
+School Board, half of whom were Protestant and half of whom were Roman
+Catholic. The Catholics and Protestants might work together and maintain
+schools in common, or they might constitute themselves into separate
+committees, each committee virtually controlling its own schools.
+
+Thus we see that while the Assembly were fighting to break down a system
+of sectarianism in university education, they were introducing into the
+Common Schools a policy that led to divisions on account of religion.
+
+During the session of 1841, the Upper Canada Academy at Cobourg secured
+incorporation as Victoria College with university powers, and also a
+grant of L500, which later was made annual. Here, too, the Legislature
+was granting public money to a sectarian institution, although it should
+be noted that no religious tests were to be exacted of any students, and
+that five public officers, the President of the Executive Council, the
+Speakers of the two branches of the Legislature, and the
+Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General for Canada West were to be
+_ex-officio_ visitors and members of the Victoria College Senate.
+
+Early in 1842, Queen's University was opened for the reception of
+students. Later in the same year the corner-stone of King's College was
+laid with imposing ceremony by Sir Charles Bagot, the Governor-General.
+In 1843 the King's College professors began lectures. This gave three
+colleges with university powers in active operation in Upper Canada in
+1843.
+
+In May, 1842, the Governor-General appointed the Hon. Robert Jameson,
+Vice-Chancellor of Upper Canada, to be Chief Superintendent of
+Education, and the Rev. Robert Murray, of Oakville, to be Assistant
+Superintendent for Upper Canada. Mr. Murray was a scholarly gentleman,
+but possessed no special qualifications for so important an office. It
+seems probable that as early as 1841 Sydenham had some thought of
+giving the position to Ryerson. It also seems probable that Sir Charles
+Bagot knew of this and had some communication with Ryerson in respect to
+it. It is more than likely that Ryerson had been too active, both in
+opposing the arbitrary acts of the Legislative Council and in promoting
+the interests of his own Church, to be readily acceptable to His
+Excellency's Council, nearly all of whom were Churchmen.
+
+It was soon discovered that the Common School Act of 1841 could never be
+put into operation. It had only a single merit--good intentions. In 1843
+it was decided to amend it and enact a separate Bill for Upper and Lower
+Canada. That for Upper Canada was introduced by Hon. Francis Hincks.
+Speaking of the Bill[63] he says: "The principle adopted in the School
+Bill of 1843 is this: The Government pays a certain amount to each
+Township--the property in that Township pays an equal amount; or if the
+Councillors elected by the people choose it, double the amount. This
+forms the School Fund, which is divided among the school districts, the
+Trustees of which raise the balance of the teacher's salary by a Rate
+Bill on the parents of the children. The system is as simple as it is
+just.... In framing this system, gentlemen, you will observe that, as
+in all other instances, the late Ministry have divested the grant of all
+local patronage. Everything has been left to the people themselves; and
+I feel perfectly convinced that they will prove themselves capable of
+managing their own affairs in a more satisfactory manner than any
+Government Boards of Education or visiting Superintendents could do for
+them.
+
+[63] See "Reminiscences of His Public Life," by Sir Francis Hincks, pp.
+175-177. Library of Parliament, Canada.
+
+
+"The new School Act provides also for the establishment in each Township
+of a Model School--the teacher of which is to receive a larger share
+than others of the School Fund, provided he gives gratuitous instruction
+to the other teachers in the Township, under such regulations as may be
+established.
+
+"There is also provision for a Model School in each county, on a similar
+plan, but, of course, of a higher grade. It is left to the people
+themselves or their representatives in the several municipalities, to
+establish these Model Schools or not, as they deem expedient. But it is
+provided that as soon as a Provincial Normal School shall be in
+operation (and the system will never be complete without one) the
+teachers of the Model Schools must have certificates of qualification
+from the professors of the Normal School."
+
+This Act of 1843 is much more elaborate in its provisions than any
+preceding legislation affecting Common Schools in Upper Canada. It
+provided for county superintendents appointed by wardens and for
+township, town or city superintendents appointed by the municipal
+council. It would seem that in many points the duties of these two
+classes of superintendents would conflict, as both were allowed to
+examine and appoint teachers, and both were to visit schools. Every
+section was to have a Board of Trustees elected by ratepayers, and to
+these trustees was given charge of school property and the regulation of
+course of study, including choice of textbooks. It would seem that full
+local control was given except in the matter of certificating teachers
+and regulating the government grant.
+
+Either Protestants or Roman Catholics might petition for a Separate
+School on the application of ten or more resident freeholders, but such
+schools when established were maintained and controlled by the same
+machinery as other schools. Model Schools were to receive a larger grant
+from the Legislature. A county superintendent could issue unlimited or
+limited certificates, but all certificates issued by a township, town,
+or city superintendent were limited to the division in which they were
+issued and were valid for one year only.
+
+The marked weaknesses of the Act may be summed up as follows:--
+
+1. Possible conflict of authority between county and local
+superintendents.
+
+2. No uniformity of course of study or textbooks.
+
+3. No accepted standard of qualification for teachers.
+
+4. No method provided for training of teachers, as a Normal School was
+merely suggested, and Model Schools were optional.
+
+5. No provision made to secure competent local superintendents. Any man
+might be appointed.
+
+But with all its deficiencies the School Bill of 1843 was a proof that
+the Legislature earnestly desired to promote elementary education. It
+was, no doubt, felt by many public men, and especially by the Governor,
+that no man was so well qualified as Ryerson to direct that system at
+headquarters. To pave the way for Ryerson's appointment, Rev. Robert
+Murray was made Professor of Mathematics in King's College, and in
+September, 1844, Ryerson became Assistant Superintendent of Education
+for Upper Canada. He was to have leave of absence for travel and for
+investigation into the school systems of Europe.
+
+As events proved, Ryerson's appointment as Superintendent of Education
+soon bore fruit in a more efficient system of Common Schools. But
+university affairs were still in a state of chaos.
+
+The amendments to the charter of King's College made in 1837 were
+disappointingly unfruitful of any practical changes. The College
+remained in charge of Anglicans, and was in reality, if not in a legal
+sense, a Church of England institution. The question may naturally be
+asked, why did the legislation of 1837 not effect greater changes? The
+answer is simple. In 1837 the seat of government was at Toronto, and the
+five _ex-officio_ Government officers could easily attend meetings of
+King's College Council. But after the Act of Union in 1841 the seat of
+government was moved first to Kingston and later to Montreal. It then
+became wholly impossible for the five lay members of King's College to
+attend regular meetings in Toronto. The result was that the affairs of
+King's College remained practically in the hands of the president and
+professors, who made no real efforts to adapt the College to the needs
+of the people of Upper Canada. Bishop Strachan, the President, could not
+forget his original plans in securing the charter, and was still trying
+to realize them as far as possible. In a petition which he presented to
+Parliament in 1845 against the Draper University Bill, he makes his real
+object very clear. He says: "Above all things, I claim from the
+endowment the means of educating my clergy. This was my chief object in
+obtaining the Royal Charter and the Endowment of King's College; ... and
+was indeed the most valuable result to be anticipated by the
+institution.... This is a point which never can be given up, and to
+which I believe the faith of Government is unreservedly pledged."[64] As
+time went on and the history of the Royal grant of 1798 came to be more
+fully discussed and understood, the determination of the people grew
+more and more fixed to secure such modifications in the King's College
+Charter as would make it a national instead of a sectarian institution.
+
+[64] See D. H. E., Vol. V., p. 137.
+
+
+The proposal of Baldwin, introduced in 1843, was statesmanlike, and
+although it failed to pass owing to the early resignation of his
+Ministry, it is interesting because it outlined in part the principles
+upon which the University question was finally settled. The Bill
+proposed to create a University of Toronto, and leave King's College as
+a theological seminary without power to confer degrees. Queen's,
+Victoria, and Regiopolis[65] were to become affiliated in connection
+with Toronto University, and were to surrender their powers to confer
+degrees. In return they were to receive certain grants from the King's
+College endowment. Toronto University was to become the only
+degree-conferring power in Upper Canada. Baldwin had the Governor's
+consent to bring in this Bill, and had his Ministry remained in power
+it would doubtless have passed. The Bill had the active support of
+Queen's and Victoria, and the bitter opposition of Dr. Strachan.[66]
+
+[65] Regiopolis, a Roman Catholic college incorporated by the
+Legislature in 1837, had not, at this time, degree-conferring powers.
+
+[66] See his petition presented to House of Assembly, 1843, against
+Bill.
+
+
+Dr. Ryerson summed up the whole situation in a reply to an eloquent and
+very able argument of Hon. W. H. Draper, who appeared at the Bar of the
+House of Assembly as Counsel of King's College Council, in opposition to
+the Bill. Dr. Ryerson concludes as follows: "The lands by which King's
+College has been so munificently endowed, were set apart nearly fifty
+years ago (in compliance with an application in 1797 of the Provincial
+Legislature) for the promotion of Education in Upper Canada. This was
+the object of the original appropriation of those lands--a noble grant,
+not to the Church of England, but to the people of Upper Canada. In 1827
+Doctor Strachan, by statements and representations against which the
+House of Assembly of Upper Canada protested again and again, got 225,944
+acres of these lands applied to the endowment of the Church of England
+College. Against such a partial application and perversion of the
+original Provincial objects of that Royal grant the people of Upper
+Canada protested; the Charter of King's College was amended to carry out
+the original object of the Grant; the general objects of the amended
+Charter have been defeated by the manner in which it has been
+administered, and the University Bill is introduced to secure their
+accomplishment; and the Council of King's College employ an advocate to
+perpetuate their monopoly. The reader can, therefore, easily judge who
+is the faithful advocate and who is the selfish perverter of the most
+splendid educational endowment that was ever made for any new
+country.... I argue for no particular University Bill; but I contend
+upon the grounds of right and humanity, that Presbyterians, Methodists
+and all others ought to participate equally with the Episcopalians in
+the educational advantages and endowments that have been derived from
+the sale of lands, which, pursuant to an application from the Provincial
+Legislature, were set apart in 1797 by the Crown for the support of
+Education in Upper Canada."[67]
+
+[67] See D. H. E., Vol. V., pp. 49-59.
+
+
+In looking back upon the situation from our vantage-ground, covering a
+lapse of nearly three-quarters of a century, we may marvel that all
+parties were not ready to compromise upon the basis of a purely secular
+and national university. But secular, state-owned colleges are a very
+modern growth, and few men among our grandfathers had the courage to
+champion such institutions. An educational institution without some
+religious basis had uncanny associations. Therefore, it is not a matter
+for surprise that many good men were prepared to mutilate the University
+Endowment of Upper Canada, and dissipate it among sectarian colleges.
+Such, to a large degree, would have been the result had the Draper Bill
+of 1845 become law.
+
+The Draper Government made a further attempt to settle the vexed
+question in 1846. John A. Macdonald (afterwards Sir John A. Macdonald)
+made another unsuccessful attempt in 1847. The Hon. Robert Baldwin then
+became Premier, and after securing the Report of a Commission on
+University Affairs, he introduced and passed a University Bill in 1849.
+This Act has been many times amended, but the final result has been to
+preserve for the people of Upper Canada the University Endowment, and to
+remove from the management every semblance of sectarian control. The
+University has become the property and the pride of all classes,
+irrespective of race, politics, or religion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+_RYERSON'S FIRST REPORT ON A SYSTEM OF ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION._
+
+
+"The true greatness of a people does not consist in borrowing nothing
+from others, but in borrowing from all whatever is good, and in
+perfecting whatever it appropriates."--_M. Cousin._
+
+This quotation from the eminent Frenchman admirably illustrates the
+spirit of Ryerson's first Report[68] and the draft of proposed
+legislation accompanying it. His Report contains comparatively little
+that is original, being made up of ninety per cent. of quotations from
+Horace Mann's Report and from reports of eminent European statesmen and
+educators. And yet the Report is none the less valuable because of the
+quotations, nor does a reading of it tend to lessen one's respect for
+the writer. On the contrary, the aptness of the quotations and the
+skilful way in which Ryerson marshals his proofs, show his statesmanship
+and genius for organization. He saw enough during his European and
+American tours of investigation to convince him that Canada could, with
+profit to herself, borrow many things from other peoples. His shrewd
+common sense and intimate first-hand knowledge of Canadian conditions
+told him exactly what ought to be done, and he wisely allowed others to
+tell in his Report their own stories. His position was that of a skilled
+advocate bringing forth witness after witness to give evidence to the
+soundness of his theories.
+
+[68] See "Report on a System of Public Elementary Instruction for Upper
+Canada," by Egerton Ryerson, published 1847, consisting of 191 pages.
+
+_Note._--Unless otherwise specified, all quotations in this Chapter are
+from the above report.
+
+
+He sets out by defining education, and although his definition is not
+scientific in a psychological sense, it is essentially correct--it
+points to the school as an agency to promote good citizenship. "By
+education I mean not the mere acquisition of certain arts or of certain
+branches of knowledge, but that instruction and discipline which qualify
+and dispose the subjects of it for their appropriate duties and
+employments of life, as Christians, as persons of business, and also as
+members of the civil community in which they live."
+
+Ryerson then points out that in Upper Canada the education of the masses
+has been sacrificed to the education of a select class. He wishes to see
+a system of universal education adapted to the needs of the country.
+"The branches of knowledge which it is essential that all should
+understand should be provided for all, and taught to all; should be
+brought within the reach of the most needy and forced upon the attention
+of the most careless. The knowledge required for the scientific pursuit
+of mechanics, agriculture, and commerce must needs be provided to an
+extent corresponding with the demand and the exigencies of the country;
+while to a more limited extent are needed facilities for acquiring the
+higher education of the learned professions." The Report sets forth a
+great array of proof drawn from the United States, Britain, Switzerland,
+Germany, and other European countries, to show that the productive
+capacity of the people, their morality and intelligence, are in direct
+proportion to their schools and institutions of learning. Ryerson lays
+down as fundamental that any system adopted for Upper Canada must be
+universal in the sense of giving elementary instruction to all and
+practical in the sense of fitting for the duties of life in a young
+country. He goes to considerable trouble to show that in his view the
+practical includes religion and morality, as well as a development of
+the merely intellectual powers.
+
+Ryerson was no narrow ecclesiastic, but still he could conceive of no
+sound system of elementary instruction that did not provide for the
+teaching of the essential truths of Christianity. He was decidedly not
+in favour of secular schools or secular colleges. And yet he believed
+that religious instruction in mixed classes was possible, and pointed
+out in his Report how it might be conducted. He made a very sharp
+distinction between religion and dogma, between the essential truths of
+Christianity and sectarianism. Dogma and sectarian teaching, in his
+opinion, had no place in schools except in those where all the pupils
+were of a common religious faith. What he pleads for in his Report is
+the recognition of Christianity as a basis of all instruction, and the
+teaching of as much of the Bible as could be given without offending any
+sectarian prejudices. "To teach a child the dogmas and spirit of a Sect,
+before he is taught the essential principles of Religion and Morality,
+is to invert the pyramid, to reverse the order of nature,--to feed with
+the bones of controversy instead of with the nourishing milk of Truth
+and Charity.... I can aver from personal experience and practice, as
+well as from a very extended enquiry on this subject, that a much more
+comprehensive course of Biblical and Religious instruction can be given
+than there is likely to be opportunity for doing so in Elementary
+Schools, without any restraint on the one side or any tincture of
+sectarianism on the other,--a course embracing the entire history of the
+Bible, its institutions, cardinal doctrines and morals, together with
+the evidences of its authenticity." The Report goes on to show how from
+Ryerson's viewpoint the absence of religious teaching in the schools of
+the American Union was having a damaging effect upon the moral fibre of
+the national life. He further illustrated by reference to what he saw in
+France, Germany, and Ireland, how religious instruction might be given
+without causing any denominational friction or unpleasantness.
+
+After defining the aim and scope of a national system of education, and
+giving it a religious foundation, the Report outlines the subjects that
+should be taught in Elementary Schools, and illustrates in almost every
+case how these several subjects should be presented. While the basis of
+the instruction proposed is the three R's--reading, including spelling;
+'riting, and 'rithmetic--yet it is remarkable to what an extent Ryerson
+proposed to go in "enriching" the Common School programme. Indeed, as
+one reads the Report he is inclined to repeat the old adage: "There is
+nothing new under the sun." Almost every subject introduced into Ontario
+schools during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, and many
+which yet, in the twentieth century, seem to have an insecure foothold,
+and are by many denominated "fads," were included by Ryerson in his
+memorable Report of 1846, and the arguments he uses in favour of their
+adoption would not seem out of place if used by an advanced educator of
+the present day. He pleads for music, drawing, history, civics,
+inductive geography, inductive grammar teaching, concrete number work,
+oral instruction, mental arithmetic, nature study, experimental science,
+book-keeping, agriculture, physical training, hygiene, and even
+political economy. He illustrates some German methods of teaching
+reading that many Ontario teachers fondly think were originated in their
+own country.
+
+Ryerson from Canada, Horace Mann from Massachusetts, Sir Kay
+Shuttleworth from England, besides many others, about this time paid
+visits to Prussia, and went home to recommend the adoption of much that
+they saw. These men were acute observers. They recognized that the
+Germans had learned something that was not generally known by other
+teachers. How are we to explain it? Had the German teachers by accident
+blundered upon better _methods_ of teaching than were practised by other
+nations? Not so. The German methods were the natural result of the
+German philosophy. The work of Herbart, Froebel, and other thinkers, was
+bearing its natural fruit, and many of the improvements introduced into
+the Canadian schools by Ryerson and practised by Canadian teachers,
+perhaps in an empirical way, were far-away echoes of principles
+laboriously worked out by German scholars.
+
+Ryerson's remarks on teaching Biography and Civil Government seem almost
+like an echo from some modern school syllabus. "Individuals preceded
+nations. The picture of the former is more easily comprehended than that
+of the latter, and is better adapted to awaken the curiosity and
+interest the feeling of the child. Biography should, therefore, form the
+principal topic of elementary history; and the great periods into which
+it is naturally and formally divided,--and which must be distinctly
+marked,--should be associated with the names of some distinguished
+individual or individuals. The life of an individual often forms the
+leading feature of the age in which he lived and will form the best
+nucleus around which to collect, in the youthful mind, the events of an
+age, or the history of a period.... Every pupil should know something of
+the Government and Institutions and Laws under which he lives, and with
+which his rights and interests are so closely connected. Provision
+should be made to teach in our Common Schools an outline of the
+principles and constitution of our Government; the nature of our
+institutions; the duties which they require; the manner of fulfilling
+them; some notions of our Civil, and especially our Criminal Code."
+
+The second part of Ryerson's Report is wholly concerned with the
+machinery of a System of Public Elementary Instruction for Upper Canada.
+The Report, after giving an outline of the various classes of schools
+in France and Germany, recommends for Canada a system as
+follows:--Common or Primary Schools for every section of a township;
+District Model Schools, which would correspond with the German Real or
+Trade Schools; District Grammar Schools, which would correspond with the
+German Higher Burgher Schools and Gymnasia; and, completing all, one or
+more Provincial Universities. The Report also suggested that as
+Districts became more populous each would in time be able to support,
+say three Model Schools, and these might specialize, one training for
+agriculture, another for commercial life, and a third for mechanical or
+industrial life.
+
+Normal Schools were also recommended for the training of teachers, and
+elaborate arguments set forth showing their benefits. The example of
+France, Germany, Ireland, and the United States is quoted to show how
+these schools would secure better teachers, and that better teachers
+would mean better schools. Ryerson believed that Normal Schools would
+elevate teaching to the rank of a profession. He believed that the
+people were intelligent enough to choose good teachers in preference to
+poor ones if the good ones were at hand. He also pointed out how a good
+teacher would be able to economize the child's time and advance him much
+faster than an indifferent teacher.
+
+The Report then deals with the subject of textbooks. We need to remember
+that in Upper Canada at this time there was no control of textbooks.
+Each local Board or each teacher made a selection. In the majority of
+cases the matter regulated itself. Pupils used what they could get. With
+many of the people, a book was a book, and one was as good as another.
+The utmost confusion prevailed. There had been many complaints that some
+of the books used were American and anti-British in tone. By 1846 the
+enterprise of Canadian publishers had driven out many of the American
+texts, but in some districts they were still in common use.[69] In
+reference to this, Ryerson says: "The variety of textbooks in the
+schools, and the objectionable character of many of them, is a subject
+of serious and general complaint. All classification of the pupils is
+thereby prevented; the exertions of the best teacher are in a great
+measure paralyzed; the time of the scholars is almost wasted; and
+improper sentiments are often inculcated." The Report suggests that this
+matter must be under central control and not left to any local board or
+district superintendent. To fully appreciate the importance of this
+matter we need to remember that books meant more sixty years ago than
+they do to-day in any system of instruction. The better the teacher the
+less he is dependent upon a book, especially in such subjects as
+arithmetic, grammar, geography, or history. But in 1846 the teachers
+were in many cases wholly helpless without books. A boy went to school
+to "mind his book." Rote learning, working problems by a rule laid down
+in the book, studying printed questions and answers, were largely what
+was meant by "schooling." Bad as such a system was, its evils were
+increased when the books were especially unsuitable. Ryerson praised
+very highly the series in use in the National Schools of Ireland, and
+later he introduced them into Canada.
+
+[69] A Report made to the Education Office, for 1846, shows that there
+were in use in Upper Canada schools 13 Spelling, 107 Reading, 35
+Arithmetic, 20 Geography, 21 History, and 16 Grammar texts, besides 53
+different texts in various other subjects.
+
+
+Public men in Upper Canada who took an interest in education had long
+recognized that the Common Schools were sadly in need of a stronger
+central control, and some system of inspection. But how to secure these
+safeguards and yet not destroy the principle of local control was no
+easy problem to solve. The township superintendents were not educators.
+They often were intelligent men, but as a class were without any
+knowledge of how to guide schools or inspire teachers to nobler things.
+They received from L10 to L20 a year for their services, which sum was
+as good as wasted. The Act of 1841, and that of 1843, had made
+provision for local superintendents of education, and had also defined
+their duties, but the Act had made no provision to secure the due
+performance of their orders. They were without power except such as the
+District and Township Boards voluntarily allowed them to assume. They
+might make suggestions and give advice, but with that their legal
+functions were at an end.
+
+When M. Cousin, in 1836, visited Holland to examine into the system of
+primary instruction in that country, the Dutch Commissioner who had
+founded the system said to him: "Be watchful in the choice of your
+inspectors; they are the men who ought to be sought for with a lantern
+in the hand." Ryerson recognized the truth of this, and in his Report
+laid it down as essential to any efficient system.
+
+His report on the control that should be exercised directly by the
+Government I shall quote entire.
+
+"(1) To see that the Legislative grants are faithfully and judiciously
+expended according to the intentions of the Legislature; that the
+conditions on which the appropriations have been made are in all cases
+duly fulfilled.
+
+"(2) To see that the general principles of the law as well as the
+objects of its appropriations are in no instance contravened.
+
+"(3) To prepare the regulations which relate to the general character
+and management of the schools, and the qualifications and character of
+the teachers, leaving the employment of them to the people and a large
+discretion as to modes of teaching.
+
+"(4) To provide or recommend books from the catalogue of which Trustees
+or Committees may be enabled to select suitable ones for the use of
+their schools.
+
+"(5) To prepare and recommend suitable plans of school-houses and their
+furniture and appendages as one of the most important subsidiary means
+of securing good schools--a subject upon which it is intended by me, on
+a future occasion, to present a special report.
+
+"(6) To employ every constitutional means to excite a spirit of
+intellectual activity and enquiry, and to satisfy it as far as possible
+by aiding in the establishment and selection of school libraries and
+other means of diffusing useful knowledge.
+
+"(7) Finally and especially, to see that an efficient system of
+inspection is exercised over all the schools. This involves the
+examination and licensing of teachers, visiting the schools, discovering
+errors and suggesting remedies as to the organization, classification
+and methods of teaching in the schools, giving counsel and instruction
+as to their management, carefully examining the pupils, animating
+teachers, trustees and parents by conversations and addresses, whenever
+practicable, imparting vigour by every available means to the whole
+school system. What the Government is to the system and what the teacher
+is to the school, the local inspector or superintendent of schools
+should be within the limits of his district."
+
+This plan made the Local Superintendent responsible for the examination
+and licensing of teachers according to regulations laid down by the
+Department. With this important exception it will be seen that the
+functions of the Government as exercised through the Department of
+Education are substantially the same to-day as they were outlined in
+Ryerson's first report.
+
+The concluding part of the report dealt with what Ryerson called
+"Individual Efforts," and under this heading he said some very sensible
+things. He emphasized the importance of parents taking an interest in
+the school, of clergymen and magistrates visiting the school, of good
+school libraries, of Teachers' Institutes, of debating clubs, and of
+every agency that would assist in stimulating intellectual life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+_RYERSON'S SCHOOL BILL OF 1846._
+
+
+The year 1846 will ever be memorable in the annals of school legislation
+in Upper Canada, because it established the main principles upon which
+all subsequent school legislation was founded. As already pointed out,
+the Act of 1843 was largely a failure because it did not provide
+adequate machinery for the enforcement of its provisions. No important
+school legislation was undertaken during 1845 in anticipation of
+Ryerson's report. After making his report, Ryerson drafted a Bill which,
+with a few trifling emendations, became the Common School Act of 1846.
+It will assist us to an intelligent grasp of future legislation if we
+examine this Act with some care.
+
+It first defined the duties of the Superintendent of Schools. He became
+the chief executive officer of the Government in all school matters. He
+was to apportion among the various District Councils (there were twenty
+at this time) in proportion to the school population, the money voted by
+the Legislature for the support of common schools (the total Legislative
+grant for 1846 was L20,962 to 2,736 schools) and see that it was
+expended according to the Act; he was to supply school officers with all
+necessary forms for making school returns and keep them posted as to
+school regulations; he was to discourage unsuitable books as texts and
+for school libraries and to recommend the use of uniform and approved
+texts; he was to assume a general direction of the Normal School when it
+became established; he was to prepare and recommend plans for
+school-houses, with proper furniture; he was to encourage school
+libraries, and finally he was to diffuse information generally on
+education and submit an annual report to the Governor-General.
+
+The Act established the first General Board of Education.[70] It was to
+consist of the Superintendent of Education and six other members
+appointed by the Governor-General. This Board was to manage the Normal
+School, to authorize texts for schools and to aid the Superintendent
+with advice upon any subject which he should submit to it.
+
+[70] The one in existence from 1823 to 1833 was not established by
+Parliament but by the Lieutenant-Governor by the authority of the
+Imperial Government.
+
+
+The Act provided for a Normal and Model School. It required each
+Municipal District Council to appoint a Superintendent of Schools. No
+qualification was fixed for the District Superintendent. It would have
+been useless to do so, because there were no men technically qualified
+for such positions. The only thing to do was trust to the District
+Council to choose the best man available. The District Municipal Council
+was also instructed to levy upon the rateable property of the District a
+sum for support of schools at least equal to the Legislative grant. They
+were to divide each township, town or city into numbered school
+sections. They were also given power by by-law to levy rates upon any
+school section for the purchase of school sites, erection of school
+buildings or teachers' residences in that section.
+
+The District Superintendents became very important officers, and upon
+their learning, zeal, integrity and tact must have depended much of the
+success or failure of the schools of this period. They were required to
+apportion the District School Fund, consisting of the Legislative grant
+and Municipal levy, among the various school sections in proportion to
+the number of children between five and sixteen years of age resident in
+the section, and pay these sums to the teacher on the proper order being
+presented; to visit all schools in their Districts[71] at least once a
+year and report on their progress and general condition; to advise
+trustees and teachers in regard to school management; to examine
+candidates for teachers' certificates, and grant licenses, either
+temporary or permanent, to those who were proficient; to revoke licenses
+held by incompetent or unsuitable teachers; to prevent the use of
+unauthorized textbooks; and finally, to make an annual report of the
+schools in their districts to the Chief Superintendent.
+
+[71] Five Districts had, in 1846, more than 200 schools each, the
+average for the Province being 155 schools for each District.
+
+
+The Act declared that all Clergymen, Judges of the District Court,
+Wardens, Councillors and Justices of the Peace were to be school
+visitors, with the right to visit any school or schools in their
+districts except Separate Schools. They were given authority to question
+pupils, conduct examinations and advise the teachers, or make reports to
+the District Superintendent. They were especially charged with the duty
+of encouraging school libraries. One remarkable power was conferred upon
+them. Any two school visitors of a district were allowed to examine a
+candidate for a teacher's license and grant such license if they saw fit
+for a term not exceeding one year in a specified school.
+
+There are two simple explanations[72] of this clause in Ryerson's School
+Act. He may have wished to interest school visitors in the schools by
+giving them some power. He may have wished to create a local power to
+act in an emergency if a school became vacant through any cause during a
+school term. In many cases the Superintendent lived fifty to
+seventy-five miles from the remote corners of his District, and with the
+primitive means of communication in use at that time, it was an
+advantage to have some local body with authority to license teachers.
+
+[72] Ryerson also gives as a reason his desire to make a gradual
+transition from the old system of license by Township Boards to the new
+plan of granting licenses only by the District Superintendent. See D. H.
+E., Vol. VII., P. 155.
+
+
+It is a matter for regret that at the present time the various officials
+mentioned here as school visitors, as well as parents generally, are so
+seldom seen inside the public schools. True, we now have trained
+teachers, and teaching has so far become a profession that few school
+visitors would care to question pupils, but the very presence in the
+school-room from time to time of educated men and women, and especially
+those occupying public positions, has a beneficial effect upon both
+teachers and pupils. Pupils feel that the work of the school must be
+important if it is worthy of the attention of busy and successful men.
+Teachers are encouraged to make a good showing and are often hungry for
+the few words of sympathy and encouragement that would naturally
+accompany such visits. The school can never fully realize its function
+as a social institution unless the best citizens take an active interest
+in it. This was uppermost in Ryerson's mind when he penned that part of
+his report relating to individual efforts in promoting the welfare of
+the school.[73]
+
+[73] See Report in D. H. E., Vol. VI., p. 208.
+
+
+The Act of 1846 defined in detail how school trustees were to be
+elected. In all previous Acts the whole Trustee Board was elected
+annually. This gave to the Board no continuity of corporate life. One
+Trustee Board might have certain plans and make a certain bargain with a
+teacher. The new Board might have different plans and repudiate the
+contracts of its predecessor. Ryerson's Bill solved the difficulty by
+having trustees elected for three years, one to retire annually.
+Trustees' duties were not materially different from those of trustees
+to-day except in one or two particulars. They had to raise by a rate
+bill upon parents of pupils attending school such sums as were required
+over and above the two school grants for payment of the teacher's salary
+and the incidental expenses of the school; they were required to make
+provision by which the children of indigent parents were exempted,
+wholly or in part, from school rates; and they were required to select
+school books from a list sanctioned by the Department of Education. In
+Ryerson's draft bill he proposed that the rate bill should be levied
+upon the property of the section. This would virtually have given free
+schools. The Legislature of 1846 amended this clause and made the rate
+bill assessable only upon parents of children in actual attendance.
+Ryerson says of these rate bills:[74] "The evils of the present system
+of school rate bills have been brought under my notice from the most
+populous townships and by the most experienced educationists in Canada.
+When it is apprehended that the rate bill in a school section will be
+high, many will not send their children to the school at all--then there
+is no school; or else a few give enough to pay the teacher for three
+months, including the Government grant; or even after the school has
+commenced, if it be found that the school is not so large as had been
+anticipated, and that those who send will consequently be required to
+pay more than they had expected, parents will begin to take their
+children from school in order to escape the rate bill as persons would
+flee from a falling house! The consequence is that the school is either
+broken up, or the whole burthen of paying the teacher falls upon the
+trustees, and often as a consequence a quarrel ensues between them and
+the teacher. I have been assured by the most experienced and judicious
+men, with whom I have conversed on the subject, that it is impossible to
+have good schools under the present rate bill system. I think the
+substitute I proposed will remedy the evil. I know of none who will
+object to it but the rich and the childless and the selfish. Education
+is a public good; ignorance is a public evil. What affects the public
+ought to be binding upon each individual composing it. In every good
+government and in every good system the interests of the whole society
+are obligatory upon each member of it."
+
+[74] See D. H. E., Vol. VI., p. 76.
+
+
+This rate bill, as authorized in 1846, was, however, an improvement on
+the old one which was levied upon parents according to the actual time
+of the child's attendance, whereas the Bill of 1846 levied a tax upon
+the parents of children in actual attendance for at least two-thirds of
+the whole school term, whether the children attended regularly or
+irregularly.
+
+Teachers' duties were defined by the Act much as they are to-day.
+District Model Schools were authorized on the same condition as in the
+Act of 1843. The clauses in the Act of 1843 relating to the formation of
+Separate Roman Catholic or Protestant schools were also embodied in the
+Act of 1846.
+
+Now, what are the distinguishing features of this School Act that
+reflect credit upon its author? It would be idle to pretend that there
+were not in Upper Canada many able men who saw the weaknesses of the
+school system as clearly as Dr. Ryerson. Ryerson's claim to distinction
+rests upon the fact that he organized a system that _worked_. He not
+only co-ordinated the several parts of the system, but put life into
+it. This was no easy task. The people were very jealous of their power
+of local control, and yet unless this local control could be subjected
+to some central control, improvement was hopeless. It was here that
+Ryerson did what no other man had done. He lessened local, and
+strengthened central, control, and did it so gradually, so wisely, and
+so tactfully, that local prejudices were soothed and in many cases the
+people scarcely recognized what was being done until the thing was
+accomplished. We must not suppose that all this was completed by the
+legislation of 1846. It began then, but its complete evolution was the
+work of a quarter-century.
+
+If we ask through what agency Ryerson was enabled to secure this gradual
+executive strength that makes our educational machinery so effective the
+answer must be--the Legislative grant. The Legislature placed the grant
+at the disposal of the Superintendent for him to apportion among the
+Districts. Here was a lever of wonderful power, and Ryerson was quick to
+perceive its possibilities. If Districts wished a grant they must
+conform to certain requirements. If school sections wished a grant from
+the District Superintendent, they, too, must satisfy certain
+requirements as to textbooks, qualified teachers, building and
+equipment.
+
+No doubt the Prussian system gave Ryerson many hints on this subject,
+but he knew that the Canadian spirit was very different from the docile
+German spirit fostered by generations of benevolent paternalism. I
+think, too, there can be no reasonable doubt that he received many
+practical hints on this point from the workings of Her Majesty's
+Committee on Education formed by the Imperial Parliament. The history of
+the world presents no more significant illustration of how an outside
+body may come to exercise an effective control over various kinds of
+schools than is presented by the history of the schools of Great Britain
+and Ireland and their control by Her Majesty's Government through
+parliamentary grants.
+
+That the leaders of Canadian public opinion in the years following 1846
+saw all that was involved in Ryerson's gradual strengthening of central
+control of educational affairs is made abundantly clear by the leading
+editorials in the press of that period. The Toronto _Globe_, which had
+been established in 1844 by the Browns, was already in 1846 the leading
+exponent of advanced liberal ideas in Upper Canada. As the _Globe_ had
+been bitterly opposed to Lord Metcalfe, and had resented Ryerson's
+defence of him, it was not to be expected that Ryerson's appointment as
+Superintendent of Education would be satisfactory to that journal, or
+that his educational plans would be leniently criticised. Indeed, the
+_Globe_ editor's first objection to Ryerson's Bill of 1846 was to the
+great powers conferred upon the Superintendent and to the irresponsible
+nature of his Commission. The following is from a _Globe_ editorial of
+April 14th, 1846;[75] "We have read a draft of the new School Bill for
+Upper Canada brought in by Mr. Draper. We have not been able to go over
+all its claims, but it contains one objectionable principle, viz.: the
+appointment and dismissal of the Superintendent is vested in the
+Governor-General personally and not in the Governor-General with the
+advice of his Council, as it ought to be. The whole funds from which the
+school system is to derive support are raised by the people of Canada,
+and the disposal of them should be subjected to the control of the House
+through the Executive Council.... The powers of the Superintendent are
+very great and embrace many points such as the selection of proper
+books, etc. A Board of seven Commissioners to assist the Superintendent
+is named, but the Governor may appoint them, or not, and the
+Superintendent may take their advice, or not, and he has also power to
+prevent interference at any time, for he is only to receive advice on
+all measures which he may 'submit to them.' The whole of this extensive
+institution, if the Bill passes, will be lodged in the Governor-General
+personally and in the Superintendent, and they may work it for any
+purpose that suits their views." On July 14th, 1846, the editor of the
+_Globe_ again criticises the School Bill, because the Superintendent
+reports to the Governor and not to the Governor-General-in-Council.
+
+[75] See bound volume of _Globe_ in Legislative Library, Toronto.
+
+
+These articles are interesting and important. Why was Ryerson's
+appointment vested in the Governor and not in the Executive Council? The
+answer not only throws valuable light upon the way that Ryerson himself
+viewed his office and its relation to the public, but it incidentally
+shows how imperfectly responsible government was established in Upper
+Canada in 1846. We should gasp with astonishment in Canada to-day if it
+were proposed to vest the appointment of any public officers in the
+Governor-General personally. We allow our Governors no personal freedom
+in the conduct of public affairs. But in 1846 that idea was not wholly
+accepted. There still lingered a feeling that the Crown had certain
+vaguely-defined prerogatives, which might be exercised without let or
+hindrance from Councillors. And many who recognized that the British
+Crown had little individual freedom of action in public affairs in
+Britain could not see that the same status ought to be established for
+the Crown's representative in a colony. Or, to put it in another way,
+the people did not see how a colony could be self-governing without
+being wholly independent.
+
+Ryerson wished his appointment to be vested in the Governor, rather than
+in the Executive Council, because he thought that by such an arrangement
+he was a servant of the country and not of any political party. He
+thought that a Superintendent of Education ought, like a judge, to be
+placed beyond the accidents and turmoil of politics. No doubt that was
+an illogical position. Indeed, time showed it to be so, and that full
+recognition of the principle of responsible government required a
+Minister of Education responsible directly to the Legislature. We can
+only speculate as to what would have been the effect upon our schools
+had Ryerson's position been looked upon as political and had he been
+forced to vacate his office with every change of government. It seems
+doubtful whether our schools would have improved as rapidly as they did
+under the conservative, but truly progressive, policy of Ryerson.
+
+There is abundant evidence that there were many in Upper Canada who
+wished to see the position of Superintendent closely connected with
+politics. A _Globe_ editorial, Jan. 6th, 1847, commenting on Ryerson's
+report, says: "We expected that when our new Superintendent stepped into
+his ill-gotten office he would immediately take measures to make
+himself acquainted with the replies to such questions as the following:
+First, the situation, condition and number of schools and school-houses
+of all kinds in the Province. Second, the manner in which school
+trustees, town, county and district Superintendents had discharged their
+several duties. Third, the desire manifested by parents generally for
+the education of their children. Fourth, the competency and efficiency
+of the teachers, their salaries, etc. Fifth, the kind of school books
+used, the school libraries and other apparatus for teaching. Had such
+questions been proposed and answered, the Superintendent would have had
+something to base a report upon. It was but natural to suppose that an
+officer whose sole prospects of success are in the confidence and
+co-operation of the people would have taken some steps to gain that
+confidence and co-operation, that he would have been desirous by direct
+communication with superintendents, trustees, experienced teachers and
+influential persons in the Province of ascertaining their views and of
+obtaining their suggestions as to the best means of promoting the
+interests of the noble department over which he had been called to
+preside. But no, it is true he was devising a system of education for
+Canada, but what had the wants or wishes of the people to do with it?
+The serfs must receive anything I, their lord and master, may import
+from the cringing subjects of despotic monarchies. We are more and more
+convinced from the examination of this report that Mr. Ryerson is not
+competent for the situation which he occupies."
+
+This is manifestly unfair. Ryerson knew from previous experience and
+without any further special investigation, the answer to every one of
+the five questions propounded above. In 1848, just after the
+Baldwin-Lafontaine administration was formed, and before the
+newly-formed ministry had met Parliament, there was more or less
+discussion about dismissing Ryerson from his position as Superintendent
+of Education. The _Globe_ of April 29th, 1848, says: "Will any man,
+except a few of his own clique, say that Egerton Ryerson should be
+Superintendent of Education under a Liberal Government? We apprehend
+none. He has done nothing wrong since his appointment, it is said. We
+say he has. He spent many months on the Continent of Europe and in
+Britain in amusement or recreation, professing to get information about
+things which every person knew already.... We have had hints of the
+Prussian system being applicable to Canada and we feel convinced that
+he, who sold himself to the late Administration, would have readily
+brought all the youth of Canada to the same market and placed them
+under the domination of an arbitrary and coercive power. He had sold
+their fathers for pelf, why not sell the sons also? Was he not in league
+with that party which would retain the Province in vassalage to the old
+Compact which he had so heartily denounced in former times? Is he not a
+member of that Methodist Committee which bargained away to a worthless
+Ministry the Methodist votes for L1,500 to Victoria College? These are
+most memorable events in the annals of political corruption.... But we
+care not if there had been no ground for complaint since 1844. We know
+that Egerton Ryerson sold himself body and spirit to Lord Metcalfe and
+that he broached doctrines of the most unconstitutional kind,
+threatening those who were but asking the common rights of British
+subjects with the vengeance of the whole Empire. The man who holds such
+views is unfit to be at the head of the country's education. He would
+convert the children of the Province into the most pliable tools of an
+arbitrary system."
+
+These articles show clearly that the party press was not disposed to
+judge Ryerson by his work as Superintendent of Education. They claimed
+that because he championed Lord Metcalfe in 1844 he was a partizan, and
+if a partizan in 1844 he must still be one in 1848.
+
+Besides a certain amount of political prejudice, Ryerson had to overcome
+the many points of friction caused by an attempt to work the Bill of
+1846, and when we consider the ignorance and incompetence among those
+upon whom the administration of the Act rested, and the prejudices
+against the Act by many who were supremely selfish, we have to admit
+that a less courageous man would have utterly failed. Many trustees
+could neither read nor write. In some cases the District Municipal
+Councillors who were parties to school administration were equally
+ignorant. District Superintendents of schools were not always fitted for
+such a responsibility. Perhaps half the whole body of teachers made up a
+motley assortment of impecunious tramps. The Superintendent's report for
+1847 shows that out of 2,572 schoolhouses only 133 were of brick or
+stone, and that 1,399 were made of logs; 1,378 had no playground, and
+only 163 were provided with water-closets. With many superintendents,
+trustees, and teachers miserably incompetent, with buildings and
+equipment woefully inadequate, it required a stout heart to undertake a
+reformation.
+
+Ryerson had two temperamental qualities that stood him in good stead; he
+had an idealist's faith in humanity, believing that men would choose the
+higher if it could once be shown them; he had besides an infinite
+capacity for hard work and for taking pains. This is fully shown by the
+way he met the many objections to his Bill of 1846. The bitterest
+opposition came from the Council of the Gore District, now the County of
+Wentworth, a District from which more progressive ideas might have been
+expected. On the 10th November, 1846, this Council[76] petitioned the
+Legislative Assembly against Ryerson's Bill. They objected to a
+Provincial Board of Education and to a Chief Superintendent. They wished
+to have re-enacted the School Bills of 1816 and 1820. Among other things
+the petition says: "With respect to the necessity of establishing a
+Normal, with elementary Model Schools in this Province, your
+memorialists are of opinion that however well adapted such an
+institution might be to the wants of the old and densely populated
+countries of Europe, where service in almost every vocation will
+scarcely yield the common necessaries of life, they are altogether
+unsuited to a country like Upper Canada, where a young man of such
+excellent character as a candidate is required to be to enter a Normal
+School and having the advantage of a good education besides, need only
+turn to the right hand or to the left to make his service much more
+agreeable and profitable to himself, than in the drudgery of a common
+school, at an average of L29 per annum [the average in Upper Canada for
+1845]; nor do your memorialists hope to provide qualified teachers by
+any other means in the present circumstances of the country than by
+securing as heretofore the services of those whose physical disabilities
+from age render this mode of obtaining a livelihood the only one suited
+to their decaying energy, or by employing such of the newly-arrived
+immigrants as are qualified for common school teachers, year by year as
+they come amongst us, and who will adopt this as a means of temporary
+support until their character and abilities are known and turned to
+better account for themselves."
+
+[76] See copy of petition in D. H. E., Vol. VII., pp. 114-116.
+
+
+This petition was sent to every District Council in Upper Canada. Some
+districts agreed with it, some were indifferent and some wholly opposed
+its spirit. Colborne District Council took a very different attitude.
+They praised the Chief Superintendent, warmly approved of a Normal
+School, and found much to admire in the legislation of 1846. The
+following from their report will serve as an illustration:[77] "As the
+Normal and Model Schools begin to yield their legitimate fruits, and as
+the blighting effects of employing men as school teachers who are
+neither in manners nor in intellectual endowments much above the lowest
+menials, shall press less and less heavily upon the mental and moral
+habitudes of the rising generation, the great benefits to be derived
+from the present Common School Act, and its immense superiority over
+all former school laws of Upper Canada, will become more and more
+confessed and appreciated. Already that public apathy which is the
+deadliest enemy to improvement is slowly yielding to the necessity
+imposed by the present school law upon the trustees and others of
+acquiring extended information, of entering with a deeper interest into
+all matters connected with Common Schools and of joining with school
+visitors, superintendents and municipal councillors in a more active and
+vigilant oversight of them."
+
+[77] See copy of memorial in D. H. E., Vol. VII., p. 117.
+
+
+Ryerson saw that public opinion must be educated. The problem was a
+wider one than the education of the rising generation in the
+schoolhouses. The fathers and mothers and all who made public opinion
+must be awakened. This work Ryerson did in a characteristic manner. He
+had been a missionary preacher of the Gospel; he now became an
+educational missionary. He sent carefully-prepared circulars to
+Municipal Councils, to District Superintendents, to school trustees and
+to teachers. He established at his own financial risk, and without
+accepting a penny of the profits for his labour, an educational journal
+as a means of communication with the general public. In the autumn of
+1847 he spent ten weeks in visits to the twenty-one Districts into which
+Upper Canada was at that time divided. He called District Educational
+Conventions, lasting each two days. To these were invited teachers,
+District Superintendents, School Visitors, Municipal Councillors and the
+general public. The Warden was generally secured as chairman. During the
+day, Ryerson discussed the School Act and its operation. He found that
+often the people had been misled and that trustees who had never made
+any attempt to enforce the Act had laid the blame for their poor school
+upon the Act of 1846. In almost every case a frank discussion face to
+face with the parties concerned removed unreasonable prejudices and made
+friends for the new Superintendent. In the evening, Ryerson gave a
+public lecture. His subject in 1847 was "The Advantage of Education to
+an Agricultural People." No subject could have been more appropriate to
+secure the sympathy of the mass of the people and to give the lecturer
+an opportunity to show what he hoped to do for Upper Canada.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+_THE RYERSON BILL OF 1850._
+
+
+The Act of 1846 provided that the Municipal Councils of Toronto and
+Kingston were to have the same powers in school matters as the District
+Councils. Toronto had at this time twelve school sections, each with its
+own Trustee Board, and each fixing its own textbooks and course of
+study. Such a system was cumbersome, wasteful, and inefficient, and the
+practical mind of Ryerson devised a remedy. In 1847, the Cities and
+Towns Act was passed. This Act required the Municipal Councils of cities
+and towns to appoint a School Board of six members. These six, together
+with the Mayor of the Corporation, had full control of all schools and
+school property. They could determine the number and kind of schools and
+the texts to be used, but they had no power either to levy an assessment
+upon property or to collect rate bills from parents. Any funds needed by
+the School Board in addition to the Legislative and Municipal grants
+were to be levied upon the taxable property of the city or town by the
+Municipal Council. But the Act did not say that the Municipal Council
+must grant the sums asked for by the Board of Trustees. In Toronto the
+Council of 1848 refused to levy the necessary assessment, and the School
+Trustees were compelled to close the schools from July to December.
+
+The Toronto _Globe_[78] declared that Ryerson was introducing a Prussian
+despotism into Canada. Ryerson said that he desired nothing Prussian in
+the Canadian schools except the method of schoolroom instruction, and
+claimed that his new School Bill was almost a literal transcript of that
+in force in the State of New York. Ryerson then set forth the chief
+advantage of the new Bill, viz.: that it gave to the poor man the
+_right_ to have his children, however numerous, educated, whereas the
+rate bill system compelled him in many cases to claim free schooling
+only on the ground of his poverty. The new School Act was to enable a
+poor man to educate his children and still maintain his self-respect.
+The school tax was to be levied not upon the children of the section,
+but upon the real property. Ryerson concluded as follows: "Wealthy
+selfishness and hatred of the education of the poor and labouring
+classes may exclaim against this provision of the law, but enlightened
+Christian philanthropy and true patriotism will rejoice at its
+application."
+
+[78] See editorial, Toronto _Globe_ of May 8th, 1848.
+
+
+Commenting on Ryerson's letter, the following issue of the _Globe_ said:
+"The Doctor makes a great fuss about the cruel position of a man who
+cannot 'brook to say he was a pauper' under the old system and the
+delightful and 'enlightened Christian philanthropy' of his new system
+which 'places the poor man and his children upon equal footing with the
+rich man and his children.' All bunkum, Dr. Ryerson. If it is hard to
+have ten or fifty or one hundred scholars as paupers at present, will it
+improve the matter to make the children of the common schools all
+paupers? If one class keep their children away now because the schools
+are above their means, and pride won't let them submit to state the fact
+to a trustee, will there not hereafter be a much larger class whose
+pride will prevent them sending their children to what even Dr. Ryerson
+admits will be pauper schools?... Is it not melancholy that so crooked,
+so visionary a man as this should be at the head of the literary
+institutions of the country?"
+
+But Ryerson was fighting for free schools. He knew that thousands of
+children were growing up ignorant, especially in the large towns. He was
+able to show that in the city of Toronto, out of 4,450 children of
+school age in 1846, only 1,221 were on the common school registers and
+that the average attendance was scarcely one thousand. Even if it were
+granted that another thousand were in attendance at private and church
+schools, the fact remained that not more than half the children in
+Toronto were being educated.
+
+In October, 1848, Ryerson submitted to the Government a draft School
+Bill, designed to remedy the defects in the legislation of 1846-1848. In
+a report[79] which he submitted with his draft Bill he says: "No law
+which contemplates the removal of grovelling or selfish ignorance and
+the elevation of society by means of efficient regulations and general
+taxation for schools ever has been, or ever will be, popular with the
+purely selfish or the listlessly ignorant. All such laws must be
+sustained for a time at least by the joint influence of the Government
+and the intelligent and enterprising portion of the community."
+
+[79] See copy in D. H. E., Vol. VIII., p. 85.
+
+
+The outcry against free schools and taxation of property to educate the
+children of the poor showed clearly that the time had not yet come for
+the realization of his plans, and Ryerson in his draft Bill restored to
+towns and cities the right to impose rate bills upon parents, at the
+same time declaring his faith in the ultimate triumph of free schools.
+
+In February, 1849, Ryerson submitted additions to his draft Bill of the
+previous October. Among other changes he recommended additional
+Superintendents for Districts of more than 150 schools; District Boards
+of Examiners who would replace the District Superintendent and school
+visitors[80] in issuing teachers' certificates; Teachers' Institutes for
+lectures and professional training of teachers; provision for separate
+schools for coloured children; school libraries for each section, and
+also township libraries; township School Boards; a School of Art and
+Design, connected with the Normal School; provincial certificates for
+Normal School graduates; making trustees personally responsible for a
+teacher's salary; the distribution of school funds on a basis of actual
+attendance, rather than on the number of children in the section; better
+provision for fixing school sites; more equitable division of the
+$200,000 legislative grant between Upper and Lower Canada, and provision
+for the admission into the common schools of pupils from sixteen to
+twenty-one years of age.
+
+[80] The report of the Bathurst District Superintendent for 1848 showed
+82 teachers certificated by School Visitors and 42 by the District
+Superintendent. See Report of Chief Superintendent for 1848.
+
+
+The Baldwin Government entrusted the handling in the Legislature of the
+School Bill of 1849 to the Honourable Malcolm Cameron. It should be
+borne in mind that the Legislature met in Montreal and that the
+Education Office for Upper Canada was in Toronto. Dr. Ryerson was,
+therefore, not in direct communication with the Government, nor was he
+officially informed from day to day as to the progress of the Bill. It
+should further be borne in mind that during this session the Parliament
+Buildings were burned, the Governor-General mobbed, and party feeling
+strongly aroused, thus creating conditions favourable for hasty and
+careless legislation. It seems to have been taken for granted by the
+Legislature that the Bill as brought in was prepared by Ryerson. As a
+matter of fact, Ryerson's Bill had, with Cameron's assent, been so
+mutilated by an enemy of the Superintendent that its essential
+provisions were destroyed. As soon as Ryerson learned its real nature,
+he protested on several grounds, but especially because it aimed to
+destroy the usefulness of the Chief Superintendent; excluded clergymen
+from being school visitors; destroyed the provincial nature of the
+school system; injured the prospects of a Normal School; would subject
+teachers to serious loss in collecting their salaries; re-established
+school sections in towns and cities; made no provision for uniform
+textbooks, and because it was cumbersome and unworkable. After an
+elaborate analysis of the Bill, Ryerson intimated that he would not
+attempt to administer the law as passed and that sooner than do so he
+would resign. The Government soon ascertained that the Bill was
+unsatisfactory to everybody and intimated to Ryerson that it would not
+be brought into operation. This course was followed, and in the
+meantime Ryerson perfected his plans for a new Bill to go before the
+Legislature in 1850.
+
+As the Cameron Act of 1849 was never given effect, it has no interest
+for us, except in so far as it shows the evolution of the Act of 1850.
+During the Parliamentary recess, 1849-50, the Government issued circular
+letters to School Superintendents, ministers and other official persons,
+to secure suggestions as to school legislation. The replies were handed
+to Dr. Ryerson by the Hon. Francis Hincks, who had charge of the School
+legislation for 1850.
+
+Ryerson's draft of the Bill of 1850 is a tribute to his practical common
+sense and is sometimes called the Charter of the Ontario School System.
+Ryerson knew the people of Upper Canada as few knew them, and he was
+quick to see the dividing line between that which seemed highly
+desirable and that which was possible. He moved steadily toward a
+distant goal, but was ever educating public opinion to move with him and
+seldom showed impatience over the slow pace of travel, so long as there
+was actual progress. He wished to see free schools, but in this Act
+contented himself with securing permissive legislation, which he
+believed would soon lead to the adoption of a free system.
+
+The outstanding feature of the Act was the strengthening of Trustee
+Boards by recognizing them as corporate bodies with full power to
+manage schools under Government regulations and full power to levy taxes
+or rates upon the District which they represented. In case the Municipal
+Council collected school money, they did it only as a matter of
+convenience. Provision was made for securing school sites, erecting and
+furnishing new buildings, electing trustees, holding board meetings,
+keeping schools accounts, appointing collectors for school moneys,
+providing books and apparatus, educating indigent children and forming
+school libraries. Teachers' duties and responsibilities were not
+materially altered. They were, however, effectually secured against loss
+of the full amount of salary promised them by trustee boards. Adequate
+provision was made for school sections composed of adjoining parts of
+two or more townships. Provision was made for Township Boards of
+Trustees on the request of a majority of the school supporters, to
+manage all the schools of a township. County Boards of Public
+Instruction were formed, consisting of the County Superintendent and the
+Trustees of the District Grammar School. These boards were to meet four
+times a year, to hold examinations and license teachers. They were to
+use their influence to establish school libraries and promote the cause
+of education. District superintendents were limited to one hundred
+schools each, and were to receive one pound per annum for each school,
+besides necessary travelling expenses. The Superintendent was no longer
+the custodian of school money, but gave orders to the Township Treasurer
+to pay to teachers their proper allowances. The Superintendent was to
+visit every school in his District once each quarter, and to deliver a
+public lecture in every school section once each year. Thus the way was
+open for the District Superintendent to become an expert, giving a
+minimum of time to clerical work and a maximum to the encouragement of
+pupils and teachers. He was to become a link between the Department of
+Education on the one hand and the District Council and Trustee Boards on
+the other. He was a local officer, but his duties were definitely
+prescribed by a central authority. Through him the Chief Superintendent
+and the Council of Public Instruction were able to keep in touch with
+pupils, teachers, school visitors, trustee boards, county boards, and
+district councils. School visitors were given the same privileges as by
+the Act of 1846, except the right to grant licenses to teachers. The
+General Board of Education was merged into the Council of Public
+Instruction, with duties substantially the same as those assigned the
+former body in 1846.
+
+Incorporated towns and cities were no longer to have school sections,
+but instead a Board of Trustees to manage school affairs. Town and City
+School Boards were allowed three ways of securing the money necessary,
+in addition to the school fund, for common school purposes. The Board
+might ask the Municipal Council to levy an assessment for the required
+sum, in which case the said Council were bound to comply with its
+wishes; the Board might levy a rate bill upon the parents of pupils
+attending school; or they might raise the required funds partly by a
+rate bill and partly by an assessment levied by the Municipal Council.
+
+The only real difference between the methods of raising money in towns
+and cities on the one hand and rural sections on the other, lay in the
+plan of deciding how the money was to be raised. In rural sections the
+ratepayers assembled at the annual meeting, made the decision, and the
+trustees carried out their wishes; in towns and cities the trustees had
+full power to decide upon the method of taxation without consulting the
+ratepayers. School trustees in incorporated villages were governed by
+the same rules as trustees of towns and cities, except in the manner of
+the annual election.
+
+One very important feature of the new Act was the setting apart of
+L3,000 a year for the establishment and support of school libraries, and
+L25 a year for each District Teachers' Institute. A sum was also set
+apart for procuring plans and publications for the improvement of school
+architecture. The Chief Superintendent was authorized to issue
+provincial certificates to Normal School graduates.
+
+The Act of 1850 also made some important changes relating to Separate
+Schools, which will be noted in another chapter.
+
+Dr. Ryerson always felt that he owed much to the Governor-General, Lord
+Elgin, for helping him to form a public opinion which made possible the
+legislation of 1850. That distinguished nobleman was a graduate of
+Oxford, and he never lost an opportunity of helping forward any movement
+designed to raise the intellectual status of the people. But it was
+largely Ryerson's unaided efforts that gave Upper Canada in 1850 such a
+splendid educational machinery. It was no factory-made plan, but a
+system developed step by step out of partial failures into something
+better. It was, like all English law, the result of applying a
+common-sense remedy to a clearly proved weakness.
+
+During the passage through the Legislature of the Bill of 1850, a debate
+arose about Ryerson's salary, and the value of his services to the
+country. The following condensed account of a speech delivered in
+Parliament in July, by Hon. Francis Hincks, makes clear the attitude
+finally adopted by the Liberal Government toward Ryerson, and for that
+reason has some historical interest:
+
+"The member for Toronto, Mr. Boulton, had charged the Administration
+with buying the support of the Superintendent of Education with an
+increased salary. He had desired, in bringing forward this question, to
+make it as little a political question as possible. He thought that the
+great question of education might be treated without reference to party
+differences. He thought it his duty, considering the position which the
+Reverend Superintendent of Education occupied towards the party with
+whom he acted, to state his whole course of conduct towards that
+gentleman since he had taken office. It was well known to the House that
+the reverend gentleman was engaged, before accepting the office which he
+now held, in very keen controversy with the members of the present
+ministry; he had taken a course decidedly hostile to them. As writer for
+the public press at that time, he had himself engaged in that contest,
+though without personal feeling, as he trusted he had engaged in every
+contest of the kind. But there was undoubtedly on his own part, and on
+that of his colleagues, a strong political feeling of dislike to the
+reverend gentleman, on account of the formidable opposition with which
+they were met by him. He was appointed to the office of Superintendent
+by the late Government, and he did not blame that Government for so
+appointing him; for, if anyone ever established strong claims upon a
+party, it was the reverend gentleman by his defence of that
+administration. The present ministry again assumed the duties of the
+Government, and undoubtedly there was a general feeling among their
+supporters that one of the first measures expected of them was to get
+rid of the reverend gentleman in some way or other, and in that feeling
+most certainly he sympathized. He had found, however, bye-the-bye, that
+those who were most eager to recommend the Government to dismiss
+officials, when they were put into similar situations, into the
+municipal councils for instance, that they did not carry out those
+views, that they did not turn out their opponents without a reason for
+it. There were two or three ways of removing the Chief Superintendent;
+one was to make the office a political one; but after the best
+consideration being given to the question, it was not considered
+advisable to do that, and the proposition to abolish the office
+altogether, he was satisfied would have had the worst possible
+consequences on the educational interests of the country, after
+observing the benefits of active superintendents in New York, and our
+own Province. The only other mode then, if these two were resisted, was
+to remove the incumbent altogether, and then the question came, whether
+he had acted in such a manner as to justify his dismissal. He had often
+asked this question of the persons who urged his dismissal, and they
+had never given one good reason to support the affirmative. He was not
+one of those who thought that because a person supported one Government
+that he was therefore incapable of serving faithfully those who
+succeeded them, whom he had formerly opposed, always supposing, of
+course, that his office was not a political one. He could not find that
+the reverend gentleman had entered in the slightest degree into the
+field of politics, and as he had discharged his duties with great zeal
+and ability, they had no reason to interfere with him. Then the point
+was, how they were to act towards him in his position, and his (Mr.
+H.'s) determination was to give him the most cordial support; as a
+member of the Government he considered it his duty to do so. He felt it
+his duty to give the same support to officers who came oftener into
+contact with him, the officials of the Custom House, and he defied
+anyone to say that any political opponent of his had received less
+cordial support in the discharge of the duties of his office than his
+friends had; the efficiency of the service absolutely required that he
+should do so. He put himself in communication with the reverend
+gentleman in reference to this Bill, and as he (Mr. H.) believed that
+Doctor Ryerson possessed a more complete knowledge of the school system
+than any other person, he thought that any Government would have done
+very wrong not to have availed themselves of that knowledge. He deeply
+regretted the course which some gentlemen with whom he generally acted
+had taken on this matter.
+
+"He would only say now, that he considered he should be paid the highest
+salary given to any officer, for the duties of none were more onerous or
+more important. He might remark that he had not found lawyers in the
+House very anxious to reduce the salaries of the judges, but when it
+came to civilians, to superintendents of schools, then five hundred
+pounds a year was far too much. Now he considered the duties of that
+office as quite equal in importance, and requiring equal talents to
+those of a Collector of Customs, and thought that he should not be
+placed in an inferior position to them."[81]
+
+[81] See issue of Toronto _Globe_, July 11th, 1850, p. 331.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Toronto _Globe_, of July 16th, 1850, speaking on the debate in the
+Assembly, said:
+
+    "The debate on Egerton Ryerson's salary was, we think, just another
+    instance of pandering to the cry of the moment. His salary was
+    sought to be made the same as the Lower Canada Superintendent's.
+    Well, the Lower Canada Superintendent's salary is five hundred
+    pounds, but it would not do to name that sum for Upper Canada until
+    the retrenchment committee had operated upon Lower Canada. Now, why
+    not say at once that five hundred pounds is the proper salary for
+    the Superintendent of Education of nearly a million people, and
+    stick to it? We are no admirers of Egerton Ryerson, and we have
+    always thought, and we think still, that the present ministry should
+    have turned him out neck and crop the moment they got into power;
+    but we are free to admit that he is a man of very great talent, who,
+    at any mercantile or professional business he might engage in, would
+    readily make five hundred pounds a year, and we do think that this
+    sum is as little as could be assigned to an office of such high
+    public importance."
+
+This article clearly shows that the _Globe_ recognized Ryerson's talents
+and his professional ability, while objecting to him on political
+grounds. Mr. George Brown, the _Globe_ Editor, was too shrewd a man, and
+had too strong an interest in popular education, not to see that Ryerson
+was working a reformation in school affairs. The following from a
+_Globe_ editorial of September 14th, 1850, is really a tribute
+grudgingly paid to Ryerson's efforts:--
+
+    "While other professions, the clergy, the lawyers, the physicians,
+    have long gained a certain position and influence in society, and
+    have assumed the management of their own affairs, teachers, as a
+    class, have, until lately, stood alone, disregarded by the
+    community, and in many instances treated as beneath the notice of
+    men infinitely their inferiors in mental acquirements, and engaged
+    in pursuits certainly not more important to the well-being of the
+    community. While others were improving their circumstances and
+    acquiring wealth and power, the schoolmaster alone appeared
+    stationary, doomed to drag on a life of poverty and contempt, and
+    looked upon by parents as a sort of nurse for their naughty
+    children, who received their wages for their services, and not to
+    meddle with the affairs of the world. We but repeat what we wrote
+    some years ago, prior to any of Egerton Ryerson's schemes, when we
+    say that it is a reproach to the Christian world, that those who
+    prepare the rising generation for entry into business life, should
+    have been left so long to poverty, and to have occupied so low a
+    place in society. Only conceive a schoolmaster--profoundly versed in
+    the vast variety of knowledge which the human mind can master, a man
+    who can solve the most difficult problem in mathematics, and take
+    the highest flights in astronomy--rarely reaching beyond the mark of
+    a person to be patronized. To such a man, the constant toil and
+    drudgery of a school, the annoyance of unruly children and
+    unreasonable parents, and above all the pinching poverty to which he
+    is too often subject, present a life of hardship which it is
+    difficult to conceive. The smith, or the carpenter of the village,
+    may by industry realize something for the wants of a surviving
+    family, and the shopkeeper, or the baker, may perhaps become
+    wealthy; but the idea of a schoolmaster having any other position
+    than poverty, would be thought the height of absurdity."
+
+Ryerson believed that if school trustees were given the option of free
+schools and power to enforce taxation for their support, they would soon
+abolish rate-bills upon parents. Public sentiment was rapidly changing.
+This was fairly shown by the city of Toronto, where there were many
+wealthy men who objected to free schools, and where private and
+denominational schools were more popular than in any other part of Upper
+Canada. In March, 1851, a committee of the Toronto Board submitted to
+the Chairman a special report showing that 3,403 children who should be
+in the schools of that city were roaming the streets and growing up
+without educational advantages of any kind. The report ascribed this
+condition of affairs mainly to two causes, rate-bills and lack of school
+accommodation, and concluded by making a strong stand for free schools.
+
+The Toronto _Globe_ had scoffed at free schools in 1848. The rapid
+change that took place in the views of this journal is a fair index of
+the change that was taking place among the people of Upper Canada in
+regard to free schools. I shall, therefore, quote from the _Globe_ to
+show the trend of public opinion on free schools during the early
+fifties. As early as January 30th, 1851, the _Globe_ said editorially:
+
+    "We are glad to observe that the plan of free common schools has
+    been adopted at the recent annual meetings in very many school
+    sections throughout Upper Canada. The best gift the people of Canada
+    can confer on their children is education, sound, practical
+    education available to all. Public money employed in educating the
+    masses is a most profitable investment, and we hope the day will
+    soon be when a good education is open to every child in the
+    country."
+
+On January 5th, 1852, the _Globe_ expressed itself as follows:--
+
+    "The most important change proposed in our present system of common
+    schools, is the abolition of all direct charges against the parents
+    of the children attending, and the support of these institutes by
+    direct tax on the whole body of the people. We trust the day is not
+    far distant when the Reserve and Rectory lands will be devoted to
+    the support of the common schools of Upper Canada, the school tax
+    abolished, and the unspeakable advantages of a sound education
+    placed without any charge within the reach of every child in the
+    Province. Every effort should be put forth to effect this, but
+    meantime let us seek to obtain the best system which our position
+    admits of, and that, we believe, is an entirely free system
+    supported by a direct tax. There are many reasons urged against this
+    proposed change by sincere friends of education, which are not
+    without weight. It is said to be unjust and tyrannical to make
+    people who are childless pay for those who are blessed with a
+    numerous progeny; it is urged that parents will value the blessing
+    of education more, when they are compelled to pay for it; it is
+    alleged to be a weakening of the parental tie, to take the expense
+    of the education of the child from the shoulders of the parent.
+    These arguments will have more or less influence according to the
+    position and character of the individual who considers them, but we
+    assert without fear of contradiction that all the evils which our
+    warmest opponents anticipate from the introduction of free schools
+    sink into insignificance beside the frightful consequences of our
+    children growing up in the blindness of ignorance, the result which
+    a free system is designed to avert. No reasonable disinterested man
+    would place the one class of evils in comparison with the other....
+
+    "Many opponents of free schools, however, are willing that the
+    children of the poor should be educated without charge, as they are
+    at present. Most parents, however, would be, and are, prevented by
+    their pride from taking advantage of this favour, and we think it
+    highly desirable that the idea of begging education, or anything
+    else, should be set as far as possible from the mind of every
+    Canadian. The children of the poor should look to the common schools
+    as a place to which they have a right to go, having paid a quota of
+    the expense in proportion to their means, in the same way that they
+    claim the right to walk the pavement, and on the same grounds. It is
+    indeed a noble thought to place the education of the people in the
+    same position as the protection of the people and the government of
+    the people, to make it one of the necessaries of the existence of a
+    state in peace and security, and to provide it at the expense of
+    all, for the benefit of all. With a Government formed as ours is by
+    the people, and entirely under its control, our only safeguard
+    against anarchy and confusion is the intelligence and right of the
+    people. A thorough system of common school education is the only
+    means which can ensure these high advantages. Education ought to be
+    universal, and to be so, it must be entirely free from all expense;
+    there must be inducements held out to the short-sighted, unwilling
+    parent."
+
+As I have already shown, free schools had stronger opposition in Toronto
+than at any other point, yet at a large public meeting held in January,
+1852, in St. Lawrence Hall,[82] there were only twelve people who
+opposed a motion for free schools. Later in the same month Doctor
+Ryerson himself attended a public meeting in Toronto and discussed the
+free school issue. I shall quote from his speech[83] to show how
+skilfully he could use a concrete illustration to influence public
+opinion. "Speaking of free schools he said he well remembered how he
+went to visit one of the public schools of Boston, the High School,
+where boys were prepared for College, yet as free of expense to all
+classes as the lowest, and the Mayor of the city, who accompanied him,
+wishing to give a lesson in aristocracy, probably, pointed out two lads
+who occupied the same seat. He told him that one of these was the son of
+Abbot Lawrence, the great manufacturer, and now American minister in
+England, and the other was the son of the doorkeeper of the City Hall,
+which they had just left. They were enjoying the same advantages, the
+son of the millionaire and the son of the doorkeeper; that was what he
+wished to see in Canada, the sons of our poor have the same opportunity
+of educational advancement as those of the rich. Did it appear from
+this that the rich did not attend the common schools of Massachusetts?
+The Governor of that State, in a speech which he made lately at Newbury
+Port, said that if he had as many sons as old Priam, and was as rich as
+Astor, that he would send them to the free school. There were rich and
+proud men in Massachusetts, undoubtedly, who would not send their
+children among the poor, and rich stingy men who objected to be taxed
+for other people's children, but they were the exceptions to the rule.
+There was one fact that he wished to mention in connection with the free
+schools of Massachusetts. A body of European clergy belonging to the
+Catholic Church had gone to their Bishop in Boston to request him to use
+his influence against the free school system. He returned for answer
+that he knew the character of the schools, having been educated in them,
+and having owed to them his position in the Church and the world, and
+would do nothing to impair their usefulness."
+
+[82] See report in _Globe_ of January 10th, 1852.
+
+[83] See report in _Globe_ of January 13th, 1852.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It would be a mistake to suppose that there were not valiant champions
+against the free school principle, and it would be a worse mistake to
+suppose that all the sound arguments were on the side of free schools.
+The following letters from the Reverend John Roaf, a Toronto clergyman
+(Congregationalist), will give a fair idea of the stand taken by those
+who favoured rate bills upon parents. The first letter, published in the
+_Globe_, January 31st, 1852, is as follows:
+
+    "I am happy to inform you that school section No. 1, Township of
+    York, including the village of Yorkville, have this day negatived a
+    proposal to have a free school, preferring to give the teacher L60
+    from the Public funds, and a right to charge 1s. 3d. per month for
+    every child attending the school. The mechanics and labourers here
+    have thus discharged the power, for there cannot be any such right,
+    so wrongfully given them by the School Act, to educate their own
+    children at the expense of their more wealthy neighbours. All praise
+    to their honesty. Thus they will escape from the pauperizing
+    tendencies of the free school system. They encourage their
+    schoolmaster with the hope of being rewarded for making a good
+    school. They suffer the proprietors of private schools to maintain a
+    useful competition with the common school teacher; they keep up
+    valuable select schools, and yet in return for the public fund, they
+    will get free education for the children whose parents need
+    exemption from the school fees.
+
+    "May we not hope that the city of Toronto will next year follow this
+    honourable example, and spurn the unrighteous counsel which is
+    introducing communism in education to the undermining of property
+    and society? The French people and the Normans ought to serve as
+    warnings of the abyss to which this plausible socialism is enticing
+    us."
+
+The second letter was published in the Toronto _Globe_, February 5th,
+1852:
+
+    "The idea of the outlay for education being profitable for the
+    holders of property, and thus justifying the impost, is much like a
+    joke; for surely no one thinks it necessary to force upon men of
+    property so great a gain, as they seldom need be convinced by their
+    poor neighbours where their true interests lie. Gain indeed; why,
+    probably three-fourths of the children now in the Toronto common
+    schools will carry their education away to the West, and here be
+    succeeded by others who will similarly want to use our property for
+    their own benefit. Besides we might give free education to those who
+    otherwise would be destitute of it, but make those purchase it who
+    have the means.
+
+    "While I thus dwell on the injustice of the arrangement, I do so
+    because what is unjust cannot be wise, and not because the futility
+    of the system is not otherwise apparent. The free system divests the
+    teacher of all proprietary and personal interest in his school, and
+    will speedily render him sycophantic and servile to his trustees,
+    but haughty and negligent towards his pupils and friends. It will
+    throw education into the hands of an electioneering party, and what
+    kind of party that will be in such places as Toronto, need not be
+    said. It will destroy all the confidence and love felt towards the
+    teacher as the employee and friend of the child's parents, and
+    substitute for them a cold respect due to the public official. It
+    will render school attendance desultory and variable, because unpaid
+    for, and always to be had for asking. Instead of the soft, familiar,
+    and refined circle in which wise parents like to place their
+    children, it will drive gentle youths and sensitive girls into the
+    large herds of children with all the regimental strictness and
+    coldness and coarseness by which such bodies must be marked, and
+    thus, while the child asks bread you will give him a stone."
+
+The opposition to free schools did not all come from wealthy
+property-owners who objected to educating the children of the poor.
+Voluntary schools, wholly independent of Government control and closely
+allied with some church, were already in operation in populous centres
+in Upper Canada. The managers of these schools had to depend wholly upon
+subscriptions and fees. So long as all schools were supported mainly
+from rate bills upon parents the purely voluntary schools were not at a
+serious disadvantage. But if free common schools were established, then
+all patrons of voluntary schools must submit to be taxed twice for the
+education of their children. The following from a _Globe_ editorial of
+February 14th, 1852, shows that the effects of free schools upon
+voluntary schools were fully appreciated:
+
+    "The _Patriot_ of Tuesday gives us the real reason for his
+    opposition to free schools. Formerly he talked of pauperizing the
+    whole people, of socializing them, of a number of other direful
+    evils to be dreaded as consequences of all free schools. In his last
+    article, however, he admits that his main objection is, that
+    denominational schools can never be supported beside those entirely
+    free. We commend this fact to our friends who are sincerely opposed
+    to sectarian education, and yet are not prepared to accept the
+    principles of entire freedom. It is undoubtedly true what the
+    _Patriot_ says, denominational schools cannot exist beside free
+    schools. So long as we continue to exact payment from parents, so
+    long will efforts be made by the sects to obtain aid from the public
+    funds and private support in order to weaken the common schools,
+    draw away scholars from them, and destroy their efficiency. When the
+    schools are supported entirely by taxation, no such attempts can be
+    met with success. No sectarian school only partially supported by
+    the State can compete with the free institution, and no one would
+    be foolish enough to propose to endow more than one entirely free
+    school. The people would not stand the taxation. The free principle
+    is a deathblow to the attempts of the priests to get the education
+    of the people into their own hands, to train up the children in
+    classes and denominations, to shut them out from free knowledge, and
+    to give them just what pleases their prejudiced views. The _Patriot_
+    thinks it would be tyrannical to prevent the establishment of
+    sectarian schools by means of a free system. We cannot see it in
+    that light. The denominational plan has been tried in England, but
+    it has failed. The schools were never established in sufficient
+    numbers to educate the people. It is not reasonable to expect that
+    sects managed by cliques of clergymen in the large towns should be
+    able to manage a complete system of education for the people. The
+    very idea is absurd. Are we then to give up our efforts for the
+    education of the people, because these efforts would interfere with
+    the small, ineffectual endeavours these denominations might make to
+    secure proselytes to their churches through secular schools?
+    Certainly not; the greatest friend to sectarian education could not
+    admit that; and we who oppose that system rejoice that free schools,
+    which are spreading so fast, will effectually put down the
+    endeavours of the sects after educational influence which has
+    produced both in Ireland and England such a scarcity of knowledge,
+    and which have not been without their ill-effects in Canada."
+
+These quotations will for us serve two purposes. They give a fair
+picture of the free school movement, and they sum up the arguments for
+and against State education. No thoughtful person in this age can
+observe the apathy of thousands of people in regard to the education of
+their children without at times feeling that these people would
+appreciate schools much more if they had to make some personal sacrifice
+to secure their advantages. But further thought is almost certain to
+convince us that free schools are the natural support of a democratic
+government, and that without their socializing influence a
+self-governing people would always be more or less at the mercy of
+demagogues.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+_RYERSON AND SEPARATE SCHOOLS._
+
+
+The purpose of this chapter is to set forth as briefly as possible the
+origin and development of Separate Schools in Upper Canada, showing
+incidentally the part taken in that development by Doctor Ryerson.
+
+If we seek to discover the primary cause of our Separate School system
+we undoubtedly find it in the almost unanimous desire of the pioneer
+settlers to have the Common Schools established upon a basis of
+Christianity, and to secure for their children some positive instruction
+in the Holy Scriptures. From their standpoint secular schools were of
+necessity godless schools. We need also to remember that sectarian
+prejudices were more bitter seventy years ago than they are to-day.
+Dogma and religion were thought to be inseparable. To-day the various
+bodies of Christians throughout the world make much of what they hold in
+common; seventy years ago their grandfathers could not forget the petty
+differences of doctrine that held them apart. If the schools were to
+give religious instruction, and if the adoption of some form of
+instruction acceptable to all was impossible, then separate schools
+were the logical outcome. And as separate schools for each one of the
+many sects into which the scattered population of Upper Canada was
+divided were clearly impossible it naturally followed that such schools
+were established for Roman Catholics who were comparatively few in
+number, and who differed in doctrine from Protestants more radically
+than the various Protestant bodies differed amongst themselves. No one
+of the Protestant bodies could object to the reading of the Protestant
+Bible in the schools, but the Roman Catholics naturally objected to
+their children taking any part in such an exercise.
+
+As pointed out in Chapter IV., the Common School Act of 1841 laid the
+foundation of Separate Schools. The provisions of that Act applied to
+the United Canadas. In any township or parish any number of dissentients
+might elect a trustee board and establish a school, receiving for its
+support public money in proportion to their numbers. It is clear that in
+practice under this clause a dissentient school could be established
+only where the dissentients were sufficiently numerous to furnish at
+least fifteen children of school age, and contribute a considerable sum
+for school purposes. Another clause in the Act of 1841 required the
+Governor to appoint, in towns and cities, school boards made up of an
+equal number of Protestants and Roman Catholics, the Protestants to
+manage schools attended by Protestant children and the Catholics to
+manage schools attended by Catholic children. But this clause made no
+provision for Roman Catholics from two or more city school sections
+combining to form one school for their children, and as Catholics in a
+single city section were seldom if ever numerous enough to form a school
+the Act was practically inoperative in securing separate Roman Catholic
+schools.
+
+The Bill of 1841, as introduced into the Assembly, contained none of the
+above provisions for Separate Schools, and the question naturally
+arises, why were they inserted? Several petitions were presented from
+Boards of Education, and some from Synods of the Presbyterian Church,
+praying that the Bible be made a textbook in the schools. Bishop
+Strachan and the clergy of his diocese petitioned "that the education of
+the children of their own Church may be entrusted to their own pastors,
+and that an annual grant from the assessments may be awarded for their
+instruction."[84] The Roman Catholic Bishop of Kingston also petitioned
+against the Bill as brought in, but did not expressly ask for Separate
+Schools. It seems natural then to infer (and the Journals of the
+Assembly for 1841 bear out this inference), that the amendments
+granting Separate Schools were a compromise.
+
+[84] See copy in D. H. E., Vol. IV., p. 20.
+
+
+Another amendment authorized Christian Brothers to teach even if they
+were not naturalized British subjects. In 1843 the Act of 1841 was
+repealed in so far as it related to Upper Canada. The new Act made it
+unlawful in any common school to compel the child to read from any
+religious book or join in any religious exercise to which his parents or
+guardians objected. It also provided that if the teacher of a school
+were a Roman Catholic, then any ten householders or freeholders might
+petition for a Separate School with a Protestant teacher or, in the same
+way, Roman Catholics might form a Separate School if the teacher were a
+Protestant.
+
+The grants to these Separate Schools were to be that proportion of the
+total school fund in any Municipal District that the children in actual
+attendance at the Separate School bore to the total number of children
+of school age in the district, and they were subject to the same rules
+and regulations regarding courses of study and inspection as the Common
+Schools.
+
+In 1847 an amendment to the Common School Act was passed known as the
+Towns and Cities Act. This Act gave the Trustee Boards of towns and
+cities full power to determine the number of, and regulate,
+denominational schools. An extract from Ryerson's Annual Report for
+1847 as presented to the Provincial Secretary will make clear the nature
+of the Act and the Chief Superintendent's views of it. Speaking of the
+provision for Separate Schools in the Act of 1843 he says:
+
+    "I have never seen the necessity for such a provision in connection
+    with any section of the Common School Law, which provides that no
+    child shall be compelled to read any religious book or attend any
+    religious exercise contrary to the wishes of his parents and
+    guardians; and besides the apparent inexpediency of this provision
+    of the law it has been seriously objected to as inequitable,
+    permitting the Roman Catholics to have a denominational school, but
+    not granting a similar right or privilege to any one Protestant
+    denomination ... nor does the Act of 1847 permit the election of any
+    sectarian school trustees nor the appointment of a teacher of any
+    religious persuasion as such even for a denominational school. Every
+    teacher of such school must be approved by the town or city school
+    authorities. There are, therefore, guards and restrictions connected
+    with the establishment of a denominational school in cities and
+    towns under the new Act which did not previously exist; it, in fact,
+    leaves the applications or pretensions of each religious persuasion
+    to the judgment of those who provide the greater part of the local
+    school fund and relieves the Government and Legislature from the
+    influence of any such sectarian pressure. The effect of this Act has
+    already been to lessen rather than to increase denominational
+    schools, while it places all religious persuasions on the same legal
+    footing, and leaves none of them any possible ground to attack the
+    school law or oppose the school system. My Report on a system of
+    Public Elementary Instruction for Upper Canada, as well as various
+    decisions and opinions which I have given, amply show that I am far
+    from advocating the establishment of denominational schools; but I
+    was not prepared to condemn what had been unanimously sanctioned by
+    two successive Parliaments."[85]
+
+[85] See copy in D. H. E., Vol. VII., p. 178.
+
+
+During the Legislative Session of 1850, and while the School Bill was
+under discussion, a petition was presented by prominent Roman Catholic
+authorities praying for some modifications of the provisions for
+Separate Schools in the Bill then before the House. The result was that
+the 19th clause of the Act of 1850 made it compulsory upon the Municipal
+Council of any township or the School Board of any city or town or
+incorporated village, upon the written request of twelve or more
+resident heads of families, to establish one or more Separate Schools
+for either Protestants or Roman Catholics. At this time only fifty-one
+Separate Schools were in operation in the whole of Upper Canada,[86] of
+which nearly one-half were Protestant.
+
+[86] See circular, issued by Ryerson, of April 12th, 1850, to Municipal
+Councils on Act of 1850.
+
+
+According to a letter written by Ryerson to Hon. George Brown[87] there
+was a movement among certain Anglicans to secure Separate Schools for
+their children. Had Roman Catholics and Anglicans[88] both secured
+Separate Schools, it would have wrecked the Common School system, and
+these two denominations acting in concert were strong enough to defeat
+the Baldwin-Lafontaine Government. Acting on Ryerson's suggestion, the
+Government conceded in the main the Roman Catholic claim and secured
+their support to the Bill. This Bill gave Separate Schools one distinct
+advantage over the Act of 1843. It made their share of the Separate
+School fund that part of the total fund which the Separate School
+attendance bore to the total school attendance. But Separate School
+supporters were still far from having their schools recognized as a
+right and placed on an equality with Common Schools. Separate Schools
+were granted as a privilege or concession, but not as a right. Let me
+quote from Ryerson's circular to town reeves on the Act of 1850: "But,
+notwithstanding the existence of this provision of the law since 1843,
+there were last year but 51 Separate Schools in all Upper Canada, nearly
+as many of them being Protestant as Roman Catholic; so that this
+provision of the law is of little consequence for good or for evil....
+It is also to be observed that a Separate School is entitled to no aid
+beyond a certain portion of the School Fund for the salary of the
+teacher. The schoolhouse must be provided, furnished, warmed, books
+procured, etc., by the persons petitioning for the Separate School. Nor
+are the patrons or supporters of a Separate School exempted from any of
+the local assessments or rates for common school purposes."[89]
+
+[87] See D. H. E., Vol. IX., p. 25.
+
+[88] It is not meant to suggest that even a majority of the Anglicans
+would have done anything to wreck the Common School System. As a matter
+of fact, only a few of the Anglican laity sympathized with the extreme
+views of Bishop Strachan, either in Common School or University affairs.
+
+[89] See D. H. E., Vol. IX., p. 208.
+
+
+This makes it clear that Separate School supporters were liable to be
+taxed by the municipality for the support of Common Schools; they might
+be called upon to pay an assessment to build, repair or furnish a Common
+School, or to pay a part of the teacher's salary. On the other hand, the
+only aid they received in support of their own school was a share of the
+legislative and municipal grants which together made up the school
+fund.[90] It will at once be seen that every step toward free Common
+Schools placed the Separate School supporters at an increased
+disadvantage because it made them contribute more and more toward the
+Common School.
+
+[90] It was long a favourite argument of those opposed to Separate
+Schools that inasmuch as the bulk of the property was owned by
+Protestants, the Roman Catholics were not entitled to a share of the
+school fund reckoned on the basis of the pupils' attendance.
+
+
+The Act of 1850 caused some friction in Toronto, where the Roman
+Catholics asked for a second Separate School. The Trustee Board refused
+on the ground that they were not legally compelled to establish more
+than one Separate School in the city and the Court of Queen's Bench
+upheld their decision. By the old Act, under which cities were divided
+into school sections, there was no legal bar to the establishment of a
+Separate School in every city school section. Ryerson thought the Roman
+Catholics had a grievance and consented to recommend the Bill giving a
+Separate School in each city ward or a Separate School for two or more
+wards united for such purpose. This amendment was passed in 1851 and
+caused considerable discussion. A large party in Upper Canada were
+opposed to Separate Schools on principle and objected to any legislation
+that would multiply them, make them more efficient and popular, or
+grant them more favourable financial support.
+
+The attitude of the out-and-out opponents to Separate Schools was very
+well expressed by the following Bill,[91] introduced in 1851 by William
+Lyon Mackenzie:--
+
+    "Whereas the establishment of sectarian or Separate Schools, upheld
+    by periodical grants of money from a provincial treasury and placed
+    under the control of the Executive Government through its
+    Superintendents of Education and other civil officers, is a
+    dangerous interference with the Common School system of Upper
+    Canada, and if allowed to Protestants and Roman Catholics cannot
+    reasonably be refused to Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Quakers,
+    Tunkers, Baptists, Independents and other religious denominations;
+    and whereas if it is just that any number of religious sects should
+    have Separate Public Schools it is not less reasonable that they
+    should have separate Grammar Schools, Colleges and professorships in
+    the Universities; and whereas it is unjust for the State to tax
+    Protestants in order to provide for the instruction of children in
+    Roman Catholic doctrines or to tax Roman Catholics for religious
+    instruction of youth in principles adverse to those of the Church of
+    Rome; and as the early separation of children at school on account
+    of the creeds of their parents or guardians would rear nurseries of
+    strife and dissension and cause thousands to grow up in comparative
+    ignorance who might under our Common School system obtain the
+    advantages of a moral, intellectual and scientific education, be it
+    enacted therefore that the nineteenth section of the Act of 1850 be
+    repealed."
+
+[91] See Journals of Canadian Assembly for 1851.
+
+
+Mackenzie's Bill was defeated by 26 to 5. It lays down broad general
+principles that are not easy to overthrow, and no doubt several who
+voted against it would have been glad to see all young Canadians
+educated together. But if the right to have Separate Schools be granted,
+and it had been granted by successive School Acts for Upper Canada, then
+it seems naturally to follow that the Legislature was bound to place no
+obstacles in the way of their formation and to make them efficient.
+
+Separate Schools were at first grudgingly granted as a privilege, but
+not as a right. Naturally, every extension of the privilege was used by
+the supporters of these schools as a vantage-ground from which to secure
+further privileges and gradually convert these into rights. At first the
+parties seceding from the Public Schools shared only in the school fund
+made up of the legislative grant and an equal sum levied by the
+district, town or city council--the whole being available only for the
+payment of teachers' salaries. Supporters of Separate Schools were
+liable to be taxed for the building and equipment of Public Schools in
+addition to the support of their own. They claimed a _pro rata_ share of
+all moneys levied by taxation, and in some cases the law was invoked in
+an attempt to secure such share.
+
+In 1853, a radical amendment was adopted by which Separate School
+supporters received a _pro rata_ share of the legislative grant only,
+and upon subscribing for school purposes a sum equivalent to the grant
+secured were relieved of all taxation for Common School purposes. The
+Act of 1853 also gave the Separate School trustees power to issue
+certificates to the teachers employed by them, and the same power of
+levying rates upon the supporters of their schools as that exercised by
+trustees of Common Schools.
+
+While the Separate School Bill of 1853 was before the Legislature, there
+was an attempt to introduce a clause establishing a general Board of
+Trustees for Separate or sectarian Schools in towns and cities. Ryerson
+went to Quebec to confer with the Attorney-General and vigorously
+opposed the Bill. His correspondence shows that he had no wish to place
+Separate Schools on an equality with Public Schools. In fact he wished
+to do nothing that would encourage or make easy their formation. The
+law as it stood allowed Separate Schools only when the teacher was of a
+different religious faith from those wishing the Separate School. A
+general Board of Separate School Trustees for every town or city would
+have greatly increased the number of Separate Schools. Ryerson says:
+"This is placing Sectarian Schools upon a totally different foundation
+from that on which they have always stood; it is the introduction of a
+system of sectarian schools without restriction and almost without
+conditions.... If there are city and town Boards of Sectarian School
+Trustees they will claim the right of appointing their own local
+superintendents, and thus their schools will be shut up against all
+inspection except that they themselves may please to require or
+permit.... Thus such a Board in Toronto might recognize and claim public
+aid for every child taught in convents and by other private teachers of
+the same religious persuasion.... If provision be made in each city and
+town to incorporate into one Board one religious persuasion, exempting
+it from the payment of school rates and authorizing it to tax and
+collect from its own members to any amount for school purposes, the
+application of any other religious persuasion in any such city or town
+cannot be consistently or fairly resisted.... The effect of all this
+would be to destroy the system of Public Schools in cities and towns
+and ultimately perhaps in villages and townships, and to leave all the
+poorer portion of the population and that portion of it connected with
+minor religious persuasions without any adequate and certain means of
+education. I think the safest and most defensible ground to take is a
+firm refusal to sanction any measure to provide by law increased
+facilities for the multiplication and perpetuation of sectarian
+schools."[92]
+
+[92] See D. H. E., Vol. X., pp. 172 and 173.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The attitude of the extreme opponents of Separate Schools may be made
+clear from the editorials of George Brown in the Toronto _Globe_. On
+April 2nd, 1853, he says:--
+
+    "But under the new Bill the taxation of the Roman Catholic parents
+    and the whole charge of the Separate Schools are to devolve on the
+    Popish authorities. The schools are to become henceforth distinct,
+    not only in their mode of tuition, but in the machinery by which
+    they are to be conducted. They are to retain no vestige of
+    connection with the general educational system, which is the pride
+    and glory of the Canadian people. Any Roman Catholic has only to
+    declare himself a supporter of a Separate School and straightway he
+    is relieved from taxation for the maintenance of the general system.
+    As at present constituted, there is a kind of guarantee that Roman
+    Catholics are educated, that they are not left entirely in
+    ignorance, but under Mr. Richards' Bill there would be none.... The
+    plain and obvious intention of the Bill is the still further
+    development of the sectarian element in our Common Schools. The
+    Roman Catholics were not satisfied with what they had already
+    gained. They wished to obtain their share of the annual
+    Parliamentary grant, paid out of the revenue, which is made up
+    almost exclusively from Protestant money. They wished to have their
+    schools altogether free from the supervision of the general
+    trustees. Their bishops went down to Quebec, the _Mirror_ announcing
+    their departure, and hinting at the object of their journey, and
+    straightway we have the Bill from Mr. W. B. Richards, granting to
+    them all they had demanded. If they had asked much more it would
+    have been granted to them by the present Government. If this Bill
+    passes into law, the sectarian system will be fully and thoroughly
+    introduced, and must be carried out to its utmost extent. The Roman
+    Catholics say that they are not satisfied to send their children to
+    the Common Schools, and they are free from taxation. The
+    Episcopalians are ready to say the same, and we ask whether in
+    fairness we can refuse to one what we grant to the other? And then
+    the Methodists will demand separate schools, and the Presbyterians,
+    and all hopes of the education of the people may be abandoned. Yet
+    this Bill has been introduced by a Government raised to power upon
+    the principle that our school system should be free from clerical
+    control. 'No sectarian schools' was the watchword at the last
+    election among Reformers, yet one of the first measures introduced
+    by the Reform Government is to establish sectarian schools more
+    thoroughly than before. We look to them to abolish, and behold! they
+    ratify and confirm the evils of their predecessors. Where is this to
+    stop? When is the measure of the iniquity of this Government to be
+    filled up?... Let our school system, the source of light and
+    intelligence, be destroyed, and what remains to us of hope for the
+    country? They, as it were, would go gradually back to the darkness
+    of ignorance and superstition. We shall consider no institution safe
+    from priestly encroachments if this Bill is carried. There is no
+    point upon which the people of Upper Canada can be more severely
+    wounded than their common schools. Every true patriot has fondly
+    looked to them as the safeguards against the despotism of
+    priestcraft, and against violence of an ignorant and, therefore,
+    vicious populace. If they are sacrificed, if their noble endowment
+    is scattered among the sects, frittered away on a dozen different
+    school systems, if the priests are to take possession of all the
+    avenues of knowledge, what will be the fate of this Province? Will
+    it rise in the scale of nations, ever to be distinguished for the
+    intelligence of its people, for its prosperity and advancement?"[93]
+
+[93] See bound volumes of _Globe_ in Legislative Library, Toronto.
+
+
+The following from the Toronto _Examiner_, reprinted in the _Globe_ of
+April 7th, 1853, shows that the _Globe_ was not alone in its opinions:--
+
+    "We are reluctantly forced to the conviction that the rupture,
+    complete and final, of the Common School system of Canada is only a
+    question of time. We were among those who looked anxiously to the
+    Government for a liberal and decided policy on this momentous
+    question. An examination of the supplementary School Bill which we
+    give in other columns will bear us out but too fully, we fear, in
+    pronouncing its liberality exceedingly questionable.... How
+    different in Canada. Reformers have been bidding for Roman Catholic
+    votes until they are likely to bid away every distinctive principle
+    which they hold, and when this is done will it satisfy the ends of
+    men whose mission is to establish in the place of free institutions
+    the domination of priestcraft?"
+
+The following from the Roman Catholic _Mirror_, quoted in the _Globe_,
+April 9th, 1853, shows that the Roman Catholics were well pleased with
+the Bill:
+
+    "We freely admit that we had certain misgivings respecting the
+    amount of relief which might be expected from the measure proposed,
+    which from the haughty and dictatorial tone assumed by the Chief
+    Superintendent of Schools for Upper Canada, in his late
+    perambulations, we were prepared at least to regard with suspicion.
+    The terms on which justice has been hitherto meted out in stinted
+    and niggard instalments, under the existing law, and the many
+    instances in which it has been withheld or contemptuously refused,
+    may have rendered us over-sensitive; but we must acknowledge that
+    when we observe Dr. Ryerson publicly promulgate the conditions on
+    which he would concede to Catholics the privilege of directing the
+    education of their own children, we were prepared to expect a
+    reiterated legislative insult and a gross injustice, not a measure
+    restrictive, partial and oppressive. We have been most agreeably
+    disappointed; the Bill of the 'Honourable Attorney-General West,'
+    with some slight modifications which can be readily introduced in
+    committee, will form the basis of an educational system of sound
+    principle, particularly calculated to do justice to all classes of
+    the community."
+
+The following resolutions of the Synod of the United Presbyterian
+Church, printed in the _Globe_, June 30th, 1853, shows the opinion of
+that body on the Common School question:--
+
+    "Resolved. I. That this Synod approve of a national system of
+    education, placing all the members of the community upon a level,
+    and encouraging, as that now in force in this Province does, the use
+    of the Scriptures under certain reasonable regulations, as are also
+    prescribed therein.
+
+    "II. Holding these views, we deeply regret to perceive the principle
+    of sectarian schools, so distinctly recognized in the latest
+    amendments of the Provincial School Act, and do strongly testify
+    against such a principle as impolitic and mischievous, recognizing
+    as it does the right of the Government to take the moneys of the
+    public and appropriate them for the purpose of sustaining and
+    extending religious distractions, and thereby continuing to
+    stimulate the elements of discord throughout the community and mar
+    greatly social interests.
+
+    "III. That this Synod recommend to those under their care the use of
+    every proper and constitutional means to secure the repeal of all
+    such statutes as recognize the principle of sectarian schools."
+
+The movement for extended Separate School privileges was being
+championed by Bishop de Charbonnel, of Toronto. During 1852 he had a
+long controversy with Ryerson on the school question.[94] Ryerson's
+letters during this controversy make it quite clear that he thought
+Separate Schools a huge blunder, and that while he had honestly
+attempted to give Roman Catholics all the law allowed them he hoped and
+expected to see their schools die a natural death.
+
+[94] See appendices to Journals of House of Assembly, 1852-1853.
+
+
+In his Report for 1852, the Superintendent points with pride to the fact
+that Separate Schools are not increasing. Indeed, he congratulates
+himself that the provision in the law allowing them is really a good
+thing, since it is not very effective in practice but yet acts as a
+safety valve to prevent violent opposition to the school system. He
+believed that the Roman Catholics themselves would ultimately see that a
+policy of isolation of their children would have the effect of cutting
+them off from many of their natural privileges as Canadian citizens. And
+had the Separate School Act of 1853 remained unaltered, events would
+likely have shown Ryerson to be correct in his views. He believed the
+Act of 1853 was final, and that without any municipal machinery for
+collecting their taxes Separate Schools would never become numerous.
+
+In this he was greatly mistaken, as events proved. In 1854, the Roman
+Catholic Bishops of Toronto, Kingston and Bytown, drew up a Separate
+School Bill which they wished should become law. This Bill would have
+forced all Roman Catholics to support Catholic Separate Schools wherever
+such were established. It also had other provisions which Ryerson
+thought objectionable. In 1855 a Separate School Bill, known as the
+"Tache Bill," was introduced into the Legislative Council, and after
+some amendments adopted by both branches of Parliament. This Act
+differed from all previous Acts in that its provisions were exclusively
+for Roman Catholic Separate Schools. It repealed all previous
+legislation for Separate Schools in so far as Roman Catholics were
+concerned. It made possible the establishment of a Roman Catholic
+Separate School in any school section or any ward of a town or city on
+petition of ten Roman Catholic ratepayers and gave them a Separate
+School Board with their own Superintendent in towns and cities. Such
+Roman Catholic ratepayers were relieved from all municipal rates for
+Common School purposes, and received for their own school a _pro rata_
+share of the Legislative grant if they had an average attendance of 15
+pupils. The Act also made possible general Boards of Separate School
+Trustees in towns and cities and gave all Separate School Boards power
+to license their own teachers and levy rates for Separate School
+purposes upon the supporters of those schools. The Act was in principle
+a distinct gain for the champions of Separate Schools, but it led to no
+rapid increase in the number of such schools. In 1858, only 94 Separate
+Schools were in existence with an enrolment of less than 10,000
+children, as compared with an enrolment of 284,000 in the Public
+Schools. The Act of 1855 was really forced upon Upper Canada by the
+votes of members from Lower Canada, there being a majority of Upper
+Canada members against the Bill.
+
+It would seem that the Roman Catholics did not gain by the Tache Bill as
+much as they expected. The following letter written to Dr. Ryerson from
+Quebec, on June 8th, 1855, by John (afterwards Sir John) A. Macdonald,
+Attorney-General for Upper Canada, who had charge of the Bill in the
+Assembly, shows that political exigencies played no small part in school
+legislation: "Our Separate School Bill, which, as you know, is now quite
+harmless, passed with the approbation of our friend, Bishop Charbonnel,
+who, before leaving here, formally thanked the administration for doing
+justice to his Church. He has got a new light since his return to
+Toronto, and he now says the Bill won't do. I need not point out to your
+suggestive mind that in any article written by you on the subject it is
+politic to press two points on the public attention: 1st, That the Bill
+will not, as you say, injuriously affect the Common School system. This
+for the people at large. 2nd, That the Bill is a substantial boon to the
+Roman Catholics. This to keep them in good humour. You see that if the
+Bishop makes the Roman Catholics believe that the Bill is no use to them
+there will be a renewal of an unwholesome agitation which I thought we
+had allayed."[95]
+
+[95] See copy of letter in D. H. E., Vol. XII., p. 40.
+
+
+That Sir John A Macdonald was largely in agreement with Dr. Ryerson on
+the Separate School question is the opinion of Sir Joseph Pope, his
+biographer, who says on page 138 of his Memoirs: "Mr. Macdonald said
+that he was as desirous as anyone of seeing all children going together
+to the Common School, and if he could have his own way there would be no
+Separate School. But we should respect the opinions of others who
+differed from us, and they had a right to refuse such schools as they
+could not conscientiously approve of."
+
+From 1855 to 1863, no important changes took place in the law governing
+Separate Schools. These schools were increasing very slowly, not so
+fast as the natural growth of the Roman Catholic population. In 1860,
+there were only 115 Separate Schools with an enrolment of 14,708 as
+compared with some 325,000 in the Public Schools. In 1860, Mr.
+(afterwards Honourable) R. W. Scott introduced a Bill planned to give
+Separate Schools additional privileges. Substantially the same Bill was
+introduced annually by Mr. Scott until 1863, when it passed with
+amendments, some of which were suggested by Dr. Ryerson. As a matter of
+fact, the Tache Act of 1855, which was suggested partly by the status of
+Protestant dissentient schools in Lower Canada, had imposed some useless
+but vexatious restrictions upon Separate School supporters. In 1862,
+Ryerson proposed to satisfy what he called the reasonable demands of
+Roman Catholics by making four changes, as follows:--[96]
+
+1st. To allow the formation of Separate Schools in incorporated villages
+and in towns (the Tache Act allowed a Separate School only in the ward
+of a town and not a school for the town as a whole); 2nd. To allow a
+union of two or more Separate Schools; 3rd. To make it unnecessary for a
+Separate School supporter annually to declare himself such; and 4th. To
+exempt Separate School trustees from making oath as to the correctness
+of their school returns.
+
+[96] See D. H. E., Vol. XVII., pp. 192 and 193.
+
+
+The Scott Bill of 1863[97] as finally adopted by the Legislature,
+embodied all these provisions and some others of importance. Separate
+School teachers were to submit to the same examinations and receive the
+same certificates of qualification as Public School teachers, but all
+teachers qualified by law in Lower Canada were to be qualified teachers
+for Separate Schools in Upper Canada. This provision was to allow the
+teachers of religious orders[98] recognized by law as qualified in Lower
+Canada to teach in Separate Schools in Upper Canada. The Act also made
+taxpayers who withdrew their support from Separate Schools liable for
+their share of debts incurred while Separate School supporters in
+building or equipping Separate Schools. On the whole, the Scott Bill,
+while in its unamended form it aroused great opposition in Upper Canada,
+as finally adopted, tended to bring the Separate Schools into closer
+harmony with the principles governing Public Schools. The feature of the
+Bill that aroused most opposition was its being forced upon Upper Canada
+by votes of Lower Canadian members--there being a majority[99] of ten
+Upper Canada members against the third reading of the Bill in the
+Assembly. Such well-known men as John A. Macdonald, John Sandfield
+Macdonald and Wm. Macdougall supported the Bill, while George Brown,
+Alexander Mackenzie and Oliver Mowat opposed it.
+
+[97] The Scott Bill, as originally introduced, made any Roman Catholic
+priest an ex-officio trustee of a Separate School in his parish; made
+all the property of a Separate School supporter exempt from taxation for
+Public School purposes, even though some of the property was outside a
+Separate School district; gave Separate School trustees unlimited power
+to form union sections; created a separate County Board of Examiners to
+license Separate School teachers, and gave the Superintendent of
+Education little or no power to control textbooks, holidays or
+inspection of Separate Schools.
+
+[98] The Report of the Chief Superintendent for 1871 shows 70 teachers
+in Separate Schools belonging to religious orders out of a total of 249.
+
+[99] See Journals of Canadian Assembly for 1863.
+
+
+Ryerson claimed[100] that he agreed to the amended Scott Bill only on
+the distinct understanding that it was to be a finality in Separate
+School legislation. He also claimed that the Roman Catholic Bishops of
+Quebec, Kingston and Toronto accepted the Bill as a final settlement.
+But nothing is final in legislation, and Dr. Ryerson ought to have known
+this. Legislation is as much the result of a process of evolution as any
+other institution of human society, and no three or four men, whether
+priests or laymen, could speak authoritatively and finally for the
+thousands of Roman Catholics in Upper Canada.
+
+[100] See D. H. E., Vol. XVII., p. 219.
+
+
+Separate Schools increased slowly. In 1863 they numbered 115, with
+15,000 pupils, the Public Schools having during the same year 45,000
+Roman Catholic pupils. In 1864, Separate Schools had increased to 147
+with 17,365 pupils. In 1871, the number was 160, with 21,000 pupils.
+
+Almost immediately after the Scott legislation of 1863, an agitation
+began for further amendments to the Separate School Act. Ryerson made
+strong objections partly on the ground of the alleged compact of 1863,
+and partly on the ground that no legislation could possibly make
+Separate Schools really popular and efficient outside of large towns and
+cities.
+
+In 1865, the school administration was attacked by James O'Reilly, of
+Kingston, and, in a memorandum prepared as a reply to these attacks,
+Ryerson goes into some detail to justify his Separate School policy and
+reiterates his firm belief that sectarian schools must ever be
+relatively inefficient. He concludes as follows: "The fact is that the
+tendency of the public mind and of the institutions of Upper Canada is
+to confederation and not isolation, to united effort and not divisions.
+The efforts to establish and extend Separate Schools, although often
+energetic and made at great sacrifice, are a struggle against the
+instincts of Canadian society, against the necessities of a sparsely
+populated country, against the social and political interest of the
+parents and youth separated from their fellow-citizens. It is not the
+Separate School law that renders such efforts fitful, feeble and little
+successful; their paralysis is caused by a higher than human law, the
+law of circumstances--the law of nature, and the law of interest.
+
+"If, therefore, the present Separate School law is not to be maintained
+as a final settlement of the question and if the Legislature finds it
+necessary to legislate on the Separate School question again, I pray
+that it will abolish the Separate School law altogether; and to this
+recommendation I am forced after having long used my best efforts to
+maintain and give the fullest effect and most liberal application to
+successive Separate School acts--and after twenty years' experience and
+superintendence of our Common School system."[101]
+
+[101] See copy of Memorandum, D. H. E., Vol. XVIII., pp. 304-316.
+
+
+When the Confederation resolutions adopted at Quebec in 1864 were being
+discussed in the Canadian Assembly in 1865, an extended debate arose
+over the clause which secured for the minorities in Upper and Lower
+Canada the privilege of Separate Schools. Men like George Brown and
+Alexander Mackenzie, who had opposed the Scott Bill of 1863, defended
+the minority clause on the ground that it would place Upper Canada in no
+worse position than she already was in regard to sectarian schools, and
+that privileges given ought not to be withdrawn. The Assembly were
+almost unanimous in supporting the Separate School clause which was
+incorporated into the British North America Act.
+
+No changes in Separate School legislation were made after Confederation
+until 1886, and the only events of passing importance in Separate School
+affairs were the objections raised in Kingston in 1865 and in Toronto in
+1871 to visits of inspection by the Grammar School Inspector, who had
+been appointed to make these visits by the Council of Public
+Instruction. When Dr. Ryerson pointed out that these visits were
+authorized by the Scott Bill of 1863, the Bishops very gracefully waived
+their objections and the principle of Separate School inspection by
+Government officers was established. In 1874, the three High School
+Inspectors made a general inspection of Separate Schools. In their
+report to the Government they say: "The inspection of the Separate
+Schools derives an additional interest and importance from the peculiar
+position they occupy in our educational system. Among them we have found
+both well-equipped and ill-equipped, both well-taught and ill-taught
+schools. On the whole we regret that in the majority of cases the
+buildings, the equipment, and the teaching are alike inferior. There are
+but few Separate School teachers whose school surroundings are such as
+to make their positions enviable, and accordingly a large measure of
+approbation is due to those who have succeeded in doing good work. We
+have pleasure in stating that in many places the Separate School Boards
+are beginning to see that they must either make the schools under their
+charge more efficient or close them altogether. There are many things
+connected with the operation of the Separate School Act which invite
+comment; but we think it best to postpone the expression of our views
+until they are matured by the experience of another year."
+
+Some years after this, in 1882, the Education Department adopted the
+plan of appointing special Roman Catholic Inspectors of Separate
+Schools. No doubt regular inspection of these schools has done much to
+increase their efficiency, but it is to be regretted that the plan of
+inspection adopted tends to widen still further the breach between them
+and the schools of the mass of the people.
+
+Four years after Ryerson's death, the Act relating to Separate Schools
+was revised and amended. No new principles were introduced, but every
+amendment made tended to place Separate School supporters on an equality
+with supporters of Public Schools. The number of schools has gradually
+increased owing to the rapid increase in our urban population. In 1884
+there were 207 Separate Schools, with 27,463 pupils; in 1894, 328
+schools with 39,762 pupils; and in 1906, 443 schools with 50,000 pupils.
+
+Perhaps the most important event connected with the history of Separate
+Schools since 1886 was the decision of the Judicial Committee of the
+Privy Council in November, 1906. This decision made it clear that the
+clause declaring persons qualified as teachers in Quebec at the time of
+Confederation to be qualified teachers of Separate Schools in Ontario
+applied only to individuals and not to religious corporations as such.
+The result will be that the Separate Schools ought soon to have a body
+of teachers with the same academic standing and the same normal training
+as the Public Schools.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+_RYERSON AND GRAMMAR SCHOOLS._
+
+
+As already shown in the chapters on the early history of schools in
+Upper Canada, Grammar Schools were provided for before any provision was
+made for Common Schools. In fact the chief nominal purpose of the large
+grant of public land in 1799 was to endow Grammar Schools, and in 1807
+schools were opened in each of the eight Districts into which Upper
+Canada was then divided. These schools were supposed to be classical
+schools, fashioned upon the model of the great English Public Schools.
+As a matter of fact they had no uniform standard of equipment, staff,
+course of study or graduation. A few schools, such as Cornwall,
+Kingston, York, and Niagara, were famous and turned out many able men.
+Some of the schools received pupils who could not read, and were in no
+sense secondary schools. As the population increased, new schools were
+opened. Although originally intended to be free schools, they all
+charged fees. The public grant, which was paid direct to the principal,
+was one hundred pounds for each school. As the population increased, new
+schools were opened, and by 1844, when Ryerson became Superintendent of
+Education, twenty-five Grammar Schools and Academies were in operation.
+
+These schools were managed by trustees appointed by the Crown, but were
+under no proper Government control. They were never really inspected.
+Each school was a law unto itself. All were supposed to teach Latin and
+Greek, but in many of them there was not a single pupil studying either
+of these languages. They were handicapped in many ways. For years there
+were no good elementary schools from which they could draw pupils with a
+foundation for a secondary education. During the same long period there
+were in Upper Canada no colleges to which graduates of Grammar Schools
+might go for professional training. This gave these schools a wide scope
+and great opportunities, but few seized the opportunities. The poverty
+of the people and the natural apathy of many in regard to education also
+prevented the development of good schools.
+
+Good schools are possible only with good teachers, and good teachers in
+Upper Canada were not easily secured. The professions of law and
+medicine then, as now, were much more attractive than teaching for men
+of ability and education. Mercantile life also offered great
+opportunities. The result was that the Grammar Schools were often in
+charge of incompetent teachers.
+
+Ryerson's commission gave him no control over Grammar Schools. But his
+first Report in 1846 recommended a graded, unified system of schools
+from the Common School to the University. He also pointed out that these
+Grammar Schools which were intended for a special work were teaching
+everything taught in a Common School. In his Report for 1849 he
+recommended a commission of inquiry into the state of Grammar Schools
+and showed that the whole thirty or forty schools had matriculated only
+eight students into the University during that year. He suggested a
+fixed course of studies, a minimum qualification for entrance, and
+Government inspection. "Surely," he says, "it never could have been
+intended that the Grammar Schools should occupy the same ground as
+Common Schools, should compete with them, thus lowering the character
+and efficiency of both.... I am far from intimating an opinion that
+there are no efficient Grammar Schools in the Province, even under the
+present system or rather absence of all system. There are several
+instances in which separate apartments for different classes of pupils
+are provided and assistance employed to teach the English branches, but
+such examples are rather exceptions to the general rule than the rule
+itself. The general rule is whether there be an assistant or not to
+admit pupils of both sexes and all ages and attainments for A B C and
+upwards into schools which ought to occupy a position distinct from and
+superior to that of the Common Schools. Equally far be it from me to
+intimate that there is any deficiency of qualifications on the part of
+masters of Grammar Schools. But I doubt not that they will be the first
+to feel how much the efficiency and pleasures of their duties will be
+advanced by the introduction of a proper and uniform system as they will
+be the first to confess, '_non omnia possumus omnes_.'"[102]
+
+[102] See extract from Report of 1849, published in D.H.E., Vol. VIII.,
+p. 291.
+
+
+After the Common Schools had been brought under the rule of law it was
+inevitable that the Grammar Schools should be reorganized. In 1850,
+Francis Hincks introduced a Grammar School Bill prepared by Doctor
+Ryerson. This Bill aimed at bringing the schools under popular control
+and administering them on lines similar to those governing Common
+Schools. Trustees were to be appointed by County Councils; Trustee
+Boards were to have power to levy rates for buildings, equipment and
+apparatus; the Legislative grant was to be distributed to the several
+Districts on the basis of population, but only when local contributions
+made up a sum equal to the grant exclusive of pupils' fees; the
+programme of studies was to be broad enough to prepare for
+matriculation; the Council of Public Instruction was to fix Grammar
+School programmes, prescribe texts and appoint inspectors. A
+meteorological station was to be established in connection with one
+Grammar School in each District. This Bill was withdrawn, but a similar
+one[103] became law on January 1st, 1854. The new Act, as amended in
+1855, also provided for uniting Grammar Schools with Common Schools and
+provided that a Grammar School master, unless a university graduate,
+must secure a certificate from a Board of Examiners appointed by the
+Council of Public Instruction. This Act also authorized an annual
+appropriation of L1,000 to establish a Model Grammar School in
+connection with the Normal School, authorized the Council of Public
+Instruction to appoint Grammar School inspectors, and made up a liberal
+grant to secure libraries and apparatus. After this legislation, the
+Council of Public Instruction drew up regulations governing the
+curriculum of Grammar Schools and took steps to bring about the use of
+uniform texts. From the first there were two courses of study, a general
+English course and a classical course leading to matriculation. The head
+master of each Grammar School was required to conduct an examination of
+candidates for admission, the requirements being intelligible reading
+from any common reading book, spelling, writing, elementary arithmetic,
+and the elements of English grammar, with definitions of geography.
+
+[103] This Act did not give trustees power to levy assessments, but they
+might ask municipal councils to do so. The distribution of the
+Legislative grant did not, as in the Bill of 1850, depend upon the
+raising of any fixed amount by the local Board.
+
+
+In the autumn of 1855, the Grammar Schools were inspected, those in the
+east by Thomas Jaffray Robertson and those in the west by William
+Ormiston. Their reports show that many of these schools were indifferent
+and a few hopeless. Perhaps half of them were doing fairly well. The
+attendance averaged about thirty, of whom nearly one-half were studying
+Latin. Half of the schools admitted female pupils. The highest salary
+paid a head master was $1,200, while the average for head masters was
+$700. Few of the schools had two masters. Half the total number of head
+masters were graduates of British or Canadian universities. In some
+cases the teachers were paid a fixed salary, and in some cases they got
+the Government grant and the school fees. These fees averaged about
+three dollars per quarter. In a few cases the head master had a dwelling
+in connection with the school.
+
+The inspectors criticised the buildings, equipment and grounds severely,
+as the following extracts will show:--
+
+    "Of the Grammar School houses seventeen were originally built for
+    school purposes and several of them, which were spacious and
+    substantial buildings, may be classed as good; ten were somewhat
+    inferior; and one, a very old wooden building, could scarcely be
+    considered habitable. Nine schools were carried on in premises
+    rented for the purpose and were in most instances totally unfit. In
+    many cases the grounds attached to the schoolhouses were partially
+    or entirely unfenced, and the sheds or outhouses were in a shameful
+    state of neglect. Even in the neatest premises I saw no attempt at
+    ornament; not a tree, shrub or flower to awaken or cultivate a taste
+    so simple and natural in itself and so easily gratified as it could
+    be in rural districts.... Very many of these houses are inferior to
+    the Common Schools. In most cases the premises present a dull,
+    unthrifty and unattractive appearance, destitute alike of ornament
+    and convenience, without fence, shed, well, tree, shrub or flower,
+    while within an entire lack of maps, charts and apparatus is with
+    too few exceptions the general rule."[104]
+
+[104] See copy of Report in D. H. E., Vol. XII., p. 81.
+
+
+Two years later the same inspectors made another general report on
+Grammar Schools. They found some improvements but many weak schools
+doing the most elementary Common School work. They deprecated the
+practice, then becoming somewhat common, of establishing new Grammar
+Schools in small villages.
+
+It is abundantly clear from Ryerson's Reports, 1856-58, that he was
+dissatisfied with the progress being made in Grammar Schools and eager
+to attempt their improvement by means of further legislation. The most
+serious problem was that of providing an adequate and certain financial
+support for these schools. The schools were managed by trustee boards
+appointed by County Councils, but were attended largely by pupils of
+towns and cities. The people using them and contributing largely to
+their support were not given the power to manage them.
+
+Ryerson was also very doubtful about the result of the experiment
+authorized in 1854, of uniting Common and Grammar Schools. The union
+gave trustee boards increased freedom of management, but in many cases
+the union school became, for all practical purposes, a common school,
+having, perhaps, three or four senior pupils studying Latin and Greek.
+Such schools brought all Grammar Schools into contempt.
+
+The report of the Grammar School inspector on the schools of Eastern
+Ontario, for 1860, shows that things were far from satisfactory:
+
+    "With the exception of two or three really good schools our Grammar
+    Schools in the extreme East are in a very low state. Some of them I
+    can only designate as infant schools. Nor do I see anything from the
+    localities in which they are placed or the present state of the
+    Grammar School law which gives me any hope of amelioration.
+    Advancing civilization and the material growth of the country in
+    time may act upon them, but immediate remedies and those of a
+    stringent nature are imperatively needed.... The want of a class of
+    specially trained Grammar School masters who have taken this as a
+    permanent profession for life is a great drawback to the efficiency
+    of our schools. The supposed inferior social status of the Grammar
+    School master and the larger rewards held out for superior mental
+    activity in the other professions turn aside most of those who are
+    most eminently qualified for the scholastic office. Of the
+    twenty-two schools mentioned in my report six were in the hands of
+    persons who avowedly were making teaching the stepping-stone to the
+    attainment of other professions, as law, medicine, or the church.
+    Several were evidently conducted by persons who had taken to
+    teaching after having failed in other walks of life. Comparatively
+    few were held by those who were fitted for their office by previous
+    training, or were devoting themselves entirely to their work as the
+    main business of their lives."[105]
+
+[105] See D. H. E., Vol. XVI., pp. 148, 149.
+
+
+There seems also to have been a disposition to unduly multiply Grammar
+Schools because they were supported so largely by the Legislative grant.
+The Rev. Dr. Paxton Young, Inspector of Grammar Schools, in his report
+for 1864, says: "The too free and inconsiderate exercise by County
+Councils of the large power thus entrusted to them has led to a heedless
+and most unfortunate multiplication of the Grammar Schools, and the evil
+instead of showing any symptoms of abatement appears to be growing worse
+from year to year. In 1858 the number of the schools was seventy-five;
+in 1860 it was eighty-eight; in 1863 it had risen to ninety-five; and
+the number of recognized schools is now as high as one hundred and
+eight. Not a few of the schools thus hastily established are Grammar
+Schools in name rather than in reality, the work done in them being
+almost altogether Common School work, which, as a rule, would be much
+better performed in a well-appointed Common School. I believe that
+County Councils are often led to establish Grammar Schools in localities
+where they are not needed under the idea that if the schools should be
+productive of no good at any rate they can do no harm. There could not
+be a greater mistake. Men ought to be wise enough by this time to
+understand that all public institutions, especially if forming parts of
+a great plan, must, where unnecessary, be positively bad. Needless and
+contemptible Grammar Schools are a blot upon the whole school system,
+the sight of which is fitted to shake the confidence of the country in
+the administrative wisdom or firmness of those to whom the direction of
+educational matters is committed. When it is considered that the
+apportionment from the Grammar School fund to a particular county is
+divided according to certain fixed principles between the different
+schools in that county, it will be seen that the disposition manifested
+by some councils to secure the largest number of schools for their
+county, is practically a disposition to secure quantity for quality, for
+as the number of schools is augmented the salaries of the masters are
+diminished, the tendency of which is, of course, to throw the schools
+into the hands of a lower grade of teachers.... About three out of every
+five Grammar Schools in Upper Canada have Common Schools united with
+them, and, in not a few instances, where unions have not yet been
+formed, I found a strong disposition existing to enter into such an
+arrangement. I made it my business to inquire particularly into the
+benefits supposed to result from the union of the Common with the
+Grammar Schools. The chief advantage was in almost every case admitted
+to be a pecuniary one. By the existing law Grammar School trustees have
+of themselves no power to raise money for Grammar School purposes, but
+in case of the Common and Grammar Schools becoming united the joint
+boards may levy money for the support of the united schools. This being
+so, it is easy to comprehend how strongly the trustees of a Grammar
+School who feel their hands tied up from doing anything to put the
+school in an efficient state may be tempted to make with the Common
+School Board a league which will give them a voice in the important
+matter of taxation.... But of nothing am I more convinced than that as a
+rule such a union is undesirable. In a large number of instances it
+throws upon the Grammar School master the necessity of receiving into
+his room, and personally instructing, Common School pupils, as well as
+those whom it is his more particular duty to attend to. A consequence of
+this is that he cannot afford the Grammar School pupils the time that is
+necessary for drilling them in the subjects that they are
+studying."[106]
+
+[106] See copy of Report in D. H. E., Vol. XVIII., pp. 199-205.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But Doctor Young saw much promise in the schools, as the following from
+the same Report will show: "Leaving out of view schools of this sort, I
+do not hesitate to say that the Grammar Schools of Upper Canada are, as
+a class, not only in the promise of what they may become, but in what
+they actually are at the present moment, an honour to the country. We
+must not look for too much. It would be preposterous to expect at this
+early period in the history of our Province, that its Grammar Schools
+generally should be able to bear comparison with the better classical
+and mathematical schools of Great Britain and Ireland. To this Canada
+does not pretend, but she has begun well, and appears to be steadily, if
+not rapidly, progressing."
+
+In June, 1865, Ryerson went to Quebec to press upon the Government the
+necessity of a new Grammar School bill. As the Confederation scheme was
+approaching maturity he found the Government unwilling to embark upon
+any legislation that might prevent an early prorogation. Mr. John A.
+Macdonald suggested that the difficulty might be met by a regulation
+issued under the authority of the Council of Public Instruction. This
+was accordingly done, and the Council immediately framed regulations as
+follows: First, the Legislative grant was to be apportioned on the basis
+of the attendance of those learning Greek and Latin, as certified by the
+Grammar School Inspector. Second, no school was to receive any portion
+of the Legislative grant unless suitable accommodations were provided,
+and unless there were an average of at least ten pupils learning Latin
+and Greek, nor were any pupils to be admitted or continued in a Grammar
+School unless they were learning Latin and Greek.
+
+This absurd regulation never went into effect, as the Legislature passed
+a Grammar School Bill in the latter part of 1865. The new Bill made each
+city a county for Grammar School purposes; it allowed County Councils to
+appoint half the Grammar School trustees, the other half being appointed
+by the village or town council where the school was situated. This
+latter provision was planned to give increased local control and thus
+create a stronger interest in the management of the schools. The
+distinction which had so long existed between senior and junior county
+Grammar Schools[107] was abolished and the Legislative grant was
+apportioned solely on the basis of attendance, but no school was to
+share the grant unless there was raised from local sources, exclusive of
+pupils' fees, a sum equal to half the grant. It was made more difficult
+to establish new schools. Only graduates of universities in British
+dominions were to be eligible for head masters' positions. On the
+suggestion of the Hon. William Macdougall, a clause was inserted
+providing for a grant of fifty dollars a year to those Grammar Schools
+giving a course of elementary military instruction.
+
+[107] This senior Grammar School, being the one first established in
+each county, had drawn a larger Legislative grant than the others.
+
+
+The Report of Rev. Geo. Paxton Young on the Grammar Schools in 1865 is
+of great interest, read in the light of nearly half a century's progress
+in the higher education of women. I shall quote his exact words:
+
+    "I have frequently been asked whether I considered it desirable that
+    girls should study Latin in the Grammar Schools. It is, in my
+    opinion, most undesirable; and I am at a loss to comprehend how any
+    intelligent person acquainted with the state of things in our
+    Grammar Schools can come to a different conclusion.... Since I
+    became Inspector, I have not met with half a dozen girls in the
+    Grammar Schools of Canada by whom the study of Latin has been
+    pursued far enough for the taste to be in the least degree
+    influenced by what has been read. Aesthetically, the benefits of
+    Grammar Schools to girls are _nil_.... It may perhaps be said that
+    although they have for the most part made but little progress in
+    Latin up to the present time, a fair proportion of them may be
+    expected to pursue the study to a point where its advantages can be
+    reaped. I do not believe that three out of a hundred will. As a
+    class, they have dipped the soles of their feet in the water, with
+    no intention or likelihood of wading deeper into it. They are not
+    studying Latin with any definite object. They have taken it up under
+    pressure at the solicitation of the teachers or trustees to enable
+    the schools to maintain the requisite average attendance of ten
+    classical pupils or to increase that part of the income of the
+    schools which is derived from public sources. In a short time they
+    will leave school to enter on the practical work of life without
+    having either desired or obtained more than the merest smattering of
+    Latin, and their places will be taken by another band of girls who
+    will go through the same routine. It may perhaps be urged that these
+    remarks are as applicable to as large a number of the Grammar School
+    boys as they are to the girls. I admit that they are; and I draw the
+    conclusion that such boys, equally with the girls in the Grammar
+    Schools, are wasting their time in keeping up the appearance of
+    learning Latin. It would be unspeakably better to commit them to
+    first-class Common School teachers, under whose guidance they might
+    have their reflective and aesthetic faculties cultivated through the
+    study of English and of those branches which are associated with
+    English in good Common Schools. This would, of course, diminish the
+    number of the Grammar Schools in the Province; but it might not be a
+    very grievous calamity, especially if it led to the establishment
+    of first-class Common Schools in localities where inferior teachers
+    are now employed."[108]
+
+[108] See copy of Report in D. H. E., Vol. XIX., pp. 96, 97.
+
+
+It was a part of a Grammar School inspector's duty to examine the pupils
+who had been admitted by the Grammar School masters and reject any who
+were too immature or were insufficiently prepared. Dr. Young complains
+strongly in his Report of 1865 of the poor teaching of English grammar.
+In some cases he had to reject more than half those admitted. He found
+pupils wholly unable to parse such easy sentences as: "The mother loved
+her daughter dearly," "John ran to school very quickly," "She knew her
+lesson remarkably well."
+
+It is doubtful whether the Grammar School Bill of 1865 made any real
+improvement in the schools. Without denying that some of them were doing
+a good work, and that as a force in the national life they were
+fostering some love for higher education, it is safe to assert that they
+were not very closely related to the real needs of the people. Their aim
+was narrow. Their very name shows this. There was a crying need in the
+country for schools that would give an advanced English and scientific
+education with classic and modern languages to those who wished to
+pursue university studies. But the most of the Grammar Schools aimed
+only at a study of Latin and Greek, and indeed the Grammar School
+legislation and the regulations of the Council of Public Instruction had
+made a certain number of Latin pupils one of the conditions upon which a
+Grammar School might receive a public grant.
+
+The Act of 1865 soon showed some disastrous tendencies. It did not check
+the desire to form unions between Grammar Schools and Common Schools, as
+such unions made it easier to levy a rate in support of the union
+schools, and thus comply with the conditions upon which Grammar Schools
+received grants. The clause in the new Act making average attendance the
+basis of attendance, together with a regulation of the Council of Public
+Instruction which counted only Latin pupils in making the grant, led the
+head masters of union schools to draft every available pupil into the
+Grammar School departments[109] and put them all, boys and girls, into
+Latin. Often they were not prepared for such work and got no real
+benefit from it. They wasted their time and lost the benefits of a sound
+English education which a good Common School would have given them.
+Hundreds of boys and girls who had no foundation for a classical
+education, and who had no prospect of ever advancing far enough to
+receive any solid knowledge of Latin, were making a pretence of studying
+it in order that the school might draw a Government grant. Ignorant
+parents raised no objections, thinking perhaps that Latin possessed some
+charm which would be an "open sesame" for the future advancement of the
+boys and girls.
+
+[109] It should be remembered that while a Public School pupil drew less
+than one dollar per year Legislative grant, the moment this pupil was
+enrolled in a Grammar School he drew from $20 to $35 yearly. In 1872,
+the average Legislative grant to a Public School pupil was 40 cents, and
+to a Grammar School pupil $20. See D. H. E., Vol. XXIV., p. 302.
+
+
+Dr. Ryerson was not the man to diagnose the case. But the hour brought
+forth the man, and that man was George Paxton Young, one of the
+Inspectors of Grammar Schools. In two very able Reports[110] presented
+in 1867 and 1868, he sets forth clearly and convincingly the defects of
+the system then in operation and suggests the direction that reforms
+should take to make the Grammar Schools serve a useful purpose. He
+wished to see their character wholly changed. He did not undervalue
+classics, but he believed that a smattering of classics was of no
+benefit, and that it caused a waste of time that might be given to
+subjects of real value. He wished to see High Schools that would give an
+advanced English training, together with natural science, mathematics,
+and history. He did not believe in forcing all to study Latin, nor did
+he believe in apportioning grants to High Schools on the basis of the
+number of pupils studying Latin. He wished to see better Common Schools
+and objected to the plan of union which robbed the Common School of its
+older pupils and degraded its function. Speaking of this, he says: "The
+number of union schools is increasing and is likely to increase. In many
+of the schools of this class all the Common School pupils, boys and
+girls alike, who have obtained a smattering of English grammar are
+systematically drafted into the Grammar School. The consequence is that
+in localities where such a system is followed there is no mere Common
+School education (observe I say mere Common School education) given to
+any pupils, boys or girls, which is not of the most elementary
+description; and not only have the Grammar Schools thus become to a
+great extent girls' schools as well as boys' schools, but--what is
+especially noteworthy--the girls admitted to these schools are in a
+majority of instances put into Latin as a matter of course; in other
+words, the study of Latin is made practically a condition of their
+admission into the Grammar School. Will any man say that this state of
+things is satisfactory, a state of things in which the Common Schools
+are degraded by being suspended from the exercise of all their higher
+functions? Unless I misunderstand the object of the Common School law,
+the Common Schools are designed to furnish a good English and general
+education to those desiring it. But how can this end be accomplished
+where the Common Schools are subject to arrangements under which the
+highest stage of advancement ever reached by the pupils is to be able to
+parse an easy English sentence? ... Children under thirteen years of age
+who do not mean to take a classical course of study have no educational
+wants which the Common Schools, properly conducted, are not fitted to
+supply. For children of thirteen and upwards who have already obtained
+such an education as may be got in good Common Schools, it would, I
+think, be well to establish English High Schools--a designation which I
+borrow from the United States although, unfortunately, I have only a
+very vague idea of what the High Schools in the United States are."
+
+[110] See copy of Report in D. H. E., Vol. XX., pp. 98-128.
+
+
+Dr. Young strongly urged a more rigid inspection of Grammar Schools and
+the apportioning of the Legislative grant upon the basis of Inspectors'
+reports. As so many girls had been drafted into Grammar Schools and put
+in grammar classes apparently to increase the school grant, it was
+proposed during 1868 to allow only fifty per cent. of girls' attendance
+to count in apportioning the grant and even to make no allowance
+whatever for attendance of female pupils in future years. This opened up
+the whole question of co-education of the sexes in Grammar Schools and
+caused lively debates in the Legislature and in Teachers' Institutes.
+The general opinion seemed to prevail that girls should have equal
+rights with boys but that the law should be so amended as to remove all
+pressure upon girls to study Latin.
+
+After one or two abortive attempts, a Bill reorganizing Grammar Schools
+was passed in 1871. This Bill abolished the term "Grammar School," and
+substituted that of "High School." Adequate provision was to be made in
+each High School for an advanced English education, including natural
+sciences and commercial subjects. The study of Latin, Greek and modern
+languages was to be at the option of the pupils' parents or guardians.
+Provision was made for a superior class of High School, to be known as
+Collegiate Institutes. These schools were required to have at least four
+masters and an average of not less than sixty boys studying Latin or
+Greek, and were to receive a special grant of $750 a year. County
+Councils were empowered to form High School districts and provision was
+made by which the High School Board could levy an assessment upon the
+district. High School vacations were extended from July 1st to August
+15th. A very important feature of the new Bill was the provision for the
+admission of pupils. The county, city or town Inspector of Schools, the
+Chairman of the High School Board and the head master of the High School
+were constituted a Board with power to conduct a written examination and
+admit pupils according to regulations prescribed by the Council of
+Public Instruction.
+
+At first the local examining Board set the entrance papers, but this
+plan was soon superseded by one requiring uniform papers set by the High
+School Inspectors. This aroused a storm of opposition, and the
+resolution of the Council of Public Instruction requiring uniform papers
+was set aside by an Order-in-Council. But the plan of uniform papers was
+so sensible, and so much chaos resulted from the other plan, that by
+1874 the Government authorized a uniform entrance examination which shut
+out immature pupils and those insufficiently prepared. It raised the
+status of High Schools, enabling them to begin advanced work, and
+indirectly increased the efficiency of the Public Schools by fixing a
+standard of attainment. The Legislature also made further provision for
+High Schools by appropriating an additional $20,000 a year, exclusive of
+the grants to be given to Collegiate Institutes.
+
+The Act of 1871 provided for a minimum Legislative grant[111] for each
+High School, and made the maximum grant depend upon average attendance.
+The Rev. George Paxton Young had, in his last Report as Grammar School
+Inspector, strongly recommended the adoption in a modified form of the
+English system of payment by results. He wished to see the High Schools
+graded by the Inspectors according to their general efficiency and the
+grant based upon this grading. In 1872 the High School Inspectors,
+Messrs. McKenzie and McLellan, urged the adoption of a similar plan and
+showed how it would serve as a stimulus to better work in all the
+schools. They also pointed out how such a plan would encourage Boards to
+employ good teachers, since they would have a pecuniary interest in
+keeping up a good school.
+
+[111] The minimum grant per school was $400. The High Schools of the
+Province had, in 1872, from Legislative grant and County Councils,
+$105,000. This was more than $1,000 per school and about $30 per pupil.
+Many of the High Schools charged no fees.
+
+
+The Act of 1871 gave the Council of Public Instruction a large measure
+of control over textbooks to be used in High Schools. The Council issued
+lists of those authorized, and this did much to bring about uniformity
+in courses of study. Previous to 1871, many High Schools had only one
+teacher, but the new legislation required at least two for High Schools
+and four for Collegiate Institutes. To secure this required much
+firmness on the part of Dr. Ryerson. Even two teachers were wholly
+unable to do efficient work in large High Schools, and there was no easy
+way to force School Boards to employ more. The Superintendent had
+steadily to oppose a tendency to form weak High Schools, and in some
+cases Grammar Schools which had been able to exist in a sickly state
+under the old law were wholly unable to meet the requirements of the Act
+of 1871, which threw some of the burden of support upon the local
+municipality.
+
+The Inspectors' Reports for 1874 emphasize the need of additional
+teachers, the poor quality of work done in English literature, and the
+necessity of increased provision for natural science. Referring to the
+latter, the Inspectors' joint Report speaks as follows: "In regard to
+the direct utility of the knowledge imparted, the physical sciences are
+equalled by few subjects of study. We regret to report that the teaching
+of science is not making progress in the schools. For this there are
+many reasons, of which perhaps the most important are the lack of
+apparatus and the impracticable character of the prescribed programme of
+studies. All places might advantageously follow the example of Whitby
+and fit up a science room, that is, a room to be devoted to the teaching
+of science and furnished with the necessary appliances and apparatus. It
+cannot too often be inculcated that there can be no effective teaching
+of chemistry without experiments. Effective teaching implies first of
+all a qualified teacher, and few of our masters consider themselves well
+qualified to teach any of the physical sciences. Yet the number of
+masters qualified to teach in this Department is increasing every year
+and it is much to be regretted that where the master is qualified he is
+often compelled, if he wishes to teach chemistry, to provide the
+apparatus at his own expense. The public indifference to the claims of
+physical science is greater than the indifference of the masters.
+Besides, three-fourths of High School Boards either are so poor, or
+believe themselves to be so poor, that they will grumble if asked to
+spend $10.00 annually for chemical purposes."[112]
+
+[112] See copy of Report in D. H. E., Vol. XXV., pp. 244-245.
+
+Progress on the whole was rapid. Several weak schools were closed,[113]
+but they were schools which should never have been opened. Fees were
+either abolished or lowered.[114] The standard for pupils' admission was
+gradually raised and the old "Grammar Schools" were truly doing the work
+for which they were established in 1807.
+
+[113] About fifteen in all.
+
+[114] Out of 106 schools in operation in 1875, no less than 81 were
+absolutely free. Fees in the others varied from 75 cents to $6.00 per
+quarter, the average being $2.70.
+
+
+Much was yet to be desired in the qualifications of High School masters.
+In 1874, one hundred out of one hundred and six head masters were
+university graduates, but forty-five assistants held only Second Class
+Normal School Certificates, or County Certificates, and twenty-three
+schools had to employ teachers for a whole or a part of the year without
+any legal qualifications. The average salary of head masters was
+$930.00, of male assistants $664.00, and of female assistants $416.00.
+The following extract from the Inspector's Report is interesting in the
+light of what has since been accomplished: "In the absence of any
+special training college or chair of pedagogy in the University, we
+would suggest that as so many men are pursuing a collegiate course, with
+a view to becoming High School masters, it would be well for the
+Government to establish a lectureship in Education. It would not, we
+think, be difficult if proper encouragement were given to secure the
+services of several experienced and skilled educationists, one of whom
+might deliver a short course of lectures on the above subjects during
+each college session."
+
+Perhaps no part of our school system has developed more since Ryerson
+retired in 1876 than our High Schools. But this development has been
+almost wholly a natural growth. True, there has been much legislation
+and many changes in departmental regulations, but nothing of a
+revolutionary character. The opening of the doors of the universities to
+women and their increased employment as teachers has led to their being
+placed on an absolute equality with men in the High Schools and in all
+graduating examinations. The number of schools has almost doubled and
+the teaching of every department has been improved; incompetent teachers
+have given place to those having high academic and professional
+training; natural science has been greatly strengthened and the teaching
+of languages much improved; good laboratories have been built; spacious
+buildings with fine grounds have become the rule; the number of students
+preparing for university matriculation has multiplied many times; the
+average salaries of teachers have more than doubled, and finally the
+High Schools are so adapting themselves to the social needs of the
+people that they are becoming as much the schools of the people as are
+the Public Schools.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+_RYERSON AND THE TRAINING OF TEACHERS._
+
+
+Normal Schools were mooted in Upper Canada before Ryerson became
+Superintendent. As early as 1843, Sir Francis Hincks said that the
+school system would never be complete without them.[115] In his Report
+on a System of Education made in 1846, Ryerson made it clear that any
+system of education must have as its basis trained teachers, and to
+secure trained teachers was almost impossible without Normal Schools.
+His report gives details of the Normal School systems of Great Britain
+and Ireland, France, Holland, Germany, and the United States. One or two
+schools had just been established in Massachusetts and one in Albany.
+Ryerson visited these, but was most favourably impressed with the Dublin
+Normal and Model Schools, as managed by the Commissioners of the Irish
+National Board of Education, and our first Normal School was modelled
+largely after the Dublin type.
+
+[115] See extract from his speech, Chap. IV., pp. 101, 102.
+
+
+The legislation of 1846 appropriated L1,500 for fitting up a Normal
+School building and made an additional appropriation of L1,500 per
+annum for maintenance. The School Bill of 1846 created a Council of
+Public Instruction to work with the Chief Superintendent, and placed the
+proposed Normal School under its management. The Council of Public
+Instruction lost no time in beginning work. As early as May, 1846, they
+were planning an early opening of the Normal School, and were in
+communication with John Rintoul, of the Dublin Normal School, about
+accepting the head mastership of the proposed Normal School at Toronto.
+It was proposed to give Mr. Rintoul L350, Halifax currency, and L100 for
+moving expenses. Mr. Rintoul accepted the appointment, resigned his
+position in Dublin, and was about to leave for Canada when, owing to
+some domestic affliction, he had to abandon his plans. The Commissioners
+of the Irish National Board then selected Thomas Jaffray Robertson to
+take Rintoul's place and the Council of Public Instruction chose as his
+assistant Mr. Henry Hind, of Thorne Hill. Robertson sailed from Ireland
+in July, 1847, and in November of the same year the Normal School was
+opened.
+
+It was a part of Ryerson's plan that the several District Councils of
+Upper Canada should choose two or three promising young men and send
+them to the Normal School, paying at least part of their expenses. The
+following extract from the Regulations issued by the Council of Public
+Instruction in 1847 will illustrate the requirements for admission to
+the first Normal School in Upper Canada: "1st. That the Provincial
+Normal School shall be open about the 1st of July next, and the first
+session shall continue until the middle of October, 1847. 2nd. That
+every candidate for admission into the Normal School, in order to his
+being received, must comply with the following conditions: He must be at
+least sixteen years of age; produce a certificate of good moral
+character signed by a clergyman; be able to read and write intelligibly
+and be acquainted with the simple rules of arithmetic; must declare in
+writing that he intends to devote himself to teaching (other students
+not candidates for school teaching to be admitted only on paying fees
+and dues to be prescribed). 3rd. Upon the foregoing conditions
+candidates for school teaching shall be admitted to all the advantages
+of the Normal School without any charge either for tuition or for books.
+4th. Candidates shall lodge and board in the city under such regulations
+as shall from time to time be approved by this Board."[116]
+
+[116] See Report of Superintendent of Education for 1848.
+
+
+The school was formally opened by Dr. Ryerson, November 1st, in the
+presence of a distinguished company. The Model School was opened the
+following February.
+
+The Normal School pupils were, many of them, poorly equipped for a
+course of training. They had received no adequate secondary education.
+In fact, many of them were direct from the Common Schools. A few were
+mature men who had a considerable teaching experience.[117]
+
+[117] Women were not admitted until the opening of the second term in
+1848.
+
+
+It was necessary to give a broad academic course and judiciously
+interweave some professional training. Grammar and mathematics received
+much greater attention than their importance merited. Physical science
+and natural philosophy, together with some agricultural chemistry,
+received a prominent place on the programme. Geography was also made
+much of, but it was largely mathematical and political and elaborately
+illustrated with globes and maps. Literature and history were taught,
+but not in a way to arouse much enthusiasm. Pupils were supposed not to
+learn by heart what they did not understand, but there was in practice
+much memory work and repetition of rules.
+
+On the whole, the Normal School was approved by all classes of people,
+and the teachers trained there were in great demand. But there was some
+criticism, especially of the provision by which four shillings a week
+was granted to students to aid them in paying their board. Inasmuch as
+this money was deducted from the school grant, it was argued that the
+teachers in service were actually educating in the Normal School others
+who would displace them. Exception was also taken to granting aid to
+students who had no intention of making teaching their life work. To
+meet this difficulty, students accepting public money towards their
+expenses were required to give assurance that they would teach a stated
+time, and others, called private pupils, were charged fees for tuition.
+
+In 1849 the experiment was made of a nine months' session, but the
+country was not yet ready for this step and the attendance was so
+reduced that the plan was abandoned.
+
+In 1850, the Council of Public Instruction attempted to widen the
+influence of the Normal School by sending the Normal School masters to
+attend Teachers' Institutes throughout the Province. In this way many
+earnest teachers who had received no training were given suggestions
+that bore much fruit.
+
+When the Normal School was established, it was held in the old
+Legislative Buildings of Upper Canada. After the riots in Montreal, in
+1849, Toronto again became the seat of Government and the Normal School
+had to move. Temporary quarters were obtained while the Council of
+Public Instruction took steps to secure a permanent home, not only for
+the Normal School, but for the Education Department. The present site
+was secured and Parliament made an appropriation of L15,000 to provide
+for it and for a building. In July, 1851, Lord Elgin laid the
+corner-stone.[118]
+
+[118] See D. H. E., Vol. X., pp. 5-14.
+
+
+The address of Dr. Ryerson, in introducing the Governor, shows that he
+had no thought of divorcing the Common Schools from agriculture, the
+backbone industry of the people. He says: "The land on which these
+buildings are in course of erection is an entire square, consisting of
+nearly eight acres, two of which are to be devoted to a botanical
+garden, three to agricultural experiments, and the remainder to the
+buildings of the institution. It is thus intended that the valuable
+course of lectures given in the Normal School in vegetable physiology
+and agricultural chemistry shall be practically illustrated on the
+adjoining grounds, in the culture of which the students will take part
+during a portion of their hours of recreation.... There are four
+circumstances which encourage the most sanguine anticipations in every
+patriotic heart in regard to our educational future. The first is the
+avowed and entire absence of all party spirit in the school affairs of
+our country from the Provincial Legislature down to the smallest
+municipality. The second is the precedence which our Legislature has
+taken of all others on the western side of the Atlantic in providing
+for Normal School instruction, in aiding teachers to avail themselves of
+its advantages. The third is that the people of Upper Canada have during
+the last year voluntarily taxed themselves for the salaries of teachers
+in a larger sum in proportion to their numbers and have kept open their
+schools on an average more months than the neighbouring citizens of the
+old and great State of New York. The fourth is that the essential
+requisite of a series of suitable and excellent textbooks has been
+introduced into our schools and adopted almost by general acclamation,
+and that the facilities of furnishing all our schools with the necessary
+books, maps, and apparatus will soon be in advance of those of any other
+country."[119] In November, 1852, when the buildings[120] were formally
+opened, the Honourable John Beverley Robinson, Chief Justice of Upper
+Canada, said: "Without such a general preparatory system as we see here
+in operation, the instruction of the great mass of our population would
+be left in a measure to chance. The teachers might be, many of them,
+ignorant pretenders without experience, without method, and in some
+respects very improper persons to be entrusted with the education of
+youth. There could be little or no security for what they might teach,
+or what they might attempt to teach, nor any certainty that the good
+which might be acquired from their precepts would not be more than
+counterbalanced by the ill effects of their example. Indeed the footing
+which our Common School teachers were formerly upon in regard to income
+gave no adequate remuneration to intelligent and industrious men to
+devote their time to the service. But this disadvantage is largely
+removed, as well as other obstacles which were inseparable from the
+conditions of a thinly-peopled and uncleared country traversed only by
+miserable roads, and henceforth, as soon at least as the benefits of
+this institution can be fully felt, the Common Schools will be
+dispensing throughout the whole of Upper Canada, by means of
+properly-trained teachers and under vigilant superintendents, a system
+of education which has been carefully considered and arranged, and which
+has been for some time practically exemplified. An observation of some
+years has enabled most of us to form an opinion of its sufficiency.
+Speaking only for myself, I have much pleasure in saying that the degree
+of proficiency which has been actually attained goes far, very far,
+beyond what I had imagined it would have been attempted to aim
+at."[121]
+
+[119] See D. H. E., Vol. X., p. 6.
+
+[120] These included what is now the main Departmental building and the
+Model School to the north. The present Normal School building was
+erected later.
+
+[121] See D. H. E., Vol. X., pp. 278-283.
+
+
+The following from Honourable Francis Hincks leaves us in no doubt as to
+Ryerson's part in securing the building. He says: "With regard to this
+institution, so far it has been most successfully conducted, and I feel
+bound to say that we must attribute all the merit of that success to the
+reverend gentleman who has been at the head of our Common School system.
+It is only due to him that I should take this public opportunity of
+saying that since I have been a member of the Government I have never
+met an individual who has displayed more zeal or more devotion to the
+duties he has been called upon to discharge than Dr. Ryerson. A great
+deal of opposition has been manifested both in and out of Parliament to
+this institution, and a good deal of jealousy exists with regard to its
+having been established in the city of Toronto. I can speak from my own
+experience as to the difficulties experienced in obtaining the
+co-operation of Parliament to have the necessary funds provided for the
+purpose of erecting this building. I will say, however, that there never
+was an institution in which the people have more confidence that the
+funds were well applied than in this institution. There is but one
+feeling that pervades the minds of all those who have seen the manner
+in which this scheme has been worked out. In regard to the Normal School
+itself, the site has been well chosen, the buildings have been erected
+in a most permanent manner, and without anything like extravagance, and
+I have no doubt there will be no difficulty in obtaining additional
+Parliamentary aid to finish them."[122]
+
+[122] See D. H. E., Vol. X., pp. 282-284.
+
+
+In his report for 1853, Ryerson suggests Normal training for Grammar
+School teachers. I shall give his own words: "The Provincial Normal and
+Model Schools have contributed, and are contributing, much to the
+improvement of our Common Schools by furnishing a proper standard of
+judgment and comparison as to what such schools ought to be and how they
+should be taught and governed, and by furnishing teachers duly qualified
+for that important task. There is equal need of a Provincial Model
+Grammar School, in which the best modes of teaching the elements of
+Greek and Latin, French and German, the elementary mathematics and the
+elements of natural science, may be exemplified, and where teachers and
+candidates for masterships of Grammar Schools may have an opportunity
+for practical observation and training during a shorter or longer
+period. Such a school would complete the educational establishments of
+our school system and contribute powerfully to advance Upper Canada to
+the proud position which she is approaching in regard to institutions
+and agencies for the mental culture of her youthful population."[123]
+
+[123] See Superintendent's Report for 1853.
+
+
+The Legislature voted L1,000 for a Model Grammar School, and in 1855
+plans for a building were prepared under direction of the Council of
+Public Instruction. The estimate exceeded the means at the disposal of
+the Council and nothing was done until 1856, when Ryerson wrote the
+Executive Council as follows: "There is no branch of our system of
+Public Instruction so defective as our Grammar Schools, and the 'Model'
+for them as to both structure and furniture, discipline, modes of
+classification and teaching is of the utmost importance.... I am
+persuaded that a saving of one-half of the time and expense usually
+incurred in the Grammar School education of youth may be saved by
+improved methods in teaching and directing their studies, a result which
+will greatly increase the number of those who will aspire to a higher
+literary education apart from other advantages and intellectual habits
+and discipline. It is proposed to erect the Model Grammar School in the
+rear of the present Model School.... The proposed mode of admitting
+pupils will prevent the Model Grammar School from interfering with or
+being the rival of any other Grammar School. It is also intended to
+afford every possible facility and assistance to masters and teachers of
+Grammar Schools throughout the Province to come and spend some weeks in
+the Model Grammar School."[124]
+
+[124] See copy of letter in D. H. E., Vol. XII., p. 321.
+
+
+The Government now authorized the Council of Public Instruction to
+proceed with the erection of a building to accommodate one hundred
+Grammar School pupils. The school was opened in 1858. It was the
+intention to give a preference to the two or three pupils from each
+county and city in Upper Canada who were recommended by the respective
+Municipal Councils. Ryerson's circular to these Councils will throw some
+light on the subject: "The object of the Model Grammar School is to
+exemplify the best methods of teaching the branches required by law to
+be taught in the Grammar Schools, especially the elementary classics and
+mathematics, as a model for the Grammar Schools of the country. It is
+also intended that the Model Grammar School shall, as far as possible,
+secure the advantages of a Normal Classical School to candidates for
+masterships in the Grammar School; but effect cannot be given to this
+object of the Model Grammar School during the first few months of its
+operation."[125] In 1859, in a report to the Government, Ryerson speaks
+further and says: "In regard to the Model Grammar Schools the buildings
+are completed and the school has been in operation several months and
+with the most gratifying success. Upwards of thirty masters of Grammar
+Schools have in the course of a few weeks visited and spent a longer or
+shorter time in the Model Grammar School with a view to improving their
+own methods of school organization, discipline, and teaching; and I have
+reason to believe that it has already exerted a salutary influence in
+improving the several Grammar Schools--an influence that will be greatly
+increased when we are enabled to form a special class consisting of
+candidates for Grammar School masterships."[126]
+
+[125] See copy of Circular in D. H. E., Vol. XIV., p. 65.
+
+[126] See Report of Superintendent for 1859.
+
+
+In 1861, Mr. G. R. Cockburn, Rector of the Model Grammar School,
+resigned to become principal of Upper Canada College. Ryerson wished to
+transfer the functions of the Model Grammar School to Upper Canada
+College. This was not agreed to, but the same year provision was made
+for admitting candidates for Grammar School masterships to a course in
+training in the Model Grammar School. Up to this time the School had
+been of professional service as a school of observation, the holidays
+being so arranged that its classes were in session while Grammar School
+masters were on holiday.
+
+In July, 1863, the Model Grammar School was finally closed. The
+following from a letter sent by Ryerson to the Provincial Secretary
+makes clear the reasons for this action: "When the Model Grammar School
+was established it was expected that nearly every county in Upper Canada
+would be represented in it and provision was made for that purpose. That
+important object has not been realized; and although the attendance at
+the school has been larger during the last year than during any previous
+year, reaching even to 100, the attendance as in former years has been
+chiefly from Toronto and its neighbourhood. I do not think it just to
+the General Fund to maintain an additional Toronto Grammar School.
+During the past year a training class for Grammar School masterships,
+consisting to a considerable extent of students in the University, has
+been successfully established. But it has been found that the
+instruction in all subjects, except Greek, Latin, and French, can be
+given in the Normal School to better advantage than in the Model Grammar
+School."[127]
+
+[127] See Ryerson's letter in D. H. E., Vol. XVIII, p. 69.
+
+
+Trained teachers for the Grammar Schools were much to be desired, and
+Ryerson deserves credit for his progressive ideas. But just at that
+stage in their evolution, although they contained many scholarly men,
+the Grammar Schools as a whole were more in need of teachers with sound
+scholarship than of teachers with a little professional training.
+
+There continued to be complaints that teachers trained in the Normal
+Schools did not continue to teach. In his Report for 1856, Ryerson makes
+clear that in his opinion these defections from the teaching ranks were
+no condemnation of Normal Schools. He says: "The only objection yet made
+to the training of teachers, as far as I know, is that many of them do
+not pursue that profession but leave it for other employments. Were this
+true to the full extent imagined, the conclusion would still be in
+favour of the Normal School, since its advantages are not confined to
+schools or neighbourhoods in which its teachers are employed, but are
+extended over other neighbourhoods and municipalities.... In all
+professions and pursuits there are changes from one to another. I do not
+think it wise, just, or expedient to deny to the Normal School teacher
+the liberty, if opportunity presents itself, to improve his position or
+increase his usefulness.... In whatever position or relation of life a
+Normal School teacher may be placed, his training at the Normal School
+cannot fail to contribute to his usefulness."[128]
+
+[128] See Report of Chief Superintendent for 1856. See copy in D. H. E.,
+Vol. XIII., p. 51.
+
+
+Nor was all the criticism of Normal School affairs directed towards the
+teachers who left the profession; those who remained in it were
+emissaries of evil. Then, as now, there were croakers who thought that a
+boy born on a farm naturally belonged there, and that any enlightenment
+which tended to make him dissatisfied with his surroundings was an evil.
+One, signing himself Angus Dallas of Toronto, wrote several pamphlets
+attacking the school system. Speaking of the Normal School, he said:
+"The young men who have attended six months at that institution and
+leave it with certificates to teach, go forth into the country with the
+most mistaken estimate of their own importance. They open schools
+wherever accident places them, and by teaching and familiar intercourse,
+combined with the example of nomadic habits, for they seldom remain
+longer than twelve months in one place, they soon contaminate the minds
+of the older pupils and also of young men who may reside in the
+neighbourhood, by their doctrines of enlightened citizenship; and thus
+these pupils soon learn to disdain honest labour."[129]
+
+[129] The Toronto schools were at this time very expensively managed as
+compared with schools in other cities of Upper Canada. This could not be
+attributed to the expense of Normal-trained teachers. In 1858, ten years
+after the Normal School was established, no Common School in Toronto was
+in charge of a Normal-trained teacher, and only two or three such
+teachers had ever been employed there. See D. H. E., Vol. XIII., p. 299.
+
+
+In 1855, the Legislature had authorized a museum and library in
+connection with the Department of Education. These were formally opened
+in 1857 and the library contributed much to increase the efficiency of
+the Normal School by widening the scope of the students' reading.
+
+In the following year the Council of Public Instruction revised the
+Normal School Regulations. Qualifications necessary for admission were
+accurately set forth and the course of study defined for both second and
+first-class certificates. There continued to be two sessions a year, but
+students who entered to qualify for a second-class certificate spent two
+or more sessions before reaching a standard entitling them to a
+first-class certificate.
+
+An interesting sidelight is thrown upon the nature of the instruction
+given in the Toronto Normal School by the Report for 1868 of George
+Paxton Young, Inspector of Grammar Schools. Young was trying to raise
+the standard of the Grammar Schools, and shows how their improvement
+would affect the Normal Schools. He says: "I suppose there can be no
+doubt that if High Schools like those which I have described were
+established, it would be necessary to modify the work of the Normal
+School considerably. Teachers who would have to perform different duties
+from what have hitherto been expected at their hands would need a
+different training from what has hitherto been given. The instructions
+in English in the Normal School would require to be raised to a far
+higher level than is now aimed at. Much of the elementary drilling which
+Normal School students at present receive might be dispensed with. Our
+institution for the training of teachers ought not to be a school for
+teaching English grammar. In the same way I would lighten the ship of
+such subjects as the bare facts of geography and history; not rejecting
+of course prelections on the proper method of teaching geography and
+history. The English master in the Normal School might thus be enabled
+to devote a portion of his time to lessons in the English language and
+literature of a superior cast--lessons which he would have a pride in
+giving and on which the students would feel it a privilege to wait. Such
+lessons would be immensely useful even to those young men and women who
+might only desire to qualify themselves for becoming Common School
+teachers. In the department of physical science, it is plain that if the
+views which I have expressed in regard to the way in which science
+should be taught in the High Schools be just, the object of the
+prelections in the Normal School should not be to cram the students with
+a mass of facts but to develop in them a philosophic habit of mind and
+to make them practically understand how classes in science ought to be
+conducted in the schools."[130]
+
+[130] See D. H. E., Vol. XX., p. 127.
+
+
+No man in Canada was better qualified to estimate the real work of any
+educational establishment than Young, and although he was not closely
+connected with the Normal School, we may assume that his analysis was
+essentially correct and that the study of formal grammar and the
+acquisition of scientific facts bulked large in the Normal School
+programme. In his report for 1867,[131] in speaking of the Normal and
+Model Schools, Ryerson says: "They are not constituted as are most of
+the Normal Schools in both Europe and America to impart the preliminary
+education requisite for teaching. That preparatory education is supposed
+to have been attained in the ordinary public or private schools. The
+entrance examination to the Normal School requires this. The object of
+the Normal and Model Schools is, therefore, to do for the teacher what
+an apprenticeship does for the mechanic, the artist, the physician, the
+lawyer--to teach him theoretically and practically how to do the work of
+his profession."
+
+[131] See D. H. E., Vol. XX., p. 139.
+
+
+A little consideration will show us that a school trying to realize such
+an aim and attempting to teach only the rudiments of the science of
+education, upon which the theory of teaching is based, must become
+empirical and rule-of-thumb in its methods. The real difficulty lay in
+the inadequate preparation with which the teachers in training entered
+upon their work. The Normal School could not improve until an
+improvement should be effected in the Grammar Schools.
+
+During the first nine sessions of the Normal School no certificates were
+granted which entitled the holder to teach. The Normal School graduates
+simply received certificates of attendance and had to submit to
+examination by a County Board before securing a license. It almost
+invariably happened that Normal School graduates were able to take a
+high standing at these examinations, and hence Ryerson met with no
+serious opposition from County Boards when in 1853 he proposed to issue
+Provincial certificates to Normal School graduates upon the
+recommendation of the Normal School masters. From 1853 to 1871 a dual
+system of granting certificates was in operation. Normal School
+graduates received Provincial certificates of various grades, and County
+Boards issued certificates valid only in the county where issued. In
+1871 a radical change was made, by which County Boards were allowed to
+issue only third-class certificates valid for three years in the county
+where given, and renewable on the recommendation of the County
+Inspector. Second and first-class certificates were granted only by the
+Department of Education and valid during good behaviour, and in any part
+of the Province. A first-class certificate of the highest grade (Grade
+"A") was made the qualification for County Inspectors. It should also be
+noted that the third-class certificates referred to above were granted
+after 1871 only upon the passing of a written examination upon papers
+prepared by a central committee chosen by the Council of Public
+Instruction. This was a radical change from the old method, which
+allowed each County Board to fix its own standard, a plan which
+necessarily led to many certificates being granted to wholly incompetent
+persons.
+
+The change of 1871, which virtually established a Provincial system of
+licensing teachers, brought upon Ryerson's head much abuse from
+incompetent teachers and their friends. The Superintendent stood firmly
+by his guns, knowing well that his act was in the best interests of the
+Province. A few words from his reply to those who objected that old
+teachers were being set aside because of failure to pass the Provincial
+examination is worth mentioning. He says: "I answer, as government
+exists not for office-holders but for the people, so the school exists
+not for the teachers but for the youth and future generations of the
+land; and if teachers have been too slothful not to keep pace with the
+progressive wants and demands of the country, they must, as should all
+incompetent and indolent public officers, and all lazy and
+unenterprising citizens, give place to the more industrious,
+intelligent, progressive, and enterprising. The sound education of a
+generation of children is not to be sacrificed for the sake of an
+incompetent although antiquated teacher."[132]
+
+[132] See copy of Report in D. H. E., Vol. XIII., p. 131.
+
+
+Having secured the adoption of a system by which all licensing of
+teachers was under Departmental control, Ryerson next turned his
+attention to an extension of facilities for training teachers. His plans
+were comprehensive and had to wait thirty-five years for complete
+realization. In 1872[133] he reported to the Provincial Treasurer as
+follows: "I desire to state in reply that last year I thought and
+suggested to the Government that two additional Normal Schools were
+required, one in the eastern and the other in the western section of the
+Province, but I am now inclined to think that three additional Normal
+Schools will be required to extend the advantages of a Normal School
+training to all parts of the Province--one at London, one at Kingston,
+and one at Ottawa. If provision be not made to establish them all at
+once, I think the first established should be at Ottawa--the centre of a
+large region of country where the schools are in a comparatively
+backward state, and where the influence of the Normal School training
+for teachers has yet been scarcely felt except in a few towns, and which
+is almost entirely separated from Toronto in all branches of business
+and commerce, and therefore, to a great extent, in social relations and
+sympathies.... As the whole Province east of Belleville is less advanced
+and less progressive in schools than the western parts, I think a second
+Normal School should be established at Kingston. The whole region of
+country from Belleville, on the west, to Brockville, on the east, has
+very little more business or commercial connection with Toronto than the
+more eastern parts of the Province. Although London is not so remote
+from Toronto as Ottawa or Kingston, yet it is the centre of a populous
+and prosperous part of the Province from which an ample number of
+student teachers would be collected to fill any Normal School.... With
+the establishment of these three Normal Schools I am persuaded there
+would still be as large a number of student teachers attending the
+Toronto School as can advantageously be trained in one institution.... I
+think all the Normal Schools should be subject to the oversight of the
+Education Department and under the same regulations formally sanctioned
+by the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council. This I think necessary on the
+grounds of both economy and uniformity of standard and system of
+instruction. As to the extent of accommodation in each Normal School, I
+think that provision should be made for training 150 teachers in each
+school."
+
+[133] See D. H. E., Vol. XXIV., p. 22.
+
+
+In the meantime, while negotiations for more Normal School accommodation
+were in progress, an attempt was made to give some professional training
+through teachers' institutes. As far back as 1850 the Legislature had
+made a grant for such meetings, and they had been conducted by the
+Normal School masters. In 1872 the plan was revised and some very
+successful institutes held. The movement is important because out of it
+grew County Model Schools, and the adoption of a principle which meant
+some professional training for every teacher.
+
+In 1875, a Normal School was opened at Ottawa, but the plan of having
+schools at Kingston and London was abandoned largely because of the
+apathy of the Legislature in regard to the expense. In fact it is
+doubtful if any Government could have forced through the Legislature a
+vote for such a purpose.
+
+Ryerson found the schools in 1844 taught by teachers without
+certificates and without professional training; he left them in 1876
+with teachers, all of whom were certificated under Government
+examinations, and many of whom were Normal-trained. More important
+still, he had, by his lectures at County Conventions and by his
+writings in the _Journal of Education_, created a sentiment throughout
+the Province in favour of trained teachers. He thus made easy the
+pathway of his successors in securing increased efficiency; but it may
+be doubted whether any of his immediate successors achieved results in
+keeping with the material advance of the Province.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+_RYERSON SCHOOL BILL OF 1871._
+
+
+From 1850 to 1871 no wholly new principles relating to the Common
+Schools were adopted by the Legislature, although some changes were
+necessarily made. The legislation of 1850 had, from time to time, to be
+supplemented by amendments in order that the spirit of the previous
+legislation should be made applicable to the needs of a rapidly growing
+community.
+
+An Act passed in 1853[134] provided further machinery for the working of
+Trustee Boards; gave a liberal annual grant for an educational museum;
+set apart L500 a year toward teachers' pensions, and increased by L1,000
+a year the grant to Normal Schools.
+
+[134] See copy of Act reprinted in D. H. E., Vol. X., p. 133.
+
+
+An Act passed in 1860[135] more clearly defined the powers of trustees,
+the manner of conducting elections, and auditing school accounts. The
+same Act made Saturday a school holiday.
+
+[135] See copy of Act reprinted
+in D. H. E., Vol. XV., pp. 45-49.
+
+
+The Act of 1871[136] was the last important school legislation prepared
+by Ryerson.[137] The important features of the Act may be summed up
+under four headings, viz., compulsory and free education, efficient
+inspection, teachers' pensions, and the licensing of teachers under
+Government direction.[138]
+
+[136] See copy of Act reprinted in D. H. E., Vol. XXII., pp. 213-222.
+
+[137] The Act of 1874, in as far as it contained new principles, was
+forced upon Ryerson by the Government of Sir Oliver Mowat.
+
+[138] For changes made in Grammar Schools by Act of 1871, see Chapter
+IX.
+
+
+The free school was the natural complement of the Act of 1850. The
+permissive legislation then enacted allowing trustee boards and
+ratepayers to establish free schools had been so generally acted
+upon[139] that by 1871 the abolition of all rate bills upon parents
+seemed to come as a matter of course. The logical corollary of free
+schools is compulsory attendance, and the Act of 1871 fixed penalties to
+be imposed upon parents and guardians who neglected the education of
+their children. It may be doubted whether this compulsory clause has
+ever been of any real advantage to the cause of education. The real
+forces that move human beings are always moral forces. Many a man has
+unwillingly sent his children to school because of public opinion, but
+few because of fear of the law.
+
+[139] Only some 400 schools out of 4,000 were levying rate bills in
+1870. These 400 were chiefly in towns and cities. The total rate bill
+levy for 1870 was about $24,000. See Superintendent's Report for 1870.
+
+
+The Act provided for county inspectors who should be experts and devote
+their whole time to the work of inspection. Ryerson's first Report had
+foreshadowed such action, and the fact that he had to wait a
+quarter-century to realize his plan shows how impossible it is to
+legislate much in advance of public opinion.
+
+The County Inspector, together with two or more qualified teachers, were
+to form a County Board, with power to license second and third-class
+teachers upon examinations prescribed by the Council of Public
+Instruction. In this way the Superintendent had at last secured a
+uniform standard of qualification for teachers throughout the whole
+Province.
+
+The small annual grant made for teachers' pensions in 1853, and
+increased a few years later to $4,000 per annum, had enabled the
+Superintendent to dole out pittances[140] to a few score of worn-out
+teachers whose need was most pressing. Ryerson wished to establish a
+system such as was in operation in Germany--a system of compulsory
+payments by teachers in service sufficient to give a substantial pension
+for old age. He hoped by this means to secure a body of teachers with a
+professional spirit, and to enable them to spend their declining years
+in independence.
+
+[140] See D. H. E., Vol. XX., p. 143.
+
+
+The Act of 1871 required compulsory payments from male teachers of four
+dollars per year.[141] At a later date County Inspectors and all
+first-class teachers were required to pay six dollars a year. This
+payment guaranteed an annual pension upon retirement of four or six
+dollars for every year's contribution. Female teachers were allowed, but
+not forced, to support the Pension Fund. The compulsory payments aroused
+much opposition from some teachers, especially those who were making
+temporary use of the teachers' calling as a stepping-stone to some other
+profession.[142] Ryerson thought that this class might very properly be
+taxed a trifle for the general cause of education.
+
+[141] No doubt this seems a ridiculously small contribution, but we must
+remember that teachers received very small salaries. The Pension Fund
+clause was repealed in 1885 on request of the teachers of Ontario, and
+since that date no names have been added to the list. The payments by
+teachers provided only a small proportion of the annual charge upon the
+Pension Fund. The present annual charge (1910) upon the Fund is $55,926.
+
+[142] See D. H. E., Vol. XXIII., pp. 253-256.
+
+
+Minor provisions of the Act of 1871 gave trustee boards power to build
+teachers' residences and to secure land for school sites by arbitration.
+The Act also authorized the creation of Township Boards of Trustees,
+where public opinion favoured them.
+
+During its passage through the Legislature the Bill of 1871 was severely
+criticized by Hon. George Brown, in the Toronto _Globe_, and by Edward
+Blake, on the floor of the Assembly. Perhaps neither of these gentlemen
+had any love for Ryerson, but they represented a new spirit which
+Ryerson scarcely understood, and with which he certainly had no
+sympathy.
+
+Mr. Blake opposed the Bill upon several grounds, but especially upon the
+abolition of rate bills and the irresponsible nature of the Council of
+Public Instruction. As regards the former he expressed himself heartily
+in favour of free schools, but since they were gradually becoming free
+without compulsion he wished to let them alone. His objection to the
+Council of Public Instruction[143] is worthy of note because it brings
+out in a strong light the real bone of contention between Ryerson and
+the Ontario Liberals, and enables us to understand why at a later date
+it was impossible for Ryerson to work in harmony with a Liberal
+Executive Council. The Council of Public Instruction was an
+irresponsible body appointed by the Crown and dominated by the Chief
+Superintendent. It had extensive powers. It might act arbitrarily, and
+yet there was no way by which the members of the Legislature could call
+it to account or insist upon explanations. Mr. Blake and his colleagues
+argued that this was not compatible with representative government.
+Doctor Ryerson insisted that the Education Department must be wholly
+removed from party politics. Conscious of purity of purpose and
+personal integrity, he was ever more desirous of giving the people what
+he thought they needed than of giving them what they wanted.
+
+[143] See Pamphlet in Parliamentary Library, Ottawa, addressed by Edward
+Blake to the electors of South Bruce.
+
+
+Although Ryerson had taken a partisan's part in politics before his
+appointment as Superintendent, he wisely tried to administer his
+Department upon a non-partisan basis. And he met with a large measure of
+success because all sensible men realized that education ought not to be
+a topic for partisan bickerings. For many years it was so arranged that
+the leader of the Government introduced educational bills and the leader
+of the Opposition seconded them.
+
+Such a procedure was possible only so long as both political parties had
+more confidence in the wisdom of the Superintendent to deal with
+education than they had in the educational foresight of their own
+leaders. But such a confidence could not be indefinitely retained by any
+Superintendent, and certainly not by Ryerson, who was very sensitive to
+criticism of his administration, and always ready to challenge any
+layman who had the temerity to express an opinion upon education
+contrary to his. It was inevitable that a clash should come, and it was
+a great tribute to Ryerson's wisdom in gauging public opinion that the
+clash was so long delayed. It was also quite to be expected that the
+Liberal leaders should be the ones to precipitate the shock, seeing that
+Ryerson had ridden into office upon a wave of Tory reaction.
+
+Mr. Blake and Hon. George Brown could, however, make little headway
+against Ryerson in connection with the School Bill of 1871. Except in
+regard to the irresponsible nature of the Council of Public Instruction,
+the Act was progressive and truly liberal. Ryerson had discussed every
+clause in the Bill at County Conventions, and had behind him the support
+of all actively engaged in the work of education and in the other
+learned professions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+_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.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Egerton Ryerson and Education in Upper
+Canada, by J. Harold Putman
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