Public education in upper Canada...

CHAPTER I Page 9 '

THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL BACKGROUND Purpose of chapter. — Early conditions ; French miHtary posts ; French settlers in Upper Canada prior to 1791. — The LoyaHst emigration; nationalities represented ; assistance furnished by British Government ; the chief Loyalist settlements. — Later emigration from the United States. — Emigration from Europe; almost wholly from the British Isles; segregation of race elements ; one notable exception ; unfortunate result of the policy of segregation. — Abuses in the granting of land ; Judge Thorpe's criticisms, 1807; Mr. Gourlay's investigations, 1817-18; cumulative effect of Government's policy. — The structure and character of the Provincial Government ; large powers of Executive ; slight powers possessed by House of Assembly; chief functions of the latter body. — Municipal organization of the Province ; the District ; the County ; the Township ; the School District. — Religious denominations ; contemporary accounts of numerical standing and privileges enjoyed; the struggle for equal rights; the Clergy Reserves ; the right to solemnize marriage. — General conditions of life ; roads ; traveling ; communication with Great Britain ; newspapers ; post-offices. — Conclusion.

CHAPTER II Page 21

THE LAND GRANTS FOR SCHOOLS Educational policy of Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe, 1792- 1796; his correspondence with the British Government; the defects of his policy. — The Royal Land Grant of 1797; its chief provisions. — University the earliest and chief beneficiary from Land Grant; reasons therefor; the /

Reverend John Strachan and his influence in Provincial politics. — Steps taken to dispose of School lands for University purposes; action of Executive Council, 1819 ; exchange of University lands for more valuaable Crown Reserves, 1827; value of LTniversity Endowment, 1839-1842. — Endowment from University lands of " National " Schools and Upper Canada College. — Action of House of Assembh% 1831, looking to the realization of a fund for Grammar and Common Schools ; failure of that body to appreciate difficulties of the situation ; report of the Executive Council on School Lands, 183 1 ; 250,000 acres granted to Grammar Schools, 1839. — Movement for a special endowment for Common Schools ; legislative proceedings in this regard, 1816, 1831, 1832, 1833; recommendations of Lieutenant-Governor, 1835;- failure of Common School Endowment Bill, 1839 ; eventual success of movement, 1849. — Effect on educational legislation of the political complications of the time.

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CHAPTER III Page 33

THE DISTRICT GRAMMAR SCHOOL — LEGISLATIVE AND ADMINISTRATIVE ASPECTS Legislative proceedings prior to 1807. — The District (Grammar) School Act of 1807; its chief provisions; Act made permanent in 1808; popular dissatisfaction with the Act as reflected in proceedings of the House of Assembly, 1808-1816; the Common School Act of 1816 a concession to this popular sentiment; continued agitation against the act, 1817-1819. — The District Grammar School Amendment Act, 1819; analysis of its contents. — Founding of new Grammar Schools, 1819-1839. — The General Board of Education (1823-1833) in its relations to the Grammar Schools. — Grammar Schools under the direction of the Council of King's College, ^C 1833-1841. — Changes in administration of Grammar Schools introduced

by Act of 1839. — The union of Upper and Lower Canada, 1841, and the Grammar School Act of that year. — General attitude of the Provincial Government towards Grammar Schools during the period under consideration.

CHAPTER IV Page 44

THE DISTRICT GRAMMAR SCHOOL — ITS PECULIAR FEATURES The Reverend John Strachan, the most famous of the Grammar School masters; his connection with the schools at Cornwall and York; his thoroughness; his fondness for scientific study; his advocacy of a liberal curriculum ; his methods as a teacher. — Later masters of the Grammar School at York ; Mr. Samuel Armour ; the Reverend Thomas Phillips. — Conditions in other Grammar Schools of the Province; the Midland District Grammar School (at Kingston) ; the Eastern District Grammar School (at Cornwall) ; the Ottawa District Grammar School; the Western District Grammar School (at Sandwich) ; the Johnstown District Grammar School (at Brockville). — Characteristics of the Grammar School as an institution. — Upper Canada College, the " superior " Grammar School at York; its distinguishing features; its value as supplying, for the time being, the place of a University; its limitations; its history subsequent to 1841.

CHAPTER V Page 55

THE COMMON SCHOOL — ITS EXTERNAL HISTORY No provision for elementary schools in the Land Grant of 1797. — Beginnings of elementary education in the Province ; Garrison Schools ; other private schools, 1789-1810. — Early certification of teachers. — An early petition for Government aid of elementary schools. — The Common School Act of 1816 ; its chief provisions ; defects of the Act. — The Com- -vf mon School Act of 1820. — The Common School Act of 1824; provision for

Sunday Schools ; recognition of a General Board of Education ; facts concerning this body; chief cause of its discontinuance. — Increase of annual grant to Common Schools, 1835. — Unsuccessful Common School Bills introduced in House of Assembly, 1830-1840; Mr. William Buell, Jr.'s

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Bill ; Mr. Mahlon Burwell's Bill ; visit of Dr. Charles Buncombe to the United States ; his report and draft of a Common School Bill. — The Common School Act of 184 1 ; its chief provisions. — Subsequent legislation.

CHAPTER VI Page 68

THE COMMON SCHOOL — ITS ESSENTIAL CHARACTER- ISTICS Incompleteness of data at hand. — Schools in keeping with pioneer conditions. — Pioneer life, as a whole, unfavorable to formal education. — Some compensating features ; Dr. Bourinot quoted. — Some early schoolhouses; description (1818) of the school buildings of the time. — Leading types of the early schoolmaster. — Prevalence of American teachers ; attitude towards them by the authorities ; characterization of them by writers of the time. — The Common School curriculum and text-books ; scarcity of the latter; methods of instruction; daily program of the Common School at York, 1821. — American text-books in the schools; agitation against them ; their eventual exclusion. — Efforts of the General Board of Education to meet the local need. — Chief cause of the low state of the Common Schools during this period.

CHAPTER VII Page 79

THE RELIGIOUS FACTOR IN PUBLIC EDUCATION — THE GRAMMAR AND THE COMMON SCHOOLS

General belief in Upper Canada in the necessity of religious instruction in the schools ; difference of opinion as to the form it should take ; " Separate Schools " the answer, so far as the Roman Catholics are concerned ; gradual relaxing of religious requirement in Common Schools attended by Protestants.

The Church of England and the Grammar Schools ; charge of Anglican domination made by the United Presbytery of Upper Canada in 1830; reply of a Committee of the Legislative Council ; the Presbytery reiterates its charges ; confessedly Anglican character of Upper Canada College.

The Church of England and the Common Schools ; a Provincial system of Church of England National Schools projected, 1820; Royal approval of the plan, 1823; introduction of the systems of both Bell and Lancaster in Upper Canada; details of the establishment of the Central National School at York; the Appleton Case; Parliamentary investigation and report ; continuation of the Central National School till 1844.

Conclusion ; the Appleton Case illustrates but one phase of the struggle going on in the Province at the time.

CHAPTER VIII Page 91 THE RELIGIOUS FACTOR IN PUBLIC EDUCATION — THE PROVISIONAL UNIVERSITY

The two chief parties in the University controversy. — The University Charter of 1827; Dr. Strachan's visit to England; his "Appeal" on behalf of the University; his conception of its purpose; the chief provisions of the charter. — The protest of the House of Assembly in 1828 against the charter; petition to the King. — Action of the House of Assembly and of

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the Legislative Council in regard to the charter, 1829. — Popular petition to the Imperial Parliament, 1830. — The Charter Amendment bills of 1835 and 1836; passed by House of Assembly, but rejected by Council; reasons given for this rejection. — Attitude of Imperial Government on the University question; report of a Committee of the House of Commons, 1828; instructions of Colonial office to Sir John Colborne, 1828; request for a surrender of the charter, 1831 ; refusal of the College Council and reasons therefor. — The Charter Amendment Act of 1837;, its chief provisions. — A Presbyterian professorship of theology in King's College ; suggested by Committee of Imperial House of Commons, 1828; agitated by United Presbytery of Upper Canada from 1831 onward ; approved by Legislative Council, 1837. — Claims of Presbyterians ignored by King's College Council, 1837; appeal to the British Colonial Office; adverse report of the Educational Commission of 1839. — Act incorporating the Presbyterian University of Kingston, 1840; provision for the endowment of a Chair of Theology in the institution from King's College funds. — Name of the institution changed by Royal Charter in 1841 to Queen's College ; no mention in the charter of a Chair of Theology, hence grant from King's College withheld. — The University Act of 1849 and the complete secularization of King's College; its name changed to the University of Toronto.

CHAPTER IX Page 102

The Elementary Schools: Work of Dr. Ryerson; the School Act of 187 1 ; appointment of a Minister of Education, 1876; Dr. J. H. Sangster's description of the public schools of 1850 ; forces which wrought a change for the better. — Detailed character of the present School Law.

Secondary Schools: The District Grammar School of 1850. — Reforms of 1853. — Changes made by School Act of 1871. — Subsequent changes. — Present high school conditions.

Normal and Model Schools: Dr. Ryerson's visit to Europe and the United States. — Foimding of the Provincial Normal School at Toronto. — Opposition to the Normal School idea. — Normal School course made purely professional in 1871. — Other Normal Schools established. — Common characteristics of these schools. — The Ontario Norinal College. — Recently established Faculty of Education in the University of Toronto. — Early model schools; their defects. — Reforms of 1871. — Recent changes.

The Provincial University: Two chief lines of progress. — The movement towards centralization. — University Federation movement, 1853- 1901. — Principles underlying present federation. — Institutions outside of federation. — Conclusion, — endowments and appropriations represented by the University of Toronto as at present constituted.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

The period with which the following study mainly deals is not one arbitrarily selected. It possesses characteristics which distinguish it from the years which preceded it and those which followed. The year 1791, following close upon the first English settlement, marked the creation of the province of Upper Canada by the Constitutional Act, while in 1841 came into effect the Act of Union which again joined Upper to Lower Canada; but these provinces were again separated twenty-five years later by the Confederation Act which made the Dominion of the present day.

The half-century from 1791 onward was one of marked growth in the population and material wealth of the Province, but, more important for the purpose of the present study, it witnessed also the development of certain religious, political and social ideals. It was a time of ferment and of struggle and it did not pass without the shedding of patriot blood, but through the dissension and the turmoil there were established three things which are the finest fruit of the thousand years or more of Anglo-Saxon civilization — responsible government, religious equality and the free school. Moreover, free public education was made possible only through the overthrow of autocracy in church and state ; hence no apolog>^ is needed for the frequent reference in the following pages to incidents which might seem at the first glance to be purely political or religious in their character.

The debt of the writer to one predecessor in the field is manifest throughout. Dr. Hodgins in his Documentary History of Education in Upper Canada has compiled from an immense number of sources, many of which are not readily available, a mass of information, the value of which to the student of educational conditions in Ontario can scarcely be overestimated. In a Documentary History, however, very little beyond a chronological arrangement can be attempted and completeness must be secured even at the apparent sacrifice at times of relevancy.

8 Introductory Note.

The present study while in a measure chronological and descriptive, aims to be selective and interpretative as well. In its selective character it may be regarded as supplementing the work just referred to, while from the interpretative side it may furnish an element which seems to be lacking in such an otherwise excellent work as Dr. Ross's School System of Ontario. The supplementary chapter, it may be remarked, is added with a view to throwing some light on the chapters which precede it by furnishing to the reader a summary of educational events subsequent to 1841. It must not be regarded as an attempt to recount adequately the educational history of the Province from 1 84 1 till the present day.

CHAPTER I. The Political and Social Background

The purpose of this chapter is not to attempt a complete resume of the political and social life of Upper Canada during the period indicated; such would be in itself an undertaking of greater magnitude than the entire present work professes to be. Its design is rather to call the attention of the reader to certain salient facts without a knowledge of which any clear understanding of the educational situation would be impossible.

A brief sketch of the conditions which preceded the first extensive emigration to the territory known for many years as Upper Canada and now known as the Province of Ontario, forms a fitting preface to the story of the later period.

During the period of French occupation, — the Ancicn Regime, so-called, — there were several fortified posts, partly for military, partly for trading purposes, along the great stretch of waterway which now forms part of the boundary between Canada and the United States. Three of these were: Fort Cataraqui, near where the city of Kingston now stands ; Fort Rouille, on the site of the present city of Toronto, and Fort Niagara, on the river of that name. Two of these posts — the first and the lastnamed — were continued when the English succeeded the French as masters of the soil, and thus naturally they became centres for the distribution of the settlers who came into Upper Canada in such large numbers in the years immediately following the war of the American Revolution. Previous to this time the French had made little attempt at colonization in Upper Canada. Naturally there had been a certain extension of settlement westward from Montreal, along the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers. Then again a few of the French families who clustered about the trading post at Detroit had crossed the Detroit River and settled in what is now Canadian territory. Of these early settlers, the present French-speaking inhabitants of the County of Essex are, in the main, the descendants. This emigration was, however, so insignificant from a numerical standpoint, that it can safely be said that in 1783 (the date of the close of the lo Public Education in Upper Canada.

Revolutionary War), the entire Province was practically untouched by civilization.

The nearness of this virgin territory coupled with the active encouragement given by the British Government resulted in the transplanting, in the years between 1784 and 1800, of large bodies of Loyalist settlers from the United States. The story of the persecutions which hastened this emigration does not properly belong to this narrative, and has, moreover, been told in detail by other writers. We are concerned here wholly with that part of the history of the settlement of Upper Canada which will help us to a better understanding of subsequent educational conditions in the Province.

The Loyalists in question were of English, Dutch and German blood, and came almost wholly from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and the New England States. They were able to bring very little money or moveable property with them ; hence, for some years, they were dependent to a considerable degree upon the bounty of the British Government. Liberal grants of land ranging, according to circumstances, from two hundred to two thousand acres were made to them ; free rations were dealt out, though at irregular intervals ; and seed grain and farm implements were distributed to assist them to become self-supporting as speedily as possible. All this mitigated, though it by no means wholly removed, the hardships of their lot. The chief Loyalist settlements were along the Upper St. Lawrence, on the Bay of Quinte (near the eastern end of Lake Ontario), in the Niagara peninsula and westward along the northeastern shore of Lake Erie. Because of the industry and thrift of their inhabitants, these districts soon came to rank among the most prosperous portions of the Province. Closely akin in character to these first settlers were the various bodies of Quakers, Dutch and Pennsylvania Germans, who came into Upper Canada during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. In fact there was a marked emigration from the United States throughout the greater part of this period in spite of the fact that from 1812 till 1815 Great Britain and the United States were at war.

The European immigrants to Upper Canada were almost wholly from the British Isles. Indeed, the only continental element

Political and Social Background. ii

in the population of the Province during the fifty years of which we are speaking, if we exckide a band of Germans who emigrated to Markham Township in 1794 after a brief stay in New York State, seems to have been contributed by a few French RoyaUsts, Swiss and Alsatians.^ The vanguard from Great Britain were bands of Scotch Highlanders who settled in the County of Glengarry in the closing years of the eighteenth and the opening years of the nineteenth century.

A noticeable feature of the disposal of the British emigrants was their settlement on large blocks of land consisting of a township or more. So clearly were the distinctions of race and religion marked by geographical position that even to-day one can find a township which is predominantly Highland Scotch, another which is almost wholly Lowland Scotch in character, others whose very names signify that the ancestors of many of the present inhabitants came, as the case may be, from the north of Ireland, from the south of Ireland, from Devonshire, Cornwall or from the German counties of Pennsylvania. In distinct contrast with the policy of settlement by townships, was that of Colonel Talbot the owner by Royal Grant of an immense tract of land in the western portion of the Province. He very wisely distributed his settlers after " the checkerboard fashion " so that no two families of the same nationality were placed side by side. The general policy of assigning land, to which we have just referred, joined with other factors which will presently be mentioned, tended to hinder any concerted action by the inhabitants of the Province in asserting their political rights and hence helped materially in continuing a governmental policy under which the rights of the average citizen, as regarded from a more modern view-point, received very scant consideration indeed.

Another fact which is worthy of notice in this connection was the autocratic behavior of the administration in regard to the granting of land. Mr. Robert Thorpe, one of the Provincial judges in 1807, in referring to the " shop-keeper aristocracy " which surrounded the Lieutenant-Governor and influenced his official conduct, says : " Next to themselves, their families and friends, they give unbounded tracts of land in the finest situa-

* See "Ethnographical Elements of Ontario" in Papers and Records of the Ont. Hist. Soc. Vol. Ill, 1901.

tions, at whatever rules or fees they choose and then barter this land to our greatest enemies in the States ; next they keep from the House of Assembly all accounts of the greatest part of the public money, thus denying them the first privilege given by the British Act of Parliament which established their Constitution."^ Mr. Robert Gourlay, an intelligent and patriotic Scotchman who came to Upper Canada in 1817, and who made a thorough investigation of the resources of the Province with a view to " a grand system of emigration," speaks of " the mean, selfish, unprincipled and unfeeling conduct of the Provincial Government in regard to the granting of land."^ British emigrants, according to his statement, had to " dance attendance for weeks and months together before they could get a hearing from the Land Granting Department and when at last they were heard they were sent twenty or thirty miles into the wilderness where even native Americans could scarcely exist. "^ All this of course tended not only to retard the development of the Province, but also to increase greatly the popular bitterness against the powerful clique who thus sacrificed the general welfare to their own private convenience and emolument.

If this were a history of the Province as a whole rather than an attempt to describe a particular phase of its political and social life, we might go on to speak here of various other arbitrary acts of the Executive which further estranged the popular regard and which eventually led to an armed uprising (the Mackenzie Rebellion of 1837) on the part of a radical wing of the popular party. A few of these acts will be mentioned later in connection with certain specific phases of the general subject under consideration. For a statement of the remainder the reader is referred to any one of the Histories of Canada, mentioned in the bibliography at the close of this work.

A brief explanation of the structure of the Provincial Government will here be in order. Canada was at the time a Crown Colony, that is, its more important afifairs were administered by the British Government or by officials appointed by that government. The highest representative of the Crown was the Governor-General who resided at Quebec. The immediate execu-

1 Letter to Sir George Shee, Canadian Archives, Series Q, Vol. 305, p. 189, quoted in full in Report of Dom. Archivist for 1892-93, note D. p. 57. M Statistical Account of Upper Canada, Vol. II, p. 418. Hbid, p. 420.

Political and Social Background. 13

live authority in Upper Canada was in the hands of a Lieutenant- Governor whose headquarters were at the Provincial Capital, York (later Toronto). The immediate advisers of the Lieutenant-Governor were known as the Executive Council. They were appointed by him and most of them held important and lucrative positions under the Government. The legislative functions were in the hands of (i) a Legislative Council, also appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor, and from which the Executive Council was frequently recruited; (2) a House of Assembly, the members of which were chosen every few years by the qualified voters of the Province.

It can be easily seen from the foregoing that the part actually taken by the people in the management of their affairs was a very modest one and indeed might practically be said to disappear under an Executive wedded to aristocratic ideals. That the Executive was at times of the character just mentioned is very clearly shown by the following statement of Lieutenant- Governor Sir Francis Gore in justification of the dismissal of Judge Robert Thorpe from the bench for political activity obnoxious to the administration. " I cannot help entertaining the hope," remarks Sir Francis, " that the measure which has been adopted, however painful, will have the most salutary influence in preventing the further progress of that spirit of equality and want of subordination which too much prevails among the lower ranks of this Province."^

In fact throughout this whole period the House of Assembly, in so far as it kept itself free from the dictation of the Executive, served two main purposes, neither of which was strictly legislative in character, (i) Through its investigations, reports and debates, it made the real needs of the Province apparent to the people at large and thus performed an educative function. (2) Through petitions which, from time to time, it laid at the foot of the Throne, it called the attention of the British Government to the crying abuses which existed in the Province and thus helped indirectly to check the autocratic tendencies of the Lieutenant-Governors and their advisers. Through these petitions also it helped to create, in the mother country, a sentiment which made possible the establishment, in 1841, of the

'Letter to Lord Castlereagh, in Canadian Archives, Series Q, Vol. 310, p. 15, quoted in Report of Dom. Archivist for 1892-93, note D, p. 87.

principle that the members of the Executive and Legislative Councils should be men who possessed the confidence of the people as a whole.

A brief statement of the municipal organization of the Province is also necessary. Before the creation of the Province of Upper Canada, by the Constitutional Act of 1791, that portion of Canada had been divided into four districts, viz. : Lunenburgh, Mecklenburgh, Nassau and Hesse. The first Parliament of Upper Canada, in 1792, re-named them the Eastern, Midland, Home and Western Districts. The Parliament of 179S established eight districts which were subdivided into twenty-three counties, and these in turn into one hundred and fifty-eight townships.^ The names of these various districts will appear more than once in the following chapters, hence, they need not be given here. Throughout the whole of our period, the district and the township (with its included school districts) formed the units of school administration. At a later date the district was abandoned and its function, so far at least as the control of the schools was concerned, transferred to the county.

The various religious denominations of the time naturally exerted a considerable influence on the educational history of the Province. Of these denominations, in their more general aspects we will now briefly speak, leaving for a subsequent chapter the consideration in detail of the relationship of certain of them to the public schools.

The facts, numerical and otherwise, in regard to the religious condition of the Province in 1792, are thus set forth in an of^cial report made in that year to Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe. "Of this (the Anglican) Church" remarks the author of the report, " I am myself a member and am sorry to say that the state of it in this Province is not very flattering. A very small proportion of the inhabitants of Upper Canada have been educated in this persuasion and the emigrants to be expected from the United States will be for the most part Sectaries or Dissenters and nothing prevents the teachers of this class from being proportionately numerous but the inability of the people at present to provide for their support. In the Eastern District, the most populous part of the Province, there is

1 Gourlay, A Statistical Account of Upper Canada, Vol. I, pp. 1 16-120.

Political and Social Background. 15

no Church clergyman. They have a Presbyterian minister, formerly Chaplain to the 84th Regiment, who receives from the Government £50 p. ann. They have also a Lutheran minister who is supported by his congregation and the Roman Catholic priest settled at St. Regis occasionally officiates for the Scotch Highlanders settled in the lower part of the district who are very numerous and all Catholics. There are also many Dutch colonists in this part of the Province who have made several attempts to get a teacher of their own sect, but hitherto without success."

" In the Midland District where the members of the Church are more numerous than in any other part of the Province, there are two Church clergymen who are allowed £100 stg. p. ann. each by the Government and £50 by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. There are also here some itinerant Methodist preachers the followers of whom are numerous and many of the inhabitants of the greatest property are Dutch colonists who have for some time past been using their endeavors to get a minister of their own sect among them. In the Home District there is one clergyman who has been settled here since the month of July last. The Scots Presbyterians who are pretty numerous here and to which sect the most respectable part of the inhabitants belong, have built a meetinghouse and raised a subscription for a minister of their own who is shortly expected among them. There are here also many Methodists and Dutch Calvinists."

" In the Western District there are no other clergymen than those of the Church of Rome. The Protestant inhabitants here are principally Presbyterians."^

The relative standing of the various denominations as regards numbers seems to have been practically the same some thirty years later, for in Mr. Gourlay's " Statistical Account," published in 1822, we find the following, — " In Upper Canada there are six ministers of the Church of England residing at Cornwall, Kingston, Ernestown and Fredericksburg. They solemnize marriages but there is no ecclesiastical court. Dissenters of all denominations are tolerated and protected by law. They are not subject to tithes or civil disabilities nor disqualified for

Report of Richard Cartwright Jun'r, 1702. on "The Marriage Law in Upper Canada In Report of Dominion Archivist for 1891, Note I, pp. 85-86.

i6 Public Education in Upper Canada.

office or a seat in the Legislature. Their contracts respecting the support of public worship are legally enforceable. Ordained ministers of the Scotch, Lutheran and Calvinist churches upon producing satisfactory credentials in a Court of Sessions are authorized to perform marriages where one of the parties to be married is a member of their respective societies. Any denomination holding the distinguishing Calvinistic doctrines is included under the term Calvinist, as such, Presbyterian, Congregational and Baptist clergymen exercise the power of marriage. The dissenting denominations are Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodists, Congregationalists, Moravians, Anabaptists, Roman Catholics, Quakers, Menonists and Tunkers. Several of them are more numerous than the Episcopalians. The most numerous of all are the Methodists who are spread over the whole Province. Next in number are the Presbyterians who are of the Dutch Reformed church, the Church of Scotland and Scotch seceders or the Associate Reformed Synod. The Presbyterians appear to be increasing in numbers and respectability."