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Les details de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-dtre uniques du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la m^thode normale de filmage sont indiqu6s ci-dessous. □ Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur n D D D Pages damaged/ Pages endommag6es Pages restored and/or laminated/ Pages restaurSes et/ou nelliculdes Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages ddcolordes, tachet^es ou piqu^es Pages detached/ Pages d6tach6es Thei possi of th filmii Origi begii the lj sion, othei first sion, or illi r^ Showthrough/ D D Transparer.ee Quality of prir Quality indgale de I'impression Includes supplementary materii Comprend du materiel supplemeritaire I I Quality of print varies/ I I Includes supplementary material/ The I shall TINl whic Mapi diffe entir begii right requ meth Only edition available/ Seule Edition disponible Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have beer refilmed to ensure the best possible image/ Les pages totalement ou partieiis completed ; and we anew mark a fresh step in advance by one of those comprehensive revisions of the scheme of collegiate study, which — like some of those of earlier years, — will largely affect the character of (Canadian education. The influence of such revisions on the general education of the Province, alike in the public and the high schools, is immediate and beneficial. Nor are the effects limited to them. For I may, without, I trust, any charge of invidious comparisons, recall the fact, that not only in Ontario ; but in the Maritime Provinces, in Qv ",bec, and more recently in the young province of Manitoba, the revised schemes of study for this College have supplied models for the highest educational institutions of the Dominion. To our own earlier graduates a comparison of our present curriculum with that of their undergraduate course will reveal many evidences of progress ; and will have a special interest for some who won academic honors in the early years of this College; and are now i-egarding with quickened sympathies the scene of their own youthful aspirations, under the best of all stimu- lants, as a younger generation steps into their place. It is, indeed, one of the happiest experiences of a long life, as the years hasten to its close, to welcome the sons of former pupils following their steps in these same halls, where once the father owned the stimulus of like aspirations : " An eager novice robed in fluttering gown. " But, in referring to the successive advances in the require- ments from our students, I am reminded that the very censors of the standard to which we were necessarily limited at the outset by the condition of the schools of the province : were those who advanced against us the further charge of monopolising an endowment far beyond the requirements of this College. The disparagment of our standard of matriculation was a mere adjunct of the cry for division of the funds among denominational colleges. Happily, with a growing appreciation of the true requirements for such an institution, it is now acknowledged on all hands that what was then fancied to be a revenue ample for any number of colleges, is, in reality, inadequate for ohe full G equipment of one, if it is to hold its place in fitting equality with the great schools of learning, either in the Old World or the New. Now, accordingly, the movement takes a more healthful direction, in the eflbrt at formulating a scheme of united action, whereby, under some system of confederation among all colleges, provincial and denominational, it may be found possible to utilise the national endowments still more effectually ; and, without inter- fering with voluntary efibrts, or with the denominational restric- tions which commend themselves to the favour of some, to embrace all in hearty cooperation for the common aim of higher education. In the protracted conferences of the representatives of various colleges, carried on for the past two years unde; the authority of the Minister of Education, I have borne a part ; and if any charge can be brought against me in reference to the course I have pursued, I think it must be that — ns the represen- tative of this College, — I have been ready to make only too large concessions, in the effort to accomplish so desirable a result. A basis of agreement was finally arrived at, and is now familiar to all. It was confessedly a compromise, as was inevitable where no statesman was prepared to undertake the framing of a wise and comprehensive scheme ; and like all compromises, it has not entirelj^ satisfied any one. It certainly does not commend itself to my unqualified approval. Some of the questionable results of the division into two distinct corporations, of the University organised under the Royal Charter of 1827, have already been referred to ; but a further bi-section is now demanded, the full significance of which is, I fear, even less definitely com- prehended than that of 1853. The proposal to break up the small staff of this College, into two bodies, as a College faculty and a University professoriate, — classified on no logical S3'stem,, but confessedly arranged on a basis suggested by the still more inadequate equipment of certain confederating colleges : seems to me a scheme which — whether expedient or not, — can com- mend itself to no impartial mind as comprehensive or statesman- like. Nevertheless, if it is left open to revision under the dictates of experience ; and the compromise, as agreed to, is car- ried out as a whole, in good faith, I am prepared to give it a fair ti'ial; and to co-operate in the effort to make it successful. I can scarfclv doubt that, if the heads of the various colleges once met together, ignoring all denominational issues, with which, as a common board, they could have no reason for interfering • and looking solely to the maintenance of an adequate system of instruction: most, if not all of their apprehended difficulties would vanish. But I must be allowed to say, meanwhile, that the large concessions offered on our part were only justifiable on the assumption that all the colleges represented at the conference united in the compromise. So long as this was understood, the onh'- action on my part has been unreservedly to commend it for accei)tance, alike to the College Council, and to the Senate of the University. But when one after another of the contivacting parties ignores the conditions agreed to after repeated conferences ; and without concerted action, asks foi- diverse and even conflicting modifications : I fail to see why the representatives of University College are alone to be bound by conditions which otliers modify at their will. Some of the new demands are of such a nature that I should be recreant to the trust confided in me, as representative of this College, if I did not give timely warning of the danger to which not only the Provin- cial College, but our whole system of national education is exposed, by a proposal to trammel the free action of the University ; and to organize within its senate a sectional minority, necessarily denominational in character, with -x power of veto upon the action of a large majority. Throughout the long period of my connection with this College, I have consistently advocated its claims as an unsec- tarian national institution, in harmonj' with our whole Pravincial system of education. I have seen a generation grow up to maturity ; and not a few of my old pupils advanced to places of honourable trust and distinction, in the Legislature, in the Chuj-ches, on the Bench, and at the Bar, in the colleges and schools of this and other lands, as well as in other influential positions. A new generation is stepping into their place ; and fathers who know from personal experience the character of the training, the culture, and the moral discipline whic- this College oflfered to themselves, give the strongest practical evi- 8 dence of their approval by enrolling their sons to follow in their steps. Nothing in all the experience of a lifetime has tended to shrike my faith in the superiority of a national, as compared with any denouirictional system; and above all, in a country where divisions have so multiplied among professing Christians, that denominationalism applied to education means, not a system, tut a multiplication of organisations alike costly, conflicting, and inadequate for the objects aimed at. For such is the ever widen- ing range of the sciences ; and the growing comprehension of philology in its many-sided relations to ancient and modern, to cultured and to barbarous languages, that all the appliances of the best equipped Universities fall short of the demands of the age. The sj'^stem of national education which this College represents has proved no failure in Canada. We have gone on in healthful progress, in growing numbers, in advancing culture, in increasing requirements, in thoroughness and efficiency, through all the years since the Canadian Legislature emancipated this College from the mischievous constraints of a narrow denominational control ; and so long as I am privileged to bear any part in it, I shall watch with jealousj'- every modification which threatens to rob it in any degree of its national, unsectarian character. Its influence on the denominational colleges of the Province has been confessedly beneficial, even when they wei'e offering to it most persistent opposition. The distinguished scholar. Sir EdmumJ Head, to whose intelligent sympathy and aid, while Governor General of Canada, we were largely indebted during some of the most critical years in the history of this Institution, not inaptly designated it " the College Militant !" It has successfully withstood assaults in which rivals who agreed in little else, conjoined to disparage and despoil it. I observe that the learned Chancellor of Victoria Uni- versity, in his address at its Inst convocation, when commenting on religious teaching and influences as requisites assumed to be incompatible w' Mi a purely national system, remarked in all friendly apology for us- "I do not think the Senate, or the executive officers of the Provincial University can be justly blamed for the secular character of that institution. They have done what they could consistently with the constitution imposed on them by the Legislature." I give my friend Dr. Nelles, ail credit for the good 4. / 9 A feeling which animated him; but I must disclaim, on behalf of this institution, any such apologetic tone. On the contrary, we claim to have achieved what in older countries they are still only ctriving for; and so to be no less in harriony with the spirit of the age, than with the aspirations of our Canadian people. While this College is, in Cue thoroughest sense of the term, a secular college, and is free to every Canadian, alike as a student or a professor, without distinction of race or creed: we do not stand aloof from the churclios • but on the contrary are organized on a system in which some of the largest and most influential bodies of Chris- tians find they can heartily cooperate. Experience, indeed, so far from tending in any degree to alienate them, has enabled us to invite them to a closer anion, and more active cooperation, without trenching on the essentially secular basis of a national university. Whatever some Canadians may think of it, the system commands the admiration of "itrangers, well qualified to form an impartial judgment. We were visited last year by the Eritish Association, including among its members some of the foremost representatives of modern science. Among these was Professor Boyd Dawkins, a distinguished graduate of Oxford, and no*\ Professor of Geology in Owens College. To him oui whole systeta of education was a subject of interest. Referring to it in an address which he delivered after his return to England, he speaks of Toronto as the centre of Canadian energy and enter- prise ; and then adds: "The resu'b of all this is now shown in the magnificent University which exists there ; an University which is open to all, and free from all religious or sectarian pre- judice. It is a distinctly secular institution ; and so far as I know it is the very first secular teaching Universit}'' which has been established in this world ; b(>ing in this respect the prede- cessoi- of Owens College, and the Victoiia University of England. And in that of Toronto is another thing which is well worthy of GUI* attention in England, nan ^ly, that the various religious sects have each their own place : There is a College called by the name of John Knox; another bearing that of Wycliffe; a College for members of the Bapt'st persuasion ; and St. Michael's College, which represents the Roman Catholic element ;" and he adds, in unqualified commendation : " I mention all these things to show you that Toronto io a very advanced place." 10 With our system thus commanding the unqualified com- mendation of distinguished educationists, I may well repudiate any line of apologetic defence for the secular character of this College ; as though it were a mere effort to make the most of a defective scheme forced on us by political and party influence. Nor should we forget that we are not legislatinor for ourselves alone. Our public schools have already furnished a model for those of Manitoba and British Columbia ; and on the course now pursued by Ontaiio largely depends whether tiie resources of the great North-W' .st, out of which the prairie States of the future are to be fashioned, snail be devoted to the organization of national universities on an adequate scale; or frittered away on a multitude of petty sectarian colleges, such as, in the neighbouring Stater, have brought academic degrees into contempt. I believe the system on whidi this College is established to be in harmony with some of the most promising aspects of modern t''mes ; and there are few things that we, as Canadians, have had more reason to deplore than the diversion of endowments set apart by the wise foresight of the Fathers of Upper Canada for a National University, to establish a mere denominational college under ecclesiastical control. While that lasted, it not only justified but compelled the organization of rival denominational Colleges ; divided the energies of our young Province in a department where united action was essential to success ; and established precedents which have thus far misled the founders of new Provinces ir. the North-V/est ; and prevented them benefiting by the wise prescience of those loyal pioneers who, in the infancy of "Western Canada, amid all their privations, dedicated a portion of its land as an endowment for the education of future genera- tions. Ajy such sagacious foresight they laid the surest founda- tions on which their successors could build up a free, self- governed state ; and as they designed it txa a hei'itago for all, I nm prepared to welcome with heartiest cordiality any modifica- tion of our present scheme which, while it preserves intact the thoroughly national and unsectarian basis of this University, removes any hindi'ance to t';vj enjoyment of its highest advant- ages by every member of the state. 11 No graver responsibility devolves on the Council of this- College than the maintenance of its secular character unimpaired. It is in this respect, at least, in full accordance with the aims of some of the wisest and most far-sighted educationists both of the- Old and tlio New World. In truth, as I have already affirmed^ the whole tendency of the r-ge is towp.rds the secularisation of the Universities ; not in any spirit of antagonism to religion ; but as- an indispensable step towards true progress. It was mete that theologians should have ^he organization and control of education in earlier centuries ; for they alone were interested in it. Secular learning had then a scarcely recognizable place in the most liberal scholastic scheme; and letters, jurisprudence, medicine, and what- ever of science then existed, pertained almost as exclusively to the clergy as the administration of the rites and sacraments of the church. But all that is a thing of the past ; and if the history of intellectual progress after the revival of learning proves — as I believe is indisputable, — that the progress of scientific truth has- been hindered by theological constraint; and some of the grandest revelations of science have not only been received with suspicion ;. but have been denounced as in conflict with religion : how much more needful is it that the spirit of speculative inquiry should have fi'ce play in an age when the bounds of knowledge have so- vastly extended. The theologian no longer pretends to a mastery of all secular knowledge. On the contrarj'^; he finds ample scope for his intellectual powers within the widening range of his own legitimate ]3rovince; and is learning to welcome the confirmations- which science in so many ways renders to sacred truth. There is no need to ignore the services rendered by theologians to true scholarship, because now the widening compass of the sciences brings with it the necessity for a division of labour, in order that the ampler lit^ld of knowledge may be thoroughly cultivated, and its full harvest reaped. We need feel no surprise that a system which satisfied the requirements of the fourteenth, or of the bixteenth century, is found inadequate for the closing years of this nineteenth century : " The old order changeth, yielding place to new, And God fulfils himself in many ways, Lest one good rvistom should corrupt the world." ]2 Hence a revolution affecting the oldest as well as the more recently founded Universities, since their reorganization at the era of the reformation. The reconstruction of the Scottish Universities was undertaken in 1560, and the famous "Book of Discipline," — while providing that " the rich and potent may not be permitted to suffer their children to spend their youth in vain idleness ; but that they be exhorted and compelled to dedicate their sons to the profit of the Church and the Commonwealth ;" — transformed the old Colleges of St. Salvator, St. Leonard, St. Mary, and King's College, from religious houses to schools of letters and science. But the traditions survived. The office of principal remained a prerogative of the theological faculty ; and the Scottish Church, departing in this from the rule of Presbyterian parity, gave to the head of the University the exceptional style of very reverend. In Edinburgh, as in the older Universities, a long line of very reverend principals accordingly filled the academic chair, graced by such names as RoUock, Leighton, Carstares, Robertson, and Lee. The last of those very reverend dignitaries, eminent among Scottish black-letter scholars, died in 1859 ; and with him the long honoured system came to an end. Sir David Brewster, a layman, foremost among Scottish men of science, but no less i.oted for his earnest Christian faith, was advanced to the vacant principalship* To him in due time succeeded another eminent and scholarly lay- man, Sir Alexander Grant ; and now his place has been filled by Sir William Muir: distinguished as an oriental scholar; but whose eminent Christian character, no less than his scholarly attain- ments, commended him to the electors. A system of secular education assuredly demands the most careful selection of fitting men to whom its conduct is to be entrusted ; but I have yet to learn that denominational Colleges have devi id one which makes them less dependent on the personal character and in- fluence of their teachers. I refer now to recent chantjes in the Scottish Universities, because they show that while their secularization is being carried out in accordance with the spirit of the age, it in no degree implies any purposed divoi'ce from moral or religious influence. The clergy have no longer a monopoly of learning ; and lay claim to no exclusive heritage of religion. In Canada, ns in Scotland, the Churches and the people are still 13 practically one; and so long as a Christian people are true tc their trust, secular education will he maintained in harmony with the highest moral standards which command their allegiance. Nor is the history of the two great English Universities, to which we are so frequently refened, less instructive than of those of Scotland. There, too, the Colleges are being remodelled in ac- cordance with modern thought ; so that, if our work here is to be undone, the future antiquary may have to visit Canada in search of the antiquated type. Medieval traditions did, indeed, control the English system till very recent years. Heads of Colleges, Fellows, Tutors, were all alike in holy orders. Men took upon themselves the most solemn vows, and were admitted in terms of awful significance to " the office and work of a priest in the Church of God," in order to legally qualify themselves for holding a College Fellowship ; or to devote their lives to the teaching of Classics or Mathematics. Even the celibacy of the ancient religious houses was perpetuated in those seats of learning as an indispensable adjunct to a fellowship. But all this is, happily, passing away. The fellowships have been for the most part secularised, and some of them converted into professorships. On the succession of Dr. Bradley to the Deanery of Westminster Abbey, it was for the first time in the power of the College authorities to present a layman to the mastership of University College, Oxford; and their choice fell on a distinguished scholar, whose worth is well known to all here. That Professor Goldwin Smith declined this high office in his own ancient University' to cast in his lot with ourselves is appreciated by many as no slight gain to our young com- munity.' But the case of University College is no exceptional one. Indeed, unless I am misinformed, the only headship of an Oxford College any longer constrained by medieval traditions is that of Christ's Church, which under the peculiar conditions of the great Cardinal's foundation, pertains to the Dean of Oxford Cathedral. The tendencies of the age are unmistakable. The old exclusive barriers are everywhere giving way. Oxford and Cambridge, at each fresh step, are seen to emancipate themselves more and more from ecclesiastical and denominational restraints. Science is successfully asserting its claims ; and the wise liberality to which such progress has given birth found happy illustration 14 in the promotion of a man of rare worth, the lato James Clerk- Maxwell, a Scottish Presbyterian, to the chair of Experimental Physics in the University of Cambridge, which he adorned no less by his influence as a Christian layman, than by his eminent gifts as a scientific discoverer. With the example thus set us in those ancient seats of learn- ing, it is surely full time that Canada free herself from the traditions of medieval Eui'ope, which asserted for the clergy not only their legitimate claims as Doctors of Theology, but a censorship over all researches in scholarship, and every discovery in science. Keligion suffers from the timidity of its champions. It has nothing to fear, but everything to hope from the freest scholarly research and scientific discovery; and they who pro- voke a needless antagonism, whether they be divines or men of science, only prove how far they fall short of tlie lofty standard of Newton and Butler, of Berkeley, Chalmers, Whewell, Faraday, Brewster, Clerk-Maxwell, and all the noble band of intellectual peers, who have found no difficulty in harmonizing the truths of science and revelation. Such a harmony between secular and sacred learning should be the aim of every sincere lover of truth ; and it will be best attained by according to every honest searcher after truth the most unconstrained freedom. Looking to this as an aim worthy of many sacrifices: whatever tends to remove any antagonism between diverse organizations of our present educational forces has my hearty sympathy. Here, as elsewhere, union is strength. In an age of unparalleled progress, and in a country in the bright flush of youth, with so much to mould and fashion for the coming time, we need the union of all available forces in the work of education. In that great age of The Revival of Learning, to which we give the significant name of the Renaissance, medievalism with all its imperfect illumination ; all its docile subjectivess ; all its arid scholasticism ; and no less, with all the rare beauty of its mar- vellous art : was consigned to neglect, as gothic and barbarous; and for some generations classic letters and art ruled supreme. The influence was in the main beneficial. It recalled men from the profitless controversies of the schoolmen, and the narrow dogmas of the cloister, to study the literature of 15 ages when it seems as if a type of humanity was developed which in some respects has scarcely been equalled, and never surpassed. The change was not unaccompanied with a transient phase of scepticism ; but how speedy, and how comprehensive^ was the reaction ; while the inestimable benefits remain. Homer is still the world's epic poet ; Sophocles survived as its ideal of all that was conceivable of " gorgeous tragedy in sceptered pall," till Shakespeare taught the world a nobler art ; the spirit of Plato has still guidance for us when we would search into the mysteries of the human soul ; and give free scope to thoughts that wander through eternity. Nor will the historian or the scholar slight the literature of that other classic nation, whose more practical aptitudes "drilled the raw world to the march of mind," schooled barbarian Europe into self-government, trained it to urbanity, and tau'/ht it the significant con- straints of Roman law. But tli^ new birth could not be arrested in its cradle. Each fresh century has witnessed pro- gress. Science, from mere crude empiricisi-i, has developed on every hand till in its vast compass it defies the most gifted intellect to master all its many sided truths. It is no longer the riddle of the visionary alchemy st. Its power is felt in every avenue of life. Physics and metaphysics are alike affected by it. It rules in commerce, revolutionises war, and takes hold of intellectual and social life on every side. In this new land which we are fashioning for ourselves, rich in so many undeveloped resources, and dowered with the promises of a great future, we cannot afford to slight our opportunities ; or to waste our strength in narrow sectional rivalries. Let us, if possible, combine our forces in a renaissance for our New World, in which we shall unite the reverent spirit of the most earnest searchers into all truth, with a just appreciation of the worth of classical literature; and some adequate estimate of the triumphs of science. Let us learn by every experience of the past, and make of it a stepping-stone to higher things ; for we ourselves " are ancients of the earth ; and in the morning of the times." u„