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 1 
 
 COLONIAL LEGISLATION 
 
 ON THE SUBJECT OF 
 
 EDUCATION ; 
 
 TWO lETTERS, 
 
 ORIGINALLY ADDRESSED TO THE EDITOR OF THE HAMILTON GAZETTE. 
 
 CMDER THE StONATURE OF 
 
 SCOTUS. 
 
 BY DAVID BURN, Esq. 
 
 DEPUTY REGISTRAR OF THE COUNTY OF WENTWORTH. 
 
 TORONTO: 
 H. ROWSELL, PRINTER, 
 
 KINO STREET, 
 i84l. 
 
.* 
 
 'r 
 
 W 
 
 :*m< 
 
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 TO HIS EXCELLENCY 
 
 €l)arle0, Baron 0j)benl)am of 02lrfnljam anb Toronto, 
 
 GOVERNOR GENERAL OF BRITISH AMERICA, 
 THE FOLLOWING LETTERS ON EDUCATION, 
 
 IN THE HOPE, 
 
 THAT NOTWITHSTANDING THE PRESENT TURMOIL 
 
 OF COLONIAL POLITICS, 
 
 THE PRACTICAL IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT TO WHICH THEY RELATE 
 
 WILL BE DEEMED NOT UNWORTHY 
 
 OF HIS EXCELLENCY'S ATTENTION, 
 
 ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 
 
 BY 
 
 HER MAJESTY'S MOST DUTIFUL SUBJECT, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
\^ 
 
 y-l "< 
 
 The Author has been requested, by several of his 
 friends, to republish the following letters, in their 
 present form. He should feel happy if his very humble 
 efforts had the slightest effect in opening the eyes of 
 his loyal fellow colonists to the ruinous course of 
 legislation, which, in his judgment, the Provincial 
 Leg'ilature, from mistaken views, seems bent on 
 pursuing, in reference not only to King's College 
 University, but to the t lucation of the Colony at large. 
 
 '^U 
 
COLONIAL LEGISLATION 
 
 ON THS SVBJECT OT 
 
 «< 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 IS 
 
 ir 
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 ^ 
 
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 To the Editor of the Hamilton Gazette, 
 
 Sir, — Having on former occasions addressed you on 
 various matters connected with the interests of the Colony, I 
 am induced to trouble you with a few remarks on a subject 
 which I cannot help thinking is of vital importance to the 
 great cause of Education in this portion of the British 
 Empire. The subject to which I allude is the stop recently 
 put to the erection of our Colonial University at Toronto; a 
 measure which I have no hesitation in characterizing as, in 
 my judgment, the most ruinous to the best interests of the 
 Province that could possibly have been devised. The 
 arguments urged by the Honourable Mr. Morris, in the 
 Legislative Council, in support of this proceeding, are, I 
 conceive, of the most unstatesmanlike and shallow description. 
 He argued, at least I am so informed, that it was preposterous 
 to proceed in the erection of our much wanted Colonial 
 University, until the Common and District Schools were first 
 placed on a footing of efficiency. 
 
 Now, Sir, I must dissent in toto from this reasoning. I 
 maintain, on the contrary, that in order to raise up a national 
 system of education in any country, instead of beginning at 
 the bottom and ascending upwards, you must reverse the 
 order, and begin at the top and descend downwards, or, in 
 
 •It 
 
6 
 
 other words, you must first erect a noble University, filling 
 its chairs with men illustrious in science and literature, and 
 thereby create in the public mind a taste for learning in its 
 higher departments; and, afterwards, the inferior schools will 
 follow M a matter of course. Or, to make use of a simile, 
 the supplying of a country with education, may be likened to 
 the supplying of a great city with water; the first step in the 
 business is to erect a great reservoir, or fountain-head, from 
 which the lesser streams may be diffused in all quarters. — 
 The foundation on which I rest my argument is, I humbly 
 conceive, sound and obvious. 
 
 Literature and science are things for which there is 
 naturally no demand, generally, in the public mind, in any 
 country. A taste for these refinements of civilization must, 
 therefore, be first created by, as it were, a forcing process, 
 and until that taste is so created and diffused, you may set 
 about the erection of Common or District Schools till the end of 
 time, but will find that all your labours have been vain and 
 fruitless. 
 
 I do not, however, rest my argument merely on theory; I 
 appeal to what is matter of fact. How, I would ask, has the 
 noble system of education existing in Great Britain been 
 raised up; — by commencing^r5< with the erection of Common 
 and District Schools? No; most assuredly not. Our pious 
 ancestors first laid the foundation of all our education by the 
 erection of great Universities — the Universities of Oxford, of 
 Cambridge, of St. Andrews, of Aberdeen, of Dublin. They 
 sought out from all quarters distinguished men to fill the 
 various chairs of learning in these noble Colleges, and thereby 
 created that taste for education in the public mind, for which I 
 have been contending, as the ^rst step necessary to be taken in 
 the diffusion of knowledge in any country. I am aware that it 
 is quite common to hear persons state, in reference to Scotland, 
 that she owes all her education to her Parish Schools; — a 
 more ignorant assertion was never made. Scotland, and I 
 flatter myself I know her well, owes all her education, 
 PRIMARILY, to her Universities, and it ma / with safety be 
 
 
i 
 
 affirmed, thai had not these venerable fountain-heads of 
 learning been first erected by the piety and munificence of 
 her Kings and Churchmen, such an establishment as a parish 
 school in Scotland would never have had an existence. 
 
 To conclude, I cannot refrain from expressing my surprise 
 that at the very time Mr. Morris was descanting on the 
 absurdity of immediately commencing the erection of King's 
 College University, Toronto, a Bill was actually being 
 brought into Parliament by himself for the immediate erection 
 )f a Presbyterian University, in connection with, and undei' 
 che exclusive contrr.ul of the Presbyterian Kirk in this Colony. 
 I have not the slightest wish, certainly, to impute improper 
 motives to any person, or to any body of individuals, but I 
 feel quite justified in putting this question: — Are the 
 Presbyterians of Upper Canada, with whom Mr. Morris is so 
 closely connected, animated in their exertions to impede the 
 erection of the National University at Toronto, by the desire 
 to get their own Presbyterian Institution substituted in the 
 room of King's College, and thereby to endeavour to get the 
 education of the youth of Canada into their own hands, and 
 under their own controul? I should be glad to see this 
 question answered with honest plainness and sincerity. 
 
 I rema'il. Sir, Your's, &c. 
 
 .-.'.v^^v^' ■:;,:-,..- ..,r..-r ■■ -.: ' . .. SCOTUS. 
 
 To the Editor of the Hamilton Gazette. 
 
 Sm, — Permit me after some lapse of time, again to make 
 a few remarks on the late suicidal act of the House of Assem- 
 bly, alienating the funds reserved for the erection of our much 
 wanted Colonial University of King's College, Toronto. 
 The Assembly, it appears, have come to the resolution of 
 appropriating the money arising from the sale of a large pordon 
 of the lands originally set apart for the noble purposes of 
 Education, to the erection of a certain number of Grammar 
 Schools in eucli District of the Province. It has also, it 
 
8 
 
 seems, determined that in the present state of the Colony, 
 the erection of a University is unnecessary and inexpedient, 
 and that the present Up per Canada College may be rendered 
 capable of serving both the purposes of a University and a 
 School ; or in other words, of teaching grown up men as well 
 as boys ! 
 
 I have not the slightest wish certainly, to impugn the pro- 
 priety of erecting Grammar Schools in every District of the 
 Colony. My assertion, however, is this — that without a Uni- 
 versity, and that too on an extensive scale, you will never be 
 able to render your Grammar Schools either efficient or re- 
 spectable. To what, I will ask, is the excellence of the 
 Grammar Schools f>f England and Scotland attributable? 
 Unquestionably to the influence of the Universities, which 
 stimulates the Grammar Schools to educate their pupils, up 
 to the point which is required by the Universities, as the 
 qualification requisite in youths entering upon their course of 
 University education. Remove however this salutary influ- 
 ence, and in a very short time the Grammar Schools of Eng- 
 land, with all their excellencies, would be found gradually 
 sinking down to the same level with the inferior schools, 
 where nothing else is taught but the commonest elements of 
 education. The upshot therefore of the Legislation of the 
 House of Assembly will infallibly be, that the greater por- 
 tion of the lands set apart for education will be sold, whilst a 
 large sum of money will be squandered in the idea of being 
 able to found Grammar Schools similar in excellence to 
 Schools of the same class in England, when to the astonish- 
 ment of our Legislators, and the vain regrets of the Colony 
 at large, it will be discovered that the Schools so erected are 
 not in point of character, one whit superior to the common 
 schools p 'ready in existence. In reyard to the notion of ren- 
 dering Upper Canada College capable of serving both the 
 purpose of a University and a School, I shall only say, that 
 it is about as chimerical a project as ever entered into the 
 brains of even our Upper Canada Legislators. If carried 
 into effect, the inevitable consequence will be, that the Col- 
 
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 lege will be ruined as a School, whilst in its new character of 
 a University it will become an object of contempt to the 
 whole Province. Seriously, ;t is high time that the enlight- 
 ened minds of the Colony should bestir themselves on thic 
 momentous subject ; a subject in comparison of which our dis- 
 putes about responsibility and non-responsibility sink into 
 insignificance. If the education of the Colony is to be sieved 
 from the destruction with which it is threatened by rash and 
 > •: ignorant legislation, it is absolutely necessary that the man- 
 
 agement of the lands so munificently sot apart for its promo- 
 tion, should be at once and for ever removed from all popular 
 control, and placed exclusively in the hands of a Board of 
 Commissioners nominated by the Crown, and presided over by 
 what is termed in Continental Europe, a Minister of Public 
 Instruction. In no country of Europe are the educational 
 institutions subjected to the capricious, and often intriguing 
 legislation and control of a popular assembly. France has 
 its Minister of Public Instruction. Prussia the same. The 
 numerous Universities of Germany are carefully placed out 
 of the reach of popular legislation. In England neither the 
 House of Lords, nor the House of Commons, dare to lay their 
 finger on the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and the 
 same is the case with the Schools and Colleges of Scotland. 
 Why then in the name of common sense should the Legisla- 
 tive Council and House of Assembly of Upper Canada be in- 
 vested with an authority which in Europe has been univer- 
 sally repudiated as inimical to the best interests of literature, 
 and particularly to that settled repose which the peaceful pur- 
 suits of learning imperatively require. 
 
 I shall not at present further pursue this subject, but will 
 conclude, by expressing an ardent hope that notwithstanding 
 the adverse vote of the House of Assembly, Upper Canada, 
 in common with Her Majesty's other colonies of Nova Scotia 
 and New Brunswick, will ere long see the foundation of her 
 University laid ; not upon a scale of republican penurious- 
 ness, but commensurate with the wants and growing estate of 
 this noble portion of the British Empire: of a University 
 
 B 
 
10 
 
 i! 
 
 where our Divines may be instructed in all the branches of a 
 sound theology, — our Lawyers in the principles of ancient 
 and modern jurisprudence — our Physicians in all the depart- 
 ments of their profession ; and above all, where our future 
 Legislators may be taught those acquirements of enlightened 
 Statesmanship, which tend best to maintain the prerc^atives 
 of the Crown, and the liberties of the people. 
 
 I am. Sir, Yours &c., 
 
 SCOTUS. 
 
 Note. — I am informed that when in the Committee of the 
 Legislative Council the vote was to be put for the alienation 
 of the funds set apart for King's College University, 
 Archdeacon Strachan, who was Chairman, declared "<Ad;# he 
 loould put from the Chair which he then occupied no vote for the 
 alienation of the property of King's College^* It A noble 
 declaration, which will procure for the Archdeacon, now our 
 Bishop, the grateful respect of the Colony at large. 
 
 , 
 
 4' 
 
y 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 f 
 
 It is with much gratification the writer of the foregoing 
 letters finds that the identical views therein promulgated, 
 should, so far back as forty-five years ago, have been so 
 powerfully advocated by the late Governor Simcoe, in Canada, 
 "clarum et venerabile nomen," as will be seen by the annexed 
 copies of his letters, read in the Legislative Council on the 
 debate upon the Clergy Reserve Bill, Janiiary 17, 1840, by 
 the Honourable P. B. De Blaquiere: — 
 
 Extrojcts of a Letter to the Lord Bishop of Quebec, from Governor 
 Simcoe, dated Kingston, Upper Canada, April 30, 1 795. 
 
 Perhaps the constitution given to Upper Canada, however 
 late, forms the singular exception to that want of preventive 
 wisdom which has characterized the present time^. The 
 people of this Province enjoy the forms, as well as the privi- 
 leges, of the British Constitution. They have the means of 
 governing themselves, and having nothing to ask, must ever 
 remain a part of the British Empire, provided they shall become 
 sufficierdly capable and enlightened to understand their relative 
 situation, and to manage their own power to the public interest. — 
 Liberal education seems to me, therefore, to be iiulispensahly 
 necessary; and the completion of it, by the establishment of a 
 University in the capital of the country — the residence of the 
 Governor and the Council, the Bishop, the heads of the law, ami 
 of the general quality of the inhabitants, consequent to the seat of 
 government — in my apprehension, would be most usejul to incuhtate 
 just principles, habits, and manners, into the rising generation : to 
 coalesce the different customs of the various descriptions of stttlerSf 
 
10 
 
 emigrants from the old provinces of Europe^ into one form. In 
 shortifrom distinct parts and ancient prejudices, to new-form, as it 
 were, and establish one nation — and thereby to strengthen the union 
 with Great Britain, arid to preserve a lasting obedience to His 
 Mqjestj/s authority. The income contemplated for such an 
 establishment is certainly, of itself, too contemptible to be 
 withheld from the prosecuting of so great an object on any 
 views of expense. I naturally should wish that the Clergy 
 requisite for offices in the University, in the first instance, 
 should be Englishmen, if possible — (conforming therein to 
 Mr. Secretary Dundas' opinion, and indeed, in this respect, to 
 my own) — but as in an object of such magnitude no explana- 
 tion can be too minute, which fairly and distinctly elucidates 
 these points, which ought not to be misunderstood, I only 
 refer to your Lordship's slight experience of the habits and 
 manners of the American settlers, to say how very different 
 they are from those of Great Britain ; and how unlikely it is 
 for Clergymen educated in England, with English families 
 and propensities — habituated in every situation to a greater 
 degree of refinement and comfort than can be found in a new 
 country, or possibly any where without the precincts of Great 
 Britain — how unlikely it is that such persons should obtain 
 that influence with their parishioners which may essentially 
 promote the objects of their mission. In the infancy of such 
 a government as that of Upper Canada, and in the general 
 indisposition of these times to all restraint, it seems to be of 
 peculiar importance to prevent the public interest, both in 
 Church and State, from suffering through any ill-will or dis- 
 regard which the King's subjects may bear to those persons 
 who are in any manner concerned in its administration. On 
 the other haiid, 1 am persuaded if, at the outset, a few pious, 
 learned men, of just zeal and primitive manners, shall be sent 
 to this country, with sufficient inducement to make them 
 support this honourable banishment with cheerfulness — and 
 that in the first instance, your Lordship shall not too 
 strenuously insist upon leianing as a qualification for ordina- 
 tion, where there are evident marks of religious disposition 
 
 y 
 
 t 
 
13 
 
 and proofs of morality — I am confident the rising generation 
 will be brought up competently learned, and properly endued 
 with religion and loyalty; and it is probable that they may at 
 least be equal to those of Connecticut, in this continent, whose 
 Clergy are, in general, inferior to none in those points of 
 learning and of acquisition in the dead languages, which may 
 be generally considered as the necessary materials and instru- 
 ments of their sacred profession. In short, my Lord, if the 
 maintenance of religion and morality he merely considered, in a 
 commercial light, as so much mercliandize, the bounty which I have 
 proposed, and most earnestly implore may be for a while extended 
 to it, wilLaugment that produce in which the union of this country 
 with Great Britain, and the preservation of His Mcjesty^s 
 sovereignty, may ultimately depend. I am almost ashamed of 
 using this metaphorical language, hut it is that of the age. There 
 has nothing, in my late progress, given me equal uneasiness with 
 the general application of all ranks of the most loyal inhabitants 
 of the Province, that I would obtain for them Churches and 
 Ministers. They say that the rising generation is rapidly return- 
 ing to barbarism. They state that the Sabbath, so wisely set apart 
 for Jevotion, is literally unhnovm to their children, who are busily 
 employed in searching for amusements in which they may consume 
 that day. And it is of serious consideration, that on the 
 approach of the settlements of the United States to our 
 frontiers, particularly on the St. Lawrence, these people, who 
 by experience have found that Schools and Churches are 
 essential to their rapid establishment, may probably allure 
 many of our most respectable settlers to emigrate to them, 
 while in this respect we suffer a disgraceful deficiency. 
 
 A principal foundation of the wise and necessary friendship 
 of Great Britain with these their legitimate descendants, I 
 have heretofore pointed out as to be deduced from the most 
 intimate union and reconcilement between the English 
 Episcopal Church, and tJiat of the independent form of 
 worship, used in the New England Provinces, an emanaiion 
 from the English Episcopal church, as all their authors avow, 
 and principally originating from the harsh measures of the 
 
14 
 
 secular power which the English church once exercised, but 
 which is now no more. Though my ideas on this subject, my 
 Lord, were probably misunderstood, and the lukewarm spirit 
 of the times, had I even been called on for their explanation, 
 would, doubtless, have slighted my reasons as merely struck out 
 in the heat of imagination, and not, as they are, the sober de- 
 ductions of much thought and of personal observation, yet 
 nothing has happened since I left England, in the least to in- 
 validate, to my own conception, the policy of the measures I 
 then proposed : and as far as may be now in the power of his 
 Majesty's Ministers, I most earnestly hope that what remains 
 may be elfected — that is, by giving the means of proper edu- 
 cation in this Province, both in its rudiments and in its com- 
 pletion, that from ourselves we may raise up a loyal, and in 
 due progress, a learned Clergy, and which will speedily tend 
 to unite not only the Puritans within the Province, but the 
 Clergy of the Episcopal church, however dispersed, to consider 
 with aifection the parent state, to form, corroborate and unite 
 within the United States, that powerful body of people, who 
 naturally must prefer the alliance of Great Britain to that of 
 France, who are mostly members of the Episcopal church, and 
 on all sides, to bring within its pale in Upper Canada, a very 
 great body of sectaries who, in my judgment, as it were, offer 
 themselves to its protection and re-union. 
 
 These objects would be materially promoted by a University in 
 Upper CaTwda^ which might* in due progress^ acquire such a cha- 
 racter as to become the place of education to many persons beyond 
 the extent of the King's dominions. 
 
 If I recollect, my Lord, Parliament voted £20,000 for the 
 erection of the University proposed by Bishop Berkely, in 
 Bermudas. The object, not to speak disrespectfully of so 
 truly respectable a prelate, was certainly of trivial importance 
 
 ■^ 
 
 X 
 
 
 * There cannot be a doubt but that Toronto, if King* s College Univer- 
 ■ity were erected on its originally projected Hcale, woula become the Ox- 
 ford or Gottingen, not only of Canada, but of all America. 
 
15 
 
 \ ^ 
 
 to what I now propose. The labours of the Society for the 
 Propaf^ation of the Gospel, are visionary, as applicable to the 
 conversion of the American Indians in their present state, but 
 would be of most essential benefit by promoting a Univer» 
 sity, which, if placed in the part I meditate, would, in its turn, 
 have great influence in civilizing the Indians, and, what is of 
 more importance, those who corrupt them. The Episcopal 
 Clergy in Great Britain, from pious motives, as well as policy, 
 are materially interested that the church should increase in 
 this Province. I will venture to prophesy its preiervation 
 depends upon a University being erected therein. 
 
 The great supports of true learning against the minute, 
 the plebeian, the mechanical philosophy, which, in the pre- 
 sent day, from the successful or problematical experiments of 
 ill professors in national inquiries, has assumed to itself the 
 claim of dictating in religion and morality, and in consequence 
 now threatens mankind with ruin and desolation. The Uni- 
 versities of England, I make no doubt, would contribute to 
 the planting of a scion from their respectable stock in this 
 distant colony. In short, my Lord, I have not the smallest 
 hesitation in saying, that I believe if a Protestant Episcopal 
 University should be proposed to be erected, even in the 
 United States, the British nation would liberally subscribe to 
 the undertaking. 
 
 I am, therefore, the more authorised to make this statement 
 to your Lordship, and most earnestly do hope, under God, 
 that you may be able to complete this desirable work in this 
 Province, which my various avocations do not permit me to 
 undertake, with due vigour and perseverance, and which, as 
 it seems most peculiarly allotted to the station of the first 
 Protestant Bishop of Quebec, so I hope, that it may be re- 
 served to be carried into execution by the abilities and piety 
 of your Lordship. 
 
 J. G. SIMCOE. 
 
16 
 
 Extract of a Letter from Lieutenant-Governor Simcoey to the 
 Lord Bishop of Quebec. 
 
 Navy Hall, October 16, 1795. 
 My views in respect to a University are totally unchanged, 
 they are on a solid basis, and may or may not be complied with, 
 as my superiors shall think proper, but shall certainly appear as 
 my system to thejtuU/meat of posterity. 
 
 Extract of a Letter from Governor Simcoe, to the Lord Bishop 
 
 of Quebec. 
 
 York, 25th February, 1796. 
 I have scarcely the smallest hope of this G ivernment being 
 supported in the manner which I cannot but think proper for 
 the national interests, and commensurate with its established 
 constitution. In particular, I have no idea that a University 
 will be established, though I am daily confirmed in its neces- 
 sity. I lament these events, from the duty I owe to my King and 
 country, and have only to guard, that no opinions of mine be inter- 
 preted to promise beneficial effects, when the adequate causes from 
 which they must originate, are suffered to perish, or are withheld. 
 
 (Signed) J. G. SIMCOE. 
 
 When the great and good Governor Simcoe gave vent to 
 his feelings of disappointment and regret, contained in this 
 concluding extract, in being unable to carry into effect his 
 enlightened design of founding a University on a comprehen- 
 sive scale in Canada, it may be permitted to the humble colo- 
 nist of the present day to express also his feelings not only of 
 regret but of humiliation, when Forty-Four years afterwards 
 he witnesses an Act framed by the Legislative Council and 
 House of Assembly of Upper Canada, affirming (see the Pre- 
 amble of Mr. Morris's Education Bill) "That the erection of a 
 University in Canada is unnecessary and inexpedient in the 
 present state of Education in the Province," and still more, that 
 such a Bill should be termed "An Act to provide for the ad- 
 vancement of Education" I 
 
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