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'^iTV^'C^C^A^C^. ^>:^VV^1^^^^^ 
 
 AN ACCOUNT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ENDOWMENTS FOR EDUCATION 
 
 U^ 
 
 li 
 
 
 IN 
 
 LOWER CANADA, 
 
 AND OF THE 
 
 LEGISLATIVE AND OTHER PUBLIC ACTS 
 
 FOR THE ADVANCEMENT THEREOF, 
 
 FROM THE CESSION OF THE COUNTRY IN 1763 
 TO THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 The establishment of a system of Education in 
 the elementary, as well as in the higher branches 
 of learning and science, superior to that which has 
 hitherto obtained in Lower Canada, being impera- 
 tively called for, the first step to the attainment of 
 this important end is to ascertain the existing 
 means of Education within the Province, and the 
 public measures which from time to time have 
 been adopted with a view to its advancement. 
 
 Without here entering upon an inquiry into the 
 proper measures to be taken for the general Edu- 
 cation of the inhabitants of Lower Canada, the 
 present paper is confined to a narrative of the en- 
 dowments for Education in the Province, and of 
 the Legislative and other public acts for its en- 
 couragement and advancement, from the cession of 
 the country down to this time. 
 
 I' 
 
 I 
 
 . I 
 

 i^) 
 
 At the period of the conquest of the province, 
 there were several establishments in the country, 
 richly endowed, for the purposes of education, 
 namely, the Seminaries of Quebec and Montreal 
 appropriated more particularly for the education 
 of Ecclesiastics, and the order of the Jesuits, who 
 attended exclusively to the civil instruction of the 
 people. The endowments of these bodies were 
 large and liberal, and they have been continued 
 to them since the conquest, with the exception of 
 the estates of the Jesuits, which have been assumed 
 by the Crown. 
 
 The endowments of the Seminary of Quebec are 
 of great value and extent. It is possessed of the fol- 
 lowing estates, the Seigniories of Beaupre, 1 5 leagues 
 in front by 6 leagues in depth on the river Saint 
 Lawrence below the city of Quebec, Isle auxCoudrcs, 
 Isle du Cap Boule, Coulanges, and Saint Michel in 
 the district of Quebec, the fief Sault au Matelot and 
 other property of value in the city of Quebec, 
 and the Seignory of Isle Jesus in the district of 
 Montreal. The present value of these estates is not 
 known, but many years ago it was computed at 
 about £1300. per annum, besides large contribu- 
 tions in grain and feudal rights on the mutation of 
 real property, the latter of which in the Sault au 
 Matelot alone containing about 200 houses in the 
 city of Quebec, would amount to a considerable sum. 
 
 The endowments of the Seminary of Montreal, 
 were likewise of great extent and value, and con- 
 
sist of tlie Seigniory of tlie Island of Montreal, 
 upon which is situated the great commercial empo- 
 rium of the Canadas, the city of Montreal, and the 
 Seigniories of Saint Sulpitius, and the Lake of 
 two mountains, in the district of Montreal : the 
 actual value of these estates is not known, but the 
 revenues of the Seminary as stated by the Eccle- 
 siastics themselves, who an? in possession of these 
 estates, exceed £8,000. per annum. 
 
 The endowments of the late order of the Jesuits 
 were likewise of very great extent and value. The 
 order was in possession of an extent of six superficial 
 acres in the heart of the city of Quebec upon which 
 their Church and College were erected, Lavacherie 
 in the vicinity of the city, the two Lorettes or the 
 Seigniory of Saint Gabriel, and that of Sillery, in 
 the district of Quebec : the Seigniories of Cap de 
 la Magdeleine and Batiscan in the district of Three 
 Rivers, in the latter of which are valuable beds 
 of iron ore, where extensive iron forges have 
 been established : the Seigniory of Laprairie de la 
 Magdeleine and Sault Saint Louis, in the district 
 of Montreal, the latter Seigniory held by them in 
 trust for the savage nation of the Iroquois settled 
 upon it, and since the conquest confirmed to the 
 savages, besides valuable lots of ground in the cities 
 of Montreal, Quebec, and Three Rivers. — Portions 
 of these estates have been alienated by the Crown, 
 since they passed into the possession of the Go- 
 vernment, but the more valuable still remain 
 
 B 2 
 
 1; 
 
 .1 
 
 f 
 
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 r 
 
 r? 
 
•mil produce a clear revenue of about £1,800. 
 per annum, under the present system of manage- 
 ment. 
 
 Several Nunneries were likewise established in 
 the provincial cities, which are also amply endowed 
 in lands and money, by means of which and by Mis- 
 sions distributed throughout the Province from 
 some of the Sisterhoods, instruction has been 
 generally diflfused amongst the female portion of 
 the population, in the cities and villages of the 
 l^rovincc. 
 
 All these institutions, with the exception of the 
 late order of the Jesuits, have retained possession 
 of their estates and property, and continue to enjoy 
 them unmolested at this time. 
 
 The result of the campaigns of 1759 and 1760, 
 gave to Great Britain the possession of Canada, 
 which was afterwards ceded in full sovereignty by 
 the King of France, by the Peace of Paris in the 
 year 1763. The discontents in the old British Co- 
 lonies assumed a new character almost immediately 
 after the cession of Canada, and went on increas- 
 ing in violence, until their open rupture with the 
 Mother Country, and their declaration of inde- 
 pendence in 1774, followed by the American Re- 
 volutionary War which was terminated in the year 
 1783 by the peace of that year. 
 
 During the continuance of that contest, the Go- 
 vernment of England could not bestow conside- 
 ration upon the subject of education in Canada, 
 
but shortly after the restoration of trantiuillity by 
 the peace of 1783, the civil authorities within tiie 
 Colony directed their attention to the subject. 
 
 In the year 1787, his Excellency Lord Dor- 
 chester, then Governor-General of Canada, brought 
 the matter under the consideration of the Legisla- 
 tive Council of the Province, who, however, were 
 prevented, by fortuitous circumstances, from re- 
 porting upon the reference made to them, until the 
 close of the year 1789. The Report of the Council 
 is of sufficient importance to require its insertion 
 here entire, and is as follows: — 
 
 Quebec, May 3\, 1787. 
 
 " His Lordship called the attention of the Council 
 to the great object of the education of youth 
 throughout all the extent of the province, and it is 
 committed to the Chief Justice, Messrs. Dunn, 
 Mabane, Delery, Grant, S. Ours, Baby, Dupre, and 
 Colonel Caldwell to report with all convenient speed, 
 the best mode of remedying the defects, an estimate 
 of the expence, and by what means it may be de- 
 frayed. 
 
 (Signed) J. Williams." 
 
 Observed by the Chairman, that his Lordship's 
 supposing defects in the means of education, the 
 duty of the Committee seemed to be to explore the 
 causes and point to the remedy. 
 
 That as the subject was not capable of the dis- 
 cussion the reference required, without some local 
 information, he had since put a series of questions 
 
 <; 
 
 
 b 
 
 
 f 
 
6 
 
 into the Imnd of one of the Canadian Lawyers, in 
 the hope of being able to have spread before the 
 Committee, pertinent eommunications from every 
 parish of the ancient settlements in the two districts 
 of Quebec and Montreal. 
 
 The questions were these, '* Inquiry to extend 
 to 1st. The condition or present state of education. 
 A list of the parishes and incumbents, and of the 
 number of the parishioners in each, and the amount 
 of their respective church revenues. 
 
 The number of their schools, and the kind of in- 
 struction—what their support? Can it be true, 
 tiiat there are not more than half a dozen in a parish 
 able to read or write ? 
 
 2nd. The cause of the imperfect state of instruc- 
 tion—What kinds of public and general tuition are 
 established? What are the funds? the uses and 
 ends ? the impediments ? 
 
 A minute detail desired that the remedy may be 
 the better adapted to the evil, and the necessity 
 there is for proper institutions. 
 
 3rd. The remedy or means of instruction — the 
 main object is the cultivation of knowledge. 
 
 Suppose a union for this purpose safe, for the 
 Protestant and Catholic persuasions, and encou- 
 raged by all the enlightened and patriotic charac- 
 ters, whatever the diversity of their religious tenets, 
 is it possible to hope to make a step towards esta- 
 blishing a University in the province, or to find 
 schools introductive of a University ? How may 
 
instructors be ac(|uirc(i ? By what mcaiiH can h 
 taste or desire of instruction be excited in tlie 
 parislies ? 
 
 The means must be adapted to the condition of 
 the colony. 
 
 1st. To the strength and ability of the inhabi- 
 tants. 
 
 2nd. To the aid to be expected from the provin- 
 cial Legislature. 
 
 3rd. To the contributions probable from abroad 
 in money and books, and towards an apparatus for 
 experiments in natural philosophy. 
 
 Upon the first point, 
 
 Will the chief inhabitants concur in asking for 
 an incorporation ? Will the subscribers for a library 
 place it in the hands of a Corporation or College ? 
 
 Upon the second point, 
 
 What lands of the Crown are there proper to be 
 settled for the use of such a Society ? 
 
 Upon the third point, 
 
 Without an establishment by charter, every gift 
 will be dependent upon private confidence, and then 
 nothing is to be expected from abroad. This will 
 not be so, if the stock and revenue are in hands 
 having the confidence of the Government, and may 
 it not be expected to find men of learning for the 
 professors' chairs free of prejudices ? 
 
 That a letter to the parish pastors might bring a 
 ^rue account of the parishes; awaken inquiry, and 
 
 ^1 
 
 ,1 
 
 / { 
 
afford useful infommtiou ; and that letters be writ- 
 ten to the heads of the Roman Catholic Clergy. 
 
 The letter'^'to the Roman Catholic Bishop of 
 Quebec produced the following answer : 
 
 Quebec f \Sth November, 1789. 
 
 " The Hor William Smith, Chief Justice. 
 •* Sir, 
 
 " The following is the result of my reflections upon 
 the scheme which you did me the honour of com- 
 municating by your letter of the 13th of August. 
 
 " Nothing is more worthy of the wisdom of the 
 Government under which we live, than the encou- 
 ragement of science by every possible means, and 
 with respect to myself, let me assure you, nothing 
 can be more agreeable to my views and wishes. At 
 the name of an University in the province of 
 Quebec, my native country, I bless the Almighty 
 for having ripened the design, and my prayers are 
 offered for the execution of it. However, as you 
 have given me to understand, that my opinions will 
 be received with pleasure, I ought to suggest to 
 the Honourable Council, and to the Committee, in 
 whose name I consider you have written to me, the 
 following observations. 
 
 '* 1st. It is very doubtful whether the province can 
 at present furnish a sufficient number of Students 
 to occupy the Masters and Professors that would 
 necessarily be required to form an University. 
 While there remains in Canada so much land to 
 
9 
 
 clear, it is not to he expected that the country in- 
 hahitants will concern themselves ahout the liheral 
 arts. A farmer, in easy circumstances, who 
 wishes to leave his children a comfortahle inherit- 
 ance, will rather bring them up to agriculture, and 
 employ his money in the purchase of lands, than 
 give them learning, of which he knows nothing 
 himself, and of the value of which it is scarcely 
 possible that he should have an idea. Every nation 
 upon the globe has successively given proof of my 
 assertion, the sciences having flourished, only 
 where there were more inhabitants than necessary 
 for the cultivation of the land. This is not yet the 
 case in Canada, an immense space of country, 
 where the lands little improved offer on all hands 
 wherewithal to exercise the industry and stimulate 
 the interests of the settlers. The towns, therefore, 
 stand alone for furnishing students to the Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 There are but four towns in the province, 
 William Henry still uninhabited ; Three Rivers 
 scarcely meriting the name of a town. The in- 
 habitants of Quebec and Montreal, it is well known, 
 are not very numerous ; besides, it is probable, con- 
 sidering the present scarcity of money and the 
 poverty of the citizens, that Montreal cannot send 
 many youths to the University. In the course of 
 every two years, ten or twelve scholars are sent 
 from there to Quebec to study philosophy; if more 
 should come from thence, the whole town would 
 
 ..•", 
 
10 
 
 murmur. Many for the want of funds are compelled 
 to finish their studies when only in the class of 
 rhetoric : yet the seminary of Quebec teaches phi- 
 losophy gratis, as well as the other branches of 
 science, and the greatest sum required from a stu- 
 dent never exceeds £12. sterling per annum. 
 Hence, I conclude, that the period has not arrived 
 for founding an University at Quebec. 
 
 " 2nd. I understand by University a company, 
 community, or corporation, composed of several 
 colleges, in which Professors are placed to teach 
 several sciences. The foundation, then, of an Uni- 
 versity presupposes an establishment of colleges 
 dependent thereon, and furnishing students for it. 
 According to the most esteemed chronologists, the 
 University of Paris, the most ancient in the world, 
 was only founded in the 12th century, though the 
 kingdom of France has subsisted from the 5th. 
 Nothing, therefore, seems to urge such an establish- 
 ment in a province newly risen into existence, 
 where there are but two such Colleges, and which 
 might, perhaps, be obliged to apply to foreign 
 countries for Professors to sit in the chairs, and for 
 scholars to receive their lectures. 
 
 It will be asserted, that the Anglo-Americans 
 our neighbours, though the settlement of their 
 country is not of long date, have nevertheless fur- 
 nished themselves with one or more Universities. 
 }3ut it must be observed, that their proximity to 
 the sea, which is not the case with us, having 
 
11 
 
 rapidly extended their commerce, multiplied their 
 towns, and increased their population, it is not to 
 be wondered that they should be more advanced 
 than we are, and that the progress of the two coun- 
 tries, differently situated, should not be exactly 
 alike. 
 
 *' 3rd. Supposing the two foregoing reflections 
 refuted by others more judicious and wise, I wish 
 to know by what law it is proposed to govern the 
 administration of this community, before I take 
 any step respecting the clergy of my diocese, or 
 the Canadians collectively. The project of an 
 University in general, does not meet my senti- 
 ments ; I should like a more minute detail. How 
 many different sciences are intended to be taught 
 there? This question is important. A greater 
 number requiring of necessity a greater number of 
 professors, and consequently greater revenues. Is 
 it intended that it should be governed by one rector 
 or by a society of directors ? If by a rector, is the 
 appointment to be for life, or is he to be remove- 
 able at the end of a given number of years ? Who 
 are to be the persons to nominate either him or 
 the directors, if that mode of administration were 
 to take place ? Would it be the King, the Gover- 
 nor, the citizens of Quebec, or the province at large ? 
 What rank or character would be given to the 
 bishop, or what to his co-adjutor, in the establish- 
 ment ? Would it not be proper, that both or one 
 of them at least, should h*^ M a distinguished station ? 
 
 m 
 
 If 
 
 
 Iff 
 
 II 
 
 •■I' 
 
 1 >i 
 
 'i 
 
 J* 
 
12 
 
 " This is not all, an union protecting the Catholic 
 and Protestant subjects, had been previously an- 
 nounced. These terms are very vague. What 
 are the measures to be taken to accomplish so 
 necessary a junction? Will it be answered, by 
 proposing for the University, persons unprejudiced 
 in their opinions ; this, far from resolving the diffi- 
 culty, seems only to increase it. For what is 
 meant by persons unprejudiced ? The true sense 
 of the expression relates to persons who are neither 
 unwisely prepossessed in their notions in favour 
 of their own nation, nor unadvisedly zealous to 
 inspire into youth not instructed therein, the prin- 
 ciples of their own communion ; further, they 
 ought to be virtuous and moral persons, who 
 govern themselves by Gospel principles and Chris- 
 tianity whereas, in the style of modern writers, 
 a person unprejudiced in his opinions is one, who 
 opposes every principle of religion, who, pretend- 
 ing to conduct himself by the law of nature alone, 
 soon becomes immoral, and not subordinate to the 
 laws necessary to be inculcated upon youth, if it 
 be intended that they should conduct themselves 
 uprightly ; men of this character (and this age 
 abounds with them, to the misfortune and revolu- 
 tion of nations), would by no means suit the es- 
 tablishment proposed. 
 
 ** After these preliminary observations, which 
 seemed to me essential, I shall just endeavour, Sir, 
 to answer your different questions. 
 
13 
 
 \\ 
 
 *' Question 1. —The condition, or present state of 
 education, a list of the parishes and incumbents, 
 and of the number of the parishioners in each, 
 and the amount of their respective Church re- 
 venues ? 
 
 *' Answer. — Nothing so easy as to give a list of 
 the parishes and incumbents, but it will be shewn 
 by-and-by that such list is unnecessary, in the 
 business in question : it is not so easy to shew the 
 amount of the Church revenues. 
 
 " 1. What is termed Ecclesiastical contributions 
 or oblations, is merely a casualty. 
 
 *' 2. Tithes are not so rigorously exacted, nor in 
 the same proportion as in Europe. Here they are 
 only the twenty-sixth part of wheat, oat. and peas ; 
 it is true they must be brought to the parsonage- 
 house. Tithes are reduced in Canada, which are 
 called in England predial tithes. Respecting the 
 mixed tithes, collected upon hogs, milk, wool, &c. 
 and the provisional tithe collected upon manual 
 labour, or works proceeding from industry, ^uch 
 as the mechanic arts, fisheries, &c. they are alto- 
 gether unknown and disused in the country. Our 
 tithes, therefore, proceeding but from grain, are 
 liable to great changes of augmentation or diminu- 
 tion from one year to the other, depending upon a 
 favourable or unfavourable season. Therefore, it 
 would be difficult to ascertain with precision the 
 amount of the revenue belonging to the incum- 
 bents. 
 
 !■ \ 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 } I 
 
 'I 
 
14 
 
 " Question. — What schools are there, and what 
 is the kind of instruction ? and what is their sup- 
 port? 
 
 " Answer. — The reverend fathers, the Jesuits of 
 Quebec, before the year 1776, always kept or caused 
 to be kept, a well regulated school, where young 
 persons were taught reading and arithmetic ; this 
 school was free to every one. But Government 
 having thought fit to lodge the records of the 
 province, in the only apartment of the house where 
 scholars could be admitted, the reverend fathers 
 could not continue the good work. 
 
 *' There are some Canadian masters, I know, who, 
 for payment, teach reading and writing; their 
 schools are regular and daily, and pretty well 
 frequented ; the parents of children sent there 
 are tolerably well satisfied with the progress they 
 make. 
 
 , *' At Montreal, the Seminary, ever since the time 
 of its institution, has supported a free-school, 
 where children of all ranks are taught reading and 
 writing. Books are given to them gratis. This 
 school is remarkable for its extreme regularity, has 
 had 300 children at a time. 
 
 "The Nuns, or Congregational Sisters at Montreal 
 have a numerous boarding school for the instruc- 
 tion of young gentlewomen. The Ursuline Sisters 
 at Quebec and Three Rivers, have each another 
 boarding school, also the Nuns of the General Hos- 
 pital at Quebec. The young ladies in the schools 
 
15 
 
 are taught reading, writing, needle, and other 
 work, suitable to the sex ; such as embroidery, 
 but above all things they are taught virtue. Public 
 schools are also kept for young women in the three 
 towns of the province, one at Montreal by the 
 Congregational Sisters; one at Three Rivers by 
 the Ursulines ; one at Quebec by the Ursulines, and 
 one by the sisters in the Lower Town ; the schools 
 kept in the country parishes by missions from the 
 Congregational Sisters must not be forgotten. 
 They spread a great deal of instruction. These 
 communities at their own charge support their 
 respective schools, and are also supported and 
 encouraged by the attentions and vigilance of the 
 superiors of the Church, who are careful to see 
 that the intents of the establishments are fulfilled. 
 Above all things, the minds of the children in 
 those schools are 'inspired with morality, and in 
 love and veneration for religion, the principles of 
 which they are taught to understand. 
 
 " There are some English masters who teach 
 schools at Quebec, Montreal, and Three Rivers, but 
 I do not know their different branches of instruc- 
 tion nor their support. 
 
 ** Question. — Can it be true, that there are not 
 more than half a dozen in a parish, able to read or 
 write? 
 
 ** Answer. — Such a report, it is true, is publicly 
 spoken of, and, if 1 mistake not, maliciously spread 
 abroad, to disgrace the Canadians. The imposition 
 
 ;i 
 
 Ij 
 
 ..J 
 
 -■;5l 
 
' 
 
 16 
 
 hath even readied his Royal Higlmess Prince Wil- 
 liam Henry. It would be difficult to practise such 
 a deception upon persons well acquainted with the 
 province. For my part, I am convinced that, upon 
 an average, from 20 to 30 persons may easily be 
 found in every parish, who can read and write. It is 
 true, the number of women so instructed exceeds 
 that of the men. 
 
 ** Question. — The cause of the imperfect state of 
 instruction ? What kinds of public and general 
 tuition are established ? What the funds ? the in- 
 come ? the uses and ends ? the impediments ? 
 
 " Answer. — Classical learning and rhetoric are 
 positively taught in the College of Montreal since 
 the year 1773, and geography and arithmetic are 
 beginning to be taught. I have reason to expect 
 this establishment will, in time, produce a good 
 effect. The proprietors of the 'establishment soli- 
 cited me in September last, to let them have a 
 Professor of Philosophy and Mathematics ; I shall 
 do all in my power to procure them one. The 
 College belongs to the Administrators of the Parish 
 Church Revenues of Montreal ; it has no other 
 funds than the board paid by the students and the 
 liberality of the Ecclesiastics of the seminary : the 
 Churchwardens seem to have its support much at 
 heart ; it is already of great public use. Boys who 
 cannot afford to live in the College as boarders, are 
 received as day scholars for the moderate sum of 
 one guinea per annum. 
 
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 17 
 
 " TJie Seminary at Quebec was founded and en- 
 dowed by tlie first Bishop of Canada. Its own 
 revenues support it. The administration of those 
 revenues is submitted to the inspection of the Bi- 
 shop, who annually examines the accounts of the 
 income and expenditure, as well as those of acqui- 
 sitions made under the foundation. This Seminary, 
 by its constitution, is only held to instruct young 
 clergymen for the service of the diocese ; but since 
 the conquest of the province by his Britannic 
 Majesty's arms, public instruction has been volun- 
 tarily and gratuitously given. Theology, the 
 Classics, Rhetoric, Natural and Moral Philoso- 
 phy, Geography, Arithmetic, and all the different 
 branches of Mathematics, are taught. It has pro- 
 duced, and produces daily, learned men in all the 
 sciences ; they have students capable of doing 
 honour to their education and country : the Bishop 
 names several individuals, and proceeds, without 
 naming a great number of ecclesiastics, who dis- 
 tinguish themselves among our Clergy. 
 
 "When English young gentlemen have desired to 
 come into the Seminary, they have been admitted 
 there, upon the same footing with Canadians, with- 
 out any distinction or partiality. They were ex- 
 empted, however, from attending religious duties, 
 differing from the principles of their belief. 
 
 " I should not omit mentioning, that since the 
 conquest, the Bishops of Quebec have always re- 
 sided at the Seminary, where it is made a point of 
 
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 18 
 
 duty to furnish apartments and a table for tlieni 
 gratuitously and honourably : moreover, the Semi- 
 Titiry has always been remarkable for charities 
 daily bestowed there, as for zeal in cases of public 
 contributions. 
 
 " Question. — Whence proceeds the discourage- 
 ments and faults ? 
 
 "Answer. — It may be answered, that of all the 
 young gentlemen naturally studious and virtuous, 
 who have begun their studies at a fit age, not one 
 has been discouraged at the Seminary : they left it 
 with thanks and acknowledgments for principles 
 they learned. Indeed, there has been found among 
 the number, some of stubborn dispositions, little 
 adapted for the sciences, or incapable of that re- 
 straint which is necessary for the acquisition of 
 good morals. These have gone away ignorant ; 
 and unfortunately, judging by their incapacity, an 
 unfavourable opinion is entertained of the learning 
 to be acquired in the Seminary. Hence proceeds 
 the idea pretty generally propagated, that none are 
 admitted into the Classics there, but such as are 
 disposed to take up an ecclesiastical life ; that their 
 instruction is directed only to that study, and is 
 otherwise very contracted ; an idea that could not 
 be repressed, even by the publication in the Quebec 
 Gazette, which announced to the English and 
 French youths, the opening of the ordinary Ma- 
 thematical Class at the Seminary ; wherein would 
 be taught, according to the usage for 20 years, 
 
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 19 
 
 Writing, Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry, Trigo- 
 nometry, together with the Conic Sections and 
 Tactics in both languages, and without expence to 
 the scholars. 
 
 ** The preference given to old subjects and even 
 to strangers, over Canadians, in appointments to 
 public offices and places of trust, may perhaps be 
 an additional cause of discouragement ; but this is 
 not within my sphere, nor is it with me to inquire, 
 whether such complaints be well or ill founded : 
 besides, it is my duty and the duty of all my 
 countrymen, to render endless thanks to the Right 
 Honourable Lord Dorchester, for the favours he 
 has been pleased to heap upon our nation, when- 
 ever opportunities have aiForded. 
 
 ** Question. — The remedy or means of instruction. 
 What steps can be taken towards establishing a 
 University in this Province, or Schools introductive 
 of a University ? 
 
 ** Answer. To this I answer — 
 
 " 1 . That according to my first observations at the 
 beginning of this letter, it appears we are not yet 
 arrived at the period for establishing a University 
 at Quebec. 
 
 " 2. That in order to put the Province in the state 
 of enjoying, in the process of time, so precious an 
 advantage as that of an University, it is necessary 
 to use all possible means of supporting and en- 
 couraging the education already taught in the Col- 
 
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 lege at Montreal and the Seminary of Quebec. 
 This 1 watch over with great attention generally ; 
 many of the scholars are capable, at the time of 
 quitting their studies, of embracing with success 
 any kind of science taught at a University, whe- 
 ther Jurisprudence, Physic, Surgery, Navigation, 
 Fortification, &c. 
 
 " 3. Another objectnot less essential for the pre- 
 sent would be, to procure a third place of public 
 instruction for youth. It will be asked, no doubt, 
 by what means ? I shall mention one that is not 
 impracticable. There is in the centre of Quebec, 
 a spacious College, a greater part of which is occu- 
 pied by the troops. May not that College be drawn 
 nearer to its primitive institution, by substituting 
 instead of those troops, if it should be his Excel- 
 lency's pleasure, some useful classes, such as the 
 Civil Law and Navigation. To which may be 
 added, if approved of, the Mathematical class now 
 taught at the Seminary ; might not that College 
 itself, in the course of time, be constituted a Uni- 
 versity, and support itself in part, with revenues 
 of the estates now belonging to the Jesuits ; and 
 this mode of proceeding gradually to the establish- 
 ment of a University, appears to me much more 
 prudent and sure. I acknowledge the meritorious 
 services of the Reverend Fathers the Jesuits, and 
 the zeal with which they have laboured in this 
 Colony, for the instruction and salvation of souls. 
 
31 
 
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 Nevertheless, I should not be backward in seeking 
 immediate measures, for securing their College, as 
 well as their other estates, to the Canadian people, 
 under the authority of the Bishop of Quebec. 
 But to whom ought the government of the Jesuits' 
 College to belong, if it were again set on foot? 
 First, to the surviving Jesuit for his life, and after- 
 wards to those who should be appointed by the 
 Bishop. Can any one wonder at sucli a plan ? I 
 will state the principles upon which I ground it. 
 
 '* 1. The funds of the College will only consist of 
 the revenues of the estates of the Jesuits. 
 
 " 2. The Province has no right to appropriate 
 them to itself, but for their original destination. 
 
 ** 3. The propagation of the Catholic faith is the 
 principal motive in all the title deeds. 
 
 ** 4. The circumstances of the donations, the 
 quality of donors, would also prove that to be their 
 intention. The Canadians, as Catholics, have 
 therefore a right to those estates as appears incon- 
 testable. 
 
 " 5. The instruction of the savages and the 
 subsistence of the .Missionaries appearing to have 
 greatly actuated the donors of those estates, is it 
 not fit, that the Bishop of Quebec who names these 
 Missionaries, should have it in his power, to decide in 
 their favour respecting the application of that part of 
 the said estates, which shall have been found to have 
 been given with that intent, rather than see them 
 burthensome to Government, as many of them have 
 
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 22 
 
 been for some years ? Therefore, in preserving tlie 
 estates of the Jesuits to the Canadians, under the 
 authority of the Bishop, he would have a right to 
 cause this essential part of the intention of the 
 donors to be executed, and it is besides very pro- 
 bable that the College and the public would become 
 gainers by it. 
 
 "Question. — By what means can a taste or de- 
 sire for instruction be excited in the parishes ? 
 
 '* Answer. — This, in my opinion, should be com- 
 mitted to the zeal and vigilance of the Curates, 
 supported by the Country Magistrates. 
 
 " A calumnious writer hath maliciously reported 
 to the public, that the Clergy of the Province, do 
 all in their power to keep the people in ignorance, 
 in order to domineer over them. I do not know 
 upon what ground he has been able to found so rash 
 a proposition, contradicted by the care always taken 
 by the Clergy to present to the people such in- 
 struction as they are susceptible of. The severity of 
 the climate of this country, the distance between 
 the houses of its country inhabitants, the difficulty 
 of assembling the children of the parish into one 
 place especially in the winter, as often as it would 
 be necessary for their education, the inconvenience 
 of a teacher going daily to a great number of pri- 
 vate houses. Such are obstacles that have rendered 
 useless the desires of many of the Curates, whose 
 efforts to instruct the children of their parishes, 
 arc within my knowledge ; but in towns and vil- 
 
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 laf^os, such as Assumption uiul others, wc have the 
 pleasure of finding the people in general pretty 
 well informed ; most of those villages are supplied 
 with schoolmasters. 
 
 " Question. — Will the principal citizens concur 
 in asking a Charter of Incorporation ? 
 
 ** Answer.— I understand a Charter to be Letters 
 Patent, fixing and consolidating the establishment 
 of any Society or Body whatever. To this, I an- 
 swer, that such a Charter as should be immediately 
 procured in favour of the Jesuits' College, might 
 hereafter be renewed in favour of a University, 
 which would afford a great support to those esta- 
 blishments, and much encouragement to the people. 
 
 " Question. — Are there not lands of the Crown 
 which might be proper to request the grant of, for 
 the benefit of the University ? 
 
 " Answer. — Time will bring all things about. On 
 the supposition that the estates of the Jesuits were 
 to be left to the public, for the education of youth, 
 a part of those estates would be in time improved 
 and produce sufficient funds, to be able to spare a 
 part for the necessary support of a University. 
 Independently thereof, may we not hope, that his 
 Majesty, full of benevolence towards the prosperity 
 of his subjects, would grant them, for a work of 
 this nature, some new grants en roture or en fief out 
 of the waste lands of the Crown. 
 
 " Question. — The funds and design being com- 
 mitted to such trusts as the Governor-General may 
 
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 24 
 
 tliink proper, may not much be expected, when 
 men of learning, free from illiberal principles, are 
 in the professors' chairs for the liberal arts and 
 sciences ? 
 
 " Answer. — It seems to me I have sufficiently an- 
 swered this question, in my third preliminary ob- 
 servation. I shall only add, that Theology will 
 always be taught at the Seminary, and consequently 
 this object will never be burthensome to the public. 
 
 ** You have now. Sir, my reflections and answers 
 respecting the plan of a University, proposed by 
 the Honourable the Legislative Council. I have 
 informed you with freedom and sincerity, that so 
 early an establishment of a University at Quebec 
 does not appear to me suitable to the present cir- 
 cumstances of the province. Upon this occasion, 
 I have laid open my views and way of thinking 
 relative to the education of our vouth ; it remains 
 that I request you to refer this letter to the Com- 
 mittee upon the establishment in question, assuring 
 them that nothing is nearer to my wishes, than to 
 conciliate in all things my respect for the Govern- 
 ment, and the Honourable Council, with what I 
 owe to my nation, to my clergy, and to my religion, 
 which I have sworn, at the foot of the altar, to 
 maintain to the end of my life. 
 
 I have the honour, &c. 
 (Signed) Jean Fran. Hubert, 
 
 Bishop of Quebec. 
 
 The causes of the non-convention of the Com- 
 
 •4 
 
25 
 
 ■;t ( 
 
 mittee before this day, being explained, the Chair- 
 man, as leading to the discussion of this very 
 important subject of the reference, begged leave to 
 observe to the Committee : 
 
 That the main inquiry (the result of which was 
 to be reported to his Lordship) appeared to be, 
 To what extent or degree it was expedient to in- 
 troduce the means of education in this province ? 
 
 That certainly there could be no division of 
 sentiment respecting the point, that elementary 
 instruction is necessary to the lower classes in all 
 countries, the want of which left a people in a 
 state of base barbarism. 
 
 By these he meant, 
 
 1st. Parish Free Schools, or a School in every 
 village, for Reading, Writing, and the four common 
 rules of Arithmetic. 
 
 2nd. A County Free School, one at least for fur- 
 ther progress in Arithmetic, the Languages, Gram- 
 mar, Book-keeping, Guaging, Navigation, Survey- 
 ing, and the practical branches of Mathematics, 
 
 The next step in civilized countries, was a 
 University or a Collegiate Society for instruction in 
 the liberal arts and sciences. How far the province 
 was prepared for such an institution, or on the 
 point, which the Right Reverend Bishop had with 
 much reason made the subject of his deliberation ? 
 
 The Chairman concurred with the Right Reve- 
 rend Bishop, that the erecting of a University, 
 measuring it by the European scale, would be ey- 
 
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 26 
 
 travagant, as neither adapted to the abilities, nor 
 the wants of a country not yet consisting of one 
 hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, who had a 
 wilderness before them to be brought into cultiva- 
 tion, for obtaining the necessaries of life. 
 
 It was, nevertheless to be wished, that the youth 
 of the Province might not be estranged from it by 
 an education in foreign parts, but find at home 
 sufficient means to qualify them for the trusts, 
 offices, and honours of their native community. 
 
 Though the idea, therefore, of establishing such 
 a fountain of light here, as is found in the Univer- 
 sities of the old Continent for the diffusion of 
 knowledge among the nations, and through the 
 regions of his Majesty's Inland Dominions, was 
 only to be indulged in as an object of distant pros- 
 pect, the great and important questions still remain, 
 How far the necessities of the Colony demand and 
 its abilities will furnish, a College or Academy for 
 that improvement of the mind pre-supposed in any 
 advancement to real usefulness in any of the learned 
 professions, and indispensably necessary to every 
 great social collection, and without which it must 
 be indebted to emigrants from other countries ? 
 
 A College under one Rector and four Tutors, 
 dividing the labours between them, would, in his 
 opinion, be sufficient to instruct the Students to be 
 expected from all the Provinces on this Continent 
 now remaining to Great Britain, in Grammar, 
 Logic, Rhetoric, Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, 
 
Metaphysics, and Ethics ; and these sciences made 
 the path in which all were obliged to walk to 
 obtain any degree of eminence in the learned pro- 
 fessions, or to give a man distinction among his 
 fellow citizens, and to enable him to come forward 
 to the magistracy and other important services of 
 his country. 
 
 The Chairman added, that though an Institution 
 of this extent could not be very expensive, it would 
 nevertheless require an union of hearts and hands 
 to give it the desired prosperity ; and this it cer- 
 tainly could not want, by due guards against the 
 illiberality of a contracted and sectarian spirit ; to 
 which end, it was his idea, the state of the Province 
 considered, that Christian Theology be no branch of 
 instruction in this College, but left to be provided 
 for by the two Communions that divide the Pro- 
 vince, in such way as they select, and by such 
 means as they respectively possess or may acquire. 
 
 That a Corporation be created by Letters Patent, 
 capable of donations and perpetual succession, and 
 with authority to make Bye- laws. 
 
 That the visitation be vested in the Crown. 
 
 That the King's Judges, and the Bishops of the 
 Province for the time being, both Catholic and 
 Protestant, be Members of the Corporation, and 
 the rest to sixteen or twenty of the principal gen- 
 tlemen of the country, in equal number of both 
 Communions, and the vacanciei be filled by the 
 majority of the voices of the whole body. 
 
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 28 
 
 That proper clauses be inserted in the Charter 
 to repel every appropriation and bye-law touching 
 the funds or government of the College, to any 
 other than the promotion of science at large as 
 aforementioned, the exclusion of all biasses, cere- 
 monies, creeds, and discriminations, either of the 
 Protestant or Catholic Communions. 
 
 Upon the remedy of the defects by the order 
 supposed to exist, the Chairman remarked that the 
 erection of the Village and Country Schools would 
 require an Act of the Legislature, rating each 
 parish in assessment, for the Free Schools of its 
 own district. 
 
 That the objections of the indigent to their con- 
 tributions for either were answered by giving 
 their children the benefit, with exemption of them- 
 selves from the general charge ; and those which 
 may arise in the old districts of Quebec and Mont- 
 real, from their having funds and schools already 
 of their own, by making all such persons also ex- 
 empt, whose children really were in such a course 
 of education. 
 
 If the burthen were to be felt any where heavy, 
 it would be only in the new Counties, where the 
 Colonists were occupied in the cultivation of lands 
 still in a wilderness state. But even those parts 
 of the Province, young as they were, would pro- 
 bably find no cause to complain. The Noble Lord 
 at the head of the Government had already set 
 apart portions of land, to encourage the instruc- 
 
29 
 
 tion of the children of their villages, and they had 
 ample grounds to hope for other appointments for 
 the County Schools of their districts, not to mention 
 that the applauded merits of their fidelity to the 
 country, in the late troubles, may expect aid, as 
 soon as their wants are properly revealed, from the 
 numerous charitable foundations and societies of 
 the Mother Country, for which it is so greatly 
 renowned. 
 
 Least of all. as the Chairman remarked, was it to 
 be apprehended that a Colonial College would fail, 
 unless there was in its bowels something repugnant 
 to its success. It may most assuredly expect the 
 powerful patronage of the Crown, and of all that 
 wish well to science, so friendly to the interests of 
 our common nature, perhaps it may be thought 
 worthy of the national attention. The Right Rev. 
 Bishop of Quebec was not singular in suggesting 
 that a portion of the estates of the dissolved order 
 of Jesuits lays open to such a purpose. 
 
 It is not wholly asked for by the Right Honour- 
 able Lord Amherst. There is a part to be reserved 
 for public purposes, and the extent of that reser- 
 vation is a part of the confidence which His Ma- 
 jesty in his great grace to his people, has com- 
 mitted to that noble personage, under whose care 
 the Province is at a moment so auspicious to the 
 laudable design he himself recommends to the at- 
 tention of this Committee. There is nothing to 
 
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 discourage the hope of additional benefactions out 
 of His Majesty's other estates in this Province. 
 
 There are waste lands in various places, and of 
 such proximity to the old settlements, as might be 
 soon tenanted, to furnish a revenue with the coun- 
 try, all-sufficient for the Institution in its progress 
 to that desirable perfection prayed for by the good 
 Bishop, and in which he must be joined by every 
 friend of mankind. 
 
 It happens to trusts to individuals, that the dread 
 of a perversion of their funds gives discourage- 
 ment to gifts. The contrary is the natural conso 
 quence of pouring the donations into bodies of per- 
 petual existence, with a just frame, a noble end, and 
 under the charge of the Government. 
 
 The Corporations once instituted may boldljr come 
 to the foot of the Throne, and ask a brief for anational 
 collection. Abstract from the encouragement of 
 public bodies, there are instances of private opu- 
 lence in many places, with a generosity equal to 
 that of opulence, and on the watch for opportuni- 
 ties to devote it to enterprizes for advancing the 
 honour of the country, the interests of learning, and 
 the welfare of the common weal. 
 
 The Jesuits' spacious buildings, as the Bishop 
 has observed, afford ample opportunities for a Col- 
 legiate life. 
 
 The private subscribers of Quebec, who have 
 already, at a great expence, made an ample col lee- 
 
• A 
 
 31 
 
 tion of well chosen books, will, doubtless, sec it 
 consists with their original design, to lodge them 
 in the College Library for general use. 
 
 The board for commons and the tuition money 
 will go to the support of the College students, who, 
 if it has fame, may be expected from all the Pro- 
 vinces under the Governor General residing in this ; 
 and the advantage of acquiring one of the most 
 universal languages of Europe, may be a motive 
 even in remote countries, for taking the whole 
 circle of the sciences in a College projected for the 
 commencement of a University in Canada, for His 
 Majesty's American dominions. 
 
 No greater revenue can be at first wanted than 
 will render the stations of one Rector and four 
 Tutors worthy the choice of men, qualified by mo- 
 rals and talents, for a work and sphere which the 
 necessities of many, among the learned of Europe, 
 would lead them to wish for ; and there are some, 
 whom the hope of being honourably and usefully 
 employed, would excite, even to forego the present 
 comforts of local attachment, and to embrace it. 
 
 Advanced to the Institution of a College, the 
 Committee must perceive, that like a reservoir for 
 watering the surrounding fields, this, as a fountain, 
 would find candidates in this Province for the care 
 of all inferior Schools in our expanded population, 
 to the extremity of the British dominions in the 
 West ; and that, therefore, though it was mentioned 
 last, in the claim of deliberation, it ought to have 
 
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 ill 
 
 32 
 
 the chief influence, even with those who might ho- 
 fore have been only advocates for those lower exer- 
 tions immediately necessary for the village and 
 country schools. 
 
 For a full discussion, however, of the subject, the 
 Chairman proposed that the question be put singly 
 upon the following resolves, 
 
 1st. That it is expedient, without delay, to erect 
 parish or village Free Schools in every district of 
 the Province, under the regulation of the Magis- 
 trates of the district, in the Quarter Sessions of the 
 Peace. 
 
 2nd. That it is also expedient that each District 
 have a Free School in the central or County Town 
 of the district. 
 
 3rd. That the tuition of the Village Schools be 
 limited to Reading and Writing. 
 
 4th. That the Instruction in the District or 
 County Schools extend to all the rules of Arith- 
 metic, the Languages, Grammar, Book-keeping, 
 Guaging, Navigation, Surveying, and the principal 
 branches of the Mathematics. 
 
 5th. That it is expedient to erect a Collegiate 
 Institution for cultivating the liberal arts and 
 sciences usually taught in the European Universi- 
 ties, the Theology of Christians excepted, on ac- 
 count of the mixture of the two Communions, 
 whose joint aid is desirable as far as they agree, 
 and who ought to be left to find a separate provi- 
 sion for the Candidates in the Ministry of their 
 respective Churches. 
 
33 
 
 '* Ctli. Tliat it is essential to tlie origin and succc^ss 
 of such an Institution, that a Society be incorpo- 
 rated for the ])ur[)oso, and that the charter wisely 
 provide against the perversion of the Institution to 
 any sectarian peculiarities, leaving free scope for 
 cultivating the general circle of the sciences. 
 
 " After deliberating upon the subject at large, 
 
 "Agreed, that the general question of concurrence 
 be put upon all the Resolves, and it being put ac- 
 cordingly, the Committee concurred in them, and 
 ordered that it be reported to his Lordship as their 
 unanimous opinion. 
 
 " By Order of the Committee, 26th Nov. 1789, 
 (Signed) W. Smith, Chairman." 
 
 Shortly previous to the completion of the forego- 
 ing Report, urgent applications from the Colony 
 had been made to the Imperial Government, for 
 the establishment in the Province of a representa- 
 tive form of Government. 
 
 The differences existing upon this subject among 
 the inhabitants of the Colony from the year 1784 
 down to the year 1792 and the demanding of and 
 preparing for this new Constitutional form of 
 Government, had so entirely absorbed men's 
 minds, as to prevent their directing their atten- 
 tion to the subject of education. 
 
 In the year 1791, was passed the Imperial Act 
 of the 31st Geo. III. c. 31, intituled, '* An Act to 
 repeal certain parts of an act passed in the 14th 
 year of his Majesty's reign, intituled " An Act for 
 
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 34 
 
 making more effoctiuil provision for tlio Govern- 
 ment of the Province of Quebec, in North Americsi, 
 and to make further provision for the (jovernment 
 of the said Province," commonly called the Que- 
 bec Constitutional Act, by which the Province of 
 Quebec was divided into the two Provinces of 
 Lower and Upper Canada and a representative 
 form of Government was bestowed upon each. 
 
 At the first Session of this newly-constituted Le- 
 gislature, in Lower Canada, in the year 1792, a 
 Petition signed wholly, or almost wholly, by inha- 
 bitants of the Province of British origin, was pre- 
 sented to the House of Assembly from the City and 
 County of Quebec, praying that body to consider 
 the state of Provincial Education, and to use me iris 
 for placing the property of the late Order of the 
 Jesuits, at the disposal of the Provincial Legisla- 
 ture, and applying it to its original destination, 
 which was alleged to be the support of Colleges 
 and Seminaries for the education of Natives of 
 Canada. The Petition is subjoined, and is as 
 follows : — 
 
 " To the Honourable the Knights, Citizens, and 
 Burgesses in General Assembly convened — 
 
 "We, the Subscribers, Heads of Families, and 
 Inhabitants of the City and County of Quebec, con- 
 gratulating ourselves on the first and happy As- 
 sembly of the Representatives of the Province of 
 Lower Canada, do not entertain the least doubt but 
 that tliis Honourable House is acquainted with the 
 
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 (f-V I 
 
35 
 
 pivsont, aii<l will siifHciontly provide for tlio futinv 
 wants of tliis country, especially for the dci)loral)le 
 state of Education of youth for upwards of thirty 
 years past, though a College has been erected in 
 the middle of this city, a house in the city of Mont- 
 real, with lands and revenue thereto annexed, for 
 the education of every individual, born in or inha- 
 biting this country : — Whilst we entertain the flat- 
 tering hope of seeing, in a short time, through the 
 enlightened and watchful attention of this Honour- 
 able House, the happy eflects of our new Constitu- 
 tion, and of well-regulated liberty, which forms its 
 basis, nothing at this moment can afford a more 
 solid ground to your Petitioners' expectation, than 
 the friendly communication given many years ago 
 by the Jesuits of Quebec to the Citizens of all the 
 titles of their College. 
 
 " By those titles it evidently appears, that they 
 hold and enjoy their estates in trust from the first 
 ancestors of the Canadians, called the 100 As- 
 sociates, who were possessed thereof, and gave 
 them over to the Jesuits upon certain conditions. 
 
 " That the tract, or lot of six superficial arpents, 
 reduced from the 12 arpents first conceded, in the 
 Upper Town of Quebec, where the Church and 
 College are erected, was given, but on condition of 
 maintaining the institutions and perpetual vow of 
 the Jesuits, the education of youth, in order to 
 build a College wherein the youth of Canada 
 should be educated, as they could not by reason of 
 
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30 
 
 J 
 
 their vow of evaiiireHcal and juTsonal poverty, liold 
 any estates, unless with the title of (Jollejre esta- 
 blished, in behalf of the youth of the country ad 
 studendutn ct oj'andmn ; and the King, after the 
 cession of Canada, made to him by the company 
 of New France, confirmed and amortized all those 
 estates, on which lie relinquished all his rights, by 
 a Diploma, only for the purpose of affording the 
 means of education to the youth of this country. 
 
 '* That the Seigniories were given by the same 
 citizens, namely, Charlesbourg, to educate and 
 teach, as well as for the assistance of the people of 
 the country ; that Seigniory, among others, was 
 likewise for ever amortized for the same purpose, 
 and for the establishment of a College. 
 
 '* That the franc aleu on the river St. Charles, 
 called Lavacherie near Quebec, was granted to 
 them for the 6 arpents taken off the 12 appropriated 
 for the College, and by the same motives and 
 views mentioned in the titles of Charlesbourg. It 
 was likewise passed into mortmain, or amortized, 
 and annexed to the Colleges. 
 
 " That the two Lorettes, or Seigniories of Saint 
 Gabriel, were given by the then Seignior of Beau- 
 port, only out of friendship, but when amortized, 
 they were explained to be a gift in favour of that 
 College. 
 
 " That Sillery, towards Cape Rouge, was granted 
 for the spiritual and temporal assistance of the 
 people of this country. 
 
37 
 
 " That tin; CajK' dc la Maj^dcline, near Three 
 RiviTs, was i^ivcii by one of the 100 Associates, 
 only to procure the .jstablishmcnt of the Collej^e, 
 and afford the Jesuits means of subsistence ; but 
 the Jesuits having laid out upon that estate the 
 savings of the Quebec College, in consequence of 
 their apprehensions of being disturbed for want of 
 a better explication, the then intcndant of the Co- 
 lony, confirmed that gift only in favour and behalf 
 of the College of Quebec. 
 
 '* That, in fine, the King did amortize and re- 
 lin(]uish the possession of the said estates for the 
 College only. 
 
 " That Batiscan, given by the same for the love 
 of God, was explained by the same intendant, 
 in consequence of the just apprehensions of the 
 Jesuits, on account of the disbursements made with 
 the savings of the College, but in favour of the Col- 
 lege of Quebec, to which it was also annexed by 
 the King. 
 
 ** That Laprairie de la Magdeleine, in the dis- 
 trict of Montreal, also granted on account of the 
 assistance which the inhabitants of Canada receive 
 from the Jesuits, and also by reason of the dis- 
 bursements made out of the saving;^ of the College 
 of Quebec, in consequence of some murmurs of the 
 inhabitants, and the apprehension of the Jesuits of 
 being troubled for want of explication, the inten- 
 dant for the King of France, at their request, con- 
 
 
 * 
 
 ■ -^1 : 
 
 k 
 
f 
 
 tt 
 
 38 
 
 firmed tliat Seigniory solely in favour of the College 
 of Quebec. 
 
 " In short, the general and final explication by 
 the King amortized that Seigniory and other estates 
 described in the letters patent, only in considera- 
 tion of the College of Quebec. 
 
 " That the ground on which are built the Church 
 and House of Mission at Montreal, was purchased 
 en roture by the Superior of the Jesuits and the 
 Master of the College of Quebec, and approved by 
 the Seminary legally established in the island of 
 Montreal, and sole Seignior of the said island, 
 which estate was amortized by the King and ap- 
 propriated to the education of youth. 
 
 " That this Mission was established in 1692, solely 
 by the economy of the College of Quebec, which 
 alone could hold this estate under the title of a 
 College, sending into mission according to their 
 institution the Bull, Petition, and Ordinances above- 
 mentioned. 
 
 " Many lots in the Cities of Quebec and Three 
 Rivers, and some other lots of ground, were pux*- 
 chased only by the savings of the College. 
 
 " That the Sault Saint Louis, near Montreal, was 
 granted to the Jesiiits for the Iroquois, and it was 
 with justice that the Iroquois obtained after the 
 conquest the restitution of that estate. 
 
 "The Petitioners conclude by representing, that 
 'since liie exhibition, the Jesuits of Canada have 
 
 ■«s 
 
 i 
 
 W-.I' 
 

 39 
 
 
 generously offered, and still persist in offering to 
 this province to restore the possession of all the 
 property and funds of this College, for the use of 
 the portion of the people to which they belong, 
 and only desire a subsistence, but such restitution 
 has been retarded and impeded by many difficulties. 
 " That the nature of those titles, and the founda- 
 tion of the College have certainly been misrepre- 
 sented in Europe, and by those means this pro- 
 vince has been deprived of public education since 
 the conquest, although it has been encouraged in 
 every part of the British Empire. 
 
 * ' That this misfortune is to be attributed only 
 to the endeavours of a few individuals, who have 
 strongly solicited of His Majesty the gift or con- 
 cession of those estates under various pretexts, but 
 happily without effect, before the sanction of the 
 New Constitution. 
 
 " That your Petitioners are convinced that his 
 most gracious Majesty, by his Royal instructions, 
 was ever desirous of being well informed of those 
 titles, and to res.erve of all those funds whatever 
 might be requisite for the public education, with- 
 out prejudice either to the causes or effects that 
 such an establishment had in view. 
 
 " Wherefore the Petitioners hope, that this Ho- 
 nourable House will consider that the estates of the 
 Jesuits, have been improved only by the labour, 
 courage and industry, of the inhabitants of this 
 country, in the hopes of educating their posterity, 
 
 rMi 
 
 
 
 
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 I 
 
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 SI 
 
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 11 
 
 fij- 
 
 
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 !ii 
 
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 40 
 
 and that these estates, though sufficient, do not 
 exceed all necessary expences to afford a public 
 education, properly organized, and on a liberal plan ; 
 for which purposes they were granted ; and there- 
 fore justly claim the same with the respect due to 
 this Honourable House." 
 
 ^'Quebec, Ath February, 1793." 
 
 An Address to his late Majesty Geo. the Third, 
 upon the foregoing Petition, and embodying its 
 substance, was unanimously adopted by the Assem- 
 bly on the 11th April 1793, and transmitted to be 
 laid at the foot of the Throne, but no answer thereto 
 was received from the Crown. 
 
 In the year 1800, the Executive Government 
 of the Province went into possession of the whole 
 of the Jesuits' estates, whereof an enumeration has 
 been before given, which had been amortized by the 
 Royal Instructions and permitted to remain in the 
 possession of two or three of the surviving Jesuits, 
 until the death of the last of the order, which took 
 place in that year. 
 
 The Royal Instructions to the Governor General 
 on this point, bear date in the year 1774 and 
 are as follows: — " That the Society of Jesuits 
 should be suppressed and dissolved, and no longer 
 continue a body corporate and politic, and that 
 all their rights, privileges and property, should 
 be vested in the Crown, for such purposes as 
 the Crown might hereafter think fit to direct and 
 
41 
 
 appoint, and the Royal intention was further de- 
 clared to be that the present members of the said 
 society as established at Quebec, should be allowed 
 sufficient stipends and provisions during their 
 natural lives." 
 
 In the same year 1800, the subject of the Jesuits* 
 estates having occupied the attention of the House of 
 Assembly, an address to his Excellency was adopt- 
 ed, ** praying for certain documents to facilitate the 
 investigation of the claims and pretensions of the 
 Province, on the Jesuits' College converted into 
 barracks, and to the estates of that order originally 
 granted by the King of France for the purpose of 
 educating the natives of the country." The reply 
 of his Excellency stated, " that in consequence of 
 the Address of the House of Assembly on the 1 1th 
 of April 1793, the claims of the Province had been 
 considered by his Majesty in Council, and that the 
 result of that consideration had been an order to 
 take possession of those estates for the Crown. That 
 if, after this explanation, the House should deem 
 it advisable to investigate, they should have access 
 to the documents required ; but any further appli- 
 cation on the subject might be inconsistent with 
 the accustomed respect of the House of Assembly 
 for the decision of his Majesty, on matters con- 
 nected with his prerogative." The House, in con- 
 sequence of this answer, passed to the order of the 
 day, and for the time dropped the subject. 
 
 At the opening of the session ol the Provincial 
 
 
 j; 
 
 „.^ 
 
 if 
 
 
 ■ H^: 
 
 'i.-J 
 
42 
 
 
 .,*' 
 
 
 ^: 
 
 
 Legislature on the lOtli of January 1801, his Excel- 
 lency the Lieutenant-Governor, informed the legis- 
 lature of his Majesty's instructions in respect of 
 education, in the following terms : 
 
 "With great satisfaction 1 have to inform you, 
 that his Majesty, from his paternal regard for the 
 welfare and prosperity of his subjects of this Colony, 
 has been graciously pleased to give directions for 
 the establishing of a competent number of free 
 schools for the instruction of their children in the 
 first rudiments of useful learning and in the English 
 tongue, and also as occasion may require, for foun- 
 dations of a more enlarged and comprehensive 
 nature, and his Majesty has been further pleased 
 to signify his Royal intention, that a suitable pro- 
 portion of the lands of the Crown should be set 
 apart, and the revenues thereof applied to such 
 purposes." The address of the Assembly to his 
 Excellency, in answer to that part of his speech 
 which referred to his Majesty's intention with re- 
 spect to education is as follows: 
 
 " With the most lively gratitude we learn, that His 
 Majesty in his paternal attention to the wants of his 
 subjects, however remote, has not only seen the ne- 
 cessity, but in his Royal munificence has provided 
 the means of early education for our children, 
 leaving us room to hope for foundations of a more 
 enlarged and comprehensive naturd, and we are 
 truly sensible of the zealous solicitude which your 
 Excellency on this occasion has particularly evinced 
 
 J'd 
 
43 
 
 for the welfare of this Province. We should be 
 deficient in that respect which we owe to all sub- 
 jects recommended by your Excellency, and want- 
 ing in duty to our Constituents if we did not 
 eagerly seize the present opportunity, and contri- 
 bute every thing in our power for the execution of 
 a plan so peculiarly beneficial to the rising genera- 
 tion : and your Excellency may be assured, that 
 nothing on our part shall be neglected which 
 shall tend to its accomplishment.'* 
 
 In the same year, 1801, the Provincial Act of 
 the 41st Geo. III. chap. 17 was passed, intituled, 
 " An Act for the Establishment of Free Schools, 
 and the Advancement of Learning in the Province.'* 
 
 This Act forms the first great epoch, from the cession 
 of the Colony, in the History of Education therein, 
 and was believed to have established a consistent 
 and efliicient system for its encouragement, and 
 a firm and durable basis for its establishment, sa- 
 tisfactory to all classes of the provincial population. 
 The very great importance of this Act requires, 
 that an abstract of its provisions, not omitting its 
 preamble, should be inserted here. The preamble 
 is as follows : — " Whereas your Majesty, from your 
 paternal regard for the welfare and prosperity of 
 your Majesty's subjects of this Province, hath been 
 most graciously pleased to give directions for 
 establishing a competent number of Free Schools 
 for the instruction of their children in the first ru- 
 diments of useful learning, and also as occasion 
 
 
 
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 *!' 
 
 !' ii 
 
 •^ 
 
 i 
 
 44 
 
 may require, for foundations of a more enlarged 
 and comprehensive nature. And whereas your 
 Majesty hath been further graciously pleased to 
 signify your Royal intentions, that a suitable pro- 
 portion of the lands of the Crown be set apart, and 
 the revenues thereof appropriated to such purposes. 
 Therefore, we your Majesty's faithful and loyal 
 subjects, the Legislative Council and Assembly of 
 your Province of Lower Canada, with the most 
 lively gratitude for this new instance of your Ma- 
 jesty's paternal attention to the \\ants of your 
 Majesty's subjects, and desirous to contribute every 
 thing in our power for the execution of a plan so 
 peculiarly beneficial to the rising generation, do 
 most humbly beseech your Majesty that it may be 
 enacted," &:c. 
 
 The provisions of the Act are contained in the 
 following abstract : — 
 
 The Governor is empowered to erect a Corpora- 
 tion to be called " the Royal Institution for the ad- 
 vancement of Learning,'* with all necessary powers 
 for purchasing and taking property without licence 
 in mortmain, and to be composed of Trustees to be 
 appointed by the Governor. To this Corpora- 
 tion, the entire management of all Schools and 
 Institutions of Royal Foundation in the Province, 
 as well as the administration of all estates and pro- 
 perty which may be appropriated to the said 
 Schools is committed : the Governor has autho- 
 rity to appoint the Corporate Officers, and to 
 

 ^.0 
 
 Hx the tiiiips and places of tlie meeting of the 
 Corporation, and the number of its members : bis 
 sanction is required to all rules, orders, and sta- 
 tutes which may be made for the Schools and In- 
 stitutions by the members of the Corporation, and 
 for the government of the Masters, Professors, and 
 Students of the Schools, and the management 
 thereof. He may establish one or more Free 
 Schools in each parish or township as he may judge 
 expedient, only upon the application of the inhabi- 
 tants, or a majority of them to that effect, and he 
 appoints the Schoolmasters and orders the salary 
 after the conveyance of the School-house to the 
 Corporation : the erection of the School-houses 
 first subject to his approval, and the expence of 
 their erection are entrusted to Commissioners 
 to be appointed for this purpose by him, the ex- 
 pence of the erection to be equally apportioned 
 among the inhabitants; the School-houses when 
 complete to be conveyed to the Corporation, pro- 
 perty vested in the Corporation for the purposes of 
 this Act, may be let or demised by that body for a 
 limited period, the rents, issues, and profits to be 
 accounted for to the Receiver-General, and by him 
 to the Crown as other public monies," the other 
 provisions of the Act refer to details which are un- 
 necessary to specify. 
 
 In 1803 the Executive Council of the Province 
 having directed its attention to the subject of edu- 
 cation, for the adoption of measures proper for carry- 
 
 1 i'^f fl 
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 ing into effect the gracious intentions of His Majesty, 
 conveyed in the message of the Lieutenant-Governor 
 above referred to, and for endowing the Schools 
 and Institutions contemplated in the foregoing Act, 
 recommended to his Excellency, " that sixteen 
 townships of the waste lands of the Crown should 
 be appropriated for future endowments of Educa- 
 tion ;" His Majesty was subsequently in the same 
 year graciously pleased to approve of the appro- 
 priation of a sufficient quantity of the waste lands 
 of the Crown, for the foundation of two Seminaries, 
 one at Quebec and one at Montreal, to the extent 
 of 20,000 acres for each School, and declared his 
 Royal intentions that the necessary measures should 
 be immediately taken for carrying the plan so far 
 into execution. Nothing however, has since been 
 done to carry this instruction into effect. 
 
 From the influence of various causes to which it 
 is unnecessary to advert, the Act of 1801 did not 
 produce the beneficial results which it was origi- 
 nally intended and calculated to effect ; no proceed- 
 ings having been adopted under the Act, both 
 Houses of the Legislature concurred in the year 
 1812 in an Address to the Prince Regent, "soli- 
 citing the attention of His Royal Highness to the 
 state of Education in the Province, and to the want 
 of public institutions for the instruction of youth, 
 and praying the consideration of His R«)yal High- 
 ness to allow the revenues of the Jesuits to be ap- 
 propriated to the relie'of these necessities." The 
 
 .1.' 
 
 m 
 

 47 
 
 war with tho United Stutes of Americn, wliich com- 
 menced in 1812 and did not terminate until tlie 
 year 1815, engrossed the attention of the Govern- 
 ment to the exclusion of all administrative mea- 
 sures, not of immediate necessity; and though 
 Schools had at different times been established by 
 the several Governors, yet until the year 1819, 
 no attempt to establish a regular system under 
 the provisions of the Act of 1801 was made, 
 and they were moreover attended with great ex- 
 pence to the Province. Up to the year 1818, the 
 Royal Institution had never been regularly esta- 
 blished ; but on the 8th of October in that year, 
 an instrument, issued under the Great Seal of the 
 Province, appointing certain persons therein- 
 named to be Trustees of the Schools of Royal 
 Foundation in the Province, and by subsequent 
 instruments, several other persons were added to 
 the members originally appointed. The Lord Bi- 
 shop of Quebec was named the prinoipal of the 
 Institution, and rules and regulations for the ma- 
 nagement of the Schools prepared by the Trustees, 
 received the sanction of the local Government. By 
 these regulations the regular superintendence of the 
 Schools was provided for as follows : — *' The 
 School was placed under the immediate inspection 
 of the Clergy of that religion professed by the in- 
 habitants of the spot, or where the inhabitants 
 might be of different persuasions, the Clergy of 
 each Church had the superintendence of the chil- 
 dren of their respective communities. 
 
 
 
 ■(/ 
 
 
 i-' 
 
 .^•; 
 
 
48 
 
 .)*' 
 
 " A ron^ular supmntciKlencc of the Scliool^ was 
 also assigned to visitors named by the Corporation, 
 one of whom was the Clergyman of the parish or 
 township, according to the rule above described, 
 who were to report to the Corporation, every six 
 months, the number, progress of the scholars, the 
 conduct of the Master, and generally on the state 
 of the Schools." 
 
 Elementary Education remaining in a very de- 
 pressed condition, the Legislature again directed 
 its attention to the subject, and in the year 1824, 
 and in subsequent years, adopted various legisla- 
 tive provisions in reference thereto. 
 
 The system established by the foregoing Act of 
 1801 having been fundamentally subverted, through 
 a succession of Provincial Legislative enactments 
 from the year 1824 inclusive downwards, it is 
 proper here to give the history of these several 
 
 X1.CIS. • 
 
 On the 2 1st of January, 1824, a petition from 
 the inhabitants of Quebec was presented to the 
 House of Assembly representing " that it would 
 be a desirable thing that there should be established 
 Schools in the Province for Elementary Education 
 on a proper basis, calculated to induce parents of 
 different religious creeds to send thither their chil- 
 dren, with confidence, to be there instructed, both in 
 the principles of their respective religions, and in 
 the English and French languages, and go through 
 a course of Geometry and Moral Economy, praying 
 
 ■ I! 
 
 ii::*'; 
 
49 
 
 tliat the House of Assembly would pass a law to 
 that eflect." 
 
 An extremely elaborate report of a Special Com- 
 mittee of the House of Assembly upon Education 
 was adopted by the House on the 25th February, 
 1824, the substance of the report refers almost en- 
 tirely to the estates which had belonged to the late 
 order of the Jesuits, and concludes by urging the 
 Assembly to renew their claims for the applica- 
 tion of those estates to the promotion of education. 
 
 In this year, (lb24,) the Act 4th Geo. IV. ch. 31, 
 was passed, intituled, " An Act to facilitate the 
 establishment and endowment of Elementary 
 Schools in the parishes of the Province." The fol- 
 lowing is an abstract of its provisions. 
 
 The parish Fabriques, that is local Corporations 
 established in each Roman Catholic parish, by 
 which the temporalities of the parish Church are 
 administered, are authorised to establish one or 
 more Schools in each parish of the Province, 
 and to have the sole management and direction 
 of these Schools: not less than one School is 
 to be established in every parish, and a greater 
 number, according to a given proportion of inhabi- 
 tants : one-fourth part of the annual income of the 
 Fabrique or parish Church may be applied to the 
 first establishment of these Schools ; the Fabriques 
 were also authorised to purchase and take real and 
 personal estate for the support of these Schools 
 for their foundation, not to exceed a certain amount 
 
 E 
 
 I ' , 
 
 
 ^ 4 
 
 t 
 
 n 
 
!| 
 
 ,• i 
 
 i} 
 
 of capital aiitl incomi' ; the Fal)ri(|uo to account 
 annually at a public parish meeting lor that pur- 
 pose. 
 
 From this epoch of 1824, the history of Provin- 
 cial Education is divided into two branches, the 
 one having relation to the old system, under the 
 Act of 1801 or that of the Royal Institution, under 
 the control of the Provincial Government ; and the 
 other having relation to the new system, under the 
 Act of 1824 and subsequent Provincial Acts, inde- 
 pendent of that control. 
 
 As has been already shewn, the Royal Institution 
 did not go into operation until the year 1818 ; after 
 that time, Schools were estublished under it in a 
 certain system, depending for their support upon 
 an annual appropriation made by the Legislature, 
 at the rate of £2,000. per annum, which continued 
 until the year 1832, when the appropriation was 
 reduced to £1,265. and after that year entirely 
 ceased. 
 
 It was to have been expected that the erection of 
 the Corporation of the Royal Institution would have 
 been accompanied or immediately followed, by a 
 public endowment of lands for its support ; such, 
 however, was not the case ; the measures taken by 
 that body for the obtaining such endowment, with 
 the result of them, will be given in a subsequent 
 part of this paper. 
 
 The history of the Schools under the new 
 system, and of the various legislative proceedings 
 
 i 
 
•1 
 
 .01 
 
 ailo|)tctl since the year 1824, will require a greater 
 detail. 
 
 Subsequently to the passing of the last-mentioned 
 Act in that year, the next Act of the Provincial 
 Legislature was in 1829, when a new Act was passed 
 founded upon different principles, but equally repug- 
 nant to the system established by the Act of 1801. 
 
 The Act passed in the year 1829 (the 9th Geo. 
 IV. chap. 46,) is intituled '* An Act for the encou- 
 rag'.ment of Elementary Education." This Act 
 provides, that the establishment and sole manage- 
 ment of Schools in their respective parishes and 
 townships should be confided to Irustess, elected 
 by the Landholders, inhabitants of the parish or 
 township elegible to vote for Members of the Legis- 
 lature for the County ; the Trustees were empowered 
 to hold property which may belong to the School, 
 and to receive benefactions ; half the expcncc of 
 erecting School-houses, if not above £50. to be 
 advanced from the public funds on the certificate of 
 the Trustees : an annual stipend of £20. for three 
 years was allowed to the Schoolmasters, with a 
 further allowance for poor children, not exceeding 
 50 in number ; the religious communities in the 
 parishes were to participate in the benefits con- 
 ferred by this Act, but all Schools under the Royal 
 Institution were expressly excluded from its advan- 
 tages ; the Trustees were required to report their 
 j)roceedings annually to the Legislature. 
 
 e2 
 
 </ 
 
 .''! 
 
 :l> 
 
(1,1 II 
 
 I . I 
 
 
 5^2 
 
 In the year 1831 the Act of the 10th and 11th 
 Geo. IV. chap. 14 was passed, by which the last 
 previous Act was amended, by making any Rejtor, 
 Curate, or Minister, though not a freeholder, resi- 
 dent in the parish or township eligible to be Trus- 
 tees, and excluding from the pecuniary benefit of 
 the last preceding Act all Schools established by 
 individuals. 
 
 In the same year the Act 1st William IV. ch. 7, 
 was passed, by which the provisions of the two 
 latter Acts were extended to all missions and extra 
 parochial places, and their pecuniary allowances 
 continued until 1832; the payment of all monies 
 for the purposes of those Acts was required 
 to be made to the Trustees only, and authority 
 was given to the Governor to appoint Visitors to 
 the Schools established under the Act, who with 
 the Members of the Assembly resident in the 
 county, and the resident Rector or Curate of the 
 parish were to visit the Schools annually, and to 
 report the particulars of the same to the Legislature, 
 with their recommendations thereon. 
 
 In the same year, 1831, a standing Committee 
 was appointed in the House of Assembly to report 
 from time to time on all subjects connected with 
 Education and Schools, by which Committee, re- 
 newed at the commencement of every Session, 
 several Reports have been submitted to, and 
 approved of, by the House of Assembly. 
 
 
 
53 
 
 In the year 1832, the Act of the ^nd WiUiam 
 IV. chap. 26, was passed, by which the Counties of 
 the Province were divided into 1,344 School dis- 
 tricts, in each of which an elementary School was 
 to be established at the discretion of the Visitors, and 
 an additional one for Girls in the School districts 
 of each Roman Catholic parish or mission in which 
 the Church or Chapel was situate ; until the year 
 1834 subsequently prolonged to the year 1836, 
 were granted one half of the expence of erect- 
 ing School-houses, if not exceeding £50. was al- 
 lowed, and the sum of £20. per annum to each 
 School district for the salary of the Schoolmaster, 
 from the provincial funds, provided no greater 
 charge, than 25. per month is made for the education 
 of each Scholar, and that twenty Scholars at least 
 have been in regular attendance for a certain por- 
 tion of the year ; where there are less than 20 pay 
 Scholars, the Trustees may admit a proportion of 
 poor for gratuitous instruction ; a sum of 10s. for 
 each School district is also allowed for distribution 
 by the Visitors in prizes or rewards among the chil- 
 dren. The School Visitors are the resident Members 
 of the Council, the County Members of the Assembly, 
 the Ministers of the most numerous religious deno- 
 minations within each parish, but for the parish 
 only, the Senior Justice of the Peace, and the Se- 
 nior Officer of Militia, who are required to make 
 an annual visitation of tlie Schools in the County, 
 
 
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 iii 
 
 R= 
 
 f 
 
 . f 
 
 
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 4 t 
 
'I ' 
 
 . i,: i 
 
 ,■*' I 
 
 54 
 
 and to certify the documents necessary to obtain 
 the various grants of money above enumerated: 
 and the three last preceding Acts were repealed by 
 the provisions of this Act. 
 
 In the year 1833, by the 3rd William IV. ch. 4, 
 Superiors and Professors of Colleges and Presidents 
 of Societies for promoting Education, were declared 
 eligible to be School Visitors. 
 
 In the year 1834, a Bill passed through both 
 Houses of the Provincial Legislature, but was re- 
 served for the signification of his Majesty's pleasure, 
 by which it was contemplated to give generally a 
 corporate capacity to all Provincial Institutions for 
 Education. His Majesty's sanction to this Bill was 
 refused upon the following grounds, set forth in 
 Lord Aberdeen's dispatch of the 1st January, 
 1835. 
 
 " It is not without the deepest concern that his 
 Majesty finds himself under the necessity of post- 
 poning his decision on the Bill for the further and 
 permanent encouragement of Education. Deeply 
 impressed with the extreme importance of the ob- 
 ject in view, and anxious to encourage by the 
 utmost exercise of his authority and influence, the 
 growth of sound learning and religious knowledge 
 in every part of his dominions, and especially in a 
 Province, where those advantages are so essential 
 to the right use of the extensive franchises and poli- 
 tical rights enjoyed by every class of society ; his 
 
 in %. 
 
55 
 
 Majesty could not be induced by any slight motives 
 or ordinary difficulties to defeat, or even to delay, 
 the establishment of a system devised by two 
 branches of the Legislature for the attainment of 
 that great end. In the present case, however, the 
 impediments which present themselves are neither 
 few nor inconsiderable. 
 
 ** I do not adopt an opinion which appears to have 
 been entertained by some persons in the Province, 
 that this Bill is objectionable because it creates 
 corporate bodies thus calling on the Governor to 
 concur in a measure not contemplated by his com- 
 mission er ^-^tructions. It is, indeed, true, that 
 his Majesty hi' not thought it necessary or expe- 
 dient to delegate to your Lordship the prerogative 
 by which his Majesty himself can incorporate 
 voluntarily, societies for various general or specific 
 purposes, but the motives which have forbidden 
 the transfer of this power to the Governor of Lower 
 Canada in his executive capacity, have no appli- 
 cation whatever to acts to be done by him in his 
 legislative character. The Constitutional Act of 
 1791 confers on the Governor of the Provinces, as 
 a member of the Legislature, powers large enough 
 for this purpose, and although the same act enables 
 the King to instruct the Governor, as to the exer- 
 cise of those powers, yet his Majesty has not 
 hitherto found, and does not now perceive, any 
 reason for fettering your Lordship's discretion to 
 
 
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 56 
 
 f I. 
 
 Hdlr 
 
 T ::i ■ 
 
 y\ 
 
 assent to any Bills which may be tendered to you, 
 for the erection of corporate bodies in the Provinces. 
 
 *' Neither am I disposed to attach any real impor- 
 tance to the unlimited power which this Bill 
 would confer in holding in mortmain rent-charges 
 of any amount for the objects of the proposed Cor- 
 porations. With the changes which time has in- 
 troduced in the state of society and public opinion 
 throughout Christendom, have past away the 
 greater part, if not all, of the solid reasons, by 
 which our ancestors were induced to contend 
 against the immoderate growth of ecclesiastical 
 and collegiate foundations, and maxims which 
 might be just and useful in the densely peopled 
 state of Europe, possessing territories of compara- 
 tively narrow extent, would be altogether delusive, 
 if transferred to the continent of North America. 
 
 ** But I observtj that the Bill imparts a corporate 
 character to every institution in the Province, 
 which at the date of its enactment, may be pos- 
 sessed of any lands devoted to the purposes of 
 education. It is not, as far as I perceive, requisite 
 that the whole of the lands and revenues should 
 be devoted exclusively to this purpose. It must, 
 therefore, remain a matter of conjecture, rather 
 than of certain knowledge, what is the number 
 or what the nature of the associations, which 
 may be able to avail themselves of this privilege. 
 It is even possible that private partnerships, or pri- 
 vate families, or even individuals may, since the 
 
 »'li 
 
!i' 
 
 57 
 
 first public notice of this measure have qualified 
 themselves to assume a corporate character, so 
 soon as the Bill should have passed, on the very 
 easy condition of appropriating eight acres, or even 
 a smaller quantity of land to purposes of Educa- 
 tion, to be conducted by themselves. Improbable 
 as I admit such an abuse to be, the mere possibi- 
 lity of it appears to be, to demonstrate the neces- 
 sity of a careful revision of this measure. 
 
 " Further, the Bill contains no single clause or 
 enactment, respecting the constitution, or mode of 
 government of the corporate bodies it would create, 
 nor any provisions subjecting them to any visita- 
 torial authority, nor any declaration of the liabi- 
 lity of the charters to forfeiture by the judgments 
 of the Courts even in the case of the most flagrant 
 abuse of their powers. In the absence of these 
 usual and indispensable restraints, it is difficult to 
 exaggerate the dangers of the perversion of this 
 law to purposes entirely remote from the design of 
 its authors. 
 
 " Again, the permanent line by which all existing 
 and all future institutions for the education of 
 youth, are to be distinguished from each other, 
 merits peculiar attention. The one would be cor- 
 porate bodies capable of acquiring property without 
 limit, and of transmitting and defending it without 
 difficulty ; the other would labour under all the 
 disabilities and disadvantages of voluntary socie- 
 ties. The liberal and tolerant spirit of the Legis- 
 
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 58 
 
 iuturc of Lower Canada, is so directly opposed to 
 every narrow principle which would foster peculiar 
 religious opinions, by exclusive civil privileges, 
 that the possibility of so injurious a construction of 
 their motives, has probably not occurred to them- 
 selves, yet I fear that the Protestant minority of 
 the Province, watchful as they most properly are 
 against the slightest encroachment on their reli- 
 gious liberty, might complain or surmise, that this 
 retrospective legislation was intended to confer an 
 undue advantage on the Roman Catholic majority 
 of their fellow Colonists. They might yield to the 
 suspicion, that the language and the literature of 
 France, and the religious institutions derived from 
 that kingdom, had been the objects of partial 
 regard, and that existing scholastic foundations 
 were preferred to those which might arise here- 
 after, because the first are principally under the 
 control of the Roman Catholic Clergy, and the 
 second may be expected to flourish and expand 
 with the influx of a new population from Great 
 Britain, and with the increase of British capital and 
 settlements in Lower Canada. Your Lordship will, 
 I am sure, concur with myself, not only in repro- 
 bating as unjust, any suppositions of this lature, 
 but in deprecating as impolitic an enactmc ^t which 
 might but too readily give birth to them 1 1 minds, 
 strongly excited by party spirit, whether national 
 or religious. 
 
 ''Finally the terms of this Bill are so chosen, that 
 
59 
 
 I apprehend they woukl terminate the question so 
 long in debate, whether the corporate character as- 
 serted by the priests of the seminary of Saint Sul- 
 pice really belongs to them or not ; the decision of 
 that question in favour of the seminary would in- 
 volve consequences which every Canadian, what- 
 ever his national origin, or religious pers uu-' >n, 
 would alike have reason to deprecate ; such is the 
 necessity of holding the great commercial city upon 
 a feudal tenure so strict as to prevent a foundation 
 of quays, mills, wharfs and warehouses, and the 
 improvement of buildings dedicated to commerce, 
 which would otherwise have been multiplied, the 
 consequent retardation and perhaps the ultimate 
 prevention of that commercial greatness and pros- 
 perity which might be ensured to the city of Mont- 
 real by its natural advantages, in the absence of 
 these artificial restraints, the dedication of a vast 
 territory to purposes now become in a great mea- 
 sure obsolete, and for which, to the advantage of 
 every class of society other public objects of the 
 same general character might be substituted, and 
 the necessity of continually recruiting by aliens 
 introduced from France, the members of a corpora- 
 tion which ought to be identified, in the highest 
 possible degree, with the interest and feelings not 
 of the French inhabitants of a foreign country but 
 of the Canadian people. I do not overlook the 
 clause which secures the rights of the Crown, but 
 neither do I think that it w as meant or could be 
 
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 construed in such a sense as to obviate the conse- 
 quences I have mentioned, the pretensions of tlie 
 Saint Sulpiciens and of the Jesuits to a corpo- 
 rate character in Lower Canada, should have beei* 
 expressly mentioned as claims with whicn the bill 
 did not in any sense interfere. 
 
 " Notwithstanding these objections his Majesty 
 cannot so far overlook the importance of the great 
 object to the advancement of which the measure is 
 directed, as to adopt any decision unfavourable to 
 it. His Majesty earnestly trusts that a further bill 
 will be passed by the two Houses to obviate the 
 difficulties I have pointed out, and in that event, 
 his Majesty's assent will be given with the highest 
 possible satisfaction, to the present as well as to 
 any such supplementary enactment.'* 
 
 In the year 1836, the Act, 6th William IV. c. 12, 
 was passed, intituled, "An Act to provide for 
 Normal Schools," the preamble to this Act is as 
 follows: — "Whereas in the parishes, seigniories, 
 and townships of the Province, on which the num- 
 ber of scholars hath become much larger than it 
 formerly was, the want of able masters and teachers 
 is deeply felt, and in order that the liberal encou- 
 ragement granted for instruction by the Legislature, 
 may not be unavailing, it has become urgently 
 necessary to provide for the establishment of 
 Normal schools, from which masters and teachers 
 properly qualified may be procured." By this 
 Act a Normal school was established in each of 
 
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61 
 
 the cities of Montreal and Quebec, and its entire 
 organization and management were intrusted to a 
 committee of ten persons, elected for five years, at 
 a meeting composed of the Clergy of every order 
 and degree of the Churches of England, Scotland 
 and Rome in the Province, and of other religious 
 sects entitled to keep registers, the superiors, di- 
 rectors and professors of Belles Lettres, Rhetoric, 
 and Natural History in colleges, the Judges of the 
 Court of King's Bench, Members of both branches 
 of the Legislature resident in either district of the 
 Provinc By this Act all masters of elementary 
 schools throughout the Province, are to be provided 
 exclusively from the Normal schools, and there 
 was appropriated for carrying this act into effect the 
 sum of £1250. for the first establishment of the 
 schools, together with an annual grant of £1850. 
 for five years, and £480 for three years for their 
 support. 
 
 In the same year 1836, the House of Assembly 
 passed a bill, intituled, ** An Act to repeal certain 
 Acts therein mentioned, and to provide for the 
 further encouragement of elementary education in 
 the Province." 
 
 By this bill it was proposed to augment the 
 number of School Districts from 1344 to 1658, and 
 to vest extraordinary and unprecedented powers, as 
 to the management of the elementary schools, in 
 the members of the Assembly, in the several pro- 
 vincial counties, within the limits whereof they 
 
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 62 
 
 were located. This bill did not hocome a law, 
 having been rejected in tlie Legislative Council. 
 
 The grounds of its rejection arc to be found in 
 the following Report of a Special Committee of the 
 Legislative Council, which was concurred in by 
 that body. 
 
 " Resolutions and Report of Committee of the 
 Legislative Council on Education. IStli March, 
 1836, 
 
 " Report. — The Committee to whom was re- 
 ferred an Act intituled ' An Act to repeal certain 
 Acts therein mentioned, and to provide for the fur- 
 ther encouragement of Elementary Education in 
 this Province,' respectfully report to your Honour- 
 able House. 
 
 " That in the execution of the duties entrusted 
 to them> your Committee have thought it desirable 
 to enter into a general view of the objects which the 
 Legislature has had in view in former measures of 
 the same description, and of the results which have 
 ensued from the system hitherto pursued ; and they 
 have proceeded to consider the Reports of the Com- 
 mittees of the House of Assembly on Education and 
 Schools for several years past, adopted by that 
 House, and the appropriations made by the Legis- 
 lature of this province for the encouragement of 
 education, with a full sense of the importance of 
 the subject, and of the peculiar difficulties with 
 which it is at the present moment encompassed. 
 
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 For several years the Legislature has recog- 
 iiizeil the necessity and expediency of providing 
 means for the support and encouragement of tlio 
 education of the people of this province, and par- 
 liamentary grants have been at various times most 
 liberally made for those purposes ; but the Com- 
 mittee cannot conceive it to have been the intention 
 of the Legislature to perpetuate this expenditure, 
 nor to do more than lay a foundation on which the 
 people of the province should gradually be enabled 
 to raise a system of education, to be supported ulti- 
 mately, at least in great part, by themselves. 
 
 *' In pursuing their inquiries, your Committee 
 have avoided as much as possible the consideration 
 of all extraneous questions ; their sole object has 
 been to consider the principle upon which it is ex- 
 pedient to grant public money in aid of general 
 education, and the best manner of applying that 
 principle. 
 
 " After the most anxious deliberation, your 
 Committee are of opinion that the present estab- 
 lishments for the support and encouragement of 
 elementary education, though abundantly nume- 
 rous, are inadequate as a permanent system of 
 general education ; and their insufficiency, your 
 Committee have reason to believe, is very imper- 
 fectly supplied by the liberal legislative aids which 
 have been granted for several years past for their 
 support. They regret to be compelled to state that 
 the benefits anticipated from that legislative assist- 
 
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 fi4 
 
 ancc have not been at all commensurate with the 
 hopes and expectations which induced the Lcois- 
 lature to make such bountiful appropriations of the 
 public funds for this object. 
 
 " The measures relating to this important sub- 
 ject have originated in the Assembly ; and their 
 operation having necessarily attracted the peculiar 
 attention of that body, your Committee have been 
 induced to examine with particular care the results 
 which have been developed and brought under the 
 consideration of that House. 
 
 ** Your Committee find that by the report of the 
 Committee of the House of Assembly on Educa- 
 tion, of the 13th day of March, 1831, adopted by 
 that House, it is stated — * The Committee being 
 persuaded that it is the wish of the House to con- 
 tinue for some time longer the encouragement 
 afforded by its former liberality, in all cases where 
 the petitioners show by their contributions that 
 they are zealous in favour of promoting education 
 and knowledge, recommend certain appropriations. 
 They cannot, however, but regret that they have 
 had in evidence, that in several instances too much 
 dependence has been placed in legislative aids, and 
 in some cases to a degree which has relaxed the 
 exertions which were formerly made. They cannot 
 too strongly impress on the House the mischiefs 
 which would result from such a dependence; 
 that upon the present system, in a few years the 
 payments for education alone would absorb a sum 
 
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1)5 
 
 about equal to the amount of the whole net revenue 
 of the province, upon an average for the last ten 
 years. They recommend that the provision for 
 elementary schools should not be abolished before 
 a better system could be introduced. That among 
 the enormous sacrifices made by the Legislature in 
 favour of education, they consider the abuses and 
 corruption which uniformly attend the lavish ex- 
 penditure of public money, as the most p' rnicious. 
 Education itself suffers in the estimation of the 
 public. False ideas are spread among the people 
 that education is rather an object which concerns 
 the community, than themselves individually, and 
 it is undervalued. To draw the money from che 
 people by taxes to be restored to them for those 
 purposes, after undergoing all the diminution of 
 the expenses of collection, management, repay- 
 ment and waste, would soon impoverish them, 
 without effecting the object in view so well as they 
 can do it themselves, with legal facilities, and mo- 
 derate public aid and superintendence That the 
 elementary education of the people is, however, 
 effected in the cheapest way in common schools. 
 That it becomes a common concern of the locali- 
 ties, and the common expenses ought, like any 
 other unavoidable expenses, to be provided for in 
 common.' 
 
 *' That by the Report of the Committee on Edu- 
 cation and Schools of the House of Assembly, of 
 the 25th January, 1832, it is stated, * That the 
 
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 66 
 
 present state of tlie funds of this province, as well 
 as tlie increasing applications for public money in 
 favour of particular localities, rendered it necessary 
 for the Committee to lay down certain rules for 
 their guidance, with a view to an impartial dis- 
 charge of their duty, to the reduction of the ex- 
 penditure, and a warning to the public, that less 
 reliance than heretofore must be placed in aids 
 from the general funds, and more from the locali- 
 ties immediately interested. Among the rules 
 which the Committee formed, the first was, to 
 grant no new allowances, excepting on the most 
 urgent grounds but rather to diminish those al- 
 ready granted.' 
 
 *' That by the first Report of the Standing Com- 
 mittee of Education and Schools of the House of 
 Assembly, of the 23d February, 1833, adopted by 
 that House it is stated — ' Your Committee regret 
 that the applications during the present session for 
 aids for education, and purposes connected there- 
 with, have been nearly as numerous and great in 
 amount as in the previous session. The extraordi- 
 nary efforts which were made by the Legislature in 
 a prosperous state of the public funds, have widely 
 spread abroad the idea, that the expenses of the 
 education of youth were to be defrayed out of the 
 public revenues. The present state of the public 
 funds will, however, force a return to more correct 
 notions and practice. Your Committee cannot con- 
 ceive that it will ever be considered expedient to 
 
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 67 
 
 draw money from the industry of the people by an 
 expensive process, to be returned to them in greatly 
 diminished amount, for objects, for which they can 
 at once apply it more certainly, more equitably, 
 and with greater economy, under their immediate 
 control/ 
 
 " That, by the second Report of the Standing 
 Committee of Education and Schools, of the 14th 
 of January, 1834, adopted by the House of As- 
 sembly, it is stated, * Your Committee acting upon 
 the rules which were laid down for the guidance 
 of the Education Committee, in their Report of the 
 22d January, 1832, have, in no instance, increased 
 the allowances made last year ; and they regret, 
 that present circumstances have appeared to them 
 not to warrant a greater reduction at present. Your 
 Committee trust that the time is not far distant 
 when the whole country will be persuaded that it 
 is much better to trust to themselves, for the dis- 
 charge of the duty of affording useful instruction 
 to their offspring, rather than depend upon legis- 
 lative appropriation.' 
 
 " That, by the first Report of the Standing Com- 
 mittee on Education, of this the present Session, 
 1835, adopted by the House of Assembly, it ap- 
 pears, that ' the said Committee thought it right 
 not to make any new grant, except in cases of 
 emergency, and to diminish, as much as possible, 
 those made in former years.' They state, * that 
 the liberality of the Legislature far from having 
 
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 stimulated the efforts of the Members of the Insti- 
 tutions connected with Education appears on the 
 contrary, to have paralyzed them/ They also 
 state, * although the number of the School Dis- 
 tricts fixed by the law, appears to your Committee 
 to be extremely liberal, and in some places more 
 than proportionate to the population, new demands 
 for new districts have been made in great number. 
 It is to be remarked, that these applications, do not, 
 generally speaking, come from places which appear 
 by their population to be entitled to a greater 
 number than that now allowed them ; but on the 
 contrary, from places where the proportion of the 
 number of School Districts is four times greater 
 than some others. The single fact that a School 
 District is asked for a place in which there are 
 only three families, will be sufficient to satisfy your 
 Honourable House of the necessity of examining 
 applications of this nature with the most scrupulous 
 attention. Your Committee have come to the de- 
 termination to recommend, that for the future the 
 number of School Districts in each county, be re- 
 gulated by its population.' 
 
 " Your Committee beg leave to state, that, not- 
 withstanding the foregoing Reports of the Special 
 Committee of the House of Assembly on Education 
 and Schools concurred in by that Honourable 
 House, the number of School Districts is, by this 
 Bill, considerably augmented, and the public ex- 
 penditure for this object, which has already reached 
 
 
60 
 
 tlieamoiint of £150,000.. is very greatly increased, 
 as nearly £40,000. currency will be required annu- 
 ally for four years ensuing, to cover the appropria- 
 tions specified therein. Your Committee, while 
 expressing their concurrence in the propriety of as- 
 sisting Education in its progress, at the same time 
 fully coincide with the general tenor of the Reports 
 above alluded to, that its support by the people 
 themselves would be more effectual in its results, 
 than under the present system of lavish expendi- 
 ture, which, even for so desirable an end, will ulti- 
 mately lead to apathy and indifference. 
 
 " That the system uf management proposed to 
 be continued, and, in some points extended by 
 this Bill, if persevered in, must lead to conse- 
 quences which your Committee cannot but regard 
 as productive of evil. The direction and superin- 
 tendence of the sums appropriated by this Bill, are 
 entrusted in effect to the County Members of the 
 House of Assembly. This power your Committee 
 consider to be an object of extreme importance for 
 good or for evil as the persons in whose hands it is 
 placed may be influenced on the one hand by a 
 pure sense of duty, or on the other by the opinion 
 or feeling of party, or by other improper motives. 
 Your Committee think it necessary to point out 
 the powers contained in this Bill, upon which they 
 found their apprehensions that some abuses may 
 result from its operation. 
 
 " 1st. The Certificate of the Trustees, by means 
 
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 of which the Schoolmaster is to be paid, is to be 
 transmitted to the County Member. 
 
 ** 2nd. The Certificate of the qualification of 
 Masters of the superior Schools, by means of which 
 they receive their salary, is to be transmitted like- 
 wise to him. 
 
 " 3rd. The County Member is to make the pay 
 list of the County Schools and Masters, by means 
 of which the Masters' salaries are to be paid by the 
 Receiver General. 
 
 •* 4th. All alterations in the School Districts are 
 subject to the approval of the County Members, or 
 may, in some cases, as provided by this Bill, be 
 made by them of their own authority. 
 
 " 5th. Large sums of money are to be intrusted 
 to them for distribution, as rewards of excellence to 
 scholars. 
 
 " 6th. The County Member is to demand, re- 
 cover, and receive all sums of money remaining 
 unpaid from former appropriations of sums for 
 prizes, and for this purpose may require the assist- 
 ance of the law officers of the Crown. 
 
 " 7th. The Elections of Trustees of Schools by 
 Heads of Families, are to be transmitted to the 
 County Member. 
 
 " 8th. They are not required to support by 
 vouchers their account of monies entrusted to them 
 as are other persons. 
 
 " 9th. They are among the number of school 
 visitors. 
 

 71 
 
 " 10th. Finally, these powers of the County 
 Members shall, in case of a dissolution of Parlia- 
 ment, continue to be vested in them until their 
 successors shall be elected, any law to the contrary 
 notwithstanding. 
 
 *' Your Committee believe that your Honourable 
 House will see in these provisions sufficient grounds 
 for the apprehension they have expressed, that 
 abuses may result from the operation of the 
 measure. 
 
 ** From the experience of past years, as well as 
 from the appropriations made by this Bill, your 
 Committee apprehend, that liberality may at last 
 degenerate into prodigality, and the object sought 
 for be as far from attainment as before. Under these 
 circumstances your Committee suggest the pro- 
 priety of suspending all further appropriations, 
 until some general effective system of Education 
 can be judiciously planned and carefully executed, 
 whereby the provincial revenue will be relieved 
 from so heavy an annual demand upon it, and the 
 people be influenced to take a more decided interest 
 in the prosperity of institutions for the education of 
 themselves and children. 
 
 " Independently of these general considerations 
 affecting the merits of the measure, your Com- 
 mittee conceive that there are others growing out 
 of the particular circumstances of the finances of 
 the Province, which demand the serious attention 
 
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 72 
 
 of your Honourable House, they think it necessary 
 to point out. — 
 
 "That your Honourable House resolved on the 6th 
 day of March instant, * That it was not expedient to 
 concur during the present session of the Provincial 
 Parliament in appropriations of monies to a greater 
 extent than will leave in the public chest a sum 
 equal to the discharge of the sum of£30,519. 4s. 2d. 
 advanced and paid out of the funds of the United 
 Kingdom by liis Majesty's order, for the support 
 of the Government and the administration of justice 
 in this Province; and of the sum of £83,445. Ss, 1 Id, 
 still due and owing to the Judges and other officers 
 of his Majesty's Government in this province, em- 
 ployed in the administration of justice therein, and 
 to other servants of the Crown and individuals as 
 therein mentioned, for which sums no appropria- 
 tion or provision has hitherto been made. 
 
 **That as your Honourable House has already 
 concurred in acts for the appropriation oi nearly 
 £12,000 for the encouragement of Education in this 
 Province, that as no Act providing for the sums of 
 money mentioned in the preceding resolution, has 
 hitherto been sent up by the House of Assembly for 
 the concurrence of this Honourable House, and as 
 your Committee conceive that the state of the pro- 
 vincial revenue, (due regard being had to the pay- 
 ment of the sums above mentioned, which remain 
 unprovided for) will not warrant the increased ap- 
 
 >:i 
 
 
!»h 
 
 73 
 
 propriation required by this Bill, your Commit- 
 tee urge upon your Honourable House, the propriety 
 of proceeding no further with the bill entitled *An 
 Act to repeal certain acts therein mentioned, and 
 to provide for the further encouragement of ele- 
 mentary Education in this Province.' 
 
 " In pursuance of the views hereinbefore expressed, 
 your Committee have adopted certain resolutions 
 on the subject matter referred to them, which they 
 submit with this their report to your Honourable 
 House. All, nevertheless, humbly submitted/' 
 
 (Signed) P. M. Gill, 
 
 Chairman. 
 Committee Room, ^ 
 15th March, 1836. J 
 
 Resolutions. 
 
 *' 1. Resolved — That the profuse liberality with 
 which grants of the public money have been made 
 during the last seven years, for elementary schools 
 in this Province, amounting at the present period 
 to upwards of £150,000, has induced the inhabi- 
 tants of this Province io rely too much upon public 
 aid, and to relax their own exertions for the sup- 
 port of schools for the education of their children. 
 
 "2. Resolved — That the appropriations which 
 have during that period been annually made by 
 the Legislature for that object, have been sufficient 
 to lay a foundation for the establishment of a system 
 of elementary education, to which it now becomes 
 the duty of the Legislature to require the inhabi- 
 tants of tlie province to contribute more largely, by 
 
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74 
 
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 their own voluntary exertions, and with their own 
 means. 
 
 ** 3. Resolved — That it is inexpedient that the 
 public revenue should any longer be charged, as it 
 has been during the last seven years, with nearly 
 the whole burthen of maintaining and supporting 
 popular education ; and that grants for this purpose 
 should either be confined in future to places where, 
 from the poverty of the inhabitants, no effectual 
 exertions cari be made by them for the object, or 
 be regulated in all other cases, by the extent of the 
 contributions of the inhabitants of the country. 
 
 " 4. Resolved — That the system of management 
 heretofore established by the acts for encouraging 
 elementary schools, has been inefficient for the 
 purpose intended, has led to waste and misapplica- 
 tion of the public money, and has a tendency to 
 generate other abuses. 
 
 " 5. Resolved — That it is expedient in any future 
 measures which may be adopted by the Legislature 
 for the encouragement of elementary schools, that 
 a permanent and efficient system of regulation 
 should be adopted either by the origination of a 
 central board, or by boards in the several districts, 
 or by some other mode of general, uniform and 
 steady superintendance by which the course of 
 instruction may be more effectually ascertained and 
 directed, and the expenditure of the public money 
 be more usefully applied and more effectually 
 checked, than by the plan hitherto pursued. 
 
 
75 
 
 M 
 
 '* 6. Resolved — That in addition to these consi- 
 derations, the present state of the puhlic finances, 
 and of the demands upon them, renders it more 
 essentially necessary to prevent the large expendi- 
 ture which must ensue if the bill now before the 
 Legislative Council, entitled *An Act to repeal 
 certain acts therein mentioned, and to provide for 
 the further encouragement of elementary education 
 in this Province,' should become a law, and that 
 it is therefore not expedient that the Legislative 
 Council should now proceed further upon the 
 said bill." 
 
 But though this Bill was thus rejected, the pro- 
 vincial Legislature in the year 1836 granted appro- 
 priations to the amount of £12,000 currency for the 
 purpose of education by special grants for parti- 
 cular schools, including the grant for the support 
 ol he normal schools above mentioned. 
 
 The statement in the foregoing report of the 
 Legislative Council, of the amount of appropria- 
 tions for education during the seven years previous 
 to 1836, at £150,000 currency is probably below 
 the true amount, as it appears from the general 
 report of the Canada Commissioners in 1836, 
 that the sum ought to have been stated at 
 £172,519. 5s. 9d. being on an average £24,645. 
 14s. 3d. per annum, or about one fifth of the total 
 amount of the whole provincial revenue. 
 
 It has been shewn, that immediately upon the 
 establishment of the constitution, and down to the 
 
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 year 1824, various attempts had been made for 
 applying the Jesuits' estates to the purposes of 
 education. The subject was not again resumed 
 until that year when an elaborate report upon this 
 matter by a special Committee of the Assembly 
 was concurred in by that body ; this may be found 
 in the journals of the Assembly of the year, but is 
 of too great length for insertion here. In it will 
 be found all the information that can be desired 
 upon this head ; it sets forth that the diversion of 
 those estates from their original use and destina- 
 tion, was among the main causes of retarding the 
 progress of education ; gives a condensed history of 
 the legal proceedings adopted in France against the 
 order of the Jesuits previous to its suppression in 1761 ; 
 established the continued application of the colleges 
 and seminaries of the order in that country, to the 
 purposes of education, notwithstanding its sup- 
 pression ; details the proceedings of the provincial 
 Legislature respecting this subject to the period of 
 the report, and concludes in the following terms : 
 *' Uf on the whole, your Committee is of opinion 
 that the proceedings heretofore had in this House 
 upon the subject, ought to be renewed ; and in 
 consequence, that an humble address be presented 
 to his Majesty, praying that he will be graciously 
 pleased to cause to be applied to the promotion of 
 education in the province, the buildings, lands and 
 revenues heretofore belonging to the late order 
 of Jesuits." 
 
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 ted 
 sly 
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 der 
 
 77 
 
 In the following year, 1825, the House of Assem- 
 bly renewed the consideration of this subject, and 
 concurred in the report of another special Com- 
 mittee appointed to enquire into " the best means of 
 applying the estates of the late order of the Jesuits 
 in this province according to their original destina- 
 tion ; what have been the eifects of the Provincial 
 Statute 41 Geo. III. chap. 17, and in what manner 
 it had been put in execution ;*' and in the following 
 resolutions : 
 
 "1st. That the effects of the Act of the 41 Geo. 
 III., c. 17, have not answered the expectation of 
 the Legislature. 
 
 " 2nd. That an humble address ought to be pre- 
 sented to his Majesty, praying that his Majesty 
 would be pleased to order that the estates of the 
 late order of the Jesuits in this province be applied 
 according to their primitive destination for the 
 Education of the Youth of the Country — and to 
 that end placed at the disposal of the Legislature." 
 
 An address founded upon the foregoing Report 
 and Resolutions was adopted, and transmitted to 
 England ; the Address sets forth — 
 
 " That in the earliest infancy of this colony some 
 benevolent individuals founded and endowed a few 
 institutions for the instruction of youth, and the 
 government hastened to second their generous en- 
 deavours by giving a legal and permanent exist- 
 ence to those useful establishments, especially to 
 the college of Quebec, possessed by the Jesuits, to 
 
 
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 78 
 
 whicli extensivo real estates were annexed, on the 
 express condition ol' instrnctiniy tlie youth of tlie 
 country ; a condition which the Jesuits scrupulously 
 fulfilled as long as they existed in the colony, in 
 which their college was the principal institution for 
 education until 1764. But that since their extinc- 
 tion the colleges and estates thereon depending, 
 have remained in the hands of your Majesty's go- 
 vernment, and that your faithful subjects of this 
 province are thus deprived of the cherished riglits, 
 which they had acquired therein of attaining for 
 their children the signal benefits of a free school 
 education. 
 
 " We most respectfully pray your Majesty will 
 be pleased to consider that the college of Quebec, 
 and the estates thereunto annexed, have never be- 
 longed to the Jesuits as their property, but that 
 they were merely depositaries thereof for the pur- 
 poses of the education of the youth of the province. 
 
 ** That the suppression of the order could not 
 carry with it the extinction of our rights to those 
 estates, and that in the several countries of Europe, 
 the colleges of the Jesuits have continued to exist, 
 notwithstanding their expulsion, that event not 
 having had power to convey to the government 
 more rights in the estates administered by that 
 society than were invested in the society itself. 
 
 " That the rapid increase of the population of this 
 province under the influence of your Majesty's 
 liberal and beneficent government, would require a 
 
79 
 
 Ic a 
 
 proporlionato cnlarj^omcnt of the means oC pu!»lic 
 instruction, but that by the supprcsnion of the col- 
 lege of Quebec, your faithful subjects have seen 
 with inexpressible pain the principal, and at that 
 time almost the sole source of public instruction in 
 this province, entirely dried up, and that your 
 Majesty's faithful subjects are in that respect in a 
 situation truly lamentable. 
 
 ** That in the hope of procuring for the youth of 
 this country, the inestimable advantages of science 
 and useful knowledge, the Legislature of this Pro- 
 vince passed an Act in the 41st year of the reign 
 of our late Sovereign Lord the King, your august 
 Father, " for the establishment of free schools and 
 the advancement of learning in this province,"* 
 authorising the establishment of a corporation, 
 under the denomination of the Royal Institution 
 for the advancement of learning. 
 
 "That that corporation was established by vir- 
 tue of that Act, but that it has not hitherto an- 
 swered the expectations of your faithful subjects in 
 this province, nor attained the end proposed by the 
 Legislature, and that that corporation is composed 
 and organized in such a manner that it not only 
 cannot attain general confidence, but excites very 
 strong apprehension and uneasiness in the great 
 part of your faithful subjects in this province. 
 
 " In tliese trying circumstances your dutiful 
 Commons of Lower Canada humbly have recourse 
 to your Majesty, and inasmuch as the college of the 
 
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 i; 
 
1 'i;? 
 
 W f 
 
 80 
 
 late order of Jesuits, and the estates thereon de- 
 pending in this country, whose inhahitants for the 
 most part have not the means of defraying the 
 expense of the education of their children in pri- 
 vate seminaries or schools, we humbly beseech 
 your Majesty, graciously to be pleased, to order 
 that the above-mentioned college, and the estates 
 thereunto annexed, and destined for the educa- 
 tion of the inhabitants of this colony, may be 
 restored to their original destination, and that 
 they may to that end be placed at the disposi- 
 tion of the Legislature of this Province. We hope 
 confidently that your Majesty will be pleased to 
 accede to our humble prayer, and will vouchsafe 
 that such proof of your Majesty's justice and pa- 
 ternal solicitude, to which, under Divine Provi- 
 dence we owe the prosperity and happiness which 
 we enjoy under the powerful protection of your 
 glorious empire." 
 Quebec, 1824. 
 
 lb. 
 ■ % 
 
 M' 
 
 I 
 
 No answer having been received to this ad- 
 dress, this subject was made one of the grounds 
 of grievance laid before his late Majesty and the 
 Imperial Parliament in 1827, and is thus noticed 
 by the Select Committee of the House of Commons 
 on the Civil Government of Canada in 1828 ; — 
 " with respect to the estates which formerly be- 
 longed to the Jesuits, the Committee lament that 
 they have not more correct information, but it ap- 
 
81 
 
 pears to them to be desirable that the proceeds 
 should be applied to the purposes of general edu- 
 cation.'* 
 
 On the 8th March, 1831, certain resolutions were 
 adopted by the House of Assembly as the basis of 
 an Address to His late Majesty, upon the political 
 grievances complained of by that body, and 
 among the number was the following : — " That 
 notwithstanding the exertions that had been made 
 in the Education of the people, under the encou- 
 ragement afforded by the recent Acts of the Legis- 
 lature, the effects of the impediments opposed to 
 its general dissemination by the diversion of the 
 revenue of the Jesuits' estates originally destined 
 for that purpose, the withholding of provincial 
 grants of lands for Schools in 1801, and the rejec- 
 tion in the Legislative Council of various Bills in 
 favour of Education, are still severely felt through- 
 out the Province, and materially retard the gene- 
 ral prosperity." An Address was transmitted to 
 England, containing the substance of the foregoing 
 and other Resolutions upon matters connected with 
 the public affairs of the Colony, and amongst 
 others, the establishment and settlement of a pro- 
 per Civil List, as it has been called, forming 
 part of a series of measures to bring to a final satis- 
 factory settlement the various conflicting interests 
 in the Colony. 
 
 The answer of the Government to so much of 
 the foresroino- Address as related to the Jesuits' 
 
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 I, 
 
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 €':t 
 
 82 
 
 estates, will be found in the following extract from 
 a despatch oi* Lord Goderich of the 7th July, 1831. 
 
 " First, it is represented that the progress which 
 has been made in the Education of the people of 
 the Province, under the encouragement afforded by 
 the recent Acts of the Legislature, has been greatly 
 impeded by the diversion of the revenues of the Je- 
 suits' estates, originally destined for this purpose. 
 
 " His Majesty's Government do not deny, that 
 the Jesuits' estates were, on the dissolution of that 
 order, appropriated to the Education of the people, 
 and readily admit, that the revenue which may 
 result from that property, should be regarded as 
 inviolably and exclusively applicable to that 
 object. 
 
 *' It is to be regretted undoubtedly that any part 
 of those funds was ever applied to any other pur- 
 pose : but although in former times your Lordship's 
 predecessors may have had to contend with diffi- 
 culties, which caused and excused that mode of ap- 
 propriation, I do not feel myself called upon to 
 enter into any consideration of that part of the sub- 
 ject. 
 
 " If, however, ! may rely upon the returns which 
 have been made to this department, the rents of 
 the Jesuits' estates have, during the few last years, 
 been devoted exclusively to the purposes of Educa- 
 tion ; and my dispatch, dated 24th December last, 
 sufficiently indicates, that His Majesty's Ministers 
 had resolved upon a strict adherence to that prin- 
 
 J''S 
 
83 
 
 ciple several months before the present address was 
 adopted. 
 
 ** The only practical question which remains for 
 consideration is, whether the application of these 
 funds for the purposes of Education should be di- 
 rected by His Majesty, or by the Provincial Legis- 
 lature. The King cheerfully, without reserve, con- 
 fides that duty to the Legislature, in the full per- 
 suasion, that they will make such a selection 
 amongst the different* plans which may be pre- 
 sented to their notice, as may most effectually 
 advance the interests of religion and sound learn- 
 ing amongst his subjects ; and I cannot doubt that 
 the Assembly will see the justice of continuing to 
 maintain, under the new distribution of these funds, 
 those scholastic establishments to which they are 
 now applied. 
 
 " I understand that certain buildings on the Je- 
 suits' estates which were formerly used f ;/ iJolit • 
 giate purposes, have since been uniforir^ly em[)ioy -ni 
 as barracks for the King's troops. It would ob- 
 viously be highly inconvenient to attempt uny im- 
 mediate change in this respect, and I am convinced 
 that the Assembly would reject any measure which 
 might diminish the comforts or endanger the healtl'; 
 of the King's forces. If, however, the Assembly 
 sliould be disposed to provide adequate barracks, 
 so as permanently to secure these important objects, 
 Flis Majesty will be prepared (upon the completion 
 of s'lch an arrangement in a manner satisfactory 
 
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 St' 
 
84 
 
 to your Lordship) to acquiesce in the appropriation 
 of the buildings in question, to the same purposes 
 as those to which the general funds of the Jesuits' 
 estates are now about to be restored." 
 
 The Assembly did not accede to the series of 
 measures proposed by Lord Goderich, in his des- 
 patch above-mentioned, whereof that of the sur- 
 render of the Jesuits' estates constituted a part ; a 
 separate Bill was, however, introduced into the 
 Assembly in the year 1832, respecting these estates, 
 and passed into a law, 2. Wm. IV. ch. 41, inti- 
 tuled, *' An Act to make provision for the appro- 
 priation of certain monies arising out of the estates 
 of the late order of Jesuits, and for other purposes,'* 
 in the preamble whereof, the despatch of Lord 
 Goderich to the foregoing eflPect is recited : the 
 Act provides, that all monies arising out of the 
 estates of the late order of Jesuits, should be kept 
 apart and appliet^ to the purposes of Education ex- 
 clusively, in the manner provided by that Act, or by 
 any other Provincial Act to be made. 
 
 By this Act the proceeds of those estates from 
 that time forth have been locked up, and must so 
 continue until their application is provided for by 
 Legislative authority within the Province. 
 
 Besides the foregoing three public endowments 
 of the Seminary of Quebec, that of Montreal and 
 the late order of Jesuits, several Colleges and Se- 
 minaries have been established within the Provmce 
 
85 
 
 trom 
 1st so 
 )r by 
 
 lents 
 and 
 
 LI Se- 
 ine e 
 
 since the year 18*20, which owe their endowments 
 principally to private individuals professing the 
 Roman Catholic faith. 
 
 It would have been desirable to have given the 
 history and constitution of these scholastic institu- 
 tions ; but from the remoteness from sources of in- 
 formation, which are only accessible within the 
 Colony, the statement respecting them must be 
 very general. 
 
 They consist of the College of Nicolet in the 
 district of Three Rivers, incorporated by letters 
 patent in the year 1821 ; this is an extensive 
 establishment, having twelve Professors, and ac- 
 commodation for a large number of boarders : the 
 number of pupils is not exactly known, it may be 
 from 100 to 200, of whom about 70 may be 
 boarders. 2nd. The Seminary of St. Hyacinth, 
 in the district of Montreal, endowed with real 
 estate, and supported by the contributions of indivi- 
 duals and scholars. The number of Professors and 
 pupils in this establishment is not known. An 
 application was made in the year 1 827 to the Exe- 
 cutive Government of the Province for letters pa- 
 tent for the incorporation of this Seminary, but 
 refused. 3rd. The College of Chambly, in the 
 district of Montreal, incorporated by Act of the 
 Provincial Legislature in 1836, is endowed with 
 real estate of value, by which and by the contri- 
 butions of individuals, and the pay of the scholars, 
 it is supported. The number of Professors and 
 
 I, 
 
 
 I 
 
 IF 
 
 
 
 :l Iv 
 
 
86 
 
 ■i 
 
 I? 
 
 scholars in this College is unknown; but (l^e Col- 
 lege buildings are of considerable extent, and ca- 
 pable of affording accommodation to a great number 
 of students. 4th. The College of Saint Anne de 
 la Pocatiere, in the district of Quebec is also pos 
 sessed of real estate, and supported principally by 
 private contributions and the pay of scholars ; the 
 number of Professors and scholars is also unknown. 
 5th. YIk Seminary of I'Assumption, in the dis- 
 trict . r Montreal, is likewise possessed of real 
 ' jtato, and is supported by private contributions ; 
 tJ\o icmiber of its Professors or students is not 
 k 'oviL i>th. The Seminary of S?.int James, in 
 the city of Montreal, supported by private funds, 
 and established exclusively for the Ecclesiastical 
 Education of candidates for the Roman Catholic 
 priesthood, is under the special superintendence 
 of the Bishop of that Church residing in the city 
 of Montreal. 
 
 Besides the foregoing institutions there are seve- 
 ral nunneries established in the cities of Quebec, 
 Montreal and Three Rivers, appropriated to the 
 education of the female youth ci' 'he country : they 
 severally hold endowments in lands granted to 
 them by the Crown of France, or by private indi- 
 viduals, soon after the first settlement of the coun- 
 try ; the nature and extent of these cannot be 
 ascertained at this distance from the Province. 
 
 The foregoing Seminaries, Colleges, and Nunne- 
 ries, are the Roman Catholic Institutions, esta- 
 
I 
 I 
 
 87 
 
 blirJied in Lower Canada, for the education as well 
 of the male as of the female portion of the popula- 
 tion of the Province. 
 
 The only permanent Protestant endowment 
 which has been made within the Colony since its 
 cession to Great Britain, is derived from the bene- 
 ficence of the late Honourable James McGill, who 
 died at Montreal in 1811. By his will he devised 
 a valuable property in lands and buildings in the 
 neighbourhood of Montreal, for the site of a College 
 to be called McGill College, and the sum of 
 £10,000 sterling in money, which, with the accu- 
 mulation of interest now exceeds £22,000 sterling; 
 but in consequence of a long course of litigation, 
 and from other causes, the intentions of the testator 
 have not yet been carried into effect. 
 
 It has been seen that the Act of 1801, to which 
 the Royal Institution owed its existence, contem- 
 plated a public endowment for the support of the 
 Schools to be established under its authority. 
 Under the will of the late Mr. McGill the lands 
 and monies left by him for the establishment 
 of a College, came to be under the control and 
 management of the Royal Institution : — and it 
 remains to show what measures have been taken 
 for the purpose of carrying into effect the Act of 
 1801, and of rendering effectual the endowment by 
 the late Mr. McGill. 
 
 After the recommendation of the Executive 
 Council of the Province in the year 1803, for the 
 p:rant of sixteen townships, and the first establish- 
 
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 88 
 
 ment of the Royal Institution in 1818; the first 
 formal written application for the endowment con- 
 templated by the Act of 1801, was made by that 
 body to the late Earl of Dalhousie, then Governor- 
 in-chief, &c. in the year 1826, and is as follows: — 
 
 ** To his Excellency George Earl of Dalhousie, 
 
 Sfc. Sfc. Sfc. 
 
 " The Petition of the Royal Institution for the 
 Advancement of Learning, 
 
 " Most respectfully sheweth, 
 
 " That in the preamble of the Provincial Statute 
 of the year 1801, under which this Corporation has 
 been constituted, it is stated that his Majesty had 
 been graciously pleased to signify his royal inten- 
 tions that a suitable proportion of the waste lands 
 of the Crown should be set apart, and the reve- 
 nues appropriated to those purposes for the accom- 
 plishment of which this Corporation has been 
 erected, and that your petitioners cannot but con- 
 sider this explicit public and solemn declaration of 
 the Royal purpose, as carrying with it a pledge 
 peculiarly strong, as the Act in which it is found 
 was reserved by the Provincial Government, for 
 the signification of his Majesty's pleasure thereon, 
 and was then brought under the special considera- 
 tion of his Majesty's Government, before it re- 
 ceived his Majesty's final sanction. 
 
 " That youi petitioners liaving also referred to 
 Fundry documents lodged in the office of their 
 
89 
 
 Secretary, find that on the 11th of November, 
 1801, his Excellency Lieutenant-Governor Milnes, 
 informed the Executive Council that his Majesty 
 * being desirous to afford all possible encourage- 
 ment to his Province of Lower Canada, in carry- 
 ing into execution an object of such importance as 
 the instruction and education of youth, had signified 
 to him through his Grace the Duke of Portland 
 his Royal pleasure that he should, upon consulting 
 his Majesty's Executive Council, report in what 
 manner, and to what extent it would be proper to 
 appropriate a portion of the Crown lands or reve- 
 nues arising therefrom for this purpose, and that 
 his Excellency referred this matter to a Committee 
 of the whole Council for their report thereon.' 
 
 " That the Report under this reference was ap- 
 proved in Council on the 27th of June, 1803, by 
 the Lieutenant-Governor, who then informed the 
 Board that according to the directions given to him 
 through the then Secretary of State, he should 
 transmit the same for his Majesty's royal pleasure. 
 In the above report, a copy of which is lodged 
 with the Royal Institution, the Committee of Coun- 
 cil recommend an appropriation from the waste 
 lands of the Crown to the extent of sixteen town- 
 ships, partly for the general purpose of supporting 
 public schools throughout the Province, and partly 
 for the endowment of a College. 
 
 *' That it appears from a despatch dated 9th 
 September, 1803, (a copy of which is also lodged 
 
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 90 
 
 with the Royal Institution,) that his Majesty was 
 graciously pleased to approve of the appropriation 
 of a quantity of land for the foundation of two 
 seminaries, one at Quebec and one at Montreal, 
 on the scale recommended by the Council, namely, 
 for an endowment to the extent of 20,000 acres for 
 each school. 
 
 *' That at the time when the said Report of 
 Council was made, and his Majesty's approval 
 thereof notified by Lord Hobart, the average value 
 of ordinary land in the province appears to have 
 been about 25. 6d. an acre ; but that since that 
 period, not only has almost the whole of the 
 valuable waste land of the Crown in accessible 
 situations in the province been pre-occupied and 
 granted to private individuals, but the value of 
 all waste lands has so greatly diminished, that a 
 grant to this Corporation, even to the full extent 
 then approved by his Majesty's Government, would 
 be still insufficient for the general purposes in- 
 tended. 
 
 ** That your petitioners have reason to believe 
 that at the present moment it is only in the leased 
 Crown reserves that means could be found by his 
 Majesty's Government, without great detriment to 
 the general interest and improvement of the pro- 
 vince, of making a grant that would at all be effec- 
 tual for promoting the purposes of education, or 
 fulfilling, even to a limited extent, the gracious in- 
 tentions of his Majesty. 
 
 ^i^ 
 
91 
 
 " Thai 270 lots of the Crown reserves are now 
 under lease, amounting in all to about 55,000 
 acres, or about one-fifth of the quantity, or one- 
 third of the nominal value of the endowment which 
 his Majesty's Government in 1803 directed to be 
 made for the before- mentioned purposes. That as 
 no definitive steps have as yet been taken for carry- 
 ing those instructions into execution ; and as cir- 
 cumstances have in tho intervtninf riod so very 
 much changed, that a grant of the waste lands of 
 the Crown, unless to an extent which his Majesty's 
 Government would not at the present moment be 
 likely to sanction, would not be effectual for the 
 object which is contemplated. 
 
 " Your petitioners have no other resource than 
 in applying to his Majesty's Government for a 
 grant of the Crown reserves, now under lease, as 
 affording the only means now attainable for ful- 
 filling the gracious intentions of his late Majesty. 
 
 " Your petitioners most respectfully solicit your 
 Excellency to take the whole of these proceedings 
 into your favourable consideration, and either to 
 give the necessary directions for an immediate ap- 
 propriation, should your Excellency feel yourself 
 authorized so to do under the instructions afore- 
 said, or otherwise to draw the consideration of 
 his Majesty's Ministers again to the subject, in 
 order that the intended appropriation of land 
 (either from the leased Crown reserves, oi from 
 the waste lands of the Crown) may be vested in 
 
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 tlie Corporation of the Royal Institution with the 
 least possible delay. 
 
 (Signed) " T. Sewell, 
 
 " President. 
 
 ♦« Quebec, 1 0th February, 1836." 
 
 In 1829 the following despatch was transmitted 
 by Sir James Kempt, then administering the 
 Government of Lower Canada, to His Majesty's 
 principal Secretary of State for the Colonies. 
 
 ** Castle of St. Lewis, Quebec, 
 
 " 2l5* December, 1829. 
 
 " Sir, — In obedience to the commands conveyed 
 to me in your despatch, No. 73, of the 3rd of Sep- 
 tember last, I have the honour to transmit to 
 you herewith a return of the places for the in- 
 struction of vouth of the Protestant and Roman 
 Catholic persuasion in this province, and of the 
 funds by which they are supported. 
 
 '* The Protestant institutions for education con- 
 sist, as you will observe, of the two grammar 
 schools, one at Quebec and one at Montreal, and 
 of a seminary lately established at Chambly, under 
 the auspices of the Lord Bishop of Quebec, where, 
 in addition to the ordinary course of classics, young 
 men are instructed in divinity preparatory to tak- 
 ing holy orders. The institution is, however, en- 
 tirely of a private nature, and solely supported by 
 the students attending it. There are also some 
 academies in the towns of Quebec, Montreal, and 
 Three Rivers, where instruction is given in the 
 
93 
 
 classics, though the course of study is probably not 
 carried so far as at Chambly. These are alto<^cthcr 
 private, and of course depend upon the scholars for 
 their support. 
 
 " There are six Roman Catholic seminaries or 
 colleges in the province, including the two estab- 
 lishments that are under the direction, and princi- 
 pally maintained by the funds of the seminaries of 
 Quebec and Montreal. These two bodies are pos- 
 sessed of considerable estates, though not by their 
 endowment specially appropriated to the purposes 
 of education ; and those of the latter in particular, 
 as you are aware, are of very great value. 
 
 " Of the four other Roman Catholic seminaries, 
 only one, that at Nicolet, has been erected by let- 
 ters patent, and all four are principally supported 
 by voluntary contributions, or by the price paid by 
 the students for their instruction. 
 
 ** Of all these seminaries, both Protestant and 
 Roman Catholic, the two grammar schools at Que- 
 bec and Montreal alone received any permanent 
 assistance from the public funds. The school at 
 Quebec, as shewn in the return, receives an allow- 
 ance of £200 a year, and £90 for the rent of a 
 school-house, from the funds accruing from the 
 estates heretofore belonging to the late order of 
 Jesuits; that at Montreal, £200 a year, and £54 
 for the rent of a school-house, from the same reve- 
 nues. The course of instruction followed at both 
 these schools is explained in the return. 
 
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 IV 
 
 94 
 
 " A landed estate to the value of £10,000, and 
 a like sum in money, was bequeathed by the late 
 Mr. McGill, of Montreal, in the year 1811, for the 
 establishment of a College in the neighbourhood of 
 that city ; but the validity of the bequest having 
 been disputed by his relatives, and other obstacles 
 that were explained in my despatch, (No. 108,) of 
 the 5th of November last, have hitherto prevented 
 this design from being carried into effect, although 
 the College was incorporated, by a Royal charter, 
 in the year 18*21. 
 
 " The only funds in the Province, independent of 
 the Legislative appropriations for elementary Schools, 
 from which any aid is given for the promotion of 
 Education, are the revenues arising from the 
 estates heretofore belonging to the late order of 
 Jesuits ; and this aid, as already stated, is confined 
 to the two Royal Grammar Schools at Quebec and 
 Montreal. 
 
 " By an account made up to the 10th of November 
 last, the gross revenue of these estates for the year 
 ending on that day, amounted to £1,884 4 1 1 
 The authorised charges for manage- 
 ment and collection .... £ 554 1 7 6 
 Allowances to Grammar Schools, 
 retired allowances, authorised Sa- 
 laries, &c 980 
 
 10 
 
 H 
 
 7i 
 
 1,525 7 
 Leaving only a balance of £ 358 / 7 3| 
 
 
J • 
 
 95 
 
 From wliich the building and repairs of mills, and 
 other cxpences that must be incurred for tlie im- 
 provement of the estates are to be defrayed ; and 
 there are no other revenues in the Colony at the 
 disposal of Government which could be made avail- 
 able for the purposes of Education. 
 
 ** The Protestant and Roman Catholic Seminaries 
 ^bove-mentioned, and the Academies alluded to, 
 being the only institutions in Lower Canada where 
 the classics or the higher branches of learning are 
 taught, the information which is furnished re- 
 specting them may be probably sufficient for the 
 objectyou had in view in desiring to receive a return 
 of the .places for the instruction of youth in the 
 Province. But as it may be satisfactory to you to 
 be informed of the provision made for the mainte- 
 nance of the common elementary schools in the 
 country, I have added to the return a statement 
 of the schools of this description, under the direc- 
 tion of the Royal Institution, and of those that 
 have been established in the country under an Act 
 passed in the last Session of the Provincial Le- 
 gislature 'for the encouragement of Elementary 
 Education ;* and I have annexed thereto two 
 papers, explanatory of the system under which 
 they are established in the return, a list of ele- 
 mentary schools in the towns of Quebec, Mont- 
 real, and Three Rivers, for which special appro- 
 priations were made in the last Session of the Legis- 
 lature, and the amount granted to each. 
 
 ;P' 
 
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 'f r. 
 
 96 
 
 ** The paper No. II. is a memorandum respecting 
 the Board of Royal Institution, showing the time of 
 its foundation, the objects for which it was incorpo- 
 rated, and the principles upon which it has been 
 conducted. I have every reason to believe that the 
 rules therein stated, as having been laid down for 
 its guidance, particularly the regulations to prevent 
 any interference with the religion of the children 
 at the several Schools have been strictly attended 
 to ; but nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the 
 Royal Institution has never been viewed with any 
 cordial good will by the Roman Catholic part of 
 the community. 
 
 " A proof of this feeling may be found in the 
 reluctance with which the Roman Catholic Bishop 
 acceded to the arrangements first proposed in 
 the year 1826 for a division of the Board 
 into two distinct and equal Committees, con- 
 sisting respectively of Protestants and Roman 
 Catholics, for the superintendence of each of the 
 Schools of its own persuasion, and in his refusal to 
 accede to a modified arrangement when legal difli- 
 culties were found to exist that rpndered the plan 
 to which his assent had been obtained impracticable. 
 The Protestant Dissenters are also by no means 
 favourably disposed towards the Royal Institution ; 
 and the Act passed for the encouragement of ele- 
 mentary Education in the last Session of the Legis- 
 lature, by which the superintendence of the Schools 
 is entirely confided to Trustees, to be annually 
 
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 cable. 
 
 means 
 
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 chools 
 
 lually 
 
 97 
 
 chosen by tlio inhabitants of each parish, being ex- 
 ceedingly popular in the country, and Schools hav- 
 ing been established under it in every part of the 
 Province ; I have no very sanguine expectation 
 that the Provincial Allowance of £2,000. per annum 
 hitherto made to the Royal Institution for the main- 
 tenance of Schools under its direction will be much 
 longer continued. 
 
 " The paper marked No. III. is explanatory of 
 the provisions of the Act passed in the last Session 
 for the encouragement of Schools in the country 
 
 parishes. 
 
 I have, &c. 
 
 (Signed) " James Kempt. 
 
 '* P. S. It may be necessary to mention that the 
 two Grammar Schools at Quebec and Montreal that 
 receive an allowance from the Jesuits' estates, were 
 established in the year 1826. Three gentlemen 
 having arrived from England in that year, appointed 
 by the Secretary of State to superintend them, as 
 well as a Grammar School in Upper Canada. The 
 authority for the amount of salary allowed is con- 
 veyed in a despatch from Lord Bathurst, dated 24th 
 February, 1827. 
 
 " The salary for the Master of the Grammar 
 School in Upper Canada was ordered by your de- 
 spatch of the 2nd of June, 1828, to be transferred to 
 that Province, but a demand has been lately made 
 
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 I 
 
I* 
 
 1 :■■■! 
 
 98 
 
 upon the Jesuits' estates for tlie arrears of his salary 
 for eighteen months prior to that period ; tlie claim 
 is correct, but the estates are at present unable to 
 pay it. J. K.'* 
 
 " Mcn.orandum respecting the T3oard of Royal 
 Institution, established by the Provincial Act, 
 41 Geo. Ill, chap. 17. 
 
 " The Royal Institution is established under an 
 Act of the Provincial Legislature passed in the year 
 1801, intituled ' An Act for the establishment of 
 Free Schools, and the advancement of Learning in 
 this Province.' 
 
 ** By this Act the person administering the Go- 
 vernment of the Province was empowered to erect 
 a Corporation, under the title of ' The Royal Insti- 
 tution for the advancement of Learning,' and to 
 this Corporation the management of all Schools 
 and Institutions of Royal foundation in the Province 
 was to be committed. 
 
 " The steps pointed out by the Act for the esta- 
 blishment of Schools are as follow : 
 
 "The majority, or a certain number of the inha- 
 bitants of any parish or district, are required to pre- 
 sent a Petition to the person administering the Go- 
 vernment, praying that a School may be established 
 therein. His Excellency then appoints Commis- 
 sioners, who fix upon a piece of ground for the erec- 
 tion of a School-house, which, when completed, is 
 
 ii 
 
 
[)[) 
 
 conveyed to the Royal Institution : a School maf^tor 
 is tlion appointed, and a salary assigned to him. 
 
 " Under this Act Schools were at different times 
 estahlished by the several Governors ; but until the 
 year 1819, witiiout any regular system, and at a 
 great expence to the Province. By a return made 
 in the year 1818, the number of Schools in the 
 Province was stated to be 37, attended by only 
 1,048 scholars, and maintained at an expence to 
 the public of ^1,883. 10s. sterling. 
 
 " Up to that time the Royal Institution had never 
 been regularly established ; but on the 8t]i of 
 October, 1818, an instrument issued under the 
 Great Seal of the Province, appointing certain 
 persons therein named to be Trustees of the Schools 
 of Royal institution in the Province, and by subse- 
 quent instruments issued on the 1 3th of December, 
 1819; 20th July, 1822; 27th Jun., 1823; and 
 17th November, 1824 ; several other persons were 
 added to the members originally appointed. 
 
 " The Lord Bishop of Quebec was named the 
 Principal of the Institution, and the Board of 
 Trustees being appointed, drew up rules and regu- 
 lations for the management of the schools, which 
 received the sanction of the local government. 
 
 By these regulations the regular superintendence 
 of the schools was provided for as follows : — 
 
 The school was placed under the immediate in- 
 spection of the Clergy of that religion professed by 
 the inhabitants of the spot, or when the irdiabit- 
 
 h2 
 
 4 
 
 
 1 . 
 
 i ■! 
 
i 
 
 
 !* r. 
 
 m 
 
 100 
 
 ants ini<»lit ho of diflTereiit [)ersuasion9, tlio ('lor^y 
 of cacli Church had the suporiiitt'ii(UMK'o of the 
 chihlren of their respective communions. 
 
 A reg^ular suj)erintendence of the schools was 
 also assigned to visitors, named by the Corporation, 
 (one of whom to be the cler<rynian of the parish, 
 according to the rules above described) who were 
 to report to the Corporation every six months, the 
 numbers and progress of the scholars, the conduct 
 of the master, and generally on the state of the 
 school. 
 
 The schools of the Royal Institution have 
 hitherto been supported by an annual vote of the 
 Provincial Legislature of £2000 currency. 
 
 In the year 1826, it was suggested by the Royal 
 Institution, that considerable advantage might be 
 expected from a different constitution of the Board, 
 and it was proposed that a further number of 
 Roman Catholic members should be added, for the 
 purpose of enabling the Board to divide itself into 
 two distinct and equal committees, consisting re- 
 spectively of Protestants and Roman Catholics, for 
 the separate and exclusive superintendence re- 
 spectively of the Protestant and Roman Catholic 
 schools. 
 
 This proposed measure was announced to Lord 
 Bathurst, then Secretary of State, by Lord Dal- 
 housie, in a despatch dated 27th May, 1827. 
 
 To carry the plan into effect, the resignation of 
 some of the Protestant members of the Board was 
 
101 
 
 obtaiiuMl, and after some ncgociation with the 
 Moiiian Catholie Bisliop, the necessary details 
 being arranged, the Attorney-general of the Pro- 
 vince received orders, on the 13th of August, 1828, 
 to prepare the necessary instrument for carrying the 
 arrangement into effect by revoking the commis- 
 sions under which the Trustees were appointed, 
 and by appointing the same persons Trustees, with 
 the exception of those whose resignation had been 
 obtained, seven in number, and in whose stead the 
 Roman Catholic members were tc be appointed. 
 
 The Attorney-general, in proceeding to execute 
 these orders, examined the Act under which the 
 Royal Institution was established, reported his opi- 
 nion that no such instrument could legally issue, 
 the power of the Governor being limited by the 
 terms of the Act, after the appointment of the first 
 Trustees, to removing them, if he should think fit, 
 and to appoint successors to those who should be so 
 removed, or to any who might die or resign their 
 trust, but that the Act gave him no power to add to 
 their number, and that, consequently, the several 
 letters patent issued subsequently to the 8th Oc- 
 tober, 1818, by which successively it was intended 
 to increase and enlarge the number of members of 
 the Royal Institution, could not be considered 
 legal. 
 
 Under this view of the matter, the only persons 
 legally members of the Royal Institution were the 
 individuals named in the instrument of the 8th 
 
 
 ■•:.■ ^, 
 
 I 
 
■ > i 
 
 H I 
 
 I 
 
 U)'2 
 
 October, IHIR, and it became therclon: impossible 
 to carry into effect tbe plan for the two committees 
 in tht! manner originally proposed. 
 
 The Roman Catholic liishop having declined to 
 accede to another proposal, by which two commit- 
 tees might have been formed, but consisting of a 
 smaller number of persons, it became necessary to 
 make an application to the Legislature to revise the 
 Act of 1818, that some additional Trustees might 
 be appointed. 
 
 With this view a message was sent to the Pro- 
 vincial Parliament on the 13th February, 1829, re- 
 commending the subject to their attention, but the 
 session liaving approached to a close before any- 
 thing was determined upon, the consideration was 
 postponed till the next session, and the usual sum 
 of £2000. currency appropriated for the schools of 
 the Royal Institution for that year. 
 
 In 1831 the House of Assembly, among other 
 subjects of complaint, addressed his late Majesty 
 upon ** the with-holding the promised grants of 
 lands for schools in 1801," to which his Majesty's 
 answer will be found in the following extract from 
 the general despatch of Lord Goderich of the 7th of 
 July, 1831. *' Secondly, the House of Assembly re- 
 present, that the progress of education has been 
 impeded by the with-holding grants of lands pro- 
 mised for schools in 1801. On reference to the 
 speech delivered in that year by the then Gover- 
 nor to the two Houses of Provincial Legislature, 1 
 
I 
 
 i « 
 
 of 
 
 pro- 
 the 
 
 re, I 
 
 fiiul that such an engagement as the address refers 
 to was actually made, it of courHc tlierefore is bind- 
 ing on the Crown, and must now be carried into 
 ettect, unless there be any circumstances of which 1 
 am not apprized, which may have caused the 
 obligation contracted in 1801, or which may have 
 rendered the fulfilment of it at the present time im- 
 practicable. If any such circumstances really 
 exist, your Lordship will report them to me imme- 
 diately in order that the fit course to be taken may 
 be further considered." 
 
 From that period until the session of the Pro- 
 vincial Parliament in 1835-(3, the subject was not 
 renewed, but in the latter year, the Legislative 
 Council resumed its consideration, and addressed 
 his late Majesty upon it The address of that 
 body, after setting forth the Royal intention in 
 1801, the report of the Provincial Executive Coun- 
 cil, and the Royal sanction to that report mentioned 
 above, thus proceeded: — "That no further steps 
 had been taken to accomplish his Majesty's bene- 
 volent intentions, that the seminaries of education 
 founded originally under the Government of 
 France enjoyed extensive and valuable endowments, 
 and that large appropriations of the waste lands for 
 similar endowments had been sanctioned in Upper 
 Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, but 
 that no provision had been made in the Province of 
 Lower Canada since it became an appendage of 
 the British Crown, for the permanent endowment 
 
 a' 
 
 .•I 
 
 i(D 
 
I • 
 
 
 il 
 
 •! f, \ 
 
 I 
 
 104 
 
 either of preparatory seminaries, or ol'a university 
 or college to which your Majesty's subjects using 
 the English tongue could resort, for the education 
 of themselves and their children in the higher 
 branches of learning. 
 
 *' Wherefore they respectfully prayed his Ma- 
 jesty to give directions for the fulfilment of the 
 wise and beneficent intentions of his late Majesty, 
 by setting apart a sufficient quantity of the waste 
 lands, and assuring the revenue of the same, or by 
 otherwise making an adequate provision out of the 
 revenue and proceeds of the Crown lands, as an 
 endowment for a seminary or seminaries of useful 
 learning, and more especially for foundations of an 
 enlarged and comprehensive nature." 
 
 His Majesty's Government having determined 
 to send out Commissioners of Inquiry to Lower 
 Canada in 1835, gave to them specific Instructions 
 upon the head of education : — they are Nos. 81 and 
 82 of the Instructions from Lord Glenelg to the 
 Canada Commissioners of the 1 7th July, 1835, and 
 are as follows : — 
 
 " No. 81. The state of Education in Lower Ca- 
 nada must engage your most serious attention with 
 a view to the best means of providing the more 
 general diffusion of sound learning, religious 
 knowledge, and Christian principle. Of His Ma- 
 jesty's anxiety in regard to these paramount objects^ 
 it would be difficult to speak in terms sufficiently 
 emphatic. But the earnest endeavours of my pre- 
 
 'ill ■ .. 
 
105 
 
 decessors on this subject have been so repeatedly 
 frustrated, that I suspect the existence of some ob- 
 stacles of which the Home Government is not 
 aware. Amidst the heat of contention on ques- 
 tions of comparatively slight temporary concern, 
 the momentous and permanent interests of the 
 whole Canadian people, may have been overlooked. 
 Sufficient attention, perhaps, has not been given to 
 the essential distinctions between the state gf so- 
 ciety in the kingdom and in the province. It may 
 have been forgotten, that in a new country press- 
 ing forward in the career of agricultural and com- 
 mercial enterprize, it is far more impolitic than in 
 this kingdom to calculate on the voluntary exer- 
 tions of those who combine the advantages of wealth 
 and leisure with practical experience in public 
 affairs. 
 
 ** If His Majesty's Government have not hitherto 
 addressed themselves with sufficient promptitude 
 to the duty of devising and recommending well- 
 considered plans for an object so nearly touching 
 the moral and intellectual, no less than the social 
 benefit of the Canadian people, it is an error which 
 cannot be too forcibly confessed, nor too zealously 
 redeemed. 
 
 *' 82. You will, therefore, apply yourselves to 
 the collection of all such intelligence as may be 
 necessary for framing a general system of provincial 
 Education, embracing not the mere sentiments of 
 literature, but all that relates to the culture of the 
 
 li 
 
 1 
 
 ft: 
 
 1 
 1' 
 
 I 
 
 M'^l 
 
 I 
 
 
11'' 
 
 li! 
 
 V'\ 
 
 I " 
 
 If '* 
 
 i^. 
 
 106 
 
 mind and the developement of the moral and reli- 
 gious principles of growth in the different ranks of 
 society. This is a task, the due performance of 
 which, requires so intimate an acquaintance with 
 the character and wants of the people, that I doubt 
 whether, within the time of your residence in Ca- 
 nada, it will be possible for you to be completely 
 prepared to form a deliberative conclusion over a 
 question thus comprehensive. It will, however, 
 be of great value if a commencement can be made, 
 resting on a solid basis, on which, aided by the co- 
 operation of the Governor, a more complete structure 
 may hereafter be erected by the Legislative Coun- 
 cil and Assembly, I am sanguine in the hope that 
 such will be the result of your inquiries and your 
 report." 
 
 In consequence of the foregoing instructions, the 
 Royal Institution made the following representa- 
 tion to the Commissioners at Quebec. 
 
 " Application from the President of the Royal 
 Institution for the advancement of learning. 
 
 " PROVINCE OF LOWER CANADA, 
 
 '* To His Majesty's Commissioners of Inquiry ^ 
 
 Sfc. SfC. Sfc, 
 
 " The undersigned having been authorised by 
 a resolution of the Corporation of the Royal Insti- 
 tution for the advancement of learning, to bring 
 under the consideration of His Majesty's Commis- 
 sioners of Inquiry the necessity, before the Crown 
 
 mi 
 
S '< 
 
 107 
 
 lands or revenues thereof are surrendered to the 
 Provincial Legislature, of reserving to the Crown 
 the power of making endowments out of those lands 
 or revenues for the support of the Grammar 
 Schools of Boyal foundation heretofore established 
 in this Province, and in aid of the private endow- 
 ments of McGill College at Montreal, and for the 
 future extension of that estabhshment, or the foun- 
 dation of a University, or other sufficient Colle- 
 giate institutions in the Province, in conformity to 
 the Royal promise recited in the preamble of the 
 School Act of 1801, respectfully submits to His 
 Majesty's Commissioners a statement of the grounds 
 on which the Board of the Royal Institution solicit 
 the attention of the Commissioners to this subject. 
 The claim or expectation of a Royal endowment 
 out of the Crown lands in this Province, for insti- 
 tutions of Education, may be stated as resting on 
 the pledge contained in a communication of the 
 Royal intention to this effect made by the Governor 
 of the Province to the Provincial Legislature, and 
 recited in the preamble of the Provincial Statute of 
 1801 ; on the measures which were shortly after 
 taken by the Provincial Government in pursuance 
 of that promise on the fulfilment of a like pledge 
 given nearly at the same time for the benefit of the 
 inhabitants of Upper Canada, who accordingly now 
 enjoy the advantage of such an endowment ; on 
 the fact, that in all other North American Colonies 
 such an endowment has been granted by the 
 
108 
 
 
 
 W' 
 
 i: 
 
 Crown, on the establislimcnt of the Royal Grammar 
 Scliool at Quebec and Montreal, with a provision 
 for the salaries of the Masters out of the revenues 
 of the Jesuits' estates, on the incorporation of 
 McGill's College under a charter from the Crown, 
 with the declared intention on the part of His Ma- 
 jesty's Government at one period to assign the 
 revenues of the Jesuits' estates in aid of the private 
 foundation of that Institution, and on the total 
 absence of any other means or resource by which 
 the inhabitants of this Province, speaking the 
 English language, can hope to see an institution 
 established to which they could send their children 
 for instruction in the higher branches of Educa- 
 tion. 
 
 '' The promise of an endowment in land con- 
 veyed by the message referred to in the Act of 
 1801, and the measures adopted by His Majesty's 
 Government and by the Government of the Pro- 
 vince in consequence thereof, were stated by the 
 Royal Institution in a memorial to the Earl of Dal- 
 housie in 1826, and as a Member of the Board, 
 has by their request placed before His Majesty's 
 Commissioners a copy of that representation, it is 
 unnecessary for the undersigned to state the terms 
 of that pledge, or the nature of those measures. 
 
 " It may be proper, however, to observe, that the 
 Act of 1801, was passed for the establishment and 
 regulation of free schools, and other institutions of 
 Royal foundation of a more enlarged and compre- 
 
 :i 
 
109 
 
 liensive nature, and thaf it is under that Act that 
 the Corporation of the Royal Institution has been 
 established, and has received the devise and be- 
 quest under the will of the late Mr. McGill of 
 Montreal, under which McGill College has been 
 chartered by the Crown ; under this Act many eh?- 
 mentary schools were established and provided fur 
 out of the public revenues ; but no measures were 
 taken for creating the corporate body contemplated 
 by the Act, or for establishing Schools for the 
 higher classes of education, until 1815 and 1816, 
 when his Majesty's Government ordered that the 
 Royal Institution should be organized (with a view, 
 in particular, to take advantage of the bequest of 
 Mr. McGill, who died in 1813), and directed that 
 the funds of the Jesuits' estates should be applied 
 to the erection of a College under that bequest, and 
 in the year 1816, Masters were engaged and sent 
 out from England, who were to have charge of 
 Royal Grammar Schools, directed to be established 
 at Quebec and Montreal, with a suitable provision 
 out of those estates. 
 
 " These measures, which were considered as the 
 first steps towards the execution of those premises, 
 made by the Crown to assign an endowment for 
 education, were followed by the incorporation of 
 McGill College, under a Royal charter, in 1821, 
 of which the Royal Institution are the visitors ; but 
 it was not until 1829, that, after a long course of 
 litigation, the Royal Institution came into posses- 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 1' 
 
 \'J 
 
 il 
 
 J?if: 
 
• it ■ 
 
 1 r 
 
 48 i' 
 
 W 
 
 >■ I 
 
 lijl 
 
 110 
 
 sion of the landed property and buildings near 
 Montreal, devised by Mr. McGill, nor was it until 
 a few months ago that the judgment was obtained 
 before his Majesty in his Privy Council, for the 
 sum of £10,000., also bequeathed by Mr. McGill, 
 in trust for the Royal Institution. This legacy, 
 though now amounting, with the accumulated in- 
 terest, to £22,000., is manifestly insufficient, with- 
 out the aid of further endowment, for the establish- 
 ment and maintenance of an University, as con- 
 templated by the testator, or even of a single 
 College. 
 
 ** It is desirable also, that inferior academical in- 
 stitutions should be maintained as nurseries for 
 those of a higher description ; but the Grammar 
 Schools established by his Majesty, in Quebec and 
 Montreal, have been left without support since the 
 revenues of the Jesuits' estates were transferred to 
 the management of the Legislature, without any 
 reservation in favour of those establishments, or for 
 the protection of the teachers whom his Majesty's 
 Government had engaged and sent from England 
 to preside over them ; the salaries of the Masters 
 were, in 1832, reduced by the Assembly to a sum 
 totally insufficient to enable them to provide the 
 requisite assistance in their schools, without which 
 they cannot apply themselves to the principal ob- 
 ject of such institutions, instruction in classical and 
 mathematical knowledge ; and there is no reason- 
 able ground to hope that any relief will be afforded 
 
Ill 
 
 le 
 ih 
 
 to the teachers, or any effectual support to the 
 schools, unless his Majesty shall, in his justice and 
 bounty, secure a provision for them out of his 
 land revenues, at least equal to that upon the pro- 
 mises of which the establishments were originally 
 formed. 
 
 *' It would also be highly desirable that similar 
 provision should be made for institutions of the 
 same description at Three Rivers, and in the eastern 
 townships. 
 
 " In the neighbouring provinces of North Ame- 
 rica, the Crown has provided, either in land or in 
 money, or in both, for the endowment of colleges 
 and institutions of education. In Upper Canada, 
 650,000 acres were set apart in 1798, for the sup- 
 port of an University and Grammar Schools, but 
 of this reservation the University of King's College, 
 at York, has received an endowment of 226,000 
 acres, besides a royal grant of £1000. per annum 
 from the territorial revenue, and the minor College 
 and Grammar School at York, are endowed with 
 65,000 acres, and a portion of the revenues of the 
 other reserved lands, together with a grant of 
 £1000. from the territorial revenue, and a tract of 
 175,000 acres has been assigned for the endowment 
 of Grammar Schools in the other districts of the 
 Province. 
 
 " In Nova Scotia, a College was chartered by the 
 Crown in 1803, and received a grant of £1000. per 
 annum from his Majesty's Government, with an 
 
 1* .! 
 
 d- 
 
 1 
 
J 12 
 
 -♦'f 
 
 > .< 
 
 endowment of 20,000 acres of land, and further 
 grants to the extent of 1 G,000 acres have been made 
 for other institutions. 
 
 " In New Brunswick, the College at Frederic- 
 town receives an annual grant from the territorial 
 revenue, of £1000. per annum, and has been en- 
 dowed with 5000 acres of land, and a valuable 
 estate in Frederictown, and in every township in 
 the Province grants, or reservations, have been 
 made (amounting now to 20,000 acres), and con- 
 tinue to be made as townships are laid out, for the 
 support of Schools. While such provision has been 
 made for education in the neighbouring British 
 Colonies, and while the establishments for the edu- 
 cation of that part of the population of this Pro- 
 vince which is of French extraction, and of the Ro- 
 man Catholic persuasion, are extensive, and sup- 
 ported by large endowments, (which, though ori- 
 ginally derived from private donations, have been 
 secured by capitulations granted by the Crown, or 
 have been left by its indulgence in their possession) 
 the other inhabitants of the Province feel the want 
 of the same advantage. It is true that the semi- 
 naries herr alluded to, are nominally open to all 
 classes of the population ; but it is an undoubted 
 fact, that an almost universal and insuperable re- 
 luctance appears to exist among those classes to 
 avail themselves of the means of instruction thus 
 afforded to their youth ; and that the instances of 
 young persons of that description being educated in 
 
 m: i. 
 
 'iif' 
 
113 
 
 those Seminaries, have been, and are exceedingly 
 unfrequent, in proportion to the number who have 
 -been sent out of the Province for education. Inde- 
 pendently of this consideration, the range of in- 
 struction in one of these Seminaries is necessarily 
 limited by particular circumstances, and in neither 
 of them is an education afforded either founded on 
 the principles, or conducted in the manner to 
 which, whether from prejudice or enlightened choice, 
 those, who belong to a different class of the popula- 
 tion, would give a decided preference ; and the 
 same observation applies, and will, it is believed, 
 long continue to apply to other Seminaries of more 
 recent origin, which have been founded with the 
 most praiseworthy zeal by the Roman Catholic 
 priesthood aided by annual grants from the Le- 
 gislature, in those parts of the Province inhabited 
 by a population of French extraction. 
 
 '* Circumstances in the political condition of this 
 Province, to which the undersigned is desirous not 
 to advert in a more particular manner, but which 
 can neither be wholly kept out of sight, nor their 
 influence changed (as he believes), except in a 
 long lapse of time, render it improbable that any 
 permanent establishment or encouragement can be 
 expected, except from the Crown, for such insti- 
 tutions in the higher branches of education, as 
 would be acceptable to that part of the community 
 deriving its origin from the Mother Country. 
 ** It is at once an evidence of the state of things 
 
 I 
 
 •'/ 
 
114 
 
 ,!f;' 
 
 ' I 
 
 I I 
 
 ) ■ ( 
 
 i; 
 
 f.W- I 
 
 il-' ' 
 
 which has been here described, and of the strength 
 of the feelings and pro-possessions from which it 
 has originated, that persons who have been desirous 
 of giving their children an enlarged and complete 
 education, have been obliged to send them out of 
 the Province, either to Great Britain or Upper 
 Canada (since the establishment of collegiate insti- 
 tutions there), to Nova Scotia, or even to the 
 United States of America ; and it is a fact, that at 
 the present moment there are, at a private institu- 
 tion for classical education, in the State of Vermont, 
 nineteen young perso^is from this Province, or the 
 adjacent parts of Upper Canada (chiefly belonging 
 to the most respectable families of British origin), 
 who have been driven to this resource for the better 
 education of their children, in consequence of the 
 absence of any well-endowed and established Semi- 
 nary in this Province. 
 
 " The Royal Institution are aware that it does 
 not belong to the duties of his Majesty's Commis- 
 sioners to set apart endowments for education 
 from Crown lands ; but they have drawn the 
 attention of the Commissioners to the subject, in 
 the apprehension that, by the measures which the 
 Commissioners are now framing for surrendering 
 the Crown lands or the revenues thereof, to the 
 Provincial Legislature, the Crown will be here- 
 after precluded, as in the instance of the surrender 
 of the Jesuits* estates, from exercising any power 
 of providing for the important object out of its 
 
 -■li 
 
11.5 
 
 territorial possessions, unless such power be ex- 
 pressly, and in terms reserved to it, or a sufficient 
 provision previously assigned. 
 
 (Signed) Andrew William Cochran, 
 
 President of the Royal Institution. 
 Quebec^ 
 24, December, 1835. 
 
 Messieurs Moffatt, McGill, and Cochran, were 
 examined by the Commissioners upon this head, 
 and the following are the remarks made by those 
 gentlemen : — , , 
 
 ** Messieurs Moffatt and McGill next wished to 
 call the attention of the Commissioners to the 
 preamble of the Provisional Act, 41 Geo. III., c. 
 17, which established the Royal Institution for the 
 advancement of learning ; and Mr. Moffatt read 
 a memorial, which was presented to Lord Dalliousie 
 in the month of February, 1826, from the trustees 
 of the Institution, in which the engagements were 
 set forth that the Government had at different times 
 entered into, to grant lands for the purpose of en- 
 dowing Colleges and Schools; and Messieurs 
 Moffatt and McGill stated, that in their opinion, 
 the proceeds of the hereditary revenue should not 
 be surrendered, before some provision should be 
 made for the fulfilment of these engagements, as 
 the Royal Institution was at present entirely desti- 
 tute of funds. 
 
 " They further stated, that there is no adequate 
 
 I 2 
 
 H' 
 

 hi 
 
 
 IIG 
 
 provision in tlic Province for the higher branches 
 of English education, and that, though the sum of 
 £22,000 is annually granted by the Legislature 
 for the purposes of education, this assistance is 
 principally given to schools quite of an elementary 
 character ; and they would wish that two Colleges 
 at least should be endowed where English youths 
 might acquire the higher branches of education, 
 for which, at present, they are forced to resort to 
 the United States or to Great Britain.** 
 
 ** Hon. A. W. Cochran, attended by appoint- 
 ment in order to explain the papers which had 
 been submitted by himself and Mr. McGill in sup- 
 port of a claim from the Royal Institution, and in 
 the first instance drew the attention of the Commis- 
 sioners to the fact, that the preamble to the Act of 
 41 Geo. III., chap. 17. recites a direct promise 
 from the Crown for an endowment out of the waste 
 lands, which recital is copied verbatim from the 
 speech with which the Governor-in-chief opened 
 the session of 1801 ; that, notwithstanding this 
 distinct promise, no endowment has ever taken 
 place, and that he does not even now desire to 
 claim an immediate endowment, but only to enter 
 a caveat against the adoption of any measure that 
 may deprive the Crown of the power of making 
 one. 
 
 " Does the Institution get any aid from the 
 Jesuits* estates, or has it the prospect of aid from 
 them? — It does not now get any aid from the 
 
117 
 
 the 
 
 I from 
 
 the 
 
 Jesuits' estates ; for one year subsequent to the 
 surrender of the estates, the salaries of masters of 
 Government ScIjooIs at Quebec and Montreal, for- 
 merly charged on that fund, were paid by an Act 
 from the Legislature, since that year, 1832, those 
 salaries have remained unpaid, and no advantage 
 has been derived from the funds of these estates. 
 As to the prospect for the future, it must be matter 
 of inference and opinion from what has been done 
 hitherto, and the disposition which may be sup- 
 posed to prevail. My own apprehension is, as 
 stated in my written document, that the Institution 
 has no great cause to expect a portion of that reve- 
 nue sufficient for the purposes of endowment. 
 
 " Is the Institution at present in active opera- 
 tion ? — It is. 
 
 " What are the duties which it discharges? — It 
 has under its direction the Grammar Schools of 
 Quebec and Montreal, and also a number of ele- 
 mentary schools throughout the province. The 
 salaries for the masters of these schools are paid 
 out of monies voted for the purpose by the Le- 
 gislature. A part of their duty also consists in 
 the management of the property devised by Mr. 
 McGill.'' 
 
 It was then agreed by the board, that, as Mr. 
 Cochran's application did not go to ask any imme- 
 diate grant, but only to request that the Crown 
 should not be incapacitated from fulfilling the en- 
 gagements entered into in 1801, it was not neces- 
 
 II 
 
 
■" 1, 
 
 **,t 
 
 ■'J 
 
 tl 
 
 M: 
 
 118 
 
 sary, at present, to do more than assure Mr. Cochran 
 that the Commissioners would not lose sight of the 
 subject. ■ - ■ ' 
 
 Mr. Cochran, however, added, that his applica- 
 tion did not simply go to a fulfilment of the pro- 
 mise made in 1801, but to the enforcement, on 
 general principle, of the claims of the institution 
 to the protection of Government, particularly as 
 the schools of the country do not now afford to the 
 youth of English extraction the means of acquiring 
 the higher branches of education. For the more 
 elementary branches of education, the schools estab- 
 lished by the Legislature might suffice, as little 
 objection is made to bring children of English and 
 French extraction together in them ; but the re- 
 pugnance to send children to schools which are 
 chiefly filled with persons of different religion, and 
 speaking a different language, is greater amongst 
 the higher classes." - ' •" 
 
 Some elenjentary schools have been established 
 in the provincial cities by private societies, and 
 have at various times received legislative assist- 
 ance ; but of late years they have been dependent 
 for support upon private charity, and the contri- 
 butions of individuals. There are two of these 
 schools at Montreal, three at Quebec, and one at 
 Three, Rivers, attended indiscriminately by Pro- 
 testant and Roman Catholic children, and devoted 
 more particularly to the gratuitous instruction of 
 the children of both sexes of the needy and the 
 indigent. 
 
119 
 
 re- 
 
 ihed 
 
 and 
 
 isist- 
 
 lent 
 
 Ltri- 
 liese 
 le at 
 
 ^ro- 
 loted 
 In of 
 
 the 
 
 Previous to adverting to the Report of the Com- 
 missioners upon the subject of Education in Lower 
 Canada, the importance of that subject may be in- 
 cidentally viewed in its connection with the pro- 
 vincial population of different origin who are to be 
 affected thereby; the increase and extent of that 
 population will be seen in the following state- 
 ment, which has been prepared from authentic 
 sources : — 
 
 1st. or THE PROVINCK 01 QUEBEC. 
 
 In 1796. the estimated Population of Canada 
 ' as reported to the French Govern- 
 ment, was - - - - 20,000 
 1714, Ditto, Ditto, - 27,000 
 
 1 760, At the cession by the British Go- 
 vernment - - - - 70,000 
 1784, By returns to Government - - 112,119 
 
 Increase. 
 
 7,000 
 43,000 
 
 Married Men 
 Do. Women - 
 Males over 15 - 
 Do. under 15 - 
 Females over 14 
 Do. under 14 
 Servants - 
 Absentees 
 Slaves 
 
 20,131 
 
 19,354 
 
 9,381 
 
 24,552 
 
 8,892 
 
 22,513 
 
 6,491 
 
 501 
 
 504 
 
 112,119 say 113,000 - 48,000 
 
 2nd. of lower CANADA ALONF.. 
 
 1825, By Census returns - - - - 
 These were allowed to be defective, 
 and the actual population ha» 
 been more correctly assumed at 
 1831, By Census returns - - - - 
 In the district of Mont- 
 real, ... - 290,050 
 Quebec - - - - 151,980 
 Three Rivers - - 56,570 
 Gaspe - - - - 13,312 
 
 511,917 
 
 423,630 
 
 450,000 - 337,000 
 511,9^7 - 61,917 
 
120 
 
 !': 
 
 :il<' 
 
 ,1- 
 
 Males. 
 
 78,72^ 
 92,704 
 22,098 
 23,309 
 35,852 
 60,441 
 13,243 
 
 Females. Married. 
 
 83,659 
 69,784 
 27,633 
 
 401 
 907 
 16,574 
 54,028 
 11,243 
 
 64,941 4,843 
 
 22,356 5,274 
 
 600,000 inc. 88,033 
 
 per annum 2,000 
 
 8,219 
 
 10,154 
 
 17,816 
 
 it 
 
 i( 
 
 Of this number 
 
 Of 5 years and under 
 From 5 to 1 4 years - 
 
 14 to 18 - - 
 
 18 to 21 - - 
 
 21 to 30 - - 
 
 30 to 60 - - 
 
 60 and upwards 
 
 Under 14 - - - 
 From 14 to 45 - - - 
 
 45 and upwards - • 
 1 836, Estimated population 
 
 Average increase from 1760 to 1784 
 Do. do. from 1784 to 1825 
 Do. do. from 1825 to 1831 
 Do. do. from 1831 to 1836 
 
 From 1760 to 1836 during, the period 
 of 76 years, the population of Lower Canada has dou- 
 bled itself 3^ times. 
 
 The general average increase of Lower Canada per annum, 
 from 1825 to 1836 
 
 The census of Lower Canada of 1831, estimated the en- 
 tire provincial population at - 
 
 Of whom were Roman Catholics 
 
 Leaving for Protestants none of whom could be of French 
 origin ... 
 
 Of the Roman Catholics, about 50,000 are of British 
 origin, and therefore in 1831 the inhabitants of British 
 origin were about - - 
 
 And of French origin - - 
 
 The increase from 1831 to 1836 is 
 
 But in those years 1 95,000 emigrants arrived at Quebec 
 from Great Britain and Ireland, of whom there re- 
 mained in the Province, say - - . 
 
 liCaving the natural increase of the population for those 
 five years - - . 
 
 Which divided between the sexes in the proportion of 
 1 58 to 353, would increase the inhabitants of French 
 
 Single. 
 
 21,697 
 
 13,302 
 
 17,278 
 
 6,413 
 
 2,000 
 
 ongm to 
 And those of British origin, 
 35,000 emigrants, to 
 
 with the addition of the 
 
 16,029 
 
 511,917 
 403,472 
 
 108,445 
 
 158,»00 
 
 353,000 
 
 88,083 
 
 35,000 
 54,081 
 
 390,000 
 210,000 
 
 § 
 
 lU? 
 
 m 
 
121 
 
 The manner in which the Canada Commis- 
 sioners acquitted themselves of that important 
 portion of their duty, which related to the state 
 of education in the provinces, and the means 
 of advancing it, can best be judged of by refer- 
 ence to their Report on this head, which is here 
 subjoined. 
 
 " 1. We feel that we ought not to close our ge- 
 neral Report without saying a few words on the 
 state of education in the province, though we regret 
 that it is not in our power at present to go into the 
 subject at any length. 
 
 "2. On the 21st December, 1829, a despatch 
 was addressed to the Secretary of State, by Sir 
 James Kempt, to which we would refer (Appendix 
 No. 1 ), as exhibiting a correct view of the means 
 of public instruction then existing in Lower Ca- 
 nada ; since which time, although great liberality 
 has been evinced on the part of the Provincial Le- 
 gislature, and a strong desire to advance the cause 
 of general education manifested by the Executive, 
 we regret to say that the progress has not been, as 
 far as we can judge, such as might have been ex- 
 pected. The entire proceeds of the Jesuits' estates 
 have been dedicated by Government, since the date 
 of Sir James Kempt's despatch, to the advance- 
 ment of education ; and a total sum has been ap- 
 propriated to the same purpose by the House of 
 Assembly, of ^17^,519. 5s. 9c/., being on an avc- 
 
 '.) 
 
 I 
 
t:i4 
 
 ii 
 
 t\ 
 
 122 
 
 rage £24,645. 145. 3d. per annum, or about one- 
 fifth of the total revenue of the province. The 
 Royal Institution, partly owing to the extensive 
 operations carried on by the Legislature through 
 different channels, and partly from other circum- 
 stances, has fallen into neglect ; and we fear that 
 any attempt to revive it, or mako it efficient, would 
 be unavailing. The allowance of £2000 per annum 
 for the support of its schools, Continued to be made 
 by the Legislature, up to 1832 ; but in the latter 
 year the grant was reduced to £1265, and has' 
 since been discontinued altogether. The schools, 
 however, under the management of the Institution, 
 may still, under certain conditions, receive the 
 allowance that is made generally to all elementary 
 schools in the province. ^ 
 
 "3. By the despatch which we have referred to, 
 it will be seen that an Act was passed in 1829, 
 for the encouragement of Elementary Education, 
 which was to be in force three years ; and we find 
 that Acts were passed, amending and explaining 
 its provisions, in the two following years, 1 830 and 
 1831. In the latter year also, a Standing -Com- 
 mittee was appointed in the House of Assembly, to 
 report, from time to time, on all subjects connected 
 with Education; by which Committee, renewed, 
 as it has subsequently been, at the commencement 
 of every session, several valuable Reports have been 
 presented to the House. The views entertained in 
 them appear to us generally so judicious, that wc 
 
 j'. ii' I 
 
1-23 
 
 can only lament that they have not heen more ex- 
 tensively acted on by the House to which they were 
 addressed. 
 
 " 4. The system established in 1829 was further 
 continued, by successive enactments, to the 15th 
 May in the present year ; but a Bill, which would 
 again have continued it, failed in the late session, 
 so that the elementary schools are left for the 
 present without any support from the Government. 
 We find that, as the grants made by this Bill 
 were far more extensive than in any that went 
 before, and would, in the whole, have amounted 
 to nearly £40,000, it was thrown out by the Coun- 
 cil, principally on the ground that, if it had 
 passed, sufficient money would not have been left 
 in the provincial treasury to discharge the long 
 arrears of salaries due to the public officers. 
 In the Report, however, which the Committee of 
 the Council made on this bill, additional reasons 
 for rejecting it are set forth, based on the ill suc- 
 cess of the former grants, on the danger of libe- 
 rality degenerating into prodigality, and on the ex- 
 tent of the powers that the bill bestowed upon 
 county members. A copy of this Report and of 
 certain resolutions founded upon it by the Council, 
 is placed in the Appendix No. 3. 
 
 ** 5. But though this bill was lost, two others re- 
 specting education were passed ; one under which 
 special grants were made to particular schools oi- 
 colleges to the amount of £7(3'20. sterling ; another 
 

 ii::iS '' 
 
 m 
 
 
 
 
 f I 
 
 
 124 
 
 by which Normal schools, or schools for the for- 
 mation of teachers, were established in the cities of 
 Quebec and Montreal. 
 
 " 6. We have placed in the Appendix an extract 
 from Lord Aberdeen's despatch of 1st January 
 1835, (Appendix No. 2) explaining the ground on 
 which the Royal Assent was refused to a Bill that 
 had passed in 1834, for very generally conferring a 
 corporate capacity on all institutions for education 
 in the Province. A Bill of somewhat a similar 
 nature, but framed apparently with an advertence 
 to Lord Aberdeen's objections, was passed this 
 year, but it received some amendments in the 
 Council, and was not returned to the Assembly 
 till after there had ceased to be a quorum in 
 attendance. 
 
 "7. The general system of elementary Education 
 established by the successive enactments we have 
 described, commencing in 1829, may be stated as 
 follows. The whole province is divided into school 
 districts, which, under the Bill that expired in May 
 last, amounted to 1,344, and by the Bill which was 
 lost in the first session of this year, would have been 
 increased to 1,657, notwithstanding the repeated 
 comments of the standing Committee of the Asserr; hly 
 upon the excess of their numbers. In each district, 
 a school may be established at the discretion of the 
 visitors, and an additional one for girls in each 
 parish ; a parish generally containing several dis- 
 tricts. Every school may receive from the funds of 
 
125 
 
 ly 
 
 the Province, a grant of £20. per annum, provided 
 no greater charge than 2s. per month is made for 
 the education of each scholar, and that 20 scholars, 
 at least, have been in regular attendance during a 
 certain portion of the year. In any school where 
 there are not less than 20 scholars paying this sum 
 for instruction, the Trustees have power, under 
 certain restrictions, to admit a proportion of poor 
 children gratuitously. Half the expence of erect- 
 ing school-houses is often granted, provided such 
 half does not exceed £50. The sum of 10s. per 
 annum is allowed to be distributed in each school 
 by the visitors, in prizes or rewards amongst the 
 children. 
 
 " 8. Visitors are appointed for each county, con- 
 sisting of the following persons: the resident Mem- 
 bers of the Legislative Council, the Members of 
 Assembly returned by the County, the Superiors 
 and Professors of all colleges in it, the Presidents 
 of all societies for promoting Education ; to whom 
 are added in each parish, but for the parish only, 
 the Ministers of the most numerous religious deno- 
 mination, the senior Justice of the Peace, and the 
 senior Militia Officer. These Visitors (or any three, 
 or latterly two, of them) are required to visit 
 annually all the schools in their respective counties, 
 and must certify all the documents which are ne- 
 cessary to obtain the various grants of money 
 which have been enumerated ; public examina- 
 tions are also to be held by them once a year. 
 
126 
 
 
 \: ! 
 
 f 
 
 ii 
 
 ■pi>'' ) 
 
 ** 9. Ill each school district, moreover, tliere are 
 three Trustees, chosen by persons qualified to elect 
 Members of the Assembly, and empowered to hold 
 the property which may belong to the school, and to 
 receive benefactions and bequests, within certain 
 limits, notwithstanding the laws of mortmain. ■ i ' 
 
 " 10. The Bill of 1836 further went to authorize 
 school districts to assess themselves, with the con- 
 sent of a majority of the persons quailified to vote at 
 elections for Members of Parliament, for the erec- 
 tion of school-houses or the support of schools ; and 
 the Bill also provided for the establishment of one 
 superior or model school in each parish, the master 
 of which might be paid out of the public funds a 
 salary of £50. a year, provided an additional sum 
 of £20. werie raised for him by the parish, n '. ■ 
 
 "11. That the system of which we have given 
 this rapid outline has been much abused, is suffi- 
 ciently shewn in the valuable Reports which we have 
 already mentioned of the Standing Committee of 
 the House of Assembly. The principal defects 
 seem to have been, the want of a central board or 
 authority to direct and control the working of the 
 system, a want of qualification in the teachers, and 
 the want of attendance in the children ; the want 
 of sufficient exertion on the part of parents in 
 general, arising perhaps from the too prevalent 
 impression that the education of their children is 
 a matter of concern for the Government, and not 
 for themselves ; and, lastly, the want of power to 
 
V27 
 
 raise money tor the support of sch Is, even 
 where there miglit exist amongst the majority of 
 the inhabitants a desire to subject themselves to 
 assessments for the purpose. The Standing Com- 
 mittee, in their first Report for 1836, expressly 
 state that the liberality of the Legislature in sup- 
 port of some societies, * had paralyzed their efforts 
 instead of stimulating them.' 
 
 "12. The failure of the Board of Education, 
 which was instituted under the name of the Royal 
 Institution, might at first be regarded as a fact 
 tending to discourage any future plan for the crea- 
 tion of a central authority, to be entrusted with the 
 control of all establishments for elementary Educa- 
 tion in the Province ; but we think that errors were 
 committed in the formation of that Board, which 
 would now be avoided ; and if we are not deceived 
 in the hope we entertain, that the laudable efforts, 
 lately begun, to introduce a general system of 
 Education in Ireland are proceeding successfully, 
 we would recommend that the fullest information 
 respecting the working of that system should be 
 sent to Lower Canada ; for where such abundant 
 proof exists of a willingness to engage in the ge- 
 nerous enterprize, we cannot doubt that any hints 
 to be derived from successful practice in other 
 countries would be well received. We are happy 
 to be enabled here to add, that the Report of M. 
 Cousin on the state of Education in Prussia, as 
 well as several works on the subject of Education 
 
I ( 
 
 1; 1 
 
 !,; 
 
 ■'I 
 
 1 . I 
 
 i 
 
 M'^ 
 
 128 
 
 in the United States, are beginning to attract 
 notice in the Province. 
 
 " 13. We do not think that the system of sup- 
 porting schools entirely, or even principally, out 
 of the general revenue of any country is a good one. 
 We think, on the contrary, that the funds for ele- 
 mentary Education should be supplied from the 
 following sources. 
 
 ** First. — From a general assessment on all pro- 
 perty within the parish or school district, on the 
 principle, that as education is a matter in Vv^hich the 
 public good is concerned, every inhabita;it ought 
 to contribute to it in proportion to his means ; and 
 also, because the expenditure of money, raised in 
 part by local assessment, is likely to be better 
 superintended, and more careful" ^ watched by per- 
 sons on the spot, than the expenditure of money 
 supplied entirely out of the general revenue. 
 
 " Secondly. — By a grant from the public purse of 
 the Province, which grant, however, should never 
 exceed the amount of what is levied by local assess- 
 ment. The general revenue in Canada being suf- 
 ficient, and more than sufiicient, for all ordinary 
 expenses of Government, it is but reasonable that a 
 portion of it should be applied to reduce the amount 
 of local assessments. 
 
 "Thirdly. — By payments from the children 
 themselves, or rather from their parents, for the 
 reason that what people get for nothing, they are 
 apt not to value highly. 
 
129 
 
 *' 14. With respect to the superintendence of the 
 elementary schools, we think trustees and inspec- 
 tors should he elected hy the rate-payers in each 
 parish or school district, who shouhi correspond 
 with, and be in subordination to, a central board 
 established in each of the districts into which the 
 Province is divided. In Quebec and Montreal we 
 think that the Board ought to be composed, at 
 least in the commencement, of the persons who 
 have been already constituted a committee in the 
 management of the Normal schools, and that in 
 the other districts, Boards should be formed, as 
 nearly as possible on the same principle. The con- 
 trol exercised by the visitors appointed by the 
 recent Acts of the Legislature, has been, as far as 
 we can judge, neither satisfactory nor efficient. 
 That it was insufficient to check jobbing and mal- 
 versation, appears to be admitted in the Reports 
 made to the Assembly, whilst the possible employ- 
 ment for political purposes of the patronage, which 
 was afforded by it to members of the Assembly, is 
 objected to, and we conceive not without reason, by 
 the Council. 
 
 *' 15. With respect to the very important ques- 
 tion, how far elementary schools should be charged 
 with the duty of affording religious instruction, we 
 must confess frankly that we have not sufficient in- 
 formation to enable us to express a decided opinion. 
 As a general principle, we cannot hesitate to de- 
 clare, that as it is highly important that such 
 
I' ' 
 
 1 u 
 
 . i 
 
 130 
 
 schools should be as comprehensive as possible, so 
 is it, in our opinion, desirable that the religious 
 instruction imparted in them should embrace only 
 such general doctrines as all who are Christians 
 may agree in ; but whether a plan of this sort 
 would be suitable to the present state of Lower 
 Canada, is a question on which we are not pre- 
 pared with an answer. There is a deep sentiment 
 of religion spread, we believe, over the whole popu- 
 lation of the country, and we are happy to bear 
 testimony so cordially as we can do, that it is ac- 
 companied with fewer feelings of acerbity of the 
 followers of one creed towards another, and parti- 
 cularly of Protestants towards Papists, than perhaps 
 in any country where distinctions so marked and 
 so numerous exist. From this we might not un- 
 reasonably be led to expect that a system of educa- 
 tion founded on the truly Christian principle of 
 toleration and general charity would not be unat- 
 tainable ; if we further, however, venture to ex- 
 press a hope that such a plan may be prosecuted to 
 completion, we feel that in doing so we ought to 
 add, that the best chance of its being realized may, 
 as far as we ourselves are concerned, depend on our 
 here dismissing the subject, rather than attempting 
 to prescribe to those who must be engaged in the 
 great and gratifying work of carrying it into exe- 
 cution, the means that they are to employ. 
 
 " Upon the subject of the higher class of Schools, 
 we cannot enter at present, though, as we have 
 
131 
 
 e, so 
 
 ;ioiis 
 
 only 
 
 tians 
 sort 
 
 lOwer 
 pre- 
 
 ment 
 
 popu- 
 bear 
 
 is ac- 
 
 of the 
 
 parti - 
 
 ^rhaps 
 
 id and 
 
 >t un- 
 
 iduca- 
 
 ple of 
 unat- 
 to ex- 
 ted to 
 ffht to 
 may, 
 n our 
 ipting 
 lin the 
 [o exe- 
 
 jhools, 
 le have 
 
 received applications for assistance from the Trus- 
 tees of McGill College, in Montreal, wu must pre- 
 pare ourselves to do so hereafter ; as also to turn 
 our attention to the subject of the establishment of 
 a University in the Province, to which all classes 
 of its inhabitants might resort for the attainment of 
 the higher branches of Education, and the general 
 cultivation of science. This latter, we believe to be 
 an object of earnest desire amongst persons of in- 
 fluence in the Province, and one which, we appre- 
 hend, is every way befitting the care of the Impe- 
 rial, as well as the local, Government. 
 
 " We have the honour to be, your Lordship's 
 most obedient humble servants, 
 
 (Signed) " Gosford, 
 
 *' George Gipps, 
 
 " Chas. Edw. Grey." 
 
 The spirit in which the Reports of the Canadian 
 Commissioners generally have been framed, and 
 more particularly that portion of them which re- 
 lates to Education, is best exemplified in the fol- 
 lowing paragraph of their first Report, in which, 
 recommending the reservation to His Majesty of 
 certain rights and powers over the Crown property, 
 they set forth, '* Your Lordship will observe by 
 the evidence (to wit, of Messrs. MofFatt, McGill, 
 and Cochran, before inserted, and by a memorial 
 which we have included in the A ppendix also inserted) 
 that the Trustees of the Royal Institution brought 
 
132 
 
 i,5 
 
 ft 
 
 I \ 
 
 
 before us, claims that the Crown should not de- 
 prive itself of the means of granting them an en- 
 dowment of land. The general reservation which 
 we have just recommended, and His Majesty's right 
 over the Crown lands, would in strictness comprise 
 this power ; but we apprehend that such a grant 
 would be viewed with great jealousy by the Pro- 
 vincial Legislature : we cannot help thinking that 
 the Royal Institution should be left to be assisted 
 by the Assembly, which we believe has always 
 shewn itself liberal in encouraging the promotion 
 of Education." 
 
 The state of education in Lower Canada has 
 recently been again brought under the notice of 
 Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, 
 as well by a deputation composed of some of the 
 principal members of the House of Commons, and 
 other persons resident in London connected with 
 the Colony, as by the provincial agents represent- 
 ing the inhabitants of British and Irish origin in the 
 Province ; and it is understood that the subject is 
 now under the consideration of Her Majesty's 
 Government, and will receive that attention which 
 its importance demands. 
 
 I 
 
 London, I3th June, 1838. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 NOnMAIt AKD SKSXK, FRIMTSRS, MAIDBN LANS, COVENT GARDEN. 
 
 ■ iHl n»-<,>, ,t i^b. 
 
I not de- 
 ft an en- 
 3n which 
 ty's right 
 comprise 
 a grant 
 the Pro- 
 Ling that 
 I assisted 
 » always 
 •omotion 
 
 ada has 
 lotice of 
 Colonies, 
 e of the 
 •ns, and 
 ed with 
 present- 
 n in the 
 ibject is 
 lajesty's 
 1 which 
 
 DEN.