CLOSE OF THE REVEREND DOCTOR RYERSON'S ADMINISTRATION IN 1876. VOL. IV: 1841-1843. Edited, under the direction of the Honourable the Minister of Education, with Explanatory Notes, BY J. GEORGE HODGINS, M.A., LL.D., F.R.G.S., BARRISTER-AT-LAW, LIBRARIAN AND HISTORIOGRAPHER TO THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF ONTARIO. WARWICK BRO'S & RUTTER, PRINTERS, &c., &c., 68 AND 70 FRONT STREET WEST. 1897. PREFATORY REMARKS. This Fourth Volume contains a record of several memorable events in the history of Education in Upper Canada. Not the least notable of these events was the issue of a Royal Charter to the University of Queen's College, Kingston, and the passage of its equivalent, in the shape of an Act of Incorporation of the University of Victoria College, Cobourg. Still more notable in the educational history of those times was the fact, that, in the years 1841, 1842 and 1843, three Universities in Upper Canada opened their doors for the admission and education of Students in the various branches, or departments, of Literature and Science. These three Universities were opened at the following dates : 1. Victoria College was informally opened, as a Preparatory College, by the Reverend Doctor Egerton Ryerson, its President, on the 21st of October, 1841. It was fully and formally opened by Doctor Ryerson as a University College on the 21st of June, 1842. 2. Queen's College was opened as a University College by the Very Reverend Doctor Thomas Liddell, its President, on the 7th of March, 1842. 3. King's College was opened as a University by the Right Reverend Doctor John Strachan, its President, on the 8th of June, 1843. The Corner Stone of the New Building for the College was laid with appropriate ceremonies and addresses on the 23rd of April, 1842, by His Excellency Sir Charles Bagot, Chancellor of the University. In connection with these interesting historical events, there are published in this Volume, two very important and elaborate papers by the Right Reverend Doctor Strachan, President of the University of King's College. The first of these documents is Doctor Strachan's appeal, (written early in 1842, and not before published.) to Sir Charles Bagot, Chancellor of the University, in which he surveyed the stormy past of the University, and strongly urged the Governor General to take steps to authorize the Council of King's College to erect the University Buildings. The second document is a valuable historical record by Doctor Strachan, (in the form of an Address at the opening of King's College University in 1843,) of the proceedings of Lord Dorchester, Governor Simcoe, the Government and Legislature, and King's College Council in regard to Education in Upper Canada, from 1789 to 1843, including a sketch of the history of the University from the grant ing of the Royal Charter in 1827, until it was opened for the reception of Students in 1843. Not less important than these events was the passage, by the Legislature of United Canada, in 1841 of a somewhat comprehensive, yet almost entirely nonpractical, School Law for the United Province. The preparation and passage of this Measure has a history unique of its kind. It was based chiefly on the educa tional theories, which were elaborated in the Report on Common School Education, laid before the Upper Canada House of Assembly, by Doctor Charles Duncombe, a Member of the House, in 1836.* The Framer of the Bill also consulted a series of "Letters on Elementary and Practical Education," by Mr. Charles Mondelet, a French Canadian Gentleman, published in Montreal in 1841. Neither the Report nor the Letters professed to be any thing more than the personal opinions of the authors, based upon theoretical observation, and not upon practical experience. Great pains were clearly taken in the preparation of this Bill; and the Framer of it, (the Honourable Solicitor General Day,) was ably assisted in his work by the late Honourable Christopher Dunkin, who had been one of the Assistant Secretaries in the preparation, under the direction of Sir Charles Buller, of that part of Lord Durham's Report relating to Education in Lower Canada. He was also the promoter of the "Dunkin Bill." Nevertheless, the Common School Act, as passed, was, from many causes, a total failure, and had to be superseded by a new Act for each Province in 1843. It does not appear, from the remarks made by the Honourable SolicitorGeneral Day, in introducing his Common School Bill into the House of Assembly, that, in the construction of that Bill, he had consulted the more practical Reports on Education, (with the draft of School Bills, that usually accompanied them,) which had been laid, from time to time, in previous years, before the Upper Canada House of Assembly. He seems rather to have confined himself to Doctor Duncombe's elaborate Bill-probably from the fact that it had been published separately in book form, and was, therefore, more accessible at the time, than were the Reports of Committees of the House of Assembly, which could only have been consulted in the successive year's Appendices to the Journals of the Legislature. In one respect, Doctor Duncombe was in advance of his times. In his educational investigations in the United States, he noticed, (as I did afterwards, when acting on a Commission, appointed in 1871, to enquire into the state of Technical Education in the United States,) that a good deal of attention was there given to the subject of Industrial Education. Doctor Duncombe provided, therefore, in his draft of School Bill, that School Teachers be authorized to collect funds : To purchase, or lease, any shop, work-house, mechanical tools and materials for the purpose of enabling the scholars of the School district, profitably to employ a portion of their time in the acquiring a knowledge of such mechanical skill, art, business, or profession, as the Trustees, with the Teacher, shall think fit *Pages 289-322 of the Second Volume of this Documentary History. So deeply impressed was I, long since, of the importance of this subject, and of the necessity of providing in our School System for a practical solution of the question which was then, and is now, of pressing importance-viz., Manual Training, as a part of Educational System-that, in 1877, I prepared a Lecture on the subject, and delivered it at various School gatherings, in different parts of the Province. The Lecture was founded on the Industrial Lessons taught to us so impressively at the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, in 1876. These lessons, in their educational aspects, were even more forcibly impressed upon me at the great Industrial Exhibition held at New Orleans, in 1885. Having been there for six weeks, as an Educational Juror, on behalf of the United States Bureau of Education, I had abundant and excellent facilities for studying the whole question, and for seeing how it was being worked out, in the various National School Systems which came under review in that enquiry--especially in that of France. The French school law of 1882 provided that Primary education should include [among other things] the elements of the Natural, Physical and Mathematical Sciences, and their application to Agriculture, to Hygiene, and to the Industrial Art; Manual Work, and the use of Tools of the principal Trades, the elements of Drawing, Modelling, etcetera. Apprenticeship Schools have also been established in France for some time,the object of which is to train workmen, as distinguished from foremen. In these Schools various Trades are taught.* An application for aid for this kind of School, as uniting " Manual Labour with the acquisition of Knowledge," was made to the Home District Council in 1843, and was favourably considered by the Council as "worthy of being recommended to the Governor-General and Legislature for a grant of a Charter." A very successful Industrial School was spoken of by Mr. William L. Mackenzie in his "Sketches," as in operation in East Gwillimbury, in 1831, “for the instruction of young females in knitting, sewing, spinning and other useful accomplishments of a like description." In the Chapter in the Education of the Indians, (page 125) I have referred to the Manual Labour School, established for them at Alderville in 1836. It should be here noted that our excellent Municipal System took its rise in the legislation on that subject originated, first in Lower Canada, by the late Lord Sydenham, and, in Upper Canada, during the administration of the Honourable *The following extract, taken from a March number of The Times newspaper, London, of the present year, shows how active are the efforts which are being made in England to promote Manual Training in the Schools. The Times extract is as follow: A meeting of the National Association of Manual Training Teachers was held on the 6th of March, 1897, in London, Sir Philip Magnus presiding. He said that the 285 classes in Manual training had now been registered in this Country; and 2,339 teachers in the Public Elementary Schools were being trained to teach the use of tools to young children. In France Manual teaching was an essential part of ordinary primary instruction. He knew of no country in Europe where the efforts to improve the teaching of workmen, were so well directed as in France, and there were no handicraft men superior to the French. Manual instruction was not intended to make artisans; it was essentially a teaching by means of which the discipline of the hand and eye was made a method of genuine intellectual training. The Outlook Magazine of New York, in the number for April, 1897, states that ex-Mayor Grace, his Wife and Brother, have set apart $200,000 for the founding, in New York, of a Manual Training School for Women and Girls. |