In his capacity as an educator, Dr. Strachan was considered one of the most successful teachers which this Province has yet produced. His aim was to call into active play the varied mental powers of his pupils, and to stimulate any desire which they had to excel in knowledge and virtue. One of his earliest _brochures_ is _a Letter to his Pupils_, and is in the nature of an appeal on behalf of the Christian religion. This, he inscribed, "as a mark of esteem to Mr. Andrew Stuart and Mr. James Cartwright, students-at-law." This letter was printed at Montreal, in 1807, in the quaint old type of the time. It is evidently a warning appeal against the infidelity and excesses of the French revolutionists. Dr. Strachan's early and practical experience as a teacher gave to him an additional and keen sense of the educational wants of the country. His success as an educator proved to him what could be done in that direction. It also enlisted his feelings and fired his ambition to be the founder of an institution of superior learning, in which the young men of the Province could be thoroughly educated. The education of the masses was not provided for by him, but in an Act passed in 1819 and relating to classical schools (which he promoted), it was agreed-- That in order to extend the benefits of a liberal education to promising children of the poorer inhabitants, trustees [of common schools wherever established] shall have the power of sending scholars, not exceeding ten in number, to be chosen by lot every four years, to be taught gratis at the [classical] schools. Thus, in this exceptional manner, provision was made so that, should a limited number of the children of the poorer inhabitants develop ability or taste for learning, they should not be wholly excluded from the privileges so liberally provided for children of the richer classes. These class distinctions have, happily, forever disappeared from our statute book. They were no doubt conceived in a benevolent spirit, and were characteristic of the social ethics of the times, but they were pernicious as a principle to embody in a school law. In his "Appeal" in behalf of a university in Upper Canada, published early in 1827, Dr. Strachan gave a fuller expression to this idea of providing education only for the wealthier classes. He said:-- It is indeed quite evident that the consequences of a university ... possessing in itself sufficient recommendations to attract to it the sons of the most opulent families, would soon be visible in the greater intelligence and more confirmed principles of loyalty of those who would be called to various public duties required in the country--_i.e._, the governing classes.