The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People: An Historical ReviewBourinot, John George
History
The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People: An Historical Review
Bourinot, John George
Canada -- Intellectual life; Canadian literature -- History and criticism
Catholic schools separately.
The higher branches of education have been taught from a very early date
in the history of all the provinces. In the Jesuit College, the Quebec
Seminary, and other Roman Catholic institutions founded in Montreal, St.
Hyacinthe, Three Rivers, and Nicolet, young men could always be educated
for the priesthood, or receive such higher education as was considered
necessary in those early times. The Quebec Seminary always occupied a
foremost position as an educational institution of the higher order, and
did much to foster a love for learning among those classes who were able
to enjoy the advantages it offered them. [Footnote: Mr. Buller, in his
Educational Report to Lord Durham, says: 'I spent some hours in the
experimental lecture-room of the eminent Professor M. Casault, and I
think that I saw there the best and most extensive set of philosophic
apparatus which is yet to be found in the Colonies of British North
America. The buildings are extensive, and its chambers airy and clean;
it has a valuable library, and a host of professors and masters. It
secures to the student an extensive course of education.'] It has
already been noticed that a Grammar School system was established in the
years of the first settlement of Ontario. Governor Simcoe first
suggested the idea of a Provincial University, and valuable lands were
granted by George III., in 1798, for that purpose. The University of
Toronto, or King's College, as it was first called, was established
originally under the auspices of the Church of England, and was endowed
in 1828, but it was not inaugurated and opened until 1843. Upper Canada
College, intended as a feeder to the University, dates back as far as
the same time, when it opened with a powerful array of teachers, drawn
for the most part from Cambridge. In 1834, the Wesleyan Methodists laid
the foundation of Victoria College, at Cobourg, and it was incorporated
in 1841, as a University, with the well-known Rev. Dr. Ryerson as its
first President. The Kirk of Scotland established Queen's College, at
Kingston, in 1841, and the Presbyterian Church of Canada, Knox's
College, at Toronto, in 1844. The Roman Catholics founded Regiopolis, at
Kingston, in 1846; St. Joseph's College, at Ottawa, in 1846; St
Michael's, at Toronto, in 1852. Trinity College, under the auspices of
the Church of England, was the issue of the successful effort that was
made, in 1849, to throw King's College open to all denominations. Bishop
Strachan determined never to lend his countenance to what he called 'a
Godless University,' and succeeded in founding an institution which has
always occupied a creditable position among the higher educational
establishments of the country. The Baptists established the Woodstock
Literary Institute in 1857; the Episcopal Methodists, Albert College, at
Belleville, in 1866; and the Evangelical section of the Church of
England, in 1878, obtained a charter for Huron College, under the name
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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