CHAPTER V.

DOCTOR STRACHAN'S HISTORY OF KING'S COLLEGE, FROM 1797 TO 1850.

This rare Document was originally printed in a separate form, chiefly for circulation in England by the promoters of Trinity College. It has no signature attached to it; but, having been favoured with the loan of a large Volume of manuscripts, entitled: " Original Documents: Church University," I find that this original document is in Bishop Strachan's well-known hand writing, with sundry erasures and additions, the most important of which I shall reproduce in the copy, as reprinted in this Chapter.

The full title of this paper, as Doctor Strachan wrote it, was:

"A Brief History of King's College in Upper Canada, from its first Germ in 1797, to its suppression in 1850 ".

The final crisis in the chequered history of King's College was caused by its transformation, on the first of January, 1850, under the Baldwin Bill of 1849. By that Bill, King's College University became "The University of Toronto". This important change led to the publication, in various forms, of a number of Letters, Petitions and other Papers, relating to the University controversy of that time. These Letters and Papers, from their rarity, have now become interesting historical documents.

I have had some difficulty in collecting all of these documents; but, fortunately, I have been enabled to do so, and now insert them in this Volume, as part of the historical educational literature of more than fifty years ago.

THE HISTORY OF KING'S COLLEGE, FROM 1797 to 1850.

(NOTE. I have compared the printed copy of this "History" with Bishop Strachan's original manuscript copy of it, and have placed in square brackets the words in it which he had crossed out, and have put in italics the words which he had substituted for those to which he had crossed out.)

When the independence of the United States of America was recognized by Great Britain at the peace of 1783, Upper Canada became the asylum of those faithful subjects of the Crown who had, during the Revolutionary war, adhered to their King and the Unity of the Empire.

Anxious to prove her grateful sense of these affectionate services, in a way the most agreeable to their wishes and feelings, the Mother Country conferred upon them by the Constitutional Act of 1791, (31st George III., Chapter 31), a form of government similar to her own ; and, in order that the State might be sanctified by Religion, provision was made, at the express command of the King, for its support, by setting apart for that object a portion,-one seventhof the waste Lands of the Crown.

It was justly believed that, in a new Colony, like Upper Canada, Lands are, and ought to be, the fund for the foundation and permanent support of all great Public Institutions, such as the Church Universities, Schools, Hospitals, etcetera, because it can be done in this way, without being burthensome to the people.

But, although provision was thus made by the Constitutional Act of 1791 for the Religious Instruction of the [people] settlers, no [ provision] appropriation was then thought of for Schools

and Seminaries of Learning. It is, nevertheless, pleasing to remark, that, before the division of Canada into two Provinces, even as early as, 1789, little more than five years after the United Empire Loyalists had begun their settlements in Canada, they ad ressed Lord Dorchester the Governor General, on the subject of Education, setting forth the "lamentable state of their children who were growing up without any instructions, religious, or secular." His Lordship ave immediate attention to this application, and directed that eligible portions of land should Le reserved for the support of schools in all the new settlements. *

General Simcoe, the first Governor of Upper Canada, on his arrival in 1792, applied himself vigorously to promote the religious and secular instruction of the people. He not only took measures to render the Church property productive, but urged the Imperial Government to establish a University, to grow with the Country as one of the most effectual instruments of promoting the national religion and attachment to the Parent State. +

In writing to Mr. Henry Dundas, Secretary of State for the Colonies, in November, 1792. His Excellency declares :

"That the best security of a just government must consist in the morality of the people, and that such morality has no true basis but in Religion.

In his letter to the Bishop of Quebec,-30th April, 1795,—he says:

"The people of this Province enjoy the forms, as well as the privileges, of the British Constitution They have the means of governing themselves, provided they shall become sufficiently capable and enlightened to understand their relative situation, and manage their own power to the public interest... To this end a liberal education seems indispensably necessary, and the completion of such education requires the establishment of a University to inculcate sound religious principles, pure morals, and refined manners." +

General Simcoe, as was very natural, desired that the Clergy qualified to fill the Chairs in the University should, if possible, be Englishmen, because none such were yet to be found in the Colony; and this to continue untill we could bring them up among ourselves. A few pious and learned men, of rational zeal and primitive manners, would secure the interest and union of Church and State, and constitute a University which might, in due time, acquire such a character as to become the place of education to many persons beyond the extent of the King's Dominions.

Unhappily for the Province, General Simcoe was recalled to fill a higher station, before his wise and extensive plans for the prosperous advance of the Province could be carried out; but his exertions in favour of Education were not altogether lost, for the Legislature in the Spring of 1797, soon after his departure, addressed the King by petition, to appropriate a portion of the waste lands of the Crown for the support of Grammar Schools, and a College, or a University.§

To this Address a most gracious answer was received from His Majesty, King George III, through the Duke of Portland, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, in which His Majesty expresses his readiness to show his patronal regard for the welfare of his subjects in the furtherance of an object so important as the instruction of youth in sound learning and the principles of the Christian Religion.

For this purpose, Mr. President Russell, then Administrator of the Government of Upper Canada was directed to consult the Members of the Executive Council, and the Judges and Law Officers of the Crown in Upper Canada, and to report in what manner, and to what extent, a portion of the Crown Lands might be appropriated and rendered productive towards the formation of a fund for [these important objects' the establishment of Free Schools in those Districts in which they were called for, and, "in due course of time, for establishing other Seminaries of a larger and more comprehensive nature." for instructing the youth in "Religious and moral learning," and "the study of the Arts and Sciences."

The Report (of the Law Officers and Judges) advises the establishment of two Grammar Schools, as sufficient, at the time, for the wants of the Province, and to defer that of the University, as not yet [required] necessary. It recommends the appropriation of Five Hundred Thousand acres of the waste Lands of the Crown-one-half for the Grammar Schools, and the other half for the endowment of the University when it should be required. But, as Lands in 1798 were only of nominal value, and without ready sale, even at ninepence Halifax currency per acre, or eight pence sterling, it was found unadvisable to take any further [step] measures, at that time, because the whole appropriation would not have produced a sum sufficient for the reasonable endowment and building of the two Grammar Schools.

Further information on this subject is given in a "History of Education in Upper Canada," and printed on pages 153, 154 of the First Volume of this Documentary History. See Doctor Strachan's reference to the subject on page 158, 159 of the same Volume.

See reference to the Simcoe Letters and Papers on pages 10-14 of the same First Volume.

See page 12 of the same First Volume.

§ This Petition, from the Legislature, as well as the answer to it, (which was of a more comprehensive character than the Petition,) by the Duke of Portland, Colonial Secretary, will be found on pages 16, 17 of the First Volume of this Documentary History.

#Ibid, pages 20-23.

Although necessarily delayed, the prospect of establishing a University was frequently mentioned and never lost sight of.

In January, 1819, the attention of the Executive Council was again directed to the School Land Reservation made in 1798, and not finding sufficient authority for [making, or confirming it] its appropriation, they recommended to His Excellency, Sir Peregrine Maitland, the Governor of the Province, to request of Her Majesty's Government a formal sanction to sell, lease, grant and dispose of the said 500,000 acres of land for the purpose of establishing a University and Grammar Schools [in the] throughout the Province to be endowed [under a Royal Charter] with a portion of these lands. [And, in order to erect the necessary Buildings.] So soon as such sanction was obtained, they state that ten Thousand pounds, (£10,000,) would be required to erect the necessary Buildings with an endowment of Four Thousand pounds, (£4,000,) per annum to meet the payment of Salaries and other Expenses.]

In 1806, a Philosophical Apparatus was purchased, by order of the Legislature and consigned to a Clergyman well qualified for the purpose of teaching the youth of the Province the Elements of the higher Mathematics and Mechanical Philosophy,* and, in 1807, a Grammar School was established in each and every District, as nurseries for the contemplated University. No further steps seem to have been taken for many years to carry out these suggestions; but, in 1820, when a law was passed to increase the Representation of the House of Assembly, it was, among other things, provided :

"That whenever the University [was established, it should be represented by one member] shall be organized, and in operation, as a Seminary of learning in this Province, and in conformity to the rules and regulations of similar Institutions in Great Britain, it shall be represented in the Provincial Parliament by one Member."‡

In December, 1825, His Excellency, Sir Peregrine Maitland, addressed Lord Bathurst, Colonial Secretary, on the subject of the University, and of the incalculable importance of its immediate establishment,—

"Education," continues His Excellency, "must have an ascendency to a certain extent in every Country, and, to provide for that education being received, under circumstances that must produce a common attachment to our Constitution, and a common feeling of respect and affection for our ecclesiastical establishment, is an object so evidently desirable that I need not press it upon your Lordship's

attention.

"Your Lordship is aware that about Four Hundred and Fifty Thousand acres of Land have been set apart, as a provision for this object; but some of these Lands, though they possess the advantage of being in large blocks, like in tracts at present remote from settlements, and a considerable portion of those is not of the first quality.

"It has occurred to me, that, if Your Lordship saw fit to allow an equal quantity of the best of these lands were exchanged for that portion of the Crown Reserves which remains to the Government as being under lease, the latter could almost immediately be disposed of at an average price not less than ten shillings per acre, and a sum might thus be produced that would admit of the immediate establishment of an University-on a scale that would render it effective.”

The proposed exchange was permitted,§ and on the 15th of March, 1827, (a few months after,) a Royal Charter was obtained through the influence of Sir Peregrine Maitland, who, during the whole of his administration, was the strenuous promoter of Education and pure Religion. In [regard] reference to these and other particulars regarding the University of King's College the following [Despatch] extracts from Lord Bathurst's Despatch of 31st March, 1827, to Sir Pertgrine Maitland is too important to be omitted :—

Sir, I have the honour to inform you that His Majesty has been pleased to grant a Royal Charter by Letters Patent, under the Great Seal, for establishing at or near the Town of York, in the Province of Upper Canada, one College, with the style and privileges of a University for the Education and instruction of youth in Arts and Faculties, to continue for ever to be called King's College.

"I am further to acquaint you that His Majesty has been pleased to grant one thousand pounds per annum as a fund for erecting the Buildings necessary for the College, to be paid out of the moneys furnished by the Canada Company and to continue during the term of that agreement.

"I have to authorize you, on the receipt of this Despatch, to exchange such Crown Reserves as have not been made over to the Canada Company for an equal portion of the lands set apart for the purpose

*For the copy of the Statute authorizing the purchase of this Philosphical Apparatus see page 56 of the First Volume of this Documentary History. See also the Reverend Doctor Scadding's reference to of this Apparatus on page 55 of the same Volume.

+ The Act, authorizing the establishment of these Common Schools will be found on pages 60, 61 of the same First Volume.

: The Act of providing for this representation is printed on page 174 of the same First Volume.

§ See page 205 of the First Volume of this Documentary History.

Ibid pages 222-225.

The payment of this Grant to Kings College Conncil was suspended in 1832 See page 228 of the Second Volume of this Documentary History.

of Education and foundation of a University, as suggested in your Despatch of 19th December, 1825, and more fully detailed in Doctor Strachan's Report of the 10th March, 1826,* and you will proceed to endow King's College with the said Crown Reserves with as little delay as possible."t

The Charter thus obtained was the most open that had ever been granted, or that could have been granted at the time by the British Government, and the endowment conferred upon the University which it created was truly munificent and amply sufficient to carry out the objects which George the Third had in view, when he directed the appropriation of land to be made videlicet:-The instruction of the Youth of the Province in sound learning and Religion. were these objects forgotten by King George the Fourth, for they are embodied in the preamble of the Charter which he granted ;

Nor

"Whereas the establishment of a College within Our Province of Upper Canada, in North America, for the Education of Youth in the principles of the Christian Religion, and for their instruction in the various branches of Science and Literature, which are taught in Our Universities of this Kingdom, would greatly conduce to the welfare of the Province," etcetera.

On receiving the Charter, Sir Peregrine Maitland lost no time in forming the College Council, and securing the Endowment by Patent (in 1828); and, had he not been promoted to a higher Government, King's College would have very soon begun the business of instruction.

In the meantime the enemies of the Church, deeming the conditions of the Charter too favourable to her Spiritual interests, made a clamor that attracted, in 1828, the attention of a Committee of the House of Commons, then sitting on the Civil Government of Canada; and the members of the Church of England in Upper Canada, having been incorrectly stated as very few in number, the Committee in their Report recommended the establishment of two Theological Professors, one of the Church of England and another of the Church of Scotland; but that, with respect to the President, Professors and all others connected with the College, no Religious Test whatever should be required, but that the Professors, (with the exception of the Theological Professor,) should sign a declaration that, as far as it was necessary for them to advert in their lectures to Religious subjects, they would distinctly recognize the truth of the Christian Revelation, and abstain altogether from inculcating particular doctrines. § Nothing came of this recommendation, for the Charter, with the exception of the College Council, was more open than the Committee suggested, and steps to appoint a Theological Professor of the Church of Scotland were afterwards rendered unnecessary, as that Church obtained a Royal Charter establishing a College with Universiity powers, exclusively their own, and which is now in operation || But, although no action was had on the recommendation of the Committee of the British House of Commons, it did infinite mischief. as it appeared to imply that a Royal Charter might be altered and remodelled; and even after that, it became a constant object of annual clamor and attack.¶

After Sir Peregrine Maitland's departure, the University met with much unworthy treatment, and no protection from the Head of the Colonial Government; and thus eight years were lost in ceaseless opposition to an Institution, which would have conferred upon the youth of the Province that liberal education they desired, and the loss of which can never be retrieved.

Unfortunately, this continued opposition to the University had at length an influence upon the Imperial Government, for, in January, 1832, a Despatch from Lord Goderich, now Lord Ripon, was laid before the College Council, proposing to the Members of the Corporation to surrender their Royal Charter, together with the Endowment, on the assurance from the Secretary of State, that no part of the Endowment should ever be diverted from the education of youth.

In an able Report, the Council stated their reasons for refusing compliance with this extraordinary request, and that they did not think it right to concur in surrendering the Charter of King's College, or its Endowment. The College Council further observed—

"That they did not feel, or profess to feel, a sufficient assurance that; after they had assented to destroy a College, founded by their Sovereign, under [an] as unrestricted and open a Charter as had ever passed the Great Seal of England for a similar purpose, the different Branches of the Legislature would be able to concur in establishing another that would equally secure to the inhabitants of this Colony, through successive generations, the possession of a Seat of Learning in which Religious Knowledge should be dispensed, and in which case should be taken to guard against those occasions of instability, dissension and confusion, the foresight of which had led, in our Parent State, to the making an uniformity of Religion, in each University throughout the Empire, an indispensable feature in its Constitution.

* Printed on pages 211-215 of the First Volume of this Documentary History.

+ Pages 225, 226 of the same First Volume of this Documentary History.

See Message of Sir Peregrine Maitland on pages 237, 238 of the same First Volume of this Documentary History. See also page 269 of the Third Volume.

§ In regard to the Report of the Imperial Parliament See Chapter XLVI of the same First Volume.

For Copy of this Charter of Queen's College, Kingston, see pages 81-88 of the Fourth Volume of this Documentary History.

As to the right of a Colonial Legislature to alter and amend a Royal Charter, See discussion on the subject on pages 204-210 of the Third Volume of this Documentary History.

"If the objections entertained by the Council against the surrender of the Charter were not insurmountable, no stronger inducement could be offered than the request which His Lordship's Despatch conveys. For the Council cannot fail to be sensible that such a request can have been dictated only by a supposed necessity for departing from established principles, in order to promote the peace and contentment of the Colony. With the opinions, however, which the Council entertain, and with the opportunity of forming these opinions, which their residence in the Colony affords them, they could never stand excused to themselves, or to others, if they should surrender the Charter, supposing it to be within their power, so long as there is an utter uncertainty as to the measures that would follow,-the moral and Religious state of more than Two Hundred Thousand British subjects is at present involved in the proper disposal of these questions, and before many years will have elapsed more than a million will be effected by them. The Council, therefor, whatever results may be obtained by other means, could not justify to themselves the assuming the responsibility of endangering the existance of the Institution. They feel bound to look beyond the movements and discussions of the passing moment, and could not even, if they concurred in the view of the present expediency, consent to pull down the only foundation which at present exists in Upper Canada for the advancement of youth in Religion and Learning, upon a system which has not yet been repudiated in any part of His Majesty's Dominions."

It would be tedious and without profit to enter more minutely into the persevering opposition to the establishment of the University during the following five years. It is, however, melancholy to contemplate the Legislature of Upper Canada lending itself to destroy an Institution calculated to cherish affection to the Government and the purest principles of Religion.

Sir Francis Bond Head, on his accession to the Government, guided by that ardent spirit and intuitive perception of whatever is good and noble, which characterized him, saw, at once, the vast advantage of establishing the University; and although he could not, with prudence, prevent the Legislature from making some changes in the Charter, to which the College Council most reluctantly assented as a final settlement, he deserved great praise for discountenancing further innovation.

The Charter having been thus settled by the Act of 1837, 7th William the Fourth, Chapter 16, which adopted all the alterations of its more reasonable opponents, Sir Francis B. Head readily concurred with the College Council in devising the measures necessary for bringing it into active operation; but just as the preliminary steps were arranged,-contracts for Buildings ready to be signed, and Professors and Teachers about to be appointed, the political disturbances of 1837 broke out, and, for a time, suspended this, and many other, excellent measures projected. by that able and independent Ruler.

After the suppression of the Rebellion, Sir Francis B. Head resigned the Government, and, during the two following administrations, no proceedings were had respecting the University of King's College worthy of notice, or commendation.

When Sir Charles Bagot assumed the Government in 1842, King's College engaged his special attention. Being himself a scholar and University man, he saw the vast importance of such a Seminary in a rising Country, and he set his heart upon its immediate establishment.

In accordance with his ardent desire on this subject, the first distinguished act of his adminis tration was to come to Toronto, and lay the Foundation-stone of the contemplated Building, on the 23rd of April, 1842.

This was done in the most solemn manner, with prayer and praise, for it has been the practice of Christians in all ages, when undertaking any work of importance, to seek for Divine light and assistance.

Although Sir Charles Bagot was not spared to witness the opening of King's College, which did not take place till the 8th June, 1843.§ yet, during his lamented illness, he never ceased to take the warmest interest in its welfare, and his memory, in connection with King's College, will ever be kindly remembered.

From the day of its opening to that of its suppression, King's College, notwithstanding the political bearing which the injudicious alterations in its Charter had greatly increased, proceeded vigorously in its academical career and was obtaining, through its scholars, who belonged to all Denominations, an influence which was rapidly increasing throughout the Province. Parents

felt a confidence in its Religious character, and, as none, but students belonging to the Church of England, were expected to attend the Chapel morning and evening, sober-minded Dissenters were not offended. On the contrary, the knowledge that prayer was offered up twice every day pleased them, because it gave a solemn tone to the labours of the day and sanctified the Institution.

*This refusal of the King's College Council to surrender the Charter of the King's College University will be found, in extenso, on pages 32-37 of the Third Volume of this Documentary History.

+ This Act is printed on pages 88, 89 of the same Third Volume.

See an account of this Ceremony on pages 202-209 of the Fourth Volume of this History.

§ Full particulars of the opening of King's College are given on pages 277-292 of the same Fourth Volume of this History.