Documentary History of Education in Upper Canada

attention to educational historical subjects, except in the way of biographical sketches of noted Educators, or Educationists.

It is, therefore, highly gratifying to know that, (with the single exception of Germany,) there is no Historical Society in the United States, or Canada, and no Government but our own, that has given any attention to the subject of educational history, or has provided for recording, in a permanent form, what their early educational pioneers have done; and, in such publications as this one, to gather up and preserve, for future reference and guidance, the varied educational facts and experiences of the past, so as to enable those who come after them to deal intelligently and satisfactorily with the social and educational problems, as they arise and seek solution.

VII. The account given, (in the late Report of Doctor Harris, the United States Commissioner of Education for 1898, 99,) of two unique collections of Volumes.-one of four, and the other of nineteen,-of German educational history, is of special interest, in connection with the publication of this series of Volumes of the "Documentory History of Education in Upper Canada,"-which, as the United States Commissioner of Education characterizes it, is "quite unique in American Educational Literature."

The following are the extracts from the United States' Commissioner's Report, relating to the publication in Germany of two noted works on the History of Education in that Country :—

Recently a German work on Educational History has made its appearance, following an independent line of research in documentary sources, and thus commending itself to the student. It is a work bearing a Latın name, MONUMENTA GERMANIA PÆDAGOGICA. Nineteen volumes have appeared up to April, 1900. Its object is to introduce the reader directly to the original educational historical sources. A statement of its contents will show what it offers :

Volumes I and VIII present the Brunswick Governmental School Regulations and Decrees, which are the first important authoritative orders given for the establishment and regulation of Schools by Protestant Princes, and are, therefore, of paramount interest in showing how the Schools, during the Reformation, began to be severed from the Church, and how they became State Institutions.

Volumes II, V, IX, and XVI present the original "Ratio Studiorum," prescribed for the Schools of the Jesuits. In view of the fact, that, for more than a hundred years, the Schools of that Religious Order in Europe were the best seats of learning below the Universities, this publication is very welcome. It gives an insight into documents not easily available.

Volume III contains the history of Mathematical Instruction in Germany during the Middle Ages.

Volume IV contains the German Catechisms of the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren. Volumes VI and VIII contain the Regulations and Orders of the Saxon Schools in Siebenburgen, (in Hungary).

Volume VII presents a biography, based on documentary evidences of Luther's friend, the Reformer, Philip Melanchthon, whom contemporary historians called: PRECEPTOR GERMANIA. Volume XII contains the Doctrinale of Alexander de Villa Dei.

Volume XIV contains the history of education in Bavaria, and Volume XIX, that of the Bavarian Palatinate.

Volumes X, XI, XV, XVII, and XVIII give an account of the history of Military Education, during the last centuries. This last work reaches up to the year 1896, and is, therefore, quite complete. Further volumes will appear in time, as the publication of this valuable undertaking has been secured by a subsidy from the Imperial Exchequer, by a vote of the Reichstag, likewise by substantial aid promised by the Prussian Department of Public Education and learned Societies, as well as the National Teachers' Association. The publication proceeds

rather slowly, about two Volumes a year,-but, in the interest of thorough scholarship, this may, perhaps, be best.

The Writer in the United States' Commissioner's Report thus points out the distinction between the two methods of dealing with the history of Education,— the second of which I have strictly followed. He says:

Among the methods of presenting the History of Education, there are two distinct, if not antagonistic ones; the one deals exclusively, or chiefly, with the theories and plans of reform, which, in the course of centuries, have been advanced by philosophers, and, in turn, have agitated the educational world.

The other method is the one, which exclusively deals with facts gleaned from documentary sources from Governmental Decrees, and from School Programmes and Chronicles, and thus presents, or attempts to present, actual conditions. It is Quellen-studium," study of original sources, which is emphasized by modern scholars generally. It is the method advocated in particular by modern historians, and is in accordance with the methods applied in teaching and studying natural history and science. This mode of procedure, the study of historical sources, --has taken hold of educational, as it has of theological students.

Professor Stephan Wactzoldt, (in his Annual Report of 1894-95, page 460,) quoted in the United States' Commissioners' Report, says:

"The Science of Education has only recently begun to sever itself from speculative theories and to turn toward historic development of the momenta, that constitute it. There is still too much system and theoretical speculation and construction, while unbiased observation and fixation of facts are not as frequently found as is desirable this method of comparative

study of education has been employed by Doctor Karl Schmidt, in his famous work of four volumes, which for thoroughness and philosophic insight is not surpassed by any other on the History of Education. But this work is not a presentation of original sources, however sound may be its foundation.

In some respects the elaborate and invaluable systematized Reports, issued from time to time, by the able United States Commissioner of Education at Washington, may be considered as a somewhat condensed and composite annual History of Education in all civilized Countries. It must, necessarily, in regard to special local educational history, be brief and general, and, to a certain extent, fragmentary.

Quite recently, the English Department of Education has adopted the United States system of issuing Annual Volumes on general and specific educational topics, rather than, as a rule, historical accounts of Education in various Countries.

Should a Dominion Bureau of Education be established, as suggested to Sir John Macdonald by Doctor Ryerson previous to the Confederation of 1867, the United States, and latterly the English, System, of issuing accounts and sketches of Education in the various Provinces, and other places, would likely be adopted, and an effort would then doubtless be made of seeking to harmonize our Canadian Systems of Education, without, in any wise, interrupting, or interfering with, the local administration of education in the several Provinces and Territories.

J. GEORGE HODGINS,

TORONTO, August, 1901. Librarian and Historiographer to the

Department of Education in Ontario.

CONTENTS OF THIS EIGHTH VOLUME.

CHAPTER I. COMMISSIONERS' INQUIRY INTO THE AFFAIRS OF KING'S COLLEGE, 1848-1852....

1. Commission of Inquiry proposed in the Baldwin University Bill of 1843 ...

2. The Commission of Inquiry of 1848-1852

3. Proceedings of the University Inquiry Commissioners in 1848

4. University Statute of 1848, authorizing the Inquiry ...

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