to found a college at Montreal, and the Frères Charron of Montreal proposed to employ schoolmasters in all the parishes of the country as in France. In 1737, the brotherhood of the Church Schools (Ecoles Chrétiennes,) who undertook the task of popular instruction along with the Charron Frères, and a few scattered rural teachers, formed themselves into an educational corps, the members of which followed one system and wore the same distinctive garb.* These praiseworthy efforts were not, however, successful; and the schools languished, owing, chiefly, to the apathy of the government and the want of interest in the education of their children by the settlers. In fact, from the beginning, the government of the colony, unless prompted by the French monarch or his ministers, seemed to be utterly unconcerned as to the condition of education in the country. "To the Catholic Church," nevertheless, says Arthur Buller, Esq., the commissioner appointed by Lord Durham to inquire into the state of education in Lower Canada, "To the Catholic Church, [Lower] Canada is indebted for all its early scholastic endowments; indeed, with the exception of McGill College, for all that at present [in 1838] exists. The ample estates and active benevolence of the Jesuits of the seminaries of Quebec and Montreal, and of various nunneries and their missions, were devoted to the education of the people."†

CHAPTER II.

STATE OF EDUCATION FROM THE CONQUEST, 1759, UNTIL 1800.

VERY little change took place in the state of education in Lower Canada until after the conquest in 1759. The stir

* Garneau's "Histoire du Canada," translated by Bell, vol. i., p. 205 Lovell, Montreal, 1860.

+ Lord Durham's Report, Appendix (D,) p. 1. London: 1839.

ring events which then transpired interfered to some extent with the operations of the various colleges and other educational institutions; but, as the crisis passed away, things resumed their usual state. In 1773, however, the Petite Seminaire, or College of Montreal was founded by the Sulpicians. In the year following an important event occurred. The suppression of the religious order of the Jesuits, which took place in France in 1762, and in Italy in 1773, was, by royal instruction, carried into effect in Canada in 1774. The estates were, however, permitted to remain in the possession of the surviving members of the order until March, 1800, when they became vested in the Crown. Previous to that time, and down to 1831, various petitions were presented both to the governor-general and to the Imperial government, praying that the estates might be appropriated to the purposes of education, which was their original design. At length, in that year (1831,) they were, with the exception of the Jesuit College buildings at Quebec, surrendered to the provincial parliament for the support of education. Efforts have since been repeatedly made to obtain possession of the college buildings for the same educational purposes, but hitherto without effect. In 1776, these buildings were appropriated by the Imperial government to the purposes of a barrack. The Crown has repeatedly offered to surrender them, provided a suitable barracks be given in exchange for them by the province. This, however, has not been found practicable, and they are still used for military purposes under the singularly incongruous name of the "Jesuit Barracks."

In the year 1787, the legislative council of the province, at the suggestion of the governor-general (Sir Guy Carleton, then Lord Dorchester,) appointed a committee to inquire into the best means of promoting education. In 1789, the committee presented their report, recommending, among other things, that an elementary school be established in

each parish, a model school in each county, and a "colonial college" for the entire province, at Quebec, endowed out of the Jesuit estates, open to Protestants and Roman Catholics alike, and controlled by an equal number of each; religious instruction for the students to be provided by each church, and the visitation of the college to be vested in the Crown. The Roman Catholic coadjutor, Bishop Bailly, approved of this scheme, while his superior, Monseigneur Hubert, ninth bishop of Quebec, sought to have it modified. He suggested that the Jesuit College of Quebec should be revived and re-endowed; that it should be first placed under the control of the surviving members of the order for their lives, and that afterwards it should be vested in the Roman Catholic bishop of Quebec, as head of that church in Canada. The titular superior of the dissolved order, Father de Glapion, favored Bishop Hubert's plan, and, to facilitate it, offered, on condition of receiving a fixed stipend for the surviving members of his order, to make over the estates to the province, to be forever applied to educational purposes, under the direction of the Roman Catholic bishop and his successors.

As it would be interesting to learn from a cotemporaneous and independent source something of the state of education in Lower Canada in those days, we make the following extract from an account of the travels of the Duke de Rochefoucault who visited the country in 1795-9. He says, "The Seminary of Quebec is kept by a sort of congregation or fraternity known by the name of the Priests of St. Sulpice. * The estates which it possesses are considerable, at least in point of extent, and contain from fifty to sixty thousand acres. This seminary forms the only resource for Canadian families who wish to give their children any degree of education, and who may certainly obtain it there for ready money. * * * Upon the whole, the work of education in Lower Canada is greatly

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neglected. At Sorel and Trois Rivières are a few schools kept by nuns; and in other places men and women instruct children; but the number of schools is, upon the whole, so very small, and the mode of instruction so defective, that a Canadian who can read is a sort of phenomenon. * * * The English government is charged with designedly keeping the people of Canada in ignorance; but were it sincerely desirous of producing an advantageous change in this respect, it would have as great obstacles to surmount on this head as in regard to agricultural improvements."

In 1793, in response to a petition on the subject, the first house of assembly which was ever convened in Lower Canada presented an address to the governor, urging upon the Crown the propriety of giving up the forfeited estates of the Jesuits to the control of the legislature for the support of education in the province-a destination, it was argued, which would, more than any other, be in accordance with the design of those who had endowed the order with these lands, and with the spirit of the letterspatent of the French monarch which confirmed them to the order for educational purposes only. No answer having been given to this address, another on the same subject was presented to the governor in 1800.

CHAPTER III.

UNFULFILLED PROMISES, AND FAILURES-1801-1818.

In reply to this address, the governor, in a speech to the legislature in 1801, thus intimated the intentions of the Imperial government to give practical effect to the wishes of the legislature, though in another form, and to set apart a portion of the Crown domain-as had been intimated four years before in Upper Canada-for the permanent es

tablishment of public schools. "With great satisfaction," he said, "I have to inform you that His Majesty [George III.] from his paternal regard for the welfare and prosperity of his subjects in this colony, has been graciously pleased to give directions for the establishing of a competent number of free schools, for the instruction of their children in the first rudiments of useful learning and in the English tongue and also as occasion may require, for foundations of a more enlarged and comprehensive nature; and His Majesty has been further pleased to signify his royal intention that a suitable proportion of the lands of the Crown should be set apart and the revenue thereof applied to such purposes."*

In the same year, an act was passed to give effect to these promises. It provided for the establishment of free schools and of a "Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning." To this corporation was entrusted the entire management of all schools and institutions of royal foundation in the province, as well as the administration of all estates and property appropriated to these schools. The governor was authorized to establish one or more free schools in each parish or township, as he might see fit, upon the application of the inhabitants. He was also authorized to appoint the masters, and to fix their salaries.

The grants of land from the public domain for the endowment of these schools not having been made, as promised, the executive council recommended to the governor that sixteen townships of the waste lands of the Crown be appropriated for this purpose. In concurring in this recommendation, a further promise was made that each of the cities of Quebec and Montreal should receive an additional grant

*The language of this intimation of the royal will, in regard to the estab lishment of schools in Lower Canada and their endowment out of the public domain, is almost identical with that used in the Duke of Portland's despatch to the governor of Upper Canada, in 1797. (See page 376 of this paper.)