Dr. Strachan's feelings in this matter were evidently in harmony with this spirit of the times, and he directed his efforts exclusively to the establishment of these higher institutions of learning. He never lost sight, however, of the crowning institution of all—the university. His speeches and addresses on education all pointed to "this consummation, devoutly to be wished."
Referring to this educational anomaly, or anachronism, of establishing higher institutions of learning before providing for elementary schools, an English resident in a book entitled "Three Years in Canada," and published in 1839, thus forcibly points out the singular want of foresight in this matter. He says:—
"The Provincial Board of Education either assumed that elementary education in Upper Canada had attained its zenith or deemed it better to begin at the apex and work downward to the base of the structure they were called upon to rear than to follow the old-fashioned custom of first laying the foundation and then working upwards."
The fact was, and the chief reason for the perpetration of this educational anachronism was, that the friends of popular education, while all-powerful in the House of Assembly, were few and consequently uninfluential in the Legislative Council. They were, therefore, not able at all times to influence that body so as to secure its assent to the elementary education bills passed by the popular branch. We have seen that, in 1838, the Council refused to concur in the Common School Bill passed in that year by the House of Assembly. Before another School Act was introduced, both Houses had ceased to exist in the Union of the two provinces in 1840.
Rev. Dr. Strachan's Reasons for Establishing a University in Upper Canada.
The reasons which Dr. Strachan gave for urging the early establishment of a Provincial University were reasonable and weighty in themselves, had the other necessary kind of school been established and provided for. I shall give these reasons in Dr. Strachan's own words. They are characteristic of the Bishop's own feelings in regard to American institutions and their influence on the young. He said:—
"There is not in either province any English seminary ... at which a liberal education can be obtained. Thus the youth of 300,000 Englishmen have no opportunity of receiving instruction within the Canadas in law, medicine or divinity.
"The consequence is that many young men ... are obliged to look beyond the province for the last two or three years of their education—undoubtedly the most important and critical period of their whole lives ... The youth are, therefore, in some degree, compelled to look towards the United States, where means of education, though of a description far inferior to those of Great Britain, are yet superior to anything within the province, and a growing necessity is arising of sending them to finish their education in that country."
Dr. Strachan then proceeds to point out in his own graphic language, the peculiarly adverse influences to which loyal Canadians from youth were then subjected while attending schools and universities in the United States. He says:—
"Now, in the United States a custom prevails unknown to or unpractised in any other nation; in all other countries morals and religion are made the basis of public instruction, and the first books put into the hands of children teach them the domestic, the social and religious virtues; but in the United States politics pervade the whole system of education; the school books, from the very first elements, are stuffed with praises of their own institutions, and breathe hatred to everything English."