CHAPTER 4
THE LOYALIST PATTERN
It is customary to think of the first fifty years of New Brunswick history as a period of remarkable achievement in the face of terrific obstacles. No one can gainsay the difficulties or deny that much solid ground-work was laid, but in the realm of ideas the foundation years were marked in large degree by traditional thinking, conservatism, and even reaction. These traits, as we have already observed, were inherent in the colonial mentality of the American Tories, and they were strengthened during and after the Revolution by the proud association with loyalty. Those who have had to flee in order to save cherished traditions from the irreverent hands of iconoclasts are apt to think forever after in terms of those traditions— in fact tradition itself becomes a fetish, and desire for change is damned as blasphemy and treason.
In our treatment of the British background we noted that the Whigs of the eighteenth century were influenced by tradition in their thinking, and tended to follow comfortable routine in practice. These tendencies, however, were even more marked among the Tories, so that the term Toryism became identified with the maintenance of the old order, while the Whigs of the nineteenth century became the apostles of change. The excesses of the French Revolution tended to confirm Toryism everywhere and to discredit popular movements, even blighting the hopes of many English poets and idealists. Nothing good, it seemed, could come out of France. In education, for instance, even if England's leaders had been disposed to pay heed to the theories of liberal-minded men in other countries, the shadow of the Revolution was black enough to obscure Mirabeau's proposals for the establishment of primary schools throughout France, and a teachers' college as part of a National Lycée at Paris. Talleyrand's Report (1791) proposing the organization of a complete state system of public instruction for France, and Condorcet's bill (1792) embodying a democratic theory of education,1 being part of a French revolutionary programme, could not merit the enthusiasm of thorough Britishers. During the Napoleonic struggle, and the reactionary years heralded by the Congress of Vienna, the progress in educational organization and in the application to practice of new theories of education which was achieved by Prussia, England's ally against Napoleon, caused no flurry in English educational circles. Prussia, decades ahead of the rest of Europe in educational reform, achieved early in the nineteenth century a state-supported system of secondary schools, and of Volksschules or People's Schools, a central Department of Public Instruction, a university aiming to produce scholars capable of advancing knowledge by personal research, and the elevation of teaching to a profession through the establishment of sem-
inaries where teachers were carefully trained, not only in knowledge, but also in the art of teaching. In these seminaries Pestalozzian principles2 were at work, for one of the first steps taken by the new department of education was to send seventeen Prussian teachers to Switzerland for three years at the government's expense, to study the ideas of Pestalozzi, and to warm themselves “at the sacred fire which burns in the heart of this man, so full of strength and love” . In 1809 Zeller, one of Pestalozzi's pupils, was called to set up a Seminary in Prussia to train teachers in Pestalozzi's methods, and the seventeen Prussian teachers, on their return from Switzerland, were also made directors of training establishments. The spirit of these men, thus warmed by the new conception of education, was expressed by Dinter, Superintendent of Education in East Prussia, when he said: “I promised God, that I would look upon every Prussian peasant child as a being who could complain of me before God, if I did not provide him with the best education, as a man and a Christian, which it was possible for me to provide” .3 Official purposes, however, back of these educational reforms were more nationalistic than democratic,4 but if England failed to be influenced by Prussia's example it was not because she was far-sighted enough to see that schools dominated by nationalistic motives might become mere nurseries of fanatical patriotism, but rather because what happened in Prussia seemed to have no significance for England. Obviously, after Jena and Tilsit, Prussia needed a thorough regeneration. The Prussian king had said that the state must regain in mental force what it had lost in territory and splendor.5 But just as obviously, to die-hard Tories, England needed no such regeneration, therefore no such drastic changes as Prussia was making were necessary. Besides, as we have noted earlier, the English, as a nation, tended to ignore or heed little what other nations were doing. Practically nothing, therefore, was done towards a solution of the problem of popular education—if indeed the question was recognized as a problem. In 1807 Whitbread, with his Parochial Schools' Act, raised for the first time in the British Parliament the question of the propriety of diffusing education among the poorer classes, pointing out that if the schools did not educate, the gutter would, but the bill was rejected by the Lords who feared that education would make the poor dissatisfied and indolent.6 The main champion of a national system of education after the death in 1815 of Whitbread was Henry Brougham, whose addresses, committees of enquiry, and bills did awaken interest.7 But Toryism was still in the saddle; and the English parliament was yet unreformed, in spite of the growing demands of the rising industrial capitalist class that they be added to the list of those who ruled England. Educational reforms, therefore, as well
as political, social, and economic, had to wait for the first cautious steps of the Whigs after the Bill of 1832. Clearly, no progressive inspiration in educational matters could come from across the water to New Brunswick in the early years of that province.
inaries where teachers were carefully trained, not only in knowledge, but also in the art of teaching. In these seminaries Pestalozzian principles2 were at work, for one of the first steps taken by the new department of education was to send seventeen Prussian teachers to Switzerland for three years at the government's expense, to study the ideas of Pestalozzi, and to warm themselves “at the sacred fire which burns in the heart of this man, so full of strength and love” . In 1809 Zeller, one of Pestalozzi's pupils, was called to set up a Seminary in Prussia to train teachers in Pestalozzi's methods, and the seventeen Prussian teachers, on their return from Switzerland, were also made directors of training establishments. The spirit of these men, thus warmed by the new conception of education, was expressed by Dinter, Superintendent of Education in East Prussia, when he said: “I promised God, that I would look upon every Prussian peasant child as a being who could complain of me before God, if I did not provide him with the best education, as a man and a Christian, which it was possible for me to provide” .3 Official purposes, however, back of these educational reforms were more nationalistic than democratic,4 but if England failed to be influenced by Prussia's example it was not because she was far-sighted enough to see that schools dominated by nationalistic motives might become mere nurseries of fanatical patriotism, but rather because what happened in Prussia seemed to have no significance for England. Obviously, after Jena and Tilsit, Prussia needed a thorough regeneration. The Prussian king had said that the state must regain in mental force what it had lost in territory and splendor.5 But just as obviously, to die-hard Tories, England needed no such regeneration, therefore no such drastic changes as Prussia was making were necessary. Besides, as we have noted earlier, the English, as a nation, tended to ignore or heed little what other nations were doing. Practically nothing, therefore, was done towards a solution of the problem of popular education—if indeed the question was recognized as a problem. In 1807 Whitbread, with his Parochial Schools' Act, raised for the first time in the British Parliament the question of the propriety of diffusing education among the poorer classes, pointing out that if the schools did not educate, the gutter would, but the bill was rejected by the Lords who feared that education would make the poor dissatisfied and indolent.6 The main champion of a national system of education after the death in 1815 of Whitbread was Henry Brougham, whose addresses, committees of enquiry, and bills did awaken interest.7 But Toryism was still in the saddle; and the English parliament was yet unreformed, in spite of the growing demands of the rising industrial capitalist class that they be added to the list of those who ruled England. Educational reforms, therefore, as well
as political, social, and economic, had to wait for the first cautious steps of the Whigs after the Bill of 1832. Clearly, no progressive inspiration in educational matters could come from across the water to New Brunswick in the early years of that province.
In line with the mother country's traditional conservatism were her colonial policies of the period. In spite of the American Revolution these differed but little from those which had helped to alienate the thirteen colonies. Many of the officials who sought for some lesson to be learned from that tragedy concluded that too much, not too little, democracy had wrecked the first British Empire, and that it was therefore advisable to strengthen the principle of authority. Almost all the serious questions which faced Britain as she contemplated the remnants of her imperial dominions were answered in the traditional fashion.8 The very establishment of New Brunswick as a separate province was part of a British plan to divide and rule. There were, of course, local factors involved9—the distance of the region from the seat of government at Halifax; the homogeneity of the population; the dissatisfaction of the Saint John Loyalists with the administration, especially in the matter of land grants; their desire to assume the role of office-holders; and the wish of Governor Parr to be rid of responsibility for the settlers north of the Bay of Fundy, whom he termed “of a turbulent disposition” 10—but the division was too prompt and complete to be the result of these alone, as Lord Durham admitted long afterwards.11 At any rate, the imperial policy was opportune from the standpoint of prominent New Brunswick Loyalists who were now assured of a “genteel outlet for their talents.” 12 Blessing the ties that bound, they assumed the leadership of a province designed “as a citadel of conservatism and imperial loyalty.” 13
It is interesting to compare the spirit in which the province of New Brunswick was established with that which pulsed and throbbed at the inception of the American republic in spite of sectional contradictions. To the New Brunswick of 1784 one can apply almost the direct negative of a number of those statements14 which a vision of the young Republic has drawn from a noted historian. For the launching of the province produced no “ferment of ideas that touched all shores of thought and challenged all the creative energies” 15 of its founders, for the minds of the latter were not receptive to new thought. The country had no cultural life to begin with, and the economic and political arrangements of the new province were such as to maintain unchanged the social conceptions, concerns, interests, and educational views of its leaders.
Not only was the country insulated against change but it was isolated as well. Because of this isolation and because of provincial status, affiliations
with centres other than London were not easily formed. Between the Loyalists and the independent Americans yawned a great gulf made by the Revolution. Soon the French Revolution would stamp as detestably Jacobin, French theories of equality and doctrines of perfectability and progress. Thus the gates were closed against the free inpouring of foreign science and opinion which invigorated every branch of American life.16 While “the new states born of the Revolution were swept into a national current, made a part of the world system of powers” ,17 British North America had been broken up “into a number of small, immature, and feeble provinces” .18 These isolated appendages of Great Britain, with limited horizons, static leadership, and insistent practical problems, could neither know nor desire a dynamic progressive philosophy. The entire cast and tone of provincial life precluded it.
with centres other than London were not easily formed. Between the Loyalists and the independent Americans yawned a great gulf made by the Revolution. Soon the French Revolution would stamp as detestably Jacobin, French theories of equality and doctrines of perfectability and progress. Thus the gates were closed against the free inpouring of foreign science and opinion which invigorated every branch of American life.16 While “the new states born of the Revolution were swept into a national current, made a part of the world system of powers” ,17 British North America had been broken up “into a number of small, immature, and feeble provinces” .18 These isolated appendages of Great Britain, with limited horizons, static leadership, and insistent practical problems, could neither know nor desire a dynamic progressive philosophy. The entire cast and tone of provincial life precluded it.
Governor Carleton's commission declared “We will and ordain that you the said Thomas Carleton shall have and enjoy a prerogative voice in making and passing all laws statutes and ordinances as aforesaid” .19 The Governor, who was the strongest link between the province and the Home Authorities, tended to guard jealously this and the other prerogatives which he exercised as the King's representative in the colony. The Council combined executive and legislative functions in one body until 1833, met behind closed doors until 1834, and, until 1817, was composed entirely of Anglicans. The first Council was drawn from the Loyalist elite, although the pre-Loyalist class was not without its representation.20 Because of the fact that the majority of the original members of the Council achieved a remarkable longevity of life, and because vacancies, when such did occur, were filled by their friends and relatives, the Council tended to perpetuate the dominance of a few ruling families and to deserve indeed the name of Family Compact. To such men the word “democratic” meant the same as “republican” . In an article in a New Brunswick newspaper of 1799, written on the occasion of a clash between Council and Assembly, the writer accused the Assembly of assuming a power that, if submitted to, must destroy the constitution “and introduce a pure democracy—a Government to avoid which, his Majesty's loyal subjects in this province left their native country” . The writer went on to say that “nothing has since happened in any part of the world to recommend a democratic form of Government to our approbation” .21 His Majesty's loyal subjects of the Council were at one with the Governor in attempting to preserve the sacrosanctity of government as conceived by the Colonial Office. This loyal purpose meant, in effect, that the Council should enjoy exclusively the dignities, emoluments, and prerogatives of office-holding. Such a group, composed as it was of lawyers, judges, and administrators, could know little of the problems of the commercial classes or of the rural inhabitants,22 nor did it wish to, if we may judge by the
failure to give commercial interests a fair representation in the Council, a failure for which the Council, as His Excellency's advisers, shared responsibility with the Governor and Colonial Office.
failure to give commercial interests a fair representation in the Council, a failure for which the Council, as His Excellency's advisers, shared responsibility with the Governor and Colonial Office.
Fifty years and more after the founding of the province, the wisdom of admitting the commercial classes to the Council was still a debatable question in certain quarters. In 1824, Sir Howard Douglas, a more liberal-minded governor than many of the incumbents of the office, wrote that he intended to look around for a gentleman actually in mercantile business in Saint John who might have the qualifications, influence, and information respecting the commercial affairs of the Province. By this appointment, wrote Douglas, “higher consideration might be shown to the commercial interests, which are not at present in a sufficient degree of influence in the Council Board” . On the margin of this letter we find written: “The answer states, no precedent for such a procedure.” 23 Later, toward the close of the period here being considered, the then governor, Sir Archibald Campbell, writing on the subject of appointments to the Executive Council, admitted uneasiness over the growing tendency in the House of Assembly to acquire such an ascendency in the Administration as would, if successful, destroy the proper balance between the Executive and Legislative branches. The composition, therefore, of His Majesty's Council was highly important. It must be so constituted as to interpose efficiently, but tactfully enough to avoid collision with the lower House, between the People's representatives and the Authorities of the Crown. Qualified men, in the opinion of the Governor, were scarce. Vacancies must necessarily be filled up from the lawyer and merchant classes. It was only fair that a proportion of the latter class should be selected, but one must, the Governor thought, “be very careful not to give them too much weight or influence at the Council Board.” 24 In view of this attitude it is not surprising to find that not a little opposition to the oligarchic Council came from the commercial interests of Saint John, a city resentful, to begin with, of the choice of Fredericton as capital, and incensed by the stubborn refusal of the Governor and Council to have certain sessions of the Supreme Court held in Saint John.25
To Carleton and the Home Authorities, an Assembly seemed of dubious value, but the Loyalists, as British, considered a representative body to be one of the inalienable rights of Englishmen, and, as American colonials, they were thoroughly familiar with its workings. An Assembly, therefore, was unavoidable, but Carleton postponed calling one as long as possible. The first Assembly, which met on January 3, 1786, was constituted on the basis of a liberal franchise, all males twenty-one years and over, resident in the province for three months, having the right to vote, except, of course, the Indians and French, the latter being disqualified because of their religion. This franchise, and even the more restricted one which soon superseded the first, were, by comparison with the regulations in England, exceedingly liberal, and indicate a con-
cession “to the requirements and conditions of a pioneer community” .26 The Assembly, however, often had hard going to make its weight felt against a Governor responsible only to the Home Authorities, and a Council responsible only to the Governor. Moreover, in the early years of the province lack of effective communication often prevented members from attending the sessions27 and the opposition of the Council to the payment of members for their services precluded the attendance of those lacking personal means.28 The rank and file of the people, who seldom saw a newspaper and who were intensely occupied with the business of making a home, could not always understand the issues at stake, or find significance in them, and thus men were sometimes elected, as still not infrequently happens, who were more concerned with serving their own interests than with promoting the welfare of the province. Thus the Council, aided by the Governor, was often able to over-ride the Assembly. But there was a sturdy independence about many of the less prominent Loyalist pioneers, and a measure of infiltration of liberal principles had accompanied their coming,29 as is evidenced in the person of Elias Hardy. Even a stormy note of early radicalism was introduced by the Scotchman, James Glenie, who seems to have had an “opposition temperament” ,30 and may have imbibed the current ideas of the French Revolution3l during his stay in England in 1793 and 1794. At any rate, his enemies labelled him a “violent democrat and Jacobin” .32 It is interesting to note that his chief support came from Sunbury County, site of the leading New England settlement in New Brunswick previous to the Revolution.
cession “to the requirements and conditions of a pioneer community” .26 The Assembly, however, often had hard going to make its weight felt against a Governor responsible only to the Home Authorities, and a Council responsible only to the Governor. Moreover, in the early years of the province lack of effective communication often prevented members from attending the sessions27 and the opposition of the Council to the payment of members for their services precluded the attendance of those lacking personal means.28 The rank and file of the people, who seldom saw a newspaper and who were intensely occupied with the business of making a home, could not always understand the issues at stake, or find significance in them, and thus men were sometimes elected, as still not infrequently happens, who were more concerned with serving their own interests than with promoting the welfare of the province. Thus the Council, aided by the Governor, was often able to over-ride the Assembly. But there was a sturdy independence about many of the less prominent Loyalist pioneers, and a measure of infiltration of liberal principles had accompanied their coming,29 as is evidenced in the person of Elias Hardy. Even a stormy note of early radicalism was introduced by the Scotchman, James Glenie, who seems to have had an “opposition temperament” ,30 and may have imbibed the current ideas of the French Revolution3l during his stay in England in 1793 and 1794. At any rate, his enemies labelled him a “violent democrat and Jacobin” .32 It is interesting to note that his chief support came from Sunbury County, site of the leading New England settlement in New Brunswick previous to the Revolution.
From the standpoint of educational developments, the chief significance of the many controversies between Assembly and Council during this period lies in the delaying effect such controversies had on school legislation, and in the partial evidence they present of the social distinctions which conditioned the early educational foundations of the province. “The social and intellectual differences between the councillors and the mass of the settlers deprived the Council of a representative character and tended to divide the people of the province into two factions.” 33 The first election in Saint John became a contest between aristocratic and democratic elements.34 One who lived at a number of places along the Saint John river has written of the aristocratic traditions maintained there in the early nineteenth century.35 According to Dr. D. C. Harvey, organized society in all the Maritime Provinces exhibited the class distinctions transmitted from the eighteenth century. These were most pronounced, of course, at the respective capitals, where there was an aristocratic coterie made up of government officials, military and naval officers, judges, leading lawyers, higher clergy, and prominent merchants. The rest of the inhabitants of the
capital and practically all the rural communities were regarded with good-natured tolerance unless they tried to break into the charmed circle. “This coterie thought in terms . . . of perpetual class distinctions.” 36
capital and practically all the rural communities were regarded with good-natured tolerance unless they tried to break into the charmed circle. “This coterie thought in terms . . . of perpetual class distinctions.” 36
It has been said that "when a set of people have made up their minds that they are superior by virtue of birth to all others, they are not usually in a condition to advance very far forward in any direction, or to add to the intel lectual or industrial development of the country in which they live."37 Our thesis is now clear. The school system of New Brunswick had a slow and cautious beginning along traditional lines, uninspired by the democracy to which the American experiment was dedicated. At the time (1795) When most of the contestants in the American Philosophical Society's essay competition were writing in favor of the full and free development of every individual, in order that a true democracy might be realized,38 New Brunswick leaders, delegating to the traditional agencies of Church and private initiative a large measure of responsibility for the education of plain folk, were thinking in terms of education for their own children, the leaders to be. They could not dream that the decorous decades would give way to boisterous years when a vigorous democracy would furnish the leaders of the province, leaders who would be none the better because of educational deficiencies for which the old order was responsible. It is, of course, only fair to note that traditionalism was not immediately routed in the United States; only fair, too, to remember that New Brunswick was a small province with as yet undeveloped resources, and that its leaders were harassed by manifold problems of a wide variety. Moreover, it is undeniable that efficient secondary and higher institutions of learning are of the utmost importance in any school system, as J. R. Inch, Superintendent of Education in New Brunswick from 1891 to 1909, has pointed out in the following words: “New Brunswick forms no exception to the general rule that in point of time the college and high school have been established in almost every country before the common school. Whatever may be the causes of this order of development, its beneficent effect cannot be doubted. Without effective higher institutions of learning a country cannot hope to maintain for any considerable time a system of common schools in the highest state of efficiency” .39 What we wish to point out here, however, is that class consciousness played a responsible part in the order of development referred to, and in the primary emphasis for many years on secondary and higher education.
New Brunswick schools during the first half-century fall into the old familiar pattern. There were schools, partially supported by the state, for the upper classes, i.e., the Academy and Grammar Schools; and for the poor, namely the parish schools, Indian Schools, and schools under the special aegis of the Church, working through the S. P. G. or the National Board. The remaining schools were of the private venture type. The total number of schools was inadequate, and the curriculum, for the most part, elementary.
The spirit in which the leadership of the province conceded government aid to the parish schools was in such marked contrast with the spirit in which the Academy was supported that one might almost suspect that the parish schools were regarded as schools for paupers. Not until 1802, nineteen years after the coming of the Loyalists, was any provision made for such schools. When a measure to grant £ 10 to each parish of the province for educational purposes was passed as part of the appropriation bill by the Assembly in 1793, the Council rejected it, stating among other objections 'that the appropriating money for the education of children in the different parishes of this Province, was a new institution and necessarily required particular regulations'.40 Yet the year before, a grant had been made to the Academy, and in this particular year the Governor was demanding more money for that institution.41 Evidently schools for the “children in the different parishes of this Province” were in a different category entirely from a “Seminary of learning . . . where youth might be qualified for the learned professions” .42 They were, in effect, regarded as schools for the children of poor plebeians and the spirit in which they were established and supported was, for a considerable period, that of charitable benevolence.
The spirit in which the leadership of the province conceded government aid to the parish schools was in such marked contrast with the spirit in which the Academy was supported that one might almost suspect that the parish schools were regarded as schools for paupers. Not until 1802, nineteen years after the coming of the Loyalists, was any provision made for such schools. When a measure to grant £ 10 to each parish of the province for educational purposes was passed as part of the appropriation bill by the Assembly in 1793, the Council rejected it, stating among other objections 'that the appropriating money for the education of children in the different parishes of this Province, was a new institution and necessarily required particular regulations'.40 Yet the year before, a grant had been made to the Academy, and in this particular year the Governor was demanding more money for that institution.41 Evidently schools for the “children in the different parishes of this Province” were in a different category entirely from a “Seminary of learning . . . where youth might be qualified for the learned professions” .42 They were, in effect, regarded as schools for the children of poor plebeians and the spirit in which they were established and supported was, for a considerable period, that of charitable benevolence.
To bracket the Grammar Schools with the Academy as institutions for the benefit of the upper classes may require some explanation. Undoubtedly they lacked the aristocratic character of the Academy, but the term “grammar school” indicates that they were designed, as in England and the Thirteen Colonies, for the education of children of the middle classes, i.e., children whose elementary education was gained at home or in private schools, and who were able to continue their schooling beyond the years and the curriculum of the parish schools. What Sir Robert Falconer has said of similar institutions in Nova Scotia lends support to the view that grammar schools may be described as schools for the upper classes. His words on the subject are as follows: “In pursuance of the policy of supplying opportunities first for that class of the population from which the higher ranks were recruited, the Government of Nova Scotia in 1811 passed a Grammar School Act to provide Grammar Schools in seven counties and in three districts.” 43 Actually many of the Grammar Schools of New Brunswick fell far short of the secondary curriculum they were supposed to follow, deteriorating to the point where they did little work beyond that of the parish schools. Yet year after year certain favored localities continued to draw the larger grant-in-aid and to enjoy the prestige of having a Grammar School.
While the schools of New Brunswick may be classified in the manner above suggested, their development, and the influences which affected that development, can be studied most readily from a chronological viewpoint, al-
though at times a clearer understanding may be attained by departing from the strictly chronological method.
though at times a clearer understanding may be attained by departing from the strictly chronological method.
Private endeavor resulted in a number of schools antedating the first school legislation of 1792. Only a few parents could afford to send their children to England, as Edward Winslow did in the case of his eldest son in 1784.44 To send them to the United States incurred the risk of republican contamination. Some parents taught their children at home, partially at least, as Winslow seems to have been forced to do45 when his brood grew annually, but others lacked the time and the ability, yet desired education for their children. There was, therefore, an extensive field for private initiative. Many of the resulting schools were of the elementary and precarious type referred to in connection with the Pre-Revolutionary period. According to the Governor's Royal Instructions of 1784 no one was to keep school in New Brunswick without a license from the Governor,46 but it is likely that in rural areas this formality was often overlooked. Information about these schools is scanty. We know that Bealing Stephenson who came to Fredericton in 1790 taught school there for forty years, and was accounted an accomplished penman and an expert in mathematics.47 Mary Winslow attended a boarding school for young ladies in Saint John, kept by a Mrs. Cottnam.48 Judging by the advertisements in early Saint John papers the curriculum in some of these schools was quite elaborate, such as that offered by William Green whose flamboyant advertisement is here given in full:
Education for Young Gentlemen William Green
Proposes opening an English School, for the Education of Youth, on Monday, the 20th of April, at his house in Briton-Street, near Capt. Elmes'—where will be taught the following branches of Literature, in the most approved order from the best Authors used in the Principal Academies in Great Britain and Ireland—viz.
| Per Quarter> | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | 0 | 7 | 6 |
| Reading with English Grammar and the proper accent | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| Writing | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| Arithmetic | 0 | 12 | 6 |
| Bookkeeping and Merchants' Accompts | 0 | 17 | 6 |
Geometry, Measuring, Surveying, Gauging, Navigation, Dialling, and other parts of the Mathematics according to agreement; also the use and projection of Maps and Charts after a natural, easy and concise method without burden to the memory.
N. B. Those parents, that will give him a preference in the tutorage of their children, may depend on the strictest attention being paid to their natural genius, and their moral abilities. March, 27, 1789.49
N. B. Those parents, that will give him a preference in the tutorage of their children, may depend on the strictest attention being paid to their natural genius, and their moral abilities. March, 27, 1789.49
Schools promoted by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts were, like private schools, in existence previous to schools aided by the legislature, and continued to function for many years after the establishment of the parish schools. This missionary organization of the Church of England extended its activities from the Thirteen Colonies into Nova Scotia shortly after the founding of Halifax in 1749.50 The appointment in 1774 of James Porter as schoolmaster at Cumberland marked the inauguration of the Society's activities in the present New Brunswick. After the Revolution the Society adopted a definite policy of supporting primary schools in this province.51 According to a list,52 prepared by Raymond, of schools in New Brunswick before 1800 under the auspices of the S. P. G., there were such schools at Carleton, St. Andrews and Maugerville very shortly after the arrival of the Loyalists, and by 1800 there were fourteen in the province.
In the schools of the S. P. G. we have an example of the important place which religion and denominationalism occupied in the educational philosophy of the eighteenth century. The proselytizing and teaching functions of the society were closely related. According to the Royal Instructions, a license from the Lord Bishop of London, who supervised the work of the S. P. G., was obligatory for schoolmasters coming to New Brunswick from the Mother country.53 These were mostly Anglican missionaries and were not in sufficient numbers to meet the need. Consequently, masters from the best material available in the colony were placed on the S. P. G. list of teachers, sometimes on the recommendation of the Governor-in-Council, more frequently on the word of the clergyman in charge of the parish where a teacher was needed. Cases are on record in which teachers holding the Governor's license were placed on the S. P. G. list if they were Anglicans and were recommended by the missionary in charge of the parish where they taught. Thus Benjamin Snow, who had a school at Carleton in 1784, applied through the Rev. Samuel Cooke to be placed on the list of the S. P. G. schoolmasters, was accepted, and commended for sobriety, learning and morals.54 Not infrequently missionaries of the S. P. G. were themselves teachers. For example, Rev. Samuel Cooke, the first rector of Fredericton, and Rev. Walter Price both taught in the Fredericton Academy in 1791.55 The requirements of a prospective teacher wishing to be licensed by the S. P. G., and the instructions issued to schoolmasters employed by the society reveal unequivocally that the educational programme of the S. P. G.
was a subsidiary of the denominational. A teacher wishing to be licensed by the S. P. G. must present certificates with respect to his zeal for the Christian religion, his affection to. the present Governor, and his conformity to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England, also testimonials of his ability to teach the catechism of that church and such exposition thereof as the Society might order. In the Standing Orders of the Society instructions relating to the teaching of writing and elementary arithmetic were preceded by instructions emphasizing religious purposes. Children were to be taught reading in order that they might be able to read the Scriptures and other pious books. Masters were to teach their pupils to read the Church Catechism, to memorize it, and to understand it by the help of expositions sent over by the Society.56
was a subsidiary of the denominational. A teacher wishing to be licensed by the S. P. G. must present certificates with respect to his zeal for the Christian religion, his affection to. the present Governor, and his conformity to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England, also testimonials of his ability to teach the catechism of that church and such exposition thereof as the Society might order. In the Standing Orders of the Society instructions relating to the teaching of writing and elementary arithmetic were preceded by instructions emphasizing religious purposes. Children were to be taught reading in order that they might be able to read the Scriptures and other pious books. Masters were to teach their pupils to read the Church Catechism, to memorize it, and to understand it by the help of expositions sent over by the Society.56
The activity and influence of the Church of England in the educational field were not confined to the schools of the S. P. G. The teachers in the Academy, Grammar Schools, and later, in the College of New Brunswick, were Anglicans, and the Church of England catechism was taught in the Madras Schools. Moreover, the Anglican Church, as in the mother country, assumed that it was the special depositary of loyalty and superior breeding. Although an act passed in 1786 for preserving the Church of England referred to that church “as by law established” ,57 it is doubtful if the Church of England was legally the Established Church of New Brunswick. Nevertheless, Anglicans acted on the assumption that it was. Bishop John Inglis in a written complaint to the Governor, Sir Howard Douglas, in 1826, fulminating against the action of certain Presbyterian trustees of a school at Chatham, pointed out that since the provincial law required the teaching of the Creed, Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments, the use of the Anglican catechism was only logical, and added “indeed if a public school teaches the Established religion of the country, no more can be said” . The closing paragraph of the letter is of special interest. The Bishop asked Sir Howard if it might not be advisable to add so many members to the bench of magistrates at Chatham as would give a majority of Churchmen.58 This presumably would, in time, eliminate the offending Presbyterian trustees, since at that period the trustees were appointed by the magistrates.
Anglican control in secondary education has already been mentioned. The Academy and later the Collegiate School and College of New Brunswick were practically exclusive Anglican institutions, in spite of the fact that they received public money. So long as all the high government officials were Anglicans, as they were during the early years of the province, Dissenters, although they had the majority in numbers, could achieve little success in attempting to change this order of things. As a matter of fact, despite Glenie's championship, or perhaps because of it, Methodists and Baptists were even unable to secure for their clergy the right to solemnize marriages. 59 previous to the passing of the
Dissenters' Marriage Bill in 1834, and until 1810 Roman Catholics were denied the right to vote. 60
Dissenters' Marriage Bill in 1834, and until 1810 Roman Catholics were denied the right to vote. 60
Dissenters were unable to maintain schools as numerous and as influential as the Anglicans during this period, for they lacked the outside support which the Church of England received from the S. P. G., were cut off by the Revolution from their brethren in the Colonies, and could not count among their numbers as many persons of prestige and secure income as could the favored Anglican communion. They were not, however, inactive in education before the inauguration of parish schools, nor did they depend entirely on those schools when such were established. In 1788 a schoolmaster at Carleton reported to the S. P. G. that 'two wealthy Dissenters have started a rival school', and in 1829 Rev. Frederick Coster of Carleton wrote to the S. P. G. of a school under the management of a Presbyterian minister in an adjacent parish.61 In the course of time, immigration and “the intrusion of evangelical movements from outside” 62 added to the numbers, zeal and energy of Dissenters, facilitating the establishment of a number of important denominational schools, but their history belongs properly to the next period.
Shortly after the close of the period under consideration, the S. P. G. withdrew its aid.63 The pioneer phase of New Brunswick development was over; the Madras Schools were flourishing; parish and Grammar Schools were growing in numbers if not appreciably in character; continued aid from the Society seemed unnecessary. Perhaps, too, the Society was beginning to see the hopelessness of trying to make the Church of England the Established Church in New Brunswick, and to realize that the days of Anglican privilege and social prestige were beginning to wane.64
While the S. P. G. held a narrow view of education and an exalted view of denominationalism, and while it may have helped to create resentment among other denominations and to delay the establishment of free non-sectarian schools, we must not overlook the fact that the Society did render a service to elementary education at a time when schools of any kind were at a premium, and that those whom it commissioned to teach, working under difficulties, must have added appreciably to the sum total of knowledge. Those difficulties were far from slight. While the masters were sure of the £ 10 paid annually by the Society,65 the rest of their salary, subscribed by the people, was inadequate even when paid regularly and completely. The Society evidently expected long hours of service. A Mr. Lynch reported keeping school from six to one in the morning and from two to six in the afternoon, during the summer, and from eight to one, and two to five in the winter. George Barwick taught from eight to twelve in the morning and from two to five in the afternoon, and also conducted a night school from six to eight for the benefit of servants after the day's
work.66 With conditions as they were in the country, one is not surprised to find that the S. P. G. employed only male teachers, although the Society does seem to have considered the plan of using women teachers for the younger children, but it was reported in 1796 that qualified females were unobtainable.67 Is this, we wonder, a reflection on the intellect and learning of the women of the province, or on their physiques, or does it merely mean that the tasks of the home in pioneer society demanded the whole of a woman's time?
work.66 With conditions as they were in the country, one is not surprised to find that the S. P. G. employed only male teachers, although the Society does seem to have considered the plan of using women teachers for the younger children, but it was reported in 1796 that qualified females were unobtainable.67 Is this, we wonder, a reflection on the intellect and learning of the women of the province, or on their physiques, or does it merely mean that the tasks of the home in pioneer society demanded the whole of a woman's time?
It is a rather curious anomaly that while Loyalist parents were grieving, over the lack of educational facilities for their children, a definite and ambitious scheme was being launched in the interests of a group of people who were untroubled by their lack of schooling. A few months after Dr. William Paine, urged on by his wife, affixed his signature to a memorial praying that steps be taken toward the institution of a Provincial Academy of Arts and Sciences,68 the same gentleman became one of the commissioners, along with the Governor, Chief Justice, Provincial Secretary, and others, empowered by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England and the Parts Adjacent to supervise the education of the Indians of New Brunswick.69
The Society referred to, like the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, was an outside agency. Its activities in New Brunswick represent an odd assortment of purposes and motives—Christian philanthropy, noblesse oblige, Protestant zeal, and opportunism. The Society, originally chartered by the Long Parliament in 1649 as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England, was rechartered in the reign of Charles II, and the phrase “And Parts Adjacent” was added to the title. The aim of the Society was the propagation of the gospel among the Indians, principally in Massachusetts, but its funds, Hannay says, were largely appropriated by Harvard College for general education,70 an interesting point in comparison with a certain measure of diversion of effort later in New Brunswick. At the close of the Revolution the Society, commonly known as the New England Company, concentrated on the redemption of the Indians of New Brunswick from Roman Catholicism, migratory habits, and illiteracy. Certainly the plight of the Indians of the province might have been expected to arouse pity and a sense of responsibility on the part of any Loyalists having a lively memory of their own recent dispossession. Winslow admitted that their condition, because of the encroachments made on their hunting grounds by the new settlements, was one of abject poverty and distress.71 When to this consideration was added the willingness of the New England Company to spend money on Indian schools in New Brunswick, thereby affording a number of administrative jobs for several prominent members of the official class, a scheme for the improvement and education of the Indians appeared in the light of a duty and an opportunity.
A commission was appointed empowered to engage and pay teachers for the purpose of civilizing and teaching the "heathen" natives and their children, with a view to placing them in some trade, “mastery” or lawful calling, or apprenticing them out to English families.72 Schools were established at Woodstock, Fredericton, Sheffield, Westfield, St. Andrews, Miramichi, and Sussex Vale. These were presided over by able men, a number of them being graduates of American colleges. In 1794 the commissioners, evidently realizing that these various schools, while they were of benefit to the Indians as relief centres, were failures as educational institutions, decided to close all but the one at Sussex Vale under Rev. Oliver Arnold. Winslow, commenting on this decision wrote: “The erecting of a convenient building at Sussex-Vale, as an academy exclusively for them, the employment of a preceptor to teach them the first rudiments of education, and the arrangements which were made for their accommodation and comfort, all contributed to soothe them in their state of distress .... They considered this place as an Asylum where the aged and infirm could rest from the fatigues which are incident to savage life, and where the young of both sexes were fed, clothed and instructed as far as they inclined to be.” 73 A degree of contrast to this picture of pleased and grateful natives occurs in Thomas Costin's letter to Winslow in 1804, a letter in which the writer spoke of the Saint John river Indians as distressed and discontented, and missing the relief afforded by the various schools which had been closed. Of the school at Sussex Vale, he said “What is that, as they observe, to their numerous tribe and the distribution of their nation?” 74
A commission was appointed empowered to engage and pay teachers for the purpose of civilizing and teaching the "heathen" natives and their children, with a view to placing them in some trade, “mastery” or lawful calling, or apprenticing them out to English families.72 Schools were established at Woodstock, Fredericton, Sheffield, Westfield, St. Andrews, Miramichi, and Sussex Vale. These were presided over by able men, a number of them being graduates of American colleges. In 1794 the commissioners, evidently realizing that these various schools, while they were of benefit to the Indians as relief centres, were failures as educational institutions, decided to close all but the one at Sussex Vale under Rev. Oliver Arnold. Winslow, commenting on this decision wrote: “The erecting of a convenient building at Sussex-Vale, as an academy exclusively for them, the employment of a preceptor to teach them the first rudiments of education, and the arrangements which were made for their accommodation and comfort, all contributed to soothe them in their state of distress .... They considered this place as an Asylum where the aged and infirm could rest from the fatigues which are incident to savage life, and where the young of both sexes were fed, clothed and instructed as far as they inclined to be.” 73 A degree of contrast to this picture of pleased and grateful natives occurs in Thomas Costin's letter to Winslow in 1804, a letter in which the writer spoke of the Saint John river Indians as distressed and discontented, and missing the relief afforded by the various schools which had been closed. Of the school at Sussex Vale, he said “What is that, as they observe, to their numerous tribe and the distribution of their nation?” 74
In Winsow's phrase “instructed as far as they inclined to be” lies one clue to the failure of the New England Company's venture in New Brunswick. For the Indians showed more interest in the supplies of provisions and clothing than in the benefits of education. A report of the school at Woodstock shows that during a six-month period only $ 3.30 was spent for books and writing paper while $ 529.12 was expended for food and clothing.75 Arnold reported that at Sussex Vale parents whose children were in the school frequently sold for a trifle the weekly allowance of supplies distributed to them, even good cloth, when they were almost destitute of warm clothing during a cold winter.76 Other traits of the Indian character besides improvidence proved an obstacle to the educational aims of the Company.77 Winslow admitted this when he said: “It is true literally that all the exertions which have been made have been hitherto ineffectual to conquer the prejudices of the savages against allowing their children to be bound out to trades, and they have another prejudice equally
strong against the discipline of schools or chastisement for faults. To reconcile them to the latter it was proposed to introduce into the same school with them a certain number of the white children of the neighborhood, in order that the savages might mix with them and observe that they were treated with equal justice and attention.” 78 This device appears not unreasonable but one cannot help wondering if it was not resorted to in the interests of the white children rather than in the interests of the Indians. Not that one can strongly censure people who were deprived of schools for their own children for seeking to take advantage of excellent facilities provided for unappreciative Indians.
strong against the discipline of schools or chastisement for faults. To reconcile them to the latter it was proposed to introduce into the same school with them a certain number of the white children of the neighborhood, in order that the savages might mix with them and observe that they were treated with equal justice and attention.” 78 This device appears not unreasonable but one cannot help wondering if it was not resorted to in the interests of the white children rather than in the interests of the Indians. Not that one can strongly censure people who were deprived of schools for their own children for seeking to take advantage of excellent facilities provided for unappreciative Indians.
If officials of the Company outside of the provincial agents were not aware of this diversion of the Company's accommodations, a letter in 1824 from the Governor, Sir Howard Douglas, to Mr. Vaughan, the chairman of the New England Company, must have proved something of a shock. Sir Howard wrote that he found the school, not, as he expected, an Establishment specially devoted to the improvement and education of the Indians, but exhibiting them as last in the order in which were presented to him, to his surprise, a great concourse of other children of the first condition in the neighborhood. The plan, he thought, had failed and he was not afraid to breathe surprise that “expectations of improving the moral condition of people who stand in the very lowest stage of human existence, should be entertained, according to a Plan of which the foundation was laid in breaking all the tender ties of our nature, tempting the parent to sell the child, transplanting the Infant into a new condition, too forced and unnatural to be permanent, and subject consequently to let him relapse into savage life to Parents, with habits that do not suit that condition” . His Excellency suggested that the Indians must be brought gradually to such habits of agricultural industry as might induce them to establish their residences in tracts of reserved lands which had been appropriated to them and which might also admit of their young men following the desultory pursuits from which they could not seem to be detached. As the civilization of the country advanced they would be forced more and more to the cultivation of their fixed resources, and at proper periods in this gradual progress provincial leaders must watch out for the best opportunities and means, such as schools, of improving their moral and religious condition. Anything else would be “specious experiments deluding humanity and charity to grant their aids to ineffectual experiments which injure rather than improve” .79 Whether because of Sir Howard's condemnation or because the Company had already realized that only vain expenditure of money attended their efforts to induce the Indians to become Protestants, farmers, and scholars, the school was closed soon after this (1826),80 and the Company ceased its operations in the province. Altogether $ 140,000 had been spent, of which $ 40,000 had gone to officials whose jobs were practically sinecures. For instance, the Honorable John Coffin received £ 125 sterling per year as superintendent of the Sussex School, although he lived
at the mouth of the Nerepis8l and probably did not see the school even annually. The whole enterprise, because of its failure to make any deep or lasting impression on the Indians of New Brunswick, scarcely deserves the attention here given it, but as an example of energetic but injudicious expenditure on the part of a wealthy outside agency, in comparison with the sluggish and inadequate provisions within the province for the bulk of the population of school age, it presents an interesting contrast.
at the mouth of the Nerepis8l and probably did not see the school even annually. The whole enterprise, because of its failure to make any deep or lasting impression on the Indians of New Brunswick, scarcely deserves the attention here given it, but as an example of energetic but injudicious expenditure on the part of a wealthy outside agency, in comparison with the sluggish and inadequate provisions within the province for the bulk of the population of school age, it presents an interesting contrast.
In the same year in which the New England Company began its operations in the interests of the Indians of New Brunswick, definite steps were taken towards the establishment of the Fredericton Academy. We have noted that this Academy was the first institution of learning in New Brunswick to claim the attention of the legislature. The germ of the idea back of the school was in the minds of certain Loyalists before the migration. In New York, in 1783, a Plan of a Religious and Literary Institution for Nova Scotia was formulated and discussed by a committee including the Rev. Charles Inglis, afterwards the first Bishop of Nova Scotia, and Jonathan Odell, later the first provincial secretary of New Brunswick. A memorial to Sir Guy Carleton stressed the expediency of a Public Seminary, Academy or College at some “centrical” part of Nova Scotia, and a later letter from the originators of the plan declared that the founding on a liberal plan of such an institution where youth could receive a virtuous82 education and be qualified for the learned professions was of the utmost importance.83
The division of Nova Scotia in 1784 into two provinces brought about the first step in that decentralization of effort which has been a lamentable feature of educational endeavor in the Maritime Provinces. Largely through the efforts of Inglis, an Academy at Windsor was begun in 1787, and in 1789 was raised to the status of a college. In the case of the New Brunswick Academy emphasis on the function of such an institution as a training ground for clergymen was not quite so decided as in connection with Windsor Academy, but that may be due to the fact that lack of communication prevented Bishop Inglis from exercising much influence in this distant part of his diocese. The spirit, however, was appreciably the same as that revealed in a casual statement in the early records of Windsor 'that in exact proportion to the influence of the established religion will be the immovable loyalty of the inhabitants of the province'.84
The Fredericton Academy was founded at about the same time as the one at Windsor. In the records of the Council of New Brunswick there is a minute dated December 13, 1785, reporting consideration of a memorial of Dr. William Paine and others praying that a charter of incorporation be granted for the institution of a Provincial Academy of Arts and Sciences, also a memorial of the principal officers of the disbanded corps and other inhabitants of York County praying that part of the reserved lands around Fredericton be appro-
priated to the use of the proposed Academy. Then follows the order of the Council “that the Attorney General and Solicitor General be directed with all convenient speed to prepare the draught of a charter for the establishment of the said institution” .85 The Minutes of the Council of a slightly later date, February 3, 1786, tell us that the trustees of certain reserved lands at Fredericton were instructed to lay out a glebe for a church, a common for the use of the inhabitants, and lots of specified sizes, the latter to be sold at auction and conveyed in fee simple on a ground rent reserved forever. Furthermore, the revenue so from time to time obtained was to be applied “to and for the use of an Academy or College to be erected and supported at Fredericton for the education of Youth in the various Branches of Literature and for the salaries or maintenance of the several preceptors and teachers appointed thereto in such proportions as the Governors or Directors of said Academy or College, authorized by Charter of Incorporation, shall direct and assign” .86 In anticipation of the granting of a royal charter, the Attorney General and Solicitor General prepared a draught of a charter based on that of King's College at New York, afterwards Columbia, but Carleton received a letter from Lord Sydney which restricted him from passing a charter of incorporation for the time being.87 Perhaps the royal bounty could not stretch to include both a King's at Windsor and a College of New Brunswick at Fredericton, or it may be that imperial interest was centred on a plan to establish foundations within Oxford and Cambridge, for the maintenance of young men from British North America who would take holy orders, and then return to British America to serve the Church of England.88 At any rate, the formal inception of the college was delayed until 1800. In the meantime the trustees promoted the Grammar School or Academy, using such masters as were available on the spot.89 Who the first teachers were is not known.90 A letter from Major Barclay to Edward Winslow, July 2, 1787, referred to some unnamed gentleman proposed as master, informing Winslow that the nominee, although a man of honor and integrity, was not of a shining genius, in fact, in the languages, unless he had improved himself since leaving college, he was hardly tolerable, and in mathematics, geography, etc., no more learned than Winslow and Barclay themselves.91 Evidently the difficulty of obtaining competent men at a low salary was one which continued into the college period, as Ward Chipman wrote Winslow from Salem in 1804 that he had made enquiries about an Instructor for the College but feared he would not succeed in obtaining one, as gentlemen qualified for the position could obtain in Massachusetts eleven or twelve hundred dollars a year.92
priated to the use of the proposed Academy. Then follows the order of the Council “that the Attorney General and Solicitor General be directed with all convenient speed to prepare the draught of a charter for the establishment of the said institution” .85 The Minutes of the Council of a slightly later date, February 3, 1786, tell us that the trustees of certain reserved lands at Fredericton were instructed to lay out a glebe for a church, a common for the use of the inhabitants, and lots of specified sizes, the latter to be sold at auction and conveyed in fee simple on a ground rent reserved forever. Furthermore, the revenue so from time to time obtained was to be applied “to and for the use of an Academy or College to be erected and supported at Fredericton for the education of Youth in the various Branches of Literature and for the salaries or maintenance of the several preceptors and teachers appointed thereto in such proportions as the Governors or Directors of said Academy or College, authorized by Charter of Incorporation, shall direct and assign” .86 In anticipation of the granting of a royal charter, the Attorney General and Solicitor General prepared a draught of a charter based on that of King's College at New York, afterwards Columbia, but Carleton received a letter from Lord Sydney which restricted him from passing a charter of incorporation for the time being.87 Perhaps the royal bounty could not stretch to include both a King's at Windsor and a College of New Brunswick at Fredericton, or it may be that imperial interest was centred on a plan to establish foundations within Oxford and Cambridge, for the maintenance of young men from British North America who would take holy orders, and then return to British America to serve the Church of England.88 At any rate, the formal inception of the college was delayed until 1800. In the meantime the trustees promoted the Grammar School or Academy, using such masters as were available on the spot.89 Who the first teachers were is not known.90 A letter from Major Barclay to Edward Winslow, July 2, 1787, referred to some unnamed gentleman proposed as master, informing Winslow that the nominee, although a man of honor and integrity, was not of a shining genius, in fact, in the languages, unless he had improved himself since leaving college, he was hardly tolerable, and in mathematics, geography, etc., no more learned than Winslow and Barclay themselves.91 Evidently the difficulty of obtaining competent men at a low salary was one which continued into the college period, as Ward Chipman wrote Winslow from Salem in 1804 that he had made enquiries about an Instructor for the College but feared he would not succeed in obtaining one, as gentlemen qualified for the position could obtain in Massachusetts eleven or twelve hundred dollars a year.92
In 1792 the resources of the Academy were augmented by the legislative grant of £ 100 aforementioned. The next year, when the number of
scholars exclusive of children under nine years of age was only seventeen,93 Governor Carleton emphasized the importance of making an annual allowance to the Academy, and it was resolved to grant an annual sum not exceeding £ 200 as soon as the amount of the anticipated bounty from Britain should be known, and a suitable plan and place agreed upon. This reference to a proper place angered the Governor's friends, for whom there was but one proper site, Fredericton.94 Their resentment was undoubtedly a factor behind the Council's refusal that year to pass a bill granting aid to parish schools, although the Council stated that their objection was due to the inclusion of the measure in the appropriation bill of the year.95 As only the year before the grant to the Academy had been included in the appropriation bill without any objection on the part of the Council, it is evident that the Academy and a parish school were horses of a different color. The effect of the deadlock between the two Houses was to delay any further legislative aid to the Academy, to postpone the charter,96 and to defer the passage of a parish school enactment.97
scholars exclusive of children under nine years of age was only seventeen,93 Governor Carleton emphasized the importance of making an annual allowance to the Academy, and it was resolved to grant an annual sum not exceeding £ 200 as soon as the amount of the anticipated bounty from Britain should be known, and a suitable plan and place agreed upon. This reference to a proper place angered the Governor's friends, for whom there was but one proper site, Fredericton.94 Their resentment was undoubtedly a factor behind the Council's refusal that year to pass a bill granting aid to parish schools, although the Council stated that their objection was due to the inclusion of the measure in the appropriation bill of the year.95 As only the year before the grant to the Academy had been included in the appropriation bill without any objection on the part of the Council, it is evident that the Academy and a parish school were horses of a different color. The effect of the deadlock between the two Houses was to delay any further legislative aid to the Academy, to postpone the charter,96 and to defer the passage of a parish school enactment.97
In 1800, the year after the deadlock between Council and Assembly ended, the Academy became incorporated as the College of New Brunswick. Its story from then on is a part of the history of higher education, but a preparatory school was maintained in connection with it,98 and when the college became King's College in 1829 this school became the Fredericton Collegiate School, supported partly by University funds and partly as a provincial grammar school.99 The greater part of the history of the Collegiate School belongs to a later period, but the inauguration of the school may legitimately be dealt with here. According to the regulations adopted by the College Council in 1829 for the government of the Collegiate School, the institution was to include a Grammar School, and an English School, under the superintendence of the Principal Preceptor of the Grammar School, the latter to hold no church preferment which might interfere with his scholastic duty of preparing candidates for matriculation. The English master was to teach the pupils under his charge Reading, Writing, the rudiments of English Grammar, Geography and History, Arithmetic, Practical Geometry, and Book-keeping, and was also to instruct the classical pupils in such of the foregoing branches as the Principal Preceptor might consider necessary. The tuition for classical pupils was to be £ 6 per annum, £ 1 of which was to be paid to the English master for every scholar from the classical department whom be instructed. Tuition for pupils of the English school was set at £ 4 per annum. Aside from the tuition fee, the only qualification for admittance was the ability of the candidate to read a chapter in the Bible. The daily exercises of the school were to commence and conclude with prayers according to the Anglican form. The Visiting Committee, which consisted of the College Professors, had the power to admit free scholars, provided
that no more than six such scholars were in attendance at the school at any one time.100
that no more than six such scholars were in attendance at the school at any one time.100
The regulations relating to tuition, and the close connection between the school and King's College, which was an aristocratic sectarian institution, tended to limit the benefits of the school to a select few and bred a snobbish spirit. Lt.-Col. William Baird, referring to his attendance at this school in the 1830's, wrote: “Many of the boys were sons of the so-called aristocracy of that day, and Segee and myself were subjected to no small amount of taunts and sneers, at and after the competitive examinations which twice in each year were held on the hill at King's College . . . . The school was divided by the scions of aristocracy . . . into two classes; and the Plebei thus proscribed were made to suffer many indignities.” 101 The writer did not say whether he and Segee were numbered among the free scholars or not. If they were not, then the position of those who were must have been an unhappy one! Leaving the Collegiate School for the present, we turn back to the period of the first Pa rish School Act (1802). According to Professor S. D. Clark, who has studied social developments in Canada, “in New Brunswick the frontier phase of development had no more than set in by 1800” , using the word “frontier” to mean an area in which expansion of new forms of economic enterprise is taking place.102 It would seem, then, that the tardiness and tentative nature of educational developments were facets of a general slow development. Dugald Campbell's survey of New Brunswick for the year 1802 reveals the lack of bridges, and the fact that there were not ten miles of road fit for wheel carriage in the entire province, “with the exception of the left bank of the Saint John in Sunbury County, where nature had chiefly performed the task of roadmaking” .103 As for trade, it was becoming all too apparent that New Brunswick could not meet the commercial role assigned to it by sanguine imperialists at the time of the disruption of the Old Empire. Not only were the requirements of the West Indian trade beyond the resources and business arrangements of New Brunswick, but experience was also proving the dependence of the province on the United States for many staples.104 We can note only some of the factors in all the intricacies of the situation. On one hand was Britain's traditional colonial policy, and the desire of ardent imperialists to treat the United States as a foreign country and to make her pay the piper for the Revolution.105 Added to this was the eagerness of the remaining British colonies to monopolize imperial markets, and to reap the benefits of the exclusion of the United States from the West Indies. On the other hand, in the negotiations of 1783 the United States had obtained for her fishermen the valuable privilege of fishing in British-American waters,106 and was anxious to gain re-entrance to the West
Indian trade.107 Moreover, Britain could not entirely ignore the United States because British North America was not an adequate substitute as a source of raw materials, and because the American market was too vital to Britain to be endangered by any policy favoring colonial interests at the expense of foreign trade. Britain's colonial policy toward her North American provinces was, therefore, affected by her policy toward the United States and was sometimes sacrificed to it.108 Before the Revolution, Nova Scotia had had only a minor trade with the West Indies in fish. After the war, the Maritime Provinces failed to meet the needs of the West Indies, especially after 1793, when Britain, at war with France, had to divert much of her shipping from the islands. As a result, the governors of the West Indies were allowed to open their ports to American vessels, if necessary, and thus the special privileges of the northern provinces were largely wiped out.109 While the Maritime Provinces strenuously advocated the exclusion of Americans from the West Indian markets, they themselves, needing American goods, often found a relaxation of the navigation laws desirable and necessary, and as long as British shipping bad the monopoly of the carriage, as it did until the American embargo of 1808, Whitehall was not unduly perturbed.110 A considerable volume of clandestine trade was carried on between New Brunswick and New England, facilitated by the indefiniteness of the boundary, the many islands in the Passamaquoddy Bay, the privileges of American fishermen in British coastal waters, the scarcity of patrol boats, the amenability of customs officials to bribery, and the connivance of the people on both sides. George Leonard, the Maritime Superintendent of Trade and Fisheries, his son, and his deputies fought a more or less losing battle against smuggling in the latter part of the eighteenth century and the early years of the nineteenth.111 The point is, that economic need, propinquity, past experience, and perhaps blood connections made trade between New Brunswick and New England a natural process, while the navigation laws imposed an artificial restriction.
Indian trade.107 Moreover, Britain could not entirely ignore the United States because British North America was not an adequate substitute as a source of raw materials, and because the American market was too vital to Britain to be endangered by any policy favoring colonial interests at the expense of foreign trade. Britain's colonial policy toward her North American provinces was, therefore, affected by her policy toward the United States and was sometimes sacrificed to it.108 Before the Revolution, Nova Scotia had had only a minor trade with the West Indies in fish. After the war, the Maritime Provinces failed to meet the needs of the West Indies, especially after 1793, when Britain, at war with France, had to divert much of her shipping from the islands. As a result, the governors of the West Indies were allowed to open their ports to American vessels, if necessary, and thus the special privileges of the northern provinces were largely wiped out.109 While the Maritime Provinces strenuously advocated the exclusion of Americans from the West Indian markets, they themselves, needing American goods, often found a relaxation of the navigation laws desirable and necessary, and as long as British shipping bad the monopoly of the carriage, as it did until the American embargo of 1808, Whitehall was not unduly perturbed.110 A considerable volume of clandestine trade was carried on between New Brunswick and New England, facilitated by the indefiniteness of the boundary, the many islands in the Passamaquoddy Bay, the privileges of American fishermen in British coastal waters, the scarcity of patrol boats, the amenability of customs officials to bribery, and the connivance of the people on both sides. George Leonard, the Maritime Superintendent of Trade and Fisheries, his son, and his deputies fought a more or less losing battle against smuggling in the latter part of the eighteenth century and the early years of the nineteenth.111 The point is, that economic need, propinquity, past experience, and perhaps blood connections made trade between New Brunswick and New England a natural process, while the navigation laws imposed an artificial restriction.
The reasons why New Brunswick failed to realize the hopes entertained in relation to the West Indian trade throw a good deal of light on conditions in the province at the opening of the nineteenth century. Capital was scarce and skilled labourers few. In their struggle to capture the West Indian trade from the United States, the Maritime Provinces “were handicapped by distance, by high freight rates and insurance, and by lack of experience in the West Indies market” .112 Once the timber near the first sawmills had been cut, the labor and expense necessary to bring it from a distance, since the country lacked roads, made competition with American prices impossible,113 New England fishermen had more capital and experience than Maritime fishermen, could obtain apparatus and provisions 30% cheaper than colonials could, and after 1791 had the
benefit of state bounties.114 As for shipbuilding, shipyards had been established early and a number of ships built, but “until the end of the Napoleonic Wars, shipbuilding remained an industry of spasmodic booms and prolonged slumps” .115 Agriculturally, the province was not even self-supporting. Many of the inhabitants were city-bred. Their professional or commercial training did not fit them for agriculture.116 Many were disbanded officers and soldiers, whose half-pay rendered unnecessary an all-out agricultural effort. Along the Passamaquoddy, New England provisions could be obtained in exchange for contraband gypsum, for which there was a great demand in the United States.117 Then too, as Professor Graham has observed, the fact that other occupations seemed more profitable explains in part the agricultural lethargy. The settler on new land could occupy himself in timber-cutting with a minimum of experience and expense. Why should he “sacrifice good wages, and, like the French coureur de bois, the freedom of a seasonal occupation for the sake of wresting a meagre living from the soil?” 118
benefit of state bounties.114 As for shipbuilding, shipyards had been established early and a number of ships built, but “until the end of the Napoleonic Wars, shipbuilding remained an industry of spasmodic booms and prolonged slumps” .115 Agriculturally, the province was not even self-supporting. Many of the inhabitants were city-bred. Their professional or commercial training did not fit them for agriculture.116 Many were disbanded officers and soldiers, whose half-pay rendered unnecessary an all-out agricultural effort. Along the Passamaquoddy, New England provisions could be obtained in exchange for contraband gypsum, for which there was a great demand in the United States.117 Then too, as Professor Graham has observed, the fact that other occupations seemed more profitable explains in part the agricultural lethargy. The settler on new land could occupy himself in timber-cutting with a minimum of experience and expense. Why should he “sacrifice good wages, and, like the French coureur de bois, the freedom of a seasonal occupation for the sake of wresting a meagre living from the soil?” 118
Bearing all this in mind, one has some justification for believing that New Brunswick, at the turn of the century, was just barely getting along. Conditions proving too much for the baffled and the restless, there occurred the beginning of that movement out of the province which has since remained “a constant and embarrassing problem in Maritime life” .119 Some of the deserters, attracted by distant fields, left for Upper Canada;120 others sacrificed their loyal principles, swallowed their pride, and went back to the United States.121 In some cases the lack of educational opportunities probably was a factor in this emigration. Perhaps restrictions on land grants, in force after 1790, were partly to blame.122 Hannay has suggested also that the attitude of the Governor and favored ruling families bred resentment in the common people.123 At any rate, emigration did occur, and there was no highly compensating immigration. Information about New Brunswick for prospective British immigrants seems to have been wanting,124 and the provincial authorities, previous to 1802, took no steps to promote immigration. Not until after the close of the Napoleonic Wars did the province attract new settlers, and when they did come they created many problems.
The constitutional arrangements of New Brunswick, the temper of its politics, the quality of its leadership, the stringencies of its provincial economy, and the nature of its society, “not yet disciplined into culture by generations of leisure” ,125 were not of the sort to inspire “adventures in intelligence” 126 at the opening of the nineteenth century. There was not yet abroad in the land a
theory of popular education. Those best aware of the advantages of learning thought of it in terms of class distinction, denominationalism, and charity. Unable to conceive of the masses as potential rulers of the country, they could contemplate an uneducated people with regret, but without alarm. As a result, school legislation in this period was uninspired and inadequate, a haphazard fiddling with a problem which was viewed as a minor one.
theory of popular education. Those best aware of the advantages of learning thought of it in terms of class distinction, denominationalism, and charity. Unable to conceive of the masses as potential rulers of the country, they could contemplate an uneducated people with regret, but without alarm. As a result, school legislation in this period was uninspired and inadequate, a haphazard fiddling with a problem which was viewed as a minor one.
As debates in the Assembly were not reported in the early years of the province, and the Minutes of the Executive Council do not include discussion, we cannot know what was said about the Parish School Act of 1802. Early newspapers also made no reference to it, nor is it mentioned in any of Winslow's letters. The Act was practically the same measure which had been rejected by the Council in 1793.127 But the quarrel between the Council and Assembly over the appropriation bill and the payment of members of the Assembly had ended.128 The departure of Glenie, inveterate enemy of the Council, had eased some of the tension. The Governor and Council had had their own way in the matter of the appointment of the Clerk of the Assembly in 1802.129 Besides, even the Council must have realized that something had to be done if succeeding generations of the original Loyalists were not to be vastly inferior to the first. In assenting to the bill the Council more or less acknowledged this, for the preamble of the Act reads: “Whereas, The education of children is of the utmost importance to their future usefulness in society: and whereas, The situation of many parents in the different parishes of the province renders them unable to procure for their children the benefits of instruction in reading and writing without the aid of the Legislature,” etc. The, main clause of the bill appropriated £ 420 for distribution among the parishes of the province for educational purposes, £ 10 to each parish.130 These sums were not large but neither were the provincial funds.
Those who framed the Act of 1802 took advantage of existing machinery for the licensing of teachers. According to the Royal Instructions issued to Carleton in 1784, a prospective teacher obtained a license to teach by applying to the Governor. It is probable that such requests were seldom refused at first in view of the scarcity of teachers. Because of this, and because there was no system of inspection, there could be little real guarantee of a teacher's abilities or morals. In a pioneer country one of the basic problems of education lies in the dearth of capable teachers. In failing to grapple seriously with this problem at an early date the legislators of New Brunswick assured the province of a travesty of education for decades, thereby depreciating the value of schooling in the eyes of the people and delaying the growth of a popular demand for it.
The Parish School Act of 1802 also proposed to make use of existing machinery in the matter of the distribution of the provincial grant. The township, generally the local unit in New England, had been the civil division in Nova Scotia, and the word township occurs in the Royal Instructions to Carle-
ton in 1784, Sections 43 and 49 ordering that lands in or near each township be set apart for a school, and for the maintenance of a clergyman and a teacher.131 But the Royal Instructions also commanded that the Province be divided into such Parishes and Counties as might be thought expedient.132 Thus the parish became the civil division instead of the township, a small shift, but one in line with the renewed emphasis on the British connection. The chief parish officer was the Justice of the Peace, and the Justices of all the parishes of a county met as a Court of the General Sessions. It was to the Justices of the General Sessions in the different counties that the sum granted by the Legislature was to be paid in trust, to be allotted by them in their discretion at the rate of £ 10 per parish, so as to induce the establishment of schools where necessary, and to assist schools already in existence. The Justices were to report at the next session of the General Assembly how the money had been expended, and how far the expenditure had answered the purposes contemplated. As there were no school trustees, the ten pounds was to be paid directly to the teacher of a school as part of his salary, the rest to be subscribed by the parents whose children attended the school.133 It was suggested in an anonymous political tract, dealing with the refusal of the Council in 1793 to pass a bill similar to this act, that one of the Council's objections centred around this question of the control of school money by the Justices. As the members of the Assembly were almost without exception Justices, the Council feared that the Assembly would practically control the expenditure of school money, thereby rendering the grant “popularity money” to be expended by the members for their own advantage.134 It is quite likely that sometimes the various sections of a parish did contend for the grant of £ 10. In deciding which locality should be the privileged one, it may be that those Justices who happened to be members of the Assembly were influenced by political considerations. Certainly there is evidence that the question of school grants at a later date did become a political football.
ton in 1784, Sections 43 and 49 ordering that lands in or near each township be set apart for a school, and for the maintenance of a clergyman and a teacher.131 But the Royal Instructions also commanded that the Province be divided into such Parishes and Counties as might be thought expedient.132 Thus the parish became the civil division instead of the township, a small shift, but one in line with the renewed emphasis on the British connection. The chief parish officer was the Justice of the Peace, and the Justices of all the parishes of a county met as a Court of the General Sessions. It was to the Justices of the General Sessions in the different counties that the sum granted by the Legislature was to be paid in trust, to be allotted by them in their discretion at the rate of £ 10 per parish, so as to induce the establishment of schools where necessary, and to assist schools already in existence. The Justices were to report at the next session of the General Assembly how the money had been expended, and how far the expenditure had answered the purposes contemplated. As there were no school trustees, the ten pounds was to be paid directly to the teacher of a school as part of his salary, the rest to be subscribed by the parents whose children attended the school.133 It was suggested in an anonymous political tract, dealing with the refusal of the Council in 1793 to pass a bill similar to this act, that one of the Council's objections centred around this question of the control of school money by the Justices. As the members of the Assembly were almost without exception Justices, the Council feared that the Assembly would practically control the expenditure of school money, thereby rendering the grant “popularity money” to be expended by the members for their own advantage.134 It is quite likely that sometimes the various sections of a parish did contend for the grant of £ 10. In deciding which locality should be the privileged one, it may be that those Justices who happened to be members of the Assembly were influenced by political considerations. Certainly there is evidence that the question of school grants at a later date did become a political football.
The Act of 1802 made no provision for the building of school houses. According to the Royal Instructions lands were to be reserved for school purposes, and in the Minutes of the Council a number of applications for such lands are recorded. For instance, in 1787 the Justices of the Peace of Charlotte County were granted 1460 acres for a glebe and school.135 This was probably for an Anglican Church and school, as that favored church seems to have been in receipt, in the province at large, of extensive tracts of land.136 It would appear that comparatively few communities obtained land and built school houses, for when the Common School Act was passed in 1871 only a fraction of the then-existing trustee boards owned what school buildings there were. Since schools could not spring up out of the ground like mushrooms, and since few lands in this thinly populated province could bring in revenue in the form
of rents, school lands were of little use to people too poor or too indifferent to spend money on school buildings. Sometimes the community used whatever was available; sometimes the teachers rented a vacant room or building, or used their own homes.
of rents, school lands were of little use to people too poor or too indifferent to spend money on school buildings. Sometimes the community used whatever was available; sometimes the teachers rented a vacant room or building, or used their own homes.
The Act of 1802, whatever its inadequacies, did create a precedent for state assistance to schools of the rural areas, where private schools and schools operated by the S. P. G. were much less common than in the more populated sections of the province. The Act has been described as marking “a change in the feelings of the people toward education” .137 Actually it seems truer to say that it marked the beginning of some slight responsibility on the part of the provincial leaders for the education of “the people” .
The College and the parish schools having been established, it was now the turn of the grammar schools. In 1803, a committee of the Assembly was ordered to prepare a bill for establishing “County” schools, but the bill failed to pass,138 for reasons not known. There was no session of the legislature in 1804, but in 1805 County Schools became the subject of legislation. At this time the province was administered by Gabriel G. Ludlow, the senior member of the Council, Governor Carleton being on leave in England. Ludlow, to the disgust of officials in Fredericton, persisted in residing at Saint John,139 a city which had resented the choice of Fredericton as capital and as the site of the Academy and College. Whether there was any connection between Ludlow and the Bill of 1805 is not clear. Ward Chipman, writing to Winslow in 1805 merely noted that “the school-bill is again revived, has passed the House, and will, I understand, be assented to by the Council” .140
The Act of 1805,141 curiously entitled “An Act for Encouraging and Extending Literature in This Province” , made provision first of all for a Grammar School at Saint John. The tendency in the province to regard the Church of England as the rightful supervisor of the upper levels of education was revealed by the clause which made the Rector of Trinity Church in the City the President, by law, of the Board of Directors. An annual grant of £ 100 was to be applied towards the salary of the master, and a like sum was to be used by the Board of Directors for erecting or buying a building. This Board was to account to the Legislature from time to time for the conduct and management of the property vested in them. The Act further provided that two County Schools be established in each of the Counties of Westmorland, Charlotte, Northumberland, Queens, York, and Sunbury, and one in the only other county of the province at the time, Saint John, the Saint John Grammar School to take the place of a second County School there. These schools were for the instruction of both sexes in the English language, writing and arithmetic. They were to be under the direction and control of the Justices of the Peace. These officials, sitting in General Sessions for their respective counties, were to appoint
the masters and, when necessary, to dismiss them. To finance these schools the sum of £ 375 was to be granted annually for six years, £ 25 to the Justices of Saint John County, and £ 50 to the Justices of each of the remaining counties. Thus each master would receive £ 25 annually.
the masters and, when necessary, to dismiss them. To finance these schools the sum of £ 375 was to be granted annually for six years, £ 25 to the Justices of Saint John County, and £ 50 to the Justices of each of the remaining counties. Thus each master would receive £ 25 annually.
These schools were to be visited semi-annually by the rectors or missionaries of the parishes where they happened to be, together with committees appointed for that purpose by the Courts of the General Sessions, to whom the committees were to report. There could be as many as four free scholars in a school, and eight in the case of Saint John Grammar School. The most interesting provision of the Act stipulated that the County Schools were to be held in the various parishes of the counties in rotation, until each parish had received the benefit of the school. No County School could be held in Saint John City or parish, which were served by the Saint John Grammar School, or in Fredericton, which had the benefit of the Grammar School in connection with the College. As we have seen, the “moving” school had sometimes been a feature in New England. Those who framed the Act of 1805 may have remembered this colonial practice and have resorted to it in order to serve as many communities as possible. Whatever the benefits of the plan, it certainly could not foster continuity of schooling or promote the establishment of permanent school buildings.
Theoretically, New Brunswick now had two kinds of schools—the parish schools, to teach the rudiments, and the County schools, evidently intended to be of a superior type, since the masters received a larger grant, and there was more immediate supervision. It was a long time, however, before the County Schools had a distinct function in fact as well as in intention.142 More than that, for a decade after the passage of the Act, the Counties failed to take advantage of its provisions, only the Grammar School at Saint John coming into actual operation. It may be that the people were indifferent, and the justices, busy with other things, may have failed to show energy in promoting schools. Possibly the principle of moving the school proved unacceptable. At any rate, when a new Grammar School Act was passed in 1816 there was no mention of circulating schools, and Boards of Trustees replaced the Justices of the Peace as Directors of the Grammar Schools.
Throughout Governor Carleton's prolonged absence during the interval between the Act of 1805 and the three school acts of 1816, the government of the province was administered by a series of presidents and military officers. The arrangement by which the senior military officer of the province became the administrator, an arrangement probably due to the possibilities of war with the United States,143 was very unpopular in the province, especially with the Council, who resented the preference over their senior member in favor of a military man who might sometimes be their social inferior.144 Even Winslow, whose loyalty was unimpeachable, declared in 1811 that “the united abilities of all
His Majesty's Ministers could not have contrived a measure better calculated to alienate the affections of the people and to check the progress of this flourishing Colony” .145 We may excuse Winslow's gloomy view of the situation, since the military arrangement had deprived him of the office of President which he had held for a few months in 1808.
His Majesty's Ministers could not have contrived a measure better calculated to alienate the affections of the people and to check the progress of this flourishing Colony” .145 We may excuse Winslow's gloomy view of the situation, since the military arrangement had deprived him of the office of President which he had held for a few months in 1808.
During this period there was, as we might expect, considerable emphasis on things military. Militia bills, defence measures, recruiting, and drilling were subjects of discussion and legislation, and objects of expenditure. But the opposition of New England to the War of 1812 meant that the Maritimes were safe from attack by land,146 and New Brunswick's part in the war was the minor one of contributing troops, such as the 104th, a regiment memorable for the march on snowshoes from Fredericton to Quebec in 1813.147 However, although the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 left New Brunswick untouched as a theatre of war, the effects of these conflicts on her trade, industry, and prosperity were momentous.
We have already noted that under pressure of war with France, Britain had practically suspended the Navigation Acts to allow American participation in the West Indian trade. Merchants of the Maritime Provinces were much displeased, and bombarded the Home Authorities with memorials.148 In 1804, when Britain tightened the regulations somewhat, colonial hopes soared. Ward Chipman, writing to Winslow from Saint John in February, 1805, declared: “I hope the exclusion of the Americans from our West India Islands will give a spring to our commerce and a new complexion to the interests of this Province. Unless this happens universal despondence will take place.” 149 But the “exclusion of the Americans” was more theoretical than real, for the phrase, “cases of real and great necessity,” gave the Governors of the West Indian Islands considerable latitude, and kept West Indian markets open to American trade.150 In 1807, Winslow, speaking of his son's training for a mercantile occupation, bemoaned the poor prospects for a merchant in New Brunswick. “Unless I send him to the United States (and I'd as soon send him to the Devil) there appears to be no field for speculation in his own profession. In the present situation of this province the whole trade of it would not give bread to five men of ambition.” 151 That was in 1807. By 1809 the picture had changed. The American government, irritated by Britain's insistence on the right of search as part of the counter-measures against Napoleon's blockade, in 1808 placed an embargo on American trade with British colonies. At once this accelerated the trade of the Maritimes with the West Indies. As these British colonies could not, however, supply West Indian requirements without the aid of the United States, Britain declared certain maritime ports, including Saint John, free ports, and virtually
threw Nova Scotia and New Brunswick open to trade with neutrals-in other words, with New England.152 The effect on the trade and shipping of New Brunswick was marked. Soon New Brunswick ships were busy trading with New England, and transporting to the West Indies American goods and such Maritime products as were available for export, chiefly lumber. Because of the embargo, this New Brunswick-New England trade was illegal from the American standpoint, but New England was opposed to the embargo, and American officials could not halt a brisk contraband trade, especially in Passamaquoddy Bay. Even the hostilities of the War of 1812 affected commercial relations but little, for New England opposed the war almost to the point of secession. To New Brunswick, strategically placed beside a friendly enemy, the war brought prosperity. Britain, concerned for the welfare of the West Indies, and anxious to keep an American market open for British manufactures, purposely avoided blockading the coast of New England until the last year of the war, leaving the merchants of the Maritime Provinces a virtual monopoly of the existing American import trade in British manufactures.153 The general effect of the War of 1812 was to give the commerce of the Maritimes a great impetus. “Nova Scotia and New Brunswick not only became centres of a vast contraband trade, but they acquired connections with the British West Indies which could never have existed without the enforced withdrawal of the United States.” 154 “The beginnings of more than a few New Brunswick fortunes can be traced back to the Golden Era of trade and prosperity, inaugurated by the War of 1812.” 155 The close of the war caused much Maritime anxiety lest the Americans be allowed re-entry into the West Indies. Because Britain did exclude American trade, the United States instituted a number of counter-measures detrimental to British colonial trade and to British mercantile interests. For this reason, and because laissez-faire theory and practice were gaining ground as factory industry expanded, British rigidity had to give way, and in 1822 a compromise effected the resumption of legitimate trade between British North America and the United States.156
threw Nova Scotia and New Brunswick open to trade with neutrals-in other words, with New England.152 The effect on the trade and shipping of New Brunswick was marked. Soon New Brunswick ships were busy trading with New England, and transporting to the West Indies American goods and such Maritime products as were available for export, chiefly lumber. Because of the embargo, this New Brunswick-New England trade was illegal from the American standpoint, but New England was opposed to the embargo, and American officials could not halt a brisk contraband trade, especially in Passamaquoddy Bay. Even the hostilities of the War of 1812 affected commercial relations but little, for New England opposed the war almost to the point of secession. To New Brunswick, strategically placed beside a friendly enemy, the war brought prosperity. Britain, concerned for the welfare of the West Indies, and anxious to keep an American market open for British manufactures, purposely avoided blockading the coast of New England until the last year of the war, leaving the merchants of the Maritime Provinces a virtual monopoly of the existing American import trade in British manufactures.153 The general effect of the War of 1812 was to give the commerce of the Maritimes a great impetus. “Nova Scotia and New Brunswick not only became centres of a vast contraband trade, but they acquired connections with the British West Indies which could never have existed without the enforced withdrawal of the United States.” 154 “The beginnings of more than a few New Brunswick fortunes can be traced back to the Golden Era of trade and prosperity, inaugurated by the War of 1812.” 155 The close of the war caused much Maritime anxiety lest the Americans be allowed re-entry into the West Indies. Because Britain did exclude American trade, the United States instituted a number of counter-measures detrimental to British colonial trade and to British mercantile interests. For this reason, and because laissez-faire theory and practice were gaining ground as factory industry expanded, British rigidity had to give way, and in 1822 a compromise effected the resumption of legitimate trade between British North America and the United States.156
In the meantime, New Brunswick trade with the Old Country had grown enormously, an event also traceable to Napoleon's Continental System, which shut Britain off from a supply of Baltic timber, hitherto vital to the British navy and merchant fleet. Britain now turned to her American colonies, and between 1809 and 1812 increased the colonial preference on timber steeply enough to offset the high freights across the Atlantic. “With one great stroke of fortune British North America had found its justification and acquired its economic rights in the Empire. In their own weakness, the northern colonies had relied on Great Britain, and now, in its own temporary embarrassment, Great Britain had been obliged to fall back on them . . . . Timber, the inexhaustible material, became virtually the sole support of New Brunswick.” 157
British firms invested capital; American speculators, taking advantage of loose cutting regulations, poured across the boundary to share in the growing prosperity;158 great rafts of pine logs were floated down the Saint John and the Miramichi; Maritime ports swarmed with timber vessels; ship-building increased rapidly. As Hannay says, “it was a growing time in New Brunswick in those years of conflict” .159 That there were tares among the wheat was not yet distressingly apparent. Accelerated business and increased revenue seemed to herald a new era of prosperity.
British firms invested capital; American speculators, taking advantage of loose cutting regulations, poured across the boundary to share in the growing prosperity;158 great rafts of pine logs were floated down the Saint John and the Miramichi; Maritime ports swarmed with timber vessels; ship-building increased rapidly. As Hannay says, “it was a growing time in New Brunswick in those years of conflict” .159 That there were tares among the wheat was not yet distressingly apparent. Accelerated business and increased revenue seemed to herald a new era of prosperity.
The fact that the revenue in 1815 was four times as great as in 1811, and in 1816 was five times as large as the year before,160 must have had some bearing on the attention paid to education by the Legislature in 1816. The interest of the President, Major-General George Stracey Smythe, may have been a factor too. The personal support which he gave to the Madras Schools a little later shows that the concern which he voiced in his opening speech, in 1816, for the promotion of education in the province, was no mere formal expression. For ten years the educational system had rested. The only development in that time, that of the Sunday School,161 had been outside the system, and, in a sense, outside the educational field. Now, in 1816, three acts relating to education appeared upon the statute books.
One of these established a grammar school at St. Andrews, on terms very similar to those regulating the Saint John Grammar School. The fact that St. Andrews exhibited greater interest and energy than other county towns suggests the interesting speculation that its proximity to the American border may have been a factor, the more so as Winslow wrote in 1810: “The American settlements being directly opposite to ours causes a spirit of emulation which is highly beneficial to both.” 162 One of the members from Charlotte County, Robert Pagan, who had represented the County from the foundation of the province, and had proved to be an “honest and useful representative” , 163 presented a petition early in the session of 1816 from the inhabitants of St. Andrews, praying for assistance toward the erection of a Grammar School,164 and a little later he brought in a bill to establish such a school.165 The second bill before the House in 1816 came from a second attempt to found County schools, or Grammar schools, as they were called by the new measure, which was entitled “An Act to establish Grammar Schools in the several Counties of this Province” . This act provided for one Grammar School per county. A new feature was the power lodged in the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council to appoint three Trustees or Directors for the purpose of establishing Grammar Schools in each of the counties except York, Saint John and Charlotte, those counties being already served by such schools. Various clauses defined the duties and respon-
sibilities of the Trustees with reference to choosing a site for the school, receiving donations, hiring teachers, making bye-laws, holding public visitations, and admitting free scholars. There was no change in the regulations relating to the licensing of teachers. The grant-in-aid was raised from the twenty-five pounds provided in the Act of 1805 to £ 100. This sum was to be paid on the certification of the Trustees to the Lieutenant-Governor that a building and master had been provided, and that £ 100 had been subscribed by the inhabitants. A definite course of study was prescribed consisting of English Grammar, the Latin and Greek languages, Orthography and use of the globes, and the practical branches of Mathematics, or such other useful knowledge as might be judged necessary.166 This course, if it had been followed, would have raised these schools above the level of the parish schools, and would have fulfilled the intention of the act to provide each county with a secondary school. Repeated investigation, however, showed that these schools did not come up to standard for many years, for reasons which may be noted later.
sibilities of the Trustees with reference to choosing a site for the school, receiving donations, hiring teachers, making bye-laws, holding public visitations, and admitting free scholars. There was no change in the regulations relating to the licensing of teachers. The grant-in-aid was raised from the twenty-five pounds provided in the Act of 1805 to £ 100. This sum was to be paid on the certification of the Trustees to the Lieutenant-Governor that a building and master had been provided, and that £ 100 had been subscribed by the inhabitants. A definite course of study was prescribed consisting of English Grammar, the Latin and Greek languages, Orthography and use of the globes, and the practical branches of Mathematics, or such other useful knowledge as might be judged necessary.166 This course, if it had been followed, would have raised these schools above the level of the parish schools, and would have fulfilled the intention of the act to provide each county with a secondary school. Repeated investigation, however, showed that these schools did not come up to standard for many years, for reasons which may be noted later.
There are several possible reasons why the oversight of the Grammar Schools was transferred from the Justices of the Peace to a Board of Trustees. In the first place, the Justices had failed to get action under the Act of 1805, probably because they were busy with other duties, including a number in connection with Parish Schools. Secondly, the Saint John Grammar School had been functioning for ten years under a Board of Trustees, although actually this was no certain guarantee of the efficiency of such a board in less urban districts. Lastly, in 1811 the neighboring province of Nova Scotia had placed its county grammar schools under trustee boards appointed by the Lt.-Governor-in-Council. This may have been the deciding factor. In fact, on comparing the two acts we find other points of identity. That clause of the New Brunswick Act of 1816 which dealt with the course of study is word for word the same as a similar clause in the Nova Scotia Act of 1811, and the clauses of the two acts relating to free scholars are very similar.167 We shall often find an element of imitativeness about New Brunswick school legislation. In general, legislators of the province do not seem to have been much concerned with educational philosophies or abstract theories, but they did tend to adopt procedures and devices which the experience of other countries had indicated might work in New Brunswick. This tendency naturally has meant a lag in progress, but perhaps it has saved the province from hasty experiments, fads, and extremes.
The third act which passed in 1816 dealt with Parish schools. These schools, too, were to be under Boards of Trustees whose duties were generally similar to those of the Grammar School Trustees, but who were to be appointed by the Justices and were to report to the Court of General Sessions. The amazing feature of the act was the introduction of the assessment principle. The Trustees were to summon a meeting of the inhabitants on fifteen days notice, for the purpose of subscribing money for the establishment of schools or of voting to raise it by assessment. Only freeholders, or people with an in-
come of 40s., could vote. If the Trustees failed to call such a meeting, the Justices could do so at the request of five freeholders. Only the children of parents contributing to the support of the school could attend, unless the assessment principle were adopted. Upon certificate stating that a building was provided, a capable master appointed, and £ 30 raised by the inhabitants of the parish, £ 20 from the provincial treasury was to be granted, and a like proportion for any sum not exceeding £ 90, but no one school was to receive more than £ 20 in one year, and no larger sum than £ 60 would be paid to the schools of one parish. In other words, the number of assisted schools in a parish was limited to three.168 How the assessment principle came to be adopted so early in New Brunswick cannot be very satisfactorily explained. It is true that workhouse schools in England had been provided for by the general taxation of all property since the middle of the eighteenth century,169 and that thinking people in the United States were beginning to recognize that the only safe reliance of a system of state schools lay in the general and direct taxation of all property.170 It is also true that the use of license taxes, local taxes, and rate bills in New England recognized the principle of taxation in a sense,171 and that the Act of 1811 in Nova Scotia had recommended the principle of assessment, but these were feeble and isolated examples for a conservative and cautious state to follow, especially when there was no strong sense of educational consciousness among the people to act as a spur.
come of 40s., could vote. If the Trustees failed to call such a meeting, the Justices could do so at the request of five freeholders. Only the children of parents contributing to the support of the school could attend, unless the assessment principle were adopted. Upon certificate stating that a building was provided, a capable master appointed, and £ 30 raised by the inhabitants of the parish, £ 20 from the provincial treasury was to be granted, and a like proportion for any sum not exceeding £ 90, but no one school was to receive more than £ 20 in one year, and no larger sum than £ 60 would be paid to the schools of one parish. In other words, the number of assisted schools in a parish was limited to three.168 How the assessment principle came to be adopted so early in New Brunswick cannot be very satisfactorily explained. It is true that workhouse schools in England had been provided for by the general taxation of all property since the middle of the eighteenth century,169 and that thinking people in the United States were beginning to recognize that the only safe reliance of a system of state schools lay in the general and direct taxation of all property.170 It is also true that the use of license taxes, local taxes, and rate bills in New England recognized the principle of taxation in a sense,171 and that the Act of 1811 in Nova Scotia had recommended the principle of assessment, but these were feeble and isolated examples for a conservative and cautious state to follow, especially when there was no strong sense of educational consciousness among the people to act as a spur.
If the introduction of assessment as an option was a test case, the test revealed no inclination on the part of the people in favor of such a method of supporting schools. Not a parish tried it, and in 1818 permission to assess was removed, on the grounds that experience had proved that it was inexpedient to allow the towns and parishes to raise money in this way.172 Since the experience was negative, it is hard to see the proof of the inexpediency referred to. Possibly local controversies, centering around the question of whether to assess or not to assess, created discord which retarded the establishment of schools. At any rate, the assessment principle disappeared from New Brunswick school legislation for over thirty years, and assessment did not become compulsory for fifty-five years.
Another interesting feature of the Bill of 1816 was the authority it gave to the Trustees to remove or expel scholars of abandoned or wicked habits. The Trustees might also use 20s. for each school for prizes, for excellence in Orthography, Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, provided that no reward were given any scholar unable to repeat by heart the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. 173 A clause charging the Trustees to use their best endeavors to cause the youth of the parish to attend school indicated an alarming indifference to the benefits of such education as was available, a recognition on the part of the legislature of that apathy, and a growing concern about it. Evidently there had happened in New Brunswick what “Investigator” feared would occur
in Nova Scotia. This correspondent, writing to the Acadian Recorder in January, 1818, said: 'The infant state of this country, has hitherto rendered an extensive attention to the business of education impracticable: men struggling for food have little time to spend upon the pursuits of Literature. But there is a danger that the modes of thinking and habits, which arise out of such a state of society, may remain long after it is past: and imperceptibly enfeeble the community, amidst increasing means of energy.'174 Unfortunately, that is what had happened in New Brunswick. Interest in education had not kept pace with increasing means. On the contrary, a people deprived of education for a generation had come to regard it as unnecessary for “getting on” , an attitude concurred in by illiterate immigrants who began to arrive in large numbers after Waterloo. This popular indifference continued to curse New Brunswick almost down to recent times.
in Nova Scotia. This correspondent, writing to the Acadian Recorder in January, 1818, said: 'The infant state of this country, has hitherto rendered an extensive attention to the business of education impracticable: men struggling for food have little time to spend upon the pursuits of Literature. But there is a danger that the modes of thinking and habits, which arise out of such a state of society, may remain long after it is past: and imperceptibly enfeeble the community, amidst increasing means of energy.'174 Unfortunately, that is what had happened in New Brunswick. Interest in education had not kept pace with increasing means. On the contrary, a people deprived of education for a generation had come to regard it as unnecessary for “getting on” , an attitude concurred in by illiterate immigrants who began to arrive in large numbers after Waterloo. This popular indifference continued to curse New Brunswick almost down to recent times.
For a score of years after the Act of 1818 the most vigorous efforts to combat illiteracy in the province were linked with the promotion of the Madras Schools. We have noted the failure of the introduction of the assessment principle to effect an increase in the number of schools. Meanwhile, the number of uneducated people in the province was mounting, for reasons which may be now briefly noted. The failure of the crops in 1816, and the influence of the lumber industry in drawing vigorous young men from the farms had focused attention on the desirability of increasing the agricultural population. In 1816 the legislature voted £ 1000 to encourage immigration, and the autumn of that year saw the beginning of a process of immigration, of which the primary cause was the unfavorable economic conditions in Britain at the close of the Napoleonic Wars.175 At the same time the province received some five hundred slaves, who had fled from the southern states to British warships engaged in operations off the southern coast of the United States during the War of 1812.176 Coincident with all this was the rise to popularity in England of the monitorial system of instruction, a system already referred to. Of the two school societies employing the system, namely, the National Society for the Promotion of Education of the Poor, and the British and Foreign School Society, it was the former, imbued with the missionary zeal of the Anglican Church, which introduced and promoted the system in New Brunswick. Missionaries of the S. P. G., already in the field, had been for some time encouraging the Society's schoolmasters to conduct their schools along the lines advocated by the National Society. The initial steps in the introduction of the system into New Brunswick were taken in 1814, when 500 sets of books used in the National Schools of Britain were sent to Halifax for free distribution amongst the schools of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.177 In 1817, Major-General George Stracey Smythe, who had been President of New Brunswick since 1812 except for a short interval, was called to Nova Scotia in his military capacity, and was in Halifax when he was ap-
pointed Lt.-Governor of New Brunswick.178 It is not unlikely that his interest in the Madras system was kindled during his stay in Halifax. In 1816 the Society sent out Rev. James Milne and a Mr. West to promote the system in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and in 1820 the latter gentleman opened a training school for teachers in Halifax. Governor Smythe was so impressed by the possibilities of the method for New Brunswick that he gave his patronage to the formation of a society for the promotion of this type of school in the province.179 In 1819 the committee in charge petitioned for a charter which was confirmed by the legislature in 1820.180 The Madras Board thus had the authority to establish schools wherever their funds permitted.
pointed Lt.-Governor of New Brunswick.178 It is not unlikely that his interest in the Madras system was kindled during his stay in Halifax. In 1816 the Society sent out Rev. James Milne and a Mr. West to promote the system in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and in 1820 the latter gentleman opened a training school for teachers in Halifax. Governor Smythe was so impressed by the possibilities of the method for New Brunswick that he gave his patronage to the formation of a society for the promotion of this type of school in the province.179 In 1819 the committee in charge petitioned for a charter which was confirmed by the legislature in 1820.180 The Madras Board thus had the authority to establish schools wherever their funds permitted.
In the establishment of Madras Schools in New Brunswick several familiar threads in the Loyalist pattern of education can be discerned. First of all, we note again an outside agency working in the province in the interests of the Church of England. Secondly, these schools, although established in the nineteenth century, were of eighteenth-century origin, for they were primarily schools for the poor, established in the spirit of philanthropy and religion. But with these schools several new threads appeared in the educational pattern. Since a number of the Madras Schools were conducted by females, the idea of women in the role of teachers gained a wider acceptance than it had hitherto known. Eventually, of course, this would have happened anyway, but the Madras Schools do seem to have helped to popularize the idea. Then, too, Governor Smythe's connection with these schools marked the beginning of gubernatorial interest and influence in New Brunswick education. Lt.-Governor Carleton, it is true, had helped to promote the Fredericton Academy, but that was an exclusive school. To reconcile Governor Smythe's activity in education with the character assigned to him by Hannay is not easy. If he had no correct idea of the feelings of the people whom he governed, and lacked sympathy with their views, if the leading feature of his policy was “the maintenance of the old system by which the Province had been misgoverned for thirty-five years” ,181 then it may be that he thought of schools for the common people in terms of benevolent condescension, noblesse oblige, and Church of England policy. Whatever his motives, his interest in the Madras Schools seems to have been genuine. A talented musician, he often instructed the boys in the Central School, in Saint John in singing, and when present at the opening of the school presided at the organ.182 Moreover, to encourage this school as much as possible, and to remove the stigma attached to the Madras Schools as designed primarily for children of the indigent, Governor Smythe sent his own son, Brunswick, to the Central School.183 To say that this 'stiff pedantic old thing',184 as Penelope Winslow called Smythe, established a precedent for interest in the educational system of New Brunswick on the part of the King's representative in the pro-
vince is perhaps an exaggeration, but at any rate, dating from his tenure of office we find increasing references to education in the correspondence of New Brunswick's Lieutenant-Governors, references often characterized by shrewd observations, personal concern, and a sense of responsibility.
vince is perhaps an exaggeration, but at any rate, dating from his tenure of office we find increasing references to education in the correspondence of New Brunswick's Lieutenant-Governors, references often characterized by shrewd observations, personal concern, and a sense of responsibility.
Finally, in the Madras System, definite and distinctive methods of instruction were employed. This implied the training of teachers in those methods,185 accustomed people to the idea of teacher-training, and helped to pave the way for a Normal School. To combine efficiency and economy, and to enable one teacher to instruct many children, the older and brighter pupils acted as monitors, conducting a group of children, generally ten in number, to an assigned station in the classroom, where they taught lessons previously taught to them by the master. Thus the advantages in time and discipline of the class-system of instruction, mechanical though it was in this case, were demonstrated over the individual method with its waste of time and disorder, and the school became in a measure what Dr. Andrew Bell, one of the originators of the monitorial system, believed it should be, an organized community of mutually helpful members.186 At best, this conception of the school was only imperfectly realized in the Madras Schools, and with the passing of the Madras System it received scant attention until the popularizing of the “project method” in the twentieth century.
The National Society, English sponsor of Madras Schools, was concerned principally with the education of the poor in the principles of the Established Church. In this country of few schools, people of all classes wished to patronize the schools, and so it became necessary, in the larger centres at any rate, to depart from the English precedent of confining instruction to the children of the indigent, as children “of the first respectability” , whose parents wished to avail themselves of these establishments, applied for admission.187 The advertisement of the National School Board of Saint John announcing the opening of the Central School in that city indicates the policy of the Board on this point: “It is expected that those persons who place children at this school, will pay to support the funds of the establishment, forty shillings per annum, thirty shillings, twenty shillings, or ten shillings, according to the ability of each individual to pay. The children of Paupers, or of those who cannot afford to make any pecuniary compensation, will be educated wholly at the expense of the institution.” 188 The Report for 1820 shows, that out of an enrollment of 224, 37 were rated free, and in 1822 the Board reported that the proportion of children admitted free was on the increase.189 Reference in the first report to deficiencies in the tuition money, and exertions made to collect the sums specified rather indicate that if larger numbers of people had been willing to stigmatize themselves as paupers, the resources of the Board, despite voluntary contributions, local grants, and aid from the National Society in England and from the
S. P. G., would not have been equal to the strain. Related to the first departure from English precedent was another-the inclusion of teaching subjects beyond the elementary.190 There was still another. The Madras Schools were distinctly Church of England institutions, in fact, the aid such schools received from the National Society in England and from the S. P. G. practically necessitated their being so. But they provided such an inexpensive and superior type of education that Dissenters sent their children, who chorused with the class in Catechism the unhesitating, but in their case, the untrue statement that their godfathers and godmothers had given them their names at baptism.191 Evidently the attendance of children of all denominations was encouraged, for a modification was made in the rule of church attendance. In 1819 E. J. Jarvis, Secretary of the National Board in Saint John, publicly denied reports circulating in the city and province that only children who attended the Anglican Church could receive certain merits, and that an exclusive preference was shown by the conductors of the National School to the worship of that church. He explained that a senior boy of each denomination having a house of worship in the city was appointed the Sunday Teacher of the boys of his persuasion, who went from the schoolroom under his direction to their own place of worship, and upon his report the master distributed the merits to all who thus attended.192 As time went on, the difficulties of effecting the denominational purposes of the Madras Schools increased. The Thirtieth Report of the Madras Schools speaks of the difficulty of carrying out, in its integrity, the religious instruction contemplated, arising in some cases from want of proper books, in others from the objections of parents.193 In connection with the latter, we may note that the occasion of the previously mentioned letter from Bishop Inglis to Sir Howard Douglas was the refusal of the trustees of a school at Chatham to apply for the provincial grant for the teacher, because the Anglican Catechism was taught and the Presbyterian was not.
S. P. G., would not have been equal to the strain. Related to the first departure from English precedent was another-the inclusion of teaching subjects beyond the elementary.190 There was still another. The Madras Schools were distinctly Church of England institutions, in fact, the aid such schools received from the National Society in England and from the S. P. G. practically necessitated their being so. But they provided such an inexpensive and superior type of education that Dissenters sent their children, who chorused with the class in Catechism the unhesitating, but in their case, the untrue statement that their godfathers and godmothers had given them their names at baptism.191 Evidently the attendance of children of all denominations was encouraged, for a modification was made in the rule of church attendance. In 1819 E. J. Jarvis, Secretary of the National Board in Saint John, publicly denied reports circulating in the city and province that only children who attended the Anglican Church could receive certain merits, and that an exclusive preference was shown by the conductors of the National School to the worship of that church. He explained that a senior boy of each denomination having a house of worship in the city was appointed the Sunday Teacher of the boys of his persuasion, who went from the schoolroom under his direction to their own place of worship, and upon his report the master distributed the merits to all who thus attended.192 As time went on, the difficulties of effecting the denominational purposes of the Madras Schools increased. The Thirtieth Report of the Madras Schools speaks of the difficulty of carrying out, in its integrity, the religious instruction contemplated, arising in some cases from want of proper books, in others from the objections of parents.193 In connection with the latter, we may note that the occasion of the previously mentioned letter from Bishop Inglis to Sir Howard Douglas was the refusal of the trustees of a school at Chatham to apply for the provincial grant for the teacher, because the Anglican Catechism was taught and the Presbyterian was not.
The Madras System multiplied the number of schools in New Brunswick and helped to create a sentiment in favor of education, supplying in a better manner than hitherto one of the crying needs of the country, namely, elementary education for children of all classes at small cost.194 At the time of the founding of the Central School at Saint John (1818), the Secretary of the Society expressed the hope that these schools would effect an improvement in the manners and language of boys who were roaming the streets of the city, ignorant and undisciplined.195 Thirty years later the Society was still emphasizing the philanthropic and charitable purposes of the system and declaring that it had admirably answered these ends.196 Incidentally, the opportunity presented in the Madras Schools for intercourse between children “of the first respectability” and children of the pauper class, limited although such inter-
course probably was, may have helped in the breaking down of social barriers and in the democratizing of education.
course probably was, may have helped in the breaking down of social barriers and in the democratizing of education.
The discipline maintained in these schools was one of the features which helped to build up their reputation for efficiency. This discipline was inherent in the organization of the schools, but the use of various merits and demerits was also a factor. Joseph Lancaster, who had worked out the idea of monitorial instruction in England at about the same time as Dr. Bell did, had had as a dictum “let every child have for every minute of his school time something to do and a motive for doing it.” 197 Unfortunately he largely relied on externals as motivating forces and elaborated a system of rewards and punishments.198 Since Pestalozzi's emphasis on child study and psychology was as yet little known outside of Switzerland and Germany, the possibility that such devices might occasionally operate harmfully on both the backward and the clever child was not recognized.
In the early enthusiasm for Madras Schools, the mechanical nature of the instruction, with its emphasis on stereotyped memorized answers, was overlooked. From the first, however, the difficulty of obtaining teachers trained in the methods of the system was an obvious drawback. A few were trained at Halifax. Others underwent a course of instruction at the central training school, i.e., the Central School at Saint John, but the majority had only a short course in one of the branch schools, thereby experiencing only a limited opportunity of obtaining a really adequate knowledge of the system. A correspondent, writing in the Saint John Gazette in 1822,199 said that visits he had made to the greater number of the so-called Madras Schools of the province had forced on him the conclusion that many were such in name only, and he singled out the school at Sussex Vale, conducted by Anthony Truro, as an exception.200 Time apparently did not lessen this difficulty, for the Thirtieth Report of the Society, already referred to, mentions as one of the peculiar difficulties in this country of carrying out the Madras plan that of obtaining masters versed in the system and friendly to its operation, and admits a further difficulty in retaining efficient monitors, because parents objected to their children's exercise of the office of teacher, and were often induced to withdraw them from school at an early age in order to place them at trades.
In spite of the defects and difficulties which have been cited, Madras Schools enjoyed great popularity for a long time. They were established in rural areas as well as in towns and cities; the Legislature gave annual grants;201 many of the parish schools were conducted in accordance with the plan.202 In 1870, the year before the passage of the Common School Act, there were still eleven Madras Schools in the province, and it was not until 1900 that the Madras charter was surrendered.203
From the time of the inauguration of Madras Schools until the close of the period under consideration there were several legislative acts dealing with education, but no significant developments. In 1823 an amendment to the Grammar School Act of 1816 increased the provincial grant to £ 175 per school, and repeated the provision which stipulated that the county must raise the sum of £ 100 before any sum could be obtained from the provincial treasury. This last was done on the grounds that the said requisition tended more to defeat the object of the Legislature than to encourage the establishment of schools as was intended.204 As a matter of fact, only two Grammar Schools, aside from those especially provided for at Saint John, Fredericton, and St. Andrews, had as yet been established, one in Westmorland County in 1820, and one in Northumberland in 1822.205 In the same year as this amendment an act relating to parish schools required the Justices of the Peace to use a prescribed form in making their returns,206 a measure in the interests of simplicity and uniformity, and one possibly necessitated by the illiteracy of the Justices themselves, for Peter Fisher, New Brunswick's first historian, commenting in 1825 on the lack of educational opportunities during the early years, admitted that “from this cause many persons who occasionally fill important stations in the several counties are found very deficient in learning” .207
From the time of the inauguration of Madras Schools until the close of the period under consideration there were several legislative acts dealing with education, but no significant developments. In 1823 an amendment to the Grammar School Act of 1816 increased the provincial grant to £ 175 per school, and repeated the provision which stipulated that the county must raise the sum of £ 100 before any sum could be obtained from the provincial treasury. This last was done on the grounds that the said requisition tended more to defeat the object of the Legislature than to encourage the establishment of schools as was intended.204 As a matter of fact, only two Grammar Schools, aside from those especially provided for at Saint John, Fredericton, and St. Andrews, had as yet been established, one in Westmorland County in 1820, and one in Northumberland in 1822.205 In the same year as this amendment an act relating to parish schools required the Justices of the Peace to use a prescribed form in making their returns,206 a measure in the interests of simplicity and uniformity, and one possibly necessitated by the illiteracy of the Justices themselves, for Peter Fisher, New Brunswick's first historian, commenting in 1825 on the lack of educational opportunities during the early years, admitted that “from this cause many persons who occasionally fill important stations in the several counties are found very deficient in learning” .207
The endowment of the college as King's College in 1829 focused attention on the Grammar Schools as the natural feeders of the college. A Committee of the Assembly, appointed to examine the state of education in the province, commended only the Parish Schools, reporting that the Madras Schools in rural areas were failures, and that the Grammar Schools were not doing the work expected. The Grammar School Act which followed had, however, no really remedial features. Arrangements relating to the licensing of teachers, the course of study, tuition fees, and the trustees and their duties, were practically identical with those provided for by the Act of 1816. In an effort to make the people themselves take greater responsibility for their schools the provincial grant was cut to £ 100, and no Grammar School could be in receipt of this sum unless the inhabitants of the county had raised the sum of £ 50 in support of the master. Lest a master, intent on obtaining the provincial grant, should consider it a good investment to pay part of this fifty pounds himself, the Act expressly prohibited him from doing so. The most interesting feature of the Act of 1829 was the clause which stated that after the first of June, 1830, no clergyman of any denomination, having the spiritual charge of any parish or congregation, could be appointed master or usher of a Grammar School.208 While all clergymen were thus prohibited from combining teaching and preaching, this restriction really struck at the Church of England, and was part of a growing assault on the privileges of that church.
We may note a few of the points of this assault. In line with the recent
emancipation in Britain of Dissenters from certain political disabilities, the province passed a Catholic Emancipation Act in 1830, in spite of opposition in the Council on the part of a Tory of the old school, Chief Justice Saunders.209 The old privilege of benefit of clergy was abolished in the same year, following similar action in Britain in 1829.210 The Dissenters' Marriage Bill, which had been repeatedly blocked by the Council, was again to the fore, petitions coming in from every part of the province. When the measure finally passed in 1832 it was suspended in Britain on the grounds that it was not liberal enough, and had to be redrafted before going into operation in 1834.211 The new college charter of 1829 allowed Dissenters to attend the college and to take degrees, although the influence of the Church of England in the College Council was still impregnable. Thus, slowly, here and there, the Church of England, one of the pillars of society, if society were to be good according to Anglican-Tory standards, had to give ground before new forces, new ideas, and the growing numbers of other denominations. The Act of 1833 relating to Parish Schools was the last in a series which resulted in the development of a school system with a minimum of administrative machinery.212 The Act differed very little in essentials from that of 1816 except that it lacked the assessment clause. This time the number of Trustees was definitely set at three, but they still presided over the whole parish, which they were now required to divide into school districts.213 The schools were to be financed in much the same way as before. When a school had been kept to the satisfaction of the Trustees for not less than six months, the Trustees certified the facts to the Justices, these officers in turn made certificate to the Lt.-Gov ernor, and the legislative grant—at the rate of £ 20 per school for one year was issued, provided that no parish received more than £ 160 a year, and no county a larger sum than would amount to an average of £ 120 for each parish in the county.214 This last provision may have been designed to prevent the laying off of small and unnecessary school districts.
emancipation in Britain of Dissenters from certain political disabilities, the province passed a Catholic Emancipation Act in 1830, in spite of opposition in the Council on the part of a Tory of the old school, Chief Justice Saunders.209 The old privilege of benefit of clergy was abolished in the same year, following similar action in Britain in 1829.210 The Dissenters' Marriage Bill, which had been repeatedly blocked by the Council, was again to the fore, petitions coming in from every part of the province. When the measure finally passed in 1832 it was suspended in Britain on the grounds that it was not liberal enough, and had to be redrafted before going into operation in 1834.211 The new college charter of 1829 allowed Dissenters to attend the college and to take degrees, although the influence of the Church of England in the College Council was still impregnable. Thus, slowly, here and there, the Church of England, one of the pillars of society, if society were to be good according to Anglican-Tory standards, had to give ground before new forces, new ideas, and the growing numbers of other denominations. The Act of 1833 relating to Parish Schools was the last in a series which resulted in the development of a school system with a minimum of administrative machinery.212 The Act differed very little in essentials from that of 1816 except that it lacked the assessment clause. This time the number of Trustees was definitely set at three, but they still presided over the whole parish, which they were now required to divide into school districts.213 The schools were to be financed in much the same way as before. When a school had been kept to the satisfaction of the Trustees for not less than six months, the Trustees certified the facts to the Justices, these officers in turn made certificate to the Lt.-Gov ernor, and the legislative grant—at the rate of £ 20 per school for one year was issued, provided that no parish received more than £ 160 a year, and no county a larger sum than would amount to an average of £ 120 for each parish in the county.214 This last provision may have been designed to prevent the laying off of small and unnecessary school districts.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of this Act were the references to female teachers. Only two female teachers could receive a grant. in any one parish, and this grant was only one-half of that issued to males. Moreover, the inhabitants were not required to pay female teachers more than one-half of what they must pay masters. In other words, the total salary of a female teacher would not amount to more than £ 20 for the whole year. Fitch, in commenting on these restrictions, says that teachers taught the things they knew, and that the female teachers of the time did not know enough.215
Fifty years of provincial life had now passed for New Brunswick, and ten different measures dealing with education had been enacted, yet there was no central educational authority, no provision for the training of teachers, and no
adequate system of inspection. The trustees, appointed by the Justices for one year, were, in the last analysis, the only officers with authority. Although unpaid, they were supposed to visit all the schools of their parish twice a year, a duty impossible of performance considering the nature of the roads. The teachers untrained, poorly paid, and subject to the vicissitudes of “boarding around” , seldom remained in a district more than six months.216 The time had evidently come for drastic changes in educational administration and policy. Change was in the air, was already altering society. Tory bureaucrats had used the Established Church, tradition, monopoly of education, of culture and of politics, to mark off neat and clear divisions in a simple social pattern. Now, with little regard for the old rules, new people, new forces, new interests, were at the loom and were casually making a tangled, inartistic, kaleidoscopic design.
adequate system of inspection. The trustees, appointed by the Justices for one year, were, in the last analysis, the only officers with authority. Although unpaid, they were supposed to visit all the schools of their parish twice a year, a duty impossible of performance considering the nature of the roads. The teachers untrained, poorly paid, and subject to the vicissitudes of “boarding around” , seldom remained in a district more than six months.216 The time had evidently come for drastic changes in educational administration and policy. Change was in the air, was already altering society. Tory bureaucrats had used the Established Church, tradition, monopoly of education, of culture and of politics, to mark off neat and clear divisions in a simple social pattern. Now, with little regard for the old rules, new people, new forces, new interests, were at the loom and were casually making a tangled, inartistic, kaleidoscopic design.
It began with the rise to prominence of the lumber trade, and the influx of immigrants at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, developments so enthusiastically hailed as prophetic of a new era of prosperity that their disruptive potentialities were not recognized.
Disturbing repercussions from the lumber trade could be more marked in New Brunswick than elsewhere because there was no clear division between the natural forest and farm lands, as in Upper and Lower Canada. The fertile soil of the Saint John and the Miramichi river valleys sloped to rocky ledges of splendid stands of pine, “and thus, just as lumbering overshadowed agriculture throughout the province as a whole, so it crowded farming even on the lands of the individual settler” , dividing the population into two groups. One group, that of the camps and shipyards, was composed of the lumberers and labourers; the other comprised the farmer-lumbermen who tried to combine two occupations to the disadvantage of both.217 “The temptations of the timber industry, its illusory promises of an easy cash return for a winter's work in the woods, when the farm did not require much attention, proved too much for many of the settlers in the New Brunswick forests. Their neglect of their farms ended either in abandonment or in extremely slovenly farming” . Food for home consumption, such as flour and salt pork, had to be imported in great quantities. “The third member of the lumbermen's trinity, molasses, came up from the West Indies and was thus rather more respectable than the other two, since it formed a fair exchange for Provincial exports, while food from the United States had to be paid for mainly in cash. Many and bitter were the local indictments of an industry which sapped the energies of a bold 'peasantry' and kept the Province dependent for its very food on a foreign country.” 218 Peter Fisher, in 1825, regretted the absorption of so many in the business of getting out lumber for the merchants, and predicted that “instead of making a comfortable provision for their families (they) will wear out the prime of their days without making any permanent establishment; and keep their families shifting about the country like vagrants” , thus producing “a race of inhabitants who have no
interest in the soil or welfare of the Province” .219 The same year, the Lt.-Governor, Sir Howard Douglas, in opening the Assembly expressed anxiety over the fact that the vast sums sent from the Province to purchase foreign agricultural produce raised the price of labour, and laid a heavy burden on the Province which “comes home to us, grievously, in various forms, in every operation of our domestic and political economy” .220 Agricultural societies, to which Sir Howard lent his patronage,221 endeavored to elevate the status of agriculture but met with little success for a long time. This meant that when Britain abandoned her policy of preferential protection, and the British market for colonial timber dwindled, New Brunswick lacked a diversified economy to meet the shock.
interest in the soil or welfare of the Province” .219 The same year, the Lt.-Governor, Sir Howard Douglas, in opening the Assembly expressed anxiety over the fact that the vast sums sent from the Province to purchase foreign agricultural produce raised the price of labour, and laid a heavy burden on the Province which “comes home to us, grievously, in various forms, in every operation of our domestic and political economy” .220 Agricultural societies, to which Sir Howard lent his patronage,221 endeavored to elevate the status of agriculture but met with little success for a long time. This meant that when Britain abandoned her policy of preferential protection, and the British market for colonial timber dwindled, New Brunswick lacked a diversified economy to meet the shock.
In the Tory conception of an ideal society, landed proprietors, officials, and professional men gave paternalistic leadership to respectful and pliant farmers, tradesmen, and laborers. With the growth of the lumber industry, lumbermen of all grades from the merchant-speculator down to the lumberjack of the camps became a new and disturbing element in society, one that failed to fit into the old picture. The merchants “steadily challenged the pretensions to social superiority of the old landowning and professional aristocracy established after the Loyalist migration” .222 At the other end of the scale, the lumberjacks, “with their dislike of the drab, continuous work of the farm, their impatience at the puritanical restraints of society, their love of rum, of gaudy finery, of uproarious companionship . . . were the coureurs-de-bois of the nineteenth century; and they swaggered about the streets of Saint John with the same jaunty and insolent assurance that the returned fur traders had once showed in Montreal . . . Like the coureurs-de-bois, whom they so clearly resembled, the lumbermen came to represent freedom, and quick wealth, and rich and varied experience for the entire community” .223 Intemperance, one of the problems which often arose in periods of rapid social development,224 came to be associated particularly with the timber industry. Excessive use of rum was not, of course, new. In 1786 the province had imported from the West Indies into Saint John rum to the value of £ 15,000.225 The consumption of spirits, for which settlers who were disbanded soldiers were partly blamed, declined somewhat after a time, but by the thirties, intemperance, under the impact of lumbering, had become an acknowledged evil in the province. Peter Fisher estimated that in 1824 ardent liquors were consumed at the rate of twenty gallons on an average for every male over sixteen.226 J. McGregor, in 1828, after describing the discomforts and hardships to which the lumberers were subject, and their addiction to liquor in order to stimulate the organs and to sustain the cold, said that “the epithet lumberer is considered synonymous with a character of spendthrift habits
and villainous and vagabond principles” .227 Besides affecting the economic and social structure of the country, the lumber business caused international repercussions. “The influence of the expanding frontier of Maine was felt . . . in the form of the growth of a lusty and occasionally dangerous neighbor, who pressed on political boundaries, and sometimes sent his sons over, as individuals, on none too scrupulous errands.” 228 The presence of Maine lumbermen in the coveted forest areas of the upper valley of the Saint John led to irritations and disputes which sharpened the question of the unsettled boundary, flared up in the Aroostook or Lumbermen's War in 1839, and created for a time considerable international tension.229
and villainous and vagabond principles” .227 Besides affecting the economic and social structure of the country, the lumber business caused international repercussions. “The influence of the expanding frontier of Maine was felt . . . in the form of the growth of a lusty and occasionally dangerous neighbor, who pressed on political boundaries, and sometimes sent his sons over, as individuals, on none too scrupulous errands.” 228 The presence of Maine lumbermen in the coveted forest areas of the upper valley of the Saint John led to irritations and disputes which sharpened the question of the unsettled boundary, flared up in the Aroostook or Lumbermen's War in 1839, and created for a time considerable international tension.229
Increasingly, after the 1820's, the immigrant also became an obtrusive figure. He did not come unsolicited, as we have seen. Unfortunately, the majority of those who came were famine-poor Irish, unfitted for pioneer farming and unskilled in the trades. There were some Scotch, mostly dispossessed crofters, but among them, apparently, no individual of the stature of Thomas McCulloch, whose passion for education made Pictou Academy in the neighboring province a powerful educational influence. One explanation of the fact that the most desirable immigrants did not come to New Brunswick, or coming, did not remain, lies in the more rapid expansion of the United States, which made that country the Mecca of the majority of those who crossed the Atlantic. But passage to New Brunswick was cheaper than to the United States because of the returning empty lumber-boats, and because there were no regulations to prevent captains from crowding their vessels with immigrants and dumping them at the ports of New Brunswick without any further responsibility. Once here, the ablest slipped over the border to the United States, leaving the indigent, the idle, and the helpless to burden this province.230 It may be, too, that a number who had intended to remain became discouraged. We note that the Lt.-Governor, Sir Archibald Campbell, wrote in 1831 that “the most valuable emigrants231 who come to this Province are disheartened at the prospect of untrailed wilderness before them, and too frequently pass on to some part of the States” .232 Writing a little later in the same year, Sir Archibald admitted the trouble and inconvenience caused by the indiscriminate shipments of “the useless and ignorant classes of society” , but thought it would be impolitic to impose restrictions on immigration, as the native labour of the province was totally inadequate to meet the requirements of the lumber mills and agricultural pursuits.233 “Trouble and inconvenience” there was a-plenty! Societies to help the destitute, and to place them on the land were formed, the first of which was the Fredericton Emigrant Society in 1819. In Saint John, where the problem was particularly acute, a number of meetings234 were held in 1819 to consider
methods to prevent the immigrants from being “burthensome” to the community. A Registry Office was opened where all immigrants might make their circumstances known, and those who could not go upon their allotted lands that fall were to be “hutted” for the winter on some of the uncultivated lands near the city, the proprietors agreeing to let them get their fuel and to take a gratis crop the next season.235 Letters in the press, remarks made by the Colonial Governors, and petitions to the Home Authorities indicate that the problem grew in the ensuing years and was largely left to philanthropists and harassed communities to wrestle with as best they might, receiving no very adequate attention from either the British or Provincial authorities. In 1834 a Saint John resident, in an article entitled “Loungers” , wrote: “Our streets at this time are literally infested with this description of persons, chiefly Emigrants, hanging about in a listless and woebegone fashion. Employment for such persons in the City is out of the question, and it is with difficulty that they can be persuaded to go into the country, where they are much wanted and where they could obtain a fair compensation for their labours.” 236 Enough has been said to show that the first decades of European immigration created many problems in New Brunswick and did not materially better the agricultural situation. Many of the able-bodied among the newcomers did, of course, work in the lumber camps and in the shipyards of Saint John, but this work, being dependent on the fluctuations of lumber and ships in the British market, meant an uncertain living.
methods to prevent the immigrants from being “burthensome” to the community. A Registry Office was opened where all immigrants might make their circumstances known, and those who could not go upon their allotted lands that fall were to be “hutted” for the winter on some of the uncultivated lands near the city, the proprietors agreeing to let them get their fuel and to take a gratis crop the next season.235 Letters in the press, remarks made by the Colonial Governors, and petitions to the Home Authorities indicate that the problem grew in the ensuing years and was largely left to philanthropists and harassed communities to wrestle with as best they might, receiving no very adequate attention from either the British or Provincial authorities. In 1834 a Saint John resident, in an article entitled “Loungers” , wrote: “Our streets at this time are literally infested with this description of persons, chiefly Emigrants, hanging about in a listless and woebegone fashion. Employment for such persons in the City is out of the question, and it is with difficulty that they can be persuaded to go into the country, where they are much wanted and where they could obtain a fair compensation for their labours.” 236 Enough has been said to show that the first decades of European immigration created many problems in New Brunswick and did not materially better the agricultural situation. Many of the able-bodied among the newcomers did, of course, work in the lumber camps and in the shipyards of Saint John, but this work, being dependent on the fluctuations of lumber and ships in the British market, meant an uncertain living.
On the same “cultural fringe” with the immigrants were the Acadians,237 whose settlements in the northern part of the province were expanding in numbers and extent. Content with a minimum of material comforts, absorbed in family life, devoted to their Church, these people lived apart, and as yet exerted but little influence on the political life of the Province.
For the most part all these new groups in society were not characterized by literacy, and were not anxious for the benefits of education. They constituted, as it were, a second frontier society. Social considerations, as Professor Clark points out, have little weight in frontier society, and behaviour tends to be the expression of immediately felt wants.238 Because of the early emphasis on education for the ruling classes, and because of public indifference, partly engendered by lack of acquaintance with schooling, the educational facilities of the province were not adequate to take care of the growing population. To the majority of people in the groups we have been considering, the material struggle with environment left neither time nor money for community services. Those possessing capital were bent on economic exploitation, particularly those in the lumber business. This exploitive process was in full swing when Peter Fisher wrote his First History, and drew from him some trenchant remarks on the lack of public spirit. In speaking of the lack of ornamentation in the city of Saint John, he said that men of independent property, and those holding office in the different departments, were too few to do much, and many of the
merchants in the shipping business were transients, who aimed to make as much as they could in as short a time as possible before returning to enjoy their gains in their native country. “Such persons, then, who are to be found in all the ports of the Province add nothing to the wealth of the country, but rather act as drains to it.” 239 Again, in reference to the lumber business of the Miramichi, he observed: “A stranger would naturally suppose that such a trade must produce great riches to the country; and that great and rapid improvements would be made . . . . But here he would not only be disappointed but astonished at the rugged and uncouth appearance of most part of this extensive country . . . . The persons principally engaged in shipping the timber have been strangers who have taken no interest in the welfare of the country; but have merely occupied a spot to make what they could in the shortest possible time . . . . The forests are stripped and nothing is left in prospect but the gloomy apprehension when the timber is gone of sinking into insignificance and poverty.” Continuing, he said that the woods used to swarm with American adventurers who cut as they pleased, felling only the prime trees, manufacturing only the best of what they had felled, and leaving the tops to rot. Now there was a system of licenses,240 but the matter was little mended as almost anyone could monopolize the woods, and so, “men who take no interest in the welfare of the province continue to sap and prey on its resources” .241 Professor Lower says there is little doubt that after 1809 American adventurers were “making timber” along with the natives of New Brunswick. In spite of regulations there were still Americans on the Miramichi in 1825, as a number were listed as sufferers in the famous Miramichi Fire.242 It has been said that “the extension of institutions is facilitated by the presence of a body of receptive attitudes and a favorable set of social customs” , and that where these are lacking coercion or propaganda has to be resorted to.243 Our glance at conditions in New Brunswick in the first half of the nineteenth century has shown that much in both the old and the new strata of society operated against the extension of education, and that it would take a long time to inculcate the bulk of the people with a regard for the value of schools, and a willingness to pay for them. On the other hand, in a conservative province where change came slowly, anything so drastic as compulsion was bound to be repellent. Moreover, in the decades which were coming up, there were political as well as economic questions to be resolved which would monopolize the stage at the expense of energetic educational policy.
merchants in the shipping business were transients, who aimed to make as much as they could in as short a time as possible before returning to enjoy their gains in their native country. “Such persons, then, who are to be found in all the ports of the Province add nothing to the wealth of the country, but rather act as drains to it.” 239 Again, in reference to the lumber business of the Miramichi, he observed: “A stranger would naturally suppose that such a trade must produce great riches to the country; and that great and rapid improvements would be made . . . . But here he would not only be disappointed but astonished at the rugged and uncouth appearance of most part of this extensive country . . . . The persons principally engaged in shipping the timber have been strangers who have taken no interest in the welfare of the country; but have merely occupied a spot to make what they could in the shortest possible time . . . . The forests are stripped and nothing is left in prospect but the gloomy apprehension when the timber is gone of sinking into insignificance and poverty.” Continuing, he said that the woods used to swarm with American adventurers who cut as they pleased, felling only the prime trees, manufacturing only the best of what they had felled, and leaving the tops to rot. Now there was a system of licenses,240 but the matter was little mended as almost anyone could monopolize the woods, and so, “men who take no interest in the welfare of the province continue to sap and prey on its resources” .241 Professor Lower says there is little doubt that after 1809 American adventurers were “making timber” along with the natives of New Brunswick. In spite of regulations there were still Americans on the Miramichi in 1825, as a number were listed as sufferers in the famous Miramichi Fire.242 It has been said that “the extension of institutions is facilitated by the presence of a body of receptive attitudes and a favorable set of social customs” , and that where these are lacking coercion or propaganda has to be resorted to.243 Our glance at conditions in New Brunswick in the first half of the nineteenth century has shown that much in both the old and the new strata of society operated against the extension of education, and that it would take a long time to inculcate the bulk of the people with a regard for the value of schools, and a willingness to pay for them. On the other hand, in a conservative province where change came slowly, anything so drastic as compulsion was bound to be repellent. Moreover, in the decades which were coming up, there were political as well as economic questions to be resolved which would monopolize the stage at the expense of energetic educational policy.
As we have seen, there had been, from the first, intermittent clashes between the Council and Assembly, but now the question of executive responsibility to the people was about to become an issue, and even in this most loyal province there were signs of dissatisfaction with certain features of imperial policy. Already (1833), New Brunswick, the first province to make the
change, had obtained a division of the executive and legislative functions of the Council, and was demanding control of the Crown lands and provincial revenue in return for a fixed Civil list.244
change, had obtained a division of the executive and legislative functions of the Council, and was demanding control of the Crown lands and provincial revenue in return for a fixed Civil list.244
In Britain herself parliament had just been reformed, and middle class liberalism, with its emphasis on laissez-faire principles, its antagonism to governmental restrictions on trade, and its new attitudes towards colonies, was growing. In France, Louis Philippe's bourgeois government had just been established, and in the United States Jacksonian democracy had recently triumphed over the old political aristocracy. In Upper and Lower Canada, political grievances were mounting and would soon burst out in the Rebellion of 1837, and in Nova Scotia Joseph Howe was emerging as an able advocate of self-government. Echoes of all this from near and far reached New Brunswick, but perhaps served less to inflame sentiment than to emphasize the moderate language and respectful behaviour of those who here opposed the old order. Yet coincident with the social changes already described there was a new note of irreverence. When Sir Howard Douglas applied for the provision of a small vessel for the Governor's use he complained of the inconvenience and embarrassment to which he was exposed in travelling between Saint John and Fredericton, when shut up for a whole day “with the ranks in a country invaded as this is by the levelling principles of our neighbors, and in which freedom of manners, and question of public-affairs is most embarrassing and disagreeable” .245 Perhaps no more interesting illustration can be found of the new spirit which challenged the rule of the gentry and all they stood for than a letter to the Editor of the Royal Gazette in 1830, from a man who signed himself “Without one touch of My Hat, Neither Your's nor any man's servant, A Manchester Turn-out” . The writer said that he had thought, when he set out for North America, that he was bound for a land where the rights of a man were properly understood, but “there is more religion and loyalty . . . more absurd credulity and fanaticism; more base servility and crouching submission to power . . . than I ever saw in Old England” . He then referred to the schools, “supported too by grants of the public money where the children are taught the antiquated, obsolete, superstitious nonsense about fearing God and honoring the King, and submitting to governments, pastors and masters, and ordering oneself lowly and reverently to one's betters. (Betters forsooth; as if a man were better than his neighbors, because he is called Honorable or Esquire, has a little more land or money, or puts on a finer coat). A college also—an University King's College, a Royal Foundation, to perpetuate these abuses among generations yet unborn! ” Referring to the President's speech,246 his comment was: “I had hoped, Sir, when our military Governor left us, and one of ourselves took his place, that we should hear another strain. But here we have as much as ever of 'His Majesty's gracious and paternal solicitude for his faithful subjects in this loyal Province',—nay, and even a 'Divine blessing' invoked on that
noble institution King's College. Oh, Sir, is it not enough to make one sick or mad?” He next attacked the newspapers. “Why, I declare they are everyone of them loyal and religious and so forth. Not one is there among them to give one the least idea that one is living in a land of liberty and an age of reason.” The writer concluded by saying that he was off to Upper Canada to live next to Mr. Dalton, who edited a paper worth reading. “He gives his readers the solid and consistent sense of that true and unchangeable Patriot, Mr. Cobbett.” 247 The Editor's note to this amazing epistle explained that he had published the letter to show his liberality towards all ranks. It was a comfort to know that such a Radical meditated a speedy departure. “We only regret that he should be going to Upper Canada, where we apprehend there are already too many who neither 'FEAR GOD' nor 'HONOR THE KING'.”
noble institution King's College. Oh, Sir, is it not enough to make one sick or mad?” He next attacked the newspapers. “Why, I declare they are everyone of them loyal and religious and so forth. Not one is there among them to give one the least idea that one is living in a land of liberty and an age of reason.” The writer concluded by saying that he was off to Upper Canada to live next to Mr. Dalton, who edited a paper worth reading. “He gives his readers the solid and consistent sense of that true and unchangeable Patriot, Mr. Cobbett.” 247 The Editor's note to this amazing epistle explained that he had published the letter to show his liberality towards all ranks. It was a comfort to know that such a Radical meditated a speedy departure. “We only regret that he should be going to Upper Canada, where we apprehend there are already too many who neither 'FEAR GOD' nor 'HONOR THE KING'.”
Dislike of Tory practices, principles, and institutions was perhaps not often expressed with the irreverence and the venom employed by A Manchester Turn-out, nevertheless with the growth of immigration and the development of the lumber business the fact was increasingly apparent that there were in the province large numbers of people who knew not the old concepts, or were, for social, mercantile, political or religious reasons, definitely hostile to them. These attitudes hampered the maintenance of a privileged church, a favored class, a political oligarchy, and an exclusive college. Professor Creighton has described the situation as one which presented increasing difficulties to those Loyalist leaders who wished to impose their ideal of a good society on New Brunswick, and in reference to the Church of England, the schools of the S. P. G., and King's College, he writes: “These treasured institutions, these unquestioned cultural standards, were threatened in the strange and rather precarious world that had come into being with the timber trade.” 248 With evangelicals, Irish Roman Catholics, lumber-jacks, shrewd woods operators, ambitious merchants, and self-made business men jostling the Tory squires, professional men, and bureaucrats, New Brunswick, at the close of the first half-century of its existence, was no longer “the pattern Loyalist province of British North America” .249
Notes
^1. Cubberley, pp. 279-282.
^2. The German-Swiss Pestalozzi 1746-(1827) who had been influenced by Rousseau's Emile, out of his own experiences in teaching abandoned children, had worked out a theory and method of instruction based on the natural development of the child. He thought of teaching as a drawing-out process, which made use of the child's sense impressions, his natural interests and his reasoning powers. Cubberley, 297-299, 413-415.
^3. Cubberley, pp. 316-320.
^4. Reisner, pp. 144-150.
^5. Cubberley, p. 315.
^6. Reisner, p. 239.
^7. Cubberley, p. 345.
^8. Creighton, pp. 173-176.
^9. Gilroy, p. 12.
^10. Clark, p. 152.
^11. Martin (1), p. 272.
^12. Gilroy, p. 12.
^13. Creighton, p. 177.
^14. Beard, Vol. 1. pp. 437, 438.
^15. Ibid., p. 437.
^16. Ibid., p. 437.
^17. Ibid., p. 437.
^18. Creighton, p. 176.
^19. Office of Executive Council of New Brunswick, Minutes of Executive Council, Vol. 1, p. 8.
^20. Gilroy, p. 62.
^21. St. John Gazette & Weekly Advertiser, Vol. XIII, No. 660, Jan. 18, 1799, p. 3.
^22. McArthur (2), p. 216.
^23. P. A. of Canada, C0188, Vol. II, Douglas to Bathurst, Nov. 10, 1824, p. 103.
^24. Ibid., Vol. IV, Campbell to Goderich, Confidential, Jan. 16, 1832, p. 427.
^25. Hannay (1), Vol 1, pp. 227, 228, 233, 249, et. al.
^26. Gilroy, p. 65.
^27. Hannay (1), Vol. 1, p. 210.
^28. Ibid., p. 189.
^29. McArthur (2), p. 214.
^30. Gilroy, p. 73.
^31. Ibid., p. 74.
^32. Winslow Papers, p. 420.
^33. McArthur (2), p. 214.
^34. Hannay (1), Vol. 1, p. 155.
^35. Stephenson, p. 23.
^36. Harvey (1), pp. 359, 357.
^37. Hannay (2), p. 30.
^38. Curti, p. 47.
^39. Inch. p. 226.
^40. Hannay (1), Vol. 1, pp. 234, 235.
^41. Ibid., p. 234.
^42. Raymond (2), Vol. V1, No. 8, Jan. 1893, p. 149.
^43. Falconer, p. 791.
^44. Winslow Papers, p. 237.
^45. Ibid., p. 579.
^46. Fitch, p. 4.
^47. Raymond (3). p. 131.
^48. Winslow Papers, pp. 336, 337.
^49. P. A. of Canada, Canada Misc., Misc. documents. Vol. 8, Lawrence Collection, Clipping from Saint John Gazette, March 27, 1789.
^50. Raymond (2), Vol V1, No. 9, Feb. 1893, p. 171.
^51. Anderson, p. 27.
^52. Raymond (2) Vol. V1, No. 9, Feb. 1893, p. 173.
^53. Fitch, p. 6.
^54. Raymond (2), Vol. V1, No. 9, Feb. 1893, p. 171.
^55. Maxwell (1), p. 64.
^56. Fitch, pp. 6, 7.
^57. New Brunswick: Journals of the House of Assembly, Vol. 1, p. 73.
^58. P. A. of Canada, Inglis Papers, p.p. 20, 21.
^59. Hanney (1), Vol. 1, pp. 214, 215.
^60. Ibid., p. 217.
^61. Maxwell, (1), p. 64.
^62. Clark, p. 118.
^63. Raymond (2), Vol. V1, No. 9, Feb. 1893, p. 173.
^64. Anderson, p. 32.
^65. Raymond (2) Vol. V1, No. 9, Feb. 1893, p. 171.
^66. Ibid., pp. 171, 172.
^67. Ibid., p. 172.
^68. Office of the Executive Council of New Brunswick, Minutes of Executive Council, Vol. 1, p. 95.
^69. Hannay (1), Vol. 1, p. 206.
^70. Ibid., p. 206.
^71. Winslow Papers, pp. 511-513.
^72. Raymond (2), Vol. VI, No. 10, March 1893, p. 193.
^73. Winslow papers, p. 511.
^74. Ibid., p. 514.
^75. Raymond (2), Vol. VIL No. 1, June 1893, p. 8.
^76. Ibid., Vol. VII, No. 2, August 1893, p. 24.
^77. The question of Indian reaction to the attempts of people of European stock to educate them is too extensive to be treated here. It may well be that the Indian saw no sense in the type of instruction afforded because it did not accord with anything in his experience. Cultural changes are difficult unless they can be fitted piecemeal into a pre-existing pattern. See: A. G. Bailey, Conflict of European and Eastern Algonkian Cultures, 1504-1700, A Study in Canadian Civilization, Monograph No. 2, N. B. Museum, Saint John, 1937. Also A. G. Bailey, The Indian Problem in Early Canada, America indigena II (3) julio, 1942, 35-39.
^78. Winslow Papers, p. 512.
^79. P. A. of Canada, C0188, Vol. 11, pp. 125-138.
^80. Raymond (2), Vol. 7, No. 2, August 1893, p. 24.
^81. Hannay (1), Vol. 1, p. 207.
^82. “Virtuous” probably meant not only moral but also free from republican taint.
^83. Raymond, (2) Vol. VI, No. 8, Jan. 1893, p. 149.
^84. Eaton, p. 205.
^85. Office of the Executive Council of New Brunswick, Minutes of Executive Council, Vol. I, p. 95.
^86. Ibid., pp. 102-104.
^87. Fitch, pp. 4, 5.
^88. Hannay (1), Vol. 1, pp. 228, 229.
^89. Fitch, p. 5.
^90. Raymond (2), Vol. VII, No. 3, Sept. 1893, p. 49.
^91. Winslow Papers, p. 343.
^92. Ibid., p. 517.
^93. Fitch, p.5.
^94. Hannay (1). Vol. 1, p. 234.
^95. Ibid., p. 235.
^96. Raymond (2), Vol. 7, No. 3, Sept. 1893, p. 48.
^97. Fitch, p. 8.
^98. Anderson, p. 24.
^99. Inch, p. 228.
^100. Regulations for the Government of the Collegiate Grammar School at Fredericton, pp. 3-8.
^101. Baird, pp. 33, 34.
^102. Clark, p. 119.
^103. Hannay (1), Vol. 1. pp. 287, 288.
^104. Graham, p. 48.
^105. Ibid., p. 21.
^106. Creighton, p. 167.
^107. Lower (2), p. 55.
^108. Graham, p. 32.
^109. Creighton, p. 190.
^110. Graham, pp. 34, 35.
^1ll. Ibid., pp. 154-162.
^112. Creighton, P. 190.
^113. Graham, p. 43.
^114. Ibid., p. 51.
^115. Ibid., p. 47.
^116. Ibid., p. 52.
^117. Ibid., p. 168.
^118. Ibid., pp. 49, 50.
^119. Innis & Lower, p. 387.
^120. Hannay (1), Vol. 1, p. 282.
^121. Winslow Papers, pp. 474-476.
^122. Gilroy, p. 29.
^123. Hannay (1). Vol. 1, p. 283.
^124. Winslow Papers, pp. 477-478.
^125. Beard, Vol. 2, p. 384.
^126. Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 809.
^127. Hannay (1), Vol. 1, p. 282.
^128. Ibid., p. 263.
^129. Ibid., pp. 277-280.
^130. Ibid., p. 282.
^131. Fitch, p. 6.
^132. Ibid., p. 14.
^133. Ibid., p. 13.
^134. Raymond (2), Vol. V11, No. 4, Oct. 1893, p. 70.
^135. Office of the Executive Council of New Brunswick, Minutes of Executive Council, Vol. I, p. 155.
^136. Hannay (1), Vol. 1. p. 170.
^137. Ibid., p. 282.
^138. Fitch, p. 15.
^139. Hannay (1), Vol. 1, p. 298.
^140. Winslow Papers, p. 532.
^141. For the clauses of the Act, I am indebted to Fitch, p. 15.
^142. Fitch, p. 15.
^143. Hannay (1), Vol. 1, p. 307.
^144. Ibid., p. 341.
^145. Winslow Papers, pp. 672, 673.
^146. Creighton, p. 197.
^147. Gilroy, p. 82.
^148. Graham, pp. 180-185.
^149. Winslow Papers, p. 532.
^150. Graham, P. 191.
^151. Winslow Papers, pp. 583-584.
^152. Graham, pp. 197-201.
^153. Ibid., p. 214.
^154. Ibid., p. 216.
^155. Gilroy, p. 82.
^156. Graham, pp. 222-230.
^157. Creighton, pp. 192, 193.
^158. Graham, p. 149.
^159. Hannay (1), Vol. 1, p. 313.
^160. Ibid., p. 333.
^161. Raymond (2), Vol. 9, No. 1, June 1895, p. 5.
^162. Winslow Papers, p. 654.
^163. Hannay (1), Vol. 1, P. 367.
^164. New Brunswick: Journals of the House of Assembly, Vol. 4, Jan. 17, 1816, p. 9.
^165. Ibid., Jan. 26, 1816, p. 17.
^166. Fitch, pp. 16, 17.
^167. For these Nova Scotia Acts see MacKay, p. 521.
^168. Fitch, pp. 17, 18.
^169. Cubberley, p. 246.
^170. Ibid., p. 371.
^171. Ibid., pp. 370, 371.
^172. Fitch, pp. 18, 19.
^173. Raymond (2), Vol. VII, No. 10, March 1894, p. 179.
^174. Clark, p. 182.
^175. Hannay (1), Vol. 1, pp. 343, 344.
^176. Ibid., p. 345.
^177. Raymond (2), Vol. VII, No. 12, May 1894, p. 221.
^178. Hannay (1), Vol. 1, p. 346.
^179. Raymond (2), Vol. VII, No. 12, May 1894, p. 220.
^180. Hannay (1), Vol. 1, p. 356.
^181. Ibid., pp. 346, 347.
^182. Hay, p. 550.
^183. Raymond (2), Vol. 8, No. 3, Aug. 1894, p. 53.
^184. Hannay (1), Vol. 1, p. 318.
^185. The Society gave a grant for this purpose. In the report of the Board in 1820 there is this item: “Paid J. Wilson's expenses to Halifax to qualify him, £ 20.”
^186. Raymond (2), Vol. 8, No. 4, p. 71.
^187. Ibid., p. 71.
^188. The City Gazette, Vol. 8, No. 366, July 15, 1818, p. 2.
^189. Fitch, p. 21.
^190. Ibid., p. 23.
^191. Raymond (2), Vol. 8, No. 3, Aug. 1894, p. 52.
^192. The City Gazette, Vol. 8, No. 403, March 31, 1819, p. 3.
^193. Madras Schools of New Brunswick, Thirtieth Report of, p. 2.
^194. Raymond (2), Vol. 8, No. 3, Aug. 1894, p. 51.
^195. Ibid., Vol. 8, No. 5, p. 89.
^196. Madras Schools of New Brunswick, Thirtieth Report of, p. 3.
^197. Raymond (2), Vol. 7, No. 12, May 1894, p. 221.
^198. Ibid., p. 220.
^199. Raymond (2), Vol. 8, No. 3, August 1994, p. 51.
^200. Anthony Truro later conducted the Central School at Saint John for thirteen years. (Ibid., p. 51.)
^201. Fitch, p. 22.
^202. Hopkins, p. 140.
^203. Hannay (1), Vol. 1, p. 357.
^204. Fitch, p. 26.
^205. Inch, p. 230.
^206. Fitch, p. 26.
^207. Fisher, p. 75.
^208. Fitch, p. 29.
^209. Hannay (1), Vol, 1, p. 439.
^210. Ibid., pp. 443, 444.
^211. Ibid., pp. 440-443.
^212. Fitch, p. 34.
^213. In 1826 the Counties of Nova Scotia had been divided into school districts by the Justices of the Peace (MacKay, p. 522.)
^214. Fitch, p. 34.
^215. Ibid., p. 34.
^216. Ibid., p. 34.
^217. Creighton, p. 210.
^218. Lower (2), p. 79.
^219. Fisher, p. 87.
^220. New Brunswick: Journals of the House of Assembly, Vol. 7, Feb. 1, 1825, p. 3.
^221. P. A. of Canada, C0188, Douglas to Bathurst, Sept. 30, 1824, p. 88.
^222. Clark, p. 117.
^223. Creighton, p. 211.
^224. Clark. p. 10.
^225. Graham, p. 119.
^226. Fisher, p. 89.
^227. Clark, p. 154.
^228. Lower (2), P. 74.
^229. Ibid., p. 84.
^230. P. A. of Canada, C0188, Vol. III, Douglas to Goderich on a petition from the Justices of the Peace of Saint John, Oct. 16, 1827, p. 216.
^231. The word “immigrant” did not come into use until later.
^232. P . A. of Canada, C0188, Vol. IV, Campbell to Secretary of State, Oct. 23, 1831, p. 22.
^233. P. A. of Canada, C0188, Vol. IV, Campbell to Goderich, Nov. 27, 1831, p. 418.
^234. The City Gazette, Vol.IX, No. 432. Oct. 20, 1819, p. 3.
^235. Clark, p. 137.
^236. Ibid., p. 134, Quoting from the British Colonist, Saint John, June 23, 1834.
^237. Ibid., p. 117.
^238. Ibid., p. 11.
^239. Fisher, p. 45.
^240. This system began in 1817, Lower (2), p. 76.
^241. Fisher, pp. 72, 73.
^242. Lower (2), p. 76.
^243. Clark, p. 7.
^244. Hannay (1), Vol. 1, pp. 448-455.
^245. P. A. of Canada C0188, Vol. II, Douglas to Bathurst, Oct. 20, 1824, pp. 96-99.
^246. In Sir Howard's absence the Honorable William Black was the administrator of the province.
^247. The Royal Gazette, Fton, Vol. 1, No. 3, Jan. 20, 1830, p. 3.
^248. Creighton, pp. 211, 212.
^248. Ibid.