19. HIGHER EDUCATION. The his tory of higher education in Canada is by no means a homogeneous development in all the provinces. Each province, possessing its own machinery of local government and peculiarities of social and economic condition, has, as might be expected, evolved its own system of higher education. It is, therefore, the more remarkable that the beginnings of university education were almost identical in all the older provinces. This was due to the enlightened policy of the British government, which through the executive heads of the colonies began very early to make pro vision for future educational needs. In Upper Canada (now Ontario) and New Brunswick this provision took the form of an endowment out of Crown lands for the purposes of higher education. In Nova Scotia, already a self-gov erning colony, the legislature was encouraged to devote a special grant of money to establish a university and to make an annual appropria tion in support of it thereafter, while the Im perial Parliament endorsed this action by vot ing much more substantial sums both for estab lishment and for annual maintenance. In Lower Canada (now Quebec) a proposal was made to create an undenominational state unil versity, but the uncompromising hostility of the Roman Catholic Church to the idea prevented it from being carried out. Thus in each of the four colonies or provinces which at the end of the 18th century made up the settled portion of British North America the policy was inaug urated of establishing state universities, either with large land endowments or with the pledge of support by the provincial legislature. The next stage was also alike in all the provinces of older Canada except Lower Canada. In these a narrower view prevailed, and the state college in each, when established, discriminated in favor of the Church of England against other religious denominations. It was an attempt to implant in the colonies the English institution of an established Church, but the conditions in Canada were very different from those in Eng land; the Church of England was numerically hardly stronger than the Presbyterian, Meth odist or Baptist bodies separately, and cer tainly no exclusive right to control the state universities should have been given. The other denominations accordingly, seeing the doors of the state institution closed to their members, or open perhaps but with reservations in favor of a rival Church, established their own institu tions of higher education. Thus, instead of a single well-supported university in each prov ince there were several universities of a small calibre, none of them, not excepting the state university, coming up to the standard that had been.anticipated when the policy of a single state-supported institution for each province was framed. In course of time the disad vantages of division became more apparent. The denominational character of the state uni versities was altered and negotiations for al liance were seriously begun. Up to the present time these negotiations have had no result in Nova Scotia or New Brunswick. But in Ontario a third stage has been reached, and the movement to combine resources has met with partial success. In western Canada the history of higher education is different. Profit ing, perhaps, by the experience of the older provinces, the state universities in Manitoba and other western provinces have been estab lished under conditions that prevent them from being controlled in the interests of any de nomination.
Nova Taking each province in turn, for a more detailed account, we begin with Nova Scotia, the earliest settled of the English-speaking provinces of Canada. The first attempt at establishing a university was made by act of the legislature in 1789 incor porating 1Cing's College at Windsor, where a seminary had been founded a year before by legislative aid. A grant of BOO for a site was
also made, and an annual appropriation of f400 for maintenance. In the following year the British Parliament gave 14,000 in further aid of the infant institution. It does not ap pear that actual university powers were ob tained until 1802, when a royal charter was granted. At the same time an annual sub sidy of 11,000, which was not discontinued until 1835, began to be made by the British Parlia ment. The charter gave control of King's College to the authonties of the Church of England in the province, and at the beginning of its career the governing body unwisely re stricted to members of that Church the right of entering the college as students, thus com pletely establishing the sectarian character of the state institution. A majority of the in habitants of the province were now debarred from sharing in the benefits to which they had looked forward, and agitation began for a freer system. In response to this demand Dal housie College was founded at Halifax in 1821 out of funds at the disposal of the governor for provincial purposes. Attempts at fusion of the two state-endowed colleges were subse quently made from time to time but without success. It was as a result of the refusal in 1835 of the governors of King's College to surrender their charter and amalgamate with Dalhousie College that the Imperial grant of f1,000 was withdrawn. Dalhousie College, .though founded in 1821 and soon afterward provided with a building, was not opened for academical instruction until 1838, when suffi cient funds had accumulated to enable a be • ginning to be made. In 1841 university powers were conferred by act of legislature and con trol was vested in a board appointed by the lieutenant-governor. But a similar mistake had been made as in the case of King's College, and Presbyterian influences had been allowed to preside at the organization in 1838. The Baptist body, therefore, seeing one of the state institutions avowedly under Anglican con trol, the other practically Presbyterian, pro ceeded to establish a college of its own at Wolfville. It was named Queen's College, and was formally opened in 1839. The act of in corporation conferring university powers was not passed, however, until 1840, and another act in 1841 changed its name to Acadia College, which it still retains, with the alteration of "university' for "college.' The Roman Catholic Church, which had always stood apart from any system of higher education under state con trol, established somewhat later Saint Francis Xavier's College at Antigonish, in the year 1855. Under varying conditions higher education in the province continued to be carried on for a number of years by the institutions named, two of them being the recipients of government bounty. Dalhousie College, indeed, for want of funds was closed from 1845 to 1863, and on reorganization at the latter date was given a strictly non-denominational character. But the hope of uniting all the existing colleges in a single state university has not been given up. In 1876 an act of the legislature established the University of Halifax, which should examine and confer degrees upon candidates sent up by the colleges. The latter, however, gave it no support, and continued to exercise their uni versity functions. In 1881 the legislature with drew its financial support and at the same time discontinued the annual grant which had hitherto been made to King's College. Univer sity federation in Nova Scotia had proved a failure, and no scheme to that effect has since been proposed. A second Roman. Catholic col lege, College Sainte Anne, was established in Digby County in 1890; and the Seminary of the Sacred Heart, at Halifax, in 1895.