22. CATHOLIC EDUCATION. The French Regime (1608-1760).— During this period education in Canada was almost en tirely under the control of the Catholic Church. The first permanent school was the °Little School° founded by the Jesuits at Quebec in 1635. The first institution of higher learning was the Jesuits' College, also at Quebec, opened in 1636 or 1637. It maintained a classical course similar to those of the famous Jesuit colleges of France, and, after 1707, when the public School of Hydrography was attached to it, became a scientific centre of some im portance. In 1663 Bishop Laval founded the Seminary of Quebec; in 1668 the Little Semi nary, a preparatory school for boys aspiring to the priesthood; and about the same date the model farm and industrial school of Saint Joachim at Cap Tourmente. From 1666 schools for boys were maintained in Montreal by the Sulpician Fathers, and in several smaller towns and villages schools were established by the Recollets. From 1718 to 1730 the Hospitaller Brothers of Montreal, assisted by a royal grant, maintained a kind of normal school, and sup ported eight teachers in Montreal and neigh boring parishes. Convent schools for girls were conducted by the Ursulines at Quebec (1639) and Three Rivers (1697), and by the Congregation of Notre Dame, founded at treal in 1659 by Marguerite Bourgeoys and rep resented by branches in many of the larger vil lages. Moreover, by the middle of the 18th century parochial schools existed in the ma jority of the country parishes. After 1727 teachers were by ordinance placed under the supervision of the parish priests, and were re quired to obtain licenses both from the King's Intendant and from the Bishop or Archdeacon of Quebec. Some country schools had Latin classes. In general, education was more wide spread than might be assumed. A majority, or at least a very large minority, of the habitants could read and write. All this was accom plished by the free efforts of Church and peo ple; no assistance was obtained from govern ment, except a few slight subsidies and some grants of land to religious teaching orders. In Acadia (now Nova Scotia and New Bruns wick) education was more backward than in Canada. We hear of a seminary and a girls' school at Port Royal (now Annapolis) before 1640, and, after the temporary English con quest of 1654, of schools for boys and girls. These disappeared on the final conquest in 1710. In Cape Breton the fortress-town of Louisbourg had its own schools, including a convent of the Sisters of Notre Dame, but town and schools alike disappeared after the capitulation to the English in 1758.
Canada 1760-1867.— The British conquest was followed by a decline in education. The Church in Canada was thrown on its own re sources by the break with France, and hampered by the prejudices of alien rulers. The British government tolerated the religious orders of women, but directed the gradual extinction of those of men and the confiscation of their prop erty, property which Canadians believed to have been granted, in large part, as an endowment for education. The Jesuits' College was abandoned in 1768. Both Jesuits and Recollets disappeared at the beginning of the 19th century, but Sul pician exiles from Revolutionary France were admitted to Canada, and henceforth that order revived. The government had ordered
ures to be taken — especially the establishment of Protestant schools —to win the Canadians to Protestantism, but in fact little attempt at proselytism was made. Nevertheless the sus picions of the inhabitants were aroused, and there was made permanent under British rule that close union of religion and national cul ture which is so marked a characteristic of the French Canadian people. In 1791 the colony was divided into the provinces of Lower Can ada, mainly French and Catholic, and Upper Canada, where the inhabitants were chiefly newly-arrived English-speaking Protestants. Parliamentary institutions were conceded, and through these the Catholic people of Lower Canada gradually obtained control of their schools. An attempt in 1818 to give a monopoly of education to the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning, a body mainly Eng lish and Anglican, was defeated by the hostil ity of the people themselves. In 1824 the in dependent religious schools, Catholic and Prot estant, were recognized by the Legislature, and in 1829 they received state aid. After 1829 the revenues from the Jesuit estates were devoted to educational purposes, and in 1839 the Sul pician estates were confirmed to that order. In Upper Canada Catholics were not numerous. Only a few schools were established, several by the Rev. Alexander Macdonell (consecrated Bishop of Kingston in 1826), who brought teachers from Scotland and obtained a small subsidy from the British government. In 1840 the two Canadian provinces were reunited. Contrary to expectations, this strengthened the position of the French, and, because of their support, of the Catholics of Upper Canada. The period which followed was one of con flict between the ideal of educational uniform ity— the imposition on all classes of a uni form system, more or less secular in character —and that of freedom —the preservation to each locality, and especially to each religious denomination, of a large liberty in shaping the teaching of its children. The Act of 1841 or ganizing primary schools allowed the religious minority in any locality to establish a separate school and receive its due proportion of state aid. Thence sprang the Separate Schools of Upper Canada and the Protestant Schools of Lower Canada. The independent denomina tional school system was fully established in the lower province by 1846, but in Upper Can ada a bitter struggle preceded the complete recognition of Separate Schools, which was ac complished by the Scott Act of 1863. The lat ter part of this epoch was marked by the found ing in Canada, or the introduction from abroad, of a large number of religious teaching orders, and also by the opening of many of those class ical and commercial colleges which play so large a role in education in Quebec. In 1852 the Seminary of Quebec founded Laval Uni versity, and in 1866 in Upper Canada Regiopo fis College. (founded at Kingston, 1846) and Ottawa College (founded as the College of Bytown, 1849) received charters as universities.