one of the greatest benefits that can possibly be acquired. To enable
you to think with advantage, I not only regulated your tasks in such a
manner as to exercise your judgment, but extended them for you beyond
the mechanical routine of study usually adopted in schools.' [Footnote:
Scadding's 'Toronto of Old,' p. 161.] None of the masters of the high
schools of the present day could do as much under the very scientific
system which limits their freedom of action in the educational training
of their scholars. But whilst the wealthier classes in the larger
centres of population could avail themselves of the services of such
able teachers as the late Bishop of Toronto, the mass of people were
left in a state of ignorance. The good schools were controlled by
clergymen of the different denominations; in fact, the Church of England
was nearly dominant in such matters in those early times, and it must be
admitted that there was a spirit abroad in the province which
discredited all attempts to place the education of the masses on a more
liberal basis.

The Union of 1840 and the extension of the political rights of the
people gave a new impulse to useful and practical legislation in a
country whose population commenced from that time to increase very
rapidly. In 1841, 1843 and 1844 measures were passed for the improvement
of the school system of both provinces. In 1846, the system of
compulsory taxation for the support of public schools was, for the first
time, embodied in the law, and education at last made steady progress.
According as experience showed the necessity of changes, the Legislature
improved the educational system of both provinces--these changes having
been continued to be made since Confederation. In Lower Canada, the
names of two men will always be honourably associated with the working
out of the School Law, and these are Dr. Meilleur and Hon. Mr. Chauveau,
the latter of whom succeeded in establishing Normal Schools at Montreal