provision for democratic
education, a necessary corollary to popular government, for if Demos is
to rule, Demos cannot be left in ignorance; the peril of an ignorant
ruler is too frightful.

Then came the difficult problem of the provincial university. It is
interesting to note how the educational history of one Canadian
province is repeated in another. In Nova Scotia, King's College was
founded by the exiled Loyalists from the United States towards the end
of the eighteenth century. It was the child of the Church of England.
The first bishop of Nova Scotia secured for it the support of the
provincial Assembly. Naturally, it was modelled on the {89} great
English university of Oxford, and, like the Oxford of that day, was
designed solely for the education of those within the pale of the
national church. But this provincial university, which has the honour
of being the oldest in the British dominions overseas, was supported by
public funds partly contributed by 'dissenters,' whose creed excluded
them from it. Only at the price of their religious principles could
the 'dissenters' of Nova Scotia obtain the boon of higher education.
Therefore they set to work to found an independent 'academy' of their
own. In Upper Canada events marched down the same road. There,
another privileged 'King's College,' exclusively Anglican, was founded
early in the nineteenth century, and richly endowed with public lands.
The excluded 'dissenters' set about founding colleges of their own; and
thus Queen's College and Victoria College took their rise. Robert
Baldwin had the vision of a comprehensive state university, on a broad
non-denominational basis, in which all these colleges should be
component parts. He brought in a bill to found the University of
Toronto, a measure on which time has set its approving seal. The many
stately buildings which adorn {90} Queen's Park, the long distinguished
roll of graduates, the noble group of affiliated colleges, Knox, St
Michael's, Trinity, Wycliffe, Victoria, attest the wisdom of Baldwin's
far-seeing measure. Bishop Strachan, the doughty Aberdonian champion
of Anglican rights and privileges, led a crusade against this 'godless
institution' and raised the cry of spoliation. The echoes of that
wordy warfare have even now hardly died away. Having failed to prevent
the founding of Toronto, the indefatigable bishop founded a new
Anglican university, Trinity, which in the fullness of time was mer