Section II, 1889. [ 3 ] Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada, 



I. — The Siwly of Political Science in Canadian Universities. 

 By John George Bourinot. 



(Read May 25, 1889.) 



lu commeuciug- this paper I cannot do better than refer you to a statement made on 

 a recent occasion by a brilliant lecturer and essayist, Prof. Seeley of Cambridge, with 

 reference to the important part that the universities of a country can and ought to per- 

 form in the fruitful field of Political Science. He believes that it should be among the 

 principal objects of the great universities of England — and I commend his words to the 

 heads of similar institutions in the Dominion — " to give coherence, connexion, and system 

 to the thinking of the nation ;" and he looks forward to the time " when the English 

 Universities will extend their action over the whole community by creating a vast order 

 of high-class popular teachers, who shall lend their aid everywhere in the impartial 

 study of great questions, political or other, and so play a part in the guidance of the 

 national mind, such as has never been played by universities in any other country." ' 



These words are pregnant with meaning for ourselves. Among the significant 

 changes that have been made within a few months in the educational system of some of 

 our universities, none is likely to be fraught with more important results to Canada than 

 the effort to give superior opportunities to students of learning the nature of our system 

 of government, and of studying all those branches of knowledge that relate to its operation 

 and make it more intelligible. 



In a country like this, with an elaborate system of local and parliamentary govern- 

 ment, it is a matter of growing importance that no institution of learning should keep 

 exclusively within the old beaten paths of classical and mathematical learning, but 

 should endeavour to bring itself as far as possible in accord with the practical aspira- 

 tions of the world around it and launch boldly into the current of political and philosophic 

 thought and study, so as to be in touch with the actual requirements of these busy and 

 energetic times. 



The study of Political Science is making rapid headway on this continent, and those 

 of you who desire more information on the subject cannot do better than refer to the 

 valuable series of publications published by Johns Hopkins University, which devotes 

 especial attention to this interesting branch of knowledge. Cornell, Harvard, and 

 Columbia Universities also give superior facilities to students for perfecting them- 

 selves in studies so important to the people of a country of popular institutions. In 

 this respect the American universities probably offer somewhat larger advantages to the 

 student than even Oxford and Cambridge since they give special importance to Political 

 Science as a department of study. The names of Maine, Stephen, Seeley, Bryce, Free- 



' Contemporary Review for July, 1888, p. 65, " The Impartial Study of Politics." 



