[bodkinot] CANADA DURING THE VICTORIAN ERA 13 



any liberal system of municipal institutions, and in consequence of the 

 large districts owned by absentee proj)rietors or by the church. If a 

 road or bridge was required in Lower Canada it was necessary to apply 

 to the legislature. Things were a little better in Upper Canada, where 

 there was a system of local taxation which, imperfect as it was, enabled 

 the people in a county to make minor improvements. Montreal, Quebec, 

 Halifax, St. John, and Toi-onto were the only towns of importance, and 

 the population of the tirst — then, as now, the commercial metropolis of 

 British North America — did not exceed 40,000 ; while their aggregate 

 population was 120,000 souls. The streets of all of them were either ill- 

 lighted or left, in darkness, and without pavements. The public build- 

 ings, as a rule, had no architectural pretensions. A few colleges and 

 grammar schools had been established where the sons of the well-to-do 

 classes could obtain an excellent classical and English education for those 

 times. The religious communities of Lower Canada at an early period 

 in the history of the country had established institutions where the youth 

 of both sexes could receive certain educational and religious advantages. 

 But the State had not in any degree intervened successfully in the estab- 

 ishment of a system of popular education. 



The whole public expenditure for common and district schools in 

 Upper Canada was a little above $40,000 a year, and these schools were 

 very inferior in every respect. The masters in many cases in this 

 province, to which I refer especially, since now it stands unsurpassed 

 in the character of its educational progress, were ill-paid, ill-educated men 

 who, having failed in other pursuits, resorted to teaching as their last 

 hope ; many of them were illiterate citizens of the United States, who 

 brought anti-British ideas into the country, and taught their pupils out 

 of American text-books, in which, of course, prominence was given to 

 American history and institutions. In 1838-39 there were in all the 

 public and private schools of British North America only some 92,000 

 young people out of a total population of 1,440,000 .souls, or about one in 

 fifteen. The administration of justice in all the provinces except in 

 Lower Canada was, on the whole, satisfactory for a new country, where 

 the highest judicial talent was not always available. In the French 

 section there was a lamentable want of efficiency in the courts, and an 

 absence of contidence in the mode in which the law was administered. 

 At times there was a decided failure of justice in criminal cases, owing to 

 the complexion of the juries. In certain cases, where political or national 

 feeling was aroused, a jviry was not likely to convict even in the face of 

 the clearest evidence of crime. English and French Canadians divided 

 in the jury box according to their nationalities. While the judges of the 

 highest courts were generally distinguished for learning and fairness, the 

 justices of peace were chosen without any regard to their character or 

 ability to try the ordinary petty causes which fell within their jurisdic- 



