110 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



The efforts of Governor Simcoe to have suitable provision made 

 for advanced education in Upper Canada must not be overlooked, 

 although they were late in bearing fruit. The Governor urged the 

 matter in his correspondence with Secretary Dundas in 1792, with the 

 Bishop of Quebec in 1793, and with the Duke of Portland in 1795. 

 He thought that primary education must be left for the present to 

 the parents and relatives of the children, but strongly recommended 

 an annual grant of 1,000 pounds for buildings and salaries to establish 

 a grammar school at Niagara and another at Kingston and the foun- 

 dation of an university at the capital. Unless some such provision 

 were made, Simcoe argued, the gentlemen of Upper Canada would 

 have to send their children to the United States and thereby contribute 

 to the perversion of the British principles of the rising generation. 

 At length, in 1797, the two houses of Parliament sent a joint address 

 to the King requesting him to direct the government of Upper Canada 

 to appropriate a certain portion of the waste lands of the Crown 

 for the establishment and support of a respectable grammar school 

 in each district and also of a college or university. The King com- 

 plied with this request, and the Executive Council of the Province 

 was prompt to respond with a recommendation that 500,000 acres 

 be set apart as a sufficient endowment for four grammar schools to 

 be established at Cornwall, Kingston, Niagara, and Sandwich, and 

 an university at York (Toronto). Accordingly, land was appropriated 

 in 1798, the actual grant exceeding the appropriation recommended 

 by 49,000 acres. For some unknown reason, however, the district 

 grammar school was not founded at Niagara until 1808, when it 

 was opened with the Reverend John Burns as its first teacher. Mr, 

 Burns was the minister of St. Andrew's Church in Niagara and the 

 Presbyterian Church in Stamford from 1805 to 1817. His burial 

 place is to be found in the old Stamford Presbyterian cemetery.^ 



Three years before the earliest schools made their appearance 

 in the Niagara Peninsula the first newspaper of the Province, namely. 

 The Upper Canada Gazette, or American Oracle, claimed the attention 

 of the citizens of Niagara. The provincial capital was thus gaining 

 within a brief space of time the agencies of public enlightenment, 

 in other words, schools, newspapers, and churches. The founder of 

 the Gazette was Louis Roy, who is said to have been sent west by Mr. 

 John Neilson of Quebec for the express purpose of establishing a paper. 

 The first number was issued, April 18, 1793, and the publication 

 continued to be printed at Niagara until 1798, when it was removed 

 to York. It contained copies of official documents and columns of 



1 Niagara Hist. Soc, No. 11, 39; No. 26, 29, 30; Carnochan, Hist, of Niagara, 

 83, 128, 129, 219, 220. 



