Imurray] university DEVELOPMENT IN CANADA 101 



has launched her pinnace, to 'contest for the palm with the Old 

 World.'" *7 



But before Jefferson or Cousin caught the ear of the American 

 people, the fundamental principle of the State University, the State's 

 responsibility for the establishment, support and control of all branches 

 of education was expressed in the Ordinance passed in 1787 by the 

 Congress of the United States for the government of the North West. 

 It made the following momentous declaration:'*^ "Religion, Morality 

 and Knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness 

 of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be 

 encouraged." 



Ten days later Congress also declared : " That Lot Sixteen in each 

 township should be given for purposes of education and Lot Twenty- 

 Nine for purposes of religion." It also afhrmed: "That no more than 

 two complete townships are to be given for the purpose of university 

 education." 



This statement of the people's faith in education and the generous 

 provision for the realization of that faith in the new North West 

 declare in clear and unmistakable terms the State's obligation for 

 the institution, support and control of all forms of education, university 

 no less than primary. The North West, for which the ordinance was 

 passed, comprised the territory west of the Alleghanies, north of the 

 Ohio and east of the Mississippi, and which was divided into the 

 states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin — territory 

 which, by the way, was claimed as Canadian in 1782. In this North 

 West and the newer and larger North West beyond the Mississippi, 

 and north of the International Boundary line, the principle of the 

 State's responsibility for all forms of education has been recognized 

 as never before in the early history of any country in Europe or 

 America. 



In the century that followed,''^ more than one million of acres 

 were reserved by the United States for universities and seminaries 

 of higher learning, ten millions for agricultural and mechanical 

 colleges, and another sixty-seven million for Common School purposes. 

 As early as 1798 the Legislature of Upper Canada petitioned for the 

 reservation of crown lands for educational purposes, and over one half 

 million acres were set aside, one half of which ultimately went to 

 King's College. In the University of Manitoba the Dominion set 

 apart 150,000 acres in the eighties, and in 1908 the Legislature of 



^'Duncombe, p. 13. 



^^Thwing, p. 202; Educational Problems, p. 7. 



^'State Aid to Higher Education, Johns Hopkins University, 1898. 



