Education also continued to show marked improvement in accordance with the wise policy adopted since 1841.  Previous to the union popular education had been at a very low ebb, although there were a number of efficient private schools in all the provinces where the children of the well-to-do classes could be taught classics and many branches of knowledge.  In Lower Canada not one-tenth of the children of the habitants could write, and only one-fifth could read.  In Upper Canada the schoolmasters as a rule, according to Mrs. Anna Jameson,[11] were “ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-paid, or not paid at all.”  In the generality of cases they were either Scotsmen or Americans, totally unfit for the positions they filled.  As late as 1833 Americans or anti-British adventurers taught in the greater proportion of the schools, where the pupils used United States text-books replete with sentiments hostile to England—­a wretched state of things stopped by legislation only in 1846.  Year by year after the union improvements were made in the school system, with the object of giving every possible educational facility to rich and poor alike.

In the course of time elementary education became practically free.  The success of the system in the progressive province of Upper Canada largely rested on the public spirit of the municipalities.  It was engrafted on the municipal institutions of each county, to which provincial aid was given in proportion to the amount raised by local assessment.  The establishment of normal schools and public libraries was one of the useful features of school legislation in those days.  The merits of the system naturally evoked the sympathy and praise of the governor-general, who was deeply interested in the intellectual progress of the country.  The development of “individual self-reliance and local exertion under the superintendence of a central authority exercising an influence almost exclusively moral is the ruling principle of the system.”

Provision was also made for the imparting of religious instruction by clergymen of the several religious denominations recognized by law, and for the establishment of separate schools for Protestants or Roman Catholics whenever there was a necessity for them in any local division.  On the question of religious instruction Lord Elgin always entertained strong opinions.  After expressing on one occasion his deep gratification at the adoption of legislation which had “enabled Upper Canada to place itself in the van among the nations in the important work of providing an efficient system of education for the whole community,” he proceeded to commend the fact that “its foundation was laid deep in the framework of our common Christianity.”  He showed then how strong was the influence of the moral sense in his character: