Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/250

 Ontario to overcome the obstacle to navigation caused by the Falls of Niagara. Hon. W. H. Merritt, of St. Catharines, had the honor of proposing and carrying out the project, which was finished in 1829. Very early in the century steamboats came into use on the lakes and rivers, the credit of which must be given largely to the Hon. John Molson of Montreal. Quebec became noted for shipbuilding, and a brisk trade in timber with the Old World sprang up at this port. The manufacture of potash and pearlash was a profitable industry; but grain crops, in the absence of good roads, could not find a ready market. Then, as now, there was a good deal of smuggling along the frontier between Canada and the United States, and in consequence the revenue suffered considerably.

To meet the demand for money to carry on the growing trade of the country, Banks were founded, among the earliest being the Banks of Montreal, Kingston, and Quebec; and a little later the Bank of Upper Canada. The population, and therefore the trade, of Upper Canada grew more rapidly than that of Lower Canada, and this led to disputes between the Provinces. After the Constitutional Act of 1791, it was arranged that Upper Canada was to have as her share one-eighth of the customs duties collected at the chief ports of Lower Canada. Thirteen years later the proportion was changed to one-fifth, and then, in 1822, there still being dissatisfaction, the British Parliament passed the Canada Trade Act, which gave Upper Canada £30,000 of arrears due by Lower Canada, and arranged for a more just division of the revenue in the future.

Education was improving very slowly. Governor Simcoe had planned the founding of a college in his time, and for that purpose brought from Scotland John Strachan, a young but clever school teacher, to be its head. When Strachan arrived he found Simcoe had left the colony, and he started a grammar school at Cornwall, where many of the most noted men of Upper Canada were educated. In 1807, the Parliament of Upper Canada voted £500 for the support of eight grammar schools; and in 1816, common schools were granted £6,000 to help in paying teachers and buying books. In 1823, McGill University in Montreal was organized for teaching, and four years later we have the beginning of King’s College at York. In 1829 Upper Canada College was founded to prepare pupils for the coming University. Few people, at that time, could