owe to bring it about.

After the union of the Canadas in 1841, a steady movement for the
improvement of the elementary, public, or common schools continued for
years, and the services of the Reverend Egerton Ryerson were engaged as
chief superintendent of education with signal advantage to the country.
In 1850, when the Lafontaine-Baldwin government was in office, the
results of the superintendent's studies of the systems of other
countries were embodied in a bill based on the principle of local
assessment, aided by legislative grants, for the carrying on of the
public schools. This measure is the basis of the present admirable
school system of Upper Canada, and to a large extent of that of the
other English-speaking provinces. In Lower Canada the history of public
schools must be always associated with the names of Dr. Meilleur and the
Honourable Mr. Chauveau; but the system has never been as effective as
in the upper province. In both provinces, separate or dissentient
schools were eventually established for the benefit of the Roman
Catholics in Upper or Protestant Canada, and of the Protestants in Lower
or Catholic Canada. In the maritime provinces satisfactory progress was
also made in the development of a sound school system. In Nova Scotia
Dr. Tupper, when provincial secretary (1863-1867), laid the foundations
of the excellent schools that the province now enjoys.

During this period the newspaper press increased remarkably in influence
and circulation. The most important newspaper in the Dominion, the
_Globe_, was established at Toronto in 1844 by Mr. George Brown, a
Scotchman by birth, who became a power from that time among the Liberal
politicians of Canada. No notable books were produced in the
English-speaking provinces except "Acadian Geology," a work by Dr.
Dawson, who became in 1855 principal of McGill University, and was, in
later years, knighted by the Queen; but the polished verses of Cremazie
and the lucid histories of Canada by Ferland and Garneau already showed
that French Canada had both a history and a literature.

Towards the close of this memorable period of Canadian development, the
Prince of Wales, heir-apparent to the throne, visited the British
American provinces, where the people gave full expression to their loyal
feelings. This was the third occasion on which these communities had
been favoured by the presence of members of the royal family. Prince
William Henry, afterward William IV, v