1 John George Hodgins, ed., Documentary History of Education in Upper Canada ... (Toronto: Warwick and Rutter, 1894-1910), vol. 15. Quotations from this volume are identified by page numbers in
parentheses.
2 Both quotations are from William Henry Fraser’s paper Pass French and German in the University of Toronto (Toronto: Printed at the Office of “The Week,” 1892), read before the Modern Language
Association of Ontario on 20 April 1892.
3 We have searched in vain for any record of the debate that must have led to decisions simply noted in the minutes of the Senate.
4 See Maddalena Kuitunen and Julius A. Molinaro, A History of Italian Studies at the University of Toronto, 1840-1990 ... (Toronto: Department of Italian Studies, University of Toronto, 1991), 6
-13.
5 University of Toronto Archives (uta), Langton Family, b65-0014/004(01), Letters and journal of Sir Daniel Wilson (typed transcript), 15, letter of 25 Nov. 1853.
6 John Squair, The Autobiography of a Teacher of French (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1928), 9-14.
7 William Alexander Langton, Early Days in Upper Canada: Letters of John Langton ... (Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1926), 290.
8 uta, b65-0014/004(01), 10, letter of 15 Oct. 1853. Wilson added that Forneri was “much in need of a course in English, which I should be happy to exchange for some of his foreign tongues.” In
the letter of 25 Nov. 1853 (p.16), he refers to Forneri’s very large family, “temporarily packed away in a very small cottage, where stowage must be conducted on some patent American or Italian principle unless they sleep only one-half at a time, like shi
ps’ watches.”
9 W.H. Van der Smissen, “McCaul: Croft: Forneri” [review of John King’s book], University Monthly 16, no.3 (Dec. 1915): 137-8. Van der Smissen says of Forneri that “his vigour was unabated and h
is faculties unimpaired for at least the first eleven years of his occupancy,” although “he gave 24 lectures or more during the week, while the hours in other subjects varied from 5 to 18.”
10 R.A. Reeve, “[In Memoriam] William Oldright ...,” University of Toronto Monthly 17, no.5 (Feb. 1917): 188-90.
11 W. Oldright, “Professor James Forneri, ll.d.,” University of Toronto Monthly 2, no.8 (May 1902): 201-8. The passages quoted appear on 201 and 207.
12 John King, McCaul, Croft, Forneri: Personalities of Early University Days (Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1914), 253.
13 Squair, Autobiography, 15. See also Sybille Pantazzi, “Student Prize Books,” Canadian Antiques Collector 10, no.1 (Jan./Feb. 1975): 29, with a reproduction of the bookplate for the prize in
French awarded to Miss R. Grant by Bishop Strachan School in 1869, signed by the “Lady Principal” and by Émile Pernet, “French Professor.”
14 Émile Pernet, The Elementary French Class Book (Toronto: J. Campbell, 1871, 238 pp.). This text, containing grammar, syntax, and exercises, appears as “Pernet’s Grammar” in the Trinity Colle
ge prescription in 1872 and 1873. Squair (Autobiography, 39-40) describes the book and gives examples of some of its exercises in translation, French-English and English-French. There is a copy in the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto
. A prefatory note mistakenly calls it “the first French book published in this Province,” for another of the University of Toronto’s rare books is a Nouvelle Grammaire française (Toronto: W.C. Chewett & Co., 1862, 191 pp.), written by Émile Coulon, Frenc
h master in the Model Grammar School, examiner in French and German at University College in 1860 and 1861, and a popular private tutor in the best Toronto families between 1852 and 1863. See the numerous testimonials that follow (and redeem) the text of
Coulon’s Poetical Leisure Hours and Torontonian Descriptions (Toronto: Rowsell and Hutchison, 1897).
15 French Words and Expressions Used in English. Familiar Phrases in English and French for Travelers ... (Philadelphia, 1892, 86 pp.); rev. and enl. (Philadelphia: Press of Universal Printing
Co., 1895, 98 pp.).
16 Squair, Autobiography, 76.
17 H.R. Fairclough, Warming Both Hands: The Autobiography of Henry Rushton Fairclough (Stanford University Press, 1941), 103.
18 Squair, Autobiography, 93-4.
19 Ibid., 79.
20 Chamberlain’s early articles included: “Words of Indian Origin in the French-Canadian Dialect and Literature,” American Notes and Queries (1888-89); “Dialect Research in Canada,” Dialect Not
es (1890); “Folk-etymology in Canadian French,” Modern Language Notes (1891); “Notes on the Canadian-French Dialect of Granby,” Modern Language Notes (1892 and 1893); “The Life and Growth of Words in the French Dialect of Canada,” Modern Language Notes (1
894); “The Vocabulary of Canadian French,” Congrès international des Américanistes ... à Québec en 1906 (1907). For his career, see “Alexander Francis Chamberlain, Jan. 12, 1865 – Apr. 8, 1914: In Memoriam,” Publications of the Clark University Library 4,
no.2 (Oct. 1914).
21 ”Alexander Francis Chamberlain ... In Memoriam.”
22 One is reminded of the sobriquet “Honest John” when reading the chapter in Squair’s Autobiography (138-52) where this study is reproduced in full, followed by reprints of articles from the M
ontreal Dominion Illustrated of 9 February and 4 May 1889. One is a scathing review; the other, prompted by the intervention of a notary friend of Squair’s in Sainte-Anne, is an apology, the irony of which seems to have been lost on the philological amate
ur from Ontario.
23 Squair, Autobiography, 160.
24 Hodgins, Documentary History of Education in Upper Canada, 16:273-4.
25 William (later Sir William) Mulock and William Oldright graduated I.1 ex aequo in French, both with gold medals. Mulock was also i.1 in Italian, Oldright i.1 in German, and John (later Sir J
ohn) Morison Gibson stood i.1 in Spanish and in English. T.H. Scott, a slower starter, graduated close on their heels in the five subjects and, like them, obtained first-class honours in Modern Languages. Exercising the option that only three modern langu
ages besides English were required in fourth year, Gibson continued Classics and dropped German.
26 Squair, Autobiography, 104, 107. One question on the 1867 paper read, “What fact is much to be regretted with regard to M. de Lamartine?” The expected answer was Chouquet’s lament “Aujourd’h
ui l’homme politique a absorbé le poète, fait fâcheux que les amants de la suave poésie ne sauraient assez déplorer.” The Chapsal-Chouquet anthology was published in New York by George R. Lockwood in 1846, 1852, 1860, etc.
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27 In the 1857 statutes the same matriculation examination required of Honours and scholarship candidates in Modern Languages (i.e., Grammar and Voltaire’s Histoire de Charles XII) was required
of entering students in Law, in Medicine (for scholarships only), and in Civil Engineering. Civil engineers also took two years of French, the first at the Honours level; the second, although less demanding, at least offered them some cultural bridge-bui
lding in reading La Bruyère’s Caractères.
28 The registrar’s figures given by Squair in another report of “students in attendance” show almost the same total: 351. The components of this figure, 231 Pass and 120 Honour, may allow for s
ome exemptions in Pass work for Honour students and include students in the Faculty of Law, who took French for two years.
29 Squair, Autobiography, 80.
30 W. Stewart Wallace, A History of the University of Toronto, 1827-1927 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1927), 223.
31 Bora Laskin et al., Graduate Studies in the University of Toronto: Report of the President’s Committee on the School of Graduate Studies,1964-1965 (Toronto, 1965), 1.
32 The first statutes of Trinity College issued in 1852 included a statement that three years after completion of the course for the bachelor of arts, students could present themselves for “a f
urther examination in the higher branches of Arts, with a view to obtaining a higher certificate or the Degree of Master of Arts.” Norman L. Nicholson, “The Evolution of Graduate Studies in the Universities of Ontario, 1841-1971” (EdD thesis, University o
f Toronto, 1975), 81.
33 Ibid., 79. Victoria College in Cobourg maintained the British tradition by conferring the ma on holders of the ba of three years’ standing who made application and “whose mental improvement
and moral character have appeared satisfactory to the authorities of the University.”
34 Varsity, 24 Feb. 1883.
35 Ibid., 2 June 1883.
36 Squair, Autobiography, 178.
37 Quoted by A.E. Lang, “Victoria College, Toronto,” in Modern Language Instruction in Canada, Publications of the American and Canadian Committees on Modern Languages, 6-7 (Toronto: University
of Toronto Press, 1928), 2:289.
38 No tutors in French are named in the extant “catalogues,” as the early calendars were called: 1845, 1846, 1848-49, and 1852-53. That of 1854-55 may have named Monsieur Melchior, who is remem
bered by both A.H. Reynar in “Victoria College,” The University of Toronto and its Colleges, 1827-1906 (Toronto: University Library, 1906), 132 (where he is called “B. Melchior”), and Nathanael Burwash in The History of Victoria College (Toronto: Victoria
College Press, 1927), 183 (where he is called “N. Melchior”). Lang, in Modern Language Instruction in Canada, 2:290, refers to a treasurer’s report of 1851 listing the appointment in September 1850 of “Mr. Weston P. Wright, A.B., professor of modern lang
uages and also of chemistry.”
39 The same high standing was requisite for students wishing to take German in junior year (Woodbury’s Grammar) or in senior year (Woodbury’s Reader).
40 In his 1906 chapter on Victoria College (133-4), Reynar names Robert W. Ferrier and James Roy as teachers of Modern Languages in Victoria in 1866-67 and 1867-68 respectively. His dating of h
is own academic concern with Modern Languages as beginning in 1867 (after Classics, 1862-67) appears to be a memory-roughened approximation.
41 A.J. Bell, “Prof. A.H. Reynar – An Appreciation,” Acta Victoriana 46, no.1 (Oct. 1921): 16.
42 A Brief History of King’s College in Upper Canada, from its First Germ in 1797, to its Suppression in 1850; Pastoral Letter, Petitions, and Appendices (Toronto: Printed at the Diocesan Press
, by A.F. Plees, 1850), [10].
43 Trinity College Archives (tca), Corporation, 986-0001/012, Minutes, 10 July 1866.
44 tca, 986-0001/013, 13 July 1881.
45 ”In Memoriam – Émile Pernet,” Trinity University Review 29, no.5 (Feb. 1917): 125.
46 tca, 986-0001/014, 9 Dec. 1891.
47 Trinity University Yearbook 7 (1902-03): 36.
48 One of the features of the Toronto diocese in the middle of the nineteenth century was the large number of French-speaking clergy, approximately two-thirds of the total. Bishop Charbonnel wa
s sensitive to this situation and after inviting the Basilians to Toronto, offered to pay the priestly salary of only those whose English was satisfactory. See Francis J. Boland, “An Analysis of the Problems and Difficulties of the Basilian Fathers in Tor
onto, 1850-1860” (PhD thesis, University of Ottawa, 1955), 7. I am indebted for this information to Alexander Reford, who is preparing a history of St Michael’s College.
49 Quoted in Robbie Salter, “The College that Stands on Clover Hill: St. Michael’s Celebrates 125 Years of Excellence,” University of Toronto Graduate 5, no.2 (1977): 3.
50 Laurence K. Shook, Catholic Post-Secondary Education in English-Speaking Canada: A History (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971), 133.
51 Quoted in Mary Hoskin, History of Saint Basil’s Parish, Saint Joseph Street (Toronto: Catholic Register and Canadian Extension, 1912), 21.
52 Letter to Cardinal Franzoni, 30 May 1853, quoted in Shook, Catholic Post-Secondary Education, 134-5.
53 Shook, 138.
54 The three men are listed as having taught French in 1878-79 in Robert J. Scollard, “Historical Notes on the History of the Congregation of Priests of Saint Basil,” vol. 10. This is part of a
sixty-volume manuscript, a copy of which is located in the St Michael’s College Archives. I wish to thank Father F. Black for giving me access to this material.
55 See Dictionary of Canadian Biography (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982), 11:903-4. A portrait of Charles Vincent by George Theodore Berthon was stolen from the college during the 1
940s.
56 ”Saint Michael’s College Toronto, As It Was in 1879 [Reminiscences of Fr. Richard Thomas Burke, 1859-1941],” in Scollard, “Historical Notes,” vol. 1 (1928-38): 141-57.
57 See Robert J. Scollard, Dictionary of Basilian Biography, 1822-1968 (Toronto: Basilian Press, 1969), 166-7.
58 ”I suspect the French fathers spent most of their time learning English, enough to make themselves understood, and very little time on French as a way of improving the students’ English,” Ke
vin Kirley, archivist, General Archives of the Basilian Fathers, in a letter to Mariel O’Neill-Karch, dated 9 June 1992.
59 See E.J. McCorkell, Henry Carr, Revolutionary (Toronto: Griffin House, 1969), 78.
60 Alain Auguste Victor de Fivas, An Introduction to the French Language, Containing Fables, Selected Tales, Remarkable Facts, Amusing Anecdotes, &c., with a dictionary ... (New York: Appleton
& Co., 1846, etc.). Prescribed in the curriculum of first-year Pass French at University College as early as 1859-60; see Squair, Autobiography, 30.
61 Reproduced in Scollard, “Historical Notes,” 10:131-3. Early St Michael’s College calendars, placed in a box on top of a waste-paper basket, were thrown out by a diligent cleaner. Fortunately
, much of the material is reproduced in Father Scollard’s “Historical Notes” and in college yearbooks.
62 A handwritten catalogue of the collection, prepared by J. Crespin in 1892, is in the St Michael’s College Archives.
63 Large parts of this section are based on materials collected by C.D. Rouillard.