Beginning with a brief review of relevant social, economic, and educational conditions during the 1800s, this study probed the activities, accomplishments, and vicissitudes of adult education in Ontario up to 1900. Early contributions of agricultural societies, newspapers, associations, private societies, libraries, and public and private schools were noted. Antecedents and origins of the Mechanics' Institute movement in Canada were traced, followed by the ill-starred course of the York (Toronto) Mechanics' Institute from 1830 to its demise in 1883, when the Toronto Free Public Library was founded. Educational and cultural activities by Institutes in Bowmanville, Chatham, Cobourg, Ottawa, Hamilton, and six other communities were chronicled in detail from 1836 to 1895, when an act was passed formally changing all Mechanics' Institutes to public libraries. (Library services had been the most successful component of the movement.) The special features and problems of Ontario adult education during the 1800s--especially in the Mechanics' Institutes--were in great measure shaped by slow industrial development and the prevalence of upper and middle class educational bias, both of which tended to make formal education unattractive to most adults. (LY)