(7) Protest.-No protest against an election, or other proceedings of the school meeting shall be received by the chairman. All for each city or town. protests must be sent to the Inspector at least within twenty days after the meeting.

(8) Adjournment.-A motion to adjourn an annual school meet- that Major Hale is to be Commandant of the Military College at Kingston. ing until the business is finished is unlawful; but a motion to adjourn a special school meeting shall always be in order; provided that no second motion to the same effect shall be made until after some intermediate proceedings shall have been had.

(11) Kind of Motions to be received. When a motion is under College would at the end of the session produce most satisfactory debate, no other motion shall be received unless to amend it, or to results. There were many indications of a growing confidence in the postpone it, or for adjournment, except as in No. 8 above.

COMPULSORY EDUCATION.-New York is the first State to make (Remarks to Meteorological Table. a practical test of compulsory education, Governor Dix having WINDSOR.-Lightning, 6th, 7th. Lightning and thunder, with rain, signed the bill to that effect recently passed by the Legislature. It 21st. Rain also on 6th and 8th. Wind storms, 22nd, 28th. On 8th, meteor through Sq. of Pegasus towards H., and another towards N., requires parents and guardians of children between the ages of eight another through Ursa Major towards H. On 9th, ten meteors, chiefly in circumpolar region. On 10th, at least twenty meteors: 5 through and fifteen years, to give them, in a school or at home, at least four-Andromeda and Sq. of Pegasus, 3 through Bootes, 2 through SerpenOn 11th, a number of teen weeks' regular instruction every year in reading, writing, arith- tarius; the others in the circumpolar region. meteors, chiefly in circumpolar region. On 14th, meteror through Casmetic, English grammar, and geography. It prohibits the employ siopea towards E. On 16th, several meteors.

III. Monthly Report on Meteorology of the Province of Ontario.

Pembroke

4,25 21 6 6 6) 4 678 2 2

6 5 3 3.47 78 1:42 1:34 1:44 11 61 26 40, 78 17 2.7

1.87 3.6 4.7 3.2 3.8 31

If not called for within one month, the Postmaster will please send to the School Inspector.

disadvantages, and are less effective in their instructions where they are unable to supplement their labours by means of a library of reading and reference books. It is therefore the more necessary, both for teachers and pupils, that this indispensable adjunct to a good and successful school should not only be provided, but that it should be well kept up, with a continuous supply of the more valuable and attractive books, as they issue from the press.

The facilities afforded by the Education Department for carrying out this most important object are now most ample. An abundant supply of most appropriate books has been procured to meet the winter's demand. The terms upon which they are furnished to municipal and school corporations will be found on the last page, and are worthy of the consideration of the local school authorities. A catalogue and form will be sent on application.

We would also call attention to the "Departmental Notices" on the last page, relating to school maps, apparatus, and prize188 books. The variety of maps and apparatus now manufactured in Canada, under the direction of this Department, is both extensive and excellent.

gative the taste we have created. The library, therefore, is an ad- of whose mind and the high standard and perfect taste of whose mitted requisite. But very often there is also required a place compositions it would be well if his successors in literature would where the library can be used-where, comfortably and undisturb- imitate. I allude to Sir Walter Scott. (Applause.) I do not know ed, books and cheap publications may be read and enjoyed. Owing whether it would be out of place to remark that there are dangers sometimes to the crowded state of the living-room, sometimes to against which it is advisable for all those who are interested in the household operations, the small farm-house or village tenement is healthy intellectual training of the youth of this continent, and hardly the place in which quiet or comfort can be expected as con- particularly of its female youth, to guard. Of late there has sprung sorts reasonably with the necessities of intellectual pursuits. Let up a class of literature which in my opinion contributes but very it further be admitted that the persons for whom provision is wish- little to the advancement of those higher aspirations which it ought ed to be made have some of those tastes or dispositions which have to be the aim and object of all literature to promote. There has led in higher life to the establishment of clubs and literary soci- arisen of late a school of writers whose chief object seems to be to ties. We shall then recognise in the reading-room the resource extract amusement and to awake laughter by turning everything which many are now led to seek in the tavern. Very many young that is noble, elevated, and reverenced by the rest of the world. men go to this only in the first instance to pass the idle hours of a into ridicule; to substitute parody for invention, and coarse vulgarity long evening, and because they find there, either in social converse for the tender humour of a better day, or if this error is avoided, a or in the newspapers, that resource and relaxation their day of toil sickly, morbid sentimentalism is substituted, more corrupting than requires. Let us not be uncharitable concerning them. Even in absolute vice, or a historical sensationalism which is as bad as their shortcomings-as much the fault of others as their own-one either. I cannot but think that it is a great matter that in our would take their part. What they began from necessity gradually schools we should take the greatest pains to maintain a standard of grows upon them and becomes a habit. They cannot enjoy the healthy, robust, and refined taste." His Excellency concluded by resources they seek without drinking. It is for this class the well- thanking the authorities of the school for the flattering remarks lighted reading-room, with books and papers, chess and draughts, contained in their address. will prove the resource they otherwise seek elsewhere.

Many, of course, will at once admit the desirableness of such a resource, but doubt first, on the score of expense, and secondly, on the score of management, the practical application of such a scheme. With regard to expense, we have already said that, in many respects, this is an easier matter in villages than in towns. The school-room or the class-room of a Sunday-school can generally be had gratis, or at a trifling cost. Fuel and lights are a certain expense, but many persons would freely contribute some papers and publications, and others could be provided by small subscriptions. Where the expenses exceed the resources, derivable from the payments of the members, there are still means of increasing them by lectures which, when suitable to the population, will in many instances not only ensure receipts sufficient to meet the expenses of the reading-room, but advance the general cause which was sought to be promoted by its establishment.

In forming public libraries the first and most important step is to determine that there shall be a collection of books on a footing of practical usefulness to the locality for which it is intended. This must vary according to the circumstances of a district. The selection which would suit a mining population in the Black Country would hardly do for a purely agricultural portion of Devon. In local efforts in England the Society of Arts makes grants in aid of purchases comprehending both old and new works, and for the reigious element, as also in connection with general requirements, the Christian Knowledge Society, the Religious Tract Society, and others, are ready to volunteer assistance without dictating the particular books or subjects to be included in the catalogue. In both of these Societies there is a large collection of historical, literary, and what in the language of the day are called secular works, from which there is a free choice. These and other resources, judiciously combined, enable any reading-room to start with a fair and sufficient library, which will of itself gradually diffuse a taste for better things and at the same time provide the aliment for it.

The different village associations are grouped into districts for the delivery of lectures on the mutual principle. Each village provides a lecturer who, getting up a lecture on some subject agreed upon at an annual meeting, delivers it in succession before the different Library Associations of the district, and, of course, receives those of the other lecturers in return. This arrangement may be readily made to provide a lecture monthly or bi-monthly, during the six winter months. While it affords a variety, it gives both support and life to the associations, materially benefiting the funds, and assisting to support the libraries.-Toronto Mail.

I. Papers ou Ontario School Matters.

1. UNIVERSITY CONSOLIDATION IN ONTARIO.
The writer of "Current Events," in the Canadian Monthly for
October, thus discusses a question of University Consolidation in
Ontario.

"As the Academical year is opening, it is not unseasonable to call attention once more to the question of University consolidation which was mooted by us some time ago, and our view of which has recently received support in a very able address delivered by the President of Cornell University, at the Detroit National Education Convention in August. The fact is there is not room in Ontario for more than one University worthy of the name. Even England, with all her wealth and corresponding demand for high culture, finds room only for two. The so-called University of London is merely a central examining board; it does not teach, or discharge any other function of a University; and as it was called into existence solely by the obstinate retention of the Tests which excluded Nonconformists from Oxford and Cambridge, it is not unlikely that, the tests having been abolished, it may in time cease to exist. The attempt to found a new University for the benefit of the North of England, at Durham, has proved totally abortive, though the new institution was sumptuously endowed, both with buildings and funds, out of the colossal wealth of the Cathedral chapter. A similar fate appears to have attended the project of a special University for Wales. The calamitous dispersion of resources and the equally calamitous prostitution of degrees which the friends of the higher education in the United States deplore, and from which they are now struggling, with painful steps, to return to a better system, is the result of mixed causes.

But the similar disaster in our case is traceable almost entirely to Church feeling, which was originally forced int its present channel by the exclusive Anglicanism of the University of Toronto. We have said before, and nobody, we believe, has denied, that a small University means an inadequate and under-paid staff, an ill-furnished library, defective apparatus, lack of vigorous intellectual life, depreciated degrees, inferior education in short, and a consequent loss of power to the church which thus allows the intellect of its young men to be starved by poverty of instruction and stunted by seclusion. Another result of denominational Universities is that the national University is apt to contract an antiChurch bias by contrast and antagonism; and as the national University is sure to be the real seat of intellectual power, the cause of LORD DUFFERIN ON SPURIOUS LITERATURE. religion receives a deadly wound from the instrument intended to promote it. President White calls for central and unsectarian UniThose who have read carefully the numerous addresses delivered versities on the model of Cornell. We would qualify this demand. by His Excellency the Governor-General, during his present tour The student, to attend a central University, must leave his home through the Province, must have been struck by the elegance of and its influences, religious and domestic. For these a substitute diction and felicity of expression which characterized them all. He is desired and the desire is reasonable. The student class at Paris. is quite "at home on all subjects. In reply to the address of the and even that at Berlin, presents a moral type which we are far from Faculty of the new Wesleyan Female College at Whitby, His Ex-desiring to propagate, much as we must respect the thoroughness of cellency thus referred to a class of literature so common and popular at the present time:

their mental training. But we have already pointed to the plan of an undenominational University, with denominational Colleges--"My views in regard to education are so sufficiently known that the University furnishing the general instruction, holding the exit is unnecessary for me to state them upon the present occasion, aminations and conferring the degrees, the College furnishing the but I cannot help saying that I take it as a most happy augury that religious instruction and the moral discipline-as the natural solution in the room in which we are placed there should stand the bust of of the problem. Let the different denominational Colleges migrate one of the princes of European literature, of a man the healthiness to the precincts of the University of Toronto, and enter into the

3. HON. E. BLAKE, ON THE EDUCATIONAL FRANCHISE TEST.

same relations with it in which an Oxford or Cambridge College year. It is a pity the learned Professor could not have been inis with the University of Oxford or Cambridge. They will lose duced to remain in this country, but there is a consolation left to nothing individually in point of religious or moral character; they us in the hope that he may do us some good where he is going. will gain collectively all the advantages of a great University. Mere There is little doubt the gentleman selected to succeed him will be affiliation without migration to the central University would be some- in every way worthy of the shoes into which he is to step. He was thing, because it would introduce uniformity of examinations, and educated at the High School of Edinburgh, and afterwards graduthusrestore in a measure the value of degrees; but it would not give ated at the University of that city.-Ottawa Times. us concentration of resources or much better instruction, and the instruction always drags down the examinations to its level, set your standard as high as you will. The heads of the denominational Colleges might hold University offices-Professorships or the ViceChancellorship-as the heads of Colleges do at Oxford and Cambridge. No doubt, rooted feeling and strong local influences are in the way. But the first church which moves in this direction will at once render a great service to the general cause, and increase its own influence in proportion to the improvement which is sure to follow in the training and intellectual power of its young men, besides relieving itself of a burden which hardly belongs to it as a religious association. Theological Colleges, and the theological departments of other Colleges, might of course remain where they are, and continue to do their own work; in the case of theological students seclusion is not a disadvantage. The same may be said of denominational schools, into which the local Universities might perhaps be partly converted.

In his recent speech at Aurora (County of York), the Hon. Edward Blake thus referred to the educational test for the exercise of the franchise. He also referred to the question of teachers' salaries and attendance at the schools. He said :

"I desire to speak of one of the truest tests of the right to the franchise-I mean the educational test. There is no doubt that our future will be largely affected by the course we take with regard to the extension of education throughout the land. I agree with many of the remarks of Mr. Mowat on that subject I commend heartily the public spirit which has led the people of this country to expend such large sums on education; but my information leads me to believe that the people have not done all that they ought to have done. It is not only expenditure which is needed, but it is "At the same time we most earnestly hope that the University of equally important to take care that when you have the schools, you Toronto will not shrink from adapting itself to the general require-send your children to them for a proper portion of the year. Then ments of the country by organizing a thoroughly efficient department you cannot get good work without reasonable pay. You have imof practical science. It was understood to be entering on this path proved considerably the rate of pay of your teachers in the last few of improvement at the instance of some of the most eminent repre- years. Three or four years ago, after investigating that subject I sentatives of practical science among us, who assert that for want of spoke to my own constituents upon it, and I say now again, that if such training great advantages are slipping through our hands. How you want to make all this expenditure effectual, it is a prime duty far the teaching of practical science is suitable work for Oxford or to consider how much is required in order to obtain a good teacher, Cambridge is not the question; Universities, like other institutions, and to pay that sum whatever it may be. Without that the whole must meet the exigencies of the community to which they belong, system is ineffective. The teacher is the key. To what purpose and in a new country they must, to a certain extent, mix trades. do you build brick school-houses, elect trustees, and send your Mere alterations of the curriculum or of the degrees will not be children to school, unless you have an efficient teacher to instruct enough. What is needed is an efficient department, not severed them? And you cannot get good teachers at the present rate of from the University, but with a head of its own, a comprehensive pay, increased though it is. Another point is this. In old and master of practical science, with the power of organization, whose well-settled counties where the farms are cleared and the men have special functions need not, however, in any way interfere with the become wealthy, where there is no reason, no necessity, for the supremacy of the general head of the University. The aid of the children being kept at home, how is it that the average period of Government and the Legislature will, no doubt, be needed, and it attendance is so short? In some parts the shortness of the average could not be better bestowed." attendance is positively alarming. I exhort my fellow-countrymen to see to these things. You have established free schools, and you have resolved to tax every-one to maintain them. We are all interested then in this matter, and it is to the general and wide diffusion of instruction and education that we must largely look for the great future that we expect."

2. CHAIR OF NATURAL SCIENCE IN TORONTO UNIVERSITY.

We see it announced that the Chair of Natural Science, in the Toronto University, vacated by the resignation of Dr. Henry Nicholson, the celebrated Geologist, has been filled by the appoint- 4. PROCEEDINGS OF COUNCIL OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION. ment of Mr. Ramsay Wright, of Edinburgh. The Toronto University seems fond of Scotch Professors. Dr. Wilson and the Rev. The writer of "Current Events," in the October number of the Professor Young are both Scotchmen and University of Edinburgh Canadian Monthly, deprecates the introduction of reporters at the men, and we need not say they are each of them an honour to their

alma mater, the country of their birth, and the land of their adop-sittings of the Council of Public Instruction. He says:-tion. Dr. Nicholson is also a graduate of the University of the "Upon the meeting of the reorganized Council of Public InstrucModern Athens, and leaves Toronto to take a Professorship in tion for Ontario, a question was raised as to the publicity of its Dublin. He was a man of no common attainments before ever he proceedings. Some propose that reporters should be present at the saw our shores, and his sojourn in this country has added largely sittings. The question is one which, we may safely say, has very both to his knowledge and his reputation. His deep sea dredgings little interest for the general readers of newspapers, who would in Lakes Ontario and Superior, and his general geological researches prefer a column filled with less intellectual intelligence. In fact, if in Upper Canada, as set forth in his address before the British the Council wished to shroud itself in perfect mystery, it could Association at Brighton two years ago-an address, which was in hardly do better than publish a verbatim report of its proceedings substance repeated afterwards before the Canadian Institute of in all the morning papers. The throne of the Congress of the United Toronto-have brought to light many facts of the utmost import- States has in this way become "dark with excess of light," while ance to those who interest themselves in the primeval history of the sanctuary of private life, as it stimulates curiosity by its secluBritish North America-facts, too, for the discovery of which Pro- sion, is everywhere eagerly penetrated by the purveyors of food for fessor Nicholson alone deserves credit. He has established, for in the public appetite. The answer to the proposal of introducing restance, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the bed of Lake Onta-porters at the meetings of a deliberative Council is, however, one rio must have been at one period of the world's history covered general in its scope, and founded on a fact little noticed, but of no with salt water, or what is equal to the same thing, he has brought small importance. Where publicity commences deliberation ends. to the surface in the course of his dredgings the fossil remains of a No assembly, the discussions of which are reported, is, or can poskind of crustacea never known to have existed in fresh water-in-sibly be, really deliberative. To render deliberation real, every one deed, to which the very presence of fresh water is alleged to be must be perfectly at liberty to change his mind up to the close of fatal. With equal reason he argues -and geologists have not dis- the discussion ; but when a member's opinion has once been taken puted the logic of the argument-that the water of Lake Ontario down by a reporter, his liberty of changing his mind is gone. Tenmust have been salt at one period, although admittedly it was a tative suggestions, objections thrown out for the purpose of eliciting remote one. Then the Doctor has placed before the world of letters answers, the characteristic methods of men really taking counsel toa great fund of information regarding the character of the bottom gether, are almost equally precluded, and the so-called deliberation of our North American Lakes, the different classes of life to be becomes a mere registration of opinions formed before the discusfound in them at various depths, and where peculiar kinds of soil sion began. There is not a grain of counsel in ail the debates of the predominate in the lake-bed, and the temperature of the water at British House of Commons or in those of any legislature sitting with various distances below the surface and at different seasons of the open doors. The result is settled beforehand; and if there is any