5. CLAIMS OF SCIENCE TO PUBLIC AID.

tional intercourse.

It is a Church receiving, on that understanding, vast sums of national umes. Whether it be the schoolboy, or the schoolgirl, or the youth money and an immense amount of national influence; nominally, at college, or the mechanic in the town, or the politician in the senit is under the control of the law, but, really, it has shown you in ate--all have been the victims in one way or other of this most preits struggles with the Ecclesiastical Courts, that the law is a dead posterous and pernicious of delusions. Wise men have lifted up their letter, and that a Church nominally Protestant, contrary to the voices in vain, and at length, lest their own institutions should be wishes of the nation, in defiance of the spirit of the law, is now outshone and should disappear in the folly of the hour, they have changing the national religion from Protestant to Roman Catholic. been obliged, so far as they could with a good conscience, to humour A Protestant nation put the enormous power of national education a spirit which they could not withstand, and make temporizing coninto the hands of a Church, which undoubtedly whether it be-re- cessions at which they could not but inwardly smile.-Dr. Newman. ligiously speaking-right or wrong, is leading the people with all its influence from Protestantism to Rome. It has been truly said that secular does not mean irreligious. A secular school here is different from a religious school, but not opposed to it. What Science has a title to the public aid of this and every other civilbranch of education in the common schools has any tendency to ized community. A very large proportion of the comforts, enjoycorrupt the children's moral sense? I am not a blind worshipper ments and defences of our daily life are plainly traceable to science; of the Americans or their institutions, but I tell you that the in- and not merely to what is sometimes called distinctively "practical fluence of their common schools is good, morally as well as intellectually. Though there are bad things and bad men in America, the science," that is the intellectual labours of men engaged in the influence of these schools is good. and they tend in the main to application of scientific conclusions to remunerative arts and manufactures-but to "pure science," or the pursuit of scientific produce not clever devils,' but a law loving and God fearing nation. And if you ask about manners, I tell you I have been in the knowledge for the mere love of truth."Nearly all great modern scientific discoveries," says a writer in the Westminster Review, United States in the midst of exciting political contests, when the "have been made by teachers of science and others who spent a large struggle has been going on between North and South, and I saw meetings of both parties and torchlight processions on both sides of portion of their lives in experimental investigation, searching the streets, and not on the one side or the other did I observe the for new truths; not by persons who have hit upon them by acslightest discourteous interruption to the proceedings of their oppon- ern times were made chiefly by such men as Newton, Cavendish, cident. The greatest discoveries in physics and chemistry in modents. We have the same system, or, perhaps, rather a better system Scheele, Priestley, Oersted, Volta, Davy, and Faraday, all great in Canada, and there the effects are the same. I say those schools will not do everything then, for I know very well that a moral and workers in science." And even when unexpected accidents have religious teacher must exert his influence in order to train the suddenly presented great truths before unknown; it has been due character of the child; but the effect of these schools, upon the to the long scientific labours of the observers that such "accidents' have been turned to account. Thus "the contraction of a frog's whole, is to produce a moral as well as an intelligent population, leg in the experiments of Galvani, and the movement of a magand if the morality and intelligence of the nation are promoted by netic needle in those of Oersted, have already led to the expenditheir common school system so is their wealth. Depend upon it that we attribute a great deal too much to formal enactments about ture of many millions of pounds in laying telegraph wires over religion and morality. Take away the formal mode of religion, many parts of the earth, and to the immense extension of internaand the religious influences and moral influences of society will still Danish philosopher, after fifteen years of experiment, to ascerAbout the year 1815, Oersted, a remain. I was once connected as Professor with Oxford, a Univer- tain the relation of electricity to magnetism, discovered that if a sity deemed eminently religious; we had tests upon tests, compul- freely suspended magnetic needle was supported parallel to a wire, sory chapels, lectures and a whole apparatus of theology. At Corand an electric current then passed through the wire, the needle nell we have a secular system, and are pointed at by the enemies of moved and placed itself at right angles to the current. This disthe system as a secular University. Nevertheless, though I love Oxford as well as any of her sons, let me say, I fully believe that covery coupled with the previous one, of the electric conductivity of metals, formed the indispensible foundation of our present elecCornell is ju tas religious as Oxford. The British nation is a great tric telegraphs." nation, but is liable to protracted delusions. It holds on to things useful invention. Scientific discovery has been the basis of And the inventions which tended most which are really of no consequence as if they were absolutely to increase the wealth of nations, and to improve the material vital. It fancies that if it gives up some enactment or another it will condition of human life, have been the result of the scientific relapse into chaos and confusion. There is a story which has more searches of men whose absorbing motives were the thirst for knowthan once occurred to me as illustrating the conduct of the British nation in this respect. There was in the Isle of Wight, I believe, ledge, the love of truth. "Watt himself stated in his pamphlet, ena man who had incurred the hatred of the smugglers by informing titled, A plain story,' that he could not have perfected his steam against them. He was seized by the smugglers, and he was blind-engine had not Dr. Black and others previously discovered what folded and hung over a precipice by a rope to which he was left to amount of heat was rendered latent by the conversion of water into cling. Imagining that he was a great height from a safe footing, he have all, or nearly all, derived the knowledge that enabled them to steam." The inventors of improvements in various manufactures clung on till his sinews cracked, when, resigning himself to his fate, he let go, and found he had been hanging six inches from the solid plan their inventions from some of those scientific books into which ground." The resolution was passed and a memorial to Mr. Glad- every newly discovered truth speedily finds its way. the researches of those who devote their lives to the pursuit of stone was adopted. science, practical inventions would be limited to a very narrow range. Yet, for the most part, men of science receive scant 4. A GREAT ERROR IN MODERN EDUCATION acknowledgment from those to whose wealth and enjoyment they are perpetually ministering. "The great pecuniary benefits arising Nor, indeed, am I supposing that there is any great danger, at from the applications of science are generally reaped, in the first least in this day, of over education; the danger is on the other side. instance, by great manufacturers, agriculturists, merchants, and I will tell you, gentlemen, what has been the practical error of the capitalists. Countless fortunes have been made by processes and last twenty years, not to load the memory of the student with a manufactures based on scientific discovery. The pecuniary promass of undigested knowledge, but to force upon him so much that fits of the great manufacturers of cotton, copper, iron, pottery, he has rejected all. It has been the error of distracting and enfeeb- beer, sugar, glass, spirits, vinegar, gutta-percha, india-rubber, gunling the mind by an unmeaning profusion of subjects; of implying cotton, the various metals, machinery, electroplate, washing soda, that a smattering in a dozen branches of study is not shallowness, German silver, brass, phosphorus, manures, the common acids, which it really is, but enlargement, which it is not; of considering the various chemicals, and a great multitude of other substances an acquaintance with the learned names of things and persons, and and articles have been extremely great. The pecuniary advantages the possession of clever duodecimos, and attendance on eloquent of the use of the electric telegraph and railways, to merchants; the lectures, and membership with scientific institutions, and the sight gains of capitalists by money invested in railways, telegraphs, of the experiments of a platform, and the specimens of a museum- steamships, gasworks, iron ship-building, engineering and other that all this was not dissipation of mind, but progress. All things great applications of science, have been enormous. And yet, to now are to be learned at once, not first one thing then another; not those who freely give to mankind the discoveries out of which all one well, but many badly. Learning is to be without exertion, with- this wealth has grown, the smallest fraction of remuneration has out attention, without toil, without grounding, without advance, been generally accorded. without finishing. There is to be nothing individual in it; and this, forsooth, is the wonder of the age. What the steam engine does with matter, the printing press is to do with mind; it is to act mechanically, and the population is to be passively, almost unconsciously, enlightened by the mere multiplication and dissemination of vol

And without

One result of the prevailing indifference of the English nation to the advancement of science is startling. The race of scientific men in Britain is falling off. Faraday,Graham, Matthiesen, and Miller, have died within the last few years; and there are none able to supply their places. Here is an ominous fact :-"The Journal of

the Chemical Society, which was formerly filled with original re- ate example of industry for the pupils, and at the same time as a searches, made by British chemists, is now almost entirely occupied means of increasing the revenue of the schoolmaster. Various apwith the abstracts only of researches made elsewhere; and, according propriate mottoes were handsomely inscribed both upon the outto Dr. Frankland, the number of published scientific researches in the side and inside of the school-house and gymnasium. The grounds year 1866, was in Germany, 777; in France, 245; in Great Britain about the building, comprising perhaps half an acre, were hand127." And here is one practical result of the recent slackness of somely laid out, the part in front of the gymnasium being appropriEngland in the prosecution of scientific researches : "England ated to gymnastic exercises and play while the rest was mostly deproduces immense quantities of Benzine, the greater part of which voted to the purposes of a minature botanical garden and experigoes to Germany, there to be converted into analine dyes, a con- mental farm and forestry. The ruling idea in designing this estabsiderable quantity of which goes back to England." And this pass-lishment was to show how to combine good taste and convenience sing over of profitable industrial work from England to Germany, with the strictest economy in building a rural school-house; and is traced to the fact that "the Germans are availing themselves of from this point of view it was certainly a marvellous success, and the great fountain of knowledge to a much greater extent than well deserving of a high honour. ourselves."

The Portuguese school-house was very different from those described, and not at all equal to them; and yet it was highly creditable to the Portuguese nation.

III. Papers ou Education in Various Countrics. there was not the first sign of anything which could be called taste

1. SCHOOL-HOUSES AT THE VIENNA EXPOSITION.

So the

In the American school-house our country gained no laurels ; about it either within or without. A German pedagogist on inspecting it would not be long in concluding that the edifice with its fittings and furnishings was the product of minds which had not Among the first objects of interest were the National school- yet quite exhausted the whole subject of education. When the houses, of which there were four, the Swedish, Austrian, Portuguese, job was finished by the contractor and turned over to the comand American. The Swedish edifice was truly a thing of beauty; missioner, he felt at once that he had an elephant on his hands. it was entered for a prize, not as a school house, but as a specimen It would be assumed of course by visitors that it was the embodiof carpentry,- -a trade in which, perhaps, the Swedes have no ment of the American idea of a model school-house. This would never superiors. It was designed as a model rural school-room and a do while such a thing as the admirable Swedish school-house stood dwelling under the same roof for the family of the teacher, and within a few rods. What was be done? After much puzzlement, it is difficult to see how it could be improved, either as respects it was finally decided to put up a sign to tell all the word that this workmanship or design. The natural beauty of the wood, an ad- was not the best thing we could do in the way of building a schoolmirable pine, was nowhere covered up by paint. I procured plans house. But how should the announcement be worded? Here was and views of this structure, and of the Austrian school-house, for a problem to exercise Yankee ingenuity. Finally it was deterinsertion in my report to the Legislature. I wish I could convey mined to christen it the " American RURAL School-house." to my readers an idea of the completeness and perfection of the fit- important information was pasted over the door on a tablet, which tings, apparatus, and appliances with which the Swedish school- looked as if it had been gotten up by robbing some American schoolroom was supplied. They were the admiration of every spectator; house of the most rural type of its oblong wooden blackboard, and they were observed and studied by school-men with intense interest; chalking upon it in Roman capitals the important words. often I went and took my seat in the teacher's chair to enjoy the In external appearance it had a general resemblance to some of charming spectacle; and as Bishop Fraser said of one of our wn the district school-houses of a somewhat modern date which one schools, I often wished that by some magic power I could put this might find in some of the most educationally backward countryexquisite edifice, with its precious contents, under a glass case, towns of Massachusetts. It was clapboarded and painted a light and transport it to our shores, for the inspection of every lover of gray colour. It contained a school-room, a smaller apartment, and the common school. But what were those contents? The list two entries. To its credit it should be said that the school-room would be too long for this article, and yet there was no crowded ap- was of fair size and proportion; and I believe this is the only thing pearance. There were blackboards of the most perfect pattern and that can be said with truth in its favour. It was badly lighted, havmaterial; there were the best maps, mounted in the best way for ing windows on the three sides instead of one, or at most two; the beauty, use, and durability; there were charts for history, charts windows were absurdly narrow; to show that we Americans do not for reading, tablets illustrating natural history, beautiful cases fill- forget ventilation, two very diminutive iron ventilation registers ed with sets of specimens for teaching natural history, physical ap- were placed in the wall, one at the top and the other at the bottom, paratus, herbariums, globes and geometrical forms, an ingenious which reminded me of a rural school-house in a New England State reckoning machine, boys' muskets and uniforms for military drill; of which I knew, the ventilation of which was attempted by means and in a small side-room an admirable folks' library for the inhabi- of an inch-and-half lead pipe, leading from the ceiling to the roof. tants of the school district. The furniture for pupils consisted of These registers opened into no ventiduct, although there was a dumsingle desks and seats made wholly of wood, the idea of which was my ventilating cap on the ridge-pole of the building. The walls carried from the Quincy School in Boston, to Sweden, more than and ceiling were covered with canvas instead of plaster, and this twenty years ago, by Silgistrom, a distinguished educator, who was papered with a somewhat showy wall paper; portions of this wrote an adinirable book on American education. paper on the wall being painted black to represent black boards.

pose.

2. NORMAL SCHOOLS.

The Austrian school-house was erected under the direction and Some maps and charts were hung on the walls without regard to at the expense of an association of gentlemen formed for the pur-system or completeness, and some miscellaneous school-books were It was a substantial, comely structure, two stories high, built scattered about on the table and desks. The platform was covered of brick and covered with mastic. On the lower floor was the dwell- with a Brussels carpet, which was not remarkably congruous with ing for the schoolmaster, and a good-sized room containing a great the notion of a rural school. The rest of the description of this variety of illustrative apparatus, such as weights and measures, school-room would consist mainly of an enumeration of the desirsets of specimens of natural history, beautifully arranged, and able things which it did not contain. Owing to its favourable locaminature models of mechanical and agricultural utensils. Here, tion and the remarkable sign over the door, it naturally had many also, was a small room furnished with three or four desks for the visitors, but it is doubtful whether it will be much copied either at occupancy of pupils who might be sent from the school-room for home or abroad.-J. D.Philbrick, in Mass. Teacher. misconduct. On the second floor was the well-proportioned schoolroom, furnished with double desks, which, with all the other internal wood-work, were stained with a colour resembling black walnut, yet so as to leave visible, to a certain extent, the grain of the wood, thus producing a very pleasing effect. Foot-rests were provided Every State of the Union has normal schools except Texas and for the pupils, an improvement which I observed also in the newer Nevada. Massachusetts has one normal school for every 208,193 school-houses in the various German cities. Besides excellent ward- of her population; Illinois ranks next, having one normal school robes, there was adjacent to the school-room a commodious apart- for every 254,941; Ohio has one for 296,140; and New York has ment for the use of the girls while engaged in their needle-work. the greatest number of normal schools, yet only one for every 598, Near the school-house was a one-story building, seventy or eighty 412 of her population. The whole number of normal institutions in feet long, one end of which was divided into apartments for the the United States is 114, which are 51 State schools, 16 city schools, schoolmaster's cow, pig, and poultry, and for stormg fuel; the other 27 connected with colleges and universities, and the remainder end was devoted to a gymnasium for the use in the winter season supported in various ways. There are 1,922 pupils in these and during inclement weather, and for a boys' workshop which schools, and 445 teachers. Nearly one-tenth of all the normal pawas supplied with a variety of tools for different kinds of wood pils in the country belong to the Female Normal College of New Near this building was an apiary furnished with several York City. During the three years that the college has been in hives of "busy bees," which were probably intended as an appropri- existence, not a single student has been expelled, not one suspen 1

work.

ed, and not more than half a dozen cases for discipline have been being then, as now, 65, whereas the industrial schools have, durreported to the president, and these were but for trivial offences.-ing that period, multiplied rapidly. In 1860 there were 40 of these, Appleton's Journal. 50 in 1865, 91 in 1870, and at the end of 1872, the number had reached 100."

Mr. Robin contends, in regard to the organization of industrial THE N. Y. State Governor's Message contains the following facts schools, that they should be put on exactly the same footing as the in regard to the common school interests of the State : primary schools; and that the state would thus insure all the adAmount paid for teachers' wages, $7,400,000. For school im-vantages of a complete primary education to the children, who provements, $2,000,000. Value of school property, $27,000,000. would have their share in the benefit of obligatory instruction, In Entire number of school-houses 11,735. Number of teachers em- short, they should be really schools, and not penitentiary establishployed at the same time, 18,268. Number of teachers during the ments. This would be the first part of their education. To primary year, 29,491. Entire number of children attending public, private, education should be added industrial teaching. A child's educaand normal schools, 1,166,994. Number of persons in the State tion is not complete until he has been made fit to provide for himbetween the ages of five and twenty-one, 1,545,260. The State has self, by learning a trade or business. The apprentice school thus 40 colleges, of which 22 are literary, 13 medical and 5 law. The becomes the complement of the primary school. The city of Paris number of academies and academical departments of union schools has recently instituted an apprentice school, and has thus begun under the visitation of the regents is 210. The number of pupils to make practical, the idea that general instruction must be comwho have passed the regent's examination has increased during the pleted by industrial teaching. Various establishments, similar in last year about twenty per cent. There is also an increase of about kind, exist already both in Paris, and in the departments, known thirty per cent. in the number of persons who are preparing for under the name of professional schools. The industrial school teaching. founded for a special object, would unite the two classes of the establishments, i. e., the primary and professional schools.

3. INEFFICIENT TEACHERS.

At the recent meeting of the Michigan Teachers' Association, 5. INDUSTRIAL OR TECHNICAL EDUCATION. Superintendent A. B. Čurtis, of Michigan, said that in 1872, 74 per cent. of Michigan teachers were women, receiving 35 per cent. Prof. Ball, of the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale College, of all the wages, while 26 per cent. were men, receiving 65 per cent. writes: Why is it that a majority of our apprentices are of foreign of the wages. Over a third of rural teachers and no small portion parentage? Why is it that American boys are growing too proud to 66 'learn a trade ?" Is not the cause found in the fact that our whole of city teachers are mere boys and girls under 20, without experience or training, who ought to be studying at school. While nusystem of education has quite ignored an industrial life? The only merous institutions are established for the higher education of young legitimate result of our educational system will be the production men, young women are left too much to private schools, which, be- of lawyers and doctors, or at least, clerks and school teachers. In ing undertaken as a money-making business, are often deficient in consequence of this defect, children receive the impression that apparatus and nothing thoroughly done. It is a mistaken idea education has no bearing upon mechanics; that a trade is only that persons of limited acquirements are competent to teach chil-manual drudgery. The result is, that our boys select the most dren. The primary teachers should possess well trained intellects, effeminate employment in preference to manly mechanical work. models for unconscious imitation. With a magnetic power to When our educational system furnishes our youth with some inmould the youthful mind, too many teachers lack special train- telligent preparation for the prosecution of industrial labour, the ing. It is an anomalous fact that not half of them ever read trades will be filled by a more cultivated class of young men, a book on the subject of teaching; not over a fifth ever take an our boys will blush to be found selling pins and needles; but they educational journal, and with nine-tenths of them it is not made a will not be ashamed to be seen using the hammer and chisel. profession at all but a makeshift taken up without preparation and soon abandoned, the average service of teachers being not over three years. This is especially true of principals while studying for another profession, whose best energies are not given to the business, overstocking the supply, which being greater than the demand depresses wages, and drives the best talent from the field.

4. INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.

and

Prof. Ball is a strong advocate of the introduction of Drawing as a branch of instruction in our public schools. This he thinks would serve as a basis for industrial training.

The last annual report of the U. S. Bureau of Education shows that $9,957,494 were given for educational purposes in 1872. In Connecticut, Trinity College received benefactions to the amount $65,000, Wesleyan University, $7,750, and Yale College, $196,284. In Massachusetts, Amherst College received $82,100; Harvard University, $158,075; Mount Holyoke Seminary, $8,500; Tufts College, $86,000, and Williams College, $13,635. In New York, Cornell University received $185,000; Ingham University, $8,500; Madison University, $80,000; St. Lawrence University, $15,960; Union College, $97,500; Vassar College, $6,000, and Wells College for Women, $100,000. In New Jersey, the College of New Jersey received $386,000, and Rutgers College, $78,607.

The following from the New York School Journal is in the line of much that has appeared in this journal within the last year or two: We have read with peculiar interest a paper laid before the late meeting of the Evangelical Alliance in this city, by the Rev. E. Robin, of Paris, on the subject of Industrial Schools as preventives of crime. Imperfect experiments in this direction have been made in the United States; better trials have taken place in England; but in France the results have been eminently satisfactory. What In the Eastern and Middle States, $1,767,800 were devoted to these results are, Mr. Robin tells us in his essay. After showing the construction of new College buildings, and $863,000 for the that the French establishments for correctional education, other-same purpose in the Western and Southern States. Twenty-seven wise called agricultural colleges, were created solely to supply the Colleges during the same time added new departments, showing want which was felt of making a first separation in the prisons be- that the advance in intellectual equipment keeps pace with architween the adults and the young prisoners, and that they laid the tectural accommodations. The twenty-seven new departments emfoundation of a first progress, of which France may justly claim brace law, medicine, journalism, meteorology, telegraphy, chemistry, the honour, Mr. Robin went on to say that "France had her excel- and theology. Twenty-six Colleges have added thirty-two new lent law of 1869 in relation to young prisoners, our special houses professorships.

nies.

for children, provisional liberation and patronage, when in Eng- There are other indications of progress peculiar to the times. land the children were still mixed in the prisons with criminal Thus, it appears that of the 4493 degrees conferred in course duradults. It was only in 1854 that the separation was made in that ing the year 1873, embracing thirty-five different kinds, one hundred country, and the English have acknowledged that the adoption of and ninety-one were conferred upon ladies, who are called, in difthe practice by them was owing to our example, and that their re- ferent institutions, "Mistresses," "Maids" and "Sisters" of Arts. formatories were founded in imitation of our Penitentiary Colo- and "Mistresses" of English Literature. The West would seem But having once entered on this course after us, they have to be ahead of the East in this particular line of educational progress, made a step in advance. They soon perceived the necessity of a for we observe that Illinois has thirteen colleges in which women, new separation between the children profoundly versed in evil have the same, or equal, facilities with men, Ohio has ten, and Incourses and those whose errors were caused by want of a good educa- diana nine, while New York and Pennsylvania each has seven. tion, including in that term religious as well as secular instruction. The statistics indicate that the standard of college education, though Three years after having separated the children from the adults, differing exceedingly in various sections of the Union, is everywhere they separated these neglected children from the young criminals, advancing in the amount of attainments acquired and the thoroughby instituting for them industrial schools. In England, during the ness of study and discipline. The whole record, therefore, is highly past ten years, the number of reformatories-which had previously encouraging to those who have at heart the true developement and been increasing each year-has remained stationary, the number success of this nation,

The effect of the large cast-iron stoves with which our school- The importance of Normal Schools is alluded to, and the necessity rooms are heated must be exceedingly prejudicial to the health of for them is insisted upon; for, as has been well said, "in proportion teacher and pupil, especially when as is often the case, the metal is to the ability of the master is the usefulness of the school." The red hot. The carbonic acid and carbonic oxide gasses which then necessity of a School of Science applied to the arts, such as exists in leak out rapidly through the pores of the iron. soon render the at- connection with McGill College, and such as the Hon. Mr. Chauveau mosphere of the school-room absolutely deadly. A paper was re-endeavoured to establish for the French population, is pointed out, cently read before the French Academy in which this subject was and it is announced that such a school will soon be established. It very forcibly treated. The author said that in a certain epidemic is confessed that hitherto Lower Canada has not sufficiently occupied which raged in Savoy, those only were attacked who had cast-iron itself with practical and industrial schools for the mechanical enstoves then recently introduced.

A CHINESE SCHOOL-ROOM.--Hon. Wm. H. Seward says in his "Travels Round the World:" "We were particularly interested in the school-room (Canton), where the boys are educated; the girls are not educated at all. With its arrangements of tables, desks, blackboard, books and slates, the apartment might be mistaken for a school-room at home. All the pupils read the lessons of every sort aloud, and all at once, and commit them to memory. The pedagogue differs but little, except in dress, from the schoolmaster the world over. The master in this present school is an ingenious as well as a spirited man. The instrument of his discipline lay on his desk, and he did not hesitate to admit that he frequently employs it, believing probably in Solomon's instruction, "he that spareth the rod hateth the son. The Chinese boys have all the manner and modesty of well-bred children. One bright-eyed little lad of eight years, with great reverence, asked Mr. Seward's "honourable age."

There are at present 400 students at Vassar College. Photography is to be taught in the Girl's High School in Boston. Ten Iowa counties have elected women school superintendents for the present year.

gineer. He saw the small number of young men who are desirous of studying engineering, &c. ; though it, and kindred professions requiring practical preliminary knowledge, hold out the most promising, and even brilliant future, in proportion as the different branches are multiplied, and require competent men to carry them

on.

IV. Papers on Education in Ontario.

1. PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS' SALARIES. The programme of examination under the New School Act is doing its work, cleaning the ranks and shutting the doors of the profession against those who have not beennor would not be a benefit to it intellectually, but who only have been and would be a financial clog and a barrier against the raising of the efficient teacher's salary. And now as the amount of teachers is not likely to exceed the demand for some time to come, it remains for the teachers to be united in asking for and insisting on getting something like fair play. It may be asked what is a fair salary for a public school teacher? In answer to this we should say, it should be at least from forty to sixty per cent above their present rates; but it is

The New Jersey Senate has passed a bill making women eligible clear that if the advance be not firmly and unitedly asked for there to the office of school trustee.

Union College has received notice of a new endowment of $100,000, from a gentleman whose name is for the present withheld. The School Committee of Chelsea, Mass., has ordered that no teacher shall inflict punishment upon a pupil until after consulting with the sub-committee for his school.

In Scotland, one young man in every thousand of the population goes to College; in Germany one to every 2,600; in England, one to every 5,800.

will be very few of our school trustees to make the advance what it should be. I have no doubt but there are some who would make the advance voluntarily, but they are scarce in the country; on the contrary many of them think they have done their duty if they have succeeded in getting an application from the cheapest teacher in the Province, and then banter him down and engage him for twenty or thirty dollars less than his already very small figure. It is not the teachers alone who suffer by such men being in office, but the children, parents, society at large, and even themselves share the bad effects of their mistaken economy. Their motto is not to advance the interest of their school, but to be foremost in raising the hue and cry "Keep down taxation!" They might add to their illustrious motto "Keep all you can from the teachers, they have no friends!" Such men as this, backed up by others of the same stamp, with plenty of material to back up, have whittled the teachers' salaries down to such insignificance, but these gentlemen need not longer have the whole making of the bargain. Those Austria has 59 well trained normal schools, with 581 teachers teachers whose abilities have been sufficient to keep them on the and 3,500 pupils; Prussia, 62, with 3,614 pupils ; Saxony, 18 finely-upper side of the examiners' sieve, have more chance of an advance trained normal schools; Belgium, 30; Wurtemburg, 10; and Ba- on their salaries than the most sanguine could have dreamed of a varia, 10. few years ago.

The nomination of several ladies for membership on the Boston School Committee has been received if not with enthusiam, yet with a great deal of favour.

A Japanese paper says that three hundred and eighty-two Japanese students are studying in Europe, America and China-of these five are women.

6. EDUCATION IN QUEBEC.

66

If the people were not able to pay the teachers a good fair salary I would not advocate it; but when our farmers are putting their $600 or $1,200 a year in the bank and still grumble about their enormous taxes" while the teacher only gets enough to buy him potatoes and salt, I can't help calling the teachers' attention to the fact that it is high time, that they should stand by each other, and be more determined in demanding fair remuneration for their

2. MUSIC IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

The Minister of Public Instruction, for the Province of Quebec in his report for the year 1872, and part of the year 1873, states that the number of schools, and the number of pupils attending them continue to increase, and progress is shown in the efficiency of the instruction imparted therein. He complains, however, that the children do not attend school for such a sufficient length of time, but services.-Fair Play : Waterloo Chronicle. leave it for labour, at the very time when their developed intelligences would enable them to study with profit. To remedy this, he thinks some means should be devised of compelling children to attend school for a longer time,-they should at least be sent there for Giving all due credit to the United Board for the judicious manseveral winters, during which season their services are not indispens-ner in which they have managed the educational affairs of the city, able. He also thinks it desirable that the school corporations should and for the generous sacrifices of time and labour they have made establish night schools, in the rural centres, which, from the com- to promote the general interests, the end of the year must be conparative density of the population, would probably be well attended. sidered a very proper time in which to make a suggestion, or to enHe urges the necessity for founding public libraries, for the use of quire if all has been done that can be done in the way of improving each municipality. These libraries should consist of good works on those useful institutions over which they preside with so much wisagriculture, horticulture, abridged histories, ancient and modern, dom and prudence. The efforts that are being made to provide travels, treatises on arts and manufactures, &c., and he intends to proper accommodation for the hundreds of children that seek admisask from the Legislative Assembly a grant to aid in the formation sion every year into the public schools are deserving of praise. This of such libraries. He recommends that here, as in Ontario, should is a work in which the Board of Trustees may count with certainty be established a depository of school books, &c., which might be cir- upon receiving the sympathy and support of their fellow citizens. culated at reduced rates. He reiterates the statement of the slow We are happy to note the many signs of wealth, taste and progress progress made especially in the country schools attributing it to the that meet the eye at every turn as one walks about the city, and irregularity in the attendance of the children, which is itself partly the public improvements that are being made under the direction of due to our rigorous climate, and also frequently results from the fact of the necessity in which their parents are often placed of keeping their children at home to aid them in their labours at certain seasons,

the Board of Aldermen, but in no direction might improvements be projected more conducive to the public health, morals, taste and intellectual progress than in that of the style of our school architect

V. Correspondence.

1. RESIDENT versus RATEPAYER.

To the Editor of the Journal of Education.

SIR.-I ask a place in your columns for a few words in advocacy of a change in the wording of a portion of the School-law, which forms the subject of a petition extensively signed in this part of the County of Carleton, the substitution of the word "resident ratepayer" in describing those whose children are entitled to attend the school in each section.

for

ure. In the neighbouring Republic, the beauty and convenience of to a great extent inoperative, and asking that body to devise some their school edifices are among the first features that catch the eye means of remedying the difficulty. The portion of the memorial of the stranger or visitor. Even in places of less note than the City which referred to High Schools advised that the High School law of London, we will find the school buildings erected for the free should be so altered that no school which had an average attendance education of the children of all classes, among the best and most of less than thirty should have an assistant teacher. beautiful of their public edifices. The sites are selected with great care; the design, in most cases, is an evidence of architectural taste and the public spirit of the people, while upon the furnishing and internal arrangements nothing has been spared that may conduce to the comfort and convenience of the pupils, cultivate their taste, and promote their progress. We are not yet in a condition to compete with the people of the United States in these matters, but the Board of Trustees might very properly ask themselves: "Has our plan of dealing with school buildings in the past been based upon principles of sound economy? Will our fellow citizens, when a few years more have passed away, pronounce a favourable verdict upon this style of school architecture, and declare them well adapted to the business for which they were designed? Will they approve of that extreme economy in the erection of buildings, the use of which is never likely to be dispensed with? Would it not have been more As at present worded the law admits of families not properly bestrictly economic in the erection and designing of these buildings longing to a section, forcing their children in an already over crowdto have had an eye to the prospective wants of the city as well as to ed school, by a legal fiction which may enable the parents to appear the keeping down the school tax at the present?" Looking at what as ratepayers in a section where they have no real place. This is being done in other parts of Ontario, we are forced to the con- is felt as a grievance, and tends to impair the well being of the clusion that the Board of Trustees, in the erection of public build-schools. The use of the term "ratepayer resident in the schoolings of this kind, have permitted a spirit of too rigorous economy to section" would obviate this inconvenience, and I earnestly hope dictate their course in the past; and, therefore, we hope to see in that in order to avoid misunderstanding such alteration may be the future a style of school architecture adopted more in accordance made. with the taste of the age and with the other public buildings of the I am Sir, city. We feel convinced the people will approve of a superior style in the erection of these houses, and also, that the same praiseworthy efforts, that are now being made to meet the wants of the city, in the matter of class-rooms, should be continued until all the appliances necessary for the children's improvement and the preservation of their health have been secured.

Yours respectively,
CHARLES PELHAM MULVARY, M.A.,
Member of Board of Examiners for County Carleton.

Huntly, January 29th, 1874.

2. PRAYER IN SCHOOL.

To the Editor of the Journal of Education. SIR. The universal desire of men to be considered good; that prayer is a sign of goodness; the difficulty of proving the contrary, together with the " recommend," possibly contribute to induce some men to depart so far from the plain advice to pray in their shut closets. goodness, if I accidentally stumbled on him at his prayers in his I would have a far higher opinion of my neighbour's own room, than if I went, after a four weeks' announcement in the public papers, to hear him "lead off" at the dedication of a cathedral. On my own part, I heartily thank the Council of Public Instruction for its thoughtfulness in merely recommending the rite. Had it made prayer compulsory, I must have chosen resignation or teachers prayerfully inclined, leaves free those who are more scruhypocrisy. The “recommend,” while it greatly encourages those pulous about business prayers. As our necessitties and emotions

But we had intended to draw the attention of the Trustees to what seems a great want in our system of teaching the youth of the city. We believe we are correct in saying, that there is no organized system by which the pupils may be made acquainted with even the simplest elements of vocal music. We admit that to introduce this branch and have it treated in such a way as to make it productive of good, would cost something, and entail trouble. But the question is simply would the advantages be at all commensurate with the additional outlay? Would such a course draw out and assist in cultivating a faculty of the mind necessary to its harmonious development? If the opinion of the most distinguished educationists in every part of the world be worth anything, then this branch ought never to be omitted from a well considered system of education. Every skilful teacher bears witness to the softening and humanizing effects of music upon the minds of his pupils, and the power it has in cultivating the gentler feelings of our nature, and in soothing the fiercer and more rugged dispositions. It also forms a delightful relaxation to the students, when their minds become wearing and four in the afternoon, we cannot conscientiously pray at are not only unlike, but do not recur precisely at nine in the mornied and their powers exhausted by severe and arduous studies. In these times. As words are supposed to represent thoughts and the junior classes too, when the children get restless through the emotions, if these are wanting, prayer is formal, false and hypocricontinued restraints of the class-room, a cheerful song, sung by all tical. To tell a man what to say, and when to say that what to God, together, acts as a species of safety-valve, and they can be brought needs only to be mentioned to become ridiculous. to resume their work and give their attention again to their teacher with renewed energy and even pleasure. The teacher who knows how to avail himself of this element of control will succeed in the management of a class without so often having recourse to the harsher methods of discipline employed in the government of the ordinary classes of pupils.

We must admit, that more attention has been paid to teaching as a profession, in several of the countries of Europe, than has yet been given to it in Canada. In these States, such as Switzerland, different German States, France and others, where teaching has been treated as a science, and elevated to the dignity of a profession, music, especially the art of singing, receives and has received special attention. In these schools it is never looked upon as a supernumerary, but as an essential and important part of the course, and scarcely a single teacher is to be found who is not competent to lead and instruct his classes in this branch. We hope to see the same plan pursued, and the same views entertained in Ontario, and in the mean time, that the Board will at least adopt such steps as may enable the pupils in all our city schools to obtain instruction in the elementary principles of vocal music-London Free Press.

3. COMPULSORY EDUCATION IN LINCOLN.

times and by all persons :-" After this manner pray ye," shows Even our Lord's Prayer cannot, in my opinion, be used at all that it can be varied to suit conditions. "Give us each day our daily bread" would be absurd after we had just got it; it is a morning prayer.

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If we pray for the bread of to-morrow, then we are cautioned. "taking heed" for the things of to-morrow, against which we are trespass against us," if we still retain aught against others, we Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that are asking God to retain our sin. I have not used this form of prayer in many years, because I still had something against somebody. JOHN IRELAND, Teacher, 6, in Pilkington.

VI. Papers on Practical Education.

1. SCHOOL-ROOM ERRORS.

It is easier to find faults than to mend them. The merest rustic may pick a flaw in the laws of Solon or Justinian, and a person laying no claim to saintship may easily show up foibles and frailties in

The County Council have adopted a memorial to the Legislature the lives of David and Solomon; and it shall be my role, on the calling the attention of the Assembly to the fact that, notwithstand-present occasion, to portray, as best I may, some of the errors obing the provision for compelling children to attend school, it was served in the school-room. The illustrations have been drawn, in